McCain talking points are revealed as Obama rejects call to cancel Friday’s debate

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As Barack Obama rejects John McCain’s call for canceling Friday’s debate, our sister site in Colorado gets a hold of talking points accidentally sent out by a GOP spokesperson on how to discuss the suspension of McCain’s campaign. The memo, titled “TALKING POINTS: SUSPENDING THE CAMPAIGN,” was sent out in error to the entire Colorado media list by McCain represenative Tom Kise. It includes his warning: “Please do not proactively reach out to the media on this.”

According to PolitickerCO’s Jeremy Pelzer, Kise wasn’t pleased when he discovered that the list, meant only for volunteers, was so widely distributed. “F*ck, tell me I didn’t send it to the wrong list,” he reportedly said. The eight-point memo begins:
To address our nation’s financial crisis, John McCain will suspend his campaign and return to Washington. Continue Reading

Obama rally addresses the economy

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More than 3,500 Obama-Biden supporters gathered downtown Minneapolis on Friday to hear Barack Obama’s plan for the economy. The rally took place as McCain addressed thousands of supporters in Blaine. Bill Clinton’s phrase “It’s the economy, stupid!” seems to have resonated with the Obama-Biden campaign as it tries to persuade voters Obama has a viable plan to fix the economy. The rally is an indicator of the campaign’s efforts to hone its message as economic woes on Wall Street and across America deepen. Speakers R.T Rybak, Majority House leader Margaret Anderson Kelliher, and Representative Keith Ellison stuck close to Obama’s economic plan. Continue Reading

The GOP’s Palin bounce; Al Franken’s Barkley bounce

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After a couple of weeks on unscheduled hiatus during MnIndy’s coverage of the Republican convention and its aftermath, David Schultz and the Schultz Report are back with us today. Schultz talks about Sarah Palin, evangelicals and swing voters, and he discusses a surprising turn in the Minnesota US Senate race: Independence Party endorsee Dean Barkley, who most observers expected to hurt Al Franken, seems to be peeling away Sen. Norm Coleman’s more tepid supporters and helping Franken. On the Republican convention and the McCain/Palin poll surge:
“What was really fascinating about the convention that no one’s really talked about is the dramatic extent to which it really did pander to the religious right. On the first day of the convention, the Gustav day that featured no night-time performances, no night television, there was just a pro forma business [session]. I thought that was where the most significant moment of the convention occurred. Continue Reading

Vandals hit Obama MN headquarters

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Several bricks and some paint were tossed through windows of the Barack Obama for President Campaign headquarters in St. Paul, MN. It was early on Sunday morning and one volunteer was in the basement of the building and was not injured. We talk with Obama Minnesota campaign spokesperson Nick Kimball about security concerns with the campaign. Continue Reading

VOICES | Angry at Obama

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In a recent column, New York Times columnist Bob Herbert wrote, “I’ll say this about Senator Obama. He sure raises people’s hackles.” Leaders who represent change tend to do that. Herbert continued, “I’ve never seen anyone so roundly criticized for such grievous offenses as giving excellent speeches and urging people of different backgrounds to take a chance on working together. How dare he? And 200,000 people turned out to hear him in Berlin. Continue Reading

Obama or McCain: You decide

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June 3, 2008—I got the opportunity to attend the presumptive Democratic Nominee Sen. Barack Obama’s victory speech at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn. The Free Speech Zone offers a space for contributions from readers, without editing by the TC Daily Planet. This is an open forum for articles that otherwise might not find a place for publication, including news articles, opinion columns, announcements and even a few press releases.About 17,000 people witnessed this historic moment with the first black American to win a major political party endorsement. “This is the greatest moment of my life,” excitedly said Hlee Vang, an Obama supporter. Continue Reading

The problem with appeasement

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It has become the all-too-common political slur de jour: any indication that one is willing to sit down and talk with an adversary is painted with the slanderous epithet used to describe British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain acquiescing to the diabolical ambitions of Adolph Hitler – appeasement. Technically, “offering concessions in order to secure peace” is the definition but modern abuse of the term to slander another seems to involve even recognizing the humanity of the other. Opinion: The problem with appeasementWhen efforts at diplomacy are categorically dismissed as being “weak” or “un-Presidential” or might be construed as too “effeminate,” then the only weapons political leaders are left with are the deadly, military ones. Bombast and bluster become backed by bomb blasts and cluster bombs. Today’s political climate doesn’t even allow for the Manifest Destiny swagger of Teddy Roosevelt: “Speak softly but carry a big stick.” Somehow, even speaking softly to one’s adversary is suspect today. Continue Reading

The Giant Stirs

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Admiral Yamamoto, who directed the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, said he feared that all Japan had succeeded in doing was waken a sleeping giant. The Free Speech Zone offers a space for contributions from readers, without editing by the TC Daily Planet. This is an open forum for articles that otherwise might not find a place for publication, including news articles, opinion columns, announcements and even a few press releases.Well, the sleeping giant did awaken, and the world was changed. America moved into a period of prosperity promised by the New Deal of the 30s. Continue Reading