Alaska Paper Slams Palin and ‘Georgia Pal’ — Confederate Racist Saxby Chambliss. In an editorial for Anchorage Daily News (Saturday, Nov. 29), Matt Zencey wrote:

Gov. Sarah Palin is putting her conservative Republican fame to work in Georgia, stumping for Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, who is in a tough runoff for re-election.

   [ Saxby Chambliss(left) | Sarah Palin(right) ][Click Pics To Enlarge]

I wonder if she knows the true measure of the man she is eagerly helping.

Chambliss was elected to the Senate in 2002 by running one of the most reprehensible campaigns of modern times. He was up against incumbent Democrat Sen. Max Cleland, a Vietnam War veteran who lost both legs and his right arm to a grenade during that conflict.

Chambliss avoided serving in Vietnam. He got four student draft deferments, and when his number finally came up, he was medically disqualified with knee troubles.

In the best Karl Rove fashion, Chambliss the draft-evader attacked Cleland the war hero for being soft on terrorism. Distorting Cleland’s votes about workplace rules for the new Homeland Security Department employees, Chambliss portrayed him as a tool of terrorists like Osama bin Laden.

Here’s how the Almanac of American Politics (2006) described it:

‘Chambliss ran an ad, much attacked in the press, showing pictures of Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Max Cleland, and saying that Cleland ‘voted against the President’s vital homeland security efforts 11 times.” (Those ‘vital homeland security efforts’ Cleland opposed were intended to strip homeland security employees of union rights and other workplace protections.)

One of Chambliss’ Ads against Cleland

The man who couldn’t bring himself to serve in the military said a man who left three limbs behind in war was a weakling who would turn the country over to terrorists.

Chambliss was a congressman during the 9-11 attacks. Congressional Quarterly’s ‘Politics in America 2006‘ noted that Congressman Chambliss ‘quipped that one route to security would be for local sheriffs to ‘arrest every Muslim that comes across the state line.’‘

So there you have the fine American that Palin is trying to re-elect to the U.S. Senate.

Gov. Palin’s eldest joined the Army and has been deployed to Iraq. As a justifiably proud military mom, she might ask herself why she is using her conservative star power to support such a reprehensible Republican chicken hawk.

—————————————————-

Trainwreck: The End of the Conservative Revolution (and Not a Moment Too Soon): From Publishers Weekly: In a domestic cooptation of the neocon End of History thesis, talk radio host Press (Spin This!) argues that conservatism’s record of failure should condemn it to a subordinate place in American politics–it can survive to check the excess of the majority, argues Press, but must never again be allowed to govern. For Press (who unfurls a dishonor roll of scandals, policy failures, corporate toadying, double standards and outright criminality), this betrayal of public trust has meant the betrayal of conservatism’s own purported principles. Thus, citing the conservative canon of the mid-century right-wing intellectual Russell Kirk, and even Barry Goldwater, Press lambastes Bush, Cheney and other Republicans for turning away from the ideals of small government and limited executive power. Likewise, on the environment, conservatism was formerly synonymous with conservation, notes Press, pointing to early Republican leadership on this score from Teddy Roosevelt to California state senator and environmental pioneer Peter Behr. These contradictions rarely come as revelations–indeed the bulk of this narrative will be familiar to anyone paying even passing attention to the news–but by presenting all this material together, Press creates a serviceable election-year handbook for voters, particularly the Democratic opposition. (Apr.) “Press creates a serviceable election-year handbook for voters, particularly the Democratic opposition.” (Publishers Weekly, January 28, 2008) See all Editorial Reviews

   Donate To The Obama | Biden Team

   Your Vote Counts!

OR

Visit VoteForChange.org

Finding out how to vote is now quick and easy.

Using the tool at VoteForChange.org you can:

1. Register to vote.

2. Request to vote absentee.

3. Find your polling location.

It only takes about 3 minutes.

In desperation, Hillary Clinton is now explicitly referring to her appeal to “Hard-Working Americans, White Americans,” adding that she appeals to a wider coalition of voters — including whites who have not supported Barack Obama in recent contests.

“I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on,” she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article “that found how Sen. Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me.”

“There’s a pattern emerging here,” she said.

Clinton’s blunt remarks about race came a day after primaries in Indiana and North Carolina dealt symbolic and mathematical blows to her White House ambitions.

Larry Sabato, head of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, notes quite correctly that at the end of the day her primary support doesn’t prove she’s more electable. Either Democrat will get “the vast majority” of the other’s primary election votes in a general election, he said, adding that Clinton’s comment was a “poorly worded” variation on the way analysts have been “slicing and dicing the vote in racial terms.” …..[more]

I construe Hillary’s comments as a suggestion that “blacks are lazy,”….a racial stereotype I expect to come from a ReTHUGlican and not a Democrat.

“Her statement seems to exclude African-Americans from being hard-working,” said Jamal Simmons, a Democratic strategist and CNN contributor, aligned to the Obama campaign, who is black. “Also, there are a lot of white Americans for Barack Obama. So it’s misleading and it’s not true,” said Mr. Simmons.

Mr. Simmons added:

“There is a very particular feeling that this couple(Bill and Hillary Clinton), that African-Americans had such regard for and trust in, has been at best dismissive towards Barack Obama and in many ways has used race and differentness as a weapon against him.”

Senator Diane Feinstein, a Clinton backer, has also indicated she wanted to hear “what Clinton’s strategy is,” adding: “The race is reaching a point now where there are negative dividends from it in terms of strife within the party.”

“Duck Hunting” Ma. Clinton however, appears unmoved by the “sniper-fire,” telling cheering supporters yesterday, in Charleston, West Virginia that the state’s primary next Tuesday, which she is expected to win, was “a test for me and a test for Senator Obama.”

I also find it odd that Latino voters who have been supporting her in large numbers are not included in the “Hard Working White” coalition….and what about blacks? Won’t she need the most consistently loyal Democratic party voting block, if she becomes the nominee?

The “Bitch of Chappaqua, New York” is in full Kamikaze (suicide) Mode….The “Hill” has become so selfish she doesn’t mind destroying the Democratic Party,…. and the “bitching and moaning” does not bode well for future female candidates.

LOL!

This woman is running amok, and if the DNC does not quickly “reject and denounce,” her — she will drive such a monumental wedge between the voters so much so that it will be next to impossible to unite the party for the general election.

Al Gore, Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi and other big-wigs of the Democratic party need to step in and get this witch out of the race, before her “toxic waste” does extreme damage to the party…..and to Bill’s already “Lewinsky-Stained” legacy.

On the other hand, if she decides to ’surrender’ within the next week or two, it will a ‘joy’ to watch Hillary stumping enthusiastically for Obama in the general election — essentially denying her current charge(s); that Obama is elitist and out of touch with middle-America.

Can’t wait for that… LOL!

Early on in the presidential campaign my loyalties were divided between Governor Bill Richardson and Sen. Barack Obama. Obama was the Young Turk with the gift of eloquence and the message of hope, and Richardson was the seasoned politician with the Mother of all Resumes.

Richardson is supremely qualified to be president, he has a resume that few can match: Governor of New Mexico, Congressman, Chairman of the 2004 Democratic National Convention, Chairman of the Democratic Governors Association in 2005 and 2006, United States Secretary of Energy and United States Ambassador to the United Nations.

But to be honest it wasn’t Richardson’s impressive credentials that captured my interest — it was his ethnicity. Unfortunately, when many Americans see a Latino, they imagine he’s a landscaper, carpenter, field worker or dishwasher. Richardson is an extremely successful Hispanic who has shattered all the stereotypes. I yearned for Richardson to be the next president of the United States because of what it would mean for Hispanics in particular and for race relations in general.

This Latino columnist would have been delighted if Richardson had secured the Democratic nomination. Richardson’s campaign never caught fire, he had the credentials, but he didn’t have the charisma. Americans want a president they can imagine themselves having a beer with. The Average Joe doesn’t care if his accountant is a socially awkward nerd, as long as he is a whiz at solving financial problems. But we want a president who is eloquent, charismatic and likeable.

Richardson didn’t even make an impression in the Hispanic community, probably because of his Anglo surname. I had a hard time convincing some of my friends and family members that Richardson is a Latino. Oh well, I hope Obama considers Richardson as a running mate.

In the Virginia primary I voted for Sen. Barack Obama; and I am doing everything I can to advance his candidacy. One day when I’m in a rest home, I want to be able to tell youngsters who come and visit me that in my own little way, I helped elect the first African American president.

I can understand why Obama has captured the imagination of the American people, — the senator from Illinois represents change and hope. Obama is one of those rare politicians who transcends party affiliations and even race.

But I can especially understand why African Americans are solidly behind Obama. Jim Crow laws, that prohibited blacks from using “whites only” restrooms and other public accommodations were still in place as late as 1965. For an African American who as a youngster was forced to drink from a “colored” drinking fountain, a black president represents a quantum leap forward.

If most blacks had the attitude “I’m for Obama because he’s black, regardless of his stand on the issues”, who are we to say that’s not right? “I’m for Obama because he’s black”, might not be the politically correct posture, but when you have suffered discrimination sometimes you think with your gut.

But it’s important to note that at the start of this long and bitter presidential campaign, Hillary and Obama were splitting the black vote. It wasn’t until Hillary staring losing some contests, that she got desperate and played the race card. Bill Clinton’s infamous race-baiting comments after the South Carolina primary caused, blacks to desert Hillary in droves, and Obama now garners about 90% of the black vote.

It would be a tragedy if the Jeremiah Wright controversy derails Obama’s presidential aspirations. The Whitey-hating Wright is the antithesis of everything that Obama holds dear: Inclusiveness and racial harmony. I hope blue-collar whites will forgive Obama for his mistake in not repudiating Wright months ago, and vote for Obama, the one candidate who can unite Americans of all races.

I still expect Obama to win the Democratic nomination and the general election. When Obama is inaugurated as the next president of the United States, it will be a momentous occasion and a time of rejoicing for African Americans, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, Whites and Americans of all other enthnicities.

A controversial examination of how our political system, despite “get out the vote” rhetoric, works to suppress the vote–especially the votes of African Americans.

“Karl Rove began to impress upon leading Republicans…that…one way to address the party’s electoral problem…was to suppress black and Hispanic turnout–a task that would become far easier if the airwaves were buzzing with news of voter-fraud indictments.”–Harold Meyerson, The Washington Post