Hotline has the national race suddenly narrowing to two points with the following analysis.

-- The race has tightened in the last day. After trailing by 5-7 pts. for the last 10 days, McCain is now just 2 pts. behind Obama.

--One potential reason: Obama's one-time lead on the question of who'd best handle the economy has evaporated. Today, Obama and McCain are tied at 42%. Independent voters favor McCain on the economy by an 8 pt. margin (42-34%).

We should not send Bob Schaffer back to Washington. Schaffer has blindly supported the failed Bush economic doctrine of tax breaks for Big Oil and companies that ship U.S. jobs overseas.

Bob has done a "heckuva" job at taking care of Wall Street, while neglecting Main Street. In fact, he loves Wall Street so much that he supports CEO's keeping millions of dollars in bonuses they have earned even if they have falsified financial statements - deceiving share holders and the public in general.

Colorado's main streets need a friend in Washington, but it's not Bob Schaffer.

Who knew that when you go around accusing Obama of being a foreigner, outsider, unpatriotic and basically a terrorist sympathizer Manchurian candidate it would unleash the frothing hatred that Republicans have been whipping up in the "base" all these years?

Just a few recent examples of hate-mongering run rampant:

Yesterday, John McCain delivered an unhinged anti-Obama diatribe in New Mexico, and when he posed a rhetorical question -- "Who is the real Barack Obama?" -- someone shouted, "A terrorist!" McCain paused momentarily, but did not comment on the remark.

[Cross-Posted at Why We Need Obama] [Digg It]

Also yesterday, Sarah Palin repeated one of her unusually stupid attacks, rehashing the nonsense that Obama "pals around" with terrorists. One man in the audience, responding to Palin's smear, shouted, "Kill him!" Palin also did not comment on the remark.

At the same Florida event, Republicans shouted abuse at journalists, hurling obscenities. The Washington Post reported, "One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, 'Sit down, boy.'"

And just to top things off, last night, the Republican Party of Pennsylvania announced its belief that Obama is "a terrorist's best friend."

I expected Republicans to fight hard to win this year. I also expected them to ignore traditional norms, throw caution to the wind, and dispense with honesty and decency. But I didn't expect a wholesale descent into madness. These folks have just lost their collective minds.

Are McCain and Palin responsible for lunatics who shout insane comments at their rallies? Of course not. That said, when the Republican campaign, mired in desperation, deliberately stokes the fires of hate and fear, using disgusting lies to argue that Obama is literally dangerous, no one should be surprised when the far-right Republican base becomes frenzied.

MCCAIN-OBAMA DEBATE

I wouldn't bet on slime-free debate tonight. McCain has a nasty streak that may lead him to repeat the recent sleazy attacks by his campaign. Meanwhile, surrogates, Fox news, and Palin broadcast  the lies and innuendos.

Portraying Obama as a man of mystery is beyond belief. The man has written two forthright books about his life and his beliefs and political philosophy, attended two U.S. universities, served as President of the Harvard Law Review, has been in politics for over 10 years. and survived grueling primaries.

I hope that the American people will not fall for these unwarranted and unsubstantiated attacks.

homer   www.altara.blogspot.com

The end of inequality and institutionalized hatred, at least where California is concerned, can be achieved in the righteous and hopefully overwhelming defeat of PROPOSITION 8, formally titled the "I So Much Hate Teh Gays Act*", but more widely referred to in my household as the...

"Though My Name Is Steve I Seem To Get An All Hot And Bothered In My 'Nether Regions Whenever OTHER Steves Are Nearby And Since I Am Deeply Ashamed Of My Own Truth, I Need To Punish These Other Steves By Making It Look Like I So Much Hate Teh Gays Act"*.

I'm not sure if Obama can get the focus of tonite's debate on economic policy, given McCain's intent to keep up an attack on the Democrat's personality and character, but it is certainly the issue that ought to be discussed. I say that as I contemplate the almost $13,000 my retirement fund went down last quarter (I'm trying to get it moved to insured savings today) and figure I'm only one of millions of Americans who are realizing the mess we're in.

After hearing McCain's claims yesterday that Obama was "lying" when he called the Republican a Deregulator (the thing he built most of his political career on), I started researching the past 25 years and found enough evidence to pinpoint the real liar.

A group of independent filmmakers has launched The Wasilla Project

The purpose of the project is to produce a series of short (2-3 minute), video portraits of Sarah Palin and her hometown of Wasilla that can be a valuable addition to the prevailing impressions of her. As time and resources allow, we may do a longer edit as well, one which goes into depth on broader topics raised by Palin and her political career.

The audience for these videos are not the already decided on the right or the left, it's a much as possible people who are undecided, people who want to believe in an inspiring narrative, while voting in the best interests of themselves and the country.

I am not optimistic that the current hearings involving the likes of Lehman Bros' head is anything more than show of outrage by impotent politicans who think they are important.

Take a look at these two links.

http://www.davemanuel.com/2007/08/07/thi nk-that-the-sec-is-corrupt-meet-gary-agu irre/

http://www.whistleblower.org/template/pa ge.cfm?page_id=179

Here is an excerpt of how corrupt the SEC is and the Democrats did little to punish these bastards. Why don't Democrats use stories like this to fight the Bushies? The Republicans made morons like Paula Jones household names for minor scandals.

In 2006, Gary Aguirre was involved in a flurry of political and media attention following a front page New York Times article detailing Aguirre's investigation of a politically-sensitive insider-trading case. Aguirre is a former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawyer who was dismissed by the agency following his attempt to subpoena John Mack, now the CEO of Morgan Stanley, in an insider trading investigation of Pequot Capital Management, a leading hedge fund. Hedge funds are unregulated private investment funds that typically engage in unconventional investment strategies, such as short-selling. Mack briefly served as the chairman of Pequot before being hired by Morgan Stanley as their CEO.  Click here to read the New York Times article!  Click here to read GAP's original statement!  

In September 2005, Aguirre was fired 11 days after being awarded a two-step pay increase. Since coming to GAP, Aguirre testified at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing entitled "Hedge Fund and Analysts: How Independent Is Their Relationship?" At the hearing, Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa) expressed his outrage at SEC attempts to silence Aguirre, announcing his commitment to investigate further. Aguirre has provided documentary evidence to Congress which support his assertion that Mack should have been subpoenaed to take his testimony.

Aguirre's battle dates back to June 2005, when he suddenly encountered resistance at the SEC during the course of his investigation of Pequot. A $7 billion hedge fund, Pequot's CEO is Arthur J. Samberg, a long time friend of Mack. Prior to that date, Aguirre had been investigating the case for months, issuing over 90 subpoenas without obstruction.

When Aguirre recommended that Mack's testimony be taken under oath, Aguirre was told by his supervisor that it would be difficult to obtain approval for the subpoena due to Mack's powerful "political connections." Over the course of the next two months, Aguirre's supervisors refused to allow him to issue Mack a subpoena. Aguirre questioned this decision at every level up the chain of command (including SEC Chairman Christopher Cox), reporting his superior's behavior and providing evidence supporting his subpoena request.

Considering how persistent politicians are in connecting Obama with Rezko and other shady figures, why don't the Democrats do a better job making the many whistleblowers in the Bush administration the focal point of a campaign against Republican corruption? Or do they refrain from setting a higher priority on such efforts because they are afraid of indicting their own in the process? There are just so many victims of the Bush administration that the Democrats can use in the name of ethics and political opportunism. But they fail to do so.

Personal stories resonate with voters. Democrats need to do a better job helping out these individual whistleblowers and use them to score political points in the process.