Philadelphia Hockey Fans Reject The GOP While McCain Compares (somewhat) Favorably to Segregationist! 23 Days to Go!

--> Friday's big news was the release of Alaska's Branchflower Report. A bipartisan state legislative committee found that Governor Palin "abused her power" by firing Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. The report determines that Palin used her power as governor to pursue a personal vendetta against a state trooper. I can't imagine that anyone would still feel that she's capable of serving in the office of Vice-President. Then again, this news probably won't have any effect on the election polls, or even Palin's personal favorability ratings. After her continued public demonstrations of incompetence, anyone who still supported her would probably not be swayed by...facts.


The McCain campaign certainly did its part to get to the bottom of this investigation. McCain and Company came to a rational, unbiased determination that the bipartisan commission appointed by the Republican-dominated Alaska State Legislature was completely partisan and was serving as an organ of the Obama Campaign. For those keeping score, that makes the New York Times, the Alaska State Legislature, and the Truth all biased towards Obama.

Thus, McCain's unbiased investigation (released hours before the real report) determined conclusively that Sarah Palin did nothing wrong, and that everyone should simply stop asking questions. Thank you for uncovering the real truth, John McCain. Your commitment to honesty is unparalleled.


--> Meanwhile, Sarah Palin returned to her native land on Saturday night - a hockey rink. Expecting a warm reaction for "America's #1 Hockey Mom," campaign officials were apparently surprised that an arena filled with Philadelphians was not kind and respectful to the Republican VP candidate. Palin entered the ice, posed for pictures, and dropped the ceremonial first puck, only to be met with sustained booing for all 90 seconds that she spent on the rink.


The campaign really should not have been surprised by the response. And not just because Philadelphia sports fans are famous for booing everyone - they've turned against their own MVP shortstop, and even hurled snowsballs at Santa (at least according to legend). It's because the state of Pennsylvania has become increasingly futile territory for GOP presidential efforts...


--> After days of reports that Obama is starting to pull away from McCain in PA, some have begun to question the wisdom of McCain's continued presence in the state. Why not devote extra resources to real battlegrounds like Ohio and Florida? However, McCain is holding firm, and stubbornly plans on competing til the bitter end for the state's 21 electoral votes.


--> The electoral math continues to look really bad for the McCain Campaign. Palin even scheduled a bus tour through West Virginia, a state that looked unwinnable for Obama just one month ago. This is the final 3 weeks of the campaign - a Republican spending time in a state like West Virginia is not a good omen.


--> Speaking of bad omens for the GOP, the Ghost of Conservatives Past has decided to haunt John McCain. Christopher Buckley, son of the great Conservative lion William Buckley, has decided to endorse Senator Barack Obama after deciding that the authentic John McCain has gone the way of the dinosaur. When the heir to your entire ideology turns against you, it might be time to take a look in the mirror and wonder where you went wrong (hint, it was when Steve Schmidt convinced you to substitute an unqualified person that reeks of gender pandering for your running mate).


--> Another reason to look in the mirror: when you show up at your political rallies, and realize that everyone is there cheering for you because they think the other guy is an Islamic terrorist.
I hope that by now everyone has seen this video:


Well, the bigotted, divisive tone of the McCain-Palin rallies has only gotten worse since then:



The racism of McCain's supporters has actually become a campaign issue in itself. It actually got to the point on Friday where Senator McCain himself (admirably) attempted to halt the anger and baseless hatred. At a town hall meeting in Minnesota, a supporter told McCain that he was "scared" of an Obama presidency. McCain stressed that he believes that he would do a better job than Obama, but that Americans have nothing to worry about with Obama, who is a "decent person." Apparently, "decent" wasn't good enough for the crowd, who continued shouting "liar" and "terrorist" about Obama. In fact, one woman claimed that she couldn't trust Obama because he's an Arab. Upon hearing that, McCain retook the microphone and clarified, "No, ma'am. He's a decent family man [and] citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues and that's what this campaign's all about. He's not [an Arab]."

I give McCain credit for sticking up for his rival on the campaign trail (although it still troubles me that America remains a place where Arab is an insult). I would never accuse McCain himself of this sort of ignorance and racism, although I apparently don't speak for everyone...


--> Representative John Lewis (D-GA), one of the biggest civil rights advocates in congressional history, spoke out on Saturday and, as Taegan Goddard notes, "compared the negative tone of McCain's campaign to that of segregationist George Wallace in 1960s."


Lewis accused McCain and Palin of "sowing the seeds of hatred and division," and immediately generated harsh criticism from the Republicans' campaign. McCain's statement referred to Lewis' words as "shocking and beyond the pale."


Of course, it's not the presidential campaign itself generating this negativity (at least not just them). Just today, the Virginia State Republican Party Chairman Jeff Frederick gave thirty volunteers some talking points on how to convince undecideds they encountered during their door-to-door canvassing. He pointed out that United States Senator Barack Obama and terrorist Osama bin Laden "both have friends that bombed the Pentagon." My reaction to this is similar to past expressions of anger by Carlos Quentin and Kevin Brown, but instead of taking out my anger on inatimate objects, I'll just give you this:



--> To be fair, it's not just Republicans that are tying Barack Obama to Arab terrorists. Hundreds of Rensselaer County, NY residents received absentee ballots this week, only to discover that the Democratic ticket featured a mass-murderer instead of a U.S. Senator. Yes, that fateful "typo" caused hundreds of (thankfully) non-swing state voters to receive the option of McCain-Palin or Osama-Biden. Officials on both sides claim it was an honest mistake. However, I guarantee you that if I typed Obama 1000 times I wouldn't accidentally hit the instead of the b. That mistake is BS. There are several keys in between the correct B and the incorrect S, and I'd like to now demonstrate the infinitely more-likely mistakes that could have occurred if this was an honest typo:
Obama, Ogama, Ovama, Ofama, Ocama, Odama, Oxama, Orama, Oeama, Owama, Otama, Ozama, Oaama, Oqama.


I hate the world. I'll leave you with the comforting thought (at least for Sarah Palin) that even if the GOP loses this year, Governor Palin can still go off and rule this college dorm.