Obama's Humor and Grace Blunts McCain's Attacks

John McCain, John Kerry and Al Gore encountered the same problem when facing a mediocre candidate for the presidency, a well oiled negative attack machine led by the evil political genius Karl Rove. The genius of Rove's strategy was avoid the issues since we will lose with Bush Jr us our candidate but focus on assassinating the character of the opponent. Sen McCain had fallen victim to Rove's whisper campaign that McCain had a black child (The McCains have an adopted daughter from Bangladesh.) Furthermore, Bush camp strove to delicately discredit McCain's Vietnam service, despite his well documented capture and torture by the enemy.

Next, Rove pulled the elitist card on both Gore and Kerry in the 2000 and 2004 elections. They also consistently used the fear card to portray "Dubya", and by extension the Republicans, as the only one who could fight terror following the September 11th attacks. And who can forget the Swiftboat attacks against Kerry, the word became part of the political lexicon of how to perfect a smear campaign. Once again, like McCain before him, Kerry soon found himself defending his well documented service in Vietnam. Rove had perfected the art of character assassination.

Ironically, McCain was so embittered by Rove's successful tactics that he is alleged to have hired dear old Karl for the upcoming elections. Sample Exhibit A.



Even after promising to run a respectful campaign, it is hard to see how this advert reflects on Sen. McCain's respect for his colleague. When confronted on this ad in a Town Hall meeting in Racine Wisconsin, Sen McCain responded that he was very proud of this advert since it brought out the distinctions in the candidates.

So how do you succeed against such an onslaught? Well Sen. Obama may have provided us with an answer: by consistently focusing on the issues and with humor and grace!

Obama-Sarkozy's Chummy Press Conference

Just finished watching Sen. Obama's press conference with Pres. Sarkozy and I have to say this was a bonafide lovefest. Sen. Obama showed his humor when remarking that Pres. Sarkozy had a nose for politics since he met only the two presumptive American candidates during his visit to the US in 2006. He went a step further by joking that he would like to know what Pres. Sarkozy eats given his boundless energy. Obama flashed his humor again when warning Pres. Sarkozy agains responding to a loaded question on whether he had endorsed the democratic nominee after his effusive praise.

Obama and Sarkozy frequently exchanged friendly glances and gestures to each other throughout the conference. Perhaps this is not surprising as one reporter pointed out during the Q and A. They both are sons of foreigners, and both are young lawyers. However one worries whether the chumminess is a good thing for Obama. After all, Americans are not known to love the French!

Rielle Hunter - Could this be the Moment for John Edwards

The "John Edwards-Rielle Hunter" sleazy story rares its ugly head again. It looks like the former Presidential candidate was caught with his pants down - yet again! You would think he would be more careful after the story broke first time around. Well the main stream media seems to be threatening to break the story again - it is not just the National Enquirer!

Should Obama Kiss Bubba's Ass?

Apparently, President Bill Clinton is taking his wife's primary loss a lot harder than previously thought. This would explain a lot. It had been alleged in media circles that the primary reason Hillary stuck in the primary race was at her husband's insistence. Looks like he wanted the nomination more than his wife! Bill has been miffed by the way Obama campaign framed him as a racist. They went one step further by tarnishing his legacy as part of the "old politics" that has divided our country. And who can forget Obama's priceless quote:

I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not. He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it. I think they felt like with all the excesses of the 1960s and 1970s and government had grown and grown but there wasn’t much sense of accountability in terms of how it was operating. I think people, he just tapped into what people were already feeling, which was we want clarity we want optimism, we want a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that had been missing.

So should Obama kiss Bill Clinton's ass as he suggests? Should he even go one step further and pick Hillary as his running mate? Going by the Bubba's bitter state of mind, Sen. Obama would be doing himself more harm than good having Hillary as his Veep. You get the sense that Bill would be doing everything within his power to sabotage an Obama presidency. But Obama has no choice but to at least give the appearance of reaching out to Bill without compromising his newfound status as the leader of the Democratic party. Obama, kissing Bill Clinton's ass - yeesh!

Well Said Olbermann

Great work by Keith Olbermann on today's special comment. For far too long, Sen. Clinton has been forgiven for her vicious below the belt attacks. Bringing the dark specter of assassination was simply a callous act intentional or not, on her part. Well said my man!

UPDATE: Here is the video:

Can Obama Win Over Racists?

"There are too many Husseins in this country" remarked one West Virginia voter to an increduled journalist. This typifies the uphill task of winning over what the Main Stream Media has come to refer to as the "white blue collar voters with no college education" that Sen Clinton proudly proclaims as her base.

But this begs the question, is it worth it for Sen. Obama to try and re-introduce himself to these voter demographic. There is a hint of deep seated racism in a person who is willing to proclaim Obama as a Muslim while at the same time admonishing him for his associations with Rev. Wright. Can such a person be convinced to admire and respect a black presidential candidate. Will they instead choose to vote for President McCain? Or will they abstain from voting? Like it or not, Obama cannot win the election without them and the only way to win them of may involve signing up Hillary on the VP ticket!

West Virginia Rejected Obama because he is Black

After a day of digesting the results from the West Virginia primary, one can easily see why Obama avoided campaigning in the Mountain state. It was not because of economic issues such as gas prices and mortgages. Not because of the Iraq issue. Not even because one candidate was deemed more qualified than the other. It came down to one simple thing : race. The political pundits tried their best to dance around the issue, but it was abundantly clear from two voters who were asked why they did not want to vote for Obama (both elderly white women). One said because she heard he was a Muslim, the reporter even pointed out to her that he has denied this, and she still stood her ground.



Another lady said she could not get over the name "Hussein". The startling thing about this is that if you would ask these voters if the Rev. Wright issue had affected their decision, they would more than likely say yes. So clearly, Muslim here is code for Black. Obama, has to face the reality that he will have to try and win over a group of racist voters come November.