From New York Times: The Class War Before Palin

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/10/opinion/10brooks.html

The Class War Before Palin - David Brooks

Modern conservatism began as a movement of dissident intellectuals. Richard Weaver wrote a book called, “Ideas Have Consequences.” Russell Kirk placed Edmund Burke in an American context. William F. Buckley famously said he’d rather be governed by the first 2,000 names in the Boston phone book than by the faculty of Harvard. But he didn’t believe those were the only two options. His entire life was a celebration of urbane values, sophistication and the rigorous and constant application of intellect.

Driven by a need to engage elite opinion, conservatives tried to build an intellectual counterestablishment with think tanks and magazines. They disdained the ideas of the liberal professoriate, but they did not disdain the idea of a cultivated mind.

Ronald Reagan was no intellectual, but...continue reading

Hate-Fest: The Angry GOP Mob!

If someone were visiting the United States today and was totally unaware of what has been going on in the last eight years of Republicans Bush-Cheney, that person would immediately presume that Democrats would be seething with anger on the campaign trail for what even an alien would recognize has been a terrible eight years. However, that person would be wrong, it is not the Democrats who are mad as hell (although they have every reason to be just look at the stock market - and I haven't even began to look at other scandals in this administration (Hurricane Katrina, Scooter Libby, Dubai Ports, Harriet Miers, Attorney General Gonzales, Terri Schiavo, etc) - Yes, after all these it is only one party that is responsible for the situation the country finds itself - the Democrats!

You have seen the video footage of the angry mobs at the McCain-Palin rallies these days. At the mere mention of Barack Obama, the crowd seethes with rage, yells out words like "terrorist!" or "kill him!" or other racial epithets. This is what the McCain campaign has become - a hate fest. So much for the straight talk express and pledge to run a decent campaign - that was so like 11 poll points ago. As the polls shift in favor of Obama, Republicans who have ruled Washington for the last eight years are beginning to realize that the end may be near. But no, they are not going to go out easy. On the eve of what might be the end of the GOP as we know it, the Republicans are frustrated, angry and lashing out at Obama, the Media, Washington, Elites, Arugula eating cafe latte sipping Americans, Camera men who happen to be filming their hate fests, basically every one but the person most responsible for their impending demise - George W. Bush.

It is not over yet, election is still about 25 days away and anything can happen. Obama is not guaranteed a win at this time. But what the Republicans fear most is that the Conservative philosophy that reached its peak in the Reagan and early Bush II years, might finally be coming to an end. If McCain loses, the party will have an opportunity to reexamine what it means to be a conservative/Republican. Hopefully a younger generation of Republicans will stand for more progressive ideas than only being against a woman’s right to choose and gay marriage. The future of the party lies in the hands of the young ones, they must decide what being a Republican will stand for in the future. For now, the anger can be expected to continue to boil in expectation of what might be a disaster come November.

The GOP goes back to its ugly roots - Gary Kamiya, Salon.com

Anger Is Crowd's Overarching Emotion at McCain Rally - Michael D. Shear and Perry Bacon Jr., Washington Post

The Terrorist Barack Hussein Obama - Frank Rich, New York Times

McCain's Risky Turn - Dan Balz, Washington Post

McCain Joins Attacks on Obama Over Radical - Elisabeth Bumiller and Patrick Healy, New York Times

Panic attacks: Voters unload at GOP rallies - Jonathan Martin, Politico.com

HE WON'T STOP THEM: BACKLASH GROWS OVER MCCAIN’S ACCEPTANCE OF HATE-FUELED CROWDS - Sam Stein, Huffington Post

Labor warns McCain about crowds - Foon Rhee, Boston Globe

Anger consumes John McCain support as poll gap widens - Tom Baldwin and Tim Reid, The Times

On YouTube: AC360: Angry Crowds at McCain Events

2006 Flashback: From Rolling Stone - The Worst President in History?

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/profile/story/9961300/the_worst_president_in_history

The Worst President in History? - SEAN WILENTZ, April 21, 2006
Rolling Stone Magazine

George W. Bush's presidency appears headed for colossal historical disgrace. Barring a cataclysmic event on the order of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, after which the public might rally around the White House once again, there seems to be little the administration can do to avoid being ranked on the lowest tier of U.S. presidents. And that may be the best-case scenario. Many historians are now wondering whether Bush, in fact, will be remembered as the very worst president in all of American history...Continue reading

From Salon.com: The GOP goes back to its ugly roots

This is probably one of the best written articles that I have come across in a while.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/kamiya/2008/10/07/republican_smear_tactics/print.html

The GOP goes back to its ugly roots - By Gary Kamiya

There are some uncanny parallels between Goldwater's campaign and McCain's. The American right has come full circle in 44 years, with two allegedly maverick senators from Arizona playing bookend roles, one at the beginning, one perhaps at the end. Goldwater was the prophet of modern conservatism, but he came too early. For his part, McCain may have come too late. He may be remembered as the last, failed Republican candidate to use the GOP's four-decade-old strategy of attacking big government, demonizing liberals and mobilizing white resentment of blacks.

McCain is playing dirtier than Goldwater did. But the smear game still may not work. And if McCain loses, it will be for the same reasons that Goldwater lost: because conservatism itself -- which means the GOP, since it no longer has a moderate branch -- has been discredited. The Republican Party under Nixon and Reagan....continue reading

Reviewing the Second Presidential Debate

I know this is kinda late but I was too tired after the debate to write anything. Well, just like the vice presidential debate, no sparks or big gaffes by the candidate. Going into the debate Tuesday night, John McCain really needed to win or do something so dramatical as to change the direction of this election. He choose to attack Obama only on the campaign trail debate not during the debate. I though both men did ok, Obama looked presidential, young, vibrant, intelligent and kept reminding me of John F. Kennedy. On the other hand, I actually felt sorry for John McCain, he looked tired, beaten, lost and grumpy. I thought he did a better job than the first debate but he was no match for Obama's wit and crisp answers in the end, the viewers overwhlmingly voted Obama the winner.

Here are some of the reviews:

Economic Woes Set Tone for Rivals in 2nd Debate - New York Times

The worst debate ever - Politico.com

A Showdown That Was More of a Letdown - Washington Post

Obama-McCain debate: jabs, but no knockout - Christian Science Monitor

McCain and Obama clash in TV debate - BBC News

Sarah Palin and the Politics of Low Expectations

A month ago John McCain at the Republican convention accepted his nomination by giving what by every account was a non impressive speech. Yet, everyone agreed that by the expectations set for him, he did quite well. Leading up to the speech, the pundits agreed giving speeches is not really McCain’s shtick. The night before, Sarah Palin, at that time still fresh and new, had given a speech also that mesmerized the Republican faithful gathered in St. Paul, MN. The expectations for her speech was high, no one knew anything about her and when she delivered a clear and concise speech with sharp jabs at the Democrats, the punditry agreed she had exceeded expectations. A week before that expectations was even higher for his acceptance speech. Obama his known to as a gifted orator and on this his most important speech, the question was can he step up to the plate and delivered? Usually in politics, you try to set the expectations low for your candidate, the Obama camp did no such thing, they let the expectations simmer. That Thursday night in Denver, CO, in front of 85,000 fans at Invesco field, Barack Obama came out and delivered a speech that met and exceeded every expectation.

Fast forward to Thursday’s debate. Sarah Palin after giving a series of interviews that makes George W. Bush look like an intellectual, the expectation is all of a sudden low. For Joe Biden all the pressure is on him. This is more like what has been happening in the past few years, each time there is a debate between a Democrat and Republican, the Republican candidate is given such a low standard of expectation that it is almost impossible not to exceed it. Remember George W. Bush and Al Gore? Yep, the punditry were shocked that Bush was even able to stand through the end of the debate without asking for a timeout. Al Gore won all the debates, but the standard was so low for Bush that he just waltzed past the debates. He could have just shown up and said my name is George W. Bush, I am a compassionate conservative!” and the media would have been chanting Hercules! Hercules!! Hercules!!! Same story with Bush four years later and John Kerry.

Life is not fair and life for the candidates is even more unfair. But campaigns do control the post and pre-spin of a debate. Republicans have been very good at lowering expectations for their candidates. Democrats need to learn. When Sarah Palin first came on the national stage, all I heard from Democrats was how Joe Biden was going to mop the floor with Palin at the vice presidential debate. Totally wrong move, you don’t do that, You are suppose to raise expectations for your opponent while lowering yours. I have been glad to see Joe Biden say that he expects Sarah Palin to be a strong and gifted debater. About time! I expect Joe Biden who has been in the Senate since Palin was in second grade to be boring. I also expect Sarah Palin to come out to the debate and skin Joe Biden like he was a salmon or moose.

We need to stop setting standards so low for the people running to lead this country. This is not a competition for Ms. Alaska, Sarah Palin cannot just come out and wave to the crowd and assume that is all. Both candidates need to be held to the same standards of expectations. One of them is going to be Vice President of the United States of America. One of them will be only a heartbeat from being leader of the free world. The stakes are high for both candidates!

Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Speech That Turned Republicans into Big Crybabies!

From The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/30/creditcrunch.wallstreet

Nancy Pelosi's speech on the financial bail-out bill
Republicans blamed the failure of the financial rescue bill partly on remarks by the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi. Here is the full text of her speech

Madam Speaker, when was the last time someone asked you for $700bn?

It is a number that is staggering, but tells us only the costs of the Bush administration's failed economic policies: policies built on budgetary recklessness, on an anything-goes mentality, with no regulation, no supervision, and no discipline in the system.

Democrats believe in the free market, which can and does create jobs, wealth, and capital. But left to its own devices, it has created chaos.

That chaos is the dismal picture painted by Treasury Secretary [Henry)] Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman [Ben] Bernanke a week and a half ago in the Capitol. As they pointed out, we confront a crisis of historic magnitude that has the ability to do serious injury not simply to our economy but to the American people; not just to Wall Street, but to everyday Americans on Main Street.

It is our responsibility today, to help avert that catastrophic outcome. Let us be clear: This is a crisis caused on Wall Street. But it is a crisis that reaches to Main Street in every city and town of the United States.

It is a crisis that freezes credit, causes families to lose their homes, cripples small businesses, and makes it harder to find jobs. It is a crisis that never had to happen. It is now the duty of every member of this body to recognise that the failure to act responsibly, with full protections for the American taxpayer, would compound the damage already done to the financial security of millions of American families.

Over the past several days, we have worked with our Republican colleagues to fashion an alternative to the original plan of the Bush administration.

I must recognise the outstanding leadership provided by [the chairman of the House financial services committee and Democrat of Massachusetts] Barney Frank, whose enormous intellectual and strategic abilities have never before been so urgently needed, or so widely admired.

I also want to recognise [Illinois Democratic Republican] Rahm Emanuel, who combined his deep knowledge of financial institutions with his pragmatic policy experience to resolve key disagreements.

Secretary Paulson deserves credit for working day and night to help reach an agreement, and for his flexibility in negotiating changes to his original proposal.

Democrats insisted that legislation responding to this crisis must protect the American people and Main Street from the meltdown on Wall Street.

The American people did not decide to dangerously weaken our regulatory and oversight policies. They did not make unwise and risky financial deals. They did not jeopardise the economic security of the nation. And they must not pay the cost of this emergency recovery and stabilisation bill.

So we insisted that this bill contain several key provisions. This legislation must contain independent and ongoing oversight to ensure that the recovery programme is managed with full transparency and strict accountability.

The legislation must do everything possible to allow as many people to stay in their homes rather than face foreclosure.

The corporate CEOs whose companies will benefit from the public's participation in this recovery must not benefit by exorbitant salaries and golden parachute retirement bonuses.

Our message to Wall Street is this: the party is over. The era of golden parachutes for high-flying Wall Street operators is over. No longer will the US taxpayer bail out the recklessness of Wall Street. The taxpayers who bear the risk in this recovery must share in the upside as the economy recovers.

And should this programme not pay for itself, the financial institutions that benefited, not the taxpayers, must bear responsibility for making up the difference.

These were the Democratic demands to safeguard the American taxpayer, to help the economy recover, and to impose tough accountability as a central component of this recovery effort.

This legislation is not the end of congressional activity on this crisis. Over the course of the next few weeks, we will continue to hold investigative and oversight hearings to find out how the crisis developed, where mistakes were made, and how the recovery must be managed to protect the middle class and the American taxpayer.

With passage of this legislation today, we can begin the difficult job of turning our economy around, of helping those who depend on a growing economy and stable financial institutions for a secure retirement, for the education of their children, for jobs and small business credit.

Today we must act for those Americans, for Main Street, and we must act now, with the bipartisan spirit of cooperation which allowed us to fashion this legislation.

This not enough. We are also working to restore our nation's economic strength by passing a new economic recovery stimulus package, a robust, job-creating bill that will help Americans struggling with high prices, get our economy back on track and renew the American dream.

Today we will act to avert this crisis, but informed by our experience of the past eight years, with the failed economic leadership that has left us less capable of meeting the challenges of the future.

We choose a different path. In the new year, with a new Congress and a new president, we will break free with a failed past and take America in a new direction to a better future.


* guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008