CAMPAIGN 2008

Dangling Conversations

Posing the moral questions facing the next American president.

 
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Member Comments
  • Posted By: DHFabian @ 11/28/2008 3:15:00 PM

    Comment: Where is the discussion about US poverty? The talk stops at "middle class". Our economic disparities are not the result of people being "lazy". Poverty is hard, distressing, painful, sometimes fatal -- not a "lifestyle choice"! Not everyone is employable, and there aren't jobs for all who can work. We provide billions of dollars of aid for our rich, in the form of "tax relief", etc., but only spit on ":the least of these" in America.

  • Posted By: MegaDeath @ 10/17/2008 11:01:17 AM

    Comment: 2008 is only the begining of the "Prophecy of Doom". Nostradamus (1503-1566) was an French apothecary who was 96% accurate in his ability to fore see and predict the future(500 Years ahead of his time). In his last quatrain he predicted that between 2008-2012 would be the start of the end of civilization. He fore seen the down fall of Western countries through various events leading up to World War lll (A Nuclear War) by 2012, which will start in the Middle East. With the problems we are having in the current economic mess, this could be the first sign.

  • Posted By: Jim Johnson @ 10/16/2008 1:01:30 PM

    Comment: Obama's view of the future of America - Socialism which is the next step to Communism!!


    Under socialism a ruling class of intellectuals, bureaucrats and social planners decide what people want or what is good for society and then use the coercive power of the State to regulate, tax, and redistribute the wealth of those who work for a living. In other words, socialism is a form of legalized theft.

    The morality of socialism can be summed-up in two words: envy and self-sacrifice. Envy is the desire to not only possess another's wealth but also the desire to see another's wealth lowered to the level of one's own. Socialism's teaching on self-sacrifice was nicely summarized by two of its greatest defenders, Hermann Goering and Bennito Mussolini. The highest principle of Nazism (National Socialism), said Goering, is: "Common good comes before private good." Fascism, said
    Mussolini, is "a life in which the individual, through the sacrifice of his own private interests??realizes that completely spiritual existence in which his value as a man lies."

    Socialism is the social system which institutionalizes envy and self-sacrifice: It is the social system which uses compulsion and the organized violence of the State to expropriate wealth from the producer class for its redistribution to the parasitical class.

    Despite the intellectuals' psychotic hatred of capitalism, it is the only moral and just social system.

    Capitalism is the only moral system because it requires human beings to deal with one another as traders--that is, as free moral agents trading and selling goods and services on the basis of mutual consent.

    Capitalism is the only just system because the sole criterion that determines the value of thing exchanged is the free, voluntary, universal judgement of the consumer. Coercion and fraud are anathema to the free-market system.

    It is both moral and just because the degree to which man rises or falls in society is determined by the degree to which he uses his mind. Capitalism is the only social system that rewards merit, ability and achievement, regardless of one's birth or station in life.

    Yes, there are winners and losers in capitalism. The winners are those who are honest, industrious, thoughtful, prudent, frugal, responsible, disciplined, and efficient. The losers are those who are shiftless, lazy, imprudent, extravagant, negligent, impractical, and inefficient. [What about the role of luck­being in the right place at the right time or the wrong place at the wrong time? R. R. Pope}

    Capitalism is the only social system that rewards virtue and punishes vice. This applies to both the business executive and the carpenter, the lawyer and the factory worker.

  • Posted By: brajs @ 10/15/2008 10:17:48 PM

    Comment: why is a resident alien entitled to medicaid but a usa citizen collection 960 per month social security is not...

  • Posted By: MsPepper @ 10/14/2008 3:47:58 PM

    Comment: We are always helping the foreign countries with desasters, medical, money, food but it really bothers me that the U.Sl is suppost to be the richest countries in the world but none of our politicans, presidential candidates ever say or promise to help the thousands of homeless people in the streets with no food, clothes or creating rehab programs. Why?

  • Posted By: DianaRo @ 10/13/2008 2:53:40 PM

    Comment: "I wish the candidate would discuss global poverty more. According to The Borgen Project:
    $30 billion: Annual shortfall to end world hunger.
    $540 billion: Annual U.S. Defense Budget."

  • Posted By: Krohn @ 10/12/2008 8:33:20 PM

    Comment: THE AFFIRMATIVE ACTION CANDIDATE!

    NEVER IN THE HISTORY OF THIS COUNTRY HAS A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE BEEN GIVEN SUCH A FREE PASS BY THE PRESS AND JUST ABOUT EVERYONE ELSE!

    I AM WAITING FOR A BLACK PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE TO MAKE IT ON HIS OWN MERIT.

    COLIN POWELL COMES TO MIND!

  • Posted By: sieg6529 @ 10/10/2008 4:46:08 PM

    Comment: wouldn't it be so nice to live in a world without superstition/religion? We would be accountable for our own actions and experiences, and not chalk everything up to a divine design or infernal interference. As for me, I will wait patiently and peacefully as mankind outgrows primitive beliefs.

  • Posted By: Krohn @ 10/09/2008 7:25:35 PM

    Comment: They harassed her until she registered to vote six times!:
    http://www.foxnews.com/video2/video08.html?maven_referralObject=3145562&maven_referralPlaylistId=&sRevUrl=http://www.foxnews.com/politics/

  • Posted By: neocon @ 10/09/2008 9:44:58 AM

    Comment: Will MSM Report on Obama Membership in Socialist New Party?
    The mainstream media thought that the membership of Todd Palin, who is not a candidate for any office, in the Alaska Independence Party important enough to report in such outlets as the Los Angeles Times, MSNBC, and the New York Times, among others. So now that Barack Obama's membership in the far left New Party has been unearthed, will they report his membership in that Socialist organization?

    In June sources released information that during his campaign for the State Senate in Illinois, Barack Obama was endorsed by an organization known as the Chicago "New Party". The 'New Party' was a political party established by the Democratic Socialists of America (the DSA) to push forth the socialist principles of the DSA by focusing on winnable elections at a local level and spreading the Socialist movement upwards.

    The DSA and 'New Party' then systematically attempted to cover up any ties between Obama and the Socialist Organizations. However, it now appears that Barack Obama was indeed a certified and acknowledged member of the DSA's New Party.

    http://www.chicagodsa.org/ngarchive/ng47.html

    NP's '96 Political Program has been enormously successful with 3 of 4 endorsed candidates winning electoral primaries. All four candidates attended the NP membership meeting on April 11th to express their gratitude. Barack Obama, victor in the 13th State Senate District, encouraged NPers to join in his task forces on Voter Education and Voter Registration.


    The NP's political strategy is to support progressive candidates in elections only if they have a concrete chance to "win". This has resulted in a winning ratio of 77 of 110 elections. Candidates must be approved via a NP political committee. Once approved, candidates must sign a contract with the NP. The contract mandates that they must have a visible and active relationship with the NP.

    http://www.chicagodsa.org/ngarchive/ng42.html#anchor792932

    So Obama signed a contract with the New Party? Verrrry interesting.

  • Posted By: izme @ 10/09/2008 12:53:47 AM

    Comment: VERY IMPORTANT MESSAGE
    The upcoming election is the most critical election in the history of our nation. The very future of our nation???s foundation is at stake. Every person will be affected. If the liberals win, then our foundation will no longer be based on traditional morality. It will gradually but assuredly be based on an ever shifting, ever moving foundation. If the liberals win, the damage can???t be stopped with elections two, four or forty years from now. America will forever be changed. We will keep seeing a gradual and growing hostility toward people of faith. The morals of our nation will continue to decline. Our children and grandchildren will pay the price.

  • Posted By: Krohn @ 10/08/2008 11:31:16 PM

    Comment: "Not all Democrats agree with Mr. Frank that such policies are off-limits to criticism. Last week Rep. Artur Davis of Alabama said in a statement: 'Like a lot of my Democratic colleagues I was too slow to appreciate the recklessness of Fannie and Freddie. I defended their efforts to encourage affordable homeownership, when in retrospect, I should have heeded the concerns raised by their regulator in 2004. Frankly, I wish my Democratic colleagues would admit when it comes to Fannie and Freddie, we were wrong.'

    "Mr. Davis is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus."

    'Rank snobbery'

    Camille Paglia, who supports Sen. Barack Obama, has nothing but scorn for the way the media has treated Sarah Palin.

    "The mountain of rubbish poured out about Palin over the past month would rival Everest. What a disgrace for our jabbering army of liberal journalists and commentators, too many of whom behaved like snippy jackasses," Miss Paglia writes at www.salon.com.

    "The bourgeois conventionalism and rank snobbery of these alleged humanitarians stank up the place. As for Palin's brutally edited interviews with Charlie Gibson and that viper, Katie Couric, don't we all know that the best bits ended up on the cutting-room floor? Something has gone seriously wrong with Democratic ideology, which seems to have become a candied set of holier-than-thou bromides attached like tutti-frutti to a quivering green Jell-O mold of adolescent sentimentality."

  • Posted By: whoiamnow @ 10/08/2008 10:31:01 PM

    Comment: Beauty and the Beast unleashed their inner pit bulls and are attacking Obama with their same old tricks- character assassination, lies and distortion. But Joe Six Pack isn't fooled.

    This is a quote from foxnews.com:

    "The analysis also concluded that in the latest period, nearly 100 percent of the McCain's ads were negative, compared to 34 percent of Obama's ads."

    McCain has nothing good to say about himself. How pathetic.

  • Posted By: neocon @ 10/08/2008 4:53:19 PM

    Comment: Do you wonder, as I do, how people got the idea that this relative newcomer to national politics has the credentials, experience, and other requisites for cleaning up after George W. Bush? Saying so is a sure recipe, as I???ve found, for getting called a fool, a racist, a moron, an idiot, amoral, brain-washed, a republican shill, a tool of the McCain establishment, and a tool.
    If I raise questions (because the questions are definitely are out there), I???m accused of ???stirring the mud??? (as if you could stir mud if it the mud wasn???t there in the first place) or of ???innuendo.??? Obama supporters seem to think that it???s unfair to bring up allegations that are out there if I can???t personally prove they are true. Of course, my point isn???t that they are true, but that they are out there. So far the media???s given him the same sort of pass they used to give to George Bush. What happens when the honeymoon ends?
    Meanwhile, not one supporter has risen to the challenge of telling me???if I???m stuck with Obama, I really need to know???what superior or equivalent credentials or experience they can cite to indicate that he is currently better qualified than McCain to be the Chief Executive of the United States.
    Most of them try to lecture me with a sublime disregard for logic, common sense, or the facts, that his qualifications and experience aren???t any greater than Obama???s, or not enough greater to matter, in light of his ???charisma??? and his (their faith in him ensures) pure, untarnished record.
    Most say they don???t care about credentials or think his credentials are sufficient. They like Obama; and that???s all that matters. I like him too, or till recently I did, but they???LIKE him like him???, as my pre teen says. And if you say you don???t, they???re all up in your face, demanding that you step outside so they can administer a moral drubbing.
    Moreover, they don???t think his voting record in Illinois or in the senate shows anything important about him, such as an alleged unwillingness to take a clear position on hard issues that might render him less, you know, ???electable.???

  • Posted By: think4yourself @ 10/08/2008 4:02:07 PM

    Comment: It is up to the Media and American Citizens to find out if Obama Ever sent a letter about the Bailout. There is evidence according to C-Span that he DID NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Finally Good news! You cant stop the truth!

    After much protesting - Hulu.com brought back the Saturday Night Live Congress Bailout skit back. CHECK IT OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!

    http://www.hulu.com/watch/38041/saturday-night-live-washington-approves-the-bailout#s-p1-st-i1

  • Posted By: neocon @ 10/08/2008 12:22:25 PM

    Comment: Barack Obama???s old friends at ACORN and Project Vote are at it again.

    On Monday, the two groups announced the wrap-up of a 21-state voter-registration drive targeting low-income people and minorities in such battleground states as Ohio, Pennyslvania, Colorado, Florida, New Mexico and Wisconsin.
    The two groups are inextricably linked - and at their nexus is Barack Obama. Despite his denials of any association with the group, Obama's political DNA is encoded with the ACORN agenda.
    Obama trained ACORN members in Chicago. In turn, ACORN volunteers worked on his Illinois campaigns and ACORN's PAC endorsed him in this year's Democratic primaries back in February.
    Obama was hired in 1992 to lead Project Vote efforts in Illinois. The effort's motto: "It's a Power Thing." Today, the Obama campaign's "Vote for Change" registration drive is running in parallel with ACORN/Project Vote.
    Quantity over quality. That's the ACORN way - and the fraud allegations keep piling up:
    * Yesterday, Nevada officials raided ACORN's Las Vegas office after election authorities accused the group of submitting multiple voter registrations with fake and duplicate names. Among the bogus monikers: names of former Dallas Cowboys players.
    * Lake County, Ind., election officials this month rejected thousands of registration forms ACORN had turned in from its drives this summer. 11,000 of the applications were no good - tying up election officials and jeopardizing the voting rights of untold victims whose identities may have been stolen.
    In what seems to be ACORN's standard operating procedure, vote canvassers had pulled names and addresses from phone books and forged signatures. According to a local paper (the Northwest Indiana and Illionois Times), "Large numbers of voter registration forms bore signatures all in the same apparent handwriting style" and "apparently the organization's canvassers broke rules to meet ACORN-set voter registration quotas to get paid." The fake registrants include dead people and underage kids.
    * In Florida, in Orange County alone, ACORN workers turned in multiple, copycat forms for six separate voters over the summer. The Miami Herald reports: "One individual had 21 duplicate applications."
    Election officials had flagged ACORN's negligent practices months ago. But it may be too late: In Orange, Broward and Miami-Dade counties, ACORN has signed up 135,000 new voters, nearly 60 percent of them registered as Democrats - a fifth of all new voters in that region.
    * In Ohio, large numbers of homeless people got free van and bus rides to register. One homeless woman who said ACORN "told her who to vote for if she wanted a 'better life,' and told her not to worry about jury duty (one of the reasons this homeless woman didn't want to register) because the government probably wouldn't be able to track her down. She was registering with a temporary address."

  • Posted By: glimps @ 10/08/2008 1:19:53 AM

    Comment: McCain wouldn't forgot., his name, his opponents name, how many houses he has, and where he was; the economic issues effecting the ppl, his policy on cutting Medi-Care for the elderly, the last good movie he watched, why his V.P. is not going on T.V. networks to support the issues,. Dementia effects old people that way.

  • Posted By: jiml1956 @ 10/07/2008 11:48:36 PM

    Comment: McCain talks about victory in Iraq. When is the last time a country has signed a surrender agreement?

  • Posted By: sunguru @ 10/07/2008 8:45:12 PM

    Comment: In response to comment from izme - McCain violated the code of conduct by "aiding the enemy"His grandfather and father "bailed him out" and he was never prosecutedThere were two otherrs caught the other two faced possible execution for treason, while McCain won acclaim as a hero fit to be President of the United States. Sources include Newsweek, US News and World Report Pow - two years with the viet cong, Viet Cong Memoir, Five Years to Freedom, The Nightingale's songh, Faith of my Fathers (by John McCain himself) Google - PW songbird + admirals son http://www.usvetdsp.com/smith_mc.htm

  • Posted By: vinmano @ 10/07/2008 6:31:30 PM

    Comment: yell, brother socialist, yell, scream it from the mountain top, vote for change to socialism, change is coming to america, go obama

    • Posted By: Nohbdy @ 10/07/2008 7:01:17 PM

      Comment: Please, no. This country is in a downward spiral as it is. I'd like to live a bit longer before the imminent crash and burn.

  • Posted By: glimps @ 10/07/2008 6:15:15 PM

    Comment: Gov. Palins son joined the Military to escape jail time..... the deal was offered & he took it.... what kinda parent is this women? her daughter is a teenage mother & her son is a criminal.... her husband wants Alaska to be it's own country & her pastor cast spells ( & she wants us to believe that she has good judgement)?

    • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 10/07/2008 11:48:08 PM

      Comment: You did realize,of course,that both Bidens son and brother are under investigation for fraud and are the subjects of a lawsuit?

      I didnt think so.

      The Washington Post Aug.28,2008:''Bidens Son,Brother,Named In Lawsuit''.

      • Posted By: jiml1956 @ 10/07/2008 11:53:43 PM

        Comment: If you had a barain, maybe you would quote the LA Times, not the Washington Post.

  • Posted By: glimps @ 10/07/2008 5:50:07 PM

    Comment: & McCain has supporters screaming out at rallies "KILL HIM" He's a "terrorist"... who are McCain's Friends? who is the real McCain? McCain rallies are filled now-a-days w/ hate mongers in the crowd.......

  • Posted By: Nowforthetruth @ 10/07/2008 4:51:32 PM

    Comment: ACORN Vegas Office Raided in Voter Fraud Investigation
    ACORN's Las Vegas headquarters has been raided by Nevada authorities looking for evidence of voter fraud.

    http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-politics/20081007/Voter.Fraud.Probe/

  • Posted By: neocon @ 10/07/2008 4:46:05 PM

    Comment: Nevada state authorities seized records and computers Tuesday from the Las Vegas office of an organization that tries to get low-income people registered to vote, after fielding complaints of voter fraud.
    Bob Walsh, spokesman for the Nevada secretary of state's office, told FOXNews.com the raid was prompted by ongoing complaints about "erroneous" registration information being submitted by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, also called ACORN.
    The group was submitting the information through a voter sign-up drive known as Project Vote.
    "Some of them used nonexistent names, some of them used false addresses and some of them were duplicates of previously filed applications," Walsh said, describing the complaints, which largely came from the registrar in Clark County, Nev.
    Secretary of State Ross Miller said the fraudulent registrations included forms for the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys football team.
    "Tony Romo is not registered to vote in the state of Nevada, and anybody trying to pose as Terrell Owens won't be able to cast a ballot on Nov. 4," Miller said.
    http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/10/07/acorn-vegas-office-raided-voter-fraud-investigation/
    Obama's Campaign "Paid More Than $800,000" To ACORN For Get-Out-The Vote Efforts; The Campaign Originally "Misrepresented" The Group's Work To The FEC.
    An Obama spokesman said Federal Election Commission reports would be amended to show Citizens Services Inc. -- a subsidiary of ACORN -- worked in 'get-out-the-vote' projects, instead of activities such as polling, advance work and staging major events as stated in FEC finance reports filed during the primary." (David M. Brown, "Obama To Amend Report On $800,000 In Spending," Pittsburgh Tribune Review, 8/22/08)

  • Posted By: izme @ 10/07/2008 4:43:02 PM

    Comment: More of Obama's false claims:
    I Am Not Acting As President Yet - LIAR, after the NAFTA Memo, a dead terrorist in the FARC, in Colombia, was found with a letter stating how you and he were working together on getting FARC recognized officially.

    passed 900 Bills in the State Senate - LIAR, you passed 26, most of which you didn???t write yourself.

    Have Passed Bills In The U.S. Senate - LIAR, you have passed A BILL in the U.S. Senate - for Africa, which shows YOUR priorities.

    • Posted By: jiml1956 @ 10/07/2008 11:57:37 PM

      Comment: wow, McCain's people sure are smart (wink, wink).

  • Posted By: izme @ 10/07/2008 4:31:54 PM

    Comment: I did not take money from oil companies: - LIAR - [03/31/2008]

    THE FACTS: True enough, Obama does not take money from oil companies. No candidate does. It is illegal for corporations to give money to politicians. Corporations, however, do have political action committees that collect voluntary donations from employees and then donate them to candidates. Obama doesn???t take money from PACs. He also doesn???t take money from lobbyists.

    But he does accept money from executives and other employees of oil companies and two of his fundraisers are oil company executives. As of Feb. 29, Obama???s presidential campaign had received nearly $214,000 from oil and gas industry employees and their families, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. Clinton had received nearly $307,000 from industry workers and their families and Republican Sen. John McCain, the likely GOP presidential nominee, received nearly $394,000, according to the center???s totals.

    Two of Obama???s fundraisers are Robert Cavnar, the chairman and chief executive of Houston-based Mission Resources Corp., and George Kaiser, the president and CEO of Tulsa-based Kaiser-Francis Oil Co. Source: Associated press via Yahoo News

  • Posted By: izme @ 10/07/2008 4:27:05 PM

    Comment: ???I am the only candidate who isn???t taking a dime from Washington lobbyist??? - LIAR- The record shows quite the opposite. According to USA Today, Obama???s campaign fundraising team includes 38 members of law firms that were paid $138 million last year to lobby the federal government, records show. Those lawyers, including 10 former federal lobbyists, have pledged to raise at least $3.5 million for the Illinois senator???s presidential race. Employees of their firms have given Obama???s campaign $2.26 million, a USA TODAY analysis of campaign finance data shows.

    Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-04-15-obama_N.htm

  • Posted By: neocon @ 10/07/2008 4:25:21 PM

    Comment: Mr Obama advertises himself as something fresh, hopeful and new. But on economic matters at least he, has begun to look like a rather ordinary old-style Democrat.

    http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10766009

  • Posted By: izme @ 10/07/2008 4:16:40 PM

    Comment: Last fall during a nationally televised presidential debate, Obama hesitantly raised his hand and joined with most of his Democratic rivals to declare that he opposed decriminalizing marijuana. (first video).But as a candidate for the U.S. Senate four years ago, Mr. Obama told Illinois college students that he supported eliminating criminal penalties for marijuana use or possession, according to a videotape of a little noticed debate that was obtained by The Washington Times.???I think we need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws,??? Mr. Obama told an audience during a debate at Northwestern University in 2004. ???But I???m not somebody who believes in legalization of marijuana.??? (second video).Asked about the two different answers, Mr. Obama???s presidential campaign said he in fact has ???always??? supported decriminalizing marijuana as he answered in 2004, meaning the candidate mistakenly raised his hand during the presidential debate last fall.

  • Posted By: izme @ 10/07/2008 4:14:18 PM

    Comment: On May 10th, Obama botched his facts in a speech criticizing the U.S. auto industry for ???investing in bigger and faster cars while foreign competitors invested in more fuel-efficient technology.???Obama stated that ???while our fuel standards haven???t moved from 27.5 miles per gallon in two decades, both China and Japan have surpassed us, with Japanese cars now getting an average of 45 miles to the gallon.??? But Toyota, which should know, has responded, ???No carmaker gets 45 mpg; ours is closer to 30 mpg.???Well, we???re glad to see Obama???s shifting the blame from the consumer to the automakers. That must explain why the Illinois Senator and Presidential candidate owns a HEMI-powered V8 Chrysler 300C.Obviously it???s Chrysler???s fault Obama bought a big 5.7-liter engine from them ??? he just didn???t have a choice.

    • Posted By: raddave @ 10/07/2008 4:32:55 PM

      Comment: Barrack and Michelle Obama own a 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid. He traded in the Chrysler 300c Last year for his hybrid SUV. Get your facts straight!

  • Posted By: izme @ 10/07/2008 4:10:29 PM

    Comment: As another example, consider Obama???s stirring tale for the Selma audience about how he had been conceived by his parents, Barack Obama Sr. and Ann Dunham, because they had been inspired by the fervor following the ???Bloody Sunday??? voting rights demonstration that was commemorated March 4. ???There was something stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Alabama,??? he said, ???because some folks are willing to march across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born. So don???t tell me I don???t have a claim on Selma, Alabama. Don???t tell me I???m not coming home to Selma, Alabama???Obama was born in 1961, and the Selma march occurred four years later, in 1965. The New York Times reported that when the senator was asked about the discrepancy later that day, he clarified: ???I meant the whole civil rights movement.???

  • Posted By: izme @ 10/07/2008 4:09:36 PM

    Comment: On July 28th, the day after his speech at the Democratic convention catapulted him into the national spotlight, Barack Obama told a group of reporters in Boston that the United States had an ???absolute obligation??? to remain in Iraq long enough to make it a success.???The failure of the Iraqi state would be a disaster,??? he said at a lunch sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, according to an audiotape of the session. ???It would dishonor the 900-plus men and women who have already died. . . . It would be a betrayal of the promise that we made to the Iraqi people, and it would be hugely destabilizing from a national security perspective.???In late winter, 2008, on the campaign trail, Obama says he wants to bring the troops home yesterday ??? you decide ??? was he lying then or is he lying now?

  • Posted By: izme @ 10/07/2008 4:08:12 PM

    Comment: In Obama???s famous DNC Convention speech, Obama says, ???My father was a foreign student, born and raised in a small village in Kenya. He grew up herding goats, went to school in a tin-roof shack. His father ??? my grandfather ??? was a cook, a domestic servant to the British.???

    Kezia, Obama Sr.???s first wife tells a story that puts Obama???s account to lie.


    Kezia said: In 1955 Obama Sr. was 18 and working in an office in Nairobi, when he took Kezia from her family at the age of 16. Her father was furious.

    ???He did not like Obama. My father and brothers came to Nairobi to bring me back. They said I had to go back to school.

    ???When I wouldn???t, they said they would never speak to me again.

    ???Barack was also worried about what his father would think because I was so young, but he gave us his approval. Obama???s father (often described as poor) sent my mother and father 14 cows for my dowry.



    Just how can a cook, a domestic servant to the British, provide a dowry of 14 cattle for Senior???s first wife? Also, Obama???s father had been working in a Nairobi office since the age 16, not herding goats.

    As an aside, can you imagine if a Republican was running for president and it came out that his father had bought his first wife for 14 cows???!!!Just wow!!

  • Posted By: izme @ 10/07/2008 4:07:52 PM

    Comment: Barack Obama in 2003, talking to the AFL/CIO:???I happen to be a proponent of single-payer universal healthcare coverage. That???s what I???d like to see.???In January, 2008, Obama claimed in a nationally televised debate:???I never said that we should try to go ahead and get single-payer.???

  • Posted By: izme @ 10/07/2008 4:07:16 PM

    Comment: In his memoir, Obama writes of one of the watershed moments of his racial awareness ??? time and again in remarkable detail. It is a story about a Life magazine article that influenced him. The report was about a black man who tried to bleach his skin white. When Obama was told no such article could be found in Life, he says ???it might have been Ebony.He is 9 years old, living in Indonesia, where he and his mother moved with her new husband, Lolo Soetoro, a few years earlier. One day while visiting his mother, who was working at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Obama passed time by looking through several issues of Life magazine. He came across an article that he later would describe as feeling like an ???ambush attack.???The article included photos of a black man who had destroyed his skin with powerful chemical lighteners that promised to make him white. Instead, the chemicals had peeled off much of his skin, leaving him sad and scarred, Obama recalled.???I imagine other black children, then and now, undergoing similar moments of revelation,??? Obama wrote of the magazine photos in ???Dreams.???Yet no such photo exists, according to historians at the magazine. No such photos, no such article. When asked about the discrepancy, Obama said in a recent interview, ???It might have been an Ebony or it might have been ??? who knows what it was???? (At the request of the Tribune, archivists at Ebony searched their catalogue of past articles, none of which matched what Obama recalled.)In fact, it is surprising, based on interviews with more than two dozen people who knew Obama during his nearly four years in Indonesia, that it would take a photograph in a magazine to make him conscious of the fact that some people might treat him differently in part because of the color of his skin.

  • Posted By: izme @ 10/07/2008 4:02:16 PM

    Comment: WHY IS ADVANCING ABORTION SUCH AN IMPORTANT ISSUE TO OBAMA?
    Obama made his vows to the Planned Parenthood Action Fund that abortion would be the first priority of his administration.

    ???The first thing I???d do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act,??? Obama said in his July speech to abortion advocates worried about the increase of pro-life legislation at the state level.

  • Posted By: Nowforthetruth @ 10/07/2008 3:47:25 PM

    Comment: Time we started to talk about Biden's long standing ties to the credit card industry lobby.

    http://redtape.msnbc.com/2008/10/how-credit-card.html

  • Posted By: izme @ 10/07/2008 3:21:17 PM

    Comment: McCain spoke forcefully on May 25, 2006, on behalf of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005
    In this speech, McCain managed to predict the entire collapse that has forced the government to eat Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with Bear Stearns and AIG. He hammers the falsification of financial records to benefit executives, including Franklin Raines and Jim Johnson, both of whom have worked as advisers to Barack Obama this year.
    McCain also noted the power of their lobbying efforts to forestall oversight over their business practices. He finishes with the warning that proved all too prescient over the past few days and weeks.
    It never made it out of committee. Chris Dodd, then the ranking member of the Banking Committee and now its chair, was in the middle of receiving preferential loan treatment from Countrywide Mortgage, one of the companies gaming the system in the credit crisis. Meanwhile, Barack Obama took hundreds of thousands of dollars from the lobbyists McCain mentions in this speech, making him the #2 recipient of Fannie/Freddie money:
    The record shows that McCain saw the problem coming and tried to get Congress to act. In 2005, both McCain and Obama served together in the Senate. Did Obama attempt to pass this reform, sign on as a co-sponsor, or even speak out in its favor? The record is tellingly blank.

  • Posted By: jfennerlaw@bellsouth.net @ 10/07/2008 3:17:23 PM

    Comment: How about:
    Was the Iraq a just war?
    Is it moral to make women pay for their rape kits?
    Was it moral to drops bombs on military targets, where civilians were certain to be killed?
    Is it moral to go to the Old South, and not stop the crowd, from yelling "Kill them!"?
    Is it moral to use race & religion to smear another candidate? In the US?
    Do these questions ever come up, in your thoughts?

    • Posted By: neocon @ 10/07/2008 3:33:18 PM

      Comment: Was the Iraq a just war?
      Pointless argument in that we need to clean up the mess we made.

      Is it moral to make women pay for their rape kits?
      If you read any of the articles it never states that a victim was ever charged. The police chief says that insurance companies were charged. You could argue that the policy holder pays in the long run when charged for tests, but there just doesn't seem to be maliciousness here. Instead, it seems the police chief saw that his department could pay for a medical test or the victim's insurance could pay the medical test.There seems to be some key information missing that I would personally need before passing judgement on this: how much authority, if any, did Palin have to change this policy (she was mayor, not god), and how many victims (not insurance companies) were charged?
      Was it moral to drops bombs on military targets, where civilians were certain to be killed?
      Show me where our troops have intentionally targeted civilians.

      Is it moral to go to the Old South, and not stop the crowd, from yelling "Kill them!"?
      Can???t comment, have seen a clip where that has happened.

      Is it moral to use race & religion to smear another candidate? In the US?
      The ONLY person I???ve see bring up race on the campaign has been Obama. Religion should not be a litmus test.

  • Posted By: izme @ 10/07/2008 2:35:55 PM

    Comment: I would like to ask Obama if he is sorry he started his political career in the living room of Bill Ayers and if he had to do it over, would he do it again? and Does he admit that it was bad judgement?

    • Posted By: neocon @ 10/07/2008 3:11:52 PM

      Comment: I would like to know also why he won't release any of his college information from Columbia or Harvard. His is the only one not public record.

      • Posted By: jiml1956 @ 10/07/2008 11:59:32 PM

        Comment: Enter Your CommentWhat was Sarah's GPA at all 5 or 6 of her colleges?

      • Posted By: raddave @ 10/07/2008 5:17:07 PM

        Comment: He has released his college information from Columbia and Harvard. He graduated from Columbia University in 1983 with a B.A. in political science with a specialization in International relations. He graduated Maga *** Laude from Harvard Law school in 1991, earning a Juris Doctor. What else needs to be released?

  • Posted By: Dr. Sam @ 10/07/2008 2:27:43 PM

    Comment: MCCAIN AND PALIN SHOULD BE CHARGED WITH PUBLIC INCITEMENT

    In some European countries (Britain for one) McCain and Palin would be charged with public incitement for calling Obama a terrorist or implying that he is one, that ???he is not one of us??? and suggestively using his middle name to imply that he is an Arab terrorist in disguise. A sheriff in uniform (shockingly) made this shameful speech calling Obama???s middle name for effect???making it seem like a state-sponsored action (NOTE: Florida Governor and Joe Sen. Lieberman were watching approvingly). During Palin???s public addresses in California and Florida someone in the crowd shouted that Obama is a ???terrorist??? and in Florida one person raised the issue of assassination. The shout rang out: ???Kill him.??? What better proof than this that McCain and Palin are inciting the crowd to harm Obama? The Secret Service and the Justice Department should take such public speeches more seriously. The question now is: Who is the real John McCain? Remember that McCain was a Board member of an extremist organization (Singlaub???s US Council for World Freedom) that provided a forum for anti-Semites, racists and supported terrorist ultra-right wing death squads in Nicaragua and other Latin American countries. Secondly, why is McCain so angry???especially against Obama? There are so many who would hold McCain and rifle-packing Joe Six Pack responsible should anything ever happen to Obama! Clearly, this is McCain-Palin idea of change???cultural division, hatred, and conflict, anger and total avoidance of what really matters to the people like health care, economic prosperity, security at home, and popular leadership of the US abroad.

    • Posted By: izme @ 10/07/2008 2:34:16 PM

      Comment: Looks like you copied and pasted this comment from somewhere else.

      • Posted By: raddave @ 10/07/2008 4:37:45 PM

        Comment: Just like you dpied and pased above?

  • Posted By: dunnhaupt @ 10/07/2008 1:45:47 PM

    Comment: After Monday's Hate Obama Rally by rabid racist Palin the gloves are off. When she whipped the crowd to a hate Obama frenzy and got them to shout "Kill him, kill him", the McCain camp[aign reached a new low. Palin's nazi-style rallies are un-American and extremely dangerous. I don't believe they help McCain, either.

    • Posted By: Lee Holmes @ 10/07/2008 5:27:32 PM

      Comment: This is getting out of hand.

      No shouts eminated from a ''them''. It was a single man. Furthermore,it was not raised towards Obama,but unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers. You may view the video at YOU TUBE,and place the frame at the moment that the ''Kill Him''voice is heard,then hit replay and find that it is in precise context to Palins comment on Ayers. Not Obama. That this is becoming a fast -spreading urban legend there is no doubt. But it is untruthful,nevertheless.

  • Posted By: jmatlock @ 10/07/2008 1:45:04 PM

    Comment: Great questions! It's a shame that the debate moderators and media types do not ask such pointed questions. For the most part, we know where candidates stand on policy issues. These are questions about leadership; the candidates should be pressed more on questions like these. It is important for voters to have a clear picture of who they are voting for. Candidates should be open to answering questions that represent thoughts from divergent viewpoints as they will, if elected, be leading all of us and not just their base. Elitist and Joe Sixpack alike may have different concerns, but they'll have the same president. Candidates should not make partisan attacks based on the percieved Washington establishment. Instead of attacking and addressing their opponent, they should address the people directly. Presidential ploitics shouldn't be like high school ASB elections, the best person for the job, should get the job. Lets WAKE UP AMERICA! We can get this right for a change. Go vote!

  • Posted By: izme @ 10/07/2008 1:42:08 PM

    Comment: I personally feel that John McCain is the candidate that I feel could be trusted most with US security information. He has been in the military and has been trusted with top secret issues. It bothers me that Obama shows very little discretion as to who he associates with. Our entire country could be destroyed if high security information was to get into the wrong hands.
    Ayers may not have been a fried of Obama's BUT Obama may have put himself into a postion where he owes Ayers for launching his political career. There may be something Ayers will expect in return.
    Ayers falls into the same category as the "Unibomber" and the Columbine shooters. It just makes me feel uneasy to think that he might be holding something over Obama's head.
    It was a VERY bad decision on the part of Obama to allow Ayers, of all people, to get involved in his political career. Obama may never make that same mistake NOW, but it is too late, the damage has been done. There is no way to undo what has been done.
    A President MUST scrutinize every bargaining situation and think out every angle and how the outcome would affect them, their country and the world.
    McCain is a much safer choice.

    • Posted By: raddave @ 10/07/2008 4:56:57 PM

      Comment: Willie Ayers did not "launch" Obama's political career. It was Alice Palmer, whom had tapped Obama to succeed her in the Ill. state Legislature. She brought Obama to a meet and greet at Ayer's house. Ayers has NEVER been involved in Obama's political career, except to host the social even, where Alice Palmer introduced Obama.

      How can you state that you feel that John McCain is the candidate that you feel could be trusted most withe security information when John McCain admits to giving classified information to the North Vietnamese while he was a POW?

  • Posted By: Democrat-Hillary @ 10/07/2008 1:27:14 PM

    Comment: PLEASE TAKE A LOOK AT:
    Palin s model for debate: BUSH! From Countdown MSNBC Oct, 3-08
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f_SmsXgzvg

    Rolling Stone Magazine: Make believe Maverick, A closer look at the life and career of John McCain reveals a disturbing record of recklessness and dishonesty.
    By TIM DICKINSON
    http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/make_believe_maverick_the_real_john_mccain?commentPage=8#rate

    If Palin wants to play guilt by association , let s compare:
    * Video: Sarah Palin addresses the Alaska Independence Party convention.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwvPNXYrIyI

    * Article
    http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/10/palins_attack_on_obamas_patrio.php#more
    Also google for Palin & mentor Pastor Thomas Muthee, witchcraft ritual and who is Mr. Muthee. Here is one: http://irregulartimes.com/index.php/archives/2008/09/15/sarah-palin-and-the-thomas-muthee-witch-hunt/
    For McCain:
    - Keating Five, just google it , there are tons to read and see....
    - McCain linked to group in Iran-Contra case. Organization had ties to former Nazi collaborators, right wing death squads: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27062761/
    - McCain & Pastor John Hagee, just google it , there are tons to read and see....
    - McCain ties with Gordon Liddy : <http://mediamatters.org/items/200810040004>
    - The Silver State bank and the role of McCain???s son, google it.....

    HOLD YOUR HATS and more....... We the people will get the true truth about McCain and Palin.
    Obama will stay on message and issues, at a crisis time when 90 years old lady is shooting herself rather than leaving her home due to foreclosure and a desperate father all family and self WHILE McCain and Palin spew their venom!...they are so-called religious but the sin of lies, blasphemy is not in their Bible.....

    At least Obama could walk up to the WH his lead held high not trailing mud......

    Feel free to re-post.




  • Posted By: bigdadred @ 10/07/2008 1:12:58 PM

    Comment: The verdict is in. At a time when the terrible, terrible state of the economy is causing US citizens such as the guy in California to kill this morning his wife, three children, mother-in-law and self, why do we continue to participate in mudslinging. The state of our economy is a very serious and grave issue at this time. We can not waste time engaging in mudslinging that the only purpose it serves is to divert the very, very serious issues of the economy that our country is faced with. I think we as Americans are very capable of determining one???s character, thats our job and we don???t need any help in accomplishing it. Please this is our time (the American People), we have a decision to make on Nov 4, which is only weeks away. We would ask that the candidates not waste any more of our time trying to influence the us whether or not someones character is upstanding, we can do that. What we wish would be done is for the candidates to take time and share a strategy dealing with the economy with us that we don???t loose anymore people as we already have in the case in California to collateral damage.

  • Posted By: bigdadred @ 10/07/2008 1:08:32 PM

    Comment: The verdict is in. At a time when the terrible, terrible state of the economy is causing US citizens such as the guy in California to kill this morning his wife, three children, mother-in-law and self, why do we continue to participate in mudslinging. The state of our economy is a very serious and grave issue at this time. We can not waste time engaging in mudslinging that the only purpose it serves is to divert the very, very serious issues of the economy that our country is faced with. I think we as Americans are very capable of determining one???s character, thats our job and we don???t need any help in accomplishing it. Please this is our time (the American People), we have a decision to make on Nov 4, which is only weeks away. We would ask that the candidates not waste any more of our time trying to influence the us whether or not someones character is upstanding, we can do that. What we wish would be done is for the candidates to take time and share a strategy dealing with the economy with us that we don???t loose anymore people as we already have in the case in California to collateral damage.

  • Posted By: kmdagger @ 10/07/2008 12:43:53 PM

    Comment: In re: #5. Here's a question: what role does distorted religious conviction play in creating the dangers--the exclusion, the violence, the oppression, the discrimination--we face from American Christians? How can the next president help to address those dangers, and keep hypocritical, uninformed, arrogant American Christians from influencing civil rights policies and our murderous foreign policies?

  • Posted By: DianaRo @ 10/07/2008 12:39:36 PM

    Comment: "I wish the candidate would discuss global poverty more. According to The Borgen Project:
    $30 billion: Annual shortfall to end world hunger.
    $540 billion: Annual U.S. Defense Budget."

    • Posted By: jiml1956 @ 10/08/2008 12:05:00 AM

      Comment: Unfortunately, I don't believe these numbers. When we tried to help in Somalia, the war lords took control of the relief aid. It's not as simple as throwing dollars at the problem and shipping food. I wish it was.

  • Posted By: DianaRo @ 10/07/2008 12:39:04 PM

    Comment: "I wish the candidate would discuss global poverty more. According to The Borgen Project:
    $30 billion: Annual shortfall to end world hunger.
    $540 billion: Annual U.S. Defense Budget."

  • Posted By: Concerned Canadian @ 10/07/2008 12:00:39 PM

    Comment: Americans are real stupid. Barack Hussein Obama should not even be considered seriously for of all things the President of the United States of America !!
    Americans are stupid to think the economic problems relate to John McCain. Barack Hussein Obama is some bum from Chicago who just steps in , lies about his resume and blames the economic woes solely on John McCain and all you stupid Americans buy it. This illustrates to you why the rest of the world thinks Americans are stupid. The fact that you stupid Americans are allowing this Muslim , (ya he is Muslim but he pretends he's a Christian to suck you guys in,) Barack Hussein Obama a chance to get into the White House is absolutely astonishing. Americans lost it......totally lost it...if I was John McCain...I would accuse Obama of being a traitor , radical , a liar , a do nothing , opportunist and someone who divides because he always uses the race card when he gets flustered. Go get' em McCain and don't worry about being accused a racist because you are definitely not but one thing for sure...Barack Hussein Obama is dangerous and not fit nor ready to be Commander-In-Chief !
    You dumb Americans, this is my last time I'm saying this..... " WAKE THE 'F' UP..GIVE YOUR HEAD A SHAKE !!"

    • Posted By: raddave @ 10/07/2008 5:01:37 PM

      Comment: No you are real stupd! The economic problems DO relate to John McCain, because he is a member of the republican party. The same party of the current president, whose policies have caused the economic crisis, which John McCain completely supports. Americans were suckered in 2004 by George W. Bush, we are not going to get suckered again by someone who plans on continuing the same failed policies. Even if Obama was raised a Muslim, he was BAPTIZED in the Christian faith, which would make him a CHRISTIAN.

  • Posted By: Nowforthetruth @ 10/07/2008 11:38:19 AM

    Comment: The link below contains a purported list of the top 25 in Congress who got contributions from the folks at Fannie and Freddie. Obama is listed third, after Dodd and Kerry, even though Obama is just a junior Senator. Obama is followed next by Clinton. Barney Frank and Nancy Pelosi are on the list as well.

    http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=16&artnum=1&issue=20080918

    Then there is the Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher J. Dodd who allegedly got special mortgage deals from Countrywide, who gave preferential rates to 'friends' of company's chairman.

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25140560/

    For an interesting article purporting to detail the House Financial Services Committee Chairs long history with Fannie Mae, See http://www.businessandmedia.org/printer/2008/20080924145932.aspx

    "House Financial Services Committee Chair promoted GSEs while former 'spouse' was Fannie Mae executive."

    The link below describes how some in Congress tried to use the original version of the bailout bill to divert money eventually recovered to groups like ACORN. See:

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122247015469280723.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

    And then there is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who allegedly has directed nearly $100,000 from her political action committee to her husband's real estate and investment firm.

    http://www.washtimes.com/news/2008/oct/01/pelosis-pac-pays-bills-for-spouses-firm.

  • Posted By: revbyrd1 @ 10/07/2008 10:01:35 AM

    Comment: Iin response to C. MacLean:

    There is nothing in the Constitution stating a "Separation of church and state". I agree with the premise, but it was discussed as a means to protect the church, not the state. The statement that is so often quoted comes from remarks in a letter penned by Thomas Jefferson in response to a question from a Baptist Association in the early 1800's.

    Christian values are not the only ones in our present society, but they have been a vital part of our nations history. The ire with which people look toward Christianity today is unfortunate. Christians are far from perfect, but are undeserving of the bias and prejudice so freely allowed by society.

    I would be afraid of the government determining my faith, or making decisions of a spiritual nature. However, I do place a great deal of importance upon the worldview held by leading candidates, most especially those seeking the presidency.

    • Posted By: raddave @ 10/07/2008 5:07:23 PM

      Comment: The first ammendment is designed to protect both the state and religion from each other. This is done by forbidding the Government from establishing a state religion.

    • Posted By: C. MacLean @ 10/07/2008 10:25:44 AM

      Comment: Most people would agree that the world view of candidates running for president is important.

      My point was that starting any discussion about anyone's morals with the assumption that conservative Christian morals are the inherent standard to base the discussion on is both arrogant and condescending.

      Several of the questions posed in this article clearly assume a conservative, fundamentalist Christian point of view, and I find that troubling; conservative Christian views should not be the automatic standard of morality.

      And as a non-Christian living in the south, where fundamentalist Christianity is alive and well, I'd be glad to talk about the bias and predjudice so freely allowed by society - towards everyone else who isn't a fundamentalist Christian.

      If there is any ire expressed towards the intolerance and hatred I and my children have personally experienced, trust me, it is well deserved.

  • Posted By: C. MacLean @ 10/07/2008 9:24:12 AM

    Comment: "Are you at all concerned that the trajectory of Supreme Court jurisprudence over the past six decades risks driving religiously informed moral argument out of our public life?"

    Religiously informed moral argument? Which moral argument from which religion are we talking about here?

    It is arrogant in the extreme to assume there is ONE religiously informed moral argument, because there are many. And NONE of them belong in our public life - we have separation of church and state in America for a reason.

    Any discussion of "morals" should not start by assuming that conservative Christian values are the only values that count.

  • Posted By: Nowforthetruth @ 10/07/2008 8:47:12 AM

    Comment: Prosecutors move to delay Rezko sentencing
    Prosecutors move to delay Rezko sentencing, a hint he may be ready to spill political secrets
    By MIKE ROBINSON Associated Press Writer | AP
    Oct 7, 2008

    "Speculation has simmered for weeks that the key fundraiser for Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Sen. Barack Obama was whispering what he knows about corruption in Illinois government to federal prosecutors in hopes of getting a lighter sentence."

    http://www.newsweek.com/id/162696

  • Posted By: ICYEYES800 @ 10/07/2008 1:46:44 AM

    Comment: YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING OBAMA DOESN"T KNOW HOW TO PRONOUNCE THE WORD MORAL.....HE'S LIED, CHEATED AND STOLEN TO GET WHERE HE IS.....AND DEFINITELY WOULD NOT FIND HIMSELF IN THAT SITUATION IF HE WERE NOT BLACK....RALLY 140 WEEKS IN THE SENATE PREPARES A MAN FOR THE WHITE HOUSE......GOD DELIVER US FROM THE HANDS OF OBAMA....MCCAIN/PALIN '08

    • Posted By: Pia1981 @ 10/07/2008 8:23:27 PM

      Comment: McCain is the moral one all right, I mean, after all he is the one who cheated on his disfigured and crippled wife. You need to shut up, Ice Brain.

    • Posted By: raddave @ 10/07/2008 5:03:28 PM

      Comment: Just like George W. Bush and Sarah Palin can say the word nuclear?

  • Posted By: Nins @ 10/06/2008 10:17:40 PM

    Comment: The GOP is grasping at straws. They have nothing substantive against Obama, but boy are they good at making up lies. This has been a leading Karl Rove tactic for years, and if America falls for this again we should be ashamed of ourselves. Not to mention the obvious fact that this is all a smokescreen to keep the focus off of the fact that Palin and her Alaska associates are in contempt of court for refusing to testify in the Troopergate hearings. After Nixon and Clinton, Americans are to some extent jaded, but really, would you want a VP who refuses to attend hearings in her own defense, and instructs her employees not to testify? That smells like guilt. It surely doesn't give the impression that she has done no wrong and has nothing to hide.

    This year, the GOP offers you an angry old man and a woman who, while personable, is desperately uniformed about national and international issues. Both of them are far right politically. McCain used to be a maverick, but since 2004 he's voted 90% with Bush. McCain's policies are not original or reformist, despite how he's tried to co-opt Obama's popular message of change. Please go to the websites of both of the candidates and read their platforms. Obama's Blueprint for Change has more good ideas than McCain's plan. Compare them yourself. Obama's basic premise is that tax dollars should be spent to make America stronger and to improve the lives and well being of our people. For example, he uses education programs to train a new technology workforce, contributing to energy independence, creating jobs and improving the economy. When you read McCain's plan you will find no over-arching design to get America back on track. Instead you'll find more tax cuts for the wealthy, de-regulation of the health care industry, and a stated intent to overturn Roe v. Wade.

    I'm a Republican. Although I embrace some forward-thinking social values, in the past I've rarely voted Democrat. My thinking was that since Republicans grow robust economies, by voting Republican I'd be endorsing a plan that would grow wealth for our nation, and then we'd be able to afford social programs. It was a good strategy for a couple decades, but I have to say that the tenure of W. Bush has changed my mind. Not only is there nothing fiscally responsible about today's GOP, the insidious alignment of the party with religious intolerance has really turned me off.

    On the other hand, the intelligent luminous thought of Barack Obama has ignited my passion for politics and my patriotism. I want a President who puts America first and can get the economy back on track. In my mind, values voting takes a back burner when we are faced with a meltdown of the economy. It is time for a change, a real change. The Republicans have controlled the Presidency for 28 of the past 40 years, but they have fallen down on the job. The Democrats have a stellar candidate this year, and I am voting for Obama.

  • Posted By: tiredoflies @ 10/06/2008 9:43:14 PM

    Comment: For eight years, Bush and the republicans have conditioned America to be afraid and live in fear. They are now playing Americans for all they can get out of that fear card.

    Fear and smear is how the republicans gain POWER and CONTROL OVER THE PEOPLE. LIES, DISTORTIONS AND EXAGGERATIONS are the tools they use to accomplish their purpose. This is what we are seeing right now.

    If they make it, once again when the election is over, all the peon voters will be cast to the wayside and power, money and indifference to the middle and lower class will reign once again. We will be stuck for four or eight more years of the past.

    I reject these false qualifications for President. I reject the abundance of lies, distortions and complete anti Obama fabrications which are condoned be the McCain campaign and appears on this and other web sites.

    No talk on the economy, health care or any of the other issues with respect to what it takes for ordinary people to live and prosper in the reality of day to day.

    Only attacks with concocted false relationships on Obamas character, even though the major news organizations have concluded that no real relationships existed or does exist.

    HOW MANY OF YOU WILL AGAIN ALLOW YOURSELVES TO BE USED AND MANIPULATED IN THIS WAY?

    I for one will NOT bow to their fear. I will NOT vote for the dishonorable one who attempts to GAIN THE PRESIDENCY BY PLAYING US FOR FOOLS THROUGH LIES AND DECEIT.

    I will vote for the one who seeks the Presidency VIA THE HIGH ROAD WITH VISION, A COMMAND OF THE ISSUES AND A GENUINE CONCERN FOR ALL PEOPLE IN THE COUNTRY.

  • Posted By: A in IN @ 10/06/2008 8:10:47 PM

    Comment: I could only get CNN when traveling during the Republican convention.... talk about biased media!!! We need Fox news to balance out all the other news channels which ask leading questions of Democratic suppporters/candidates while they include suggestions on how to improve the campaign of the people they are interviewing... supposedly this is a non-biased questions! Give me a break!

  • Posted By: bigdadred @ 10/06/2008 7:12:38 PM

    Comment: The fact that Fox News Network is taking the position of launching a series of all out assaults against senator Obama???s character is a sad day in journalism. They should be ashamed of the immoral and unethical standards that their network displays on a continual basis. What they must be made to understand is that as citizens we rely upon networks for their fair and accurate reporting of events and we will not tolerate anything less, especially when its over the top or maybe I should say as far right as Fox News Network is. If your views are the same share this message with others. It is time to take a stand against Fox and look to other networks for fair and accurate news coverage.

  • Posted By: dillet @ 10/06/2008 6:02:38 PM

    Comment: Great list--we'd love to know the answers. Many votes are based on these topics more than anything else; candidates take note.

  • Posted By: Krohn @ 10/06/2008 5:52:43 PM

    Comment: The Antichrist!:
    When George Soros failed to obtain the election of his candidate, John Kerry, in 2004, he brooded for a while, even said he might get out of politics altogether, but he just couldn???t stop himself. He has stated publicly that he wishes to burst the ???bubble of American supremacy,??? because he says our preeminence in the world is a detriment to global ???equilibrium.??? So far, he has failed, but he keeps on trying.

    And Mr. Soros has made no secret either of the fact that he sees the shortest way to effect political shake-ups, what he terms ???regime changes,??? is through very difficult economic conditions.

    America has not yet felt the full force of Soros style economic shock treatment. But others have.

    Soros made his first billion in 1992 by shorting the British pound with leveraged billions in financial bets, and became known as the man who broke the Bank of England. He broke it on the backs of hard-working British citizens who immediately saw their homes severely devalued and their life savings cut drastically in comparative worth almost overnight.

    When the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 threatened to spread globally, George Soros was right in the thick of it. Soros was accused by the Malaysian Prime Minister of causing the collapse with his monetary machinations, and he was branded in Thailand as an ???economic war criminal??? who ???sucks the blood from the people.??? Right in the middle of this crisis, Soros dashed off his book, The Crisis of Global Capitalism, which demanded a ???third way??? toward economic stability.

    Wake up, America, before it is too late!!!!

    • Posted By: dillet @ 10/06/2008 5:59:45 PM

      Comment: What does Mr. Soros have to do with this list of moral questions?

      • Posted By: neocon @ 10/06/2008 10:01:50 PM

        Comment: George Soros - One of the most powerful men on earth, New York hedge fund manager George Soros has amassed a personal fortune estimated at about $7.2 billion. His management company controls billions more in investor assets. Since 1979, Soros??? foundation network ??? whose flagship is the Open Society Institute (OSI) ??? has dispensed more than $5 billion to a multitude of organizations whose objectives are consistent with those of Soros. OSI alone donates scores of millions of dollars annually to these various groups, whose major agendas can be summarized as follows:
        - promoting the view that America is institutionally an oppressive nation
        - promoting the election of leftist political candidates throughout the United States
        - opposing virtually all post-9/11 national security measures enacted by U.S. government, particularly the Patriot Act
        - depicting American military actions as unjust, unwarranted, and immoral
        - promoting open borders, mass immigration, and a watering down of current immigration laws
        - promoting a dramatic expansion of social welfare programs funded by ever-escalating taxes
        - promoting social welfare benefits and amnesty for illegal aliens
        - defending suspected anti-American terrorists and their abetters
        - financing the recruitment and training of future activist leaders of the political Left
        - advocating America???s unilateral disarmament and/or a steep reduction in its military spending
        - opposing the death penalty in all circumstances
        - promoting socialized medicine in the United States
        - promoting the tenets of radical environmentalism, whose ultimate goal, as writer Michael Berliner has explained, is ???not clean air and clean water, [but] rather ??? the demolition of technological/industrial civilization???
        - bringing American foreign policy under the control of the United Nations
        - promoting racial and ethnic preferences in academia and the business world alike
        In December of 2006, Soros met with Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama in his (Soros???) New York office. Soros had previously hosted a fund-raiser for Obama during the latter???s 2004 campaign for the Senate. On January 16, 2007, Obama announced the creation of a presidential exploratory committee, and within hours Soros sent the senator a contribution of $2,100, the maximum amount allowable under campaign finance laws. Later that week the New York Daily News reported that Soros would back Obama over Senator Hillary Clinton, whom he had supported in the past.

  • Posted By: Iconoblaster @ 10/06/2008 5:38:10 PM

    Comment: I have to laugh when political commentators speak of "classic biblical sexuality"...often in defense of the legal formulation of "marriage" currently in vogue (ie, one man, one woman, as an equal partnership) that is distinctly NOT charactristic of the mores and marriages of MANY biblical figures offered as models of piety and propriety: plural marriages abounded, women were subservient, and violations of ethics, such as incest to reproduce an heir, or fraud to steal a patrimony, was excused and justified when it suited the biblical writers to do so. Biblical mores included the "justice" of wiping out an indigenous population to seize their land, institutionalized compulsory demonstrations of orthodox piety, approval of slavery and violent racist bigotry of the worst sorts. Oh please, yes, lets have the candidates views on biblical morality.

  • Posted By: Charlie from East Lansing @ 10/06/2008 3:51:31 PM

    Comment: I have never seen a set of questions more explicitly designed to advance the point of view of a single candidate. Let's add a few. How about "Does the theoretical desire to reshape the politics of a region justify launching a preventive war that costs hundreds of thousands of lives?" Or "Do you consider it moral that the world's richest nation cannot provide adequate health care to all its citizens, and if not, how are you going to solve the problem?" I have had enough and more than enough of the coverage of "values voters" that ignores the deeply held values that inform my liberal positions.

    This column is more appropriate for a McCain campaign telephone "push poll" than a column in a newsweekly. It is deliberately deceptive.

    • Posted By: Ubipetros @ 10/06/2008 9:22:05 PM

      Comment: I agree with Iconoblaster. Charlie has certainly nailed it. ANY list of questions seeking moral clarity is OBVIOUSLY BIASED against the party and candidate that has no morals.

    • Posted By: Ubipetros @ 10/06/2008 9:19:38 PM

      Comment: Sorry Charlie (couldn't resist), but I must agree with Iconoblaster. Any list of questions that seek moral clarity are OBVIOUSLY biased against the individual candidate and party that has no morals.

    • Posted By: aro1 @ 10/06/2008 5:52:27 PM

      Comment: Mr. Charlie I would like you to name ONE question from this list that is not a vital concern for candidates from both parties. I notice both your "questions" place blame soley on the current administration. Who is showing favoritism here?

    • Posted By: aro1 @ 10/06/2008 5:49:11 PM

      Comment: Mr. Charlie, I would like you to name ONE question from this list that is not a relevant concern for representatives from both partys. I notice both of the questions you pose place blame soley on the present administration. Who is favoring candidates here?

    • Posted By: Iconoblaster @ 10/06/2008 5:26:37 PM

      Comment: Charlie has obviously spotted the ruse. I hope everyone does. Good call, Charlie!

  • Posted By: tiredoflies @ 10/06/2008 3:40:12 PM

    Comment: For eight years, Bush and the republicans have conditioned America to be afraid and live in fear. They are now playing Americans for all they can get out of that fear card.

    Fear and smear is how the republicans gain POWER and CONTROL OVER THE PEOPLE. LIES, DISTORTIONS AND EXAGGERATIONS are the tools they use to accomplish their purpose. This is what we are seeing right now.

    If they make it, once again when the election is over, all the peon voters will be cast to the wayside and power, money and indifference to the middle and lower class will reign once again. We will be stuck for four or eight more years of the past.

    I reject these false qualifications for President. I reject the abundance of lies, distortions and complete anti Obama fabrications which are condoned be the McCain campaign and appears on this and other web sites.