Election Thoughts- Text of John McCain's Concession Speech

As the world knows by now, Barack Obama won the presidential election and he is now the President Elect and Joe Biden is the Vice President Elect.

I am sure there will be gnashing of the teeth for McCain supporters for weeks to come but we are a Republic that holds Democratic elections and we held it, and the longest campaign season in history is finally over, which is drink worthy in and of itself.

Obama supporters will be happy, they deserve their celebration and McCain supporters will survive and will accept the reality because if nothing else, McCain supporters are adults who understand that reality isn't always what they "want" but is how things are.

They will move on, determine what is needed, challenge what they see wrong, work to hold Obama and the Democratic congress's feet to the fire and hold them accountable for the next four years as they start laying the groundwork for the 2012 campaign season which many already consider to have started.

Never has the expression "it is what it is" been more relevant.

Will we stop bringing information to the forefront about our politicians? No, not a chance.

What we will do, is accept that which cannot be changed and fight for the changes we want over the next four years and work toward the 2012 election.

Barack Obama's victory speech can be found here and the text of John McCain's concession speech is below:

JOHN MCCAIN: Thank you. Thank you, my friends. Thank you for coming here on this beautiful Arizona evening.

(APPLAUSE)

My friends, we have -- we have come to the end of a long journey. The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly.

A little while ago, I had the honor of calling Senator Barack Obama to congratulate him.

(BOOING)

Please.

To congratulate him on being elected the next president of the country that we both love.

In a contest as long and difficult as this campaign has been, his success alone commands my respect for his ability and perseverance. But that he managed to do so by inspiring the hopes of so many millions of Americans who had once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence in the election of an American president is something I deeply admire and commend him for achieving.

This is an historic election, and I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans and for the special pride that must be theirs tonight.

I've always believed that America offers opportunities to all who have the industry and will to seize it. Senator Obama believes that, too.

But we both recognize that, though we have come a long way from the old injustices that once stained our nation's reputation and denied some Americans the full blessings of American citizenship, the memory of them still had the power to wound.

A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt's invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage in many quarters.

America today is a world away from the cruel and frightful bigotry of that time. There is no better evidence of this than the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States.

Let there be no reason now...

(APPLAUSE)

Let there be no reason now for any American to fail to cherish their citizenship in this, the greatest nation on Earth.

(APPLAUSE)

Senator Obama has achieved a great thing for himself and for his country. I applaud him for it, and offer him my sincere sympathy that his beloved grandmother did not live to see this day. Though our faith assures us she is at rest in the presence of her creator and so very proud of the good man she helped raise.

Senator Obama and I have had and argued our differences, and he has prevailed. No doubt many of those differences remain.

These are difficult times for our country. And I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face.

I urge all Americans...

(APPLAUSE)

I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited.

Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans. And please believe me when I say no association has ever meant more to me than that.

(APPLAUSE)

It is natural. It's natural, tonight, to feel some disappointment. But tomorrow, we must move beyond it and work together to get our country moving again.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: (OFF-MIKE)

We fought -- we fought as hard as we could. And though we feel short, the failure is mine, not yours.

AUDIENCE: No!

MCCAIN: I am so...

AUDIENCE: (CHANTING)

MCCAIN: I am so deeply grateful to all of you for the great honor of your support and for all you have done for me. I wish the outcome had been different, my friends.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: We do, too (OFF-MIKE)

MCCAIN: The road was a difficult one from the outset, but your support and friendship never wavered. I cannot adequately express how deeply indebted I am to you.

I'm especially grateful to my wife, Cindy, my children, my dear mother...

(APPLAUSE)

... my dear mother and all my family, and to the many old and dear friends who have stood by my side through the many ups and downs of this long campaign.

I have always been a fortunate man, and never more so for the love and encouragement you have given me.

You know, campaigns are often harder on a candidate's family than on the candidate, and that's been true in this campaign.

All I can offer in compensation is my love and gratitude and the promise of more peaceful years ahead.

I am also -- I am also, of course, very thankful to Governor Sarah Palin, one of the best campaigners I've ever seen...

(APPLAUSE)

... one of the best campaigners I have ever seen, and an impressive new voice in our party for reform and the principles that have always been our greatest strength...

(APPLAUSE)

... her husband Todd and their five beautiful children...

(APPLAUSE)

... for their tireless dedication to our cause, and the courage and grace they showed in the rough and tumble of a presidential campaign.

We can all look forward with great interest to her future service to Alaska, the Republican Party and our country.

(APPLAUSE)

To all my campaign comrades, from Rick Davis and Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter, to every last volunteer who fought so hard and valiantly, month after month, in what at times seemed to be the most challenged campaign in modern times, thank you so much. A lost election will never mean more to me than the privilege of your faith and friendship.

I don't know -- I don't know what more we could have done to try to win this election. I'll leave that to others to determine. Every candidate makes mistakes, and I'm sure I made my share of them. But I won't spend a moment of the future regretting what might have been.

This campaign was and will remain the great honor of my life, and my heart is filled with nothing but gratitude for the experience and to the American people for giving me a fair hearing before deciding that Senator Obama and my old friend Senator Joe Biden should have the honor of leading us for the next four years.

(BOOING)

Please. Please.

I would not -- I would not be an American worthy of the name should I regret a fate that has allowed me the extraordinary privilege of serving this country for a half a century.

half a century.

Today, I was a candidate for the highest office in the country I love so much. And tonight, I remain her servant. That is blessing enough for anyone, and I thank the people of Arizona for it.

(APPLAUSE)

AUDIENCE: USA. USA. USA. USA.

Tonight -- tonight, more than any night, I hold in my heart nothing but love for this country and for all its citizens, whether they supported me or Senator Obama -- whether they supported me or Senator Obama.

I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president. And I call on all Americans, as I have often in this campaign, to not despair of our present difficulties, but to believe, always, in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here.

Americans never quit. We never surrender.

(APPLAUSE)

We never hide from history. We make history.

Thank you, and God bless you, and God bless America. Thank you all very much.

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John McCain On SNL

John McCain was on Saturday Night Live last night and was pretty amusing. The two clips below are from his appearance on the "weekend update" portion of the show and the second video was the opening QVC skit of the show with McCain and Tina Fey playing Sarah Palin.

Weekend update video:

“I thought I might try a strategy called the reverse maverick. That’s where I’d do whatever anybody tells me,” McCain said. And if that didn’t work, “I’d go to the double maverick. I’d just go totally berserk and freak everybody out,” the Arizona senator quipped.

Opening Skit video below:



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'Persuadables' At 14 Percent

Just days before the presidential election and we see there are a large number of what is considered "persuadables", which are people that either have not decided or lean one way or another but can still be "persuaded" toward one of the two presidential candidates.

With the sand in the 2008 campaign hourglass about depleted, Campbell is part of a stubborn wedge of people who, somehow, are still making up their minds about who should be president. One in seven, or 14 percent, can't decide or back a candidate but might switch, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo! News poll of likely voters released Friday.

Who are they? They look a lot like the voters who've already locked onto a candidate, though they're more likely to be white and less likely to be liberal. And they disproportionately backed Hillary Rodham Clinton's failed run for the Democratic nomination.

For now, their indecision remains intact despite the fortunes that have been spent to tug people toward either McCain, the Republican, or the Democrat Obama. Fueling their uncertainty is a combination of disliking something about both candidates and frustration with this campaign and politics in general.

Those who have already made up their minds for either John McCain or Barack Obama are not the target audience in the last days before the election. The target audience are the 14 percent that can still be persuaded to get out to vote for one candidate or another.

This is the reason it is still very important to get all the information out there, pound it home, hammer the points we find to be key to helping those undecided voters decide.

Two pieces in Washington Post today bring that to bear, speaking to those that have not decided yet with their arguments of why they believe those "persuadables" should vote for John McCain on Tuesday, November 4, 2008.

The first titled "In Final Stretch, McCain to Pour Money Into TV Ads," shows that McCain is going to make a final 72 hour push targeting those folks and the second is Charles Krauthammer's piece called "McCain for President, Part II."

Sen. John McCain and the Republican National Committee will unleash a barrage of spending on television advertising that will allow him to keep pace with Sen. Barack Obama's ad blitz during the campaign's final days, but the expenditures will impact McCain's get-out-the-vote efforts, according to Republican strategists.

Charles Krauthammer's piece deals with economics and kitchen-table items.

The only people really listening to the candidates speeches and arguments right now, paying attention to help them decide instead of simply looking for one or the other to make a major gaffe, are those that have not yet determined who they will vote for in a manner where their minds cannot be changed.

Those are the target right now.

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Iraqi's For McCain

They cannot vote in our elections, but since we continue hearing idiocy from the left about how the Iraqi's hate us, we are invaders, yadda, yadda, yadda, it is interesting to see the truth get reported and very surprising that it is the AFP reporting honestly about this.

AFP, via Breitbart:

For five years Ali and Mohammed have lived alongside US soldiers in their Baghdad neighbourhood near Rasheed Street, a prominent commercial artery running through the heart of the Iraqi capital.

During that time American culture and politics have become familiar to them, and they say that if they could, they would vote for Republican candidate John McCain in next week's US presidential election.

So, while they cannot vote in our elections, it is interesting to see who they would vote for if they could. After all, their future rests heavily on our actions, therefore they have a vested interest, even though they can do nothing themselves about it.

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al-Qaeda For Democrats

Chuckle worthy to say the least.

After the left tried so hard to connect al-Qaeda to some type of McCain endorsement, Reuters spoils the "meme."

An al Qaeda leader has called for President George W. Bush and the Republicans to be "humiliated," without endorsing any party in the upcoming U.S. presidential election, according to a video posted on the Internet.

Notice the wording here from Reuters.

Al-Qaeda is not endorsing anyone but they are stating who they want to lose the election.

HMMMMMMMM, how hard is that to see through?

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Don't Believe The Hype

(Cross-posted from America Needs Me)

If you are a McCain-Palin supporter these days any exposure to the media can be disheartening. Guess what kids? It's only going to get worse.

You are going to be under a barrage of negative news telling you that your candidate is doomed and your life sucks because you didn't fall under the Obama spell. "Hey, don't even get out of bed loser."

I think we have established by now that the MSM is not just in the tank for Beloved Leader Obama, they're naked and spooning with him at this point. They want you to be discouraged and stay home. So when you turn on the TV you'll hear all about The One's coronation plans. When you log into your Yahoo! mail you'll see poll numbers that will make you want to head to Mexico for some cheap Zoloft. The number one show in America this week will be "Barack Obama and the Mantle of Inevitability".

Just remember this, when I went to lunch on the West coast on Election Day 2004 all the exit polls were telling me that John Kerry was going to be the next POTUS.

This is hardly the time to go underground and hope we don't all get assigned to ACORN sponsored reeducation camps.

Rasmussen shows Pennsylvania tightening and Ace of Spades HQ has some ideas for working in the home stretch.

The angry, well-organized and deadly serious PUMAS offer some even more encouraging news.

Tonight we spoke with a friend from Hillary Clinton’s campaign who is now working for McCain/Palin — and is specifically working with Democrats for McCain in Pennsylvania. We worked with her in Texas, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania for Hillary and have spent many LONG hours with her in the trenches in all of those states. She’s smart, doesn’t BS, and never lies.

She says the same thing we do: John McCain will win Pennsylvania.

Nothing anywhere or at any time is a given, of course. But that includes an Obama victory. If you're a sports nut then remember how many experts picked the New York Giants in the Super Bowl. The game still has to be played.

If you can't get to a swing state and knock on doors, you can make phone calls to the state of your choice all you want between now and then.

Yes, it would be better if McCain was up in the polls right now but he's not. But we don't need to hang our heads, cry and get marched right over because we listened to the very MSM that we're always saying is biased.

One last note:

Extra beer might help.

Two Percentage Point Difference Among Likely Voters?

The media keeps trumpeting an Obama win in the upcoming election just a week away but the polling seems to show that the result is not a foregone conclusion by any means.

Among "likely voters" which uses the traditional models of historical voting habits, there is a two percentage point advantage for Barack Obama, according to Gallup.



Gallup has also started something new they call their "expanded" models which doesn't take history and previous voting history into account at all and under that model Obama holds a seven percentage point lead.

The traditional likely voter model matches the recent IBD/TIPP poll which showed an Obama advantage at 3 percentage points as well.

About IBD/TIPP: An analysis of Final Certified Results for the 2004 election showed IBD's polling partner, TIPP, was the most accurate pollster of the campaign season.

Obama's "spread the wealth" comments seem to have started resounding echo inside the heads of those that previously were undecided and it is not a theme the majority wanted to hear and these most recent numbers might be reflecting that.

The media might want people to think the race is over but with one week to go it seems the "people" have decided their votes might just actually count more than the pre-election "spin."

On a side note since we are talking about the media here, it also looks like MSNBC is getting ripped by both sides of the aisle with Democrats saying they are "completely out of control."

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Nicolas Sarkozy Says Obama's Position On Iran Is 'Utterly Immature'

[Update below from the French Embassy's communiqué regarding the remarks attributed by the newspaper Haaretz to the President of the French Republic concerning Senator Obama's stance on Iran.]

I think many of us said quite the same thing as it is being reported Nicolas Sarkozy is saying about Barack Obama's stance on Iran.

During the Democratic primaries, a YouTube questioner asked the Democratic candidates a question, I am putting the video of that question and the answer below so people can see for themselves exactly what Barack Obama said, despite his trying to "qualify" his statement later when he received criticism for his original answer.

YouTube URL for video above, here.

Text:

QUESTION: In 1982, Anwar Sadat traveled to Israel, a trip that resulted in a peace agreement that has lasted ever since.

In the spirit of that type of bold leadership, would you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea, in order to bridge the gap that divides our countries?

COOPER: I should also point out that Stephen is in the crowd tonight.

Senator Obama?

OBAMA: I would. And the reason is this, that the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them -- which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this administration -- is ridiculous.

(APPLAUSE)

Now, Ronald Reagan and Democratic presidents like JFK constantly spoke to Soviet Union at a time when Ronald Reagan called them an evil empire. And the reason is because they understood that we may not trust them and they may pose an extraordinary danger to this country, but we had the obligation to find areas where we can potentially move forward.

And I think that it is a disgrace that we have not spoken to them. We’ve been talking about Iraq -- one of the first things that I would do in terms of moving a diplomatic effort in the region forward is to send a signal that we need to talk to Iran and Syria because they’re going to have responsibilities if Iraq collapses.

It does bear mentioning that according to the transcript of that debate, directly after Obama made that statement, Hillary Clinton was asked the same question and her answer was much more realistic. Page 14, found here, you can see Hillary's answer.

Which brings us to today's report, in which sources tell Haaretz that Nicolas Sarkozy, in closed forums in France, has stated that Barack Obama's stance regarding Iran is "utterly immature" and comprised of "formulations empty of all content."

Obama visited Paris in July, and the Iranian issue was at the heart of his meeting with Sarkozy. At a joint press conference afterward, Obama urged Iran to accept the West's proposal on its nuclear program, saying that Iran was creating a serious situation that endangered both Israel and the West.

According to the reports reaching Israel, Sarkozy told Obama at that meeting that if the new American president elected in November changed his country's policy toward Iran, that would be "very problematic."

Until now, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany have tried to maintain a united front on Iran. But according to the senior Israeli source, Sarkozy fears that Obama might "arrogantly" ignore the other members of this front and open a direct dialogue with Iran without preconditions.

Following their July meeting, Sarkozy repeatedly expressed disappointment with Obama's positions on Iran, concluding that they were "not crystallized, and therefore many issues remain open," the Israeli source said. Advisors to the French president who held separate meetings with Obama's advisors came away with similar impressions and expressed similar disappointment.

Obama speaks well, there is no doubt about it, he gives good speeches, admitted.

Whether those speeches actually represent reality is another thing and one his supporters do not seem to ask themselves at all.

Sarkozy uses words like "arrogant” and “unilateral” when speaking about Obama and that is exactly right. Obama is like a child that can see no further than what he wants, what he thinks the world should be like rather than seeing what the world, especially our enemies are like.

America's allies understand this and it shows an incredible contrast when you see someone who is one of our most staunch allies, like France's President Sarkozy, making statements like that, Israel showing preference for McCain, while those not our allies, such as the Syrian regime and Lebanese Hezbollah to name just two, overwhelmingly want Obama to win this election.

The contrast there should make people stop and look closely at the reasoning.

Via email from the French Embassy to WUA:

The remarks attributed by the newspaper Haaretz to the President of the French Republic concerning Senator Obama's positions on Iran are groundless. To the contrary, the in-depth discussions between the President of the Republic and Senator Obama on Iran during their meeting in Paris in July demonstrated a broad convergence of views on this issue. President Sarkozy and Senator Obama agree to oppose Iran's development of a military nuclear capability.

(Disclaimer- As of yet I have not received confirmation that the email was legitimately from the French Embassy but felt it important to show the denial anyway until I do receive a reply)



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The Arizona Republic proudly recommends John McCain for president.

Editorial from The Arizona Republic:

Nowhere else in the country do voters know John McCain like Arizonans know John McCain.

Voters here have sent McCain to Washington, D.C., on their behalf five times since his first election to Congress in 1982. As much as an electorate can, we know this man.

We have seen the irascible McCain. The bawdy and irreverent McCain. And, yes, the temperamental McCain. Likewise, we here in Arizona have seen the former Navy pilot and war hero evolve - slowly and with lots of fits and starts - into a statesman.

We have witnessed John McCain become a leader - not only of a delegation from a fast-growing Southwestern state, but into a national leader with a reassuring habit of stepping to the front when things seemed most difficult.

Nobody in the country knows the Republican presidential candidate better than we do. And no one is better placed to judge whether he would serve honorably and admirably as president of the United States.

We are confident he will. The Arizona Republic proudly recommends John McCain for president.

Regarding foreign policy, no contemporary American statesman is more prepared than McCain to assume the mantles of first diplomat and commander in chief. In the tradition of Harry S. Truman, McCain already has demonstrated a willingness to let the buck of responsibility stop at his desk.

No one elected McCain to stand virtually alone against three administrations over their use of power overseas - against President Reagan's ill-fated decision to send Marines to Lebanon in 1983; against President Clinton's decision to send U.S. troops to Somalia in 1993; and against President George W. Bush's decision 10 years later to send insufficient troops to Iraq. He fought Republicans and Democrats over irresponsibly sending troops into harm's way, and he fought Republicans over their equally irresponsible refusal to send enough troops to do the job. In all three instances, history has proved (too often tragically) that McCain's judgment was right.

Even McCain mischaracterizes his noble willingness to stand up and stand alone. He contends it is the "maverick" in him. Well, he's wrong about that. It is the leader in him.

In truth, the son and grandson of war admirals was never a good fit for the go-along, get-along comity of the U.S. Senate. The nation simply has not had an opportunity to elect a president this well prepared - and this willing - to be a world leader since Dwight Eisenhower.

But as the Iraq war inches slowly toward peaceful resolution, domestic issues, notably the wrenching tumult on Wall Street and the economic woes it heralds, take center stage this election season.

If McCain were to do no more than to serve as a presidential protectorate of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, most of which never were made permanent, he would provide a boost to the nation's troubled economy. As the economy lurches and slows, business leaders already envision further drag - and an unnecessarily elongated recession - caused by the heavy anchor of higher taxes, should the Bush-era tax cuts be repealed.

The same concerns apply to the future of American free trade, a cornerstone of the nation's longest-ever period of economic expansion and wealth production. McCain is a stalwart advocate of free trade, while the rhetoric of his Democratic opponent strongly suggests to us that he is not.

Which brings us to our concerns regarding Democratic candidate Barack Obama.

No one will dispute that the Illinois senator's candidacy constitutes a historic moment in the life of this nation. In addition to his demonstrated capacity to help heal the greatest American wound, its racial divide, Obama has inspired millions of Americans to see anew the value of public service.

Still, in terms of experience, Obama is barely four years removed from the Illinois State Legislature. And even that thin record in public office is obscured to us by the senator's proclivity for voting "present," often on knotty issues like abortion. For a candidate seeking the world's greatest political challenge, Obama presents an extraordinarily lightly traveled trail.

Considering what we do know of his record, it is hard to envision Obama tamping down even the wildest leftist aspirations of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.

Obama's plan to reduce the taxes of "95 percent" of working families is most troubling. As many as 44 percent of "taxpayers" today pay no federal income tax at all. What Obama in fact is proposing is a direct transfer of wealth from top earners to those on the lower rungs. In short, he seeks to use the tax system as a revived form of welfare.

John McCain joins hands with Barack Obama and other Democrats on numerous important issues. They are scarcely apart in their personal judgments about how to resolve illegal immigration.

They speak virtually in one voice regarding the environment and the dangers of global warming. But McCain's support for a wide array of energy sources, including expanding domestic-oil production and building nuclear-power plants, is considerably more credible than Obama's.

McCain speaks with a voice of credible authority.

It is not as mellifluous a voice as Obama's. But it is a voice we in Arizona know well. It is one we trust.

The Republic recommends John McCain for president of the United States.

I love living in AZ.

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Zogby: 'Things are trending back for McCain'

In the last three days, Barack Obama's 12 point lead has dropped to five points and according to pollster John Zogby "Things are trending back for McCain. His numbers are rising and Obama's are dropping on a daily basis. There seems to be a direct correlation between this and McCain talking about the economy."

Obama's lead among voters making less than $35,000 per year remains substantial at a little over 70 percent. But McCain, who had previously scored well only with the highest income brackets, now holds slight leads among voters in all income groups starting at $35,000 and above.

"You've got to think that it is tax-and-spend that concerns them. Is McCain starting to connect with the middle class?" Zogby said.

Obama still had solid, if slightly diminished, leads among two important groups which could play pivotal roles in the November 4 election. Among independents he had a 14 point lead, down from a peak of 29 points. Women also still backed Obama by a 14-point margin, down from 20 points late last week.

McCain, who once had a 4-point deficit among male voters, now has a 4-point lead at 48-44 percent. And whites back McCain by a 12-point margin, up from 6 points on Friday.

This type of drop for Obama and rise for McCain over the last week might be one reason why John McCain feels confident enough to "guarantee victory" in his latest interview with NBC's “Meet the Press”.

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John McCain Ad: 'I am Joe'- Obama's Tax Plan Is A Tax On The American Dream

John McCain has a new video release, powerful with ordinary working Americans fighting for their piece of the American dream and one specific comment from one of the people speaking in the video says that "Obama's plan is a tax on the American Dream".

The video is 1 minute 30 seconds long, found at YouTube here and shown below:

Good video.

NOT ALL BLACKS ARE VOTING FOR OBAMA

Before Obamabots start screaming racism at my headline, it isn't my headline, so go blow your stack elsewhere. It is a headline from the National Black Republican Association email I just received, so direct your idiocy to them if you have a problem with a young black man stating his reasons why he won't vote for Obama.

Same reasons we have been stating for a very long time..... Obama's bad policy stances.

In the email was a simple YouTube URL, video below entitled "BTW I'm Voting For McCain / Palin."

This young man is a musician and he states loud and clear all the reasons why he is voting for McCain/Palin.

As he states, taxes are not a racial issue. Abortion is not a racial issue. The Second Amendment is not a racial issue...etc....

Here is a related video by the same guy, this one is only 1 minute 11 seconds, much shorter than the one above, but his points are clearly stated as to why he is a Republican.



[Update] as an added bonus just as a FYI, the new AP presidential poll among likely voters, shows Obama's lead down from 8 points to one point. AP usually goes the other way.

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Palin Speaks About Hillary Clinton: 'Barack Obama couldn't bring himself to pick the woman who got eighteen million votes in the primary'

Video below is Sarah Palin in Henderson Nevada, YouTube URL here.

On a stump speech in Nevada, Sarah Palin spoke to the women in the audience, standing on stage with two "higher-profile defectors from Sen. Hillary Clinton's camp -- Lynn Rothschild, a member of the Democratic Platform Committee, and Elaine Lafferty, a former editor-in-chief of Ms. Magazine," as well as others which included, Shelly Mandell, the president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women, Linda Klinge, the vice president of Oregon's NOW chapter and Prameela Bartholomeusz, a small business owner and member of the Democratic National Platform Committee.

Palin pointed to Obama's audacity and hypocrisy in not choosing nor vetting Hillary Clinton for the vice presidential spot on the Democratic ticket, despite the overwhelming support she had.

"When the time came to make a decision, Barack Obama couldn't bring himself to pick the woman who got eighteen million votes in the primary," Palin said of Obama's vice presidential pick, comparing it to the discrimination women face in the workplace every day. "The qualifications are there, but for some reason the promotion never comes ... You've got to ask yourself, why wasn't Senator Hillary Clinton even vetted by the Obama campaign?"

"Our opponents think they have the women's vote all locked up, which is a little presumptuous," she said, as the crowd's roar of approval drowned her out. "A little presumptuous, and only our side has a woman on the ticket."

The Sarah launched into more hypocrisy of Obama, who talks the talk, but doesn't walk the walk on equal rights for women:

"There is a difference between what Barack Obama says and what he does," she declared. "Out on the stump, he talks about things like equal pay for equal work, but according to Senate records, women on his staff get just 83 cents for every dollar that the men get. What is with that? Does he think that the women aren't working as hard? Does he think they're 17 percent less productive?"

"I know one senator who does pay women equal pay," she added, referring to McCain.

Another example of Barack Obama saying one thing but doing another, as has been habit on the campaign trail.

He speaks "feel good" words, but when compared with his actual voting record, those words are empty as his suit.

Candidates will say almost anything to get elected, but the only true gauge of what they are, how they vote, what they believe and the only accurate indicator of all of the above, is how they voted previously.

The truth is in the public voting records of the candidates, not the flowery words they hope you will believe when they speak.

Here is McCain on the issues and here is Obama on the issues.

Actions speak louder than words.

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They Are All 'Joe'

NRO has an article up that is a must read.

Phil the bricklayer, Rose the teacher, construction workers for McCain, all making the point, with their presence and their signs that they are "Joe".

Joe Wurzelbacher, a plumber was visited by Barack Obama and dared ask him a question about his tax plan, Obama's answer included the phrase "spread the wealth" around showing his plans to bring socialism to America.

Boy did that cause a fuss and instead of looking into Obam's answer, the media, Obama supporters and Obama surrogates as well as Joe Biden and Barack Obama, decided that "savaging" Joe was a better way to spend their time.

The backlash can be seen at McCain rallies, with every day, hard working Americans, bringing signs showing that THEY ARE JOE!!!

Woodbridge, Va. — Tito Munoz was ready to rock when John McCain showed here up at the Connaughton Community Plaza in Woodbridge, Virginia Saturday afternoon. Dressed in a yellow hard hat covered with McCain-Palin stickers, wearing an orange high-visibility vest, Munoz carried a hand-lettered sign that said CONSTRUCTION WORKER FOR McCAIN. He got a coveted spot in the bleachers directly behind McCain, where he could be seen in the camera shot along with the guy holding the sign that said PHIL THE BRICK LAYER and the woman with the ROSE THE TEACHER banner. He cheered a lot.

Everybody was playing on the Joe-the-Plumber theme. McCain spent a lot of time on it in his stump speech, using the now-famous Joe Wurzelbacher of Toledo, Ohio, as a stand-in for “small businessmen and women all over America [who] want to keep their earnings and not give it to the government.” McCain added that Obama’s response to Wurzelbacher — the assertion that it would be best to “spread the wealth around” — made Joe the Plumber “the only person to get a real answer out of Sen. Obama.”

Read the whole thing and while you are at it, take a look at someone else who identifies with "Joe", a Colombian immigrant, here legally, who is outraged to see Joe attacked and Obama's Ayers connection completely ignored by the media.

Munoz said he owned a small construction business. “I have a license, if you guys want to check,” he said.

Someone asked why Munoz had come to the rally. “I support McCain, but I’ve come to face you guys because I’m disgusted with you guys,” he said. “Why the hell are you going after Joe the Plumber? Joe the Plumber has an idea. He has a future. He wants to be something else. Why is that wrong? Everything is possible in America. I made it. Joe the Plumber could make it even better than me. . . . I was born in Colombia, but I was made in the U.S.A.”

The scene turned into a mini-fracas when David Corn, of Mother Jones, defended press coverage. Munoz was having none of it. Why, he asked, would the press whack Joe the Plumber when it didn’t want to report on Obama’s relationship with William Ayers, the former Weather Underground bomber? “How come that’s not in the news all the time?” Munoz said. “How come Joe the Plumber is every second? I’m talking about NBC, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and CNN.”A black woman with a strong Caribbean accent jumped in the fray. “Tell me,” she said to Corn, “why is it you can go and find out about Joe the Plumber’s tax lien and when he divorced his wife and you can’t tell me when Barack Obama met with William Ayers? Why? Why could you not tell us that? Joe the Plumber is me!”

“I am Joe the Plumber!” Munoz chimed in. “You’re attacking me.”

I show Munoz's words because yesterday I wrote a piece saying "I am Joe" and it seems that others can identify with Joe as well, and they what I said they were feeling yesterday when I said:

Americans understand that it isn't the "rich" that was attacked when they went after Joe like dogs with a bone, it was an ordinary, hard working American that is being attacked.

It is them being attacked. It is you being attacked. It is me being attacked.

It is every American that wants to reach for that brass ring, buy a business, make it successful enough, by their own hard work, to earn over $250,000 and are scared that if they do so, if they work hard enough to accomplish their goal, Obama would take their hard earnings away from them and hand their money to someone who didn't earn it.

Yes, I am Joe, and folks, so are you.

How does it feel to be attacked and savaged?

Looks to me like Obama supporters, Obama, Biden and the media forgot that hard working, ordinary citizens of this great country can identify with Joe and they are not liking the attacks on him and they are standing up for him, against Obama and for John McCain.


All previous WUA pieces about Joe "The Plumber" Wurzelbacher found here.

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Obama Wants McCAIN Investigated Over ACORN

"There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between truth and fiction, between the MSM and fantasy, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of a fair election. This is the dimension of ACORN. YOU HAVE NOW CROSSED OVER TO..... THE OBAMA Zone."

We MUST BE entering a different dimension. Senator Barack Obama, whose relationship with ACORN has been proven many times over despite all of his denials, wants the Justice department to look in to the ACORN affair. Not to get rid of the fraudulent registrations. No he wants the Justice Department to investigate President Bush and Senator McCain for UNSUPPORTED ALLEGATIONS OF VOTER FRAUD. UNSUPPORTED?!?!? I guess those people in Ohio Really DO LIVE in the MIDDLE of the lake. Mickey Mouse is a real live person. This is the height of arrogance! CLICK HERE for the full story.

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Palin More Accessible To Press Than Obama, Biden And McCain

How many reports did we see after Sarah Palin was chosen to be the GOP vice presidential candidate claiming Palin was being "hidden" from the press?

CBS has a surprising piece out showing that as of now, Sarah Palin is more available to her traveling press corp than any of the other candidates.

It was less than two weeks ago when Sarah Palin astonished her traveling press corps by lifting the curtain (literally) and journeying to the back of her campaign plane to answer reporters’ questions for the first time after 40 days on the campaign trail. But the candidate who has been criticized for having a bunker mentality when it came to the national media can now lay legitimate claim to being more accessible than either Joe Biden or Barack Obama.

In the past two days alone, Palin has answered questions from her national press corps on three separate occasions. On Saturday, she held another plane availability, and on Sunday, she offered an impromptu press conference on the tarmac upon landing in Colorado Springs. A few minutes later, she answered even more questions from reporters during an off-the-record stop at a local ice cream shop.

By contrast, Biden hasn’t held a press conference in more than a month, and Obama hasn’t taken questions from his full traveling press corps since the end of September. John McCain—who spent most of the primary season holding what seemed like one, never-ending media availability—hasn’t done one since Sept. 23.

In fact, they report that Palin seems to enjoy herself so much that her aides practically have to drag her away from her press corps.

Biden, on the other hand, when he does talk to the press, seems to screw it up so badly I am surprised they don't put him on an island somewhere and gag him until the election is over.

He predicts the Obama/Biden ticket will fall a bit in the polls and he predicts that people who will not vote for Barack Obama are having a "problem" with an "African American" candidate.

Forget the fact that the majority of people saying they would never vote for Obama are listing reasons like his connections with terrorist William Ayers, or his sitting in his former church for 16 years listening to the Anti-American, racist sermons of Jeremiah Wright, or his documented business dealings with convicted felon Tony Rezko, or his tax plan that equals no more than socialism, or his health care plan or his close ties with ACORN, a group now under investigation in a dozen or more states....etc... NO, if a person claims to have any legitimate reason for refusing to back Obama, it must be because of his skin color.

By daring to mention all the associations listed above... Biden thinks that is "dangerous."

"Undecided people are having a difficult time just culturally making the change, making the move for the first African American president in the history of the United States of America," the Democratic vice-presidential nominee said at a San Francisco fundraiser Saturday evening. "So we need to respond. We need to respond at the moment, immediately, not wait, not hang around, not assume any of this won't stick."

"You see these vicious attacks on Barack's character," Biden told supporters. "I mean, this is dangerous stuff these guys are doing. This stuff is on the edge. It's on the edge. You know, there's some folks out there in the community nationwide that aren't as stable as others. It's a very small minority. But having these rallies where people are showing up saying, you know, the things they're saying - I don't even want to repeat them -- it's not a healthy thing."

What is noticeable though is that when Palin wasn't available to her traveling press corps, it headlining in every major paper, front page for many, yet now she is completely available and moreso than Biden and Obama, we do not see those papers blaring it across their front page or whining they do not have enough "access" to them....do we?

I guess since the last open, unscripted question asked of Obama caused his socialistic tendencies to go viral with his "spread the wealth" comment, perhaps he has reason not to be "available" either.

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Savaging Joe: I Am Joe

The other day I asked Who is Joe The Plumber and I also provided the answer.

I am Joe, you are Joe, every hard working American that has trouble paying their bills, but hopes for a brighter future by working their tails off, saving money, planning to buy a business and worries about what Barack Obama's socialist tax plans will take from us, is Joe.

Barack Obama went to Joe, his own home, his own driveway and Joe did something the left and the media found unforgivable, he asked Obama a legitimate question about Obama's tax policies.

Obama answered the question by saying he wanted to "spread the wealth."

Instead of focusing on Obama's answer, which considering he is the one running for president, everyone should have done, the left and the liberal media decided to go after "Joe", digging into how much he owed in taxes, his life, everything...instead of digging into Obama's policies, Obama's answers, Obama's associations with people like William Ayers.

Instead of vetting Obama, the candidate, they went after Joe, a guy who asked a simple question.

John McCain, in an interview with Chris Wallace, stated it perfectly, when he said people went out of their way to "savage" Joe.

McCain:

And Joe the Plumber — of course, Joe the Plumber is the average citizen, and Joe the Plumber is now speaking for me and small business people all over America. And they're becoming aware that spreading — that we need to spread the wealth around — it's not what small business people want.

And before we go into this business of, "Well, they wouldn't be taxed," et cetera, 50 percent of small business income would be taxed under Senator Obama's plan. That's 16 million small business jobs in America. And that's what Joe the Plumber's figured out.

And finally, could I just say, where are we in America, where a candidate for president comes to a person's driveway, he asks him a question, doesn't like the answer, and all of a sudden he's savaged by the candidate's people — I mean, savaged by them?

I mean, here's a guy who's a private citizen. What's that all about?

McCain also made this point, "You know what? American citizens ought to be able today to ask a president — candidate in their driveway a question and not have their whole life and everything..."

(Cartoon by Eric Allie, via Townhall)


"Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher appeared on Mike Huckabee's show and he makes the same point:

Mr. Huckabee said that Mr. Wurzelbacher only asked a question when Mr. Obama happened to stop by his current neighborhood a week ago. Mr. Huckabee asked how Mr. Wurzelbacher felt about the scrutiny he'd received.

"It actually upsets me," Mr. Wurzelbacher said. "I am a plumber, and just a plumber, and here Barack Obama or John McCain, I mean these guys are going to deal with some serious issues coming up shortly. The media's worried about whether I paid my taxes, they're worried about any number of silly things that have nothing to do with America. They really don't. I asked a question. When you can't ask a question to your leaders anymore, that gets scary. That bothers me."

Mr. Wurzelbacher confronted Mr. Obama over his tax proposals, asserting that the Democratic nominee's plan would tax him more if Mr. Wurzelbacher bought a plumbing business.

In the course of their conversation, Mr. Obama said, "It's not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody that is behind you, that they have a chance for success, too. I think that when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."

Mr. Wurzelbacher said some friends advised him to lie low and let everything blow over. But then he got calls of support from friends in the military who told him he asked a good question and didn't back down.

Israel Matzav, who generally doesn't write about these type of topics, did in this case and points to a couple interesting points of view:

But today I received a link to this post, which describes some of what Joe has gone through for having the chutzpa to ask The One whether he would raise Joe's taxes.

The media, well, the major media outlets, have had very legitimate questions of bias asked about them. They answered these questions in full force by descending upon and gutting an ordinary Amercican single father trying to make a living, who had the temerity to ask one of the candidates a question when the candidate went walking through his neighborhood. This person was eviscerated, lambasted by the media, and in the most distressing turn of events, by one of the candidate teams. Think about that. Now it looks like this guy is going to be thrown out of work, lose his drivers license, and who knows what else.

I am disgusted by this. I find this to be utterly and completely vile, beyond reprehensible behavior. Not just on the part of the media, whom have now demonstrated their bias so clearly and unequivocally. But by one of the candidate teams, who lambasted the man, and haven’t reigned in their minions in the media. One must call into question why this candidate team holds this American in such contempt. Because he dared to ask a question?

I