Published on Friday, September 12, 2008 by The Guardian/UK
The World's Verdict Will Be Harsh if the US Rejects the Man It Yearns For
An America that disdains Obama for his global support risks turning current anti-Bush feeling into something far worse
by Jonathan Freedland

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/09/12-1

"If Sarah Palin defies the conventional wisdom that says elections are determined by the top of the ticket, and somehow wins this for McCain, what will be the reaction? Yes, blue-state America will go into mourning once again, feeling estranged in its own country. A generation of young Americans - who back Obama in big numbers - will turn cynical, concluding that politics doesn't work after all. And, most depressing, many African-Americans will decide that if even Barack Obama - with all his conspicuous gifts - could not win, then no black man can ever be elected president.

But what of the rest of the world? This is the reaction I fear most. For Obama has stirred an excitement around the globe unmatched by any American politician in living memory. Polling in Germany, France, Britain and Russia shows that Obama would win by whopping majorities, with the pattern repeated in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. If November 4 were a global ballot, Obama would win it handsomely. If the free world could choose its leader, it would be Barack Obama.

The crowd of 200,000 that rallied to hear him in Berlin in July did so not only because of his charisma, but also because they know he, like the majority of the world's population, opposed the Iraq war. McCain supported it, peddling the lie that Saddam was linked to 9/11. Non-Americans sense that Obama will not ride roughshod over the international system but will treat alliances and global institutions seriously: McCain wants to bypass the United Nations in favour of a US-friendly League of Democracies. McCain might talk a good game on climate change, but a repeated floor chant at the Republican convention was "Drill, baby, drill!", as if the solution to global warming were not a radical rethink of the US's entire energy system but more offshore oil rigs.

If Americans choose McCain, they will be turning their back on the rest of the world, choosing to show us four more years of the Bush-Cheney finger. And I predict a deeply unpleasant shift.

. . . . For America to make a decision as grave as this one - while the planet boils and with the US fighting two wars - on the trivial basis that a hockey mom is likable and seems down to earth, would be to convey a lack of seriousness, a fleeing from reality, that does indeed suggest a nation in, to quote Weisberg, "historical decline". Let's not forget, McCain's campaign manager boasts that this election is "not about the issues."

Of course I know that even to mention Obama's support around the world is to hurt him. Incredibly, that large Berlin crowd damaged Obama at home, branding him the "candidate of Europe" and making him seem less of a patriotic American. But what does that say about today's America, that the world's esteem is now unwanted? If Americans reject Obama, they will be sending the clearest possible message to the rest of us - and, make no mistake, we shall hear it."

Quick! Let's have a quick response by Obama and Biden, begun by 4 or 5 sentences on how AWSUM and HONRABLE John McCain is! That'll help!

Why do people act surprised? This is some seriously evil shit.

honestly folks, we CAN fight back! Here's how:

http://freewayblogger.blogspot.com/2008/09/these-are-signs-i-put-up-toda...

free speech - it's what they gave us to SAVE this country. we just gotta use it! the above was the work of ONE GUY in ONE DAY! imagine if there were more of us...

The only reason the reslugs have not been branded as a criminal/terrorist organization is because their bought and paid for minions are running the justice dept.

That has the stench of Rove written all over it. There's your pejorative: Rove.

Can we get audio of one (or more) of these calls?

Get it into the news cycle, and draw attention to it. That's the only way to counteract it.

In fact, if the Dems win Congress again, they should pass legislation making push polls illegal, so that the FBI can trace calls like that, and arrest and charge the people who are behind them. Push polling is not freedom of speech, it is sedition.

What was the next question? Would the lady be fearful of Obama if he had killed little puppies?

McCain is also sending out ads here in Florida and inside the ad are two little cards that his campaign encourages you to send in to receive an absentee ballot.

My husband and I are registered Democrats. This ad was addressed to my husband. One of the little cards has his return name and address on it, the other has no return name and address on it.

Had I been so inclined, I might well have sent the other little card in expecting that my name and return address was on it. The way I see that working is, had I signed the card, and given my birthday date as requested and proceeded to mail it, sans return address. I would have gone on record as requesting an absentee ballot, but in reality never received one. So when I went to the polls to vote, they would have me on record as requesting an absentee ballot therefore refusing to allow me to vote.

I don't know if this is my paranoia working overtime or what. I just have never received a political ad in the mail, encouraging me to vote via absentee ballot and also providing me with with an instrument to do so. Seems eerily strange to me, all things considered.

We should start our own push polling:

Would your opinion of John McCain change if you knew that he had surrendered military secrets to the North Vietnamese and confessed to war crimes?

Would your opinion of John McCain change if you knew that he had been unfaithful to his first wife on multiple occassion, including with his current wife?

Would your opinion of John McCain change if you knew that he had knowinglied about his record in Washington in order to advance his political ambition to be president?

The only difference is that all of the above are true!

John McCain - NOPE

Liberal AND Proud @ 9:

Karl looks like he's putting on weight. It would be tragedy if he suffered congestive heart failure.

Actually, it wouldnt.

no more proof needed that mccain and palin are bush and cheney all over again.

ChrisM70 @ 17:

sleazy.

You combine this with the ad placed by Google on this very website asking people, "Who's more likely to cheat: Obama or McCain?" and has a picture of them AND their wives suggesting a contest over who's more unfaithful, you have to wonder just how low can our political discourse go?

(BTW, I am not condemning C&L for this ad - I know that they have no control over which ads are placed on the site, I just found this ad VERY distasteful.)

Ma, Ma where's my pa?

....

Gone to the White House ha, ha, ha.

President Cleveland's rolling in his grave at the thought that this is low-level discourse.

Can you say President Todd Palin?

This smells of desperation. I myself, got one of those"Obsession" C.D's in my newspapers. If American's are going to fooled by the 'FEAR' card again, than God save us all.

if this surprises you then haven't been doing this long.

what the fuck did you expect? the corporate whore party has no plan and no clue. did you think they would just sit on thier hands?

The Corporate Right is trying to create a permanent Republican one-party state in America. The rest of the world may shake their heads in disgust if McCain wins, without realizing that they're next in line. The Republicans are positioning themselves to claim that a McCain win is due to "voting booth racism," when in fact it will be due to rigged voting machine results.

The next step after a stolen election will be revolution.

Robert Broughton @ 27:

They're desperate. They know they will be prosecuted for war crimes if they lose.

We can only hope, or perhaps some other nation will pick them up like they did to Pinochet.
By the way, are you from S. Florida?

CMINCA @ 2:

Published on Friday, September 12, 2008 by The Guardian/UK
The World's Verdict Will Be Harsh if the US Rejects the Man It Yearns For
An America that disdains Obama for his global support risks turning current anti-Bush feeling into something far worse
by Jonathan Freedland

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/09/12-1

"If Sarah Palin defies the conventional wisdom that says elections are determined by the top of the ticket, and somehow wins this for McCain, what will be the reaction? Yes, blue-state America will go into mourning once again, feeling estranged in its own country. A generation of young Americans - who back Obama in big numbers - will turn cynical, concluding that politics doesn't work after all. And, most depressing, many African-Americans will decide that if even Barack Obama - with all his conspicuous gifts - could not win, then no black man can ever be elected president.

But what of the rest of the world? This is the reaction I fear most. For Obama has stirred an excitement around the globe unmatched by any American politician in living memory. Polling in Germany, France, Britain and Russia shows that Obama would win by whopping majorities, with the pattern repeated in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. If November 4 were a global ballot, Obama would win it handsomely. If the free world could choose its leader, it would be Barack Obama.

The crowd of 200,000 that rallied to hear him in Berlin in July did so not only because of his charisma, but also because they know he, like the majority of the world's population, opposed the Iraq war. McCain supported it, peddling the lie that Saddam was linked to 9/11. Non-Americans sense that Obama will not ride roughshod over the international system but will treat alliances and global institutions seriously: McCain wants to bypass the United Nations in favour of a US-friendly League of Democracies. McCain might talk a good game on climate change, but a repeated floor chant at the Republican convention was "Drill, baby, drill!", as if the solution to global warming were not a radical rethink of the US's entire energy system but more offshore oil rigs.

If Americans choose McCain, they will be turning their back on the rest of the world, choosing to show us four more years of the Bush-Cheney finger. And I predict a deeply unpleasant shift.

. . . . For America to make a decision as grave as this one - while the planet boils and with the US fighting two wars - on the trivial basis that a hockey mom is likable and seems down to earth, would be to convey a lack of seriousness, a fleeing from reality, that does indeed suggest a nation in, to quote Weisberg, "historical decline". Let's not forget, McCain's campaign manager boasts that this election is "not about the issues."

Of course I know that even to mention Obama's support around the world is to hurt him. Incredibly, that large Berlin crowd damaged Obama at home, branding him the "candidate of Europe" and making him seem less of a patriotic American. But what does that say about today's America, that the world's esteem is now unwanted? If Americans reject Obama, they will be sending the clearest possible message to the rest of us - and, make no mistake, we shall hear it."

And that's why i'm pretty ambivalent toward the outcome of this election. An Obama presidency would be a total turn to the left, would prolly begin a new era in which, hopefully, either the democratic party would be purged of it's "centrist" & take on the role of a true workers party or permissive liberalism would lead to the growth & expansion of third parties.
A McCain-Palin presidency would be a clarion call to world revolution. The exploitive powers would be so concentrated & so obvious for all to see the entire world proletariat would be united against a common enemy.

This is the win at any cost, wedge issue and push polling used to denigrate and smear Obama. This is the accepted route for the repigs. This is what they do. They go after the "low information voter" ie the "sheeple" with lies. Knowing that the MSM will not respond forcefully because they have all been corrupted and co-opted into the repig worldview and knowing that counterpunch ads from Obama have, so far, been ineffectual. Welcome to american politics in the 21st century. The repigs know that the Authoritarian followers will believe whatever McCain puts out. McCain, who used to be an honerable man has let ambition and greed for power totally blind himself to what he did when he accepted Rove and company into his campaign. He could very well win by just ignoring the last 8 years as if they never happened. The MSM will not-as a whole-expose the lies, so McCain and Palin will continue to tell them. They will cry victim at every turn thus making the media an accessory to his campaign. God help us if he wins. Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups

John J @ 35:

What makes people vote Republican?

What makes people vote Republican? Why in particular do working class and rural Americans usually vote for pro-business Republicans when their economic interests would seem better served by Democratic policies? We psychologists have been examining the origins of ideology ever since Hitler sent us Germany's best psychologists, and we long ago reported that strict parenting and a variety of personal insecurities work together to turn people against liberalism, diversity, and progress. But now that we can map the brains, genes, and unconscious attitudes of conservatives, we have refined our diagnosis: conservatism is a partially heritable personality trait that predisposes some people to be cognitively inflexible, fond of hierarchy, and inordinately afraid of uncertainty, change, and death. People vote Republican because Republicans offer "moral clarity"—a simple vision of good and evil that activates deep seated fears in much of the electorate. Democrats, in contrast, appeal to reason with their long-winded explorations of policy options for a complex world.

For Confused Liberals

IOTW, they disagree with us because it's in their genes. Political disagreement must be genetic.

I call Godwin and state that a Mr. Adolf Hitler would have agreed with you when he funneled his political opponents into the gas chambers.

This is Europe calling. If McCain and the GOP steal this election, America will become a pariah nation in the eyes of the world. Not just misguided. Not just unfortunate. Irredeemably fucking stupid, greedy and evil!

Get this straight once and for all. We do not hate America. We loathe and despise BushCo and the neo-cons. And now it's time for you to give a damn. Get up off your asses and take your country back from these sleazebag criminals. Your freedom and our fervent desire for a peaceful world are what's at stake here.

Empirical America will evolve with John McCain going into office 1/20/09. We better begin stockpiling weapons for the revolution, because it will be bloody.

Surging Blue Lensman @ 45:

No explanation as to why Obama gave the PLO money???

No explanation because there is no validity to the statement. It is a republican LIE!

General Pavel Rennenkampf Xocoyoztin @ 44:

John J @ 35:

What makes people vote Republican?

What makes people vote Republican? Why in particular do working class and rural Americans usually vote for pro-business Republicans when their economic interests would seem better served by Democratic policies? We psychologists have been examining the origins of ideology ever since Hitler sent us Germany's best psychologists, and we long ago reported that strict parenting and a variety of personal insecurities work together to turn people against liberalism, diversity, and progress. But now that we can map the brains, genes, and unconscious attitudes of conservatives, we have refined our diagnosis: conservatism is a partially heritable personality trait that predisposes some people to be cognitively inflexible, fond of hierarchy, and inordinately afraid of uncertainty, change, and death. People vote Republican because Republicans offer "moral clarity"—a simple vision of good and evil that activates deep seated fears in much of the electorate. Democrats, in contrast, appeal to reason with their long-winded explorations of policy options for a complex world.

For Confused Liberals

IOTW, they disagree with us because it's in their genes. Political disagreement must be genetic.

I call Godwin and state that a Mr. Adolf Hitler would have agreed with you when he funneled his political opponents into the gas chambers.

Q: Why are you a republican?

A: Because it’s easier than thinking for myself.
A: Because Jesus wears an American flag lapel pin.
A: Because gays in the military take the dignity out of killing (h.t. to “askarepublican.com”)
A: That little kid in the Bruce Willis movie sees dead people; I see stem cells.
A: Because the Constitution is for pussies.
A: Because the Democrats for the most part have zero testicular fortitude (O.K. That one’s true).
A: Because the only good immigrant is the one cleaning my pool.
A: Because I might have to vote for a black man for president otherwise.
A: Because I love that other people’s kids die for my right to call anyone who disagrees with me unpatriotic.
A: Because the terrorists want to sue the telecomms.
A: Because unless you plan on marrying him, little boy sex ROCKS.
A: Because nothing keeps you warm at night like being tightly wrapped up in the American flag while burning the Bill of Rights.

The PLO?? I thought we all were supposed to be supporting the PLO and hating Hamas now.
Why not Hamas? Maybe they thought they wouldn't be able to get away with that one.

This is odd.

McSame is LEADING in FLorida by about 5 or 6 points the last time I looked. You'd think they would do this in Michigan or Virginia or Colorado where Obama is doing a bit better.

Karl Rove is losing his magic touch I think.

The push polling is likely being done by the same people who sent emails throughout the Jewish community saying that Obama hates Israel and that he is a Muslim. I cannot tell you how many of my parents' friends - located in Florida, Pennsylvania, etc... - received those emails and believed them! Do not underestimate these people - they are evil and will do whatever they have to in order to win. They cannot run on the issues since they do not have anything to run on - other than Obama's race.

upchuck @ 47:

Politics is all about power and control. It's a dog eat dog world at the top; you do not get to the top by being nice or playing fair. I don't understand why the Democrats are afraid to run the Keating 5 adds. We have a major banking scandal unfolding. Timing is everything and it doesn't get any better than this.

your absolutely right. i appreciate taking the high
road but winning is everything right now. with these
financial institutions getting bailed out and going under
maybe telling the keating five is good timing.

Speaking as a Canadian, you Americans who always vote down party lines, always voting for whichever party your "Gran-pappy" voted for, you really scare me. Seriously consider where the candidate stands on the real issues. Demand that your media ask real questions and get real answers. You people are like the very drunk guy that wants to drive home drunk and won't listen to anyone else who's trying to get the keys out of your hand. Stop making stupid decisions while you're so intoxicated. It's like you've been intoxicated with fear since 9/11. The whole country has not been able to think straight since then.

Roger Stone much?

I wish the NVA had kept him.

enough with the whining. THIS IS WHY THE REPUGS WIN. They fight dirty. The only way to counter is too fight back. Restart the mccain black baby rumors is the only answer. People are stupid enough to believe anything. If this seems beneath the dems to do this. fine. Enjoy a McCain presidency. Fight or lose.

kasinca @ 61:

General Pavel Rennenkampf Xocoyoztin @ 49:

Joe Schmo @ 46:

This is Europe calling. If McCain and the GOP steal this election, America will become a pariah nation in the eyes of the world. Not just misguided. Not just unfortunate. Irredeemably fucking stupid, greedy and evil!

Heh, quite a lot of nerve you assholes have in criticizing us considering that we and the Russians had to bail you out of the mess you got into with the Fuhrer. The Russians saved ya'll's bacon militarily, we did it economically.

And now you assholes run scared of Russia and you run scared of us too.

Stop with the self righeousness. He is telling us to wake up and fight back. What you defend blindly is destroying the country that bailed Europe out. No nation goes down from attacks from the Hunns. Nations perish from within. Look at the headlines. We are sinking fast from the leadership of the GOP and McSame is lying at will and morons are believing him and voting against their own self interest. Waving a flag as if you are a cheerleader is insanity. This is about our existence. We must stand up to the fascists in the GOP and defeat them at all levels and that means throwing bums like McSame out of office. I am a Vietnam Veteran and I could give a sh*t less about his service. Hell that was forty years ago. What damage has he and his party of deregulators done our country in the forty years subsequent to his POW status. Wake up!

No nation goes down from the Huns?

What happened to the Roman Empire, then?

All I'm stating is that he's got a lot of balls for stating that Europe considers America stupid and greedy and evil when it took the US and the USSR to bail it out. Without either of those two countries, he'd likely be either dead or a willing servant of the current Fuhrer of the Greater Germanic Empire.

I think the GOP is a disaster. I don't, however, dehumanize them and their rank-and-file. I'm a better human being than that.

General Pavel Rennenkampf Xocoyoztin @ 5:

CMINCA @ 2:

Published on Friday, September 12, 2008 by The Guardian/UK
The World's Verdict Will Be Harsh if the US Rejects the Man It Yearns For
An America that disdains Obama for his global support risks turning current anti-Bush feeling into something far worse
by Jonathan Freedland

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/09/12-1

"If Sarah Palin defies the conventional wisdom that says elections are determined by the top of the ticket, and somehow wins this for McCain, what will be the reaction? Yes, blue-state America will go into mourning once again, feeling estranged in its own country. A generation of young Americans - who back Obama in big numbers - will turn cynical, concluding that politics doesn't work after all. And, most depressing, many African-Americans will decide that if even Barack Obama - with all his conspicuous gifts - could not win, then no black man can ever be elected president.

But what of the rest of the world? This is the reaction I fear most. For Obama has stirred an excitement around the globe unmatched by any American politician in living memory. Polling in Germany, France, Britain and Russia shows that Obama would win by whopping majorities, with the pattern repeated in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. If November 4 were a global ballot, Obama would win it handsomely. If the free world could choose its leader, it would be Barack Obama.

The crowd of 200,000 that rallied to hear him in Berlin in July did so not only because of his charisma, but also because they know he, like the majority of the world's population, opposed the Iraq war. McCain supported it, peddling the lie that Saddam was linked to 9/11. Non-Americans sense that Obama will not ride roughshod over the international system but will treat alliances and global institutions seriously: McCain wants to bypass the United Nations in favour of a US-friendly League of Democracies. McCain might talk a good game on climate change, but a repeated floor chant at the Republican convention was "Drill, baby, drill!", as if the solution to global warming were not a radical rethink of the US's entire energy system but more offshore oil rigs.

If Americans choose McCain, they will be turning their back on the rest of the world, choosing to show us four more years of the Bush-Cheney finger. And I predict a deeply unpleasant shift.

. . . . For America to make a decision as grave as this one - while the planet boils and with the US fighting two wars - on the trivial basis that a hockey mom is likable and seems down to earth, would be to convey a lack of seriousness, a fleeing from reality, that does indeed suggest a nation in, to quote Weisberg, "historical decline". Let's not forget, McCain's campaign manager boasts that this election is "not about the issues."

Of course I know that even to mention Obama's support around the world is to hurt him. Incredibly, that large Berlin crowd damaged Obama at home, branding him the "candidate of Europe" and making him seem less of a patriotic American. But what does that say about today's America, that the world's esteem is now unwanted? If Americans reject Obama, they will be sending the clearest possible message to the rest of us - and, make no mistake, we shall hear it."

Didn't we form our own damn country the last time someone else tried to tell the colonials what to do?

Real smart move that SOB made.

It is this mentality that keeps us in the dark ages. Do you not understand what the leader of the free world means? Or do you not consider international relations important? I suppose being a perpetual war maverick is preferred over international diplomacy and peace. The world is stunned at how gullible and stupid Americans are and you continue to prove this point with this post.

-
The MSM is the key

They obviously love bad presidents, bad policies, and bad news....it's their bread and butter. Why do you think little cutie and rightwing shill Contessa Brewer shows a McCain ad without mentioning all the lies in it ?
-

General Pavel Rennenkampf Xocoyoztin @