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Nov. 30, 2008 Fourth of four parts: As the election drew near, the personal attacks on Obama intensified. Sarah Palin accused the Senator of “palling around with terrorists.” She rationalized her remarks by saying Obama needed to further explain his relationship with Bill Ayers, for he had not been truthful about it. Few noted that she used the plural terrorists. There were also accusations of Obama being a “socialist,” after he told one voter (who became immortalized by the McCain campaign as “Joe The Plumber”) that he planned to tax those making $250,000 or more and “redistributing the wealth.” Rove, et al. called Obama’s tax cuts “government handouts,” saying most would go to people who did not work and thus, paid no taxes. At rallies where these claims were made, some in the crowd made threatening remarks toward Obama, such as “Kill him!” and “Off with his head!” McCain downplayed it and countered, “You should hear some of the things said about me at Senator Obama’s rallies.” Nor even Fox News produced clips to back up McCain’s assertion. Again, polling indicated that voters were not interested in such “issues.” Their top concerns were the economy (in particular the high prices of food and gas), the mess on Wall Street, healthcare, the war in Iraq and taxes. They favored Obama on the economy and gave McCain a slight edge on matters of foreign policy, even after Obama’s choice for vice-president, Joe Biden, “guaranteed” that Obama would be tested “within the first six months” with an international crisis. McCain suffered a damaging blow when Republican stalwart and former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed Obama. More bad news was forthcoming. “[An] NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll gives Obama a 10 point lead nationally. 60% of respondents in the CNN poll think McCain’s attacks on Obama are unfair, a figure that hurts McCain’s chances further with independent voters. Reuters/Zogby has an 8 point Obama lead in its latest tracking poll. And the Pew poll, which takes into account cell phone users, has Obama up by 14 points. The prediction here is that these totals will go up in the next couple days as the impact of the Powell endorsement fully hits the polling results.” (Source: Steven Reynolds, Palin Is Sinking The McCain Campaign, . alternet.org, Oct. 22, 2008) Palin and McCain continued to insist that Obama would leave the country vulnerable, and there were some in the Obama camp who worried that the Senator from Illinois was not fighting back. Responding to the criticism, Obama countered with an ad that labeled McCain “erratic” and “out of touch” on the economy. The campaign also reminded the electorate that McCain, some twenty years earlier, had been involved with convicted financier Charles Keating in the S and L debacle. While McCain was not found guilty of any wrongdoing, the Senate ethics committee did find that he exercised “poor judgment.” Polls showed the race tightening in traditionally Republican states. Critics of the GOP nominee voiced concerns that McCain was giving away the election by not bringing up the Reverend Wright issue, showing the videotape of Wright shouting, “Not ‘God bless America,’ but God DAMN America!” Another problem, according to McCain staffers, was that Palin would not listen to them; that she was adamant about doing things her way. There were whispers that McCain realized his error in judgment at selecting her and Tom Ridge , an adviser to the campaign, told interviewers the ticket would have been better served if McCain had chosen him. PALIN: AIRHEAD, DIVA Even though she had held her own with Joe Biden in the lone vice-presidential debate, the bar had been set low. The Democrats and most pundits expected a major gaffe from her. She managed to make it through the debate without making such a Gerald Ford-like boner, but there was criticism that she blatantly ducked several questions and her winking to the audience smacked of immaturity and frivolousness. “During the vice presidential debate on Thursday, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announced that she ‘may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear.’ In fact, ‘On at least 10 occasions, Palin gave answers that were nonspecific, completely generic, pivoted away from the question at hand, or simply ignored it.’ On NBC’s Meet The Press today, debate moderator Gwen Ifill said that Palin ‘more than ignored’ her questions. ‘Blew me off I think is the technical term,’ said Ifill.” (Source: Ifill: Palin ‘Blew Me Off’ During Debate, . http://thinkprogress.org, October 5, 2008). l Palin continued to make embarrassing gaffes, including her inability to explain the duties of the vice-president. When asked by a third-grader what a vice president does, Palin responded, that the vice-present “runs the senate” and "can really get in there with the senators and make a lot of good policy changes." The facts are, in the event the President can no longer carry out his duties, the VP takes over. The only other duty the second-in-command has is to preside over the Senate and cast the decisive vote in the event of a deadlock. Perhaps Palin was hoping to fill the office and from that point, work to expand the powers of the job, but how and with whose help? Or perhaps Palin was beginning to believe what some were saying: that she was the future of the GOP. “CNN reports that McCain campaigns insiders are increasingly frustrated with Sarah Palin going rogue and straying from campaign talking points…CNN cites several McCain staffers as questioning Palin’s motives in going off message on the campaign trail and wondering whether she is more concerned with her own image than that of the McCain- Palin ticket. One unnamed McCain insider had lashed out to CNN against a rogue Sarah Palin ‘She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone. She does not have any relationships of trust with any of us, her family or anyone else. Also, she is playing for her own future and sees herself as the next leader of the party. Remember: Divas trust only unto themselves, as they see themselves as the beginning and end of all wisdom.’" (Source: Brad Sylvester, Opinion: Maverick Palin Turning Rogue, McCain Camp Infighting Erupt, . digitaljournal.com, Oct. 28, 2008 DEMOCRATIC STRATEGY Obama’s war chest (more than $700 million) allowed him to advertise heavily in states that w=George Bush won in 2000 and 2004. This forced McCain to allocate resources to areas he never thought he would have to. McCain was playing a prevent defense, and Obama was driving toward pay dirt. Ot was no secret that the Democrats had no southern strategy on which they could rely. So they planned to organize a western blitzkrieg. This was important for two reasons. McCain being from Arizona was strong out west and had an ally in Mitt Romney, a Mormon, who could help with that segment of the vote in both Utah and Nevada . Second, in 2004, George Bush garnered wins in four states with Democratic Governors ( New Mexico . Montana , Wyoming and Arizona ). “These states, along with Oregon , Washington , Idaho , Utah and Nevada want to vote as a bloc. They form an aggregate of 53 electoral votes, almost as many as California ’s 55—which is solidly Democratic. Add this 108-vote bloc to New York , Illinois and Pennsylvania , which have all gone Democratic in each election since 1992 (73 electoral votes total), and the Dems would be 2/3 of the way to the White House.” (Source: Timothy N. Stelly, Sr., Go West, Young Men: The Future Of The Democratic Party, . Useless Knowledge, July 30, 2005). Bill Richardson understood the power of the Hispanic voting bloc, saying "These are changing political times…We have to band together and that means Latinos in Florida, Cuban-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans, South Americans - we have to network better. We have to be more politically minded, we have to put aside party and think of ourselves as Latinos, as Hispanics, more than we have in the past." His efforts paid off for Obama in New Mexico , which went for Bush in 2000 and 2004, but went for Obama 57-42. Other Western and Southwestern states that went for Obama included Colorado , Montana and Nevada —and as expected, California , Oregon and Washington . The only state that Obama lost with sizeable Latino populations were Arizona and Texas . It was estimated that Obama was the choice of 73% of Latinos. His percentage of the black vote received exceeded 90%. VOTER FRAUD AND THE A.C.O.R.N. SITUATION Seemingly, the only thing standing between Obama and the White House was the threat of the Republicans “stealing” the election. On this issue, the GOP beat the Dems to the punch, insinuating that their registration drive was flawed due to the work of ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), a community organization accused of various infractions—including registering people who were dead, registering people under fake names (including Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse) and persuading the destitute to register using promises of beer and cigarettes as inducements. Acorn signature gatherers had turned in more than 1.3 million voter registration cards. Fox News showed a clip of a black woman admitting that she told registrants that they were signing up to help Obama. McCain said such tactics “could destroy the fabric of our democracy.” One was left to wonder if this was hyperbole, for how could such an organization dismantle the American system of holding elections? Brian Kettenring, an ACORN representative, called the accusations “the manufacture of a crisis, and attempts to smear Senator Obama with it. It gives you an excuse should you lose or if there's a contested outcome of the election." (Source: Debra Hastings, ACORN Controversy: Voter Fraud Or Mudslinging? . sfgate.com, Oct. 18, 2008). Obama had once done legal work for the group (with an assist from the U.S. Department of Justice), and the Republicans made the connection that ACORN was working on behalf of Obama. A group affiliated with ACORN known as Citizen’s Services, Inc. received $832,598 from the Obama campaign, which Obama spokesman Nick Shapiro downplayed as much ado about nothing. “This is going to be an historic election with unprecedented voter participation, and we are committed to protecting the integrity of the voting process," he said. The Dems countered that the GOP would violate the rights of voters in an insidious and institutional manner. One such trick was to hire armed, off-duty police officers wearing arm band that read NATIONAL BALLOT COMMISSION, and putting them outside polling stations. This would supposedly intimidate minority voters who feared being arrested. There were rumors that vehicles with fake INS insignias would be stationed near polling places in Latino neighborhoods. where large numbers of Latinos would vote. Flyers were circulated in some communities, stating that turnout was expected to be so large that only Republicans would be allowed to vote November 4, and Democrats would have to do so on the 5th. Jonathan Alter noted that voter fraud, “was a mainstay of Jim Crow segregation: for 100 years after the Civil War, Southern white Democrats kept eligible blacks from voting with poll taxes, literacy tests and property requirements. Starting in the 1960s, the U.S. Supreme Court declared these assaults on the heart of American democracy unconstitutional. Now, with the help of a 2008 Supreme Court decision, Crawford vs. Marion County ( Indiana ) Election Board, white Republicans in some areas will keep eligible blacks from voting by requiring driver's licenses. Not only is this new-fangled discrimination constitutional, it's spreading.” (Source: Jonathan Alter, ‘Jim Crawford’ Republicans, . newsweek.com, Sept. 11, 2008). “The chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County, Michigan, a key swing county in a key swing state, is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP’s effort to challenge some voters on Election Day. ’We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses,’ party chairman James Carabelli told Michigan Messenger in a telephone interview earlier this week…Carabelli is not the only Republican Party official to suggest the targeting of foreclosed voters. In Ohio, Doug Preisse, director of elections in Franklin County (around the city of Columbus) and the chair of the local GOP, told The Columbus Dispatch that he has not ruled out challenging voters before the election due to foreclosure-related address issues.” (Source: Eartha Jane Melzer, Lose Your House, Lose Your Vote, . The Michigan Messenger, September 16, 2008) In the long run, none of this would matter. As the election neared, it became apparent that McCain was in trouble. Obama warned his own campaign against overconfidence by reminding them of Hillary Clinton’s come-from-behind victory in the New Hampshire primary. "We always knew this was going to be hard, and this is a leap for the American people," Obama said. "And we're running against somebody who has a formidable biography, a compelling biography. He's a genuine American hero, somebody who served in uniform and suffered through some things that very few of us can imagine.” (Source: Terrence Hunt, Obama Supporters Say Get Tougher, More Passionate, . The Associated Press, Sept. 17, 2008). DISCORD IN THE McCAIN CAMP? Rumors abounded that Palin was being “difficult” and did not want to study. McCain staffers would later tell Carl Cameron of Fox News that Palin did not understand basic civics, misunderstood the function of state and municipal government, couldn’t name the three countries that make up NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement), nor could she name all of the countries that make up North America. It was rumored that she thought Africa was a country and not a continent. According to these unnamed McCain staffers, she thought South Africa was the southern part of the “country.” Late night talk show hosr David Letterman would later joke, “She thought NAFTA meant “Need Another Fofty Thousand for Accessories.” (Source: The Late Show With David Letterman, . Nov. 5, 2008). Whether it was true or not, if it made the news, chances are a lot of people would believe it, and that’s damage Palin will likely be unable to fix. Palin called the anonymous critics “cowardly,” adding, “If there are allegations based on questions or comments that I made in debate prep about NAFTA, and about the continent vs. the country when we talk about Africa there, then those were taken out of context. That's cruel, It's mean-spirited. It's immature. It's unprofessional and those guys are jerks…” (Source: Dan Joling and Sharon Theimer, Palin Denounces Her Critics As Cowardly, . yahoonews.com, Nov. 7, 2008). Earlier in the week, Palin blamed campaign staffer Nicole Wallace for her poor showing during her interview with Katie Couric and for her negative public image. Republican strategist Ed Rollins said of Palin, “[she] definitely is going to be the most popular Republican in this country when this thing is over." (Source: Dana Bash, Palin’s Off-Script Remarks Irk McCain Aides, . cnnpolitics.com, Oct. 27, 2008). In an interview with NBS’c Matt Lauer, Wallace defended Palin, Saying “[She] did nothing wrong. She is perhaps the most un-diva politician I’ve ever seen.” I(n reference to McCain choosing her, Wallace said, “It was a wise choice that will look wiser as time goes on.” (Source: Video: Nicole Wallace Vigorously Defends Palin To Matt Lauer, . msnbc.com, Nov. 7, 2008). There were rumors that staffer Randy Scheunemann had been fired, only to be reinstated by McCain, who feared that stories of campaign discord would hit the newswires just days before the election. After the election, Fox News defended its girl Palin, insisting the stories were the grumblings of disgruntled aides making excuses for McCain’s defeat so they wouldn’t look bad and could get jobs with other campaigns. Meanwhile, blacks held their collective breath and hoped for the best, but expected the worst. They believed that if the Republicans could steal an election from other white men (Gore in 2000, Kerry in 2004), then they would go to even greater lengths to sink an African-American candidate. Associated Press writer Jesse Washington wrote, “Obama's potential victory represents a previously unimaginable triumph over centuries of racism. But beneath the hope and pride lies fear: of polling inaccuracy, voting chicanery, or the type of injustice and violence that have historically stymied African-American progress.” (Source: Jesse Washington, Cautious Joy As Blacks Imagine Obama Win, . Associated Press, Nov. 2, 2008). The decision would be announced early, just before 9 p.m. PT, as Obama hit the estimated 194 electoral vote mark. There was no doubt he would win Washington , Oregon , California and his home state of Hawaii , an aggregate 76 votes. Moreover, he had won over working class whites in Pennsylvania and Ohio . By that time, McCain knew the death knell had sounded. The campaign chose not to post the Pennsylvania results at McCain headquarters, but anyone with a blackberry or a cell phone had already heard the death knell. NOV. 4, 2008 Overcoming steep odds—defeating the Clinton machine and surviving the GOP attacks—Barack Hussein Obama became the 44th President of the Unites Stated and the first African-American elected to that post. His success was due to his bringing in an inner circle that stayed true to him. There were no leaks and he earned the moniker “No drama Obama.” Obama simply ran a smarter and more efficient campaign, coupled with the flaws and failures of the Clinton and McCain machines. This is not to say Obama “backed into” the White House. He won over the American public and did more to earn their trust. He won over white men and the white female segment that pundits were sure would turn on him. He benefited from Hillary Clinton’s help and a smart campaign manger, David Axelrod. One columnist wrote of McCain, “the McCain we got in the general election was not the McCain we had come to know. He was partisan, he was petty, he used a lot of gimmicks (the suspension of the campaign, Joe the Plumber, the celebrity commercial). He didn't rise above partisanship, he didn't go with his instincts. He was handled by his advisors to the point to where his objectivity was clouded. Had he have run a disciplined, issue-focused campaign, with a loyal running mate that he believed in (CT Sen. Joe Lieberman or MN Gov. Tim Pawlenty), the substance of this race would have been much different and the battlegrounds down the stretch would have been much more competitive. He would have had a stronger ability to shape debate, rather than just react to it.” (Source: My Super, 5 Reasons Why McCain Lost, demconwatchblog.com, Nov. 5, 2008). Both Clinton and McCain can look back and see what went wrong. They ran into a more masterful politician, whose grit they underestimated. They also failed to acknowledge America ’s desire for change and the intelligence of the voting public. Distortions, fear mongering and character assassination would not work. Obama never panicked and he stayed on point with the issues. Obama won the popular vote, 52-46, or 65,293,083 votes to McCain’s 57,325,487 the second-highest total in history and enough to win in any other election year. Obama won both the male and female vote, 49-48 and 56-43 respectively. He won the 18-29 demographic, 66% to 32% and won in every age group except those over 65, which went for McCain 53-45. At the time of this writing, Missouri (11 electoral votes) was the only state too close to call.
*Obama won the state by fewer than 14,000 votes. **McCain leads by fewer than 6,000 votes ***For the first time, Nebraska , which splits its 5 electoral votes, done so. Nebraska won District Two, which encompasses the Omaha metro area. REALITY CHECK Obama inherits some deep domestic problems, most notably fears of recession or even a depression if the housing crisis and the budget deficit aren’t brought under control. There us massive job loss—1.2 million in the last year alone and the automotive industry might account for even more. There’s also the issue of the national debt, as the U.S. borrows two BILLION dollars a day from China just to pay the interest on it. Obama called for a unification of his supporters and those who had cast their votes for McCain. In McCain’s concession speech he waxed eloquently, ““Senator Obama and I have had and argued our differences, and he has prevailed. No doubt many of those differences remain. These are difficult times for our country. And I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face. I urge all Americans ... I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our goodwill and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited.” And that, as the saying goes, is history. EPILOGUE: QUESTIONS Obama was not the only winner. Sarah Pa;im is the right-wings new media darling, and has been declared “the future of the Republican Party. If so, then the GO{ deserves every humiliating defeat they will get in the future. The woman is nothing more than Dan Quayle in a dress, whioch goes to show you that many Americans (read, “Republicans”) would have rather elected an angry old man and a moron, than an intelligent and insightful black man, even though he had a white man on the ticket. Think about it: Quayle committed many malaptopos and misspelkledf “potato.” But could we have really selecered this woman, who would have beem one 72-year-old heartbeat away from becoming the leader of the free world, whose syntax makes Goober Pyle look like George Will? Observe this comment from The future star of the GOP: “My concern has been the atrocities there in Darfur and the relevance to me with that issue as we spoke about Africa and some of the countries there that were kind of the people succumbing to the dictators and the corruption of some collapsed governments on the continent, the relevance was Alaska’s investment in Darfur with some of our permanent fund dollars.” And, she concluded, “never, ever did I talk about, well, gee, is it a country or a continent, I just don’t know about this issue.” (Source: Dick Cavett, The Wild Wordsmith Of Wasilla, The New York Times Op-ed, Nov. 14, 2008) Bobby Jindal must be laughing so hard he’s spewing beer all over his living room carpet. After the election, Karl Rove admitted that it was his idea to brand Obama as a socialist. He said the move failed because Obama is actually “a conservative.” Can Obama deliver as promised, or will he be like Jimmy Carter and George Bush, and be a one-term wonder? If so, who in the GOP will unseat him? The GOP needs to reorganize and find itself. Is it a far-right, Christian-based group, or a more centrist organization? Is Sarah Palin really the future of the party, or is Bobby Jindal or Tim Pawlenty that rising star? What role will Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee play in the part’s future, and will the party make a concerted effort to reach out to blacks (who are more conservative on social issues) and Latinos (the fastest growing population in the country)? ------------ About the author: Timothy N. Stelly, Sr. is a writer who resides in Northern California. His latest work, under consideration for publication, is a poetry book titled "Stories From The Black Side Of The Rainbow." website: http://stellbreadO@tripod.com Email: stellbread@yahoo.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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