Category: Elections

Steeler Nation Endorses Obama

Posted on by TL

It’s official.  The Steeler Nation has endorsed Barack Obama for President.

Very cool.

It must have been an awesome event in Pittsburgh’s Mellon Arena Monday.  According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, thousands showed up to hear the Senator from Illinois deliver his “closing argument” to the campaign:

Mr. Obama was introduced by Steelers President Dan Rooney whose presence sparked incongruous calls of “Here we go Steelers, Here we go,” in the home of the Penguins.

“Eight more days, eight more days,” the crowd chanted taking the lead of Sen. Bob Casey, who, along with Gov. Ed Rendell joined Mr. Obama on the arena floor. As they voiced their support for the Democratic nominee, thousands of other supporters still waited in the long line that wrapped around the Lower Hill site.

Obama brought his message of hope home to the voters of Pennsylvania:

“After decades of broken politics in Washington, eight years of failed policies from George Bush, and 21 months of a campaign that has taken us from the rocky coast of Maine to the sunshine of California, we are one week away from change in America,” he said as a wave of applause broke over the arena.

“I knew that the size of our challenges had outgrown the smallness of our politics. I believed that Democrats and Republicans and Americans of every political stripe were hungry for new ideas, new leadership, and a new kind of politics — one that favors common sense over ideology; one that focuses on those values and ideals we hold in common as Americans.”

And more:

“Now, Sen. McCain has served this country with distinction. And he can point to a few moments over the past eight years, on torture for example, where he has broken from George Bush,” Mr. Obama said. “But when it comes to the economy — when it comes to the central issue of this election all across then region, he don’t get it. The plain truth is that John McCain has stood with this president every step of the way. Voting for the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy that he once opposed.

“Voting for the Bush budgets that spent us into debt. He called for less regulation twenty-one times just this year. Those are the facts.”

As a Steeler fan, I have to admit seeing Dan Rooney with Barack was incredibly awesome.  Look, I know Barack has been cheering many different sports teams all over this great country of ours.  Pols do that all the time.

Today, one team cheered back with a thunderous roar.

The message is clear, Pennsylvania: Barack Obama is on our team now.  Give him your vote.

Addendum:  Franco Harris, who is also backing Barack Obama, attended the 55th Annual Autumn Leaf Festival parade on October 4 to campaign for Obama.

Editor’s Note: On Wednesday, former President Bill Clinton, one of the most beloved pols to ever visit the Keystone State will seek Democratic votes in Washington County.  Our report on Turning Left will follow.

McCain Campaign Advisor Endorses and Votes for Obama

Posted on by TL

A strange thing happened on the road to the White House last week…

Conservative legal scholar, Reagan Solicitor, prominent Republican and John McCain campaign adviser General Charles Fried, endorsed and voted for Barack Obama.

From the New Republic:

This week, Fried announced that he has voted for Obama-Biden by absentee ballot. In his letter to Trevor Potter, the General Counsel to the McCain-Palin campaign, he asked that his name be removed from the several campaign-related committees on which he serves. In that letter, he said that chief among the reasons for his decision “is the choice of Sarah Palin at a time of deep national crisis.”

Fried further clarified his reasons for his move to Obama-Biden:

I admire Senator McCain and was glad to help in his campaign, and to be listed as doing so; but when I concluded that I must vote for Obama for the reason stated in my letter, I felt it wrong to appear to be recommending to others a vote that I was not prepared to cast myself. So it was more of an erasure than a public affirmation–although obviously my vote meant that I thought that Obama was preferable to McCain-Palin. I do not consider abstention a proper option.

Fried is listed in a May 6, 2008 press release on John McCain’s web site as a member of the McCain campaign’s steering committee.  As late as September 15, 2008, McCain’s campaign had Fried listed as a member of McCain’s Honest and Open Election Committee.

Thanks to our friends at Drinking Liberally in New Milford for the nod on this one.

In other campaign news, salmon fisherman Seth Kantner apologized on behalf of the people of Alaska for inflicting the diva on the lower 48:

I’m an Alaskan — born in an igloo, enjoy whale muktuk, all that — and in case you aren’t sick of our state by now, I’ll start off with an apology for one of our residents: Sarah Palin.

We Alaskans are not generally so magazine-pretty like her, nor are we so confrontational and vapid. Most of us don’t have those peachy cheeks — we have sunburn, windburn and frostbite. Our fingernails are dirty from actually gutting moose, not yakking about it. Our hands are chapped from picking thousands of salmon out of nets, not holding one up for the camera.

Mr. Kantner brushes off Palin’s claim that being mayor gave her the administrative experience to serve as President of the United States:

Tougher in Alaska? Not necessarily. Here most anyone can be dogcatcher, city planner, governor, with little or no experience. That’s one beauty of our state — although, often the only thing keeping it all working is the lubrication provided by obscene amounts of money.

Sitting on this worn-to-the-hide bearskin chair of mine, scribbling, I pause to glance at a month-old newspaper before I stuff it in the stove. Lo! — there’s yet another photo of Gov. Palin; she’s sitting in a glass office in Anchorage, with a bearskin, too, draped across the back of her expensive couch. Sarah’s wearing heels. The bear’s wearing a fake head with a plastic snarl. In the foreground on a glass table crouches something with pincers — a taxidermied king crab!

I’ll have to show this photo to my Eskimo friends I grew up with. We simply never contemplated such wanton unAlaskanness. Why not eat the damn thing? We ate this bear I’m sitting on, including the paws and jaw and fat — some of which we ate raw; some got rendered for piecrusts.

It’s worth reading the whole piece.

Eight days and counting, er, my friends.

Diva Palin ‘Going Rogue’ as McCain Campaign Collapses

Posted on by TL

From CNN:

With 10 days until Election Day, long-brewing tensions between GOP vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin and key aides to Sen. John McCain have become so intense, they are spilling out in public, sources say.

Several McCain advisers have suggested to CNN that they have become increasingly frustrated with what one aide described as Palin “going rogue.”

A Palin associate, however, said the candidate is simply trying to “bust free” of what she believes was a damaging and mismanaged roll-out.

McCain sources say Palin has gone off-message several times, and they privately wonder whether the incidents were deliberate. They cited an instance in which she labeled robocalls — recorded messages often used to attack a candidate’s opponent — “irritating” even as the campaign defended their use. Also, they pointed to her telling reporters she disagreed with the campaign’s decision to pull out of Michigan.

A second McCain source says she appears to be looking out for herself more than the McCain campaign.

“She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone,” said this McCain adviser. “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.”

There was a time when I respected John McCain, but he and Palin have built a campaign on lies.  In all honesty, there were many strong choices for the vice presidential ticket on the Republican side — as far as Republicans go.

However, McCain invited the diva to the dance, and it’s prima donna all the way to election day.

John McCain Can’t Catch a Break – Brother Calls 911 to Report Traffic

Posted on by TL

John McCain can’t catch a break: all the news coming from the McCain campaign is bad news these days.  From reports that Sarah Palin’s makeup artist is McCain’s highest paid staffer for the first part of October, new reports surface that John McCain’s brother called 911 to complain about traffic.

From the CBS 2 Chicago:

The brother of presidential candidate Sen. John McCain says he’ll withdraw from campaign activities after calling 911 to complain about traffic. Joe McCain says he’s sorry about the call.

The GOP candidate’s brother, who lives in Alexandria, Va., told Washington radio station WTOP he was returning from a campaign event in Philadelphia around 2 a.m. Saturday when he got stuck in traffic at a bridge.

Frustrated, he called 911 to figure out what was going on. He also called the Alexandria Police Department.

Say it ain’t so, Joe!

For the record, if you had been lucky enough to land the job packing makeup onto Sarah Palin’s face, you would have earned a whopping $22,800 for the first two weeks of October.

Obviously Palin’s $150,000 shopping spree wasn’t enough.

Republicans must be thrilled at this responsible use of campaign funds.

Woman Fabricated Story About Political Attack

Posted on by TL

Want to know how to get John McCain and Sarah Palin on the phone?

On Wednesday, Ashley Todd, a 20-year-old college student of College Station, Texas, said she was using an ATM at in Pittsburgh just before 9 p.m. Wednesday when a man approached her and put a knife to her throat.  Todd was in Pittsburgh campaigning for John McCain.

The report gets uglier:

Police spokeswoman Diane Richard said Todd told them the robber took $60, then became angry when he saw a McCain bumper sticker on the victim’s car. The attacker then punched and kicked the victim, before using a dull knife to scratch the letter “B” into her face, Richard said.

“She further stated that the male actor approached her from the back again and hit her in the back of her head with an object, she doesn’t know what the object was, causing her to fall to the ground where he continued to punch her and kick her and threaten to ‘teach her a lesson’ for being a McCain supporter,” Richard said.

The story made the national morning shows Thursday.  By midmorning, Pittsburgh Police said they were suspicious, and by Friday mid-afternoon, police said Todd had made the whole thing up.

From KDKA (America’s first radio station) in Pittsburgh:

Police say a campaign volunteer confessed to making up a story that a mugger attacked her and cut the letter B in her face after seeing her McCain bumper sticker.

At a news conference this afternoon, officials said they believe that Ashley Todd’s injuries were self-inflicted.

Todd, 20, of Texas, is now facing charges for filing a false report to police.

Todd initially told police that she was robbed at an ATM in Bloomfield and that the suspect became enraged and started beating her after seeing her GOP sticker on her car.

Police investigating the alleged attack, however, began to notice some inconsistencies in her story and administered a polygraph test.

There was more to the story.  According to police, Todd also alleged that she was sexually assaulted by this man.  While holding her on the ground, he fondled her:

Police spokeswoman, Diane Richard explained,

“She further stated that the male approached her from the back again and hit her in the back of her head with an object, she doesn’t know what the object was, causing her to fall to the ground where he continued to punch her and kick her and threaten to ‘teach her a lesson’ for being a McCain supporter,” Richard said.

“She also indicated she was sexually assaulted as well. She indicated that when he had her on the ground he put his hand up her blouse and started fondling her. But other than that, she says she doesn’t remember anything else. So we’re adding a sexual assault to this as well.”

A Pittsburgh police commander told KDKA Investigator Marty Griffin that Todd confessed to making up the story.

Talk about your blame-it-on-the-black-man 15 minutes of fame.

Here’s what I don’t get.  Set aside that we now know that Ms. Todd made the whole thing up, possibly mutilitating herself for effect.  Forget for a moment that this is a disturbed young woman who will someday, hopefully, look back on this with rue and wonder, “What the hell was I thinking?”

I simply don’t understand the personal response of two alleged adults from the McCain campaign:

On Thursday, The Obama-Biden campaign released a statement, commenting on the attack. The statement said, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the young woman for her to make a speedy recovery, and we hope that the person who perpetrated this crime is swiftly apprehended and brought to justice.”

The McCain-Palin campaign also released a statement saying, “The McCain campaign is aware of the incident involving one of its volunteers. Out of respect, the campaign won’t be commenting. The campaign also confirms that Senator McCain and Governor Palin have both spoken to the woman.”

McCain and Palin both spoke to her?  What did they say to Ashley the Liar?

Is that all it takes to get Senator John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin on the phone?  Didn’t the candidates think for a minute that this might be a complete fabrication?  Did the candidates investigate this situation at all?

They should have called conservative blogger Michelle Malkin first.  While I disagree with Malkin’s blanket reprimand to those of us on the left …

And those of you on the left who are now so interested in debunking despicable hate crimes might show a little more skepticism yourselves next time when similar narratives hit the news pages involving politically correct hoaxers who share your politics.

… I agree with her call for a critical eye and restraint when reports like these surface:

Final lesson: Trust your instincts. Use your brains. Stop jumping every time Drudge hypes something in Armageddon-sized font.

Amen to that!

My final thoughts are for Ms. Todd.

Go home to Texas after you’ve answered the charges you now face in Pittsburgh.  Get out of the spotlight.  Stay away from the media.  Get help if you need it.  Someday, hopefully, you’ll find that those of us on the left can be pretty forgiving.  You’re actually going to need a real job some day soon, and your future employer, who might even be an African American man, will need to look past this.

But, really, what were you thinking?

Scott McClellan Endorses Obama

Posted on by TL

I almost missed this one.  Picked up on it while perusing the Huffington Post:

Scott McClellan, President Bush’s former press secretary, says he is backing Barack Obama for president.

McClellan made the endorsement during a taping of Comedian D.L. Hughley’s new show that is premiering on CNN this weekend. The former Bush administration official said he wanted to support the candidate that has the best chance for changing the way Washington works and getting things done.

McClellan follows Gen. Colin Powell as the second former member of the Bush Administration to endorse the Senator from Illinois.

Maybe I’ll buy his book now.

McCain Fumbles in Pennsylvania: Agrees it’s Racist

Posted on by TL

John McCain fumbles in Moon Township, PA, declaring he couldn’t agree more with the sentiment that some of the people from that region are openly racist.

“You know, I think you may have noticed that Senator Obama’s supporters have been saying some pretty nasty things about Western Pennsylvania lately,” McCain told the audience in the town of Moon Township. “And you know, I couldn’t agree with them more.”

Well, golly, John.

Racists for Obama

Posted on by TL

As a native of Pennsylvania, I’m not surprised when I read things like this, but I am a bit disheartened.  Pittsburgh is still very, very segregated.  Walk into Eat’n Park on Clairton Boulevard just north of Century III Mall and you’ll hardly ever see a person of color.

It’s just that white, still.

So when I read things like this, just a little further south in Washington, PA, it saddens me still.  I’d love to see these people grow up.

From FiveThirtyEight.com:

So a canvasser goes to a woman’s door in Washington, Pennsylvania. Knocks. Woman answers. Knocker asks who she’s planning to vote for. She isn’t sure, has to ask her husband who she’s voting for. Husband is off in another room watching some game. Canvasser hears him yell back, “We’re votin’ for the n***er!”

Woman turns back to canvasser, and says brightly and matter of factly: “We’re voting for the n***er.”

There you have it.