The Tiger Woods Of American Politics

Perhaps our eight-year national nightmare of incompetence, ignorance, saber-rattling, and lack of humor will be over November 5th. In the entire Republican Convention in St. Paul George Bush’s name was mentioned—once!

But we should never count the Republican smear machine of Atwater-Rove-Davis out. Here we are, about to elect a mulatto named Barack Hussein Obama president of the United States and the machine is well-oiled. They have over 20 years of smear experience. Lee Atwater got morality and expressed sorrow for his smear tactics just before he died of cancer. Karl Rove and Rick Davis have more advanced cases of amorality.

According to the right-wing blogs, the Republican TV network known as Fox News, and the John McCain “Straight Talk” campaign, Obama is foreign-born because he was born “overseas” in Hawaii.

Some say his birth certificate cannot be found. He later attended Muslim terrorist schools in Indonesia. In sinister voice they say Obama is a secret Muslim terrorist and carries a Muslim prayer rug in the black case he always carries. It is said he even goes to the bathroom five times a day and turns toward Mecca in the stall. (I wonder if he also uses a wide stance.)

He faithfully reads Karl Marx daily instead of the Bible! Sarah Palin says Barack pals around with domestic terrorists and plots to overthrow our government in their living rooms. Some have even referred to him as a possible “Manchurian candidate” sponsored by Iran. Some admit he might be a “Christian”...but, if he is, he certainly prays to the Anti-Christ. He also is anti-American and an America hater.

How Did Obama Run Such A Good Campaign?

For twenty months I was a supporter of Hillary Clinton because of her intelligence and her experience in several levels of government. At the time I thought Barack Obama would make a tremendous vice-president candidate. I was disappointed that Hillary did not win the nomination.

But she did Barack a favor. She battled him with everything she could throw and made him a much better candidate.

Some say he is too inexperienced to be president. Others say he lacks “executive” experience, that he has never “run” anything or “made a payroll.”

But here is a young man who has run almost a flawless campaign for over two years, inspiring loyalty and hiring thousands of capable, talented people in a successful campaign operation involving over $1 billion.

In all three debates he has been the intelligent, calm, mature, unflappable individual left on the stage. He has turned John McCain into a frustrated, eye-rolling politician and a doddering, blinking old man. At times he has forgotten both the answers and the questions.

McCain’s sneering “that one” reference showed how much disdain he has for a fellow senator and how desperate his campaign is. But this time he has run into the Tiger Woods of American politics.

“You Don’t Need a Weatherman to Know Which Way the Wind Blows”

I was principal of Fargo South High School in the 1970’s during the Vietnam War, so I think I know a little about the attitudes of 18-year-olds eligible for the draft. “Hell no, we won’t go!” was the cry of protest.
John McCain probably owes Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn and the Weathermen a “thank you” for making his Hanoi Hilton stay shorter instead of calling them “domestic terrorists.”
During our misadventure in Vietnam there were protests by thousands of groups in hundreds of cities across the United States.

Remember that Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger added 20,000 more American names to the memorial wall trying to get “peace with honor”—after they knew the war was lost.

Taken from a song by Bob Dylan, the Weather Underground Group was formed by Ayers and Dohrn in 1969 to protest the Vietnam War and the lack of civil rights for minorities.

Their group bombed the U.S. capitol, the Pentagon, and other government buildings and banks. But no one was ever injured or killed. Ayers wrote this statement later: “We were very careful…to be sure we weren’t going to hurt anybody, and we never did hurt anybody. Whenever we put a bomb in a public place, we had figured out all kinds of ways ...to get people away from it, and we were remarkably successful.”

The group warned people to evacuate buildings. On March 1 of 1971, when Obama was ten, they bombed the Capitol in protest of Richard Nixon’s invasion of Laos. They bombed the Pentagon on May 19, 1972 because of a major U.S. raid on Hanoi. Other bombings were carried out because of “escalations” in the war.

Ayers and Dohrm surrendered to federal authorities in 1980 but charges against them were dismissed because of the illegal activities of J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI in gathering evidence against them and other protest groups. Two FBI agents were later found guilty of illegal acts and were fined.

After the charges were dismissed, Ayers was hired by the University of Chicago and is now a Distinguished Professor of Education. He is very active in promoting education nationally. He is also a counselor to the mayor on school reform.

Dohrn is a lawyer who is Director of Northwestern University’s Children and Family Center. Both have been praised for their civic contributions to the city of Chicago.

McCain and Palin claim they are good Christians. I guess they missed the Bible verses about forgiveness and redemption.

The Domestic Terrorist Consorts With Nixon, Reagan, and Annenberg!

I think it’s funny that both Obama and Ayers, Hyde Park area neighbors, served on the board of the Walter Annenberg Foundation with several prominent Republicans. The Foundation worked on school reform.

Annenberg, a Richard Nixon intimate, served as our ambassador to England for Tricky Dick—and also was a major financial supporter of Ronald Reagan! Annenberg must have decided that Ayers was a domestic treasure rather than a domestic terrorist.

This whole sad scene by McCain and Palin saying Obama “pals” around with “domestic terrorists” turns McCain into a very small man.

Actually, McCain seems to certify he was fifth from the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy by still believing we should have won the Vietnam War. Sure we could have—by exploding nuclear bombs in every six square miles of the country. That’s victory?

Which reminds me—someone should ask McCain what “victory” is in Iraq. He has never defined his version of victory.The British decided after 40 years they couldn’t conquer Iraq. I guess when McCain said we might be there 100 years he wasn’t kidding.

Recently a retired Army general at West Point started to criticize cadets because many had decided not to make the Army a career. An Army captain who was in the back of the room asked the general how many combat tours he had served in his 35 years of service. The general proudly said, “Two. A year in Korea and a year in Vietnam.”

The captain said, “I graduated from the Point six years ago. I have had three tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and I’m leaving for my fourth tour in a month.” Dead silence filled the room.

The Domestic Terrorism Of Boobus Minnesotus

The McCain-Palin campaign has filled the air with so many hate-filled words directed at Obama, such as “black radical,” “socialist,” and “closet communist,” I’m surprised there has not been an assassination attempt by some ring-wing wacko.

Palin used a quote from Westbrook Pegler praising “small-town” America in a “us-against-elitist” theme. Pegler was a right-wing Hearst columnist well-known for his racism and anti-Semitism.

Palin has been fed acid quotes from Rove and Co. until she is now suffering from diarrhea of the mouth.

In the late 1960’s Pegler wrote this about Bobby Kennedy: “Some white patriot of the Southern tier will spatter his spoonful of brains in public premises before the snow falls.” Guess what.

Palin and McCain’s campaign rallies always seem to turn into smackdowns. Shouts of “treason” fill the air. “Kill him!” was heard by Scranton Times-Tribune and Washington Post reporters at a McCain-Palin rally in Florida. Obama was called an Arab by some Boobus Minnesotus. She got that from a right-wing blog that said Obama was an Arab “Manchurian candidate.” If I remember, there are over two million loyal Arab-Americans in this country.

Minnesota’s 6th District Rep. Michele Bachmann became a charter member of the Boobus Minnesotus club last week on the Chris Matthews show. But voters, please return her to Congress. We sure as hell don’t want her back in Minnesota spewing her bile in St. Paul.

Colin Powell’s Redemption

Colin Powell said he was finally sent over the edge by a picture of a mother with her head on her 20-year-old son’s Arlington gravestone. Four images were engraved on the headstone—a Purple Heart, a Bronze Star, the crescent and star symbolizing his Islamc faith—and his name: Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan.

Powell said he stared at the picture for an hour, thinking of what the campaign had said about Muslims in general and Barack Obama in particular. He told Maureen Dowd of the NY Times in an interview: “Who could debate that this kid lying in Arlington with Christian and Jewish and nondenominational buddies was not a fine American?”

Then he endorsed Barack Obama.

By the way, I thought the endorsement of John McCain’s candidacy by the Fargo Forum was over the top. Some of their frothing, panicky statements sounded as if the editorial board had hit the meth:

“His (Obama) domestic policy tilts socialistically toward unprecedented government control (WOW!) of almost every aspect of American life.”

Another one: “Obama’s foreign policy is dangerously naive (So what if half a dozen former secretaries of state developed the policies!).”

Forum boys, take a couple of Prozac or tall cool ones, have a good nap, and write another one.

P.S.: John McCain got another key endorsement yesterday. It came from a website used by Al Queda: “Al Queda will have to support McCain in the coming election.” Joseph Nye, lately of our National Intelligence Council, said, “From their perspective, a continuation of Bush policies is best for recruiting.”