Joe the Plumber Disses McCain - "I wanted to get off the Bus!"

Now that the campaign is over I guess the "truth" can be told, eh Joe?

"Joe Wurzelbacher lashed out Tuesday at former GOP presidential nominee John McCain, the man who made Wurzelbacher famous as “Joe the Plumber.”

Wurzelbacher told conservative radio host Glenn Beck that he felt “dirty” after “being on the campaign trail and seeing some of the things that take place.”

Recalling a conversation he had with McCain about the $700 billion financial industry bailout in September, Wurzelbacher said: “When I was on the bus with him, I asked him a lot of questions about the bailout because most Americans did not want that to happen.”

“I asked him some pretty direct questions,” he continued. “Some of the answers you guys are gonna receive — they appalled me, absolutely. I was angry. In fact, I wanted to get off the bus after I talked to him.”

No doubt the media will have some fun with this. But Wurzelbacher is only reflecting what a lot of us conservatives felt. We all wanted to get off the bus. Hell we never wanted to get on it with McCain in the first place. But as Joe said, vs. Obama there was really no choice.

McCain/Obama Live Debate Thread ***Video Added Watch It Here!***UPDATE: McCain wins on points, but disappoints.

Beginning at 9pm EST, live thread of the debate. Here's what I'm looking for from McCain.

1. No more Mr. Nice Guy. McCain needs to hit Obama on his associations with Ayers and Wright and not back down. Millions of Americans have not seen this information, it's time to let them know.

2. Tell voters that he - not Obama - warned of the Fanny and Freddie mess and that the root of the mess is the inaction of Obama and his Democratic cohorts over the last five years. Let the American people know that he tried to stop it but the Democrats blocked attempts at reform. The result is $800,000 of their money going down the drain to federalize the free market.

3. Get Obama off his script. Make him mad, get him flustered and searching for words, which he has done before. Show America just how much of a fraud he is when he's not being told what to say by his handlers.



UPDATE: FACT CHECK per the Corner:

"Obama's letter to Paulson and Bernanke was written on March 22, 2007. 25 subprime lenders failed in February/March of 2007, and the largest subprime lender New Century Financial was teetering on collapse (it filed for bankruptcy five days after Obama's letter). His letter was a response to headlines, not some prescient call to action."

UPDATE: Obama's dumb statement of the night, "A lot of you remember the tragedy of 9/11." As if we forgot?

UPDATE: Via CNN who is the only MSM organization getting off it's ass to look at Obama and Ayers:

"A review of board minutes and records by CNN show Obama, crossed paths repeatedly with Ayers at board meetings of the Annenberg Challenge Project.The Annenberg Foundation gave the project a $50 million grant to match local private funds to improve schools, and Ayers fought to bring the grant to Chicago, according to participants and project records.The project's organizing committee asked Obama to serve as the board chairman in 1995. Annenberg Project Executive Director Ken Rollings said Ayers was not a member of that ad hoc group when the decision was made. For seven years, Ayers and Obama -- among many others -- worked on funding for education projects, including some projects advocated by Ayers...the board, for example, gave hundreds of thousands of dollars to Bill Ayers' small schools project. The project promoted alternative education, including projects like the Peace School -- where the curriculum centered on a United Nations theme -- and another school where the focus was African-American studies...The project shut down in 2003 after achieving "little impact on school improvement and student outcomes," its final report stated.While working on the Annenberg project, Obama and Ayers also served together on a second charitable foundation, the Woods Fund. It was that foundation that Obama referenced in the debate -- not the Annenberg Challenge.Among Wood Foundation recipients were the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's Trinity United Church, where Obama attended and was married; and the Children and Family Justice Center, where Ayers' wife Dohrn was director."

Not bad for someone you "hardly knew" eh Barry? This is why asking Obama about Ayers is relevant, because he's LYING.

UPDATE: Once again, here's Obama view on our national security:




UPDATE: EPILOG: Overall, a dissapointment. McCain doesn't go after Obama on Freddie and Fannie, or Ayers, and that's a shame. They are all valid points. The bailout for homeowners infuriates my "conservative" side, but I understand the move. Homeowners - taxpayers - qot squat on the bailout and are pissed. McCain offered a plan to them, Obama just danced around the question.

While it's bad conservatism, it's a risky, yet savvy political move. Even though only 9 percent of homeowners are in trouble with their mortgage, that could translate into a few points of support from the independents in that group.

What Palin has to do tonight - Semi Live Blog ***UPDATE: Sad Joe and the Nixon Shadow

Sarah Palin doesn't need to do anything tonight except be herself. Do not, I repeat, do not believe the MSM or the polls, they are missing the point on her - as they always do - big time. In spite of the MSM assasination attempts on her, Palin is still packing in crowds and it's growing - NOT shrinking.

You should no by now that polls are created to make news and it's in the question that the news is formed. Subsequently when polls are seemly showing Palin sliding in popularity nothing is further from the truth.

We see this every election. We saw it in 2000 and especially in 2004 when the media threw everything but the kitchen sink at George Bush. I remember hearing the same moaning and groaning that it was all over and that we'd all be calling John Kerry president on November 5th.

It didn't happen. It didn't happen because no matter what the polls said or the leftwing media elite threw out there America made up it's own mind and in the end George Bush won by a comfortable margin.

It's going to happen again in one month.

All Palin will have to do is show that she is the true agent of change and hope, not Barack Obama. It's funny for all the talk about how she doesn't know supreme court decisions, and seems lost in trick question interviews, people miss - or ignore - the fact that Barack Obama isn't the brightest bulb on the tree either. AFter all Palin doesn't have 300 foreign policy advisers or the army of coaches and image consultants that Obama has on the payroll.

She doesn't carry a teleprompter to ever speaking event like he does either, nor get lost when she can't find the script.

Like Obama:



In fact the best thing about Sarah Palin is that she's not a fraud like Barack Obama is, and that's all she has to get across to the American Public tonight.

UPDATE: Just dropped in, server problems again, but Palin is performing above expectations and Joe Biden looks....old and angry. This is a Nixon moment for him and may just turn this around for McCain yet. I'll comment as needed.

UPDATE: Palin wins the debate hands down. On Fox News Frank Lunz's focus group was off the chart for Palin, predicts hugh swing for McCain in the polls over the next couple of days. I agree.

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin: Sarah Rocks! Yes she does indeed and it's why you will see the media assassination attempts continue, but it's not going to work. America will be turning to Sarah Palin, one of their own who is like them in ways a Barack Hussein Obama cannot begin to.

Palin vs. Obama, absolutely no contest

Via Gateway Pundit (thanks for the earlier post about the new Macsmind!), comes this ad from Our Country Deserves Better.



Brutal. Like in the earlier post this is the dope the country is falling for.

AP's Lame Attempt at Scandal - Slime Story on Palin

Lame:

"WASILLA, Alaska (AP) -- Though Sarah Palin depicts herself as a pit bull fighting good-old-boy politics, in her years as mayor she and her friends received special benefits more typical of small-town politics as usual, an Associated Press investigation shows.

When Palin needed to sell her house during her last year as Wasilla mayor, she got the city to sign off on a special zoning exception - and did so without keeping a promise to remove a potential fire hazard.

She gladly accepted gifts from merchants: A free "awesome facial" she raved about in a thank-you note to a spa. The "absolutely gorgeous flowers" she received from a welding supply store. Even fresh salmon to take home.

She also stepped in to help friends or neighbors with City Hall dealings. She asked the City Council to add a friend to the list of speakers at a 2002 meeting - and then the friend got up and asked them to give his radio station advertising business.

That year, records show, she tried to help a neighbor and political contributor fighting City Hall over his small lakeside development. Palin wanted the city to refund some of the man's fees, but the city attorney told the mayor she didn't have the authority."

As one who worked in a city for eleven years this is standard fare and not a bit out of line. In fact our democratic mayor had a new take home vehicle for personal use which got replaced every year IN THE BUDGET. Not an eye brow raised. As you go on reading the story you find nothing that wasn't done before or after Palin.

Additionally, all these "gifts" were disclosed in public records as required. That means "AP" that it's not "unethical" to receive certain gifts or even "perks" so long as they are not forbidden by law and disclosed. Seems the writer missed that point.

Of course the next sentence is another lame attempt at "disqualifying" Palin:

"Palin claims she has more executive experience than her opponent and the two presidential candidates, but most of those years were spent running a city with a population of less than 7,000."

Which is 7000 more people than Barack Obama has ever governed over, a point which the MSM willfully misses.

By the way, Sharon Theimer, the AP writer of this story is a registered Democrat.

The Truth About Obama's No Support for the Troops

Obama lied in the debate last night and the McCain camp brings it home.

Obama - McCain is RIGHT!

Most likely the weirdest endorsement ever.

I've got your "silly" and raise you a "sillier"

Ambinder, reports:

"John Weaver, for years one of John McCain's closest friends and confidants, has been in exile since his resignation from McCain's presidential campaign last year. With the exception of an occasional interview, he has, by his own account, bit his tongue as McCain's campaign has adopted a strategy that Weaver believes "diminishes John McCain."

With the release today of a McCain television ad blasting Obama for celebrity preening while gas prices rise, and a memo that accuses Obama of putting his own aggrandizement before the country, Weaver said he's had "enough."

The ad's premise, he said, is "childish."

"John's been a celebrity ever since he was shot down," Weaver said. "Whatever that means. And I recall Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush going overseas and all those waving American flags."
Weaver remains in contact with senior McCain strategists and, for a while early this year, regularly talked to McCain.

The strategy of driving up Obama's negatives "reduces McCain on the stage," Weaver said.
"For McCain to win in such troubled times, he needs to begin telling the American people how he intends to lead us. That McCain exists. He can inspire the country to greatness."

He added: "There is legitimate mockery of a political campaign now, and it isn't at Obama's. For McCain's sake, this tomfoolery needs to stop."

Well, I might agree, because Obama has enough baggage that is legit. But McCain's ad is targeted at the personal that Obama himself has been fostering with all "pomp and ceremony" and world tours and such. I mean, who's the star after all?

But while we are on the subject Marc, what's the big deal about McCain's $520 shoes?

Talk about "silly".

Obama's Missed Troop Visit - The "Fact" is he didn't go

I can't remember the last time I seen the MSM try to hard to cover up for a political candidate. No, I take that back, they did it with Kerry. Since Obama - for whatever lame reason - missed visiting wounded troops in Germany, the media has gone into full on "protect mode" to "fact check" and "correct and clarify".

Regardless of the reasons he missed the visit. From Lynn Sweet's blog comes this explanation from Obama.

"Here's the explanation Obama gave Saturday in London when asked about the cancelled visit to the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center:

Q. Can you clear up the controversy about visiting the troops in Germany, the Pentagon said you were more welcome to come but you cant bring the media and were not allowed to bring campaign staff other than that you are more than welcome anytime, inaudible, we have gotten a few conflicting claims...

OBAMA: The staff was working this so I don't know each and every detail but here is what I understand happened. We had scheduled to go, we had no problem at all in leaving, we always leave press and staff off that is why we left it off the schedule. We were treating it in the same way we treat a visit to Walter Reed which I was able to do a few weeks ago without any fanfare whatsoever. I was going to be accompanied by one of my advisors, former military officer. And we got notice that he would be treated as a campaign person and it would therefore be perceived as political because he had endorsed my candidacy but he wasn't on the senate staff.

That triggered then a concern that maybe our visit was going to be perceived as political and the last thing that I want to do is have injured soldiers and the staff at these wonderful institutions having to sort through whether this is political or not or get caught in the crossfire between campaigns. So rather than go forward and potentially get caught up in what might have been considered a political controversy of some sort what we decided was that we not make a visit and instead I would call some of the troops that were that. So that essentially would be the extent of the story."

Senator, they wouldn't have sorted through a thing. Maybe some of them didn't even want you there. It's not a matter of who on your campaign pulled the trigger, the fact is that it's YOUR campaign and YOU should have called the shot to find a way to visit the troops.

Nothing can change the fact that you weren't in command of the situation and thus not there.

That's the only "Fact" that matters.

Obama's VP picks? So long as it's not Hillary

God, we couldn't get this lucky. Via Ambinder:

"The following three Democrats are being vetted by Eric Holder and Caroline Kennedy and there is independent evidence that Obama is taking a serious look at them:

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Gov. Tim Kaine, Sen. Evan Bayh.

Additionally, allies of Sen. Joe Biden say that he is under serious consideration, although he is not being subjected to the same level of vetting.

The huffing and puffing over Kaine is the result of Kaine's allies getting excited...and confirming what has been reported here and elsewhere, which is that Kaine is being vetted and that Obama is seriously considering him. Based on discussions with high-level Obama aides, I do not get the impression that Obama has made up his mind yet. These aides do say that Obama is narrowing his choices.

Now -- the way to look at these names, I think, is to analyze what picking each would say about the Obama presidency and what he expects in a vice president.

Sebelius and Kaine are both governing choices, not campaign choices. They're not going to match Obama's enthusiasm levels; they're not going to do all that well at the VP debates; they're not even going to solve political problems (even Kaine). But they are solid; they are centrist-in-style; they are Washington outsiders; they know how to balance budgets and deal with Republicans. As an historical analogy, think Clinton's choice of Gore."

Ok, that's a lefty view. But here is it is from the Right. "Anybody but Clinton".

Either of the above choices works for us on the right. It's not so amazing that the Light Being would pick a Biden or Kane so to not dim his - er, bulb. Ann Carpenter at Town Hall does her own vetting.

"Evan Bayh: Too young, too inexperienced to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.

Joe Biden: Most likely to say something on October 30 that will blow it for Obama.

Tim Kaine: Massive eyebrow problems. Sort of creepy. (Photo evidence). I live in Virginia and can't think of anything notable he has done.

Kathleen Sebelius: Will outrage all the Hillary people because Obama picked a woman other than Hillary."

That last one is the most true.

The only "pick" that should scare us and which gives Obama the best chance to win is Hillary Clinton. Unless he does the backlash is going to cost him dearly in November.

"Creepy" Obama

Rick Moran on the Ten Things that creep him out about Barack Obama.


just TEN?

Obama checks into Hospital for Hip Problem

But I thought he was such a HE MAN, you know, not sweating or anything!

"All that basketball seems to be taking at least a slight toll on Sen. Barack Obama's nearly 47-year-old body.

Late Sunday, he visited the University of Chicago Medical Center to have a sore hip checked by an orthopedic doctor. It has been bothering him since before the start of his overseas trip on July 17.

Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs said the basketball injury is nothing serious, but some X-rays were taken."

I don't know. Bad hips at 47, god knows what they'll be like in 2018 when he leaves office!

Big Bump for Barry After World Tour

Well you would expect something after spending a few million.

"PRINCETON, NJ -- Barack Obama now leads John McCain among national registered voters by a 49% to 40% margin in Gallup Poll Daily tracking conducted July 24-26.

This represents a continuation of Obama's front-runner position evident in the last three Gallup Poll Daily tracking updates. The margin, coincident with the extensive U.S. news coverage of Obama's foreign tour, is the largest for Obama over McCain measured since Gallup began tracking the general election horserace in March. (To view the complete trend since March 7, 2008, click here.)

A key question remains as to whether this "bounce" is short-term (as happens to bounces in some instances following intense publicity surrounding a convention) or if his lead will persist -- the answer to which will become evident in the next several days."

Of course we have to balance this with other polls - such as Fox, which showed next to nothing in a bounce. While Gallup is normally accurate, they are not posting the sample break down and this sounds that it was weighted Democrat. Nevertheless, and giving WIDE benefit of the doubt, while 9 points is hefty, you have to shave off the margin of error and it's not that big of a deal. Actually I'll bet the Obama camp is a little worried that he shot his wad - so to speak - before Labor Day.

In fact, now that I think about it, for all the Obamamania, the hoop and holler and over the top media coverage and adulation 9 points isn't really much at all.

McCain Reverses on Affirmative Action - GOOD!

They're calling this a "reversal".  I call it McCain's, er,.. coming of age.

"ABC News' Teddy Davis and Kevin Kilbane Report: During a "This Week" interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos John McCain reversed himself on affirmative action and endorsed for the first time a proposed state ballot measure which would end race and gender-based affirmative action in his home state of Arizona.

"I support it," McCain declared when asked about the referendum. "I do not believe in quotas... I have not seen the details of some of these proposals. But I’ve always opposed quotas."

McCain has long opposed quotas but his new support for ending affirmative action programs which stop short of quotas puts him at odds not only with Democratic rival Barack Obama but also with the Arizona senator's own views in 1998.

Back then, when the legislature in McCain's home state of Arizona considered sending the voters a measure to end affirmative action, McCain spoke out against it calling it "divisive."

McCain's campaign does not dispute that the Arizona senator spoke out against the 1998 effort to end affirmative action in his home state.

When asked about the apparent change in position, a McCain spokesman was not able to distinguish the two measures.

"I do not have a firm enough grasp on the historical and relevant context of McCain's remark in 1998 to give you the pushback that this question deserves," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds told ABC News.

McCain's critics on the left charge that he has changed his position on affirmative action in order to shore up his support among conservatives.

"This is clearly an election-year flip flop and a pander to a skeptical right-wing base," said John Kraus, spokesman for the liberal Ballot Initiative Strategy Center. "He has put politics first on this issue. There is no other way around it."

Well, we'll take it Kraus. God knows it's about time. Affirmative Action is one of the greatest discriminatory practices in America today. It's a travesty we even enacted it and it's cost untold thousands to be bumped to the end of the line all for the color of someone's skin and not based on merit, hard work and abilities.

Good for you McCain.