New and Improved 3-ply election thread...

[ih8music]

NEW YORK - Republican John McCain says he's directing his staff to work with Barack Obama's campaign and the debate commission to delay Friday's debate because of the economic crisis.

 

In a statement, McCain says he will stop campaigning after addressing former President Bill Clinton's Global Initiative session on Thursday and return to Washington to focus on the nation's financial problems.

 

McCain also said he wants President Bush to convene a leadership meeting in Washington. Both he and Obama would attend the session.

Smart stunt move by McCain - if Obama agrees it'll look like he's following McCain's lead. If he disagrees, it'll be tough to explain why he's not putting Country First

[viatroy]

Smart stunt move by McCain - if Obama agrees it'll look like he's following McCain's lead. If he disagrees, it'll be tough to explain why he's not putting Country First

[Party @ the Moontower]

Smart stunt move by McCain - if Obama agrees it'll look like he's following McCain's lead. If he disagrees, it'll be tough to explain why he's not putting Country First

[Analogman]

Link - Salon.com

 

I ghost-wrote letters to the editor for the McCain campaign

I spent a morning in John McCain's Virginia campaign headquarters ghost-writing letters to the editor for McCain supporters to sign. I even pretended to have a son in Iraq.

 

Editor's note: The following article was originally published on Sept. 13 in Dutch in the newspaper NRC Handelsblad, where Margriet Oostveen writes a weekly column called "Message From Washington." Oostveen has volunteered in various political campaigns and then written about the experience. She has worked for both John McCain and Barack Obama in this election cycle. Click here to see guidelines, talking points and sample letters the McCain campaign gave her.

 

Sept. 24, 2008 | "You can be whoever you want to be," says an inviting Phil Tuchman. "You can be a beggar or a millionaire. A mom or a husband. Whatever. You decide!"

 

I volunteer in political campaigns now and then. After a series of outings for Obama and a first mission as a phone banker for John McCain, I returned to McCain's headquarters in Arlington, Va. The offer was too alluring to delay -- they wanted to put me into action as a ghostwriter. Next to commercials and phone banking, writing letters to the editor is the most important method of the McCain campaign to attract voters. At least that is what's written in the guidelines that McCain campaign worker Phil Tuchman presents to me.

 

Today he is training six ghostwriters. What on earth is the appeal of McCain for the former Soviet bloc? Last time I was here, an exuberant Polish guy was phone banking next to me. Today, a Russian in yellow suspenders is shimmering at the same table, looking just like an actor who is famous in the Netherlands for star turns as a genius who suppresses his dark side with painstaking self-control.

 

The assignment is simple: We are going to write letters to the editor and we are allowed to make up whatever we want -- as long as it adds to the campaign. After today we are supposed to use our free moments at home to create a flow of fictional fan mail for McCain. "Your letters," says Phil Tuchman, "will be sent to our campaign offices in battle states. Ohio. Pennsylvania. Virginia. New Hampshire. There we'll place them in local newspapers."

 

Place them? I may be wrong, but I thought that in the USA only a newspaper's editors decided that.

 

"We will show your letters to our supporters in those states," explains Phil. "If they say: 'Yeah, he/she is right!' then we ask them to sign your letter. And then we send that letter to the local newspaper. That's how we send dozens of letters at once."

 

No newspaper can refuse a stream of articulate expressions of support, is the thought behind it. "This way, we will always get into some letters column."

 

It is the day after Sarah Palin's speech at the Republican convention. Today, she is our main subject. The others are already enthusiastically hammering their keyboards. I am struggling with a tiny writer's block. "Dear Editor ..."

 

Phil Tuchman has handed out model letters, and talking points and quotes from Sarah Palin's speech. But whom do I want to be?

 

Let's loosen up my fingers a little first -- and my principles, too. Am I actually allowed to make up letters? At the moment, it seems to be the only way to demonstrate how this is done in a campaign. So yes. I start practicing attractive sentences about Sarah Palin:

 

"Her biggest plus to me is that, besides being amazingly smart and qualified, she managed to remain a woman like us. She is the PTA hockey moms. She is the working mothers of special needs children. She is every caring mother of a challenging teenager."

 

Her pregnant daughter Bristol (17) is not a talking point. A talking point is her son Track (19), who will be deployed to Iraq.

 

"And most of all, she is just like any mother of a child who deploys to Iraq in the service of this country."

 

Now we are getting somewhere. I look around. I type:

 

"My son, too, is there."

 

Oh god, you liar. Now build up suspense. New paragraph.

 

"And my heart needs him back safe so much."

 

Yes, yes. Well done. Another paragraph -- why not? Now let's pump some iron in that mother, for after all, we are not with the Democrats here. Look up the right, patriotic phraseology in the model letters.

 

"But when I see him again, I also want to see his face glow with pride. Just like the day he told me he enlisted."

 

Yes, like that. And now full speed in the direction of McCain's plans to continue the war. Sell that war. With a mother's heart.

 

"That is why Senator John McCain could count on my vote from day one."

 

But whatever happened to Sarah Palin in this story? I gaze out of the window. This takes 10 minutes. Then:

 

"With Sarah Palin, I have even more reason to trust in victory. She represents my heart."

 

Hmm. Does that sound like total doublespeak? Or does it sound like logical reasoning to a McCain supporter? I cannot come up with anything better.

 

"Sincerely ..." I leave the dots for somebody else's signature.

 

Does Phil Tuchman want to read it?

 

Phil bends over my computer screen and reads. This takes a while. I am expecting roars of laughter or to be kicked out. Then he says drily: "I like that. It appeals to the hearts of people. Can you write more letters?"

[austrya]

I can't imagine how much work has gone into this debate already. The whole city is being turned upside down and I'm sure a crap load of money has been spent. I can't see them just calling the whole thing off.

 

Can't they just hop on a plane, debate, and then go back to Washington?

[viatroy]

what's the big deal? You need a room with a table, a couple chairs, and a camera.

[Analogman]

Rockers Band Together For Obama Events

 

September 24, 2008 , 2:00 PM ET

Jonathan Cohen, N.Y.

 

The National, the Breeders and My Morning Jacket's Jim James have joined the roster of musicians pledging their support for Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

 

The National and the Breeders are teaming for an Oct. 16 concert in Cincinnati's Fountain Square dubbed "Vote Early, Rock Late." Since early voting begins Sept. 30 in Ohio, buses will be on hand to take registered voters to Hamilton County Election Headquarters to cast ballots.

 

The National, whose members grew up in Cincinnati, has also designed a t-shirt featuring Obama's face and the words "Mr. November" for sale on its Web site. All proceeds from the shirt, which references the band's song of the same name, are being donated to Obama's campaign.

 

Meanwhile, James has signed on for an Oct. 8 acoustic show at Chicago's Schuba's Tavern, with proceeds to benefit the Obama campaign.

 

In related news, Wilco and Fleet Foxes are offering a free MP3 of their cover of Bob Dylan's "I Shall Be Released" to anyone who visits the Wilco Web site and pledges to vote in the upcoming election. The track was taped Aug. 23 in Bend, Ore.-

[okp greg]

McCain's campaign "suspension" is in all actuality simply his campaign's next move. So far it looks like Obama's calling for the debate to stay on, and I hope it stays that way.

[Party @ the Moontower]

If they don't debate it will really screw with my Friday night beer drinking debate party.

[John Smith]

I can't imagine how much work has gone into this debate already. The whole city is being turned upside down and I'm sure a crap load of money has been spent. I can't see them just calling the whole thing off.

 

Can't they just hop on a plane, debate, and then go back to Washington?

 

McCain has just realized that he is going to get creamed and he will not have Palin to hide behind. The country will see him for what he is: an angry tempermental old man vacant of any ideas. Othher than how they have been seeing him...as the guy next to Palin who happens to be the worlds biggest celebrity.

[mfwahl]

Interesting points from huffingtonpost (i know, i know) on McCain's decision to susend campaign/debate:

Why does John McCain suddenly want to suspend his presidential campaign and postpone Friday's debate? His campaign surrogates are saying it's a typical "maverick" move, that McCain is simply "putting country first." Let's look at the evidence:

 

1) As Ben Smith notes, McCain's move "is a mark, most of all, that he doesn't like the way this campaign is going. ... The only thing that's changed in the last 48 hours is the public polling."

 

2) The idea of uniting the campaigns to find a bipartisan solution to the Wall Street crisis wasn't even McCain's idea. A few minutes ago, Obama spokesman Bill Burton emailed to reporters:

 

"At 8:30 this morning, Senator Obama called Senator McCain to ask him if he would join in issuing a joint statement outlining their shared principles and conditions for the Treasury proposal and urging Congress and the White House to act in a bipartisan manner to pass such a proposal. At 2:30 this afternoon, Senator McCain returned Senator Obama's call and agreed to join him in issuing such a statement. The two campaigns are currently working together on the details."

3) John McCain has skipped more votes during this session than any member of the Senate except for Tim Johnson, who had major brain surgery. All of a sudden, McCain demands that the presidential race shut down so he can return to Washington?

 

4) For all of his sudden urgency, McCain acknowledged just yesterday that he had not even read the administration's three-page bailout proposal.

 

5) It's not clear at all that having McCain and Obama back in DC will actually help. "What does seem apparent, though, is that putting the two candidates in the negotiating room is far more likely to distract--and derail--negotiations than having them out on the hustings," Jonathan Cohn writes at the New Republic. "Besides, it's not as if McCain has any great expertise he can bring to this subject. Or does he plan to bring Senator Phill Gramm, Mr. Deregulator himself, along?"

 

It's impossible to know why McCain chose this course, but it sure seems like more of a political stunt than a maverick moment.

[austrya]

McCain has just realized that he is going to get creamed and he will not have Palin to hide behind. The country will see him for what he is: an angry tempermental old man vacant of any ideas. Othher than how they have been seeing him...as the guy next to Palin who happens to be the worlds biggest celebrity.

 

That's my thinking too.

[Good Old Neon]

Interesting points from huffingtonpost (i know, i know) on McCain's decision to susend campaign/debate:

 

I

[John Smith]

I

[Good Old Neon]

Maybe that is why they appear to bee runnign Palin for president.

 

I think there might be some truth to that

[Party @ the Moontower]

I think there might be some truth to that

[jc4prez]

Ralph Nader is going to be in town today. I guess he is giving some sort of talk tonight at the student union.

 

you should go

 

I'll post again:

 

 

[Edie]

Not to mention that "suspending his campaign" sounds like what he really wants is to delay the election -- which messes with orderly change of power. What a stunt.

[ZenLunatic]

Ron Paul should run as a different party.

[Mrs. Peel]

I feel like he's hoping to "postpone" the debates until after the polls close. Not only does his campaign staff realize that Obama will cream McCain, but that they can't even trust Palin to be recorded in a photo op meeting with a foreign leader let alone left to her own devices against a seasoned debater.

[John Smith]

Are McCain or Obama on the Committee

[viatroy]

Not to mention that "suspending his campaign" sounds like what he really wants is to delay the election -- which messes with orderly change of power. What a stunt.

 

 

 

There's a lot of info out there about Bush's Continuity of Government orders, a plan that started w/Reagan (w/assists from Cheney and Rumsfeld. Background info from The Atlantic, March 04

[jc4prez]

There's a lot of info out there about Bush's Continuity of Government orders, a plan that started w/Reagan (w/assists from Cheney and Rumsfeld. Background info from The Atlantic, March 04

 

 

Thats what came to my mind right away. Down right disturbing. Dont you Obama supports find it odd he isn't talking about this?

[tugmoose]

Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) blasted McCain's move. "It's the longest 'Hail Mary' in the history of either football or Marys," Frank, chairman of the Financial Services Committee, said during a break in today's critical hearing on the bailout.

 

Despite McCain's denunciation that the current proposal has "no consensus" and cannot pass, Frank said he would keep working with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

 

"I'm not particularly focused on Senator McCain. I really don't care," he said. "I guess if I wanted expertise there [from the GOP ticket], I'd ask Sarah Palin."

 

 

Zing! Score one for the Congressman from Mass.

[Mrs. Peel]

Quantifiable comparison of President and VP experience prior to office