Election night for the Obama family

Bill Clinton on fire

McCain explores boundaries of erratic

Wow.

Oh... snap! Obama response, quick as lightning

"I am not Bush." Me thinks Obama was ready for that one.

The Daily Show: Busted!

Nobody does this better than Jon Stewart! McCain... you are so busted!

That bus has left the station

McCain spins into damage-control mode:

LAKEVILLE, Minnesota (Reuters) - Republican presidential nominee John McCain was booed at his own rally on Friday as he tried to rein in increasingly raw anger among supporters stunned by Democrat Barack Obama's lead in the polls.

Speaking in a Minneapolis suburb, McCain -- who had escalated character attacks on Obama in recent days -- found himself in the unlikely role of defending his rival in the face of sometimes hostile questions from frustrated Republican loyalists.

He drew boos from a crowd packed into a high school gymnasium when he insisted to a skeptical supporter that Obama was a "decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared (of) as president of the United States."

McCain appeared to be trying to dial down the ugly tone that has crept into his rallies, including anti-Obama taunts from the crowd, as his campaign has faltered amid a financial crisis that polls show most Americans believe Obama would be better able to handle.

McCain's own sharpened rhetoric, including questions about Obama's association with former 1960s radical William Ayers -- an issue he raised again on Friday -- has been seen as counterproductive to attracting unaffiliated voters.

"We want to fight and I want to fight, but we will be respectful," McCain said during a question-and-answer session with voters at a campaign event in Lakeville. But when he then added, "I admire Sen. Obama and his accomplishments," the crowd jeered loudly.

Hang around with rattlesnakes and you will eventually get bitten Senator McCain. You let this go too far. I'm very glad that you are attempting to clean up the dangerous mess you have made, but you're a little late.

What changed between yesterday and today? Did you get a few phone calls from angry (and sane) Republican Senators and other legislators telling you to lay off the hate rhetoric?

Why didn't you do this yesterday, sir? Or the day before? You could have stopped the 'hate talk express' before it even left the station. You want to be commander in chief, right? This is your idea of leadership?

Or is this simply campaign damage control?

See what happens when you squander the public trust? As Lincoln wryly noted: "If once you forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem."

Palin panders to the 'violent hater' vote

Palin at a recent rally in Florida:

"I was reading my copy of the New York Times the other day," she said.

"Booooo!" replied the crowd.

"I knew you guys would react that way, okay," she continued. "So I was reading the New York Times and I was really interested to read about Barack's friends from Chicago."

It was time to revive the allegation, made over the weekend, that Obama "pals around" with terrorists, in this case Bill Ayers, late of the Weather Underground. Many independent observers say Palin's allegations are a stretch; Obama served on a Chicago charitable board with Ayers, now an education professor, and has condemned his past activities.

"Now it turns out, one of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers," Palin said.

"Boooo!" said the crowd.

"And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,'" she continued.

"Boooo!" the crowd repeated.

"Kill him!" proposed one man in the audience.

Inciting violence towards an opposing political candidate? My, Sarah -- why don't you just burn a cross on the stage while you're at it?

Hate-talk TV and radio hosts seem to get away with this all the time, even when it leads to murder. Now we have it from political candidates.

When I was a child, in a state that has decades of experience with Klan activities, the KKK and fellow hate organizations were tracked and pursued by the FBI for exactly this kind of hate-inciting speech. Today our government openly tolerates it -- but only from the extreme right.

We live in strange times indeed when peaceful demonstrators are attacked by black-armored police and arrested without charge; and a vice presidential candidate can openly incite violence towards the democratic candidate for president in front of the police, the media, the FBI and the Secret Service. No consequences whatsoever.

What the hell? Aren't we supposed to be a nation of laws?

So Sarah, let me get this straight (if I can dumb myself down to your reptilian level and perhaps communicate.) You're sliding in the polls. You're getting desperate. The charm and the winking didn't work, and both you and your running mate McCain have each lost your debates. Obviously the people aren't buying what you guys are selling.

So you accuse Obama of hanging around with terrorists, deliberately inciting violence towards a political opponent.

You obviously heard the man in the crowd shout 'kill him!' and you just let it slide, didn't you? Is that the reaction you were looking for? I see you didn't miss a beat, but kept right on stirring that poisonous pot. I've seen your kind before, but seldom without the sheets and burning crosses.

This is your answer for America? If you can't win any other way, incite some wacko into killing your opponent? What -- the nasty smear commercials are no longer enough for you people?

This is what comes from removing all consequences for hate-mongering in this country.

UPDATE: The Secret Service is investigating the man who shouted 'kill him!' Hopefully they will also gently suggest to both McCain and Palin that inciting this behavior is not to be allowed.

Palin prays with a witch hunter

Only in American would a serious candidate for president of the United States pick - as his running mate - a politically inexperienced, mean-spirited, lying, conniving, environmentally devastating and wolf-exterminating, radical-religious-fringe 'hockey mom.'

Unbelievable.

McCain -- what were you thinking? Or have you given up on thinking, completely, and turned everything over to your campaign handlers?

This woman is to be one of your frail heartbeats from the presidency? You're kidding... right? Is this some sort of a joke?

Perhaps you've slipped into senility. Perhaps that is the explanation for why I no longer recognize you - can't even find a shell of your old self - in those television appearances. You once were my senator. I thought I knew you, at least marginally.

The McCain of four years ago would never have done something so reckless and cynical. The McCain of eight years ago would have railed against it.

"Agents of intolerance" you called them. Remember? You do remember saying that, don't you? And you were right! That is why we liked you... because you weren't afraid to call things by their true names.

And now, when it really matters, you have picked as your running mate... a fringe religious extremist? A woman who prays with witch hunters at her Alaskan church?

Sir: Do you hate us that much?

Palin Prays with a Witch Hunter at her Church
(Salem Witch trials: coming to a city near you!)

Selling 9/11

"On Dec. 7, 2001, nearly three months after the terrorist attack that had made him a national hero and a little over three weeks before he would leave office, New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani took the first official step toward making himself rich."

Its little wonder Mr. Giuliani couldn't be bothered to visit a lowly cattle farm in Iowa. This man has cash on the mind, and a tough-guy reputation for sale. After turning his heroic mystique into a cool $100 million since 9/11 - not to mention becoming a bona fide presidential candidate -- baby, time is money.

Are people still falling for this BS? Apparently not in Iowa... and certainly not in NYC.

I wonder if Rudy can find enough investors to simply buy the presidency?


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