Campaign-Promises.com

I watched, jaw-dropped, this week as another Obama association was exposed- this time Khalidi, spokesman for the PLO- that’s the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Not just an association- friends. This man, an absolute anti-Jewish, anti-American, hate-filled person, frequent dinner partner with Obama, a recipient of funds from Obama, and a fundraiser for Obama. Now one must ask himself, what motive would an anti-American, PLO member have in supporting an American candidate? Now imagine if McCain were to have the same connections come to light- he would be ripped to shreds. I don’t care who you’re voting for, but the obvious bias that allows Obama a permanent “get out of jail free” card is stunning. Wake up you guys! You are preparing to elect a man who has shown strong leanings that are anti-Israel, anti-Christian, anti-life, and anti-American. Quick, someone inject these people with a shot of eye-opener! I believe that if we elect this man, we are ensuring an absolute rejection of Israel when the crap hits the fan, not to mention he will surely encourage, possibly require land-for-peace deals. For any of you who appreciate democracy, you can understand the danger this would pose as we would further distance ourselves from our one friend in the middle east and break our promise to support democracy throughout the world. For those of you who believe the Bible, you understand the certain judgment sure to come on this land according to Genesis 12:3. Either way- trouble is brewing. For more information on this subject, I would recommend reading ‘Two Nations Under God’. This will help all understand the importance of supporting Israel.

Popularity: 48% [?]

Barack Obama’s senior advisers have drawn up plans to lower expectations for his presidency if he wins next week’s election, amid concerns that many of his euphoric supporters are harbouring unrealistic hopes of what he can achieve.

The sudden financial crisis and the prospect of a deep and painful recession have increased the urgency inside the Obama team to bring people down to earth, after a campaign in which his soaring rhetoric and promises of “hope” and “change” are now confronted with the reality of a stricken economy.

One senior adviser told The Times that the first few weeks of the transition, immediately after the election, were critical, “so there’s not a vast mood swing from exhilaration and euphoria to despair”.

The aide said that Mr Obama himself was the first to realise that expectations risked being inflated.

In an interview with a Colorado radio station, Mr Obama appeared to be engaged already in expectation lowering. Asked about his goals for the first hundred days, he said he would need more time to tackle such big and costly issues as health care reform, global warming and Iraq. “The first hundred days is going to be important, but it’s probably going to be the first thousand days that makes the difference,” he said. He has also been reminding crowds in recent days how “hard” it will be to achieve his goals, and that it will take time.

“I won’t stand here and pretend that any of this will be easy – especially now,” Mr Obama told a rally in Sarasota, Florida, yesterday, citing “the cost of this economic crisis, and the cost of the war in Iraq”. Mr Obama’s transition team is headed by John Podesta, a Washington veteran and a former chief-of-staff to Bill Clinton. He has spent months overseeing a virtual Democratic government-in-exile to plan a smooth transition should Mr Obama emerge victorious next week. The plans are so far advanced that an Obama Cabinet has been largely decided upon, with the expectation that most of his senior appointments could be announced shortly after election day.

Yet Mr Obama and his aides are under no illusions about the size of the challenges the Democrat will inherit if he enters the Oval Office. Tom Daschle, the party’s former leader in the US Senate and a strong contender for the post of White House chief-of-staff in an Obama administration, said last month that the winner next week would have only a 50 per cent chance of winning a second term in 2012.

Not only will the next president take office with the country sliding into a potentially long recession — and mired in debt — but the challenges abroad are immense. There is an unfinished war in Iraq, a worsening situation in Afghanistan and an unstable and nuclear-armed Pakistan to contend with. Iran appears intent on acquiring the bomb and there remains the ever-present threat from al-Qaeda and Islamic extremists.

If he wins, Mr Obama will inherit a Democratic-controlled Congress, and might even have the benefit of a 60-seat filibuster-proof “supermajority” in the Senate. Such a scenario would allow him to push through legislation largely unfettered by Republican opposition. Yet it also means that should the country still be mired in recession in three years’ time, voters — who have short memories — will probably blame him and the Democrats on Capitol Hill. Those stakes have led Mr Obama to conclude that while expectations need to be tempered, big things need to be achieved very early in his first term, when he will still have the political capital to achieve some of his most ambitious legislative goals.

Having promised “real” change, the pressure will be on him to deliver. In the Colorado interview, Mr Obama added: “The next president has got to come quickly out of the box.”

The early priorities being lined up if he takes power are a mixture of symbolism and substance. He plans to make a major address in a big Muslim country early in his first term. Having pledged on the campaign trail to close Guantanamo Bay, he is also determined to make early moves to rid America of the controversial prison. Yet what to do with the remaining inmates looms as an intractable problem, as many of their home governments refuse to allow them to return.

Mr Obama’s first legislative goals will be to follow through on his pledge to cut taxes for the middle class and raise them for the wealthiest Americans, and to push through a hugely expensive Bill to provide near-universal health insurance.

Popularity: 33% [?]

Obama’s Infomercial

Popularity: 32% [?]

By CALVIN WOODWARD
Wed Oct 29, 9:18 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was less than upfront in his half-hour commercial Wednesday night about the costs of his programs and the crushing budget pressures he would face in office.

Obama’s assertion that “I’ve offered spending cuts above and beyond” the expense of his promises is accepted only by his partisans. His vow to save money by “eliminating programs that don’t work” masks his failure throughout the campaign to specify what those programs are ‚Äî beyond the withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

A sampling of what voters heard in the ad, and what he didn’t tell them:

THE SPIN: “That’s why my health care plan includes improving information technology, requires coverage for preventive care and pre-existing conditions and lowers health care costs for the typical family by $2,500 a year.”

THE FACTS: His plan does not lower premiums by $2,500, or any set amount. Obama hopes that by spending $50 billion over five years on electronic medical records and by improving access to proven disease management programs, among other steps, consumers will end up saving money. He uses an optimistic analysis to suggest cost reductions in national health care spending could amount to the equivalent of $2,500 for a family of four. Many economists are skeptical those savings can be achieved, but even if they are, it’s not a certainty that every dollar would be passed on to consumers in the form of lower premiums.

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THE SPIN: “I also believe every American has a right to affordable health care.”

THE FACTS: That belief should not be confused with a guarantee of health coverage for all. He makes no such promise. Obama hinted as much in the ad when he said about the problem of the uninsured: “I want to start doing something about it.” He would mandate coverage for children but not adults. His program is aimed at making insurance more affordable by offering the choice of government-subsidized coverage similar to that in a plan for federal employees and other steps, including requiring larger employers to share costs of insuring workers.

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THE SPIN: “I’ve offered spending cuts above and beyond their cost.”

THE FACTS: Independent analysts say both Obama and Republican John McCain would deepen the deficit. The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates Obama’s policy proposals would add a net $428 billion to the deficit over four years ‚Äî and that analysis accepts the savings he claims from spending cuts. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, whose other findings have been quoted approvingly by the Obama campaign, says: “Both John McCain and Barack Obama have proposed tax plans that would substantially increase the national debt over the next 10 years.” The analysis goes on to say: “Neither candidate’s plan would significantly increase economic growth unless offset by spending cuts or tax increases that the campaigns have not specified.”

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THE SPIN: “Here’s what I’ll do. Cut taxes for every working family making less than $200,000 a year. Give businesses a tax credit for every new employee that they hire right here in the U.S. over the next two years and eliminate tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. Help homeowners who are making a good faith effort to pay their mortgages, by freezing foreclosures for 90 days. And just like after 9-11, we’ll provide low-cost loans to help small businesses pay their workers and keep their doors open. ”

THE FACTS: His proposals ‚Äî the tax cuts, the low-cost loans, the $15 billion a year he promises for alternative energy, and more ‚Äî cost money, and the country could be facing a record $1 trillion deficit next year. Indeed, Obama recently acknowledged ‚Äî although not in his commercial ‚Äî that: “The next president will have to scale back his agenda and some of his proposals.”

Popularity: 24% [?]

He also is giving an interview to a prominent network news anchor, and appearing with fellow Democratic star Bill Clinton at a rally that is timed to hit the late-evening news.

So that line in Obama’s stump speech about how parents need to turn the television off more at home? He might make an exception this day.

The TV campaign comes as Obama, ahead in national and swing-state polls over Republican John McCain, tries to win over teetering voters right from the comfort of their couches.

The election is six days away.

The centerpiece of the effort is Obama’s infomercial. It is rare for a candidate to buy a block of prime-time real estate to tell his story. Plenty costly, too.

The ad is expected to be a video montage of typical people talking about the challenges they face, with Obama explaining how he can help. A campaign adviser said the taped ad will feature a live cut-in to Obama, who is scheduled to be at a rally in Florida at the time.

The Obama team bought time on CBS, NBC and Fox for about $1 million per network. The spot airs at 8 p.m. ET. It is also scheduled to run on Univision, BET, MSNBC and TV One.

Flush with cash from his record-shattering fundraising, Obama uses that advantage by buying up media time in ways that McCain cannot.

McCain is purchasing loads of ad time, too. But the disparity between Obama and the Republicans is so wide that it has allowed Obama to spend in more states than McCain, appear more frequently in key markets and diversify his messages — some positive, some negative.

And negative is the tone for the latest Obama ad, a 30-second spot aimed at key states that uses McCain’s own words against him and mocks running mate Sarah Palin. Three quotes, one from 2005 and two from 2007, play off McCain’s acknowledgment that he knows less about economic matters than other issues. In the last quote, McCain says he might have to rely on his vice president for expertise ‚Äî and then the spot cuts to a winking Palin.

Obama is campaigning Wednesday in North Carolina and Florida.

During a stop in Raleigh, N.C., he will be interviewed by Charlie Gibson of ABC’s World News.

Later, in Florida, Obama will tape an appearance on Comedy Central’s irreverent The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. The segment will run at 11 p.m. ET.

Obama may even be competing with himself.

During the same 11 p.m. slot, Obama is scheduled to appear at a campaign rally for the first time with Clinton, whose wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, lost to Obama in the primaries.

The uniting of the former president and the would-be president in Kissimmee, Fla., is sure to draw live local and national television coverage.

And that’s not all.

On Thursday, Obama is giving interviews to Brian Williams, anchor of NBC’s Nightly News, and to Rachel Maddow, the host of an evening show on MSNBC.

Two viewers who don’t seem excited about all the exposure are Obama’s two young daughters.

Appearing on Jay Leno’s talk show Monday, Obama’s wife, Michelle, said 10-year-old daughter Malia got a little worried to hear that her dad’s infomercial would blanket TV.

” ‘You’re going to be on all the TV? Are you going to interrupt my TV?’ ” her mother said Malia asked.

Michelle Obama said the presidential candidate assured his daughter that he hadn’t bought time on the Disney Channel.

Popularity: 22% [?]

Democratic Nominee Makes Final Appeal to Voters in Key States

By JAKE TAPPER

PITTSBURGH, Oct. 27, 2008—

With just eight days of campaigning left, Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama are stepping up their stump speeches to avoid stepping down on November 4.

With the political battleground well defined, states like Ohio and Pennsylvania are critical to both candidates’ chances, and both senators kicked off the final full week of the campaign with stops in both.

Supporters of Democrat Obama gathered Monday evening for a “Change We Need” rally inside Pittsburgh’s Mellon Arena. After an introduction by Pittsburgh Steelers president Dan Rooney, Obama told the crowd change in America is one week away.

“Sen. McCain might be worried about losing an election, but I’m worried about Americans who are losing their homes, and their jobs, and their life savings,” Obama said.

“I can take one more week of John McCain’s attacks, but this country can’t take four more years of the same old politics and the same failed policies. It’s time for something new.”

At Canton’s Memorial Civic Center Monday afternoon, Obama delivered a speech his campaign dubbed the “closing argument,” and touched on themes consistent with those he outlined during his break-out appearance as a little-known state legislator at the 2004 Democratic Convention. Campaign officials claim the consistency has served the Illinois senator well, especially in contrast with McCain, who they say has jumped around from issue to issue, looking for anything that would stick.

Before 5,000 screaming fans, a pumped up Obama decried what he called President Bush’s — and John McCain’s — “tired worn-out old theory” of trickle-down economics.

Obama reminded voters that even after months of campaigning and three presidential debates, his White House rival had not provided the American people with a way to differentiate his policies from those of his predecessor, George W. Bush.

The Democratic nominee begins the final stretch of his campaign in Ohio, a battleground state where an Oct. 22 Ohio newspaper poll has him with a narrow lead of 49 to 46, and then Pennsylvania, another key state, where he enjoys a more comfortable margin of 13 points, according to a Morning Call/Muhlenberg College poll from Oct. 26.

According to Democratic strategist Tad Devine, Pennsylvania is “a place where Obama has been ahead in the polls; if McCain could figure out somehow how to win Pennsylvania he might be able to get back into a plausible scenario of winning the race, but that’s why he’s spending so much time there.”

But while addressing the crowd in Canton today, Obama cautioned supporters against complacency, despite his success in the opinion polls.

“Don’t believe for a second this election is over,” he chided.

“Don’t think for a minute that power concedes. We have to work like our future depends on it in this last week, because it does.”

“Sometimes overconfidence can hurt you with your own supporters,” said Devine.

Referring to voters, Devine said, “They may think you have so many votes because they see these polls and they believe these polls and they think the race is over before the people, all the people have voted.”

Beyond his attacks on the Arizona Republican, Obama’s speech included themes of uniting the country, similar to those themes he discussed in 2004.

“There is not a liberal America and a conservative America; there is the United States of America,” Obama claimed four years ago.

Today he continued those themes. “Each of us has a role to play,” Obama said.

“Each of us has a responsibility to work hard and look after ourselves and our families, and each of us has a responsibility to our fellow citizens.”

“That’s what’s been lost these last eight years,” he pointed out.

“Our sense of common purpose; of higher purpose. And that’s what we need to restore right now.”

Popularity: 26% [?]