"I love this Country too much to let them take over with lies, misdirection, and swift boating. These are serious times and they call for serious debate".
"McCain supports these policies, he believes them. There's not a dimes difference between them"
"Spare me the phony outrage, phony talk about change, we have real problems, we need real answers;
not distractions, diversions and manipulations."
Transcript
Biden: They announced the unemployment figures nationwide. For the eighth month in a row, Americans have lost jobs. We have lost 604,000 jobs in a America, just this calendar year. We're in a position where we had 84,000 lost jobs, shattered dreams, broken homes that occurred as a consequence of this loss of work just in the month of August. We now have 6.1 percent of the American work force idle. And you know what that means.
When a man or woman loses their job, they not only lose their income, they lose their sense of dignity, they lose who their identity, who they are. That's how we identify ourselves. That's how we're brought up. That's how in my neighborhood and yours, you're identified. You're identified by your willingness to work hard, your willingness to do the right thing, your willingness to show up every day and provide for your family. And so it's not merely a lost job. It's a lost sense of identity that occurs.
This ain't your father's Republican Party, by the way. This is a different Republican Party.
But, I'll tell you, it's not so much of what I heard in the Republican convention. When you heard John speak last night. It's not so much what I heard, when I heard part of what the Governor had to say, the vice presidential candidate. It's what I didn't hear.
(Applause)
THE SILENCE - THE SILENCE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY WAS DEAFENING. IT WAS DEAFENING. ON JOBS, ON HEALTH CARE, ON ENVIRONMENT, ON ALL THE THINGS THAT MATTER TO THE PEOPLE IN THE NEIGHBORHOODS I GREW UP IN. DEAFENING!
(Standing Ovation)
Ladies and gentlemen, THEIR AMERICA IS NOT THE AMERICA I LIVE IN. THEY SEE SOMETHING DIFFERENT THAN I SEE.
Ladies and gentlemen, literally, those of you, I can't swear to this because I didn't see every bit of every speech. But I asked my staff to check. Do any of you recall either candidate on the Republican ticket utter the phrase, middle class?
Biden: No!
Biden: Did any of you hear them utter the phrase, health care and how we're going to help?
Biden: No!
Biden: Did you hear them talk about aid to get kids to college?
Crowd: No!
Biden: Did you hear them talk about aid to education?
Crowd: No!
Biden: Did you hear them putting more cops on the street to make us safer?
Crowd: No!
Biden: I didn’t hear a thing, a thing, about any of the things that matter to the lives of the people of my hometown of Scranton....
Rick Davis, John’s campaign manager, said two days into the convention, he said "this election is not about issues." That's what he said. And everything I saw at the convention demonstrated that.
It was about how well placed -- and boy she is good -- how a left jab can be stuck pretty nice. It’s about how Barack Obama is such a bad guy.
It’s about how in fact, how in fact, they got great quips. Man, they’re like the kids you know when you went to school and you were very proud of the new belt or the shoes you had, and there was always one kid in the class who said, "oh, are they your brother’s?"
Crowd: Yeah.
Remember that kid? That’s what this is reminding me of. "Oh, I love your dress, was that your mother’s?"
You know what I’m talking about.
What do you talk about, when you have nothing to say?!
What do you talk about when you CANNOT EXPLAIN THE LAST EIGHT YEARS OF FAILURE?!
(Standing Ovation)
What do you talk about?! What do you talk about?!
You talk about the other guy.
Crowd: Giv’em Hell, Joe!
Biden: Remember what Harry Truman used to say. The crowd would yell, "giv’em hell, Harry." And he’d say, "I’m not gonna to giv’em hell, I’m gonna tell them the truth, and they’re gonna think it’s HELL."
(Standing Ovation)
As the evidence piles higher and higher that Sen. John McCain's selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his Presidential running mate was a rash decision made in a panic - after the Obama Nomination Acceptance speech, without being vetted by the McCain camp, and without an FBI background check - a narrative is beginning to form which may have been the McCain strategy all along.
Play the "Sarah Palin is the Victim of the Biased Liberal Media" Card:
Steve Schmidt, Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) top campaign strategist, yesterday accused the media of being "on a mission to destroy" Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) by displaying "a level of viciousness and scurrilousness" in pursuing questions about her personal life. Schmidt said the McCain campaign feels "under siege" by news inquiries on Palin.
Don't you know America loves a good (and pretty) victim?
More..
Arguing that the media queries are being fueled by "every rumor and smear" posted on left-wing Web sites, Schmidt said mainstream journalists are giving "closer scrutiny" to McCain's little-known running mate than to Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.
Closer scrutiny than Barack Hussein Obama? After months of Reverend Wrong? After all this blather about Rezco and Flag-pins and William Ayers and Pride-gate? Is he kidding?
Apparently not.
The McCain camp has been unusually aggressive in pushing back against the media, and it seems to hope to persuade journalists to back off in their scrutiny of Palin. Obama campaign officials have complained to news organizations that their man has been subjected to considerably more investigative reporting than McCain has, but they have done so in more low-key fashion.
By contrast, Schmidt spoke on the record in denouncing as "an absolute work of fiction" a New York Times account of the process by which the McCain campaign vetted Palin. He also charged that Newsweek columnist Howard Fineman was predicting that the governor might have to step down as McCain's vice presidential choice.
So it doesn't matter what Sarah Barracuda has or hasn't done in her relatively short political career, how she has repeatedly abused her power, thrown elbows for her own gain or participated in cronyism and political vindictiveness - the narrative that you can expect Republicans to bitterly cling to is the idea that the media is just being MEAN TO A GIRL.
I mean, It's already become too many questions to count. It's like a snowstorm of scandals and it's only been a week - so naturally the Repubs are most likely to say and do what comes naturally in this situation, right?
From the start you could see the circling of the wagon's with the issue of Palin's opposition to comprehensive sex education, contraception and funding cuts for teen mothers in the midst of her own 17 year-old-daughter pregnancy. We're supposed to not bash the daughter because she's family and a minor - which I think is a good idea - but why not bash the mother whose own policies clearly helped contribute to this situation, not just for her own daughter but tens of thousands of young women (and potential fathers) throughout the state and nation?
Do we question her support of policies that have so utterly failed? No, we leave it alone because it's a "family matter". Pathetic.
We've had the allegations of her abuse of power regarding the firing of Alaska's Top Cop in retaliation for his refusal to carry out her personal vendetta against a state trooper who had allegedly been involved in domestic abuse of her sister. (Although many us might agree that this guy shouldn't be in a position of power, it has to be noted that there are PROPER CHANNELS for addressing these concerns - y'know that thing called the American COURT SYSTEM, hello Restraining Order Much? - which many people who don't have a sibling in the Governor's mansion tend to use on a daily basis)
Palin was directly involved in what appears to have been a scheme to use the dissolution of a state-run diary operation into a cash-cow for farmers in the Wasilla area ultimately leading to tax-payers footing the bill for have milk dumped in the streets.
She has ties to a Secessionist Group, a car wash business she co-owned was shutdown by the state for failing to abide by state fees and regulations while she was Governor, she was flagged by McCain's own Earmark alert system as an pork-barrel hound while Mayor of Wasilla, she's just one step shy of a rabid Book Burner and a borderline anti-Semite.
Democrats are expecting all these scandals and allegations to eventually blow up in Palin and McCain's face like a cherry bomb, but I think we're going to have a longer wait that one might logically expect because that's just not how these guys react to scandals.
No, not even.
They have become the masters of Disaster Politics.
Make a horrific political and/or personal decision lately? No prob, just blame the Media and the Far Left-Wing Blogs for making an Issue out of it.
I think we all know that tossing Palin under the bus is not how most Republicans, being so steeped in their own ongoing victimhood (for being rich, white, not white but wishing they weren't, not rich but wishing they were, straight, gay hating, gay - but still in the closet and still gay hating, god fearing, Christian - but not that squishy Mormony kind of Christian, Jewish - but still in the closet... and generally afraid of everyone while being really loud about pretending not to be - "Fuck it, We're gonna DO IT LIVE!") are going to react. They're going to rally 'roud ole Pistol Packin' Palin the more she get criticized.
The more the media howls and hounds her, the more the Wingnuts will cheer.
All she has to do is almost accidentally shoot a friend of hers in the face and she'll have proven she has what it takes to be the Veep to the Republican base.
Just consider the fact that Larry ("Wide Stance") Craig is still in the Senate. So is David ("Red Hot Prostitutes") Vitter and Gov Palin's bestest buddy Ted ("Series of Tubes","Bridge to Nowhere") Stevens even while he's under criminal indictment!
Contrary to McCain whom the evangelical wing still doesn't entirely trust, Palin is like a Godsend to them. She's strongly anti-abortion, pro-gun, pro-business, anti-global warming, anti-science, and "a Maverick (aka Wild Crazy Horse)" like McCain not to mention the head of the Great Alaska National Guard.
Clearly all these scurrilous and unfounded attacks on her character, judgment, competency, experience, integrity and qualifications are simply the mainstream media trying to sabotage the history making candidacy of the first (Republican) woman to run for vice president.
I mean, isn't it obvious that the "Old boys Club" is simply out to get her?
Poor Palin. Pity she that dares to dream of finally gaining access to the Truly Executive wash room.
Mark my words. Palin will be right there with McCain 'til the bitter and clingy end.
Vyan
Last night was quite a performance the GOP, capped off by the debut of Rookie Governor Palin as John McCain's VP pick.
The Goppers certainly had a lot of laughs at the expense of Barack Obama and fired off more than a few gut shots at his qualifications to become the Next President of the United States.
Giuliani quipped.
"He’s never run a city, he’s never run a state, he’s never run a business, he’s never run a military unit," Giuliani said. "He’s never had to lead people in crisis.
"This is not a personal attack. It’s a statement of fact," he said. "Barack Obama has never led anything. Nothing. Nada. Nada. Nothing."
It's not a "statement of fact" - Barack Obama has led the most impressive largely independently funded Presidential Campaign in history, one that employs far more people than the city of Wasilla, and likely has far more volunteers working for it than the entire state of Alaska, one that defeated the vaunted "Clinton Machine", one that has raised over $390 Million so far and still has $65 million available to spend.
That's $390 Million worth of "Nothing" to you Mr. Giuliani.
More than just running his campaign Obama has "led people in crisis" - because being in crisis is exactly what has happened to so many people and communities across this nation which have had vital plants close down, and have their jobs and oppurtunities shipped overseas. Trying to keep your home from being foreclosed is a crisis. Trying to find work in the midst of a devastated commnity is a crisis, and far from being an typical "Ivy League Elitist" Barack Obama walked away from a high paying job in New York to roll up his sleeves and get his hands dirty trying to help people who NEEDED IT THE MOST.
Community Organizers, people who are willing to do the hard thankless work to make people lives more livable, are a national blessing - not a punchline.
He's spent his entire career in service of the public, but service is something that Republicans don't respect unless it comes with carrying a weapon and ending the lives of your "enemies".
Giulliani also claimed that Obama has been a "do-nothing celebrity Senator".
Giuliani cast Obama as "a gifted man with an Ivy League education" who was "immersed ... in Chicago machine politics." He described Obama as a no-show during his tenure in the Illinois state Senate and a man who, once he got to Washington, was a "celebrity senator [with] no leadership, no legislation to really speak of."
Some of the legislation that Giuliani would rather the GOP not speak of.
Call me "weird" if you like but I think that's a whole lot of "nothing" for just a few of years in the Senate, half of which was under Republican control.
Giuliani also touted the experience of Vp Nominee Sarah Palan.
"She’s led a city and a state. She’s reduced taxes and government spending," Giuliani said. "And she’s actually done something about moving America toward energy independence — taking on the oil companies while encouraging more energy exploration here at home.
As Thinkprogress has documented, Sarah Palin is Big Oil's best fiend in Alaska.
"No one is closer to the the oil industry than Governor Palin," the Sierra Club's Carl Pope said. Palin told Roll Call last week, "When I look every day, the big oil company's building is right out there next to me, and it's quite a reminder that we should have mutually beneficial relationships with the oil industry." As a champion for Big Oil, Palin is a vociferous proponent of domestic drilling. "I beg to disagree with any candidate who would say we can't drill our way out of our problem," she said. She also dismisses alternative energy solutions as "are far from imminent" focusing instead on opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. During her race for lieutenant governor, she received a full 10 percent of her campaign donations from executives and their families at the disgraced oil services company Veco.
As Mayor of Wasilla Palin sought and received over $27 Million in Federal Earmarks and while inheriting the office with zero debt still managed to leave office with a deficit fo over $22 Million.
What Palin actual did to "Stand up" to oil companies was to implement a Wind-Fall Profits Tax, exactly like the one that Barack Obama has proposed. That tax raised...
$1.5 billion a year, enabling Alaska to double its oil revenue. However, in 2008 she said, "Windfall profits taxes alone prevent additional investment in domestic production."
Moving away from Rudy, there was also Huckebee who claimed during his RNC speech, that Sarah Palin "got more votes running for Mayor of Wasilla than Joe Biden got running for President of the United States."
In their own tendency for grandious bullcrap, they've managed to ignore the fact that Palin received a total of 616 votes for Mayor of Wassila. Joe Biden did far better than that. according to Keith Olbermann.
OLBERMANN: Biden got 15,000 votes in Florida, 18,000 votes in California, in the primaries there — more than could have been gotten in two elections for the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska for Sarah Palin.
It looks like The Math still isn't the GOP's strong suit.
And then of course there was the Performance of Sarah Palin, a profile in one-liners - funny, but without substance or a clear vision of where the Republicans would take the country except far away from those Arugala eating elitists.
"In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers. And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change,"
Would that "change" be the immigration bill that McCain authored and now wouldn't even vote for? Or perhaps it would be the McCain-Feingold Lobbying Reform bill that was so sloppyly written it allowed for an explosion in 527 groups, and contains a convenient loophole that allows John McCain to enjoy $Millions in free air travel as long as the private jet that escorts him around the country is owned by a family member (such as Trophy Wife Cindy, the Beer Heiress)? Or maybe the change would be McCain's opposition to torture, which he himself turned his back on when a bill to make the CIA abide by the Army Field Manual - which specifically prohibits waterboarding - was proposed?
Is that the "change" we need? I don't think so.
"What exactly is our opponent's plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet? The answer is to make the government bigger and take more of your money."
After you get past the snide school-marm tone, you have to remember that this statement comes from someoone who increased the size of government in Wasilla, while increasing sales taxes and still left the city in debt. She raised taxes on Oil Companies, while Barack Obama has proposed a tax cut that will put more money in the hands of nearly 90% of working people in this nation.
THIS is what the Republican Party wants to rally around, Bullshit and LIES about their opponent in order to cover up their own sad records of abysmal public service, neglect, cronyism, arrogance and gingoism. Yet again it's Hate and Fear the Dreaded Liberal whose going to raise your taxes (to pay the THEIR pointless, wasteful spending on Wars of choice and thier Corporate Masters).
Hopefully, America is too smart to fall for the Republican bait and switch, smoke and mirrors act yet another time. Hopefully, America won't get fooled again!
Hopefully...
Vyan
Rick Davis said the following about the 2008 Presidential Election:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/...
Barack Obama Responds."This election is not about issues," said Davis. "This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates."
NotBarack Obama hit John McCain Wednesday over a comment from his campaign manager that the presidential race will be decided more over personalities than issues.
"Which probably explains why last night when they were speaking, all these speakers (at the Republican National Convention) came up, you didn’t hear a single word about the economy," Obama said at an economic forum in New Philadelphia, Ohio. "Not once did people mention the hardships that people are going through."
"I guess I don’t blame them," Obama added, "because if you don’t have any issues to run on, you want it all to be about personality. If you have got George Bush’s track record and John McCain voting 90 percent of the time in agreement with George Bush, then you probably you don’t want to talk about issues either."
