One of the highlights of this whole miserable election was watching Just Say No Deal’s Diane Mantouvalos tell Chris Matthews that his sexism towards Hillary was one reason she started JSND (at 4:15). She left him stuttering:

By the way, there’s a blog tracking Chris Matthews’ leg, called Chris Matthews’ Leg. Their motto is: “If his lower extremities feel something, you’ll hear it here first.”

Chris Matthews’ Leg already has the inside scoop from election night:

Barack Obama’s victory speech overstimulated the sensitive neuro-receptors in Chris Matthews’ lower left extremity and caused it to hum like a tuning fork.

The Leg couldn’t help feeling it had played a small role in making this historic night possible.

Yes, Chris, MSNBC and pretty much the entire broadcast news industry traded the last bits of their journalistic credibility in the bacchanal of fawning coverage. Sure, Matthews’ and Olbermann’s Bush-Derangement and over-the-top Obama water-carrying during the election made them a national punchline.

But as the nation’s union bosses, trial lawyers, grievance mongers, Israel haters, and global warming hysterics uncorked the champagne and prepared their legislative agendas–The Leg could be heard to whisper:

“Totally, worth it, man . . . totally worth it.”

Here’s the original Chris Matthews’ confession:

Quotes:

***

“We need a President who is experienced, who is tested, who has the ability to work with both sides, and that’s John McCain, not Barack Obama.”

***

“I think John [McCain] understands from his years in the Senate and the House that you have to reach bipartisan solutions, and that is so necessary right now. You can’t govern from the left or right, you have to govern from consensus, from the middle.”

***

“I think there is a big difference between the rhetoric and the actions of Barack Obama and his campaign. It is true that he tries to talk a sort of post-partisan rhetoric, but the reality is he’s one of the most partisan members of the Senate, with a left-wing voting record, and very much the product of Chicago machine politics.”

****

(On “spreading the wealth”:)

“It is one thing to have a progressive income tax, and to say, well, in pursuit of getting the necessary revenues for the government, we’re going to have some division between people making a lot of money and people not making a lot of money. That’s one thing. It’s another thing to say, however, that you’re going to use the income tax system, not necessarily just to get revenues for the government, but to redistribute money from one class to another…The reason we have taxes is to raise revenues for the government. If we want to have some division in rates because of wealth or whatever, then fine. But when we don’t need revenues anymore, we don’t raise taxes, we lower them. But he [Obama] wants to raise taxes so he can transfer wealth, so he can transfer income.”

****

“People who truly believe in reform, like campaign finance reform, have got to be enormously offended at what he [Obama] has done. He promised to abide by campaign finance reform, and as soon as he realized that it might advantage him not to, he broke his promise. Which is a pretty good indication of what he’s going to do if he ever becomes President.”

****

(On Biden’s statement that Barack Obama will be tested:)

“That was an extraordinary statement. Now Biden is trying to get out of it by saying well, every President is tested. Not correct. First of all, John F. Kennedy had far more experience than Barack Obama. No comparison. John Kennedy had traveled the world; Barack Obama has never been south of the border. John Kennedy had written on American history and American policy; Barack Obama has written about himself. And John Kennedy had been in the Senate more than twice as long as Barack Obama and held hearings to reform our labor laws; Barack Obama hasn’t done anything like that. So the comparison is a terrible one to start with.

“But the reality is, when we elect a President who has been tested, we don’t get tested. Nobody tested Dwight Eisenhower, and nobody tested Ronald Reagan. And nobody’s going to test John McCain. Because they know he’s ready for it. That doesn’t mean we don’t face risk under John McCain; of course we do. We’ve got terrorists out there who have terrible intentions toward us. But Joe Biden is telling us that we risk some kind of incident or attack with Barack Obama being elected. Now why the heck do we want to take that risk?”

***

(On why McCain is gaining now in the polls:)

“He [John McCain] now feels to most people like a much sounder choice. Whether they’re Republicans, Democrats, independents, or nothing at all, he just seems like a much more sensible choice.”

“Maybe this all comes down to, ultimately, Americans prefer authenticity and someone who’s genuine. And I think that they increasingly have gotten the sense that Barack Obama is very very scripted and John McCain is very much for real.”

***

“John McCain spent more time in the Hanoi Hilton than Barack Obama has spent in the United States Senate.”

***

“We’ve got a chance to elect not a Republican or a Democrat. We’ve got a chance to elect a great American. We shouldn’t lose that chance.”

***

“I find Governor Palin to be very bright, very energetic, really a terrific person…I like the idea that she has executive experience. She brings something to this that you really need. After all, she has more executive experience than Barack Obama and Joe Biden combined. They’ve never run a city, a state, a business, or a military unit. She’s done three out of four, and John McCain’s done the other. And she right now is the governor of a state where she’s one of the most effective governors in the country and one of the most popular governors in the country, and that’s where we usually look for our presidential candidates. So I think when people raise her qualifications, my answer is, gosh, if you’re worried about her qualifications, then you sure as heck can’t be voting for Barack Obama. He has less experience than she has.”

ONLINE, WASHINGTON DC & NATIONWIDE - The Just Say No Deal Coalition, a group of Senator Hillary Clinton’s most ardent supporters, presents Closing Arguments: The Case for a McCain/Palin Administration via a nationwide conference call on Sunday, November 2 at 5PM Eastern.

A bipartisan team of distinguished women and men — Democrats Lady Lynn de Rothschild and Dr. Lynette Long, and Republicans Charlie Crist and Rudy Giuliani — unite to appeal to Hillary supporters, PUMAs and undecided voters to push through to election day to get out the vote for the McCain/Palin ticket.

This 90-minute conference call will be broadcast worldwide via BlogTalkRadio and NoQuarterUSA.net. Larry Johnson, the owner of NoQuarterUSA.net, will be the host. Mr. Johnson is a former counter-terrorism official and intelligence officer who served in the Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations. Mr. Johnson became a vociferous critic of Karl Rove and of the Bush administration for their involvement in the outing of former CIA officer Valerie Plame, and he delivered the National Democratic Party’s weekly address on July 25, 2005.

Please join us at 5PM Eastern at our broadcast, Closing Arguments.

Just Say No Deal, which was born the weekend that Hillary Clinton suspended her campaign, is comprised largely of Democrats and Independents who believe in putting Country, not party affiliation, first. We have spoken out against political intimidation in the states and the blogosphere, condemned the mainstream media bias, publicized voter and caucus fraud, and criticized the refusal of the Democratic Party to disassociate itself from the fraud and corrupt actions of ACORN.

Join us at 5PM Eastern for the live broadcast of Closing Arguments: The Case for a McCain/Palin Administration. You’ll need to be registered at BlogTalkRadio to post comments in the live chat.

An audio archive of the conference call will be available immediately after the call concludes at around 6:30 p.m. ET.

A bipartisan team of distinguished women and men — Democrats Lady Lynn de Rothschild and Dr. Lynette Long, and Republicans Charlie Crist and Rudy Giuliani — unite to appeal to Hillary supporters, PUMAs and undecided voters to push through to election day to get out the vote for the McCain/Palin ticket.

This 90-minute conference call will be broadcast worldwide via BlogTalkRadio and NoQuarterUSA.net). Larry Johnson, the owner of NoQuarterUSA.net, will be the host. Mr. Johnson is a former counter-terrorism official and intelligence officer who served in the Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations. Mr. Johnson became a vociferous critic of Karl Rove and of the Bush administration for their involvement in the outing of former CIA officer Valerie Plame, and he delivered the National Democratic Party’s weekly address on July 25, 2005.

Please join us at 5PM Eastern at our broadcast, Closing Arguments.

Just Say No Deal, which was born the weekend that Hillary Clinton suspended her campaign, is comprised largely of Democrats and Independents who believe in putting Country, not party affiliation, first. We have spoken out against political intimidation in the states and the blogosphere, condemned the mainstream media bias, publicized voter and caucus fraud, and criticized the refusal of the Democratic Party to disassociate itself from the fraud and corrupt actions of ACORN.

Join us at 5PM Eastern for the live broadcast of Closing Arguments: The Case for a McCain/Palin Administration. You’ll need to be registered at BlogTalkRadio to post comments in the live chat.

A bipartisan team of distinguished women and men — Democrats Lady Lynn de Rothschild and Dr. Lynette Long, and Republicans Charlie Crist and Rudy Giuliani — unite to appeal to Hillary supporters, PUMAs and undecided voters to push through to election day to get out the vote for the McCain/Palin ticket.

This 90-minute conference call will be broadcast worldwide via BlogTalkRadio and NoQuarterUSA.net). Larry Johnson, the owner of NoQuarterUSA.net, will be the host. Mr. Johnson is a former counter-terrorism official and intelligence officer who served in the Reagan, Bush and Clinton administrations. Mr. Johnson became a vociferous critic of Karl Rove and of the Bush administration for their involvement in the outing of former CIA officer Valerie Plame, and he delivered the National Democratic Party’s weekly address on July 25, 2005.

Please join us at 5PM Eastern at our broadcast, Closing Arguments.

Just Say No Deal, which was born the weekend that Hillary Clinton suspended her campaign, is comprised largely of Democrats and Independents who believe in putting Country, not party affiliation, first. We have spoken out against political intimidation in the states and the blogosphere, condemned the mainstream media bias, publicized voter and caucus fraud, and criticized the refusal of the Democratic Party to disassociate itself from the fraud and corrupt actions of ACORN.

Join us at 5PM Eastern for the live broadcast of Closing Arguments: The Case for a McCain/Palin Administration. You’ll need to be registered at BlogTalkRadio to post comments in the live chat.

The three 30-minute ads or infomercials cost Obama nearly $1 million each. This is the first time mark the first time in 16 years that a White House contender has aired commercials of that length on broadcast networks. Billionaire Ross Perot paid for 11 half-hour ads during his 1992 bid as an independent.

According, to USA Today, Obama’s ad spending will easily surpass the record $188 million President Bush spent in 2004. How is this possible? How does Obama have $230 million to spend on television advertising? The answer is that he accepted campaign finance reform and then rejected it when his campaign decided he was not just a cash cow, but the whole herd. Meanwhile, John McCain, who first began working on campaign finance reform with Senator Russell Feingold, a Democrat from Wisconsin,13 years ago, is limited to $84.1 million because he accepted taxpayer funds for the general election.

Once again, John McCain shows himself to be a man of his word. And Barack Obama?
Well, he has already shown himself to be a liar, since he went back on his promise to accept campaign finance reform as well as on many issues. But as if that is not sufficient cause for alarm, one has to wonder about the conscience of the man who is being hailed as the messiah of the Democratic Party. One has to wonder about a man who claims to have worked in the field of education for years.
$230 million for television advertising????
It takes my breath away.

And I’m wondering, how many school books that might buy. How many salaries for teachers? How many college educations?
Hmmm . . . How many mortgages might that pay? How many gas tanks might that fill?
How many hungry bellies might that feed?
I guess Obama is for redistribution of wealth as long as it is not his wealth.
I am stunned at the utter lack of morality and ethics on display here.
For shame, Obama. For absolute shame.
Let’s not waste a moment letting the world know that the American public will not be bought. Let’s get ourselves to any field office or campaign office, especially if it is in a battleground or border state.
This is the real deal. So I say, Just Say No Deal. Vote McCain/Palin and do the right thing.

He doesn’t seem to be having a problem. He is a cash cow. Or rather, a whole herd.

I dreamt that I heard Barrack Obama had spent $500 million dollars on his campaign to secure the presidency. Maybe I am off by a few mil. If I am, no doubt some brilliant blogger will help set me straight. I can almost always count on a diligent investigative blogger for the real facts since in the latest chapter of the world gone mad, the New York Times seems to be giving up on actual investigative reporting. At least where Barack Obama is concerned. They are more concerned with the cost of Sarah Palin’s wardrobe or Cindy McCain’s personal trials.

There’s transparency in this election season. But it mostly centers around how many usually reliable mainstream media sources are in the tank for Obama.

But here’s the thing. With this kind of money in the tank, why do I get so many emails from Barack, Michele, Joe, David and Nancy? I get them every day, sometimes several times a day. Sarah Palin had barely walked off the stage at the Vice Presidential debate when I got an email from David about what a great job Joe had done. Send money.

I guess it takes a lot of money to rig an election. All those people to bus in. All those free lunches and dinners. All those homeless or disenfranchised people to pay to register voters and get them to vote the same day when their address or identities can’t be verified. All those ACORN workers and zealous volunteers to tear up McCain and Palin signs, destroy other property and intimidate people. All those bloggers to infiltrate sites promoting freedom of speech, election reform and accountability in the media.

And all that media time to purchase for the much touted upcoming infomercials set to run during sports events.

Yup, fraud, is indeed, expensive.

Money is a sore spot right now. As we witness the collapse of the economy, it seems more obscene than usual that any candidate is spending millions of dollars on the election. So I am confused by the Democrats, my usual party of choice.

How is it that Republican nominee John McCain, along with Democratic Senator Russell Feingold from Wisconsin have pushed for campaign finance reform and not Obama or party leaders like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid? McCain and Feingold have been talking about campaign finance for a long time. They first introduced their bi-partisan bill in 1995. Talk about tenacity. I wonder what Barack Obama was doing thirteen years ago.

I’m also wondering if Obama is so concerned about the economy and sending a message of unity that we need to work together, why didn’t he head for Washington immediately as a Senator and the current leader of the party when the bail out was on the table? Why did he need to be summoned by the president?

And why isn’t he willing to honor staying within a budget that can be agreed upon by both parties? Was all this work on campaign finance reform for nothing?

I guess fraud is, indeed, expensive. As are below the belt commercials that criticize John McCain for not doing email or that question his life expectancy.

It’s true that John McCain can’t type or raise his arm very high.

Kind of tough to do when you have nerve damage after being tortured in a prisoner of war camp for five and half years.

And it’s true that John McCain has had a recurrence of a kind of skin cancer. It is a commonplace cancer that affects many Americans who go to the doctor, have it taken care of and go about their lives.

But raise the specter of technological incompetence or cancer and you can really get a bang for your buck. Through the magic of television alone, you can suggest that McCain is an old guy who is out of touch. An old guy on the verge of death.

Nice. I guess indecency is also expensive.

As more and more Americans struggle with gas prices, foreclosures and unemployment, it is understandable to want to lash out. For many the obvious target would be the Republicans, since so much of the disaster in our financial world happened under George Bush’s watch. But many Democrats were also asleep at the wheel, or so tied up in angry partisan politics that they refused to participate in substantive discussions and actions to prevent a collapse.

The buck needs to stop somewhere. How misleading that the Democrats, under Nancy Pelosi’s supposed leadership do not want to acknowledge that both parties have played a role in the collapse of the economy. What a poor example that the Democrats and Barack Obama have rejected reasonable campaign finance reform so that they can spends millions upon millions of dollars to promote his candidacy while many hardworking Americans have to choose between filling their plate at dinner time or their gas tank at the pump.

The buck needs to stop somewhere. I’m thinking, Just say No deal.

ABC News’ Matthew Jaffe Reports:

As Election Day looms just over two weeks away, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., said Saturday that with Republicans firing “vicious” and “dangerous” attacks at Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., voters are “having a difficult time” opting for the man who would become the nation’s first African American president.

Vicious and dangerous attacks? McCain/Palin are asking Obama to answer legitimate policy questions in re his revealing statement to Joe the Plumber that he wants to “spread the wealth around” and what that really means for Joe and Jane taxpayer.

They want Obama to explain to the American people why he launched his political career in the living room of unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers. They want him to acknowledge his role in our economic mess as he was one of the people who “voted present” on stronger regulations re Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. They want to know the extent of Obama’s ties with ACORN – and it has already been proven that there are many.

What is vicious and dangerous about that? Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. These are questions any other candidate would have to answer. But, in another effort to change the subject, here is Joe-the-Senator at his finest:

“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.”

Culturally? What is Biden trying to say here? Perhaps he is playing the race card just like Senator Obama did a couple of months ago when he said ‘I know I don’t look like the face of most of the guys you see on the dollar bill.’

Culturally? Is Biden implying that those who haven’t yet bowed before the messiah are racist? Oh, no he didn’t! Ironic he made these comments at – you guessed it – another San Francisco fundraiser. Oh, this is too good to be true. Say it ain’t so, Joe!

Did he really open his big fat yaw before the hoi polloi in San Francisco at a fund raiser – the same way Obama did when he made his infamous ‘bitter voter’ comments back in April? Did Vice Presidential nominee Joe Biden really infer that undecided voters are having trouble voting for Obama because they are having trouble ‘seeing’ a bi-racial man in the White House?

Yep. Joe played the race card yet again. Tell me Senator Biden, did you have an indoctrination session at Camp Obama and did they use the Alinsky method in training you how to employ the race card as an argument to buffer any and all legitimate questions about your unqualified and dissembling candidate?

“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.”

Biden cited automated GOP calls describing Obama as having “worked closely” with “domestic terrorist Bill Ayers”.

He did work closely with Ayers. This is the truth. They have known each other for years. They have served on boards together. Obama profited by his association with Ayers, repeatedly. Hello. These are legitimate concerns.

He doesn’t want to repeat the “things they are saying?” Repeat what? Senator Biden, I am calling you out on the carpet and I dare you to look me in the eye and say this same crap. The FBI already debunked the nonsense that anyone called Obama a terrorist – they were calling Ayers a terrorist – which admittedly, he is – and an unrepentant one at that.

But Joe doesn’t have a problem with people walking around threatening violence against Sarah Palin or wearing T-shirts that say “Sarah Palin is a c*nt.” Nor does the Obama campaign have problem with their supporters in Florida calling a twelve year old child a racist for wearing a Sarah Palin T-Shirt.

Is that not dangerous, Joe? I guess you “don’t want to repeat” those comments either huh, Joe? Is that not a healthy thing?

Let’s pretend for the sake of argument, I am an undecided voter. Here is a sampling of a few of my concerns:

• His voting record – 130 present votes and 6 ‘wrong’ votes in the IL State Senate. His lack of moral courage and skipping out on or capitulating on important votes in the U.S. Senate. FISA chief among them.
• His daily playing of the race card to advantage himself.
• His 20 years of nefarious, crooked, and divisive business and personal associations with Rezko, Wright, Ayers, Auchi, Khalidi, Al Mansour, Pritzker, Jarrett, Pfleger, Meeks and more.
• His major policy reversals on critical issues, i.e., FISA, Israel, don’t ask don’t tell, public financing, NAFTA, Iraq, women’s rights, gun control; touting Bush’s faith based initiatives, and wanting to keep Blackwater going.
• His desire to spread the wealth around with economic policies that do not work.
• His illegal activities to win the primary, including over 2,000 documented instances of caucus fraud and blocking re-votes in MI and FL.
• His receiving huge contributions from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the organizations at the center of our current economic mess.
• His lack of any governing, or executive experience and his lack of knowledge on critical issues of domestic and foreign policy – as he has demonstrated repeatedly on the campaign trail. Russia’s recent aggression on Georgia comes to mind.
• The fact that you can never get a straight answer from him on any of his policies or associations – just more double talk and distraction.

These are just a few questions that might be giving people pause at the voting booth. Please tell me – someone, anyone – what does that have to do with “cultural” predisposition; or more accurately, race bias?

Biden hit the Bay Area for three fundraisers Saturday, helping rake in an estimated $2.2 million for the campaign. At his second event of the day, in Piedmont, Biden predicted that the ticket will experience a drop in polls this week.

“Mark my words, you’re going to see these polls drop this week,” Biden forecasted. “We got a bump. We’re going to be in good shape. You’re going to see them drop. There’s nothing automatic about this at all.”

Obviously, Biden knows that Obama’s gaffe with Joe the plumber hurt them; rightfully so. And by gaffe I mean, Obama had a rare unscripted moment without his teleprompter and he told the truth for once about his policies and his attitudes. And for that he is now going to pay a legitimate price. So, once again, they are trying to distract the voters.

Joe the Plumber is certainly paying a price – Obama showed up on Joe’s front lawn at a campaign stop. Joe asked a simple question and for that his entire life has been invaded and turned up side down. Not only has Obama belittled Joe the Plumber, but the media is out for blood. And Joe-everyman-working-guy-coal-miner-six-term-Senator-elitist-Biden has derided him as well. Shame on him. Shame on them all.

Make no mistake – these attacks on Joe everyman are also costing the elitists Obama/Biden in the polls. To reassure their rich donors, Biden said:

“It costs tens of millions of dollars to do this. And that’s our secret weapon. That is our equalizer to when anybody talks about the Bradley effect. This is the ultimate equalizer.”

That is very much in evidence – in this no lose year for Democrats, Obama is spending obscene amounts of money saturating the TV market to “counteract the Bradley effect.” He does not dare to tell the truth to their rich donors. It is not the Bradley effect people are having a problem with – it is the Obama effect – the effect of a dishonest, secretive, inexperienced man taking office at one of the most difficult junctures in our recent history. But Biden boasted that Obama has the capacity to withstand GOP attacks and win the White House.

“Barack Obama communicates an absolute sense and certainty that is the most typical American instinct that there is,” Biden said. …”That’s why he touched those people helping feed us tonight.”

Elitist! Is Biden referring to the folks serving him his expensive 5-course dinner? How nice of Biden to refer to the people waiting tables at this expensive fundraiser. How does he know Obama has touched them – did he ever ask?? I doubt it. Elitists of all stripes have a bad habit of being encapsulated in their rarified air, so sure they know what is best for everyone else.

And here is the icing on the cake from Biden:

“I never thought I could be part of it - a part of seeing to it that we for the first and significant, fundamentally significant way, put a lot of that past behind us and began to unite the nation.”

Imagine trying to ‘guilt’ the American people into electing someone who is completely unqualified and unreliable as Commander in Chief. Obama has never stood up to his party. He has never expended any political capital on a tough vote. He has never done anything but move with the prevailing wind.

How can we rely on him when our backs are to the wall? Isn’t it possible that we are worried about whether this man can and will protect us and have our best interests at heart? He has shown no need thus far to come clean and answer the questions burning in the minds of many Americans. Why should we trust him if he clearly does not trust us?

If this is the way that Obama/Biden and the svengali race-baiting David Axelrod are uniting the nation, by inferring that anyone not voting for Obama is a racist, then I will pass on their kind of unity.

Senator Biden is indeed the gift that keeps on giving. I am sure John McCain hopes that both he and Obama will keep showing their true nature to the American people. It’s a winning strategy – for the Republicans.

Once again, in closing, I must say, shame on you, Senator Biden.

Shame on you.

What this story does not mention, however – and what no mainstream outlet wishes to acknowledge – is that they are not alone in their outrage. There are plenty of Democrats and Independents likewise furious at the egregious media bias, and at the Obama campaign’s ability to dodge any and all legitimate questions about him.

The story reports:

There were shouts of “Nobama” and “Socialist” at the mention of the Democratic presidential nominee. There were boos, middle fingers turned up and thumbs turned down as a media caravan moved through the crowd Thursday for a midday town hall gathering featuring John McCain and Sarah Palin.

“It is absolutely vital that you take it to Obama, that you hit him where it hits, there’s a soft spot,” said James T. Harris, a local radio talk show host, who urged the Republican nominee to use Barack Obama’s controversial former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., and others against him.

“We have the good Reverend Wright. We have [the Rev. Michael L.] Pfleger. We have all of these shady characters that have surrounded him,” Harris bellowed. “We have corruption here in Wisconsin and voting across the nation. I am begging you, sir. I am begging you. Take it to him.”

The crowd of thousands roared its approval.
…
“I’m mad! I’m really mad!” another man said, taking the microphone and refusing to surrender it easily, even when McCain tried to agree with him.

“I’m not done. Lemme finish, please,” he said after a standing ovation. “When you have Obama, [House Speaker Nancy] Pelosi and the rest of the hooligans up there going to run the country, we have to have our head examined.

“It’s time that you two represent the rest of us. So go get ‘em.”

Interesting that this gentleman brought up Nancy Pelosi. Clearly she, along with Chris Dodd, Barney Frank and others, are playing politics with people’s life savings – and whether the media wants to acknowledge that or not, the voters get it..

The DNC elite wanted the disastrous economy as their “Fall issue” and have been campaigning with it. Her grandstanding last week, lambasting Republicans to make sure the rescue plan vote failed is evidence of this. Meanwhile, as Bill Clinton himself acknowledged, Democrats are the ones who fought against further regulation of Fannie and Freddie and now are loathe to acknowledge their part in this disaster.

Clearly there is plenty of blame to go around. But more than pointing fingers, the American people want a solution. McCain went back to Congress in an attempt to find just that. Obama, on the other hand, said “Congress will call me if they need me.” Typical. No wonder people are furious.

McCain spends most of his time at his rallies and town hall meetings lambasting his rival, often calling him a “co-conspirator” with congressional Democrats in what he argues are the seeds of the financial crisis at mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

“Will you assure us,” one woman asked, “that, as president, you will take immediate action to investigate, prosecute and name the names of the people actually responsible?”

“I will,” McCain answered.

“The same people that are now claiming credit for this rescue are the same ones that were willing co-conspirators in causing this problem that it is,” he said, raising his voice to be heard over the crowd. “You know their names. You will know more of their names.“

McCain/Palin have as their campaign mantra “Country First,” but they have found themselves ‘at the center of an outpouring of raw emotion rare in a presidential race.’

The crowds that show up for his rallies these days appear to have little appetite for the talk of bipartisan compromise that had been at the heart of his message around the Republican National Convention. During a rally outside a small airport in Mosinee, Wis., on Thursday, McCain said that “it’s time we come together, Democrats and Republicans to work together. That’s my record. I’ll reach across the aisle.”

The crowd stood silent.

Maybe those who stood silent are frustrated because it is apparent the Democratic leadership was not exactly acting in a spirit of bi-partisanship. On the contrary, they used McCain suspending his campaign to return to Congress against him. Here we finally have a rather moderate Republican, by all accounts a decent man working to do the right thing; he can’t get a break in the media and his own party wants him to go nuclear. They see Obama as a disastrous choice for our country, and there is no hope that the media will report fairly. Perhaps since some Republicans have cried wolf about Dem candidates in the past, now that one really deserves to lose the election, they can’t get anyone to pay attention to the truth about him.

I can relate to the frustration, if not the backstory. As a lifelong Democrat, I never thought I’d be faced with such egregious corruption in my own party – trashing the better candidate in favor of a dissembling charlatan. They ignored any evidence against him and kept beating the drum for Hillary to get out.

At the town hall gathering here, McCain praised Harris for his “courage” in speaking his mind. But, heedful of the economic chaos gripping the country, McCain sought to steer away, at least briefly, from attacks on Obama’s character and integrity.

“Yes, I’ll do that,” he said of the request to “take it to” Obama. …“We need to restore hope and trust and confidence in America and have Americans know that our best days are ahead of us. That’s the future and strength and beauty of America.”

I far prefer a positive message myself, and Senator McCain needs to continue to communicate his ideas and policies, but I certainly understand many who wish to first derail the mainstream media’s ceaseless determination to put Barack Obama in the White House.

“I’m not mad, I’m pissed,” said Joan Schmitz, who owns a plumbing company here. She said she was frustrated with polls showing Obama surging, McCain’s performance in a Tuesday night debate, Obama himself, the media, and the liberal group ACORN, which she said was registering voters fraudulently.

Noting Obama’s connections with Ayers, she said that “if it was a Republican, it would be nonstop,” referring to what she said was the media ignoring the controversial acquaintance.

Note how in this story, Ayers is characterized by the writers as a “controversial acquaintance” – this is exactly what I am talking about – Ayers is far more than an “acquaintance” to Senator Obama.

“I can’t stand to look at him, I don’t trust him. I don’t like the circle of friends he keeps, I don’t like his policies,” Schmitz said of Obama. “I’m pissed off by it. I’m beyond mad. How is he climbing up in the polls?”

Well, perhaps because organizations like Gallup don’t admit that 80% of the people they call are hanging up on them this year. A Gallup pollster being interviewed on Michael Medved’s radio show the other day said that usually, the number of hang-ups hovers around 40%-50%, so there are a lot of people not willing to talk about their voting preferences. This begs the question – who is left? Who are the Gallup people, for example, actually talking to and are their polls representative of the actual electorate.

The Obama campaign has been playing the race card since January. The media happily played along and now the DNC is openly using it as a campaign strategy. I, and millions like me, who are not guilty of race bias are furious – in fact, apoplectic – at being accused of a horrible sin we are not in the least guilty of. Is it any wonder someone would not want to share their voting preferences with a pollster when to say you do not support Obama is, according to the media, tantamount to saying you are a racist.

Up until now, the press has not been willing to report fairly on much of anything, although investigations into voter fraud by ACORN are growing legs in the mainstream media and some reports are creeping out almost against the will of the MSM:

On the way into the event, the Republican Party of Wisconsin handed out fliers reading “Your Vote Is Being Stolen,” an anti-ACORN leaflet that concluded, “Why is vote fraud allowed? Vote fraud is allowed since it benefits Democrats.”

Well actually, no, I don’t want voter fraud to benefit anyone. Two wrongs don’t make a right. And I sure don’t want voter fraud to benefit the dissembling and endlessly flip-flopping Senator Obama.

The crowd showed equal disdain for the media, fueled by comments from Palin, who encouraged the Republican supporters to take the campaign’s message around the media. “I can’t pick a fight with those who buy ink by the barrel,” she said. “It’s dangerous territory whenever I suggest the mainstream media isn’t asking all the questions.”

That message was clearly shared among the crowd. Mike Payne, who traveled from Madison, Wis., for the rally, rejected the idea that McCain’s supporters are angry, preferring to use the word “frustrated.”

“It might have something to do with you guys,” he told a reporter.

“It’s not anger at all. It’s frustration. There’s millions of people around the country that think like we do. You guys refuse to acknowledge that, and you insult our intelligence by misreporting the information. You are treating [Obama] like he’s Britney Spears and covering him like he’s Paris Hilton, instead of the next president of the United States, potentially.”

Yep. The celebrity candidate. Hillary supporters were pleading for press fairness since January – also to no avail. We knocked but no one was home. The fact that mainstream media has refused to vet Senator Obama is truly a disgrace. His lies, nefarious associations, and misjudgments, his reneging on vital policy positions would all have sunk any other politician.

Now that more of the facts about him are seeping out, I am sure any Republicans foolish enough to vote for him in the primary in order to stop Hillary may now regret having done so. She is a leader, someone who does put country first and would certainly have been a better choice to steer us out of this mess than anyone else vying to get on the ticket in either party.

McCain advisers dismissed the crowd’s angry tone as an exception and not representative of most of the campaign’s events. And they noted that those gathered seemed most upset by the media’s handling of the contest, and simply wanted McCain to be more aggressive.

But when McCain is more aggressive in pointing out the truth of Obama’s contradictions and associations, the press, typically, rips him a new one. The idiotic Andrea Mitchell was even calling for Governor Palin to be “censured.” Okay. And now the media is also trying to paint voters’ legitimate frustration as ‘wild and out of control’ — further bashing Senator McCain’s supporters. By all accounts, he has attempted to keep a civil tone.

They also noted that many of McCain’s events are attended by liberal protesters, who often yell epithets and hold angry signs as McCain’s bus drives by. And they recalled angry words from Obama at a rally in Las Vegas last month, in which he urged supporters to talk to their friends and neighbors, saying “I want you to argue with them and get in their face.”

So Obama and his supporters can get in our faces and disaffected Democrats and Republicans are just supposed to keep smiling – all the way to him being elected?

Not likely.

But this movement has a twist: Obama lacks legitimacy. The continuation of this rift is not about Hillary “losing.” Clintonistas, like myself, know that losing elections and having your heart broken is the inevitable risk of politics. Anglachel writes:

With John Edwards in the news these days, I have been reflecting on the theme of “Two Americas” and have applied a twist that more accurately reflects the two Americas within the Democratic Party - those whose bigotry and biases are excused because they are of the right class and those whose flaws are inexcusable, even when the flaws do not exist.

This “class” split in the Democratic Party is much more than an economic split. As Anglachel suggests, it is evidence of a values divide. These values are not the black-and-white split of abortion. Instead, this divide is a matter of emphasis. Obama talks about access to health care, but he doesn’t offer a universal plan. Obama criticized Hillary for her Iraq War vote, but he wasn’t in the senate to vote. Obama lectures Americans to learn Spanish–an irony not missed by many– a language he doesn’t speak.

But the differences of emphasis were not themselves the deal-breaker. The deal-breaker, I believe, was about Obama’s tactics in the campaign and the Democratic Party’s complete bias and vote-rigging for their chosen candidate. Donna Brazile’s embarrassing performance at the RBC was so transparent in its bias that she became the most visible Obama shill massaging rules for her candidate, all the while lecturing us on rules. Do they really think we’re that stupid?

Clintonistas, and now PUMAs, are revolted by four major issues. This is by no means an all-inclusive list, but includes the followings:

(1) The Democratic Nomination was Stolen

garyinchapelhill writes about Obama’s lack of legitimacy resulting from a stolen nomination:

Obama’s decision to return full voting status to delegates from Michigan and Florida does not make up for the fact that the RBC stole delegates from the uncommitted voters, as well as all write in votes, AND 4 of Hillary’s delegates. Until that travesty is corrected the votes of those delegates can not be considered legitimate.

And Marc Rubin of The Denver Group considers Obama’s current flip flop on Florida and Michigan as a ploy to entice disgusted Democrats into the fold:

Florida and Michigan were one of the earliest examples of how dishonest, two faced underhanded and fraudulent Obama can be, when he claimed in speeches that he stood for “voices being heard” and “every vote must count”, and then clamped his hand over the mouths of almost 3 million voters in Florida and Michigan because he didn’t like what those voices were saying, which was a loud “go home”. And in all likelihood are still saying “go home and will continue to say it. Clinton beat him by landslide numbers in both states and this little act of political self preservation isn’t going to fool anyone. Anyone, even an Obama supporter can see it’s nothing more than another cynical political ploy to try and win back voters who were disgusted with him a long time ago because he needs them now.

(2) Obama Race-Baited the Clintons

Obama’s race speech was compared to Lincoln by his sycophants in the media. It was closer to Nixon’s infamous “Checkers” speech, a disingenuous, hateful piece of sophistry created to dove-tail with white liberal guilt. The conflation of Jeremiah Wright’s homicidal racism with Geraldine Ferraro’s simple observation was only the most glaring evidence of Obama’s tactics. Anglachel points out that Obama’s demonizing of low income whites was a basic political calculation:

working class voters are not the socio-economic slice of the “white” vote that votes Republican. They are the least likely portion of white voters to do so, which is part of what made the constant slamming of this group so infuriating during the primaries. This was the slice of the white demographic most likely to vote for Hillary, and that was the reason they were being singled out for shaming and insults.

And Alegre puts her finger on why PUMAs find Obama unacceptable:

I think I can speak for millions of Hillary’s 18 millions supporters when I say that Camp Obama stepped over a serious line when they tarred the Clintons as racists in the lead-up to the SC primary (and since). Those attacks were simply unforgivable and may be a big reason (among many!) why many of us won’t get on that unity pony of Howie’s.

(3) Obama Attacked Hillary from the Right

Attacking Hillary from the Right was not by itself a deal-breaker. But the fact that Obama went after Hillary on health care — after everything she had fought for in the 1990s — was a disgraceful appropriation of Right Wing tactics and talking points. As SusanUnPC writes:

The sad reality, of course, is that Obama has no fealty to commitments over issues. Issues are merely fodder to be used to grab what he seeks above all else: Victory…Now, every politician has to be focused on winning. But most politicians have some issues about which they genuinely care and are knowledgeable about. Obama doesn’t seem to hold any issues dear.

(4) The Democratic Party Rejects Racism, Embraces Sexism

Democratic Party leaders and Obama supporters stayed silent while egregious misogyny was leveled against Mrs. Clinton. As feminist blogger Violet Socks said to me, the silence from our “brothers” on the Left regarding this sexism has been one of the most disappointing political events in the annals of progressivism. So we must have an accounting, and a defeat. There are worse things than losing elections, and I believe we have just witnessed them during the primaries. Obama’s use of sexist stereotypes against Hillary gave cultural permission for the venom against Hillary. It was outside the realm of acceptable behavior for a Democratic politician, and must be vehemently rejected. Voting for Obama is condoning tactics which are anathema to why we are Democrats in the first place.

Lynette Long writes:

I am not Lolita. I will not crawl back into bed with a party that raped me. I will not stay in an abusive relationship because I have nowhere else to go. I will not be placated by a pat on the head or a worthless trinket. I will not spend the rest of my life waiting for tomorrow or listening to people tell me that today is better than yesterday.

Defeat is Good

Just as Barry Goldwater’s defeat by Johnson in 1964 was considered the end of the conservative movement, Obama’s victory is seen by the neo-liberals as a rejection of third-way progressivism. However, the PUMA movement is not an end but a beginning. It’s not the continuation of Bill Clinton’s moderate policies, but a movement of dedicated progressives who embraced Mrs. Clinton’s far more bold agenda, an agenda more analogues to FDR than Bill Clinton, and one which is much more progressive than Obama’s. Our nascent movement parallels the rise of the conservative movement:

All the pundits saw the size of Goldwater’s defeat. Almost none grasped the implications of the fact that the Goldwater campaign had twice as many volunteers as Johnson’s — or that while 66,000 people donated to the Kennedy and Nixon campaigns of 1960, over a million gave to Barry Goldwater in 1964. Among other things [it is an] account of how a rebellious and at first marginal political faction moved toward power reminds us of the dynamic character of politics and the dangers of static analysis

I am a Democrat because I believe in universal health care, because I despise racism, race-baiting, and sexism, and because I believe in the democratic process. On all these counts, our Party has failed us. We must rid our Party of race-baiting, sexism, and vote stealing, and return our Party to its glorious heritage of patriotism, equal opportunity, and care for the most vulnerable.

Thanks to Medusa for her help with this essay.