Ooooh, That Smell. Can’t You Smell That Smell?

Interesting. I think the Reed thing is potentially a big problem for McCain because it plays into the ‘two McCains’ theory, and the argument that McCain c2000 would not vote for McCain c2008. I think the Baron thing is different. If there was hard evidence linking him to paying Ms Hunter or Mr Young to be quiet, then I think Senator Obama needs to take action and severe links with Mr Baron, but until that happens then I think its all just media speculation.

Ralph Reed is the only one I know of who actually out-conned Jack Abramoff. This is EXACTLY why we can’t elect McCain. We need to purge these corrupt authoritarions from our governement once and for all.

The difference is that the Obama campaign can send all of Baron’s money to charity and that will be fine because they didn’t know about Edwards’ scandal if indeed Baron helped to raise money for Obama.
McCain’s issue is far worse because he knew BEFORE hand about Reed and still he is goin ahead with a fundraiser.
McCain, IMO, is in a far worse predicament than Obama is. Obama’s situation is easy to rectify and people will understand it. It is kind of like all the Senators who got money from Senator Stevens has returned ALL that money. The media didn’t really make a stink of it.

Reed has nothing to do with McCain.
Reed is raising money for the local state party.
McCain is the reason why Abramoff is in jail. At this time Obama was buying land from Rezko saving 300 grand on his house in a sweet heart deal.

I’m more bothered by Scheunemann, lobbyist for Geogia until last March, now McCain’s foreign policy adviser. I think it is a huge conflict of interest.

Wow you are trying to compare Reed w/ Baron. I know you say that’s not what you’re trying to do, or that they’re not equal, but this is pretty down-right shameful. There’s absolutely no impropriety as far as laws are concerned with the Edwards’ affair thing. But Reed is an actual benefactor of one of the most corrupt individuals, which was Abramoff.

“I’m more bothered by Scheunemann, lobbyist for Geogia until last March, now McCain’s foreign policy adviser. I think it is a huge conflict of interest. ”
Just a little. So if Georgia starts a war, we can expect McCain to support them, even if they were wrong to start it.
Also reminds me of McCain’s budget, written by the guy who cause the Enron scandal, and then called us all whiners.
ALL OF MCCAIN’S EXPERIENCE COMES FROM ADVISORS WHO ARE BEING PAID TO TELL MCCAIN WHAT IS BEST FOR THEIR COMPANY.
NOT WHAT IS BEST FOR AMERICA OR AMERICANS.
Wake up people, McCain will only help you out by coincedence. If the gas prices drop at all from offshore drilling, it will be a bonus to creating billions of dollars of more revenue for the Big Oil industries. Don’t believe for a second that McCain wants to help you.

len:
That song had nothing to do with the crash unless they wrote it using a crystal ball.

The only items Obama voted for in either senate helped Rezko, Ayers, Rev Wright or his wife, so who is Obama beholden to?

Obama has hoodwinked his base – flip flopping on major issues AFTER he had their donations and became the presumptive nominee.
Kids are so easily duped by marketing!
“I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views.” – Obama, The Audacity of Hope
Dems for McCain – NO Hussein!

One sleezeys republican hanging out with another sleezey republican…. NO WAY!!!

I love how America taxes corporations more then any other nation in the world, be we receive some of the lowest actual revenue from it.
There are so many loopholes that a smart corporation can simply write off all their taxes. Many corporations PAY NO TAXES by the end of all the loopholes they use.
And McCain wants to lower their taxes more, without removing loopholes. Congrats on giving away another 100 billion dollars a year, and not paying for it.
What did GWB do to spend 800 billion dollars, take us from +500billion to -450 billion, in a matter of 8 years?
He spent money that he didn’t have, and he never cared to hide it. McCain wants to continue 95% of his plans.
Think about this and tell me why you want our country to be so far in debt that china will basicly have rights to the American brand.
Vote for McCain, vote for everything you hate about america.

Vote for Obama and your voting for JUST WORDS

I’m black and I won’t vote for Obama because he is not the black man that should run this country.

What a load of crap: equating what Baron is *suspected* of having done with what is known that Reed has done is like comparing a child nicking a candy bar, once, with a kleptomaniac.
Reed has a long, and I mean LONG!, history of scamming people and using highly questionable and disturbing actions during his entire life.
It started with *plagiarism* in 1983; he *rigged* the election of ally Sam Harben as his successor as president of the College Republicans at the University of Georgia; then went on with his buddies Abramoff and Grover Norquist to create their ‘triumvirate’;
he was *arrested* after bursting into the waiting room of the abortion clinics; his Christian Coalition “violated federal campaign finance laws during congressional elections in 1990, 1992 and 1994, and the presidential election in 1992″; Christian Coalition’s chief financial officer, Judy Liebert, “went to federal prosecutors with her suspicions of overbilling by Ben Hart, a direct-mail vendor with close ties to Ralph Reed, then the coalition’s executive director”. Realizing that his career was over in Virginia, he decided to make a ‘fresh’ start in Georgia. He became campaign leader for Skandalakis and ran a desastrous racist campaign, calling a black Mayor of Atlanta a “buffoon”. Skandalakis was heavily favored to win the election but thanks to his campaign manager Reed, he lost.
Reed is often blamed for running disastrous, racist and vicious campaigns for his clients.
The most disgusting part of McCain’s decision to associate himself with Reed is the following: Reed orchestrated the attacks on Senator John McCain in the 2000 South Carolina presidential primary, together with Roberta Combs, then head of the South Carolina Christian Coalition, who later took over the national Christian Coalition.
John McCain has lost every sense of self respect he might have once had when he is kissing up to the very man who orchestrated the attacks on his wife and his daughter.
Why should I respect McCain when he can’t even respect himself and his family?

I’m white, and I’m voting for Obama because he IS the black man we need to lead this country, and the free world for that matter.

“Reed has been in the public eye for many years. There is little documentation of scandal or misconduct.”
Reed has a list of scandals and misconduct going back to 1983, when he was just a student.
You want to know how bad Reed is?
“[Reed] is a bad version of us! No more money for him.” – Jack Abramoff to Michael Scanlon in an email message dated January 4, 2002

McCain’s association with anti-abortionist bigot Ralph Reed fits perfectly with his management by the Karl Rove team of the Big Lie ans Smear. These handlers have muzzled McCain so he can no longer make a fool of himself in front of reporter on his bus. they have cut way back on his favorite platform, the Town Hall, because he can’t answer the questions. Having Reed on board cements him with the religious right and provides another reactionary mouthpiece for his ugly campaign. Maverick? Straight-talker? – what a joke! He is nothing more than addled old hack who has turned over his campaign to the worst elements in US politics. Why? Because he is incompetent.

The attempts to make these two situations parallel is more than a little, ridiculous, no?
McCain is a hypocrite, claiming to renounce lobbyists while letting them run his campaign.
That’s the problem.
The Baron thing is a media manufactured distraction.

“That song had nothing to do with the crash unless they wrote it using a crystal ball.”
I didn’t say it did. It is associated with it because it came out soon before the crash and there was an album cover (quickly withdrawn) of the band standing flames. It weirded people out for the timing which was superstitious but creepy.
The song was by Ronnie Van Zant and Allen Collins who were pissed at Gary Rossington for his substance abuse problems screwing up the start of the 77 tour. He crashed a car into a tree. The plane crashed a few days into the tour.
By 77 most of us in that generation knew the party was getting the better of us. This song resonated with that. I’m not sure where JT is going with this because I don’t think he is that old.

Get smark and vote McCain….Obama is a sleeper.

“Ever hear the phrase garbage in garbage out? I don’t want a president that has to hear and sift through information from 300 advisors before he can make a decision. Why not just elect those 301(including George Looney) advisors? We are electing a president based on his qualifications and ability to lead. I guess with Barry we would just be getting a empty figure head.
BTW – are Ayers and mentor Wright included within that 301?”
Of course a McCain fan wants a president who has less information to help him make decisions.
If Bush had 300 advisors, he would have known that Iraq had no WMD’s and we would be 400 billion in debt.
I know the day he said that he was planning to invade Iraq, that he was using 9/11, and all the people that suffered and died, as a stepping stone for his personal war gains.
But I guess that was a good idea to you.

Mack,
The only arguement is that Obama has SO MUCH INFORMATION that he has to sift through it all?
You would rather have the president make decisions based on a few scraps of information?
Besides, as editor of Harvard Law Newspaper, while getting his degree, I’m sure he found a way to balance alot of work and decision making.
On the other hand, 300 advisors for McCain would probably cause him to have a stoke. He would have trouble remembering names let alone understanding what they are all talking about.

Did John McCain try to cover up his numerous affairs on his first wife? Did he lie to his first wife when he was running around with Cindy while still living in the same house with his first wife?
These are the questions that the McCain camp would be faced with if they push the Baron story to counter the Reed fund raiser (assuming they are comparable in the first place – which they are not. Reed betrayed the public trust, Edwards is a private citizen and it would have only been news if he won the party nomination, which he did not).

In Oct 2007, Obama held a fundraiser at the offices of Greenberg Traurig, Abramoff’s former firm.
Was that bad?

This is another example of what the right wing really thinks of their supporters. After learning about the Reed/Abramof scam, can anyone really argue that they dont think their followers are rubes and suckers?

One serious question, does McCain have the lobbyist in his pocket or does the lobbyist have McCain in theirs. McCain is not only tainted with the unehtical practices, he knee deep in influence peddling. “One hand washes the other” or two peas in a pod. With McCain can you be sure that he would choose what is best for America or what his lobbyist friends demand in reapyment?
Obama 08