Obama Puts Bush and McCain On Blast

via barackobama.com

"George Bush and John McCain have a lot to answer for..."

Tell me about it. Obama just nails both of these fools. The man is all up in their ish!

McCain Caught Contradicting Himself Again. This Time On Hamas

h/t jedreport

McCain is losing his bearings. And i'm not saying that because he's old. I'm saying it because he's wrong. I can't wait for his propped up, manufactured image of "honor" and integrity collapse under the weight of his own opportunism.

His position on torture, the religious right, campaign finance, the success of the war and now talking to Hamas.

All that's left is the shell of a leader.

This is going to be fun.

Cindy McCain Divests from Sudan

Wow -- you have to wonder that John and Cindy McCain had to be exposed by the press before the family decided to stop profiting from a genocidal, criminal regime linked in the past to Al-Qaeda. Ummmm, right... especially since Barack Obama divested all Sudan-related stocks or funds last year.

Several Democratic and Republican candidates sold off similar investments during the primary season. In Senator McCain’s home state of Arizona, Gov. Janet Napolitano signed into law a bill that would “divest pension funds from those targeted corporations that materially assist the Sudanese government in carrying out the genocide in Darfur. The bill targets foreign companies involved in mineral extraction, weapon sales, and the oil industry.”

Last week, Mrs. McCain, the heiress to the Phoenix-based distributorship of the Anheuser-Busch beer company, said she would never release her tax returns — which are filed separately from that of her husband’s — in part to protect her children.

Cindy's investments in the mutual funds were listed on disclosure forms John was required to file as a senator and a presidential candidate. I don't know about you, but I sure would be interested in more scrutiny of the McCain investment portfolio. What is Cindy McCain trying to hide? I wonder, for example, if there are any investments in Halliburton, Blackwater or other defense contracting companies doing well as a result of the conflict in Iraq? Are the McCains making any money from promoting 100 years of war in Iraq? Just curious... Cuz we all know it's all 'bout the Benjamins with Republicans.

Obama & Working Class White Voters: 'Problem' or not?

Since we know the 'memo' from Camp Clinton will be about Obama's 'problem' with Working Class Whites, maybe it's time to look at some hard numbers, from the latest ABC/Washington Post Presidential Polling:

But primaries only tell us so much about general elections. In our latest ABC/Post poll, testing each of the Democrats against John McCain, there’s a shortfall among less-educated whites for both: McCain leads Obama by 12 points in this group, Clinton by 8.

Obama, with his upscale appeal, does better among better-educated whites: McCain’s just +3 vs. Obama, compared with McCain’s 12-point advantage against Clinton among college-educated whites. That accounts for Obama’s better showing against McCain overall, 51-44 percent in our poll, vs. 49-46 percent in a Clinton-McCain matchup.



Whites, no college
Obama------40%
McCain ----52

Clinton----44%
McCain-----52

Whites, college grads
Obama ------47%
McCain ---- 50

Clinton-----42
McCain------54

There are other potential impacts of race and socioeconomic status. As we noted in our poll analysis yesterday, 17 percent of less-educated whites say they’re at least somewhat uncomfortable with the idea of an African-American president; among better-educated whites that declines to 4 percent. As noted, there’s a similar effect on comfort with a woman president – and McCain’s age is a far bigger negative than either of these. Each of the candidates has room for some consciousness-raising on these concerns.

It’s also worth noting that the latte-vs.-lunch bucket effect has not been entirely consistent in all primaries this year. Obama won less-educated whites in the Vermont and Wisconsin primaries, was +2 in Utah and came within 4 points in his home state of Illinois (although in each he again did better with upscale whites).

It’s fair for the Obama camp to point out that he doesn’t do significantly worse against McCain among working-class whites than Clinton does, and that he does better with their upscale counterparts. And Obama’s numbers are nothing like John Kerry’s and Al Gore’s; they lost working-class whites to George W. Bush by 24 points and 17 points, respectively.

Rest of article at link above.

Is the situation dire? No.
Hopeless? No.
Does Obama have work to do with this group? Yes.

But, considering that Obama hasn't even truly begin the General Election campaign in earnest, stop letting folks lie and overstate his ' problem' with Working Class Whites.

Obama’s White Support Similar to Kerry’s in 2004

From Gallup:

Obama’s Support Similar to Kerry’s in 2004

Similar levels of support exist across white, black, blue-collar votersUSA Democrats Election 2008 Republicans Americas Northern America by Frank Newport

PRINCETON, NJ -- Barack Obama's current level of support among white voters in a head-to-head matchup against John McCain is no worse than John Kerry's margin of support among whites against George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election.

Much of the talk following Tuesday's Indiana and North Carolina primaries has focused on just how electable Obama -- now the highly probable nominee -- will be in the general election. The Clinton campaign has argued that Obama's weaknesses among white voters and blue-collar voters will hurt him against McCain in the fall.

But it appears that the way Obama stacks up against McCain at this point is similar to the way in which Kerry performed against Bush in 2004 within several key racial, educational, religious, and gender subgroups. That is, the basic underlying structure of the general-election campaign this year does not appear to be markedly different from that of the 2004 election. This conclusion is based on an analysis of exit-poll data from 2004 compared to the Obama-McCain matchup in 4,000 Gallup Poll Daily tracking interviews conducted during the first five days of May.

And once he's declared the nominee, then he'll be free to expand upon the coalition that he's already built. Enough of the race-baiting BS coming from Camp Clinton.

McCain Admits Iraq War Was for OIL?

Hat tip - DailyKos.

From First Read:

McCain: Iraq war was for oil? Posted: Friday, May 02, 2008 2:07 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under: 2008, McCain
From NBC/NJ's Adam Aigner-Treworgy

At the conclusion of a town hall held this morning outside in Denver, McCain decided to toss in a plug for his upcoming energy policy rollout. But in the midst of decrying the dangers of Americans reliance on foreign oil, McCain seemed to suggest that this reliance caused the current struggle in Iraq.

"My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will -- that will then prevent us -- that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East,” McCain said.

Um....folks.....is this an admission from the Republican Nominee that this debacle, which has cost us 4,000 Precious Lives, Permanently maimed tens of thousands more, is fast approaching 1 TRILLION DOLLARS IN COSTS...

Was all about OIL?

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm..............................