Republicus

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Location: Arlington, Virginia, United States

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

The Surge Is Working

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows Barack Obama attracting 50% of the vote nationwide while John McCain earns 47%. This is the first time McCain has been within three points of Obama in more than a month and the first time his support has topped 46% since September 24 (see trends). One percent (1%) of voters prefer a third-party option and 2% are undecided.

38 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes, I believe the left is in panic.

The aftermath of Ashley Todd’s story

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

McCain volunteer Ashley Todd has now confessed that she made up the story about being attacked by a large black man who carved the letter “B” into her cheek.

The young lady has issues, and I hope she gets the help she needs. End of story.

But let’s talk in a little more depth about the eagerness and even glee with which some in the right-wing blogosphere jumped on that story and immediately claimed it as proof of their worst nightmares coming true. So much of that story was unbelievable from the very beginning, yet certain people wanted to believe it so badly that they ignored all the warning signs and launched into full battle cry.

Andy McCarthy at the National Review’s Corner responded with a post so embarrassing he has now taken it down so nobody can see it.

Dan Riehl at riehlworldview.com posted under the headline “Thugs for change,” claiming that “Obama’s run his campaign just like a street thug out of Chicago. Now we get to see what some of his worst supporters are like.”

Noel Sheppard at newsbusters.org chastized AP for daring to be skeptical of the initial report. Most of all, he wanted to know why the AP didn’t report that the alleged perp was black. How dare they exclude a detail that had no bearing whatsoever on the alleged crime!!

Josh Painter at redstate.com blamed the attack on Barack Obama, suggesting an “Obama thugocracy” was coming: When Obama “urged his supporters to get in their face, did it not occur to him that some of his more deranged followers might take him literally?” Painter asked.

He was echoed by fellow redstater Erick Erickson, who wrote: “Hey! The dude was just doing what The One asked him to. Full pardon on January 21st.”

At Atlas Shugs, they posted the woman’s photo and called it “the new face of the Republican Party.”

“Shame on those that doubted this poor girl,” the post read. “Always ready to jump on the side of the leftists and thugs. ugh. Americans, I implore you to get off your asses and save this country from the radical left coup on the White House, Senate and House

1:54 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

My fellow prisoners, I implore you to get rid of that fat GOP ass, and endorse the evolved candidate:

So far, it's a landslide in the switcheroo department, including a Nixon, an Eisenhower, a Buckley AND a Reagan!!

The Wall Street Journal today rounds up the horde of prominent Republicans jumping ship to Barack Obama. Now one of John McCain's actual advisers has switched sides:

Charles Fried, a professor at Harvard Law School, has long been one of the most important conservative thinkers in the United States. Under President Reagan, he served, with great distinction, as Solicitor General of the United States. Since then, he has been prominently associated with several Republican leaders and candidates, most recently John McCain, for whom he expressed his enthusiastic support in January.

This week, Fried announced that he has voted for Obama-Biden by absentee ballot. In his letter to Trevor Potter, the General Counsel to the McCain-Palin campaign, he asked that his name be removed from the several campaign-related committees on which he serves. In that letter, he said that chief among the reasons for his decision "is the choice of Sarah Palin at a time of deep national crisis."

6:24 PM  
Blogger John said...

Jeese, I leave the door unlocked for a few days and the place fills up with escaped inmates from Arkham Asylum.

You're lucky I'm in a good mood.

6:34 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Who the hell CARED about Ashley Todd? I"m a right wing blogger and, trust me, I didn't carry it. Matter of fact, I visit probably 50 blogs a week and saw it ONCE. Sorry to pop your stupid bubble, folks.

Looks like the natives are getting restless, john........the surge IS working, so they have to insult, burn Sarah in effigy (it happened in Gay West Hollywood...I was hoping the gay women would come defend her .."where'a lesbian when you NEED one?") Ah, well.

Maybe this country will be saved because I'm hearing a LOT of independents saying "Obama's a LIAR, do you know that?" I knew it 2 days into his campaign, but..duh, they're finally getting it.
You only had to hear "Ayers? we lived in the same neighborhood."

OH, REALLY, Barry? OOPS. liar liar liar

Liarz are bad people, john. get it? xxx geeeez

8:36 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tom Delay Destroyed on Hardball!!! (UPDATE W/Video)
by DWKING
Wed Oct 29, 2008 at 02:24:57 PM PDT
Debbie Wasserman Schultz delivered a beat down of Tom Delay on Hardball that is worth the price of admission!

Tom Delay came on and told Chris Matthews that Obama was dangerous, a socialists, a Marxist, etc. Delay threw every scary label in his hatefilled repertoire at Senator Obama and then Chris Matthews called on Debbie Wasserman Schultz to deliver the rebuttal.

And she destroyed Delay by saying that with "all due respect" consider the source. She went on to point out that Delay was tossed out of Congress "in disgrace" and that he had presided over the "most corrupt" Congress in recent history!

But do not miss the clear, concise way she went on to totally neuter---not just neutralize--the scum-sucking bottom feeder that is Tom Delay. I only wish he had stayed on the air long enough to get a reaction shot of it. But I am sure his head exploded!

Three cheers for Debbie Wasserman Schultz for not mincing words and proving once again that she is one of the best Obama surrogates on air!!

9:11 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Right wing blogger...haha...I love it when these poor vermin write letters to themselves.

9:13 PM  
Blogger nanc said...

o.t. - so isn't the global warming farce!

LMBFTO!

6:13 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"By the end of the week, he'll be accusing me of being a secret communist because I shared my toys in Kindergarten." -- Sen. Barack Obama.


hahahahahhaha...good one, O!!

9:16 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

NYT: The Alaska Republican Party found itself in the awkward position of urging voters to return a convicted felon to the United States Senate. "Awkward," Heck No. The GOP Has Been the Party of Crooks Since Nixon...and radical nutcases since McCarthy...and rich thieves since Hoover.

9:19 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

McCain down two in Gallup...

Same old story...the GOP comes through on election day.

I'm predicting an early called victory for Mac.

9:21 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You get a line, I'll get a poll, and we'll go fishin' in the crawfish hole...

A University of Texas poll to be released today shows Republican presidential candidate John McCain and GOP Sen. John Cornyn leading by comfortable margins in Texas, as expected. But the statewide survey of 550 registered voters has one very surprising finding: 23 percent of Texans are convinced that Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is a Muslim.

Five card poker on a Saturday night, church on Sunday morinin'

11:03 AM  
Blogger Kelly said...

Actually, the numbers to look at are the electoral numbers...remember Clinton won the white house with less than 50% of the popular vote BOTH times.

10:16 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The polls have widened again...hahaha...aint they diabolical, though, my little simpletons.

11:28 PM  
Blogger nanc said...

BOO!

<^..^>

6:38 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Eagleburger Blisters Palin: "Of Course" She's Not Ready
October 31

A former Republican Secretary of State and one of John McCain's most prominent supporters offered a stunningly frank and remarkably bleak assessment of Sarah Palin's capacity to handle the presidency should such a scenario arise.

Lawrence Eagleburger, who served as Secretary of State under George H.W. Bush and whose endorsement is often trumpeted by McCain, said on Thursday that the Alaska governor is not only unprepared to take over the job on a moment's notice but, even after some time in office, would only amount to an "adequate" commander in chief.

"And I devoutly hope that [she] would never be tested," he added for good measure -- referring both to Palin's policy dexterity and the idea of McCain not making it through his time in office. (Listen to audio below.)

The remarks took place during an interview on National Public Radio that was, ironically, billed as "making the case" for a McCain presidency. Asked by the host whether Palin could step in during a time of crisis, Eagleburger reverted to sarcasm before leveling the harsh blow.

"It is a very good question," he said, pausing a few seconds, then adding with a chuckle: "I'm being facetious here. Look, of course not."

Isn't it bracing to hear a GOP being HONEST?

9:25 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is even better:

Dole down in the polls and even attacked by fellow GOPs for claiming Hagan is "Godless."

Desperation, and only GOP anal retentos care about that silliness any more.

Let's hear it for the godless.

9:56 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

the lef be in panic

12:15 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Trick or Treat?

3:01 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Purge is Working...

It looks like we could even get rid of Lizzy Borden Dole.

3:35 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

OOOOOOOOOOOOuch! Did you see what Eagleburger had to say about Palin?

6:41 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Too funny:

http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/10/28/asign.html?adsec=politics&sid=101


Yeah - Jonny - the surge is working. Just like in Iraq? Hahahahahahah

6:53 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

"Joe" "The" "Plumber" (ie Sam Wurlzebacher) was a predicted trope!

http://wonkette.com/403984/the-onion-predicted-joe-the-plumber-crap-in-1993

Does Mac regret Sam more or Palin? Hmmmm.

ROFL!

John - You said that neocon is the same as Jewish. I think that's silly - but a lot of neocons are now supporting Obama (Peggy Noonan, Ken Adelman).

Guess you think Obama
is secretly Jewish?

hahhahahhahahaha!

6:58 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

All joking aside - You
can't turn the clock back
and un-select Palin
or not mention "Joe" the trope.

Here's is McCain's last hope:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKnIghBsU58


As a patriot and a small
c conservative I find
it outrageous that
private companies
are even allowed near
our elections.

Hope you al agree.

7:25 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Solzhenitsyn lives:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B59IRr_1Nzk

7:43 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Palin in 2012?

Do they mean, "Will she be in prison with Ted Stevens, Don Young, and the rest of the GOP establishment by then?"

Migod, the number of scandals around this woman!!

8:53 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks, GOP, for the redistribution ads!!

Turns out, everyone WANTS redist.

Thanks for bringing back socialism in the fi world and rehabbing it in the public mind!!

9:02 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

O up 20% in early voting!!!

9:03 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

And even more among My Spaces 70 million voters. A generation of youth goes dem by a landslide.

Uh, they're our most impordun resource, ewe no.

9:05 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Republican John McCain has pulled back within the margin of error... The three-day average holds steady, but McCain outpolled Obama 48% to 47% in Friday, one day, polling. He is beginning to cut into Obama's lead among independents, is now leading among blue collar voters, has strengthened his lead among investors and among men, and is walloping Obama among NASCAR voters. Joe the Plumber may get his license after all...

9:06 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

They NEEEEED to believe Palin was a brilliant choice by The Flake.

Arnie, the bloated, old beefbag, says O is too skinny.

That's the GOP IQ at work. The base base loves it; everyone else rolls their eyes.

Arnie should have been working on his tiny brain all these years, but instead crowded it out with even more meat cells.

9:09 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes, the reign of stupid is over.

The rain of the brain is back.

9:10 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey - do y'all remember
Palin's boffo demagoguery
at the St Paul convention?

People forget now - but before she spoke , Rudy G. of NY spoke and basically
took a dump on stage after he got on his barstool.

Think about it - the fascist bastard was the favorite to win a year ago.

But he collapsed during the debates when he
made a fool of himself replying to Ron Paul.

9:26 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sanity Returns:

McCain's Big Backfire: Majority of Americans Like the Idea of Spreading the Wealth
By Alexander Zaitchik

John McCain and Joe the Plumber are campaigning for Barack Obama, and they don't even know it. The more McCain has ramped up his attacks on Obama as a "spreader of wealth," the more the country has lined up behind the Democrat's plan to spread the wealth. If McCain's economic agenda was a gun and his attacks on Obama's agenda the bullets, the old soldier would have shot both his feet clean off a long time ago.

Watching the GOP's coordinated if increasingly delirious attacks on Obama's economic plan, it's clear that the party is even further out of touch with the America of 2008 than previously imagined. After eight years of establishing and then extending America's lead as the most unequal of all industrialized countries, Republicans thought they could deflect a national groundswell of righteous anger by dusting off and hurling every insult in the conservative arsenal, including old favorites "extremist," "radical," "Marxist" and "socialist." One suspects they are saving "anarchist" and "Hessian" for McCain's last-gasp speech on Monday.

But a funny thing happened on the way to the Republican hammer-and-sickle-themed haunted house: Nobody showed. The McCain campaign's attempts to smear Obama as a Trojan donkey for socialistic un-Americanism have belly-flopped, if not backfired. Obama has not only maintained a stable lead under the Republican barrage, he has increased his positives in the traditionally Republican territory of taxes. The final national polls before Tuesday all show a national hunger for national wealth redistribution downward. An Ipsos/McClatchy poll finds that likely voters prefer Obama's tax plan to McCain's by 8 points. Pew says Obama added to his edge on taxes and the economy between mid-September and mid-October by 6 points, jumping from 44 to 39 earlier to 50 to 35. On Oct. 30, Gallup released results showing Americans favor Obama's style of wealth spreading by a whopping 58-to-37 margin.

It appears the nation's sanity and sense of fairness has reasserted itself to wipe the floor with condescending GOP red-baiting.

It hasn't hurt that the GOP attacks have been absurd on their face. A 3-point increase in the top marginal income tax rate to 39 percent is not easily morphed into the face of Pol Pot. For much of the 20th century, the top income tax rate in the United States slid between 50 percent and 90 percent, peaking at 94 percent during the final two years of World War II. Most Americans would agree that the mid-century rates were excessive, but support for some kind of progressive tax curve remains widespread. Both Bill Clinton and Al Gore ran winning campaigns promising to raise taxes on the rich.

"The public has always supported moderately progressive taxation, so I don't think McCain's pitch had much resonance unless he could convince people that Obama would raise their taxes," says Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. "Obama inoculated himself against this attack by saying that he would cut taxes for 95 percent of the public. Basically, McCain was trying to make things up, and most people didn't believe him."

Charges of socialism are especially discordant coming from the McCain campaign. The top marginal income tax rate held steady at 50 percent for five years under McCain's hero, Ronald Reagan. His other hero, Teddy Roosevelt, was a fierce and early booster for federal income and estate taxes. And Sarah Palin? It wouldn't be all that surprising to see her turn up at a commemoration of this year's 70th anniversary of the Fourth International. As Hendrik Hertzberg noted in one of many recent New Yorker pieces debunking the newest GOP attack line, the redistributive principle is practiced with particular gusto in Palin's Alaska, where the governor spreads the oil wealth like creamy butter around the state's absorbent white bread. "One of the reasons Palin has been a popular governor," notes Hertzberg, "is that she added an extra $1,200 to this year's (government) check, bringing the per-person total to $3,269." Earlier this summer, Palin boasted to journalist Philip Gourevitch, "Alaskans collectively own the resources. We share in the wealth."

Like Alaskans, we're all socialist now, to an extent, and have been for a long time. It's just a question of daring to speak the adjective's name, which happens to describe hugely popular programs like Social Security and Medicare. Watching McCain's socialist attack line flop, it's tempting to think that the country is edging closer to the day when the word, stripped of its Cold War baggage, no longer has the power to frighten Ohio. Another element is the further eclipse of the culture war by economics. As the country's shifting demographics grow over the divides opened up during the 1960s and '70s, attempts to bundle pinko economics with fears of godless agents of chaos become increasingly meaningless.

The Right is aware of and worried about this growing de-contextualization of the word "socialism." The counterrevolution against the New Deal was aided by the presence of the Soviet Union as a running counterpoint. But it's now almost 20 years after 1989. A generation has matured that never soaked up any of the old propaganda. This generation has studied abroad and knows you can Super-size it in Sweden. It has no memory of "Better Dead Than Red" and can't imagine an elderly British logician making international headlines for saying he'd rather crawl to Moscow on his hands and knees than die in a nuclear war. Conservatives worry about this group much as arms controllers worry that kids today don't understand the dangers posed by nuclear weapons. The right's fright over the post-Cold War generation's immunity to cries of "socialism!" was expressed clearly in an Oct. 27 editorial in the Investor's Business Daily titled "Defining Problems With Socialism for the Post-Cold War Generation."

"John McCain has finally called Barack Obama's agenda by its proper name," it begins. "But if he assumes voters understand what he means when he uses the word 'socialism,' he assumes too much. Sadly, most people under 60 in this country went to schools and universities where socialism isn't considered a bad thing."

Actually, those are two distinct groups -- those who don't understand the word or its gradations, and those who do and wouldn't mind living under most of them. What they have in common is that together they constitute a future United States where the word "socialist" carries an ever-weakening stigma.

Whether we choose to reclaim or dispense with the word, its days as a conversation stopper appear to be over. Over the last eight years, 90 percent of the new income generated has accrued to the top 10 percent, while average family incomes have dropped $2,000. These numbers have engendered bitterness on top of anxiety that has shifted the economic debate. If Democrats get a chance to seek forceful redress in the coming years, Republicans are sure to call Obama a socialist and much else besides. But that's OK. Tuesday's election is going to show that when people are hurting, they don't mind a little "socialism" -- just as long as it's pointed their way.

9:40 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Heeeee Jon

Wich Dooobie- You-be?

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2008/10/24034.php

Ha - McCain thinks
"spreading the wealth"
was a gaffe!

9:45 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm a small c-conservative myself and for the life of me I am so puzzled by McCain's madness.

Who told him "spread the wealth" was unpopular?

Reagan's most popular program the EITC was a spead the wealth measure - Indeed, Reagan's deficits were a form of spreading the wealth via interest on bonds to the rich.

McCain let the idiots and racists in the GOP craft his economic policy.

That's why were are abandoning him.

9:49 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ol' Jonnie we are gonna love Nov 4

You can do your St. Vitus Dance

But Obama gals will keep
us warm.

So when you yell and kick and scream "Mac"

Dont mind if we Yack!

Because the Days of W are over and GOD BLESS US

For that!

10:53 AM  
Blogger John said...

"If McCain's economic agenda was a gun, and his attacks on Obama's agenda the bullets, the old soldier would have shot both his feet clean off a long time ago."

Boo. This would've been funnier: "If McCrash's presidential campaign was a navy jet..."

Anyway, it's still airborne and dropping bombs.

What's going on here is that Obama's chickens have already hatched and are trying to (discount) McCain's eggs.

We'll see what hatches on Tuesday.

"After eight years of establishing and then extending America's lead as the most unequal of all industrialized countries..."

That's right. We're (still) in the runaway lead as the unequaled, wealthiest nation, and that with one of the most unequal corporate taxation of all industrialized countries. Can you imagine what the extension of our lead would be if our corporate tax rate was more equal with other industrialized countries?

"Republicans thought they could deflect a national groundswell of righteous anger by dusting off and hurling every insult in the conservative arsenal, including old favorites 'extremist,' 'radical,' 'Marxist' and "socialist."

Yeah, sure. And that's why the Democrats have apparently rabble-roused a groundswelling mob mentality of mindless anger by dusting off and hurling every insult in the liberal arsenal, including old favorites "extremists," "tax-cuts for the rich," "racist," and "out-of-touch."

11:31 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Julie Annie was Sayet and this fool's fave...his dresses sent tingles up their legs. They had no use for McCain, but, now, they've fallen in line and bleat like the sheep they are.

8:16 PM  

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