I held my nose and voted for Kerry in 2004. I thought his campaign was a disaster, but was somewhat surprised at how close the election was.

When the candidate race started, I was intrigued by McCain. I was also intrigued by Obama and Clinton. When it looked as if it would be a McCain/Obama race, I was heartened by the idea that there might actually be a campaign of issues. McCain seemed, at the time, to be someone who would actually go against the entrenched Bushies if he believed it was the best thing to do.

Since then, two things in McCain's campaign have turned me away from the idea of voting for him.

1.) Carl Rove: Why is McCain letting this guy call any of the shots in his campaign? I mean really? This like selling your soul to the devil. Bye bye, maverick image.

2.) Palin's community organizer snark. So much for that thousand points of light stuff, huh? So now I know where she's coming from. If your the boss (read politico), it counts - if you're not, f**k you.

And please don't tell me she was digging at Obama's experience. There were a million better ways to accomplish that. She chose to mouth that particular piece of snark, and hopefully she will have to wear it like dog doo that won't scrape off her shoe, and McCain will have to deal with the Bush albatross he has willingly hung around his neck.

What I like about you - what I can count on you and people like you to do eventually - is let the mask drop. It allows people to see you for what you truly are, what I have said you are all along. A fascist.

...they might get a bounce, might not, might lose points. I think the Dems are laying low hoping for freindly fire casualties. So far, I think it's working for a per cent or two of the independents. Lot's of women put off by Palin. But I agree; you can't take any crap; you've got to fight for it. We have to wait and see....but Obama/Biden better start hammering away tomorrow....

"Obama was for unconditional surrender in Iraq years ago. If he'd gotten his way, the radical Islamists and al Qaeda would have been handed a huge propaganda victory, and Iraq would be fare more dangerous place today."

Well that bit of propogandic nonsense just invalidated every other point you made. All these ifs and buts... We'll never know, will we?

"You think it's "impressive." Normal people see it as pretentious and presumptuous."

"Normal people", (do you mean right-wingers), think it is silly and pretentious and laugh at Palin's committee-written gag lines. But those who believe in Obama's message do not and I am willing to bet that the "uncommitted independent" does not either. I like to think I am above the "THREE WORD CHANT" level of political engagement but still think that many people who have not been passionate about politics were impressed at the sheer number of people the dems could bring in...and hopefully the new message and political strategy.

You think it's "impressive." Normal people see it as pretentious and presumptuous.

-- ? ≠ !

Another right wing true believer who thinks he speaks for "normal people."

I saw a poll where 80% of those questioned thought McCain's lack of vetting of Palin made him look bad...

those columns? Show picture of Bush 2004 with the exact same columns, then show a picture of him looking out the airplane window while a couple thousand people died in the Gulf--when he started looking awfully elite himself...when most people realized what an awful mistake was made putting him into office...

I think an emphasis on presenting Palin as a new Bush will go a lot further than attacking her personally--I have a feeling the press will continue to go there as well as into her politcal lies and positions...

Obama needs to be stronger on this, which is why his convention speech worked so well--he stepped up the passion. And I think he mught subtly goad McCain into losing his temper in one of the debates--McC is so obviously eaten up with personal jealousy towards BO...

So it probably isn't important. At least the people being charged with terrorism in Minneapolis today won't be getting shot or being held incommunicado and in deprivation. Not yet, anyway. They're just anarchists, not Muslims.

-- ondelette

Thanks for keeping us informed.

Just for the record, some of the non-violent people who were arrested in St. Paul face prison sentences of up to seven and half years. While that doesn't fall in the scale of atrociousness in the case you are writing about, it is a kick in the teeth to what we'd like to believe is "The American Way".

Palin's reference to community organizers was a dig at Obama personally, but I think it was also a coded appeal/dog whistle to GOP voters in the south. A two-fer.

side note; small reminder - the McCain campaign is doubtless still offering points for swag.

I agree about the organizer comment. That was one for the snobby Republican insiders in the crowd, but I think the campaign misjudged how far that ball would fly outside the arena. Lots of conservative groups--including religeous groups--see their work as community organizing. And it doesn't come off as populist, just the opposite. The problem for McCain is that Palin's rants only preach to the converted, and there's more than enough proof that Democrats and Independents are outnumbering them this election. People tuned in by droves to see what Palin would say, but they it was mostly curiosity and her speech, outside of the Republcian rhetoric was not very interesting or moving. And little digs like that are going to turn off a lot of people who did think that McCain was a different kind of political animal.

Here's an artilce in the National Catholic Reporter taking issue about it:

Palin criticized for mocking community organizing

By Dennis Coday

Created 09/04/2008 - 15:44

By NCR Staff

Published:

September 4, 2008

The group Catholic Democrats today issued a strong rebuke of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s sarcastic mocking of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s work as a community organizer during the 1980s.

“I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities,” Palin, former mayor of a small town in Alaska, said during her speech to the Republican National Convention Sept. 3 in St. Paul, Minn.

The speech by Palin, currently governor of Alaska, followed one by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who also belittled Obama’s work as a community organizer, drawing laughs from the assembled Republicans.

“It is shocking that a vice presidential candidate would disparage an essential component of the Catholic social tradition with her condescending attack on urban community organizing,” said Dr. Patrick Whelan, president of Catholic Democrats, an association of state-based groups advancing understanding of Catholic social teaching.

The group criticized Palin for mocking Obama’s work “in the 1980s for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.” The Catholic Campaign for Human Development is an arm of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and it partially funded Obama’s activities in Catholic parishes on the South Side of Chicago. At the time it was known simply as the Campaign for Human Development.

Community organizing was work Obama undertook “instead of pursuing a lucrative career on Wall Street,” according to a statement from Catholic Democrats.

Referring to Palin’s speech, the statement said: “Her divisive rhetoric, repeatedly pitting small towns against urban communities, demonstrates not only a lack of charity toward the needs of some of the least among us but a fundamental disrespect for those who dedicate their lives to overcoming poverty across our country.”

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