She Broke the G.O.P. and Now She Owns It – As the Republicans’ lone charismatic performer, Sarah Palin has come to represent a dwindling white nonurban America that is aflame with grievances.
In the aftermath of her decision to drop out and cash in, Palin’s standing in the G.O.P. actually rose in the USA Today/Gallup poll. No less than 71 percent of Republicans said they would vote for her for president. That overwhelming majority isn’t just the “base” of the Republican Party that liberals and conservatives alike tend to ghettoize as a rump backwater minority. It is the party, or pretty much what remains of it in the Barack Obama era.
She is not just the party’s biggest star and most charismatic television performer; she is its only star and charismatic performer. Most important, she stands for a genuine movement: a dwindling white nonurban America that is aflame with grievances and awash in self-pity as the country hurtles into the 21st century and leaves it behind
Were Palin actually to secure the 2012 nomination, the result would be a fiasco for the G.O.P. akin to Goldwater 1964, as the most relentless conservative Palin critic, David Frum, has predicted. Or would it?
It’s more likely that she will never get anywhere near the White House, and not just because of her own limitations. The Palinist “real America” is demographically doomed to keep shrinking. But the emotion it represents is disproportionately powerful for its numbers. It’s an anger that Palin enjoyed stoking during her “palling around with terrorists” crusade against Obama on the campaign trail. It’s an anger that’s curdled into self-martyrdom since Inauguration Day. [ READ MORE ]
Barack Obama serves up a “Facial” on McCain. The “Republican bigot world” is stunned, as a black man, “THE ONE,” is set to lead them out of the “Dark Ages.” The extremists — The “American Religious ‘Taliban’,” “Fox News’ Maniacs,” Right-Wing Bigot Radio, the KKK, Neo-Nazis and misc. FILTH, are shell-shocked as the Obama train rolls into the White House.
Barack Hussein Obama: “It’s been a long time coming, but change has come to America”
At the beginning of this campaign, I had faith — faith that finally a black man would lead this great nation. Even though my faith was shaky at first, in Barack Hussein Obama, I saw a brilliant “tribesman,” an intelligent and capable man, a “superb brain” like his troubled father was. I saw an exceptional human being with outstanding qualities. I saw a great American story and a great prospect for the ultimate prize in politics — The Presidency of The United States.
Exactly two years ago, I wrote: “The six year cesspool of a mess presided over by the Bush administration might not be in vain after all. It has made America hungry for a messenger with a message of hope.”
My faith in Barack Obama has been richly rewarded.
On the other side of things, the rotting corpse of the Republican Party is stinking up the United States from top to bottom. The people of America have “atrophied” the GOP into nothing more than “a very is a sick joke.” McCain, Palin and the GOP totally underestimated the fact that America has changed, and continues to do so.
In 1963, after being elected governor of Alabama, the epicenter of segregation, DixieCrat George Wallace declared: ‘I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation for ever.’
Since then, America has waddled through racism slowly but surely. While George Wallace’s Democrats did a one hundred and eighty degree turn in the ’60s, and embraced the Civil Rights movement, the Republican Party, the party of Abraham Lincoln(who introduced measures that resulted in the abolition of slavery, by issuing hisEmancipation Proclamationin 1863), slid into the so-called Southern Strategy, a racist scheme in which Republican candidates ignored black voters and exploited racial tensions of the white majority, in order to win elections.
To a large extent, John McCain implemented this strategy, and it fell flat on its face!
The “big-ticket” Republican “scare-issues” like outlawing abortion, gay marriage, “we can clobber the whole world” — have largely fallen into deaf ears, except into those of idiots like Joe The Plumber.
Also, the cruel xenophobic campaign by Republicans to rid the “homeland” of immigrants, last year, turned toxic for the GOP. Hispanics and other minorities eligible to vote cast their votes for Obama in droves. Young whites devoid of their parents’ prejudices flocked to Obama in swarms.
The nativist zeal in political rhetoric, with which the Tancredo led Republicans approached this sensitive issue, has proven costly, and to John McCain, who abandoned his previous reasoned approach in favor of the “Lou Dobbs Fear & Loathing,” “get them all outta here” anti-immigrant hate-mongering, it must be extra painful — for I am sure the Hispanic vote was decisive. Sixty six percent of Hispanic voters (12 million eligible) cast their votes for Obama.
Obama brilliantly co-opted the Republican theme — “Cutting Taxes” into his economic strategy. At a time when the American economy is suffering, it fit so nicely that John McCain could only fumble and stumble on the issue. The “moderate maverick” was forced to campaign like a right-wing nut-bag, with an agenda of fear — Bush-Style. Little did he know that the majority of Americans, after eight years of “murderous rule“, by George Bush the GOON, didn’t want any more of that crap.
Barack Obama’s win validates the work of civil rights activists in the last century. It is also proof that America is “evolving… trying to reach for the best part of itself,” a former activist says. Even a segregationist’s daughter chimed in: “I think Obama will be one of the best presidents.” … [READ MORE HERE]
I strongly agree!
A new era in American politics has just been ushered in, and with proper management, Obama and the Democratic majority in both houses can ensure that the right-wing fringe bigots of the Republican party remain in their “southern holes” for a long time to come.
Full Results
———————————————–
Barack Obama’s Victory Speech in Chicago
Civil-Rights Icon Jesse Jackson Breaks Down
A Kenyan Savors Obama’s Victory
Martin Luther King JR.’s — “I have a dream” Speech
In Kogelo, Kenya — Villagers lined up to cast a mock ballot next to a poster of Barack Obama in Kogelo, the town in Kenya where Obama’s ancestors are from.
Also, Blood flowed as Election Day dawned in Barack Obama’s ancestral village in western Kenya.
The presidential candidate’s half-brother Malik tied a bull to a tree, then hobbled it. The beast’s head was then held to the ground as he drew a machete across its jugular.
“Hold this guy down now,” said Malik, 50, eyeing the animal’s horns as blood poured from its throat like an open tap.
“He could kill me now.”
After five minutes, the blood flow began to slow, and the fight went out of the animal, which stopped kicking and lay still, breathing heavily. “O.K., it’s over,” said Malik. “Fine animal too.” — [MORE]
Full text: Obama’s victory speech
Democrat Barack Obama has become the first African-American to win the White House. Here are his remarks as prepared for delivery to a huge crowd in his home city of Chicago:
CHANGE HAS COME
If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.
It’s the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen; by people who waited three hours and four hours, many for the very first time in their lives, because they believed that this time must be different; that their voice could be that difference.
It’s the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled – Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America.
It’s the answer that led those who have been told for so long by so many to be cynical, and fearful, and doubtful of what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.
It’s been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, change has come to America.
PARTNERS IN THE JOURNEY
I just received a very gracious call from Senator McCain. He fought long and hard in this campaign, and he’s fought even longer and harder for the country he loves. He has endured sacrifices for America that most of us cannot begin to imagine, and we are better off for the service rendered by this brave and selfless leader.
I congratulate him and Governor Palin for all they have achieved, and I look forward to working with them to renew this nation’s promise in the months ahead.
I want to thank my partner in this journey, a man who campaigned from his heart and spoke for the men and women he grew up with on the streets of Scranton and rode with on that train home to Delaware, the Vice-President-elect of the United States, Joe Biden.
I would not be standing here tonight without the unyielding support of my best friend for the last 16 years, the rock of our family and the love of my life, our nation’s next First Lady, Michelle Obama. Sasha and Malia, I love you both so much, and you have earned the new puppy that’s coming with us to the White House.
And while she’s no longer with us, I know my grandmother is watching, along with the family that made me who I am. I miss them tonight, and know that my debt to them is beyond measure.
To my campaign manager David Plouffe, my chief strategist David Axelrod, and the best campaign team ever assembled in the history of politics – you made this happen, and I am forever grateful for what you’ve sacrificed to get it done.
VICTORY FOR THE PEOPLE
But above all, I will never forget who this victory truly belongs to – it belongs to you.
I was never the likeliest candidate for this office. We didn’t start with much money or many endorsements. Our campaign was not hatched in the halls of Washington – it began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston.
It was built by working men and women who dug into what little savings they had to give $5 and $10 and $20 to this cause.
It grew strength from the young people who rejected the myth of their generation’s apathy; who left their homes and their families for jobs that offered little pay and less sleep; from the not-so-young people who braved the bitter cold and scorching heat to knock on the doors of perfect strangers; from the millions of Americans who volunteered, and organised, and proved that more than two centuries later, a government of the people, by the people and for the people has not perished from this Earth.
This is your victory.
THE TASK AHEAD
I know you didn’t do this just to win an election and I know you didn’t do it for me. You did it because you understand the enormity of the task that lies ahead. For even as we celebrate tonight, we know the challenges that tomorrow will bring are the greatest of our lifetime – two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century.
Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us.
There are mothers and fathers who will lie awake after their children fall asleep and wonder how they’ll make the mortgage, or pay their doctor’s bills, or save enough for college. There is new energy to harness and new jobs to be created; new schools to build and threats to meet and alliances to repair.
REMAKING THE NATION
The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America – I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you – we as a people will get there.
There will be setbacks and false starts. There are many who won’t agree with every decision or policy I make as president, and we know that government can’t solve every problem. But I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree.
And above all, I will ask you join in the work of remaking this nation the only way it’s been done in America for 221 years – block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand.
ONE NATION, ONE PEOPLE
What began 21 months ago in the depths of winter must not end on this autumn night. This victory alone is not the change we seek – it is only the chance for us to make that change. And that cannot happen if we go back to the way things were. It cannot happen without you.
So let us summon a new spirit of patriotism; of service and responsibility where each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves, but each other. Let us remember that if this financial crisis taught us anything, it’s that we cannot have a thriving Wall Street while Main Street suffers – in this country, we rise or fall as one nation; as one people.
Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long. Let us remember that it was a man from this state who first carried the banner of the Republican Party to the White House – a party founded on the values of self-reliance, individual liberty, and national unity.
Those are values we all share, and while the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress. As Lincoln said to a nation far more divided than ours: “We are not enemies, but friends? though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.”
And to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn – I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your president too.
AMERICA IN THE WORLD
And to all those watching tonight from beyond our shores, from parliaments and palaces to those who are huddled around radios in the forgotten corners of our world – our stories are singular, but our destiny is shared, and a new dawn of American leadership is at hand.
To those who would tear this world down – we will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security – we support you.
And to all those who have wondered if America’s beacon still burns as bright – tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.
For that is the true genius of America – that America can change. Our union can be perfected. And what we have already achieved gives us hope for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.
A HISTORY OF STRUGGLE
This election had many firsts and many stories that will be told for generations. But one that’s on my mind tonight is about a woman who cast her ballot in Atlanta. She’s a lot like the millions of others who stood in line to make their voice heard in this election except for one thing – Ann Nixon Cooper is 106 years old.
She was born just a generation past slavery; a time when there were no cars on the road or planes in the sky; when someone like her couldn’t vote for two reasons – because she was a woman and because of the colour of her skin.
And tonight, I think about all that she’s seen throughout her century in America – the heartache and the hope; the struggle and the progress; the times we were told that we can’t, and the people who pressed on with that American creed: Yes we can.
At a time when women’s voices were silenced and their hopes dismissed, she lived to see them stand up and speak out and reach for the ballot. Yes we can.
When there was despair in the dust bowl and depression across the land, she saw a nation conquer fear itself with a New Deal, new jobs and a new sense of common purpose. Yes we can.
When the bombs fell on our harbour and tyranny threatened the world, she was there to witness a generation rise to greatness and a democracy was saved. Yes we can.
She was there for the buses in Montgomery, the hoses in Birmingham, a bridge in Selma, and a preacher from Atlanta who told a people that “We Shall Overcome”. Yes we can.
A man touched down on the moon, a wall came down in Berlin, a world was connected by our own science and imagination. And this year, in this election, she touched her finger to a screen, and cast her vote, because after 106 years in America, through the best of times and the darkest of hours, she knows how America can change. Yes we can.
THIS IS OUR MOMENT
America, we have come so far. We have seen so much. But there is so much more to do. So tonight, let us ask ourselves – if our children should live to see the next century; if my daughters should be so lucky to live as long as Ann Nixon Cooper, what change will they see? What progress will we have made?
This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment.
This is our time – to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth – that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes We Can.
Thank you, God bless you, and may God Bless the United States of America.
3.McCain Loses as Bush Legacy Is Rejected — Barack Hussein Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States, as the country chose him as its first black chief executive.
4.The Next President — Barack Obama won the election because he saw what is wrong with this country: the utter failure of government to protect its citizens.
8.A Case for Barack Hussein — An Obama presidency would change the way the Middle East sees America, argues the editor of a Moroccan newsmagazine.
9. “The election of Mr. Obama amounted to a national catharsis — a repudiation of a historically unpopular Republican president and his economic and foreign policies, and an embrace of Mr. Obama’s call for a change in the direction and the tone of the country. But it was just as much a strikingly symbolic moment in the evolution of the nation’s fraught racial history, a breakthrough that would have seemed unthinkable just two years ago.” — ADAM NAGOURNEY, New York Times
12.Tuesday’s Second Biggest Winner: Democracy — Let’s start with Hispanics, who accounted for the most dramatic swing. In 2004, Kerry outperformed Bush with Hispanic voters 59 percent to 40 percent. In 2008, the Hispanic vote went 67 percent for Obama, and only 31 percent for McCain — a net improvement of 17 points.
Xenophobia and far right-wing extremism in America, as in Germany….and so on, are strikingly similar patterns of hostility towards immigrants a.k.a foreigners — unfounded fears and a wild perception of relative deprivation driven in by extortionist politicians and TV and RADIO SCUM like the Anti-Immigrant Bigot and Neo-Populist Crusader, Lou Dobbs — the resident nativist dung-thrower at CNN, and author of: “Bigots Day: Awakening the American ‘Racist’ Spirit.”
The stink gets worse when BLACK UNCLE TOMS join in — for example, Ken Blackwell, the former Ohio Secretary of State.
The sight of this TADPOLE yapping maliciously against Obama at Fox New’s O’Hannity and Coward show, really riles me, because it gives credence to Syphilitic “Nazi” Scumbags like Sean Hannity, who is hell-bent on derailing Obama’s presidential aspirations by hook or crook.
Obama is head and shoulders above McCain in intellect, integrity and honesty. He is a good man, and to watch black “leaders” coalesce with the racist thugs at Fox News, to disparage other blacks, is appalling indeed.
Obama seeks entry into the most segregated institution in the United States — the presidency of the United States, therefore his candidacy should be a momentous happening to ALL BLACK PEOPLE, given that we may never see one like him in many years to come.
Mr. Blackwell was a key figure in the GOP push to disenfranchise black voters in Ohio, in 2004, and according to the current Ohio Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, two-thirds of Ohio counties have destroyed or lost their 2004 presidential ballots and related election records, “Accidentally.”
Of course — to hide the rampant election corruption under Blackwell’s reign of fraud.
The lost records violate Ohio law, which states federal election records must be kept for 22 months after Election Day, and a U.S. District Court order issued last September that the 2004 ballots be preserved while the court hears a civil rights lawsuit alleging voter suppression of African-American voters in Columbus.
The destruction of the election records also frustrates efforts by the media and historians to determine the accuracy of Ohio’s 2004 vote count, because in county after county the key evidence needed to understand vote count anomalies apparently no longer exists….[READ MORE HERE] [AND HERE]
Republicans can’t win anything fairly — if it is not immigrant-bashing, its terror-mongering or just out-right racism.
Now that it seems they cannot break Barack Obama’s back with their old and rudderless candidate, partnered with the dumbest “VP cheerleader” since Indiana’s Dan Quayle in 1988, their only option is to sow malicious seeds of doubtand/or to try and steal the election outright.
They have done it before. They can do it again! Punks!
“Poor blacks caused this,” said Keith Ellison, Minnesota’s the 5th District congressman, scornfully. “That’s what we’re supposed to believe. Little ACORN caused this. The mighty captains of Wall Street got taken down by little ACORN and poor black people. That’s what you’re hearing on the right. The gall and audacity of this is beyond imagination.”
In fact, many, including 6th District Rep. Michele Bachmann, seem to be saying that the demise of Wall Street can be traced to the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) of 1977.
That’s right. In the eyes of some, today’s problems aren’t a product of greed, or lack of regulation, but instead can be traced to the Jimmy Carter era. That’s when Congress passed CRA, an act that encouraged commercial banks to invest in housing in cities that were facing both redlining and major decline. The idea was simple: Stabilizing neighborhoods, through home ownership, would stabilize cities.
The act had the support of a nonprofit organization, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). It survived two terms of Ronald Reagan, the Gingrich era and three terms of Bushes before apparently creating today’s crisis.
But now, a handful of economists and a lot of conservatives who are looking for a scapegoat claim that it was the CRA that encouraged risky lending that led to the defaults that have led to the mess we’re in.
Says Ellison: “To suggest that the greatest financial crisis we have faced since the Great Depression was caused by legislation that was created to help prevent low-income individuals from assuming high-cost, subprime loans that have caused the crisis today is absurd. To suggest that struggling families trying to keep their home brought down the Titans of Commerce, the Masters of the Universe on Wall Street, is ludicrous. To suggest someone who is raising three children while holding down two minimum wage jobs on a high school education was able to stall one of the greatest economic engines on Earth needs their head examined.” ….[MORE]
This book ought to be required reading for every teacher, educator, administrator, and parents who intereact with children of African descent.
Woodson’s work helps us understand that African peoples are truely mis-educated.
We largely receive an Eurocentric or White middle class, elitist education that by and large does not serve the needs of our communities. This mis-education creates a serious identity crisis on the part of African youth and it causes many Black “educated” middle class people to spend more time trying to reach the consumer American Dream rather than working toward a real self-determination agenda of African peoples.
Thus it’s of little suprise today that most African students never enroll in a course on African/African-American studies. In fact, these courses are becoming more rare in high school and colleges across the nation. Even with the current renaissance of Black literature in this country, the study of African/Black culture, politics, and spiritual life are rarely discussed.
In Woodson’s words: “Real education means to inspire people to live more abundantly, to learn to begin with life as they find it and make it better, but the instruction so far given Negroes [and still today] in colleges and universities [and elementary and secondary schools] has worked to the contrary.
In most cases such graduates have merely increased the number of malcontents who offer no program for changing the undesiriable conditions about which they complain.” Woodson’s book is clearly not out-dated. In fact, it reads as if it were published last year, instead of 1933.
I would like to close this response to Woodson’s work with another classic quote from him:
“If you control a man’s thinking you do not have to worry about his action. When you determine what a man shall think you do not have to concern yourself about what he will do. If you make a person feel that he/she is inferior, you do not have to compel him/her to accept an inferior status, he/she will seek for it. If you make a person think he/she is a justly outcast, yoiu do not have to order that person to the back door, that person will go without being told, and if there is no back door, the very nature of that person will demand one.”
Scenario: In 2004 John Kerry won Michigan by 165,437 votes. Since last year, roughly the same number of homes have been foreclosed in Michigan, mostly owned by low-income African Americans.
Michigan is among states leading in new home foreclosures. A record 9 percent of American homeowners with a mortgage were either behind on their payments or in foreclosure at the end of June, as damage from the housing crisis continues to mount, the Mortgage Bankers Association said on Friday, September 5, 2008.
Detroit, a city with a heavy minority population has the highest home foreclosure rate in United States.
Last week it was reported that Republicans plan to use home foreclosure lists to block voters from the polls. James Carabelli, chair of the Macomb County Republican Party, told Michigan Messenger that on election day Republican volunteers will “have a list of foreclosed homes and make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses.” The Republican party will use returned mail to challenge voters based on residency.
Macomb County is part of the Detroit metropolitan area.
The Obama campaign general counsel Bob Bauer said Tuesday that the “lose your home, lose your vote” strategy, even if the challenges are unsuccessful, “creates an atmosphere of intimidation that could drive voters from the polls.” He said even people who aren’t challenged may leave without voting because lines move slower at polling places.
Obama is challenging these Republican goons. In their suit, the Obama team contends that GOP has a history of voter “caging.” The 24-page filing incorporates Michigan Messenger’s report last week that a GOP official in Macomb County cited plans to use such lists to challenge voters in November into a broader narrative based on decades of Democratic complaints about how Republicans seek to limit turnout among low-income and African American voters by compiling information about their mailing addresses.
——————————————-
Intimidation, lies, distortion and blatant racism — is the Republican “Modus operandi.“
You can bet this scheme to steal the election from the Democrats will be going on in every “nook and cranny” of GOP strongholds, all over the United States.
These morons cannot win FAIR — They have to STEAL because they have no message, just RACIST Innuendo and loads of SHIT!
BBC Documentary – How Bush Stole The 2000 Elections
How to RIG an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative
Product Description: Fresh out of grad school, Allen Raymond joined the GOP for one reason: rumor had it that there was big money to be made on the Republican side of the aisle.
From the earliest days of the Republican Revolution through its culmination in the second Bush White House, Raymond played a key role in helping GOP candidates twist the truth beyond recognition during a decade of crucial and bitterly fought campaigns. His career took him from the nastiest of local elections in New Jersey backwaters through runs for Congress and the Senate and right up to a top management position in a bid for the presidency itself.
It also took him to prison.
Full of wit and candor, Raymond’s account offers an astonishingly frank look at the black art of campaigning and the vagaries of the Republican establishment. Unlike many “architects” of the political scene, the author takes full responsibility for his actions — even as he never misses a trick.
A completely original tale of the disillusioning of a man who enters politics with no illusions, How to Rig an Election is a brilliant and hilarious exposé of how the contemporary political game is really played.
From Publishers Weekly: Republican campaign advisor Raymond achieved some notoriety when he plead guilty in federal court to jamming Connecticut phone lines in a 2002 Democratic get-out-the-vote effort-small potatoes compared to what he had gotten away with for more than a decade, vividly and hilariously chronicled in this outrageous career retrospective.
For 13 years, Raymond worked his way up the ranks of GOP operatives by smearing opponents and worse in campaigns across the country, including the aborted presidential bid of Steve Forbes.
Besides documenting such ingenious strategies as arranging for phone calls during the Super Bowl touting his candidate’s opponent, Raymond witnesses the Republican party’s rise to power in the 1990s, and the effects of that power, in both professional and personal terms. (“Bill Martini’s screaming fits were reaching exciting new heights all the time.“)
Though Raymond appreciates the depravity of his former enterprise (“if you could find two of us Republican operatives who could still tell the difference between politics and crime, you could probably have rubbed us together for fire as well“), his confession often sounds a lot like boasting; naturally, Raymond is charming enough to get away with it, taking a deliciously cynical view of everyone involved (voters especially).
For those who care about the electoral system, this look inside the sausage factory of contemporary campaigning is compelling, arguably essential, reading.
—————————————————
“For those who care about the electoral system, this look inside the sausage factory of contemporary campaigning is compelling, arguably essential, reading.” — Publishers Weekly
“Refreshingly candid about his vindictive motives, Raymond offers a damning chronicle of political hubris.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Paints a picture of the corruption of modern politics that should leave no doubt about the creativity and cynicism of operatives like Mr. Raymond or the need for tough new election-reform legislation.” — Adam Cohen, The New York Times
“Offers a raw, inside glimpse of the phone scandal as it unraveled and of a ruthless world in which political operatives seek to win at all costs.” — McClatchy News Service
“Raymond offers an insider’s look at the world of dirty campaigning and hardball politics. [A]n engaging read…the book is hard to put down.” — Nathaniel French,St. Petersburg Times
poster of Barack Obama in Kogelo, the town in Kenya where Obama’s ancestors are from.
presidential ballots and related election records, “Accidentally.”
