McCain

Barack Obama will soon be inaugurated as the United States’ 44th President, a feat of unparalleled significance in our history. I don’t want to take anything away from this monumental victory, but there is a reason that McCain didn’t win (and it’s not Sarah Palin). MORE »

by Colette Davidson • 10/16/08 • Call it a premonition, but I think the Republican party just dropped its bomb. Today, the AP announced that another suspected U.S. led missile strike was carried out on Pakistan in an area known to harbor Al Qaeda and other terrorists. Since August, the U.S. has purportedly been involved with nearly a dozen similar attacks, all of which it neither confirms nor denies. Is today’s bomb any different from the others or could this be a ploy to instill confidence in the U.S.

During the presidential debates, Americans have had plenty of opportunities to hear Barack Obama and John McCain talk. Then we listen to political pundits talk about the talk. But often political pundits are far removed from the grassroots, and glean their perspective from policy wonks who get their news from other wonks. The Twin Cities Daily Planet asked four local community leaders to respond to the presidential debate and tell us how the policies discussed may or may not affect their work on employment and labor, housing, at-risk families, and energy and green jobs. MORE »

John McCain had better win the November election — otherwise God will be the butt of all the other gods’ jokes. That’s the message of one Rev. Arnold Conrad who lead a prayer at McCain’s rally in Davenport, Iowa, on Saturday. “[Y]our reputation is involved in all that happens between now and November,” Conrad said “because there are millions of people around this world praying to their god — whether it’s Hindu, Buddha, Allah — that his opponent wins, for a variety of reasons. And Lord I pray that you would guard your own reputation, because they’re going to think that their god is bigger than you if that happens.” Beyond the fact that Conrad thinks he can manipulate the Creator with schoolyard taunts, there’s a problem with Conrad’s theology: neither Hindu nor Buddha are the names of gods. MORE »

Much has been made of McCain’s angry crowd in Lakeville last week, where the candidate snatched a microphone from the hands of a questioner asserting that Barack Obama is “an Arab.” McCain’s response to this claim? “No ma’am. He’s a decent family man and citizen.”

Let’s run the tape again:

Questioner: “He’s an Arab.”

McCain: “No, he’s decent.”

The candidate’s response manifested in headlines like “McCain tamps down hostility” and “McCain calms supporters.”

It took respected pollster James Zogby to cry foul and declare “I am an Arab and a decent man.” MORE »

Gayle Quinnel, a John McCain supporter says at a McCain Rally that “Obama is an Arab”. She is quickly corrected by John McCain who takes away her microphone. MORE »

Recently the Presidential campaign of 2008 has taken a nasty turn. As the McCain/Palin ticket continues to fall behind to the Democratic team of Obama/Biden, allegations are flying to discredit Obama. Some of this is not new. Even during a spirited Democratic primary campaign, pictures of Obama in traditional Kenyan dress were posted to imply this candidate was Muslim – as if that were automatically a dirty term. Rumors that Obama attended a madrassa for school in Indonesia were floated to further the “smear” that our first bi-racial major party candidate was in league with “terrorists”. MORE »

by David Doody • 9/30/08 • In conceding that John McCain was correct on some issues in the first presidential debate, Barack Obama showed he takes those issues seriously enough to see them from all sides.

“You could not argue in a vacuum, as if only your opinion matters. It would be irresponsible to try only to prevail in such a case. Rather, you would want to recognize what others think and try to draw people together.” -from The Informed Argument by Robert K. Miller and Robert P. Yagelski