Friday 29th of March 2024

illusion vs allusion .....

illusion vs allusion .....

Senators John McCain and Barack Obama are confronting a sharply abbreviated general election campaign season, the product of the late nominating conventions and a boom in early voting in tightly contested states.

This shortened timetable is forcing both campaigns to recalibrate the pace of television advertisements, accelerate voter turnout operations and tailor the candidates’ travelling schedules to accommodate states where voting is imminent. 

While it is just eight weeks until Election Day, even that schedule overstates how much time the presidential nominees have to win over voters. More than 30 states allow some form of early voting, forcing the campaigns to deal with a rolling series of Election Days. Iowa, a crucial state, will begin voting on Sept. 23, less than three weeks after the end of the Republican convention marked the traditional start of the general election sprint. 

“I think it’s unprecedented, a whole new way of looking at elections,” said Tad Devine, a Democratic strategist who is not involved with either campaign. “A combination of the late conventions and the way early voting is becoming even earlier around the country is going to have a big, big impact.” 

Aides to Mr. McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Mr. Obama, Democrat of Illinois, are devising state-by-state advertising strategies so that their close-the-deal messages — typically kept in reserve until the last 10 days before Election Day — are released to coincide with when people are reaching their final decisions. The old advertising formula was to begin after Labor Day with soft biographical advertisements introducing the candidate, followed by commercials drawing sharp contrasts with the other side, and closing with the strongest argument. But that formula is obsolete, aides to both candidates said. 

The travelling schedules of the candidates, spouses and running mates are being adjusted so they front-load the time spent in states where, practically speaking, there is not much time before people begin to vote. Both Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain were in Ohio on Tuesday, on-the-ground evidence of the fact that this state will for the first time permit early voting in presidential elections. Voting starts Sept. 30. 

Turnout operations that once would not have kicked into high-gear until the weekend before Election Day are about to be revved up and will remain in operation to accommodate the elongated period of early voting, posing new expenses and complications. The campaigns are using computer models — studying past voting trends along with consumer and demographic data — to try to identify people most likely to be early voters, and press them to vote. 

“We are now less than 30 days from people voting,” said Steve Hildebrand, a senior adviser to Mr. Obama. “Easily one-third of the people are going to vote before Election Day.” 

Campaigns Adjust Their Pace To Meet Short Season 

meanwhile …..

Democrats may not want to believe it but there is fresh evidence that the addition of Sarah Palin, the 'hockey mom' Governor of Alaska, to John McCain's ticket is winning him women voters in droves. 

In a tidal shift that could prove decisive, enormous numbers of women who previously favoured Barack Obama have had their heads turned since the introduction of Mrs Palin, according to a new ABC/Washington Post poll. 

The Palin phenomenon shows no signs of fading, in spite of a drip-drip of news revelations that hardly flatter her. Yesterday, the Washington Post reported that after becoming Governor in 2006, Mrs Palin started charging taxpayers a 'per diem' allowance for days she spent in her private home in the town of Wasilla, where she was once mayor, instead of in the mansion in Juneau that she has never cared for. 

Women Voters Flock To McCain Despite New Palin Disclosures 

whilst elsewhere …..

Last week, Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska and vice presidential candidate, introduced herself to the Republican National Convention by asking a question: What’s the difference between a pit bull and a hockey mom, which is how she typically describes herself. 

“Lipstick,” she said, in the line of the night. 

Here in Lebanon today, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois also made his own lipstick allusion, drawing on a very old aphorism as he belittled attempts by Senator John McCain and Republicans to embrace the change mantle that has been central to his campaign.

“John McCain says he’s about change, too – except for economic policy, health care policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy and Karl Rove-style politics,” Mr. Obama said. “That’s not change. That’s just calling the same thing something different. You can put lipstick on a pig – it’s still a pig.” 

Shades Of Lipstick Tint A Race

and for anyone interested, here’s a US Election Issues Guide

fantasy link

Palin Links Iraq to Sept. 11 In Talk to Troops in Alaska

By Anne E. Kornblut
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, September 12, 2008; A01

FORT WAINWRIGHT, Alaska, Sept. 11 -- Gov. Sarah Palin linked the war in Iraq with the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, telling an Iraq-bound brigade of soldiers that included her son that they would "defend the innocent from the enemies who planned and carried out and rejoiced in the death of thousands of Americans."

The idea that the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein helped al-Qaeda plan the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a view once promoted by Bush administration officials, has since been rejected even by the president himself. But it is widely agreed that militants allied with al-Qaeda have taken root in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion.

"America can never go back to that false sense of security that came before September 11, 2001," she said at the deployment ceremony, which drew hundreds of military families who walked from their homes on the sprawling post to the airstrip where the service was held.

Palin's return to Alaska coincided with her first extensive interview since she became the Republican vice presidential nominee. In the interview, with ABC News correspondent Charles Gibson, she was confronted with questions about the U.S. relationship with Russia and her fitness for office, and she appeared to struggle when asked to define the "Bush doctrine" on foreign policy. Palin drew repeated follow-up questions from Gibson about whether she believed in the right to "anticipatory self-defense" and crossing other nations' borders to take action against threats.

"I believe that America has to exercise all options in order to stop the terrorists who are hellbent on destroying America and our allies," she said after several questions on the topic. "We have got to have all options out there on the table."

That response put her in line with a view expressed by Sen. Barack Obama, now the Democratic presidential nominee, in August 2007, when he stirred controversy by saying that if he were elected president, he would be willing to attack inside Pakistan with or without approval from the Pakistani government. "If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will," Obama said. At the time, McCain called Obama's comments "naive."

despotic Iron fist inside an iron glove

Sarah "the tyrant" Palin...

Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin is a tyrannical woman who pursues vendettas and fires people who cross her, The New York Times said.

This picture emerges from a review of public records and her two years as Governor of Alaska as well as interviews with 60 Republican and Democratic legislators and local officials, the newspaper said.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain has seen his popularity rise since he picked Mrs Palin as his running mate 2½ weeks ago.

But critics have called into question her qualifications because of her lack of experience in national politics as well as on the international stage.

It has also been disclosed the Congress in Alaska is looking into claims she fired a senior state employee because he refused to dismiss her brother-in-law, who had separated from her sister.

This was not an isolated case, reported the newspaper, which said Mrs Palin surrounded herself with friends who did what they were told.

seen toon at top...

private government...

FBI investigators are examining an email account belonging to vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, after hackers broke into it and posted the information on the internet.

Screenshots and photographs taken from the account — which was hosted by email provider Yahoo.com — were posted online yesterday, after being sent to the whistleblowing website Wikileaks.

The images showed a sequence of messages between Palin — the governor of Alaska and surprise choice as Republican vice-presidential nominee — and her state government aides, as well as a draft letter to California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Although some of the emails — from an account held at gov.palin@yahoo.com — appeared to be private, Wikileaks defended its decision by saying that Palin was violating standards on keeping public records by sending official emails through a private account.

"Governor Palin has come under criticism for using private email accounts to conduct government business and in the process avoid transparency laws," the website said. "The list of correspondence, together with the account name, appears to reinforce the criticism."

The hack has been attributed to an activist group known as Anonymous, a loose grouping of internet pranksters, vigilantes and anarchists which has previously locked horns with scientologists and internet paedophiles.

Federal investigators are believed to be examining details of the hack to determine the identities of those behind the attack — though forensic experts have said it could take some time to track down the culprits. Last night the Wikileaks website appeared to have gone down, though the reason remains unclear.

no need for lipstick...

Bill Clinton says he understands Palin's appeal

Bill Clinton said Monday he understands why Sarah Palin is popular in the heartland: because people relate to her.

By KAREN MATTHEWS

Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK —

Bill Clinton said Monday he understands why Sarah Palin is popular in the heartland: because people relate to her.

"I come from Arkansas, I get why she's hot out there," Clinton said. "Why she's doing well."

Speaking to reporters before his Clinton Global Initiative meeting, the former president described Palin's appeal by adding, "People look at her, and they say, 'All those kids. Something that happens in everybody's family. I'm glad she loves her daughter and she's not ashamed of her. Glad that girl's going around with her boyfriend. Glad they're going to get married.'"

Clinton said voters would think, "I like that little Down syndrome kid. One of them lives down the street. They're wonderful children. They're wonderful people. And I like the idea that this guy does those long-distance races. Stayed in the race for 500 miles with a broken arm. My kind of guy."

satire for money and glory?

If America wakes up on the morning of Wednesday 5 November to discover that John McCain has taken the White House and a moose-shooting former beauty queen from Alaska is now vice-president of the most powerful nation on Earth, there will be only one stronghold of the liberal elite that isn't reduced to outright mourning.

That will be the New York headquarters of NBC in midtown Manhattan, where a select handful of TV executives will be punching the air, re-examining their share options and celebrating the fact that their employee Tina Fey can carry on as the hottest property in US broadcasting for another four years.

Fey is a comedian, actress, and head writer for NBC's hit shows Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock, who won no fewer than three gongs at the recent Emmy Awards. More pertinently, she is responsible for the hugely funny impersonations of Sarah Palin that have propelled SNL to record ratings, become some of the most-watched video clips on the internet, and driven a fair portion of the agenda of the presidential election race in the process.

Clad in thick spectacles and pastel-coloured jackets, and helped by their uncanny physical similarities, Fey and her merciless send-ups of the former beauty queen from Wasilla have done more to undermine Palin's campaign for the vice-presidency than the efforts of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and the entire Democratic Party attack machine combined.

The outwardly-shy 38-year-old is now feted by the Washington press corps for providing a valuable satirical counterpoint to the Republican campaign, successfully deconstructing such central pivots of their ticket as Palin's claim that Alaska's physical proximity to Alaska [sic, meaning Russia] makes her an expert on international affairs.

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read more at The Independent...