Countdown: Suspend your campaign, sir
Keith Olbermann begs Senator John McCain to get control of his campaign.
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What’s going on - News Roundup
Wednesday morning news Roundup
- Yesterday, stocks closed down slightly after a big rally early in the morning. Although financial stocks should have increased throughout the day, many stocks that make up the Dow Jones and industrial averages fell. PepsiCo announced that it would cut 3300 jobs and close six plants. Retail sales fell 1.2% in September. This is much more than the smart folks thought.
- We can always sit back and smile because our stock exchange is doing so much better than Iceland’s. The Iceland Stock exchange dropped 77% on Monday. This is after Iceland stopped trading for three days in order to let the markets “stabilize.”
- Through the wonders of financial wizardry, J.P. Morgan Chase revealed that its third-quarter profit fell by 84%. Somehow, they were still able to make a profit of $5.8 billion. I don’t understand it, so I will not attempt to explain it. It seems to me that profit in this market is a good thing.
- Civil libertarians and Democrats have been warning for the past three years that we need to fix our election system. Republicans have been in power and no major reforms have been implemented. Ohio is again a concern. Over 600,000 new voters have registered in Ohio. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the GOP and stated that the Secretary of State (of Ohio) must use other government records to verify these new voters. This seems like an impossible task to complete between now and November 4th. Would this be filed under the heading “voter suppression?”
- In case you missed it, there was a major offensive in Afghanistan by the Taliban. The Taliban attacked a major city in a coordinated effort. NATO troops repelled the attack, killing over 60 Taliban fighters. This continues a disturbing trend on which I commented several weeks ago. Terrorists attack soft targets. They usually don’t have the numbers or the skill to directly attack hard targets. The game is changing in Afghanistan. I don’t think it’s changing for the better. Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, agrees.
- Surprisingly (because Karl Rove has taught us different), a new poll suggests that the vicious attacks that John McCain and Sarah Palin have launched against Barack Obama have backfired. In a New York Times/CBS news poll found that voters overwhelmingly thought that Barack Obama was explaining the issues and what he intends to do and that John McCain was simply attacking Barack Obama. Interestingly, with voters who have recently made up their minds, they had overwhelmingly chosen Barack Obama as their pick for president. Sarah Plain explained that she has nothing to lose on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show yesterday with regard to these attacks. It seems that the only thing that she has to lose is the election.
- As our financial crisis deepens, John McCain’s campaign has struggled to come up with a coherent message and plan. Basically, for the last several weeks, John McCain has said that he knows how to fix the economy. He hasn’t given the American people any specifics on how he would do this. Controlling government spending is a niceplan and is indeed necessary, but it will not fix the problem. After multiple false announcements, yesterday John McCain revealed a $52 billion plan which involves tax breaks to encourage savings and provide relief for seniors (I don’t really understand how this will help for our economy). If you look carefully, you’ll see that there’s nothing new in John McCain’s “new” proposal. Republicans have wanted to decreased capital gains taxes for decades. A central piece of this proposal is a cut in capital gains taxes. I will look at this proposal more carefully but at first glance it seems to be more of the same. Rachel Maddow talked about this on her show last night.
TDS: McCain creates a monster
Jon Stewart of The Daily Show has an interesting way of presenting the despicably negative tone that now reigns in the McCain-Palin campaign rallies. Frankenstein! He uses a Frankenstein metaphor. Mad scientist. Mad scientist creates monster. Mad scientist is happy. Monster goes berserk. Monster begins to destroy everything.
Obama will be one of our greatest presidents
There are a few things that have to come together in order for a president to become great. The individual must have substantial leadership qualities. Sometimes these qualities could seem elusive in a person, but when he or she is put into that position of leadership, they become obvious. The bottom line is that people will follow a leader in a time of crisis. This brings me to my next point. In order to become a great president, there needs to be a great crisis. It is generally agreed that there have been at least three great presidents in our past. Franklin Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln and George Washington are on everybody’s short list of great American presidents. I think in 20 or 30 years we will be able to look back at this time and add Barack Obama to the shortlist.
Frank Schaeffer, Vietnam veteran and writer at the Huffington Post, believes that Barack Obama will be a great president. Here is a portion of his post –
Great presidents are made great by horrible circumstances combined with character, temperament and intelligence. Like firemen, cops, doctors or soldiers, presidents need a crisis to shine.
Obama is one of the most intelligent presidential aspirants to ever step forward in American history. The likes of his intellectual capabilities have not been surpassed in public life since the Founding Fathers put pen to paper. His personal character is also solid gold. Take heart, America: we have the leader for our times.
I say this as a white, former life-long Republican. I say this as the proud father of a Marine. I say this as just another American watching his pension evaporate along with the stock market! I speak as someone who knows it’s time to forget party loyalty, ideology and pride and put the country first. I say this as someone happy to be called a fool for going out on a limb and declaring that, 1) Obama will win, and 2) he is going to be amongst the greatest of American presidents.
Obama is our last best chance. He’s worth laying it all on the line for.
This is a man who in the age of greed took the high road of community service. This is the good father and husband. This is the humble servant. This is the patient teacher. This is the scholar statesman. This is the man of deep Christian faith. (more… )
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Errington C. Thompson, MD, is a surgeon, scholar, fulltime sports fan and part-time political activist. He is active in a number of community projects and initiatives. Through medicine, he strives to improve the physical health of all he treats...
