Goombah is so right. I fnd that I try not to think about that horrible possibility and hope and pray that those in charge of protecting our nominees take that extra step to insure our nominees' safety. Yes, especially BHO because we can already see the hate coming from a few. Like I said, all it takes is one.


BUT..

On a much lighter (and fun note) Guess what BHO's favorite movie is???? Hu? You got it. Sounds like he's a Sopranos' fan as well. Maybe we'll get him to join. How cool would that be?


It's no wonder that when Katie Couric asked that most famous of all post-baby boomers, Sen. Barack Obama, to name his favorite movie, he answered with The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II. Echoing a Sopranos comedy line, he added, "Three - not so much."


TIS

Story

The candidates are vulnerable. But, despite what Michael Corleone says, it's almost impossible now to assassinate a President of the United States. The protection is monumental and the exposure activities of a President are minimal and tightly controlled. To be successful would probably require what some refer to in the military as rain. You would have to take out a large number of people, buildings, and vehicles surrounding or accompanying the President.

I would argue that Obama is SAFER than Dubya right now.

Anyway, there was a reason why he was the earliest candidate to receive Secret Service protection in history.

EDIT - There is something telling, and not in a good way, when my father seriously thinks that Obama is like Bobby Kennedy in that "someone will try to shoot him."

Racist Obama Monkey at Palin Rally

Can you imagine if, GOD FORBID, he ever was assassinated?

The uprising and riot potential in the urban areas of this country would be catastrophic. They'd make the '60s riots and the Rodney King aftermath look like Disneyland. And I, for one, love city life. I don't want to move to the Ozarks.

Fucking redneck, racist trash.

To be fair, that "Monkey" incident was at a PENNSYLVANIA rally, so its not just us rednecks.

But really, if our fears do come true....outside of nuclear war/terrorism, it would be the worst thing to happen to this country at the worst possible time.

Sorry, Ronnie. I honestly didn't mean it like that. It just infuriates me that these hateful pieces of shit would be so short sighted, as to possibly incite a civil war, out of their hatred and spite.

Or worse, simply to win an election.

These people are starting to remind me of the Second Ammendment quoting psychos, straight out of a Carl Hiaasen novel.

God, this topic honestly sends chills thru my body and I hate to even think of it happening. However, since we are being blunt, what "if", God forbid, BHO is taken from us (I hate to even use the word) . Where does that leave the election? Does, Hillary, being the runner-up, so to speak, automatically become the Dem Nominee? McCain wouldn't automatically win. Do we have another primary? Is there even an answer?



TIS

Virginia GOP Chairman compares Obama to Bin Laden

http://www.raisingkaine.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=88513B2347CB7DC824A0966D95F8CEBF?diaryId=16613

I hate to think about this too, but in regards to your quesiton...

If its after the election, as stipulated in our Constitution, the Vice-President-elect Biden would ascend to the top office on the day of Inaguration. Afterwards, he'll nominate somebody for VP and Congress will approve it. The last episode of THE WEST WING covered this, FYI.

If its BEFORE the election...more likely, the ballots would already be finalized with Obama/Biden, and wouldn't be changed. But Biden would then be asked, and he'll accept, to take over as the main candidate. He'll ask somebody within party ranks, i.e. Hillary Clinton or Bill Richardson, to take over for VP.

You all might remember in 2000, in the Missouri Senate race, when the Democratic candidate was killed in a plane crash a few weeks before election day. His name stayed on the ballot, and his wife took over. The GOP challenger John Ashcroft (yes, THAT John Ashcroft) couldn't attack an opponent who was dead, nor attempt and be slammed for criticizing a corpse. The wife won.

I'm just saying, Biden would probably win, if simply for the sympathy vote. But if the assailant is White...Pizzaboy's assertion of urban racial riots is a troubling stark-real possibility.

McCain may be partly blamed, fairly or not, for the murder if because his campaign stirred up alot of bottled-up tensions and angers within the extreme-fringes of the Republican Party out of the closet, and into the daylight of his rallies. Notice how a prominent black Congressman this weekend compared McCain to George Wallace.

Notice how McCain stopped his "Who is Barack Obama?" speech-line after many people yelled "Traitor!" "Terrorist!" "Arab!" and other shit at his rallies. Hell, you all read of how after trying to correct a woman that Obama wasn't an Arab, his own supporters BOOED him.

Now mind you, alot of psycho-loons of the Left have been out there as well, being fucking ugly, most prominently the 9/11 "Loose Change" Conspiracy advocates and the ultra-anti-war factions. They're loud assholes, and even liberal Bill Maher threw those Loose Change folks out of one of his tapings last year.

But like that shit said by the Virginia GOP leader above...the news on the McCain campaign isn't that McCain has the better economical plan or new pitches, but that of the crowds at his and Palin's rallies.

Hell, even Charlie Crist, the popular GOP Governor of Florida, is publicly distancing himself.

RR,

I do remember that plane crash with the Missouri Senator (don't know his name). Also, here in CA, if I am not mistaken, when Sonny Bono was tragically killed in a skiing accident, his wife took over (Mary Bono) and still is the Congresswoman in Plam Springs, CA.

Back to Obama though, this election is so new and different for America and it's unfortunate to see so many can be so hateful. It's a hard reality though that we must face. Win or lose for Obama, history is being made as we speak.


TIS

There are many potential questions and conflicts involved.

If a party's presidential nominee dies before the election, it is up to that party's national committee to select a successor.

Since federal law mandates the Presidential election date, Congress could change that date.

Changed or not, the electoral votes would still have to be counted and that date is up to Congress also. However, it is state law that governs the electoral college vote casting in each state so a vice-presidential candidate could receive a state's electoral votes as President. Once those votes are cast, it is up to Congress to canvas them (Jan. 6) and declare a winner. But Congress may not validate the vote in which case the Constitution would require that the House select a President and the Senate a Vice-President.

Alot of this is murky because we've never had to go through each scenario.

While driving yesterday, I went past several houses that had these signs displayed on their lawns :

I've seen the Nobama sign DC, but I haven't seen any McCain signs like that.

Good ones DC. I have to admit, I really have seen very few of either Obama or McCain bumperstickers or signs. I'm sure they are around, but I haven't seen many for some reason.


I've had problems posting images ever since we changed boards. Anyway, here's a link. Boy, it sure doesn't take long for these companies to pick up on new ideas does it?

http://www.zazzle.com/im_voting_for_that_one_obama_2008_sticker-217889011837558951


TIS

How about "John McCan't?"

That's good. I've seen John McSame, John McLame, but not John McCan't. It's probably out there somewhere.

TIS

TIS, I'm starting to see more signs pop up lately. In my neighborhood I'm seeing more McCain than Obama. But I was at my inlaws in Sheffield Lake/Lorain Ohio area and I seen more Obama signs.

I've been so consentrated on the Presidential one I need to pay attention to whose running local plus the local issues.

Mig,

Tell me about it. I just voted today (absentee) and will be mailing my vote in tomorrow. I had so much stuff to go thru (literally about 3 books showng not only Presidential candidates and such, but pros/cons of every proposition. It's overwhelming and I admit confusing. I first like to read the proposition, see pro/con and also tells supposedly where the money is going to come from and/or the fiscal impact.

There's one proposition regarding energy conservation, one for supplying more "treatment" for drug/alcohol abusers. We have one, Prop 2 that I never heard about til I got the ballot, requiring certain farm animals to be contained in cages large enough for them to extend their limbs, stand and turn around. I'm not an animal person, but that just sounds like a given to me.

Anyway, that's one of about 12 or so propositions we have.

TIS

RRA,
Actually, the West Wing episode you're referring to dealt with the Vice Presidential candidate. He died 2/3 of the way through Election Day.

Could Biden really become the candidate? The American public didn't vote for him. As a matter of fact, I think that the Democrats made it rather obvious that they did NOT want him to be President. So, how does that make sense??

Read my post above.

I was talking about the last episode, where the new-sworn-in-President (Jimmy Smits) planned to appoint his VP, instead of doing that during the transitional-period. But you knew what I was talking about.



He would simply because he's the bottom-half of the ticket, and since VPs take over for an incapacitated President, Biden would be the natural replacement.

This reminds me of back in 1968 when Teddy Kennedy was asked by the RFK campaign to take over after that assassination. He turned it down, but I'm just highlighting that Biden would be the assumptive replacement.

True. That's why a nut job would not likely be able to pull it off.

Incidentally, the presidential limousine is designed to withstand pretty much anything.

It seems like McCain did the right thing by telling that woman Obama was a decent man and a solid citizen, and I notice Palin is now talking baout abortion and other "solidify the base" issues, whis is fair game. I also note Obama thanked McCain and distanced himself from the "George Wallace" comments Rep. Lewis made. Good to see that cooler heads at the top seem to be prevailing.

It is not over by a long shot, but if McCain loses it will be for the same reason Gore lost (or won by too little) in 2000. Namely, after he got the nomination he stopped being himself.
As long as McCain was the accessible guy at the back of the bus the press forgave him all kinds of gaffes and off the top of his head comments, because that was who he was. Sinilar to how they cut Biden the same slack. But unfortunately for him McCain listened to his handlers and morphed into a different person. I think his first mistake was Palin. He wanted Lieberman, but his handlers told him "no." I wonder if by picking lieberman McCain would not have locked up Florida and
given Obama more problems than he needed in New York and other places with high concentrations of Jewish voters who don't trust him anyway. McCain should have told his aides he was the nominee, f*ck the polls, and gone with his gut.

Since Romney is supposed to be an "economic genius", McCain would probably be ahead right now. Or at the worst, in much better position. If he would have picked Lieberman, he would have lost all support from the conservative base. His support from them is still shaky as it is. It would have probably locked up Florida for him, but cost him in many other states.

Commentary: McCain campaign following in Hillary's footsteps

By Ed Rollins
CNN Contributor

Editor's Note: Ed Rollins, who served as political director for President Reagan, is a Republican strategist who was national chairman of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's 2008 presidential campaign.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A campaign at war with itself cannot fight its opponent effectively.

We have seen two major campaigns this year that could be described as internally divided -- Sen. Hillary Clinton's losing primary campaign and now Sen. John McCain's general election effort.

And while chaos and disarray reigned supreme in Sen. Barack Obama's opponents' campaigns, the steady, disciplined and strategically driven Obama campaign marches forward toward likely victory.

Clinton's campaign had several different groups setting and implementing strategy. They include the first campaign team led by pollster Mark Penn, her loyalists from the White House days led by eventual campaign manager Maggie Williams and campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe, and a rump group led by her husband. Prior to this year and his efforts on his wife's behalf, President Clinton was viewed as one of the best political strategists around.

All that brain power couldn't come together and agree on a consistent strategy to beat a young inexperienced outsider. There will be second guessing and finger pointing for years to come.

We now see something similar in the McCain campaign. There have been at least three major managerial changes or overthrows in the past 18 months.

The first was the Rick Davis/John Weaver battle. Weaver and Mike Murphy, one of the best media strategists in the business, were the key players in the 2000 McCain effort and Weaver was the political guru who guided McCain's efforts since then. Davis, with a major assist from Cindy McCain and his former lobbying partner, Charlie Black, ousted Weaver.

Davis and Black, who masterminded Bob Dole's unsuccessful 1996 campaign and Phil Gramm's aborted presidential effort before that, are super lobbyists, and they opened the doors to their K Street allies.

Davis was then replaced -- in reality if not in title -- by Steve Schmidt, part of Karl Rove's operation. Schmidt is a first-rate tactician but new to McCain's world, and he still shares power with Black and Davis. This campaign would have been a much different operation if Weaver and Murphy had been brought back; but that was never going to happen with Davis and Black.

In the end, it's not relevant who holds what title in the McCain operation, because it is not being run by campaign professionals, but by the Washington lobbying class.

And no one seems to be in charge, least of all the candidate. The end result is a campaign suffering from "schizophrenia."

John McCain is saying one thing on the stump, his running mate another. But the worst sin is that his advertising campaign is incoherent and putting out multiple and inconsistent messages.

What McCain and his campaign need to understand is that whatever happened in the past is no longer relevant. James Carville's famous slogan in Bill Clinton's 1992 victory over the first Bush: "It's the economy stupid!" can now be replaced with "You morons, what have you done with my money, my life and my kids' future?"

If John McCain wants anyone to pay attention to him in the last three weeks of this campaign, he must address those concerns.

Attacking Obama for his association with Bill Ayers -- the unrepentant Vietnam-era terrorist who should have been jailed four decades ago for bombing New York City Police Headquarters, the United States Capitol building, and the Pentagon -- is a legitimate tactic. So is asking questions regarding the influence of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's controversial pastor.

The problem is that few voters care about what happened 40 years ago when in the last few weeks they have seen their savings and retirements and possibly their jobs and homes going up in flames. If you don't talk to voters about their concerns they will not spend one minute listening to you in the closing days of a campaign.

Government is not working. President Bush's leadership has failed the country and Congress has not done much better. How are you going to be better? That's the question voters want answered.

With one debate remaining and less than three weeks of campaigning left, John McCain's 10-year quest to be president is coming to a close and -- as of today -- a dreadful one.

All I can advise is "Engage us, John!" You are an honorable man who has dedicated your life to serving this country. Quit the name calling and make the last weeks about leadership and solutions.

Accept Obama's challenge issued last week: "The American people aren't looking for someone who can divide this country. They're looking for somebody who will lead this country."

Tell us how you will lead this country through the greatest crisis we have faced in modern times.

And Sen. McCain, remember your own words of last week about Obama: "He's a decent family man -- citizen -- that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues."

Tell us what those disagreements are. Then, at least voters can make their final choices on things that matter to them now.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the writer.

I think McCain went soft in the head with all that comedy he's playin with that Alaskan girl.