2008 US Presidential Race, Obama vs McCain

[Charlotte_native]

I would have respected the McCain of years ago, but he has flipped on a number of issues, one that is primary to me. Our country now justifies torturing people. Pathetic. I can't fathom what happened to the country i grew up in, the one my family fought in WWII for (and we didn't torture the Japanese or Germans -- who by my view did FAR more damage to us and the world than any terrist band has ever done). McCain was tortured himself and was a hardliner against it...until the current administration somehow painted those against torture were unpatriotic. He had every legitimate reason in the world to take the high-road and show his real life experience as to why he opposed it...but he caved. If he'll cave to that, which i find immoral, unconcienable, and against national and world law, what else is he willing to 'bend' for in the name of gaining office? Now how to we react when sometime in the future an American is tortured or water-boarded -- can we take the stance that it wasn't OK? Of course it isn't but lead with actions not with rhetoric -- we condone it so we can't claim any longer that we are better than anyone else.

He'll pander for votes and has shown it. Now he is suddenly a die-hard Christian and chest thumper for pro-life...since when?

Sadly Bushes followers will fall for all of this 100% simply because he is the Republican candidate.

[Charlotte_native]

Offshore drilling is rediculous.

[monsoon]

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq has said that all foreign troops, re The United States, will be out of Iraq by 2011. Furthermore all foreign troops will be out of the cities by 2009. These are definite time tables that Bush/McCain said they do not support and we have been fed the rhetoric that this is a signal to the "terrorists". This also sounds to me like no permanent US bases in Iraq.

It will be interesting to see how 1. the Bush friendly press even reports this, and 2. how it ends up getting spun for the consumption of Americans.

[Charlotteman]

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq has said that all foreign troops, re The United States, will be out of Iraq by 2011. Furthermore all foreign troops will be out of the cities by 2009. These are definite time tables that Bush/McCain said they do not support and we have been fed the rhetoric that this is a signal to the "terrorists". This also sounds to me like no permanent US bases in Iraq.

It will be interesting to see how 1. the Bush friendly press even reports this, and 2. how it ends up getting spun for the consumption of Americans.

[monsoon]

.... I think the American media is showing a blatant preference for McCain. The country's media just can't be trusted.

[jfmecca]

Oh this is very true. The NYtimes did an article on this just this weekend. 72% of the news stories about Obama are negative, while the number is 57% for McCain.

[cpeakesqr]

I must be watching/reading the wrong news sources. Seems to me like Obama gets far more positive press, and far more press in general.

[erdogs]

whereas McCain gets the pass all too often.

[Charlotteman]

In my view, I think it's an outrage that the media isn't mentioning McCain's ties to the Keating 5. In fact the media almost never mentions it.

The American press never mention the religious fanatic former McCain "advisors", John Hagee and Rod Parsely any more. But the media continues to grind in Rev. Wright's ties to Obama.

Now it looks like the media is going after Obama over his destitute brother in Kenya. And the "seven homes issue" of ol' Johnnie is swept under the rug. Just a couple of things I've noticed.

[Gusterfell]

^Agreed. Obama can't seem to win with much of the media (Chris Mathews and Keith Olbermann being two exceptions). He gives a speech in front of thousands in Germany, and he's blasted for being "presumptuous" and acting "too presidential." Then, when he argues that President Bush should lead the American response to the Russia-Georgia crisis, he's "dropped the ball" and is "caught off guard." Meanwhile it was McCain, not Bush, who was front and center sabre-rattling against Russia. Why wasn't McCain's injecting himself in the crisis (which most experts say made a bad situation worse) "presumptuous?"

The media aren't jumping on McCain because he doesn't know how many houses he owns. Barack Obama is. If the Obama campaign weren't talking this story up it would have died after one news cycle. The media , when they discuss this story at all, tend to focus on the "Obama has gone negative! So much for the politics of change!" angle.

[monsoon]

The media is suggesting that the Clintons and Hillary specifically have not been gracious enough are still operating with this undercurrent that the democratic nomination was "stolen" from them. It's gonna be interesting to hear what they have to say at the DNC convention tonight and tomorrow night.

[cityboi]

The media is suggesting that the Clintons and Hillary specifically have not been gracious enough are still operating with this undercurrent that the democratic nomination was "stolen" from them. It's gonna be interesting to hear what they have to say at the DNC convention tonight and tomorrow night.

[sean]

Has either Obama or McCain talked specifically about our citizens... ahem, our consumers having a negative savings rate?

[blueradon]

Well I for one am not voting Democrat or Republican this year. The reason? Because I quite frankly don't like either candidate. It's the same thing every 4 years - the popular ones come up on stage and tell you anything that you want to hear just so they can have your vote. This year, I have decided to take a stand and join the Green Party because if you read the differences between the repubs/dems vs. the greens I think it's clear to see that Green Party is really for the people of this country.

You people want change? How about getting rid of Dems and Repubs and let's try something else.

My vote goes to Cynthia McKinney

http://www.runcynthiarun.org

[JerseyBoy]

The media is suggesting that the Clintons and Hillary specifically have not been gracious enough are still operating with this undercurrent that the democratic nomination was "stolen" from them. It's gonna be interesting to hear what they have to say at the DNC convention tonight and tomorrow night.

[Charlotte_native]

Soo...the narrator in the first ad brought up an interesting point: why didn't Obama choose Hillary as his running mate? Obviously, he's being very arrogant and naive about the situation as this is a MAJOR problem. When was the last time you saw thousands of people showing up at a convention and demanding Hillary still be given the veep slot behind an MSNBC set? We PUMA's want to hear from Obama on the situation, not Hillary. If HE adresses the problem directly, then I'll reconsider.

[Gusterfell]

^I agree. Hillary lost, fair and square. For her supporters to demand any concession from Obama is blatantly undemocratic. It has been extremely gracious of both Obama and the Democratic Party to give her campaign what they have: two consecutive nights of prime stage time at the DNC. when was the last time a runner-up campaign got that?

What the PUMA crowd doesn't realize is that they could well be destroying Hillary's career. If Obama loses the election they will be blamed, rightly or wrongly. The powers that be within the party will likely blame Clinton herself for creating the situation through her drawn-out, antagonistic campaign. If she doesn't want to find herself ostracized from the party for the foreseeable future, she needs to get her supporters behind Obama, and fast.

As for the polls, I agree with Nancy Pelosi's statement that they are seriously underestimating Obama's support. Virtually all the polls are of "likely voters," a term generally defined as people who voted in the previous two elections. By design, the polls leave out the thousands of newly-registered voters Obama has attracted as well as everyone under age 26 (who would have been too young to vote in the 2000 election). Both groups are notorious for not voting, but it is unusual for so many of them to be so rabidly behind a candidate, as thousands are for Obama.

[erdogs]

^I agree. Hillary lost, fair and square. For her supporters to demand any concession from Obama is blatantly undemocratic. It has been extremely gracious of both Obama and the Democratic Party to give her campaign what they have: two consecutive nights of prime stage time at the DNC. when was the last time a runner-up campaign got that?

[monsoon]

^Bill Clinton could be a very potent campaigner for Obama in the rural areas if they put him to that use and he agrees to do it. The McCain camp has to be very afraid of this happening because they know that Bill, these days, could easily turn some of their best supporters against them. Will Bill do this? It's hard to say. Many people are saying he is pissed off at what happened in the primary, on the other hand, this is the kind of thing that he loves to do. (and wasn't asked by Gore and Kerry to do)

[erdogs]

^Bill Clinton could be a very potent campaigner for Obama in the rural areas if they put him to that use and he agrees to do it. The McCain camp has to be very afraid of this happening because they know that Bill, these days, could easily turn some of their best supporters against them. Will Bill do this? It's hard to say. Many people are saying he is pissed off at what happened in the primary, on the other hand, this is the kind of thing that he loves to do. (and wasn't asked by Gore and Kerry to do)

[JerseyBoy]

Arrogant and naive? Can we all be so certain she WANTED the VP position? I doubt any of us have been privvy to their personal opinions and conversations. Honestly it is coming across as being a sore loser (and not so much from Hillary but her supporters) and its getting old. I think that is what the problem is. Since when did not winning in the primaries still entitle one to anything? If PUMA's are willing to sink the ship out of spite, then they get what they deserve after the election -- unfortunately the rest of us don't deserve it. If a bunch of angry Democrats vote for McCain and he wins, I hope they please please please keep quiet if they don't like the direction of the country, the economy, the wars, and the judiciary goes -- they'll have no basis to complain since they cast their vote for what we'll end up with. Not even the basis that their candidate should have been on the ticket.

We are being punished for having the nerve to want someone else as president other than Hillary Clinton. I personally, with no supporting evidence, believe she would not want to be Obama's vice president.

McCain and company are doing a great job to manipulate and stoke this situation and it's sad seeing so many people fall for it.

Furthermore, it has been brought up before, how are we so sure of these polls? The last couple elections have shown them to be not terribly accurate. Don't they still conduct them via telephone - - and this doesn't include cell phones? Not pinning everything on this theory, but most young people don't have home phone lines. I'm 39 and I don't have one. I don't know anyone younger than me that does -- so how are the pollsters reaching this demographic? A majority of which supposedly (and obviously during the primaries) support Obama?

[erdogs]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to put this, but here is a pretty funny exchange between Joe Scarborough and David Shuster at the DNC convention.

[monsoon]

There is a theory floating around that McCain will pick a woman to be his VP. This would be a move to suck up all of the disaffected Hillary woman supporters. There has only been two women in a generation to make serious attempts at the Presidency. One was the recently sourpussed Geraldine Ferraro who was on the DNC ticket with Mondale in 1984. The only other newsworthy woman candidate was Shirley Chisholm who made a run for the nomination in 1972.

McCain, in choosing a woman, would gain a lot of the vote that was voting for Clinton simply because they wanted to see a woman in the White House. My guess is that if he does this, it would be Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas.

[krazeeboi]

My vote goes to Cynthia McKinney

http://www.runcynthiarun.org

[krazeeboi]

To Joe Schmo from Allentown, he's too radical (very liberal) and doesn't feel like he can connect with him like he could wihh another candidate.