What a ham-handed reply...

Don't be a pig and hog all the funny answers.

Don't be a pig and hog all the funny answers. [/quote]

You're full of slop, I wasn't hogging the funny answers.

Is Dobson's Obama Hit Backfiring?

by AMY SULLIVAN

After years of attacking Democrats with relative impunity for their supposed moral failings, Evangelical leader James Dobson surely didn't expect to suffer much of a backlash when he trained his sights on Barack Obama. Over the years, the party had practically cowered in fear and gone into radio silence when the head of Focus on the Family targeted one of its standard-bearers. So in a campaign that has already proved to be anything but predictable, the counterattack on Dobson this week epitomized the new, fraught political climate that Christian Right leaders like himself face.

Earlier this week, Dobson used his popular Christian radio program to denounce a 2006 speech the Illinois Senator gave about the place of religion in public life. He took personal offense at the fact that Obama had referred to him by name in the same breath as Al Sharpton, using the two to illustrate the range of differences that exist within Christianity. But he also expressed outrage at Obama's assertion that individuals can be moral without being religious. "He oughta read the Bible," said Dobson. Obama, he charged, was "deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview."

But less than 24 hours after Dobson's radio broadcast, www.jamesdobsondoesntspeakforme.com was up and running on the Web. The site displays both Dobson's charges against Obama and Obama's own quotes from the 2006 speech. It also features a statement condemning Dobson that reads in part: "James Dobson doesn't speak for me when he uses religion as a wedge to divide; he doesn't speak for me when he speaks as the final arbiter on the meaning of the Bible."

The website was the handiwork of a coalition of Christian leaders headed by Kirbyjon Caldwell, the Texas pastor and Bush family friend who led the benediction at George W. Bush's first Inauguration. The group came up with the idea for the site a while ago, and figured it was just a matter of time before the good Dr. Dobson would give them an opportunity to unveil it. And they're not the only ones pushing back against the Christian Right leader's broadsides. The Matthew 25 Network is a political action committee formed in early June by Mara Vanderslice, a Democratic strategist who oversaw religious outreach on the 2004 Kerry campaign and remembers well the perils of remaining silent in the face of attacks on that candidate's Catholic faith. Within hours of Dobson's program, the PAC had raised $4,000 for radio ads that will run next week in the Colorado Springs market, Dobson's home turf. Vanderslice and her co-producers at the Eleison Group, a new Democratic consulting firm founded by Hillary Clinton's former religion adviser, Burns Strider, plan to expand to other stations that carry Dobson's Focus program.

It's hard out there for a Christian Right leader. Last December came and went with barely a peep about a grinchy liberal "War on Christmas." The Republican nominee, John McCain, has refused to make the pilgrimage to Colorado Springs, telling the Focus on the Family leader to come to him instead. But the biggest problem is that Democrats — and Barack Obama in particular — are determined to make a play for a bloc of voters over whom Dobson and his colleagues have traditionally maintained exclusive control. And those voters seem willing to listen.

Obama's willingness to talk about his faith, including his decision to become a Christian as an adult, has resonated even with religious conservatives who disagree with him politically. Richard Cizik of the National Association of Evangelicals was part of a gathering of Christian leaders Obama convened earlier this month, and he says, "There was no way I could leave that room not knowing this was a fellow brother in Christ." The Democratic candidate has also been an outspoken critic of what could be termed "certainty" theology — the idea that real Christians have no doubts about their rightness.

This language, combined with the Obama campaign's aggressive efforts to reach out to religious voters, has made it hard for the Christian Right to paint Obama as a secular bogeyman. His opponents have numerous lines of attack — is he a secret Muslim? A black nationalist Christian? A wishy-washy liberal Protestant? — but all seem to accept the basic premise that Obama is religious, which is key in a country where 70% of voters say they want their President to be a person of faith, according to Pew Research polls.

Obama's theological beliefs are clearly more liberal than those on the Christian right. But it's the beliefs of the latter that are fast becoming a minority. A new Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life survey of 35,000 Americans reports that 70% agree with the statement "Many religions can lead to eternal life," including 57% of Evangelicals. No less a figure than George W. Bush responded "no" when asked in 1999 if he believed heaven is open only to Christians. Those evolving, more relatively open-minded attitudes are one reason Dobson's organization has steadily lost members and revenue over the past five years.

Dobson and his colleagues have also been stymied by a new generation of Evangelical leaders who stubbornly refuse to join the political fray. When Saddleback pastor Rick Warren welcomes Obama to his church with open arms or Mike Huckabee declares that Obama's religion and his former pastor should be irrelevant issues in the campaign, they undercut the criticisms made by their elders in the Christian Right. In 2004, there was near-universal agreement by religious conservatives that their "non-negotiable" issues were limited to abortion, stem-cell research and gay marriage. But Warren and others now insist that the environment and poverty and health care reform are legitimate concerns as well, and the people in the pews increasingly agree with them.

So it's no surprise that the old lions of the Christian Right are suddenly sputtering. "This is raising my blood pressure," admitted the normally calm, Mr. Rogers-sounding Dobson at the end of his radio show on Tuesday. Just a few weeks earlier, the conservative columnist and former Moral Majority vice president Cal Thomas wrote an essay calling Obama a "false prophet." Placing Obama's "Christianity" in quotes, Thomas charged that the candidate's statements about religion — including his belief that non-Christians can get to heaven — prove that he does not understand what it means to be a Christian.

But if the grassroots reaction is any indication, the attacks on Obama have been largely self-defeating. After Thomas' column ran, dozens of regional papers that carry it were flooded with letters to the editor — and they were hardly in liberal bastions. In places like Augusta, Georgia, and Lubbock, Texas, people wrote in to criticize Thomas' attack on Obama. "To suggest that anyone is not a Christian because they do not adhere to Cal Thomas' narrow interpretation of what a Christian should believe," wrote one Texan, "is extremely intolerant, ignorant, and downright insulting." Barack Obama couldn't have said it any better himself, and this election year he may not have to.

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1818313,00.html

Cindy’s fortune: An asset and a liability

By KENNETH P. VOGEL

In 2004, Republicans demanded fuller disclosure about the considerable fortune of Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

Now, the GOP is reaping what it sowed.

Having established a recent precedent for increased scrutiny of spousal finances, the party now finds its own presumptive nominee, John McCain, under an unwanted spotlight over the fortune of his wife, Cindy.

Already, Democrats have blasted Cindy McCain’s less-than-full financial disclosure, asserting that it calls into question John McCain’s commitment to transparency and suggests that he may be “hiding” information about how his efforts in Congress benefited his family.

Worse though, the burgeoning focus on Cindy McCain’s finances could attract attention to an aspect of the Arizona senator’s family life that is unlikely to be advantageous to him on the campaign trail: the affluent lifestyle and free-spending habits of the McCain clan.

Cindy McCain and the McCain children are the beneficiaries of a beer distributing fortune amassed by her parents and estimated to be worth $100 million or more. Though the McCains maintain separate finances, Cindy McCain’s family fortune has boosted her husband’s political career at critical junctures, helping to fund his inaugural 1982 run for Congress and helping to subsidize his current presidential campaign when it all but went broke last year.

In recent years, a Politico analysis found, the McCain family appears to have tapped its fortune liberally.

While Cindy McCain, her dependent children and the trusts and companies they control made as much as $29 million — and likely substantially more — from her family’s business interests from 2004 through last year, data from the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Senate, the U.S. Office of Government Ethics and the Center for Responsive Politics also reveals that they spent $11 million purchasing five condominiums for the family, hired additional household help and racked up progressively larger credit card bills almost every year.

Their credit card bills peaked between January 2007 and May 2008, during which time Cindy McCain charged as much as $500,000 in a single month on one American Express card and $250,000 on another, while one of their two dependent children had an AmEx card with a monthly balance as large as $50,000.

A campaign aide who did not want to be identified discussing the McCains’ personal finances stressed that the credit card balances are “not ongoing debt.”

The aide pointed out that the disclosure forms on which the credit card liabilities were listed ask respondents to indicate ranges for the largest balances owed during the reporting period.

“It has been the McCains’ practice and procedure, as previously indicated, to pay off the balance of credit cards on a monthly basis, so they do not carry credit card debt,” the aide said in a statement.

The aide did not answer questions about what Cindy McCain or her children purchased with the cards and declined to make either she or her husband available for an interview about their finances or spending habits.

Cindy McCain released only the first two pages of her 2006 tax return. She received an extension until Oct. 15 to file her 2007 returns, and the aide said “she will make the decision whether to release her 2007 return at the appropriate time.”

During the 2004 presidential campaign, Teresa Heinz Kerry, whose fortune was estimated to be worth more than $750 million, eventually released comparably limited information about her finances after repeated demands from Republicans who asserted the public’s right to know because they said her finances were intertwined with those of her husband’s presidential campaign. The Kerry campaign had benefited from a $6.4 million personal loan John Kerry secured using, as collateral, equity in a Boston townhouse the couple jointly owned.

Likewise, John McCain’s presidential campaign benefited from Cindy McCain’s fortune, using a legal loophole to travel the country in a jet owned by her company for cut-rate fares.

That revelation, combined with recent reports about Cindy McCain’s hefty credit card tabs and nearly $7,000 in unpaid property taxes on a condo owned by a trust she oversees have drawn even closer scrutiny to the McCain family finances.

While John McCain’s campaign spending is a matter of public record, his family’s personal spending is not, and for the most part there’s only anecdotal information available.

For instance, in the June issue of Vogue magazine, Cindy McCain said she favors suits made by the German designer Escada, which typically retail for around $3,000 a pop. If she becomes first lady, she told Vogue she may switch to an American designer, possibly Carolina Herrera, whose suits are comparably pricey.

But one area in which Cindy McCain’s spending — and its impact on her husband’s lifestyle — can be chronicled is real estate.

Property records show that trusts and corporations controlled by her and her children spent nearly $11 million between the summer of 2004 and February 2008 on three condominiums in Phoenix and a pair outside San Diego.

One of the Phoenix condos, a 6,600-square-foot unit for which Cindy McCain’s trust paid $4.7 million in October 2006, became Cindy McCain’s primary residence after the trust sold the couple’s Phoenix house, which she had purchased from her father for $3.2 million in December 2006.

Less than one year later, a corporation controlled by Cindy McCain bought another condo on a lower floor in the same building for $830,000.

And, in between, the corporation plunked down $700,000 for a 1,900-square foot, three-bedroom loft condo for her then-22-year-old daughter Meghan McCain, who was moving back to Phoenix after graduating from New York’s Columbia University.

Cindy McCain, through another family corporation, spent about $4.7 million in 2004 and 2008 on two condos in an exclusive building in Coronado, Calif., an affluent San Diego suburb noted for its high percentage of military retirees.

In her recent Vogue interview, conducted from the newer Coronado condo, McCain explained that her husband, a Navy veteran, initially wasn’t keen on the idea of a pied-à-terre in Coronado.

"When I bought the first one, my husband, who is not a beach person, said, 'Oh, this is such a waste of money; the kids will never go,'” she told Vogue. “Then it got to the point where they used it so much I couldn't get in the place. So I bought another one.”

Through her trusts and other corporate entities, Cindy McCain also owns another three properties: a scenic ranch outside Sedona, Ariz., where John McCain has entertained staff, prospective running mates and political reporters; a three-bedroom Arlington, Va., condo that’s been John McCain’s Washington-area residence since 1993 and the La Jolla, Calif., condo on which the back taxes were due.

The McCains increased their budget for household employees from $184,000 in 2006 to $273,000 in 2007, according to John McCain’s tax returns.

The additional cash supports an “increase in the number of employees,” said the McCain aide, who did not say whether the growing staff stemmed from the addition of new properties to the family’s real estate portfolio.

Other than the primary Phoenix residence, the aide said the new condos were “purchased for investment and are available for personal use by the McCain family.”

The recent growth in the family’s credit card bills could stem from furnishing, decorating and moving into the new condos, said Christopher Cordaro, a wealth manager at RegentAtlantic Capital in New Jersey.

After reviewing the McCains’ taxes and disclosures for Politico, he declared their finances in ship-shape and their spending understandable when “put in perspective that the McCains are very wealthy.”

“You certainly wouldn’t see the average person ringing up that large of a monthly balance,” he said. “But if you’re worth $100 million, the amount they’re spending is not inordinate. I’m sure that at their level, they’re putting lots of stuff on their credit card.”

Judging by their finances and spending, Cordaro asserted the McCains likely qualified for top-tier charge accounts loaded with benefits.

In addition to the American Express cards — which carry no monthly interest charges — Cindy and John McCain jointly hold a credit card through Chase with a steep 25.99 percent interest rate. It had a top balance as large as $15,000 last year.

John McCain has his own credit card, his aide said, but its balance for years has not exceeded the $10,000 threshold that triggers the reporting requirement for listing liabilities on Senate or executive branch personal financial disclosure statements.

The last year John McCain reported holding a credit card with such a balance was 2004, when he had an American Express Platinum card with a top balance of $15,000. Cindy McCain also had a Platinum AmEx that year, with a top balance of $100,000, as well as a Business Platinum account with a top balance of $50,000, and charge cards from Saks Fifth Avenue, MasterCard and Visa with top monthly balances between $15,000 and $50,000 and interest rates between 10.49 and 24.49 percent.

And in 2004, one of their dependent children had an AmEx Business Platinum card with a top monthly balance of $50,000. The McCain aide wouldn’t identify which child got the card, but their oldest, Meghan, turned 20 that year.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0708/11477.html

And in today's dumb poll...

Poll: Obama beats McCain as barbecue guest

WASHINGTON (AP) - People would rather barbecue burgers with Barack Obama than with John McCain.

While many are still deciding who should be president, by 52 percent to 45 percent they would prefer having Obama than McCain to their summer cookout, according to an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll released Wednesday.

Men are about evenly divided between the two while women prefer Obama by 11 percentage points. Whites prefer McCain, minorities Obama. And Obama is a more popular guest with younger voters while McCain does best with the oldest.

Having Obama to a barbecue would be like a relaxed family gathering, while inviting McCain "would be more like a retirement party than something fun," said Wesley Welbourne, 38, a systems engineer from Washington, D.C.

Party label means a lot, with three-quarters of Democrats picking the Democrat Obama and the same number of Republicans picking McCain, a Republican. Independents are about evenly split.

"John and I would probably have a lot to talk about," said Republican Michael Mullen, 53, of Merrimac, Mass., like McCain a Navy veteran.

One in six people saying they'd vote for McCain prefer Obama as their barbecue guest; just one in 20 Obama backers would invite McCain.

The AP-Yahoo News survey of 1,759 adults was conducted online by Knowledge Networks from June 13-23 and had an overall margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points. The margin of sampling error for subgroups was larger

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080702/D91LLI5O0.html

ha ha I hadn't seen this poll. I'd rather BBQ with Obama too, but please, let's not vote by BBQ. Last time people voted for the guy they wanted to have a beer with and look what happened? Sad thing is, some people vote based on these things.

I'll be happy to get a President who can put a sentence together and has the smarts to start to clean up the mess that the village idiot created.


TIS

Or at least someone who at least seems competent.

BTW TIS, you heard about that racist Japanese TV ad that got pulled?

RR

Yes, I saw it tonight on cable news. I am really really surprised. I wonder if it's different in the Japanese culture or what?? They had interpreted brief interviews with Japanese people who didn't seem understand why it might be offensive. So I don't know. But yea, if that was a McCain ad, he'd be totally on the sh*t list.

Btw, did you hear about Obama supposedly refusing to "fist bump" with some little kid? It was totally misreported. They had a picture/video. Today they played it and the kid asked Obama to autograph his hand with a marker and Obama said something to the effect of "you're mom will wonder how your hand got so black" and he wouldn't do it. The media was way off. One station (I'll guess FOX news) reported that Obama refused perhaps because he didn't want the nation to think it was some kind of terrorist sign.


TIS

That's an interesting poll. While I plan to vote for Obama, I think I'd have more fun at a barbecue with McCain, who would have a lot more interesting stories. Obama might be a wonderful president, but he might be a little too stiff and less relaxed at a bbq.

rofl

I wouldn't invite Obama to my BBQ, he'd always want to change something.

What morons think up polls like this?

the americans!

Nah, it's MINIMAFIABOSS

DC??? Where in the hell you been? How are you??? I thought maybe you skipped town.

Hope all is well.


TIS

Your being screwy!

I've been too busy looking for cheap gas and having coffee at Starbucks!

All is well TIS. Thanks for asking. How about you?

Good to see you back DC. I thought maybe you were hiding out in Sicily.

My daughter graduated from high school last Sunday. The valedictorian gave his speech, and in it he said that while he admired his classmates that won all sorts of awards and scholarships, he wanted to remind the C students that, just like George W. Bush, they too could be President of the USA one day.

Who would I rather barbecue with?? Definitely Obama. On the other hand, the McCains are wealthier, so they might bring over some money and try to buy some votes.

Cindy can bring the beer!



TIS

File this under strange but true polls.

Pet owners prefer McCain over Obama

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — If the presidential election goes to the dogs, John McCain is looking like best in show.

From George Washington's foxhound "Drunkard" to George W. Bush's terriers "Barney" and "Miss Beazley," pets are a longtime presidential tradition for which the presumed Republican nominee seems well prepared, with more than a dozen.

The apparent Democratic nominee Barack Obama, on the other hand, doesn't have a pet at home.

The pet-owning public seems to have noticed the difference.

An AP-Yahoo! News poll found that pet owners favor McCain over Obama 42 percent to 37 percent, with dog owners particularly in McCain's corner.

"I think a person who owns a pet is a more compassionate person — caring, giving, trustworthy. I like pet owners," said Janet Taylor of Plymouth, Mass.

Taylor, who described herself as a retired stay-at-home wife, owns two cats, Lady Jane Taylor and Mr. Tommy Katz.

Richard Powell, 79, of Spokane, Wash., whose dog passed away last fall, said if a person owns a pet that "tells you that they're responsible at least for something, for the care of something."

He said pet ownership wouldn't make a difference in his vote, but if a president owns a pet, then "I'm glad to know they like animals."

Christina Duffney, a spokeswoman for the American Kennel Club, said "you usually connect with things that you're familiar with, so that could be a part of" why pet owners lean toward McCain.

Well, if voters identify with a guy who owns pets, it's easy to see why they'd like the Arizona senator.

He has a veritable menagerie, including Sam the English springer spaniel, Coco the mutt, turtles Cuff and Link, Oreo the black and white cat, a ferret, three parakeets and a bunch of saltwater fish.

On the other hand, the poll found that among people who don't have pets, Obama leads McCain 48 percent to 34 percent.

But that still leaves McCain looking strong, since the majority of homes have a pet.

The American Pet Product Manufacturers Association estimates that 63 percent of American homes include a pet, including 88 million cats and 75 million dogs.

Both of those groups lean toward McCain: 43 percent to 34 percent for dog owners and 41 percent to 38 percent for cat owners.

While he doesn't currently have a pet, Obama has reportedly promised his daughters a dog once the campaign is over.

In a spirit of helpfulness, the American Kennel Club is collecting opinions as to what kind of dog Obama should get.

There are more than 150 breeds available, but not every one is suitable for every family because of exercise needs, allergies, personalities and other reasons.

So the AKC has narrowed the choices down to five breeds and is asking the public to vote at www.presidentialpup.com with voting to continue until mid-August.

Their suggestions: Bichon Frise, Chinese crested, poodle, soft coated Wheaten Terrier or miniature Schnauzer.

According to the Presidential Pets Museum there are no records of family pets in the administrations of James K. Polk, Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce and Chester Arthur. Fillmore, however, was a founding member of the Buffalo, N.Y., chapter of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

President Andrew Johnson reportedly left flour out at night for a family of mice living in the White House, though it's not clear if that counts as having a pet.

Here's a look at the poll results:

— All pet owners: McCain, 42 percent; Obama 37 percent; Nader, 3 percent; other, 3 percent; undecided, 14 percent. Margin of error, plus or minus 2.9 points.

— Do not own a pet: Obama, 48 percent; McCain, 34 percent; Nader, 3 percent; other, 3 percent; undecided, 12 percent. Margin of error, 4.1 points.

— Dog owners: McCain, 43 percent; Obama, 34 percent; Nader, 3 percent; other, 3 percent, undecided, 12 percent. Margin of error, 3.6 points.

— Cat owners: McCain, 41 percent; Obama, 38 percent; Nader, 3 percent; other, 4 percent; undecided, 14 percent. Margin of error 3.9 points.

The population breakdown of who has pets and who doesn't also may be a factor.

For example, the poll found 47 percent of whites own dogs, compared with just 24 percent of blacks. Whites tend to favor McCain, while blacks overwhelmingly favor Obama.

Some 64 percent of dog owners are married, slightly higher than the overall population. The poll found 47 percent of married people own dogs, compared with 39 percent of non-married people. Married people tend to favor McCain.

The AP-Yahoo! News poll is part of an ongoing study that tracks the attitudes and opinions of a group of more than 2,000 Americans to see how their political views evolve over the course of the election campaign.

The AP-Yahoo! News survey of 1,759 adults was conducted from June 13-23 and had an overall margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points. The margin of sampling error for population subgroups is larger.

The poll was conducted over the Internet by Knowledge Networks, which initially contacted people using traditional telephone polling methods and followed with online interviews. People chosen for the study who had no Internet access were given it free.

Voters Perceive Obama Moving to the Middle

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has done a far more effective job than Republican John McCain in recent weeks moving himself to the middle in the minds of voters, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone surveys.

During the Primary campaign season, Obama was viewed as politically liberal by an ever-increasing number of voters that grew to 67% by early June. However, since clinching the nomination, he has reversed that trend and is now seen as liberal by only 56%.

Twenty-two percent (22%) characterize the Democrat as Very Liberal, down from 36% early last month.

McCain similarly has been seen as politically conservative by more and more voters, also hitting 67% a month ago, but he is still viewed that way by 66%. While19% saw him as Very Conservative in early June, that figure now has risen to 28%.

The Democratic candidate is viewed as a political moderate by 27%, up from 22% three weeks earlier, while McCain is seen as a moderate by 23%, down from 26% in the survey at the beginning of June.

Historically Democratic presidential candidates veer to the left politically and Republicans to the right during the party primary season, but once they have secured the nomination, the candidates of both parties begin courting more moderate voters in the center. Perhaps as a reflection of what the new numbers say, McCain, who has been forced to keep courting conservatives in his own party, last week shook up the highest levels of his campaign staff.

Obama, at the same time, has been working with his former rival, Hillary Clinton, to help retire her campaign debt and to heal the party for the fall elections.

Since Clinton quit the race, Obama has experienced a modest bounce in the polls and now maintains a modest lead over McCain nationally in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll.

The new numbers illustrate the continuing volatility of the current election cycle. Four years ago, President Bush was viewed as a conservative by 48% of voters in January, a figure that rose steadily to 64% by Election Day. Sen. John Kerry, his Democratic opponent, was seen as politically liberal by 37% at the beginning of the year and climbed to 53% in November.

Obama and McCain have far exceeded those numbers in terms of shifts in voter perception already, with four months until Election Day. Rasmussen Reports will continue to track this data on a weekly basis. Premium Members can review crosstabs each week. Summary updates can be found on the Obama-McCain By The Numbers page.

The shift for Obama is clear through the weekly surveys taken in June. Twenty-nine percent (29%) of voters surveyed June 7-8 rated Obama Very Liberal; by June 28-29, that number had fallen 5 percentage points to 22%. In the same time period, the number of voters who viewed McCain as Very Conservative stayed relatively constant -- 27% in early June and 28% three weeks later.

Obama made big gains during the month among women voters, 29% of whom rated him Very Liberal June 7-8 but only 20% did so by June 28-29. All of those numbers shifted to the Moderate column, with 29% of women rating the Democrat that way by the end of the month as opposed to 20% in early June.

For McCain, just the opposite is the case: 26% of women voters viewed him as a moderate in the June 7-8 survey but by June 28-29 that number had fallen to 22%.

Also, Obama has made gains among unaffiliated voters who are key to the outcome of the election. Where 28% viewed the Democrat as Very Liberal in early June, only 21% felt that way by the end of the month. For McCain, again the opposite is true. Rated Very Conservative by 24% of unaffiliated voters in the survey June 7-8, that number was up to 29% by June 28-29.

But McCain does appear to be healing the rift in his own party, where social conservatives have been among his loudest critics. He is now viewed as a conservative by 70% of those who describe themselves as socially, up from 63% in early June.

Currently, 15% of voters consider themselves Very Conservative and another 24% say they are Somewhat Conservative. Thirty-four percent (34%) identify themselves as politically moderate. Eighteen percent (18%) are Somewhat Liberal and 7% Very Liberal.

A recent analysis focused on how voters rated themselves ideologically on fiscal and social issues. One interesting tidbit from that story is that libertarian voters (fiscally conservative and socially liberal) favor Obama, not McCain.

http://rasmussenreports.com/public_conte...g_to_the_middle

>>> Christian Right to retain influence on US foreign policy

The continuing influence of the Christian Right will mean little change in US foreign policy regardless of whether John McCain or Barack Obama is in the White House, claims a controversial new book.

Dr Lee Marsden, a lecturer in International Relations at the University of East Anglia, has had unique access to leading American Christian fundamentalists, thanks to his own background as a former ordained pastor in the Word of Faith movement.

He has also interviewed significant members of the US Administration and conducted in-depth research for his new book For God’s Sake, which argues that the religious core values of middle America have potentially disastrous consequences for the US and the world in the coming century.

“Despite McCain’s recently distancing himself from the views of right wing pastors – and despite Obama’s campaign theme of ‘change’ - Bush’s departure is not going to see the end of the influence of the Christian Right,” says Dr Marsden.

“This is an organised movement which seeks to prevent any resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict on anything other than Israeli terms. Obama’s and McCain’s recent speeches to AIPAC support this approach and Obama’s commitment to an undivided Jerusalem as Israel’s capital fits exactly with the Christian Right agenda and effectively destroys prospects of a peaceful resolution of the conflict.”

The Christian Right has been responsible for the Bush administration’s anti-abortion, anti-gay, pro-nuclear family stance, which has, among other things, deprived organisations such as Planned Parenthood of funding. Instead, the government has promoted abstinence in developing countries rather than the use of condoms and funded Christian organisations to deliver humanitarian services while evangelising.

“Although an Obama administration would lean more to the Christian Left, it would still share much of this social conservatism,” said Lee Marsden.

McCain will need to secure Christian Right votes to have any prospects of winning. Dr Marsden predicts increasingly bellicose foreign policy rhetoric and an uncompromising position on radical Islam. Both candidates have been equally aggressive towards Iran.

And, regardless of who is in the White House, Dr Marsden says conservative evangelicals are disproportionately represented in the US military and private security contractors.

“This presents a problem in terms of cultural sensitivity and Muslim perceptions of the US military being a Christian army engaged in a crusade against Islam.”

Dr Marsden is organising a public round table discussion for the week after the US Elections and teaches a number of courses at the University of East Anglia, including new Masters courses in International Security and Religion in International Relations.

For God’s Sake: The Christian Right and US Foreign Policy, by Lee Marsden, is published by Zed Books www.zedbooks.co.uk

----------------------------------

Interesting, no?

Indeed interesting...especially considering a new study released today that said that despite such military culture's long-held beliefs, gays in the military don't undermine unit cohesion.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080708/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/military_gays

I mean, if the British and Israeli armies, probably two of the more hardcore national armies in the world in terms of tradition and history, can handle that shit, why not America?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080708/pl_nm/usa_politics_obama_economy_dc;_ylt=Aj8QaoObuVBujy7RHDDjsqN34T0D



By Caren Bohan 2 hours, 25 minutes ago

POWDER SPRINGS, Georgia (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama proposed overhauling bankruptcy laws on Tuesday to ease the impact on people unable to pay their bills because of medical expenses or military service.
ADVERTISEMENT

Obama, an Illinois senator, took aim at a 2005 overhaul of bankruptcy laws, which was strongly supported by credit card companies and other consumer lenders, that made it tougher for people facing personal bankruptcy to discharge debt.

"I'll reform our bankruptcy laws to give Americans who find themselves trapped in debt a second chance," Obama said at a town hall event in Powder Springs, Georgia, outside of Atlanta.

"While Americans should pay what they owe and we should be fair to those creditors who were fair to their borrowers, we also have to do more for the struggling families who need help the most," he added.

The 2005 bankruptcy law was passed by a Republican-led Congress and signed by President George W. Bush.

Obama and Republican John McCain, who will face each other in the November election, have been squaring off this week over the economy as they court voters who are increasingly anxious over soaring energy costs and a deteriorating job market.

Refocusing his message on the economy after a trip to Latin America last week, McCain on Monday pledged to balance the budget within four years if he is elected.

SEEKING TO LINK MCCAIN TO BUSH ON ECONOMY

Obama has sought to link McCain, an Arizona senator, to Bush's policies on the economy, which the Democratic candidate contends have favored the wealthy and left the middle class struggling.

He accused McCain of having "sided with the big banks" to support the rewrite of the bankruptcy laws.

But McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds pointed out the bankruptcy law was supported by 18 Senate Democrats and passed the Senate by a strong majority. He said Obama's opposition showed a lack of willingness to reach across party lines.

"Barack Obama's rigid partisanship and self-promoting political attacks show that he's a typical politician -- which is the problem in Washington, not the solution," Bounds said.

Obama said about half of all personal bankruptcies result in part from the burden of high medical expenses.

He said he would change the law so that Americans who can prove their bankruptcies resulted from high medical costs could get some relief from their debts.

Obama would also create a "fast-track" bankruptcy process for people serving in the military and their families who get behind on expenses because of long deployments, repeated moves and predatory lenders.

"If you're serving our country, you should be protected no matter where you live," Obama said.

In addition, he would make it easier for people over 62 to keep their homes if they are facing bankruptcy and give some relief to people burdened by bills because of a natural disaster.

Amid worries the U.S. economy may be sinking into a recession, personal bankruptcy filings are on the rise.

Such filings jumped 30 percent in the first six months of this year compared to the same period in 2007, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute, a research organization.

Rising mortgage costs in a slumping housing market and high levels of other household debt led to the jump in bankruptcy filings, the institute said.

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I think obama should be next president.

Of course both candidates are moving toward the center. They're learning from Barry Goldwater's experience in '64, and George McGovern's eight years later. Both won their respective nominations through fervent support of a right-of-center (Goldwater) and left-of-center (McGovern) faction in their parties. And both lost by huge margins in the general election because they failed to reach out to the middle--they just preached to the choir.
Even if Obama held onto everyone who voted for him in the primaries, and held most of Clinton's supporters, he still wouldn't have enough to beat McCain in November. He recognizes that he needs to reach out to those who didn't vote for him, including registered Republicans.

It is natural that candidates run toward the center, and Obama is getting it out of the way before he is "re-introduced" at the convention extravaganza he is planning. I expect to see him take a hit in the polls in the coming days or week because of his flip flopping on Iran and FISA. Bottom line is he base has no where else to go. IMHO the smartest thing hehas done was to support faith based intiiatives, which in fact he has always supported. That does not sit well with most liberals, but the Evangelicals love it. What he can accomplish by this is not winning many evangelical votes, but keeping them home on election day becase they do not like McCain.

This interview is suppose to air tonight on Access Hollywood. Gives a glimpse of the Obama family. What darling kids no? Yea, he's a real "elitist" isn't he?

TIS


Obama Family