Obama: Lipstick on a pig and made up controversy by the John McCain campaign is like “catnip” to the media. Video here. He says, he referred to McCain’s continuation of the failed policies of the Bush administration as being like putting lipstick on a pig, and they pretended to think he was talking about the Governor of Alaska. Which would be funny, except that we have real problems – people out of work, a couple of wars, high gas prices, etc. etc. etc, but the McCain campaign and the news media wants to talk about fake controversies. Enough.

Michelle Obama gave a speech in Fishers today. Here is the text.

(First she noted that, as a mom, she thinks of her kids first and last. Let’s see if the McCain campaign engineers a faux freakout claiming that this was a backhanded jab insinuating that Sarah Palin doesn’t care about her kids. With all the wailing and gnashing of teeth about the lipstick on a pig and old fish metaphors, I wouldn’t doubt it.)

In any case, Michelle Obama noted that the chief threat to the family comes from the gays parents who can’t spend time with their kids because they need both parents working to make ends meet and that it’s even harder for single parents.

Obligatory catchy phrase:

That’s why, as President, Barack is determined to change Washington, so that instead of just talking about family values, we actually have policies that value families.

Barack Obama is proposing middle class tax cuts, energy rebates, and strengthening of the Family Medical Leave Act. Michelle also noted his concern about pay equity for women – citing his first hand knowledge of the challenges working mothers face both from watching his single mother and his grandmother growing up.

Once again, Ed Brayton is right. He described Mike Huckabee giving a speech at the Republican National Convention. Huckabee, incidentally, seems like a guy I’d like if I didn’t disagree with just about everything he stands for. Anyway, Huckabee was badmouthing Obama for his trip to Europe, saying he’s concerned that Obama might’ve brought back “European ideas.” Brayton says that statements like that, appealing to the dumbest among us, is why he can’t identify with the right in this country.

European ideas? Our entire system of government is based on European ideas. Every single one of the primary intellectual influences that influenced the founding of this country – John Locke, Montesquieu, Algernon Sydney, etc – were Europeans. This kind of rhetoric is stupid, xenophobic bullshit, plain and simple. I can’t stomach it. It makes me want to stand up and scream.

Brayton goes on at some length in convincing style, concluding with:

There are issues on which I agree with Republicans. On eminent domain, I am all for limiting the government’s ability to seize property. I’m all for reducing taxes, especially the income tax (but only if we cut spending first because the worst possible situation is to pass on debt to ourselves and our children, then we have to pay it back plus interest). And there are many conservative scholars that I respect and admire.

But the pedestrian right, the partisan political right, specializes in appealing to the most shallow and base emotions of the masses. So much of their rhetoric is carefully calculated to appeal only to the stupid and the credulous and that is something I cannot tolerate. I simply can’t stomach their penchant for emotional demagoguery and their tendency to grope for the most shallow possible response to every conceivable issue.

But, once again, I go back to Adelai Stevenson’s quip after a supporter told him he was sure to get the support of every thinking man in America. To which Stevenson responded, “thank you, but I need a majority.”

Robert Wuerth, for the Evansville Courier Press and using analysis from the non-partisan Tax Policy Center of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution lays out the impact of the Obama & McCain tax plans in terms of tax cuts to various income groups.

Do you make:
Less than $19,000? (20th percentile) McCain cuts $21 from your tax bill; Obama cuts $567.
$19,000 – $37,600: (40th percentile) McCain $118, Obama $892.
$37,600 – $66,400: (60th percentile) McCain $325, Obama $1,118.
$66,400 – $111,600: (80th percentile) McCain $994, Obama $1,264.
$111,600 – $161,000: (90th percentile) McCain $2,584, Obama $2,135.
$161,000 – $227,000: (95th percentile) McCain $4,437, Obama $2,796.
Above $227,000 – No numbers, but McCain is your guy.

So, if you make less than $111,600 and going strictly by proposed tax cuts, Obama’s the guy to go with. If you make between $111,600 and $161,000, it’s pretty much a wash and you should go looking for other policies to break the tie. But, the more you make over $161,000 per year, the more it’s in your financial self-interest to vote for McCain.

Michael Isikoff, writing for Newsweek, has a story on Palin-McCain’s efforts to stonewall the Alaska investigation in which Palin had previously promised cooperation. The team McCain sent up north appears to have had obstruction on its mind more than the thorough vetting previously thought. (Or, maybe they found something they really didn’t like in the course of the post-selection vetting, hard telling.)

One major reason the probe is so sensitive is that it raises the prospect that Governor Palin’s credibility could be called into a question in a major state probe on the eve of the election. When the “troopergate” story broke over the summer, Palin adamantly denied that anybody in her administration exerted any pressure on Monegan to fire Wooten. But only weeks later, a tape recording surfaced in which another one of her top aides, Frank Bailey, was heard telling a police lieutenant, “Todd and Sarah are scratching their heads, ‘Why on earth hasn’t this, why is this guy [Wooten] still representing the department?'”

After the McCain forces got involved, seven people who had previously agreed to provide depositions for the bipartisan-ordered investigation decided to cancel.

I’ll be clear here. I have no idea if Palin did anything wrong. She had to back off on her earlier story when hard evidence surfaced which makes her look bad. But, whether she acted appropriately or inappropriately, the McCain strategy here is the same as the Bush strategy we’ve seen so often — delay, obstruct, and most of all avoid testifying under oath so that any investigation into potential wrongdoing is either avoided altogether or put off long enough that the investigation has no political consequences. That’s what the Bush administration did in the case of investigating how they ginned up the Iraq War and in political firings of Attorneys General.

I saw what the Republicans did to Clinton. I’m as skeptical of investigatory witch-hunts as anyone. But this one in Alaska seems to have gotten started under bipartisan conditions and only hit a roadblock when Palin got involved with McCain.

The GOP used Heart’s Barracuda as one of their theme songs, presumably in honor of Sarah Palin who got the nickname playing high school basketball. This stanza seems apt for the convention:

If the real thing dont do the trick
No, you better make up something quick
You gonna burn burn burn burn it to the wick
Ooooooohhhh, barra barracuda.

Update And, of course, the McCain campaign did not get permission to use Heart’s song. Ann and Nancy Wilson say:

“Sarah Palin’s views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women. We ask that our song ‘Barracuda’ no longer be used to promote her image. The song ‘Barracuda’ was written in the late 70s as a scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women. (The ‘barracuda’ represented the business.) While Heart did not and would not authorize the use of their song at the RNC, there’s irony in Republican strategists’ choice to make use of it there.”

It’s getting to where we could probably make a pretty good play list with songs the GOP has been asked not to play anymore.

Jason over at Four Square No. 266 hits one out of the park with a thoughtful post about the Presidential race. As we all have to do, he brings some of his personal perspective to bear when deciding what’s best for his family and what’s best for the country in a President.

Governor Palin has a 5 month old son named Trig who has Downs syndrome. As a parent of a special needs kid, I feel for her and her family. Sincerely I do. My son’s special needs are different from hers, so what they are going through is a bit different than mine. All special needs kids are different and have a range of severity. So that’s a nice statement to make about being a friend and advocate.

But what exactly can you do for those parents? What proposals do you and Sen. McCain have to improve our lives? Aside from the psychological and emotional tolls that special needs can have on a family, there is also the financial toll. Hospitals, doctors, prescriptions, therapists, equipment… they cost money. Lots of money.

. . .

In the end, the two tickets are settling in to their places in the world: Obama and Biden on the left; McCain and Palin on the right. In the middle, there is a battle for the swing voters. McCain looks at the right now, proposing to drill in environmentally sensitive areas and play on everyone’s fears about terrorists and war and gas prices. Obama looks further ahead, looking for change that lasts, including alternative energy sources and being a diplomat in the world, not a gunslinger.

Essentially, the choice is more of the same or something different. And how you vote is determined if you are hoping for something better or are happy to stay the course.

Election 2008: Fear versus Hope.

Barack Obama: “You’d never know this was an important election. You’re hearing a lot about John McCain, he has a compelling biography as a P.O.W. You’re hearing a lot about me, most of it untrue. What you’re not hearing, is a lot about you.”

Nothing about how they propose to make health care work.
Nothing about getting serious about green & alternative energy.
Nothing about improving math and science education.
Nothing about how to deal with any aspect of the economy that is affecting you in your pocket book, day to day.

The problem is this. Bush’s record is awful. McCain is tied inextricably to Bush both by political ideology and by the compromises he’s made to get this far in the Republican primary. If he ever really did have a big old mavericky streak, he sold it long ago. So now, he can’t credibly talk about how he’s going to alter the status quo; and he can’t very well admit that under a McCain administration, things will pretty much keep going the same direction. So, we’re down to biography.

Update Amy just clued me in to a great post by Dooce talking about some of those things that folks aren’t talking about at the RNC.

Update 2 Just because T referenced it, a picture of McCain “hating” Bush:

Rick Kupchella, a reporter with KARE has an interesting blog entry from the protests at the Republican Convention in St. Paul. (h/t Brenda). The gist:

#Rage Against the Machine wasn’t allowed to perform, and that made some people grumpy.
#Most of the protesters were peaceful and simply looking to make political statements at a time and place where people were focused on politics.
#There were some hooligans in the crowd looking to make trouble, and that contributed to chaos and scariness.
#By and large, the police acted with courage and restraint, though there were some cases where they got out of hand.