John McCain has an uphill battle to convince voters that he and his party — who have been governing for the last eight years — aren’t responsible for the current financial crisis. But he also has a case to make, in the form of his own calls to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and of Obama’s ties to the Wall Street Democratic establishment.

With that in mind the McCain/Palin campaign released yet another ad linking an Obama ally to the Fannie Mae debacle. It is a follow up to the ad featuring Franklin Raines. Here is the latest ad starring Jim Johnson:

Of course we all remember Jim Johnson. This from the following Los Angeles Times article, Barack Obama advisor Jim Johnson quits under fire:

Jim Johnson, the former chairman of Fannie Mae who was one of three advisors tapped by Democrat Barack Obama to vet vice presidential candidates, resigned today after questions were raised about favoritism he may have received from Countrywide Financial Corp.

Insisting he had done nothing wrong, Johnson issued a statement saying that he did not want the flap over his mortgage to distract attention from Obama’s run for the presidency.

And now we stand reminded that the he was a former chairman of the housing giant, Fannie Mae, recently taken over by the feds.

The ad does however remind us that McCain warned us two year ago that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were in dire trouble.

Obama has been espousing positions anathema to the left on several issues.

On Iraq, Obama said Thursday that his upcoming trip there might lead him to refine his promise to quickly remove U.S. troops from the war.

He now supports broader authority for the government’s eavesdropping program and legal immunity for telecommunications companies that participated in it, after opposing a similar bill last year.

After the Supreme Court overturned the District of Columbia’s gun ban, the handgun-control proponent said he favors both an individual’s right to own a gun as well as government’s right to regulate ownership.

Read the rest ->

Obama became the first major-party candidate to reject public financing for the general election after earlier promises to accept it.

He not only embraced but promised to expand Bush’s program to give more anti-poverty grants to religious groups, a split with Democratic orthodoxy.

He objected to the Supreme Court’s decision outlawing the death penalty for child rapists, even though he has been anti-capital punishment.

Obama also said “mental distress” should not count as a health exception that would permit a late-term abortion, saying “it has to be a serious physical issue,” addressing a matter considered crucial to abortion rights activists.

I’m sure Backtrack has flip flopped more since July 5. In fact, his choice of Joe Biden makes obvious Obama’s blatant disregard for ethical and moral integrity. We know Obama engages with the most unsavory types, as Bud White’s piece on Obama’s good buddy, Bill Ayers, reminds us, and Melissa McEwan at Shakesville minces no words about his choice of Joe Biden:

The DNC is just f**king with the press, who’s dumb enough to fall for the suggestion that Joe Fookin’ Biden is “believed to be at the top of” Obama’s veep shortlist. Because there’s no way in blue hell that Obama could be foolish enough to be seriously considering for one blinking second putting on his ticket the bankruptcy bill voting, Bush-coddling,racist, sexist asshat Biden, a consummate gaffe machine who launched his own ‘08 presidential bid with a screeching dog whistle that declared Obama “the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.”

The fabulous writers at Tennessee Guerilla Women put it like this:

Obama Picks a Bro: It’s Biden

And there goes the last chance for party unity. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the candidate who earned 18 million votes, was not even vetted. We’re sure Biden’s 200 voters are simply thrilled. The rest of us, well, just call us marginalized and invisible.

Back in the 1990s, Biden was the leader of the pack of 14 white male senators who conducted the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings. The committee of 14 men threw every sexist stereotype in the book at Anita Hill. Like Hillary, Joe Biden voted to authorize the war in Iraq, but that’s so not a problem when a bro does it.

And why does this matter to Democrats who hope the circus act in Denver will unite the party? Well, for one thing, as Rasmussen reports today, women’s opinions remain marginalized and invisible to the Obama campaign:

Women are notably less enthusiastic [about Obama's selection of Biden] than men—33% of women say Biden was the right choice while 27% disagreed. Men, by a 46% to 24% margin, said that Obama made the right choice….Just 16% of women have a Very Favorable opinion of Biden while 19% have a Very Unfavorable view. …Not surprisingly, Democrats were more supportive of Obama’s decision than anybody else—52% of those in his party agreed with his pick while 19% disagreed. However, just 43% of Democratic women said the presumptive nominee made the best pick while 23% disagreed.

The so far left that they forgot what is right wing of the Democratic party has taken a new tact. They have decided that they don’t really have a problem with swiftboating after all. Just as long as the shoe is on the other foot. And Republicans are the ones wearing it. Starting this week they are coming out in droves to paint John McCain, a decorated war hero, as a traitor and a war criminal. And gosh wouldn’t you know it, some people even posted their drivel on Barack Obama’s website.

Here’s a screenshot of one of my favorites. Change you can believe in type stuff if you ask me. Strictly new politics. No doubt about it.

And just in case you couldn’t quite make out the poster here is an enlarged view for your viewing pleasure.

You gotta figure that Obama friend and confident Bill Ayers is having wet dreams over all of this. It’s everything he has “hoped” for since he quit bombing government buildings. He is probably pulling out new American flags to stomp on as you read this.

But placing this crap on Obama’s website was just a start. A trial run you might say. The way out there and completely inappropriately titled blog Americablog took deception to a whole new level.

Some on left target McCain’s war record

“A lot of people don’t know… that McCain made a propaganda video for the enemy while he was in captivity,” wrote Americablog’s John Aravosis. “Putting that bit of disloyalty aside, what exactly is McCain’s military experience that prepares him for being commander in chief?”

“Getting shot down, tortured, and then doing propaganda for the enemy is not command experience,” Aravosis wrote in the blog post, entitled “Honestly, besides being tortured, what did McCain do to excel in the military?”

I seriously wonder if Mr. Aravosis has ever been tortured. And I wonder if he knows the limits as to what a person will put up with until they crack. He apparently lives in some fantasy world where he believes that people like Jack Bauer actually exist. Maybe Superman is real in Mr. Avarosis’s distorted world but for the rest of us that live in a little place called reality we know with certainty that people have limits despite what the movies tell us.

John McCain’s campaign was understandably shaken by what was said about him. After all, he came to John Kerry’s defense when people from his own party attacked his patriotism.

“The American people know that John McCain’s record of service and sacrifice is not a matter of debate. He has written about and discussed his service as a POW extensively—often in excruciating and painful detail,” said McCain spokesman Brian Rogers. “The American people will judge harshly anyone who demeans or attacks that service.”

In fact McCain has never claimed that he did not crack under torture. He admitted it freely.

“I had learned what we all learned over there: Every man has his breaking point. I had reached mine,” he later wrote.

But he later defied his captors by refusing to meet with anti-war delegations from abroad, he wrote, and also refused the most valuable special treatment he was offered: Early release.

“I did not want to go out of order,” he later wrote. He was finally released on March 14, 1973.

But far be it from the fringe left to admit that they are wrong about anything. Their solution to mistakes is to compound them. And what better place to demonstrate how far out they really are but the Huff and Puff Huffington Post.

In a Huffington Post blog, a former editor of Mother Jones magazine, Jeffrey Klein, called—in tones reminiscent of right-wing attacks on Kerry in 2004—on McCain to release elements of his Navy record that the candidate has not made available to the public or the press.

“Some of the unreleased pages in McCain’s Navy file may not reflect well upon his qualifications for the presidency,” he wrote. As to why, Klein speculated that “From day one in the Navy, McCain screwed-up again and again, only to be forgiven because his father and grandfather were four-star admirals.”

Not to be outdone Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin chimed in too. Unsatisfied just protesting the current war in Iraq, Benjamin wants to refight a war that has been over for 3 decades.

“I wouldn’t characterize anybody who fought in Vietnam as a war hero,” said Medea Benjamin, a co-founder of the theatrical anti-war group Code Pink. “In 23 bombing sorties, there must have been civilians that were killed and there’s no heroism to that.”

“Anyone who can’t look back and admit how wrong it was to be in Vietnam and be killing civilians deserves to be challenged,” she said, though she stressed that her group is more focused on McCain’s present support for the war in Iraq than on his past.

At least some on the left have a little sense left. Even after all that bad acid. Tom Hayden is one such lone dissenter.

“I know and like McCain,” Tom Hayden, a former California State Senator and prominent anti-war activist, told Politico in an email. “From my own perspective and that of many anti-war activists of that era, the fact that he bombed North Vietnam some 25 times, probably killing civilians, gets blurred with the facts that he suffered through that long prison ordeal, then also went on to promote diplomatic relations between the two countries.”

“It’s like asking a guy that served his jail term here—you’d say he’s done his time so that’s behind him,” Hayden said.

But another supporter of Barack Obama isn’t quite so forgiving. No, you might say she goes a little overboard. But lots of Cultists do that. Please notice the date on her blog. This has been up for nearly a month now. All the while Obama is calling McCain “a genuine American hero” and claiming that he is running a clean campaign. And she uses the same type of line that Jay Rockefeller used toward John McCain. Disgusting words that he had to retract immediately.

“What happened when they [the missiles] get to the ground?” he asked. “He doesn’t know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues.”

So this is what we have to look forward to coming from the leftist radicals that support Barack Obama. Barky can claim all the new politics nonsense he wants. And he can pretend like he is running a clean campaign. But where is his leadership when his supporters have clearly crossed over a line that we all decided back in 2004 needed to be drawn? What’s that Barky? Perhaps I need a hearing aid.

Obama’s first test: Handling Hillary

Barack Obama would like to remind you of something: He won and she didn’t. It’s about him now and not her. He has made history, and she is history.

~snip~

For someone giving indications she would like to be Obama’s running mate, Clinton was surprisingly ungracious. In fact, if you had just awakened from a (blissful) 17-month sleep, you would have thought she had won.

Earth to Roger Simon: SHE DID WIN!

According to ABC News, Hillary easily beat Obama with the Popular Vote.

Election Results

Clinton 1916 17,802,300
Obama 2154 17,501,751

Get that Roger in the tank for Obama from the start Simon? Over 300,000 more Americans supported Hillary than that Cult leader Obama. That means SHE won. In fact, if the DNC had not stolen delegates from Hillary and arbitrarily awarded imaginary delegates to Obama he wouldn’t have been able to claim anything last night. But the fix was in a long time ago Simon. You knew that all along.

Didn’t you? Because gasbags like you were part of the fix.

Damned Obamedia fix enabler.

So Simon thinks that because Hillary spoke the truth last night and honored her supporters, Obama should punish her. In other words, according to Simon, it is time for Obama to assume the role of the alpha male. Just what we have all been waiting for. Get em Barky!

Ruff! Ruff!

How about I pull my pants down and you can howl at the moon?

Or kiss my ass?

But her fighting words only increased the need for Obama to show that he can be strong, tough and in charge. Clinton’s unwillingness to recognize Obama as the victor only increased the need for Obama to act like a president and not like a doormat. And denying her a vice presidential slot may be a way of doing that.

And according to Simon, Obama is not going to be wasting his time trying to bring Hillary supporters into the fold.

It has been a hard-fought and sometimes bitter campaign, but Obama is not, one of his senior advisers assured me Tuesday night, going to spend a lot of time in the next few months wooing Clinton supporters whose feelings may be hurting.

“I think there are always immediate feelings of disappointment and anger,” Anita Dunn said. “But in the months ahead, he must appeal not just to the constituency groups who favored her in the primaries, but those he wants in the general election, and that includes independents and Republicans.”

Another Obama adviser, who asked not to be identified, said that he was not worried that Clinton supporters would stay angry.

Obama seems to have adopted the Alfred E. Newman “What, Me Worry?” campaign slogan. He does look a little like ole Alfred. In fact he looks a lot like him if you think about it. Especially those ears. And a MAD candidacy is all too evident.

Then the scary stuff begins.

“At the end of the day,” he went on, “Hillary supporters will look at John McCain and decide they are not going to vote for a man who will put judges on the Supreme Court who would overturn Roe v. Wade.”

I know it may come as a shock to Obama supporters but the President does not put justices on the Supreme Court. That is done by the US Senate. The same Senate now controlled by the Democrats that gave us the likes of Chief Justice John Roberts. So enough with these false boogeyman stories. They are all lies. But then again lies have been the core theme of the Obama Cult and their DNC and MSM enablers.

It is stories like these that we will all see in the coming weeks. Because the MSM (Obamedia), the DNC and the Obama Cult are going to do everything they can to minimize our importance. To them, nearly 18 million Americans that supported Hillary are inconsequential. As Hillary said of Bush, the same applies to Obama. And his political team made it very apparent last night.

To Obama we are The Invisible. He doesn’t care about us. He isn’t going to spend his time wooing us. He would rather try to make up the difference with Republicans. Now thats a Democratic party to be really proud of. Something I am sure Howard and Donna fully approve of.

Original: Today, Ben Smith of Politico.com reports that he didn’t get a chance to ask Barack Obama about his history with William Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist who Larry Johnson has written about extensively here. (Could part of Smith’s problem be that “Obama stiffs, stifles national press“?)

However, intrepid reporter Smith did ask David Axelrod, Obama’s campaign manager, about the relationship:

“Bill Ayers lives in his neighborhood. Their kids attend the same school,” he said. “They’re certainly friendly, they know each other, as anyone whose kids go to school together.”

Barack Obama’s two children were born in 1998 and 2001. William Ayers’ and Bernadine Dorhn’s two children? They were born before 1981. (Then there’s another child Ayers/Dohrn raised, Chesa Boudin, who is the biological son of former Weathermen David Gilbert and Kathy Boudin, and who is a Rhodes Scholar.)

Mr. Axelrod, you’re fortunate that Mr. Smith didn’t ask you any follow-up questions, and published your statement as if it were fact.

Now, Mr. Axelrod, if you’re asked again — or if by some chance some reporter gets to talk to your elusive star client candidate — what spin will you give the gullible that time?

UDPATE: This goes entirely beyond the long friendship between Ayers and Obama. This is about the Obama campaign’s LIES and SPIN to defuse, deflect, and obfuscate Obama’s history of questionable associations. It’s about their inability to TELL THE TRUTH.

I’d never say that Ben Smith is gullible. Probably when he hears about the problem with the dates and the children — and that it’s not remotely possible their “kids” go to the same school — he’ll be embarrassed? He’ll scramble to correct the record? I’m sure he’ll act post-haste.

At least, however, Ben Smith is asking questions. And there’s something to be said for that.

::::::::

By the way:

– The conservative bloggers are all over this story.

– While I was researching the facts of this, I ran across an article via Powell Books’s book reviews that I had not seen before, which describes the terrible violence of the Weathermen, as well as their elite arrogance: “Family Circle: The Boudins and the Aristocracy of the Left.”

– I’m in good company. A blogger for The Guardian noticed the problems with Ben Smith’s “interview” of David Axelrod on William Ayers. It turns out this blogger went to summer camp with Ayers’ children, and knows how old they are.

See The Guardian blog Deadline USA’s “Obama and Bill Ayers” post.

UPDATE x2: From a friend, “It just occurred to me that today is the day that the Rezko trial is supposed to start [must check that -- today IS the day, but I think it may have been delayed, also interesting]. It’s at least likely that their campaign put that out, and threw a huge tantrum to a) distract from Hillary [and her major foreign policy address today] and the issues of healthcare and trade, b) distract cables from covering Rezko. Because, you know, if it’s a slow news day, they may run a lot of Rezko. But now, the beast has been fed, and is happy.” - SusanUnPC x2

25/2008
Statement by Maggie Williams, Campaign Manager

“Enough.

“If Barack Obama’s campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him [BELOW THE FOLD] wearing traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamed. Hillary Clinton has worn the traditional clothing of countries she has visited and had those photos published widely.

“This is nothing more than an obvious and transparent attempt to distract from the serious issues confronting our country today and to attempt to create the very divisions they claim to decry.

“We will not be distracted.”

Right on, Maggie. Do you remember this photo in the New York Times following Bhutto’s tragic assassination? And remember the reprehensible attack from Obama/Deval Patrick media/messager provider David Axelrod following Bhutto’s murder?

Obama Campaign In Disarray? Making Political Hay Out of Bhutto Assassination?
By SusanUnPC on December 27, 2007 at 4:28 PM in Clinton, Obama, Pakistan

It’s hard to believe that Barack Obama’s campaign could be in such disarray that its campaign manager, David Axelrod, would use the tragic, horrific assassination of Benazir Bhutto to take, as CNN’s anchor just said, a “swipe” at Sen. Clinton. Writes Taylor Marsh, “The Obama campaign is in a panic. Mr. Axelrod’s reprehensible statement is meant to deflect the spotlight and rescue his candidate, because as people think about the implications of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination one thing comes to mind and it isn’t the leadership experience of Barack Obama.”

Taylor quotes The Page, which reports, “David Axelrod, Barack Obama’s top strategist, told reporters after the speech that Clinton will not benefit from a renewed conversation about foreign policy in the wake of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination in Pakistan.” Clinton will not benefit? Is Axelrod so desperate he’d make a swipe like that right after Bhutto’s assassination?

In stark and relievingly somber contrast, the New York Times blog posted this new story at 1pm ET, “Mrs. Clinton and Ms. Bhutto” … READ ALL.

Then there’s what Obama goons are doing to civil rights hero John Lewis for his support of Hillary Clinton and for, so far, refusing to switch despite undue pressure:

John Lewis no longer groovy? Hutchins to oppose him
Wednesday, February 20, 2008, 02:54 PM
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Rev. Markel Hutchins will announce today that he’s going to oppose Rep. John Lewis of Atlanta in the Democratic primary this July, saying the civil rights icon who has represented the city in Congress for two decades is un-hip.

Hutchins, who calls himself the “next generation civil rights activist,” will make his announcement at 5:30 p.m. …

Hutchins, 30, is pitching his campaign as a generational changing of the guard and himself as the youthful face of the Hip-Hop generation, with which, he said, Lewis is out of touch. The race, he said, is a choice between “the generation that started the movement to the one poised to continue it.” …

Repug-nant behavior.

Oh, and that photo that’s causing the dust-up? Drudge, who else, has it:

NOTE that Drudge constantly links to pro-Obama stories, and to anti-Clinton stories. He got the memo from Karl et al. that they want to face Obama in the fall, and he’s only too happy to oblige — including the false smear that this came from the Clinton campaign.

NOT A SINGLE pro-Hillary blogger I know would EVER post this. It is unfair to Obama, and meritless. As Maggie Williams pointed out, this is what politicians do when they visit other countries.

Even Politico.com has now admitted that they just “assumed” it came from Clinton’s campaign. If Politico had BOTHERED to check, they’d know that this was circulating all over the rightwing blogs all weekend. Memeorandum.com had a link to all the blog stories on it — all of them rightwing blogs / none of them Clinton blogs.

And please remember that it is Obama’s campaign that tried to make political hay out of attacking Hillary Clinton on the Bhutto assassination.

And it is Obama’s campaign that is strong-arming Black Caucus members, including the civil rights hero John Lewis.