People did not lie--to pollsters or to themselves--about whether they would vote for a black man. The polls, national and statewide, generally predicted the results with accuracy. ...

But if election polling showed anything about attitudes on race, it may have been about Americans' quickness to ascribe racial motives; to some extent, they blame racism more than they actually act on it--or at least, vote on it. ...

Betty Owen is 92 and after a stroke four years ago, needs a feeding tube and can't walk. But she was determined not to miss Tuesday's election. She arrived at her polling place on a gurney in an ambulance, where an election judge and support worker climbed aboard with an electronic voting machine and let her cast her ballot. ...

Owen, a Marine Corps veteran who served in World War II, cast her first ballot for Wendell Willkie, a Republican running against Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940. ...

Big-name Barack Obama backer Bill Richardson on Friday provided some fresh political ammo for opponents of the Democratic presidential candidate when he told a Colorado radio station that Obama aims to cut taxes for those making $120,000 or less — a far cry from Obama's own promise to lower taxes for families making up to $200,000. ...

But Republicans who have been scrambling during the final days of the White House race to paint Obama as an in-the-closet tax increaser pounced on Richardson's comments, which came four days after Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden tossed out an income level of $150,000 in another interview. ...

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is very critical of U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama's positions on Iran, according to reports that have reached Israel's government.

Sarkozy has made his criticisms only in closed forums in France. But according to a senior Israeli government source, the reports reaching Israel indicate that Sarkozy views the Democratic candidate's stance on Iran as "utterly immature" and comprised of "formulations empty of all content." ...

'Democrats Far More Aggressive in Seminole County,' Victim Says. The home of a Central Florida Republican headquarters manager was shot up and damaged over his support of Sen. John McCain, the man told police. ...

Barack Obama and his supporters have tried to claim that his associations with people like Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan, James Meeks, John Lewis, Alcee Hastings, Bill Ayers, Mahdi Bray, and Nihad Awad, and his connections with organizations like Trinity United Church of Christ, ACORN, the Muslim American Society's (MAS) Freedom Foundation, and the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), were all innocuous. When people question Obama's character vis-à-vis these relationships, his campaign and followers retort that he is being unfairly accused using guilt by association. In fact, Obama has had long-standing relationships, and/or relationships of convenience, with such people/entities, and his connections to them are far from innocuous.

First, Jeremiah Wright. From ABC News:

...The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor for the last 20 years at the Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago's south side, has a long history of what even Obama's campaign aides concede is "inflammatory rhetoric," including the assertion that the United States brought on the 9/11 attacks with its own "terrorism."

In a campaign appearance earlier this month, Sen. Obama said, "I don't think my church is actually particularly controversial." He said Rev. Wright "is like an old uncle who says things I don't always agree with," telling a Jewish group that everyone has someone like that in their family.

Rev. Wright married Obama and his wife Michelle, baptized their two daughters and is credited by Obama for the title of his book, "The Audacity of Hope."...

Wright has been Obama's pastor for 20 years, Obama calls him "uncle," and Wright performed Obama's marriage ceremony and baptized his kids. This is not an intimate relationship?

According to the BBC, Wright blamed the U.S. for 911 in 2001, and made his "God damn America" statement in 2003. Did Obama simply miss these events? Why did it take him so long to comment on Wright?

Second, Obama's Trinity United Church of Christ, whose mission statement acknowledges:

We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black...

(NOTE: To view this statement, go to the Internet archive and enter the link http://www.tucc.org/about.htm.)

and, according to WorldNetDaily:

...On another page on the website, Pastor Wright explains his theology, saying it is "based upon the systematized liberation theology that started in 1969 with the publication of Dr. James Cone's book, 'Black Power and Black Theology'." ...

I thought Obama wanted to bring people together. Identity politics is about division. Trinity was Obama's church of 20 years.

Third, Louis Farrakhan, according to Associated Content:

...In December 2007, the Trinity United Church of Christ (TUCC) bestowed its highest social achievement award upon Louis Farrakhan, the head of the Nation of Islam. This was facilitated through the church's publication Trumpet Magazine and presented at their end of the year awards gala. The award dubbed the Lifetime Achievement "Dr. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. Trumpet" Award is named after the head pastor that married Barack and Michele Obama nee Robinson. ...

Is it possible that a prominent member of the church, Obama, didn't know about this award? -- especially when Farrakhan "...labeled Judaism a 'gutter religion' and cast Israel as a criminal nation," according to the New York Times.

Obama's church has pulled its mission statement off its website, and Obama and family recently resigned from Trinity because the church "had become a political liability in Obama's campaign for the presidency," according to the Washington Post.

Fourth, James Meeks, according to WorldNetDaily:

... "We don't have slave masters, we got mayors," exclaimed James Meeks, an Illinois state senator and pastor of one of the largest churches in the state, in an August, 2006 sermon broadcast on a Chicago community television channel.

The speech was broadcast last week by Fox News Channel's "Hannity and Colmes."

Continued Meeks in the sermon: "But they are still the same white people who are presiding over systems where black people are not able to be educated. You got some preachers that are house n-ggers. You got some elected officials that are house n-ggers. Rather than them try and break this up, they're gonna fight you to protect that white man."...

Meeks doesn't know Obama? Again, WND:

...Meeks has reportedly campaigned for Obama and allowed Obama to campaign at his church during the presidential candidate's 2004 senatorial run.

A recent Meeks endorsement of Obama is touted on the presidential candidate's campaign website.

In a 2004 interview with Cathleen Falsani of the Chicago Sun-Times, Obama described Meeks as an adviser who he seeks out for spiritual council. ...

Does Obama seek "spiritual council" from strangers?

Fifth, John Lewis, according to the LA Times:

... Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) likened the politics of Arizona Sen. John McCain and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to segregationist former Alabama Gov. George Wallace. ...

Lewis said: "George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who only desired to exercise their constitutional right." ...

and according to ABC News, Lewis:

...claimed that McCain and Palin were "sowing the seeds of hatred and division."...

This is just over the top. Again, from the ABC News article, Obama doesn't seem to mind Lewis' support too much:

...On Saturday, McCain called on Obama to repudiate Lewis' remarks. While dismissing the comparison to Wallace, Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton said Lewis was on target in other ways. ...

"On target in other ways?"

Sixth, Alcee Hastings who according to CNN, standing in front of core Democratic Party members Hillary Clinton and Senator Bill Nelson:

...told an audience of Jewish Democrats Wednesday that they should be wary of Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin because "anybody toting guns and stripping moose don't care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks."

"If Sarah Palin isn't enough of a reason for you to get over whatever your problem is with Barack Obama, then you damn well had better pay attention," Rep. Alcee Hastings of Florida said at a panel about the shared agenda of Jewish and African-American Democrats Wednesday. Hastings, who is African-American, was explaining what he intended to tell his Jewish constituents about the presidential race. "Anybody toting guns and stripping moose don't care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks. So, you just think this through," Hastings added as the room erupted in laughter and applause. ...

Has Obama made any statements repudiating Hastings' remarks? I can't find any.

Seventh, Bill Ayers, who according to the Washington Post was:

...a former member of the radical Weather Underground Organization that claimed responsibility for a dozen bombings between 1970 and 1974. ...

Both Obama and Ayers were members of the board of an anti-poverty group, the Woods Fund of Chicago, between 1999 and 2002. In addition, Ayers contributed $200 to Obama's re-election fund to the Illinois State Senate in April 2001, as reported here. They lived within a few blocks of each other in the trendy Hyde Park section of Chicago, and moved in the same liberal-progressive circles. ...

According to Investor's Business Daily:

..."Ayers and his education school comrades are explicit about the need to indoctrinate public school children in the belief that America is a racist, militarist country and that the capitalist system is inherently unfair and oppressive."...

In a recent interview on Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor," Obama upgraded Ayers' status from "a guy who lives in my neighborhood" to "somebody who worked on education issues in Chicago that I know."

Actually, Obama knew him quite well, having worked together on a school "reform" project called the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. ...

Eighth, we have ACORN, an organization which is being investigated by the FBI for voter registration fraud in fourteen states, according to the New York Times and the National Review Online, respectively.

Obama's website claims that he has not been involved with ACORN, but according to Fox News:

… Obama conducted training sessions for ACORN workers a decade ago, and his campaign also recently paid an ACORN subsidiary for canvassing efforts.

Plus his work with a group called Project Vote back in 1992 raises questions about whether he was involved with ACORN back then.

Project Vote was one of Obama's earliest political successes. As director of Illinois Project Vote, Obama helped register 150,000 new voters in Chicago, and he was heralded for his efforts in local media.

ACORN was also registering voters at that time, and its relationship with Project Vote casts some doubt on Obama's statement that his involvement with ACORN didn't begin until three years later. …

But as to Obama's statement that his ties to ACORN are contained to his legal work, it has already been widely reported that his campaign paid more than $800,000 to a group called Citizens Services Inc., an ACORN subsidiary, to "augment" Obama's grassroots organizing efforts in the Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania primaries. …

And from the National Review Online:

... Which brings us to ACORN. Obama's longtime ally is now being investigated in at least 14 different states for election fraud. Cynically, Obama is banking on the fact that most people don't grasp the state/federal distinction. By taking aim at the Justice Department, his letter obscures the fact that the numerous investigations of ACORN have been undertaken not by DOJ but by state authorities -- and in some instances by Democrat law-enforcement officials who find themselves unable to turn a blind-eye to ACORN's blatant tactics.

For example, in Nevada, where ACORN appears to have submitted thousands of phony voter registrations -- including filings on behalf of the Dallas Cowboys' star players -- the FBI participated with other agencies in a raid on ACORN's Las Vegas office. But the investigation is being run by state authorities, not the feds.

The choice to use the Cowboys makes perfect sense, for when it comes to fraud, ACORN truly is America's Team. As Jim Hoft details in a useful Pajamas Media account, "The Complete Guide to ACORN Voter Fraud," state agencies are examining ACORN's activities not just in Nevada but in North Carolina, Ohio, Indiana, Connecticut, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas, Michigan, and New Mexico (where Iglesias may be gone but ACORN is alive and well).

This year alone, ACORN has filed 1.3 million voter registrations, and already -- without thorough scrutiny by forensic law-enforcement investigators -- tens of thousands of them are known to be fraudulent. The group, moreover, is known to have bribed voters to register dozens of times and to have hired convicted felons as registration recruiters. …

Finally, the Obama campaign has been reaching out to the likes of Nihad Awad, executive director and co-founder of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), and Mahdi Bray, executive director of the Muslim American Society's (MAS) Freedom Foundation.

CAIR is a Saudi-funded, Islamist front for whitewashing terrorism. CAIR's Awad once stated publicly, "I am in support of the Hamas movement," a group whose founding charter requires it to destroy Israel, i.e., to commit genocide.

The MAS "was founded as the United States chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood, the international Islamist, anti-Western organization whose goal is the 'introduction of the Islamic Shariah as the basis controlling the affairs of state and society'." The MAS' Bray "has defended terrorists and those alleged to be supporting them."

Frank Gaffney of the The Washington Times has investigated Obama's connections to these ugly Islamist groups and individuals, their possible funding of his campaign, their involvement in get-out-the-vote efforts, among other things, and wants "to get to the bottom of Barack Obama's ties to and affinity for jihadists who have their own reasons for relishing his promise of 'change' for this country:"

Last week, Barack Obama's campaign was burned yet again for its dalliance with Islamists - those who embrace Islam's repressive theo-political-legal code known as Shariah and who are working for its triumph in the West in general and the United States in particular. The episode is but the latest indication that the Democratic candidate hopes to win the White House by relying, in part, on the Jihadist vote.

NBC reported Thursday that the Obama campaign's latest radical "Muslim outreach coordinator," Mouha Husaini, met last month in one of Washington's Northern Virginia suburbs - the heart of what has been dubbed the "Wahhabi Corridor" - with her predecessor, Mazen Asbahi (who had to resign this summer due to his own associations with Shariah). Even more problematic was the presence at the Springfield event of two prominent Muslim Brotherhood operatives: Mahdi Bray of the Muslim American Society (MAS) and Nihad Awad of the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR).

As I pointed out in a debate on Tuesday (for a transcript, go to http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.1447/pub_detail.asp) with a man associated with both organizations and arguably the Bush administration's senior Muslim official, Suhail Khan, the Brotherhood is an instrument the Islamists have been using to foster a Fifth Column in America. Its stated purpose in this country is to "destroy Western civilization from within."

According to NBC, even other attendees expressed concern that the Obama campaign was reaching out to such "politically radioactive" individuals as Messrs. Bray and Awad. ...

So we see here clear evidence that Obama has had significant relationships with bigots, Islamists, and with an organization being investigated for voter fraud. Obama's connections to these people and entities are hardly innocuous, nor are they simply cases of guilt by association.

These associations tell us much about Obama's character. Does he share the beliefs of these people, or did he just use them to achieve his political ambitions? In either case, keeping company with such people is hardly appropriate or moral for a man who wishes to become America's next president.

Pittsburgh police are investigating after a volunteer for the Republican campaign says she was attacked by a mugger who became enraged after seeing a John McCain bumper sticker on her car last night.

Todd told police that the suspect, described only as a dark-skinned African-American man about 6'4", stole $60 from her and became enraged after seeing a bumper sticker supporting Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain on her car. ...

Gov. Sarah Palin charged the state for her children to travel with her, including to events where they were not invited, and later amended expense reports to specify that they were on official business. ...

In the amended reports, Palin added phrases such as "First Family attending" and "First Family invited" to explain the girls' attendance. ...

sweeping reforms seldom look the same after going through the crucible of Washington politics - especially when the subject is a highly contentious issue like health care reform. The McCain and Obama plans are just "watercolors," says Len Nichols, health policy director for the New America Foundation, a Washington think tank. What the candidates are proposing, and what will actually pass into law, are likely to look very different.

The good news, says Nichols, is that there's already been significant bipartisan activity in Congress on health care, making it more likely that reform can move forward without getting bogged down in the kind of partisan battles that doomed the Clinton plan. ...

Acorn's top management is separately facing questions over its handling of the embezzlement of $1 million of its money by the brother of the group's founder.

nothing could breathe new life into this gestural pessimism like an Obama loss. It would be the perfect enabler for a good ten years of aggrieved mulling over "the persistence of racism," which, for all of its cathartic seduction, would make no one less poor, more gainfully employed, or better educated.

The prevailing sentiment would be expressed in tart declarations, considered the height of black authenticity, that bigotry did in the Obama campaign. Even now, the idea that white swing voters might pass on him because of his positions or campaign performance is considered a peculiar notion, likely from someone unhip to the gospel that America remains all about racism despite Colin Powell and Oprah. ...

Voter fraud is an endemic and prolific problem in contested states and predominantly affects Republicans. Democrats use the same, empty rhetorical trick to facilitate it: race baiting. Meanwhile, groups like the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) generate thousands of fictional voters (among them a Mr. Mickey Mouse) in poor areas, throwing up a smoke screen of "Republican racism" to conceal their tactics.

There's also the issue of having legal identification. For instance, in 2004, Jesse Jackson claimed that Georgia's anti-fraud laws, which required voters to show identification, were racist. Similar controversy exists in this election. Democrats wouldn't want a voter to have to prove he's Mickey Mouse, would they? These incidents are only microcosms of a larger and more virulent issue. In the short term, there are electoral consequences in swing states (1,500 fraudulent ACORN registrants in Philadelphia alone, for instance), but the long-term effects of such shenanigans are more insidious. ...

U.S. federal investigators are examining allegations that a community organizing group has helped perpetrate voter registration fraud ahead of the presidential election.

ACORN employees have been accused of submitting voter registration forms for ineligible voters, including fictitious characters such as "Mickey Mouse." The group admits this has occurred in a few cases. But, it says the workers involved were fired, and that election officials were notified. ...

Indeed, if every illegal, fraudulent, duplicate student and dead voter present in today's DNC registration rolls is counted as a legitimate vote on Election Day, election results will track with the national polls.

Last week, Barack Obama's campaign was burned yet again for its dalliance with Islamists - those who embrace Islam's repressive theo-political-legal code known as Shariah and who are working for its triumph in the West in general and the United States in particular. The episode is but the latest indication that the Democratic candidate hopes to win the White House by relying, in part, on the Jihadist vote.

NBC reported Thursday that the Obama campaign's latest radical "Muslim outreach coordinator," Mouha Husaini, met last month in one of Washington's Northern Virginia suburbs...

One: I'm a Pennsylvanian. "Kill him" is not representative of the state's values. Nor is this, from Palin-haters.

Two: Interesting post from the conservative Ace of Spaces about such yellers. "Some Republicans are, alas, the exact same sort of unsophisticated angry morons who shout things like 'Terrorist' about Obama when McCain is speaking, thus putting him on the extreme defensive, or having temper tantrums on blogs when the proprietor requests they refrain from exposing him to any lawsuits. They substantially vindicate every stereotype the left and MSM has about us, and make the rest of us not only look bad, but make us squeamish from even being political associates. And they lose us precious votes….Wanna know why we're losing? Wanna know why McCain had to make a statement about Obama not being dangerous and being a good and decent man? Because you geniuses embarrassed him with your stupidity and compelled him to say that." ...

Obama spent many years cultivating ties with, working with - and even funding - the very folks who pushed for the risky lending that underlies the current mess.

"I've been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career," he told the group last November. ...

how does that compare to the insane froth found on the left? Christ, how many times have you heard President Bush called a "terrorist"? The angry left has referred to him as a Nazi so many times he now goose-steps instead of jogs.

See? When the left calls people horrible names, it's nothing serious. When the right does it, though, it reflects a larger philosophy of hate. If you don't want to spoon Obama, you must be an Aryan Brother. ...

Who are these people in this photograph?

UPDATE: Politico's Ben Smith has more on who these people are HERE.

Regardless of the virtual absence of any evidence of a concerted effort by ACORN to "steal" the November election, the group will likely be a fixture in the McCain campaign's talking points between now and Election Day.

Unlike the Ayers attacks, there is very little, if any, political risk in turning off moderate voters by knocking ACORN. After the Florida debacle during the 2000 presidential election, electoral integrity is far more relevant to many voters than the decades-old activities of a "washed-up radical," as McCain likes to say. ...

A look back at the original language used by Palin at the rally in question makes it nearly impossible for the exclamation to be misunderstood as an attack on Obama unless you happen to be a MSM member just dying to think the worst of the Right. ...

But the liberal media, which has at times ignored and at times applauded as high art the assassination fetishism of the last eight years on the Left, is now projecting it onto all McCain-Palin supporters, using several outbursts and one decidedly misinterpreted "kill him" as their hook. ...

By trying to prevent county boards of elections from investigating discrepancies in new voter registrations, she is putting partisan considerations ahead of the public interest in fair elections. And in doing that, the Democrat is inviting a direct comparison to her Republican predecessor, J. Kenneth Blackwell, who undercut his credibility as an impartial election arbiter because of his partisan decisions leading up to the 2004 presidential election. ...

"The state government can also play a role in redistribution, the allocation of wages and jobs." Did Obama speak of "redistribution" of wealth in 1996, or did an over-zealous DSA member, Bob Roman, put this word into Obama's mouth? Whatever the case, Obama appeared before the Chicago Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) on February 25, 1996, a group whose platform is to "reject an economic order based on private profit, alienated labor, gross inequalities of wealth and power, discrimination based on race and sex, and brutality and violence in defense of the status quo."

The context in which Obama developed his political and economic beliefs is relevant to the discussion about his desire to become the next U.S. president, as it may shed insight into the policies which Obama may pursue as president. Here's the entire report on what Obama said in 1996 before the DSA, as reported by the DSA:

... Barack Obama observed that Martin Luther King's March on Washington in the 1960s wasn't simply about civil rights but demanded jobs as well. Now the issue is again coming to the front, but he wished the issue was on the Democratic agenda not just on Buchanan's.

One of the themes that has emerged in Barack Obama's campaign is "what does it take to create productive communities", not just consumptive communities. It is an issue that joins some of the best instincts of the conservatives with the better instincts of the left. He felt the state government has three constructive roles to play.

The first is "human capital development". By this he meant public education, welfare reform, and a "workforce preparation strategy". Public education requires equality in funding. It's not that money is the only solution to public education's problems but it's a start toward a solution. The current proposals for welfare reform are intended to eliminate welfare but it's also true that the status quo is not tenable. A true welfare system would provide for medical care, child care and job training. While Barack Obama did not use this term, it sounded very much like the "social wage" approach used by many social democratic labor parties. By "workforce preparation strategy", Barack Obama simply meant a coordinated, purposeful program of job training instead of the ad hoc, fragmented approach used by the State of Illinois today.

The state government can also play a role in redistribution, the allocation of wages and jobs. As Barack Obama noted, when someone gets paid $10 million to eliminate 4,000 jobs, the voters in his district know this is an issue of power not economics. The government can use as tools labor law reform, public works and contracts.

Finally, Illinois needs an industrial strategy. How do we create more jobs for everyone? Illinois has no strategy for encouraging high wage, high productivity jobs. ...

I leave it to Viners to discuss what they believe is the relevance of Obama's appearance before the DSA. Here are a few related links of interest:

• About CDSA
• Join DSA
• The Political Perspective of the Democratic Socialists of America

At an education forum in Venezuela, Bill Ayers showed the real issue is not his terrorist past. It's the socialist revolutionary agenda that he and Barack Obama want to impose on the nation's schools.

Yeah, right: Ayers is a school reformer in the same sense, as City Journal's Sol Stern put it, as Joe Stalin was an agricultural reformer. ...

McCain and Palin...have failed to put forth many of their strongest and most persuasive arguments most of the time. Were they to only set forth their strongest arguments, they would easily turn the campaign around. I offer the following points which I hope readers will be able to bring to the attention of the Republican leadership, or at least to the attention of their own friends, relatives, colleagues, and other acquaintances. ...

Tehran reaped billions of dollars from the rise in oil prices. Rather than turn moderate, however, the Iranian government took its hard currency windfall and invested almost 70 per cent of it in military equipment and its covert nuclear program.

This nuclear deception was not a result of Iranian hardliners working behind the backs of their reform-minded counterparts: the ruse was intentional. On June 14 this year, Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, Khatami's former spokesman, explained: "The solution is to prove to the entire world that we want the (nuclear) power plants for electricity. Afterwards, we can proceed with other activities." He criticised President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's provocations and suggested Khatami's strategy to lull the West with soft words better achieved Iran's nuclear aims. ...

Rep. Alcee Hastings told an audience of Jewish Democrats Wednesday that they should be wary of Republican VP nominee Sarah Palin because "anybody toting guns and stripping moose don't care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks."

"If Sarah Palin isn't enough of a reason for you to get over whatever your problem is with Barack Obama, then you damn well had better pay attention," Rep. Alcee Hastings of Florida said at a panel about the shared agenda of Jewish and African-American Democrats Wednesday. Hastings, who is African-American, was explaining what he intended to tell his Jewish constituents about the presidential race. "Anybody toting guns and stripping moose don't care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks. So, you just think this through," Hastings added as the room erupted in laughter and applause. ...

Democrat Barack Obama said Tuesday the deepening American financial crisis and prospect of a massive government bailout meant he likely would have to delay expansive spending programs outlined during his campaign for the White House.

In an interview with NBC television, Obama said he would have to study what happens to the United States' tax revenues before making decisions on budgeting for his promised initiatives on national health care, education, energy and other concerns. ...

"We continue to go toe-to-toe for this nomination but we do see eye-to-eye when it comes to electing a Democratic president."
~Hillary Clinton

Click here to see the cartoon from its source (MSNBC).

NOTE: I used "Write Article" format to be able to post the cartoon.

Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden said Thursday that paying more in taxes is the patriotic thing to do for wealthier Americans. The Republican campaign for president calls the tax increases their Democratic opponents propose "painful" instead of patriotic.

Under the economic plan proposed by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, people earning more than $250,000 a year would pay more in taxes while those earning less -- the vast majority of American taxpayers -- would receive a tax cut. ...

For Democratic members of Congress, life will go on after Jan. 20, 2009 -- with or without a President Barack Obama.

Asked if Obama is a factor in his House race in western Pennsylvania's 4th Congressional District, Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa., said, "I don't think the top of the ticket is going to matter." ...

The percentage of voters seeing progress in U.S. efforts to restore civil order in Iraq is now higher than it has been in nearly three years, even as Americans still hold broadly negative views about the original decision to go to war.

In the new poll, 56 percent of registered voters say the United States is making significant strides toward bringing order in Iraq -- the highest proportion to say so in nearly three years and nearly double the level in late 2006, before President Bush ordered additional American troops to the country. ...

When Cindy McCain is asked what issues she would champion as first lady, she often cites one of the most difficult periods of her life: her battle with — and ultimate victory over — prescription painkillers. Her struggle, she has said repeatedly, taught her valuable lessons about drug abuse that she would pass on to the nation. ...

Just a day after Thursday's ceasefire to commemorate the 9/11 anniversary, the presidential campaigns are now firing their heavy artillery. This is especially true for the Obama camp, which is up with two new TV ads (one has Obama talking to the camera to argue that he's the real change agent in this race, and the other takes a tough shot at McCain's age and computer skills). ...

that's why I am convinced that Mr. Obama does not need to fundamentally change his message or strategy to win over the undecideds (though a few of the refinements being suggested would be helpful). He mostly just needs to be himself -- or to be more precise, to be more of himself. No reinvention, no repositioning -- just recount the tough stands and political risks he has already taken, relentlessly reinforce those points for the next three months, and ideally look for a few opportunities to walk the change-making walk as we near November.

Biden's election campaigns "have been financed by Islamic charities of the Iranian regime based in California and by the Silicon Iran network," a loosely-knit group of wealthy Iranian-American businessmen and women seeking to end the U.S. trade embargo on Iran.

Just recently, Biden was one of 16 U.S. senators who voted against a bill that would add Iran's Revolutionary Guards corps to the State Department's list of international terrorist organizations, because of its involvement in murdering U.S. troops in Iraq.

Biden is well versed in policy debates and carefully choreographed trips. But his record on the Islamic Republic of Iran -- perhaps the chief national security threat facing the next president -- suggests a persistent and dangerous judgment deficit. Biden's unyielding pursuit of "engagement" with Iran for more than a decade has made it easier for Tehran to pursue its nuclear program, while his partisan obsession with thwarting the Bush administration has led him to oppose tough sanctions against hard-liners in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

How do Muslims see Barack Hussein Obama? They have three choices: either as he presents himself – someone who has "never been a Muslim" and has "always been a Christian"; or as a fellow Muslim; or as an apostate from Islam.

Reports suggests that while Americans generally view the Democratic candidate having had no religion before converting at Reverend Jeremiah Wrights's hands at age 27, Muslims the world over rarely see him as Christian but usually as either Muslim or ex-Muslim. ...

Under fire for high gas prices, the industry is spending record amounts on influence in Washington. Plus: How it's playing in the presidential race.

But when it comes to lobbying - and spending money that goes toward researching, writing and convincing lawmakers to vote its way - the industry ranks fifth. If the spending continues at the current pace, the industry is set to break last year's $83 million record. ...

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is accusing his Republican rival, John McCain, of supporting failed Bush administration policies.

Senator Obama Saturday touted his proposals to end the war in Iraq and U.S. dependency on foreign oil. ...

Much of the dislike towards America, as with most psychological afflictions, is guttural, unexplainable to the bearer, in some cases even after prolonged stays in the country they so much resent.

Much more important is the widespread admiration for America and American business, the can-do attitude and the work ethics, as in "sorry for all the problems in doing business with us, this is not America." ...

Former president Bill Clinton has accepted a prime-time slot at the Democratic National Convention and will speak before Barack Obama's vice-presidential choice, US media reported Friday.

The move follows days of speculation over tense relations between Obama and the ex-president, still seen as simmering over the defeat of his wife, Senator Hillary Clinton, for the party's nomination. ...

Will Hillary outsmart Obama and take the nomination at the last minute? Many of us familiar with Hillary Clinton's approach to achieving her goals refused to believe that she ever gave up all hope of winning the nomination and the presidency. Her words and actions on the subject of the convention itself always left the door open for a return, should Obama falter or suffer some calamity. ...

The cover of this week's New Yorker magazine may explain why Barack Obama isn't reaching out to Michigan's Muslims. ...

Immediate withdrawal from Iraq! Refined withdrawal from Iraq. Unconditional talks. Talks with "preparations." I support public financing. I'll opt out of public financing. Filibuster the FISA bill. Vote for the FISA bill. Renegotiate NAFTA! Don't renegotiate NAFTA. I opposed welfare reform. I support welfare reform.

Great editorial cartoon from the ABQ Journal.

And for awhile, the country may even end up borrowing more because of the additional costs of bringing troops and equipment home while continuing to prosecute the war at some level. So depending on the extent of the drawdown and the timing, the deficit may actually go up initially.

The Democrat wants the government to do more to encourage conservation and find alternatives, while the Republican sees a bigger role for the free market. ...

Obama would tax oil companies and use the money to help low income people. He would also restrict greenhouse gasses, but charge more for companies to pollute and use the money to fund renewable energy research. He also sees a bigger role for government in encouraging conservation. ...

Barack Obama has pledged unwavering support for Israel in his first foreign policy speech since declaring himself the Democratic nominee for president.

He also said he would do "everything" to stop Iran getting a nuclear weapon. ...

Mr. Wright proudly propounded the racist contention that blacks have inherently different "learning styles," correctly citing as authority for this view Janice Hale of Wayne State University. Pursuing a Ph.D. by logging long hours in the dusty stacks of a library, Mr. Wright announced, is "white." Blacks, by contrast, cannot sit still in class or learn from quiet study, and they have difficulty learning from "objects" — books, for example — but instead learn from "subjects," such as rap lyrics on the radio. These differences are neurological, according to Ms. Hale and Mr. Wright: Whites use what Mr. Wright referred to as the "left-wing, logical and analytical" side of their brains, whereas blacks use their "right brain," which is "creative and intuitive." When he was of school age in Philadelphia following the Supreme Court's 1954 desegregation decision, Mr. Wright said, his white teachers "freaked out because the black children did not stay in their place, over there, behind the desk." Instead, the students "climbed up all over [the teachers], because they learned from a 'subject,' not an 'object.' " How one learns from a teacher as "subject" by climbing on her, as opposed to learning from her as "object" — by listening to her words — is a mystery.

Obama understands that the real threat to his candidacy is less Hillary Clinton and John McCain than his own character and cultural attitudes. He came out of nowhere with his autobiography already written, then saw it embellished daily by the hagiographic coverage and kid-gloves questioning of a supine press. Then came the three amigos: Tony Rezko, the indicted fixer; Jeremiah Wright, the racist reverend; William Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist. And then Obama's own anthropological observation that "bitter" working-class whites cling to guns and religion because they misapprehend their real class interests.

In a 2006 sermon, Rev. Meeks stated, "We don't have slave masters. We got mayors. But they still the same white people who are presiding over systems where black people are not able, or to be educated. You got some preachers that are house @!$%#s. You got some elected officials that are house @!$%#s. And rather than them trying to break this up, they gonna fight you to protect this white man." He later defended that sermon during an interview with a Chicago CBS 2 reporter.

NOTE: Rev. Meeks has been described as someone in which Obama seeks spiritual counsel from

South Carolina, Michigan and West Virginia allow veiled women privacy in taking a full-faced picture; Kansas, Pennsylvania and Indiana allow veiled women a no-photo driver's license; and that Nevada allows photos with 'drastic alteration of appearance.' ...

Not long ago a list of "unique issues affecting Muslim Americans" was posted at the Muslim Americans for Obama '08 website. This describes a number of "recommendations" drafted to advance the discussion of lawful Islamism and exceptional accommodation in the United States. These suggest both that "Islamic" comportment is beyond reproach, and that one is always correct to press the case for inviolable "Muslim" space. ...

Whether from a desire to avoid being labeled as racist, from cowardice when confronted with the PR machine that is the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), or from slanted coverage in the mainstream media, presidential candidates of both parties take great pains to avoid commenting on jihad (Islamic holy war), even as they blame the West for terrorist acts committed against it, according to noted expert on Islam Robert Spencer. ...

"Used Hawks Flock to Giuliani's Team" runs the title of a Oct. 15 Newsweek smear of presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, suggesting that the mayor's advisors, "some of the Bush era's most assertive neoconservatives," represent George W. Bush retreads. The article even quotes a foreign policy analyst accusing Giuliani of "out-Bushing Bush." ...

How odd. Actually, the opposite should be apparent about Newsweek's six featured advisors – Norman Podhoretz, Martin Kramer, Peter Berkowitz, Nile Gardiner, Robert Kasten, and myself. First, we collectively had many disagreements with Bush administration policies and, second, we lacked impact on them. In other words, the real story is Giuliani's fresh start in foreign policy, joined by a cast unconnected to the current president's successes and failures. ...

That said, if the term currently requires having supported George W. Bush's Middle East-related policies, then I am not a neoconservative.

...In early September, MoveOn.org made the fatal mistake--a mistake stemming directly from its total lack of character and ethics--of publishing an advertisement that defamed a prominent army officer with the two worst possible accusations: lying and betrayal. MoveOn.org included text in the ad that proved that it had not even waited to hear what he had to say before making these accusations. The denunciation of this advertisement by about half of the Senate's Democrats and almost two thirds of the House's Democrats shows that the majority of the Democratic Party has had its fill of MoveOn.org's irresponsibility, dishonesty, and promotion of hatred and contempt for Jews, Catholics, and even African-Americans it happens to dislike. The fact that Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Keith Ellison are still standing squarely with MoveOn.org should tell voters everything they need to know about these individuals' personal character.

This is the end of the line for the anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic hate organization known as MoveOn.org. We are disappointed that this end did not come a year ago, which is what would have happened had Democrat Joe Lieberman ("Jew Lieberman" to MoveOn.org) and Republicans like Rick Santorum made a big issue of the organization's propagation of hatred and contempt toward Jews, Catholics, evangelical Christians, and even Black people it happened to dislike. Nonetheless, better late than never. ...

The leading Democratic White House hopefuls conceded Wednesday night they cannot guarantee to pull all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the end of the next presidential term in 2013. ...

- CNN, 9/27/07

This is the saving grace of American politics: the overwhelming power of the center; the adaptability of a naturally self-correcting system. If this were not the case, then certainly the top Democrats debating last night in New Hampshire would have continued to cater to their far-left constituency, and demanded the immediate pull-out of American troops from Iraq. No doubt we'll here cries from the loony-left about how they've been "betrayed." Here are the top Democratic contenders in their own words:

... "I think it's hard to project four years from now," said Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois in the opening moments of a campaign debate in the nation's first primary state.

"It is very difficult to know what we're going to be inheriting," added Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

"I cannot make that commitment," said former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.

Sensing an opening, Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson provided the assurances the others would not.

"I'll get the job done," said Dodd, while Richardson said he would make sure the troops were home by the end of his first year in office. ...

Getting the troops home "by the end of his first year in office" is a far cry from an immediate withdrawal. Even these Democrats know how important Iraq's stability is to the American people.

Cross-posted at netwmd.com and Newsvine