What a crazy, crazy election

I'll be so glad when it's all over and when Obama is our President. As you can tell, I've been a pretty light blogger this month. The semester here at Penn State started at the beginning of the month and it's been hard to find time to blog.

But seriously, what a crazy election. My last post was a bit of a downer. Obama was down in the polls and the election looked very much up in the air. Fortunately, right now he's looking really good. He might be in the best position he's been in during the entire election. He's up about 4 points in most national polls, and he's looking strong in state polls. He appears to be holding on to all of Kerry's states from 2004, and he's looking solid in Colorado, New Mexico, and Iowa. Virginia is looking like a real possibility, and states like Nevada and Ohio look like a tie right now.

I think the turn in the race is probably attributable to a few things. First, polling has shown that voters are becoming increasingly aware of how misleading and nasty McCain's ads have been. He was banking on people not bothering to even check how untrue they really were, and, fortunately some members of the media started to call him out on it. Second, opinions of Sarah Palin have taken a nosedive in polls, and are likely to get worse as people see how painfully bad she was in an interview with Katie Couric. It may have been kind of fun and exciting at first, but I think the thought of Palin as back-up to a 72-year-old with a history of skin cancer may be starting to terrify people. This election is serious business.

Here's CNN's Cafferty telling it like it is:



But this week it's been all about the economy and the current crisis. I think that's reminded people how serious this election is. I think people know that McCain offers no real solutions. I think Americans are ready for a change. When things turned all serious (i.e., no more "lipstick on a pig") and Obama started to pull ahead in the polls, McCain had to go all maverick-y and pull another political stunt. He "suspended" his campaign to deal with the economic crisis and called for the debate to be delayed. Unfortunately, neither really ever happened. His ads kept running, his campaign offices were open, he did several major TV interviews, and, from what I've heard, his trip to DC was mostly a photo-op.

The choice is pretty clear, folks. Like Roger Cohen put it:

I’m going to try to make this simple. On the Democratic side you have a guy whose campaign has been based on the Internet, who believes America may have something to learn from other countries (like universal health care) and who’s unafraid in 2008 to say he’s a “proud citizen of the United States and a fellow citizen of the world.”

On the Republican side, you have a guy who, in 2008, is just discovering the Net and Google and whose No. 2 is a woman who got a passport last year and believes she understands Russia because Alaska is closer to Siberia than Alabama.

And things like this remind me why I like Obama. From the opening of his speech at the Clinton Global Initiative this week:

Since CGI is about deeds, not just words, let me tell you about four specific commitments that I will make on four issues that CGI has focused on – climate change, poverty, education, and health – if I have the opportunity to serve as President of the United States.

The dude gets it.

Anyway, the debate tonight should be good viewing. But keep this in mind:

In his WSJ column advising the presidential combatants on the (possibly) upcoming debate, Karl Rove observes that "Mr. Obama must avoid the pervasive sense of nuance that weakened his performance at the Saddleback Forum."

Rove is, of course, correct. Nuance kills in politics. So does thoughtfulness.

Does anyone else find this highly depressing, especially considering the complexity of our current problems?

Yes.

Finally, a bit of fun. Sarah Silverman's plea to young people to visit their Jewish grandparents in Florida and persuade them to vote for Obama is hilarious. Enjoy.

Don't do it, America!

Somehow, after a convention that demonstrated that Republicans have no answers and no solutions, McCain got his bounce in the polls. Inexplicably, Obama's huge lead he gained after a fantastic convention disappeared as McCain jumped out to as much as a ten point lead in one national poll. I just have to say one thing: don't do it, America! You're so much better than this.

Republicans clearly laid out their strategy during their convention. Distance themselves from Bush, ridicule Obama and mock his public service, remind everyone every ten seconds that McCain was a POW, and reignite the culture wars. Oh, and lie. Palin's speech, dripping with disdain for Obama, was full of lies. McCain wants to win by making the election not about issues or policies and the future of America, but by painting Democrats and Obama as elitist, disdainful of those backbone-of-America small town values, and downright scary and dangerous. Palin is supposed to the one you relate to, just like Bush was the one you were supposed to want to have a beer with. McCain's campaign has basically admitted as much, by the way. It's all about cultural populism and character. Obviously, if it were about managing the government, solving our problems, restoring our good name internationally, upholding the Constitution, ending the war in Iraq - you know, the stuff that matters - Obama would win.

Meanwhile, revelling in their post-convention bounce and the novelty and media frenzy surrounding Palin, McCain's campaign is reaching unbelievable lows, leaving some wondering how the media is so complicit in it all, , what happened to McCain's integrity, and whatever happened to that thing we like to call the truth. New ads from McCain put forth blatant and verifiable mistruths (like this one and this absolutely despicable one). The new strategy is to create sideshow after sideshow, like claiming that Obama called Palin a pig when he used an old expression (that McCain himself has used repeatedly) to describe McCain's policies. Obama is justifiably annoyed and frustrated by the whole strategy:

See it would be funny, it would be funny except -- of course the news media all decided that that was the lead story yesterday. They'd much rather have the story -- this is the McCain campaign -- would much rather have the story about phony and foolish diversions than about the future.

This happens every election cycle. Every four years. This is what we do. We've got an energy crisis. We have an education system that is not working for too many of our children and making us less competitive. We have an economy that is creating hardship for families all across America. We've got two wars going on, veterans coming home not being cared for -- and this is what they want to talk about! this is what they want to spend two of the last 55 days talking about.

You know who ends up losing at the end of the day? It's not the Democratic candidate, It's not the republican candidate. It's you, the American people. because then we go another year or another four years or another eight years without addressing the issues that matter to you. Enough.

I don't care what they say about me, but I love this country too much to let them take over another election with lies and phony outrage and swift-boat politics. Enough is enough.

Folks, we have a lot to do. McCain and the GOP think they've found a winning strategy that will keep them in power. Problem is, it's an insult to Americans and a dead end for our nation. I talked to a guy yesterday that supports McCain. He thought that Obama's entire plan for energy is about car maintenance and proper tire inflation. He loved that Palin has more "executive" experience than Obama. A majority of Americans believe the lie that Obama will raise everyone's taxes (this one really bugs me, as Obama's plan cuts taxes significantly for vast majority of Americans and raises taxes only for the most wealthy).

While we need to inform people about Obama's key policy proposals and his real accomplishments and how he would make a good President, we also need to let Republicans know that they don't have a monopoly on values, nor do their values represent those of most Americans. We need to expose the extreme social conservatism of the GOP's platform this year. We need to make it clear that the President's role is not to play some role as defender of so-called family values, but to improve families' lives by making our economy stronger and more just. We need to make it clear that Obama understand thats we need to use our might wisely and with restraint. We need to make it clear that we won't fall for that same old crap this time.

There's just too much at stake.