The Bush administration has decided to shelve plans for a diplomatic office in Iran. Bush and his staffers fear that establishing such an office now would give people the impression that they are trying to influence the outcome of the elections in November of this year.

Some, the White House believes, would believe that the office was created so as to take wind out of the sails of Barack Obama who argued for negotiations with Iran. If diplomatic office was created in Iran, the White House fears, people would accuse it of playing politics - it would make the point about establishing diplomatic ties with Iran mute. (more…)

It’s amazing how things can change in a matter of hours, isn’t it?  Mere hours ago, I was pondering my options for the future, given John McCain and Barack Obama’s contempt for their critics.

Yesterday, Sarah Palin brought up the Obama-William Ayers connection , saying Obama was “palling around with terrorists.”  Then hours ago, Politico had a report about Obama’s return volley in the form of the Keating 5 scandal, which McCain was embroiled in some years ago.  Our own Michael ver der Galien discussed this development in another article.

Both are misleading at best.  But both are the types of things I thought I’d never see from both campaigns.  And thus, my support for them is lost.  On November 4th, my vote goes to Libertarian Party candidate Bob Barr.

Earlier, our own Michael van der Galien wrote about the switch in the McCain campaign to attacks on Barack Obama’s character, judgement, and associations.  In particular, he discussed Sarah Palin’s questioning of Obama’s past associations with domestic terrorist William Ayers.

I seriously hope that ‘questions’ are not all the McCain campaign has.  How many staff members do they have on their campaign?  Surely there are people looking for any and all facts with which to destroy Obama?  And if there is something, I would think that releasing it sooner rather than later would be the proper thing to do.

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 McCain’s mini-suspension was really nothing of the sort

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Several times this campaign election, Republican presidential candidate John McCain has given a reason for turning negative against Democratic candidate Barack Obama: He wouldn’t join McCain for several town-hall style debates this summer.  He gave this reason yet again in response to a question from ABC anchor Charles Gibson.

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When I was going to write this post earlier tonight, I would have said the campaign suspension was going to help the McCain campaign, at least in the short term.  I think it’d only have more lasting impacts if Obama was going to stay completely away.

But now that the President has recalled both McCain and Obama to the White House, combined with Bush’s speech, that’s what the news cycles will be talking about tomorrow.  The suspension could still be a slight win for McCain if he keys in on it whenever they end up having a debate on economic issues.  It could end up still being a wash, though, if Obama is successful in targeting Republicans as the architects of this mess.

To be quite honest, I don’t know if this helps McCain or not for sure.  He can go to Washington and provide all the input he wants, but he’s still not a member of the committee the bill is being crafted out of, nor is Obama (remember?).  He can debate all he wants when it gets to the floor, though, which may be sooner than later (see my next entry).

As you can read below, John McCain has announced the suspension of his campaign, ostensibly so he can “help out” during the financial crisis.

It naturally has nothing to do with his flailing campaign or Obama’s strengthening one.

Did I mention I have a bridge in New York I’d like to sell you?

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Last week, Sen. John McCain attempted to point out his opponent Sen. Barack Obama’s hypocrisy during the financial crisis by stating that Obama was the senator who got the second most amount of money from the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, behind Banking Committee chairman Chris Dodd.  Politifact checked into the situation, and labels McCain’s statement as “mostly true,” but not in the way you may think.

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John McCain’s choice for running mate, Governor Sarah Palin, ignited a well documented firestorm. As most readers will know, conservative Republicans were suddenly re-energized, white women got involved in the elections because they had a candidate they could identify with, while liberal feminists - second-wave feminists, not ‘traditional’ feminists - exploded in anger.

The main reason for the feminist anger towards Palin was that Palin did not share any of their more radical views, which they connect to being a feminists and, perhaps, a confident and ambitious woman in general. (more…)

This one isn’t going to help John McCain out a lot, especially after “fundamentals of the economy” earlier this week.  McCain recently wrote an article for the magazine Contingencies.  Everybody else is posting what likely to be the out-of-context thing going around this week, so here’s the full paragraph, and then my analysis after the jump (emphasis on the line being used in all the blogs): (more…)

That’s why they call them bumps; they don’t last. McCain and Obama are now basically in the same place they were before the Democratic and Republican National Conventions.  Obama is up by an RCP average of 1.9 points. The day the DNC started, the 25th of August, he was up by 1.6.The only figure that has changed is the undecided, down to just 7%.

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McCain has managed to strain relations with a European country without even being elected yet.
In an interview with Union Radio in Miami McCain answered a question to whether he would hold meetings with President Zapatero of Spain in such a way that it seems clear that:

1. He lumps Spain together with Venezuela and Bolivia as non-friendly nations.

Or

1. He has no idea of anything pertaining to Spain at all.

Neither option, as you can imagine, is causing much pleasure within Spain itself.

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John McCain is outraged at the lack of government oversight and sees it as partly to blame for the current crisis:

“Government has a clear responsibility to act in defense of the public interest, and that’s exactly what I intend to do,” a fiery McCain said at a rally in Tampa yesterday. “In my administration, we’re going to hold people on Wall Street responsible. And we’re going to enact and enforce reforms to make sure that these outrages never happen in the first place.”

Of course, that’s John McCain of 2008 late 2008, a completely different creature from the McCain that has been in Washington all these years:

In the 1990s, he backed an unsuccessful effort to create a moratorium on all new government regulation. And in 1996, he was one of only five senators to oppose a comprehensive telecommunications act, saying it did not go far enough in deregulating the industry.

“I’m always for less regulation” – to The Wall Street Journal, March 2008

Jewish voters in Florida are reporting that they are being push-polled (the practice of sliming your opponent while pretending to poll voters) against Obama, by people who are trying to portray him as being anti-Jewish and sympathizing with Palestinian militants.

The McCain campaign had no comment. I would hope, considering the vicious push-polling McCain himself endured in the 2000 campaign, he would be quick to condemn such actions and demand none be taken in his name or by his campaign.

Then again he claimed he wouldn’t go dirty or belittle anyones integrity, or deal with “agents of intolerance” or question anyones patriotism….so maybe I hope in vain.

If you believe the latest by Democratic nominee Barack Obama, a big Washington lobbyist is leading the McCain transition team.  They’re the people who will work with the Bush administration to plan the handover of power should McCain win.  Here’s Obama’s take on Timmons:

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In a highly unusual effort to court voters abroad, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama (more…)

Karl Rove today warned both the Obama and McCain camps over statements they have made in recent ads must check out on the fact meter, or they will risk hurting themselves.

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Peter Wehner, senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., takes on the media in an op-ed for Commentary Magazine and does so quite well. Although many have criticized American ‘elite’ journalists in recent days, for their fundamentally pro-Obama and anti-McCain coverage of the campaign, Wehner’s piece stands out because he truly sees through the outrage so prevalent among said journalists, and explains quite well why their attitude and anger may cost Obama the elections. (more…)

Alright I’ll admit it, the McCain campaign did a brilliant thing picking Sarah Palin for VP. I was fairly certain it was going to be a bad flop, but I clearly didn’t read the matter well.

Now don’t get me wrong, I continue to think that Palin is quite possibly one of the worst VP picks since Dan Quayle. She lacks both the experience of John McCain and Joe Biden and the knowledge, education and judgment of Barack Obama.

But she has proved to be the ultimate in shiny objects for both the media and the democratic activist base.

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Team Obama has come up with a new strategy to counter the resurgence of John McCain in the polls. The new strategy will, Chris Cillizza explains, aim at appeasing both progressive activists and the party’s more conservative (less progressive) leadership.

Most significantly, his campaign will be distinctly partisan from now onwards. (more…)

After a blessed respite in Turkey without a computer I’ve returned to find that, to my utter non-surprise, the McCain campaign and it’s surrogates and many supporters have gone through a series of breathtaking back-flips to try to say that Sarah Palin is ready to be president and that she in no way undermines the experience argument they’ve been making all this time. To me, she is without a doubt the least qualified candidate I’ve seen this year. I may not agree with McCain, but he IS ready to be President, she is manifestly NOT.

Of course, I could never dream of being as masterful at the displaying of gross double standards as the artists at The Daily Show, so I will let them speak for me.

I haven’t given myself enough opportunities to visit the tireless researchers at factcheck.org, but I think that may change as the election draws near.  Most especially, the debates will provide plenty of material on both sides for them.  Here’s a few “facts” used by McCain or Obama that have been checked.

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Now that John McCain is done courting the base, he can go back trying to appeal to Independents and some Democrats.  To that extent, his campaign seems to have embraced the concept of “change” wholeheartedly, with their own branding, of course.

One thing I’ve noticed since the convention started was how much the word “change” started to be used.  It’s interesting how the same people who’ve called out Sen. Obama for how much he’s used the word have now started producing their own “change” broken records.  I wish I had a counter for how much Sen. McCain used the word tonight.  He’s put some meat behind it, though.  Particularly with his promise to go and clean up Washington.

Therefore, I guess which candidate you like depends on who’s change you want.

I need a laptop again so I can “liveblog” these things.  Oh well.  I was able to Twitter some notes again.  First things first: I think this speech was one of McCain’s better ones.  He’s done worse, and prepared speaking has never been his strong point.  He did well tonight.

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Am I the only one who thinks John McCain has to be cringing every time a Republican speaks about how much executive experience Sarah Palin has?  You know, considering that he, like Barack Obama and Joe Biden have none of which to speak?

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Barack Obama, speaking to reporters today, strongly emphasized that Sarah Palin’s family is off limits in this election season.

“Let me be as clear as possible,” Obama said. “I think people’s families are off-limits, and people’s children are especially off-limits. This shouldn’t be part of our politics. It has no relevance to Gov. Palin’s performance as governor or her potential performance as a vice president.”

John McCain also has made a statement regarding the Palin family:

“This is a very personal matter for the family. We should all respect the love they have for the child and the desire all parents would have for their children’s privacy.”

“The media should respect Bristol’s privacy. That’s always been the tradition and practice when it comes to the children of candidates.”

Couldn’t agree more.  I would remind liberals out there who are citing “hypocrisy” that the Republicans haven’t even gone near the subject of Obama’s family.

Matter’s such as Bristol Palin’s pregnancy are private matters.  It should be left alone.  If you want to make an argument on abstinence-only education, there are so many other arguments that can be made without being specific to that family.

Recent posts and commenters have come to virtual loggerheads over labels, support for one candidate over another and the competing social policies and ideologies of the two major political parties in the U.S.  Those who are label obsessive accuse one another of possessing either extreme liberal or conservative ideologues.  Label mongering, however, is both inaccurate and intellectually lazy.  For the vast majority, individual political views and ideologies are much more nuanced and complex.

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The New York Times has a story up chronicling the journey of Sen. John McCain’s Vice Presidential selection.

I still stand by my decision to not post my full opinion on the choice until after Palin’s speech this week, so I’ll let you all take the story as you will in the comments.

Update: If I may insert some non-direct critique here.  A HuffPo article (this one isn’t lefty lala land, don’t worry) suggests the pick of Palin was a realization of the realities of not recognizing the base combined with a not-so-subtle f-you to Karl Rove, who was promoting Mitt Romney.  That…dare I say it…maverick attitude could be highly appealing to Independents if McCain keeps it up.

Senator John McCain, the man who will represent the Republican Party during the presidential elections of November this year, ordered the cancellation of all but essential opening-day activities for the Republican Convention which is set to start Monday, due to the threat Hurricane Gustav poses to the Gulf Coast region.

“This is a time when we have to do away with our party politics and we have to act as Americans,” he said. (more…)

True, I tend to prefer the Obama-Biden ticket, but I identify with the feelings expressed in this cartoon by Tom Janssen about the exaggerated (mostly positive, uncritical) attention of Dutch ( and other (foreign) ) media for Mr Obama. I also get really annoyed when I hear people like Michael Stipes tell the world that they will emigrate from the US if Mr McCain gets ( or maybe they mean: if Mr Obama is not ) elected in November. Where are all those artists and others who claimed something similar four years ago? Most probably still in their homeland. Like many world citizens I was not impressed with the democratic process through which Bush jr. was elected once, but saying that you will leave your country if you do not get your political way can hardly be considered democratic either. I do believe that big changes in America’s foreign and domestic policies are necessary and that the Bush administrations have been a disaster in more than one way, but turning change into a meaningless mantra does not really convince me, and I understand why some voters get scared by the change-for-change’s-sake slogans. When it comes to personalities, I have great sympathy and admiration for John McCain and for his service record, probably more than for Barack Obama(’s). If only the GOP candidate was 10, 15 years younger, had a VP who has any known positions on foreign policy, and was supported by a different party…