Citizens Against Government Waste Award McCain Their Highest Score

Senator McCain has long been a champion of lower taxes and a crusader against the wasteful, pork-barrel projects of many of his colleagues; Senators Obama and Biden, meanwhile, have done quite the opposite.

Citizens Against Government Waste has issued its annual Congressional Ratings for the year 2007, and here's how it turned out for the three Senators:

John McCain (R, Arizona) 100%
Barack Obama (D, Illinois) 10%
Joe Biden (D, Delaware) 0%

What a contrast. If you're against government waste, McCain-Palin is change you can believe in!

(The entire Congressional Scorecard is available here.)

Obama's New Ad Mocks John McCain - "Can't Send An E-Mail"

The campaign of Barack Obama has released a new ad - which one could assume has been personally approved by Senator Obama - mocking John McCain for being 'out of touch.' (Watch the ad here.)

In their own words:

"He admits he doesn't know how to use a computer, can't send an e-mail."

To make matters worse, Obama campaign spokesman Dan Pfeiffer followed up on the ad by attacking McCain in a story by the Associated Press:

"Our economy wouldn't survive without the Internet, and cyber-security continues to represent one our most serious national security threats," Pfeiffer said. "It's extraordinary that someone who wants to be our president and our commander in chief doesn't know how to send an e-mail."

McCain has said he relies on his wife and staff to work the computer for him and that he doesn't use e-mail.

The problem? John McCain can't use a keyboard. The torture he was subjected to as a POW in the Vietnam War leaves him unable.

McCain gets emotional at the mention of military families needing food stamps or veterans lacking health care. The outrage comes from inside: McCain's severe war injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes.

One could reasonably expect that this isn't an intentional attempt on the part of Barack Obama to attack John McCain's wartime injuries, just an extremely sloppy attack committed out of ignorance, based on an extremely pathetic attempt to inflate an irrelevant personal issue into something it isn't. As Jonah Goldberg points out:

In a similar vein I guess it's an outrage that the blind governor of New York David Paterson doesn't know how to drive a car. After all, transportation issues are pretty important. How dare he serve as governor while being ignorant of what it's like to navigate New York's highways.

Even one of Obama's local supporters is crying foul:

The latest ad depicting McCain as being out of touch because he can't use a computer is terrible. It is insulting to many people who don't use one and frankly opens the campiaign and Obama to charges of elitism.

John and Cindy McCain Make Television Appearances Today

John and Cindy McCain on 'The View' 10:30AM (ABC network, check your local listings.)

John and Cindy McCain on 'The Rachel Ray Show' 1:30PM (Check your local listings.)

Research 2000: McCain Up 17 Points in NC; Civitas: McCain +3

A Research 2000 poll of 600 likely voters, commissioned by the far-Left Daily Kos website, shows a McCain lead of 17 points in North Carolina, thus confirming the huge bounce indicated by the poll results released by SurveyUSA on Wednesday.

McCain (R) 55%
Obama (D) 38%

And check out the party samples used in this poll, hardly biased for Republicans:

Dem 263 44%
Rep 216 35%
Ind 121 21%

The Civitas Intitute has released their own poll on the Presidential race, showing McCain up three points:

McCain 47%
Obama 44%

CI raises a point on this at their blog, the Red Clay Citizen:

One thing I do want to emphasize is this poll differs from our usual monthly polling in that it samples all registered voters.[...]
This poll is probably more accurate of the larger electorate, but not necessarily those most likely to actually show up and vote.

Polls of registered voters are often said to lean toward Democrats, while polls of likely voters use voter history to determine their numbers. The figure to cut from Democrats in "registered voters" polls to get to "likely voters" is usually said to be 2%.

However, one does have to wonder about voter enthusiasm for Obama this year. Blacks will almost certainly turn out to vote in record numbers, and those votes will go to Obama in at least the usual 9-to-1 ratio for Democrats. Do polls of likely voters account for the likely spike in voting by this group?

Counteracting this will likely be a high number of blue collar Democrats who vote for McCain. Also, young voters in general may not be voting overwhelmingly for Obama, as one could have reasonably speculated a few months ago.

McCain-Palin Round Up, 9/12

Bill Kristol: The Washington Post Distorts Palin on Page One

Betsy's Page discusses Palin's interview on ABC last night (with partial transcript)

Spagnola has added a number of interesting posts on the race in general.

John in Carolina: McCain will carry NC by at least 10 points

Barack Obama Breaks Promise, Desperately Turns to 527s For Help Against McCain-Palin

As John in Carolina discusses today:

If he got his party’s nomination, Sen. Obama promised to campaign using public funds. He said he didn’t want “to be beholden to the special interests.”

He got the nomination and now Obama’s taking hundreds of millions from those special interests he said he didn’t want “to be beholden to.”

His public funds pledge? Forget about it.

But there was still his pledge not to encourage and get involved with those nasty 527s.

We were led to believe only Republicans did that.

Obama Come to Save Us made it clear he’d never get involved with the 527s.

Until today.

John expects the smears emanating from the Obama campaign and its supporters to grow more numerous and intense over these next several weeks. Supporters of John McCain and Sarah Palin should remain vigilant and ready to confront these smears with the truth, so that we don't lose a single vote between now and election day.

NC Democrats, Independents Uniting Behind McCain-Palin

Hillary supporters are taking the lead and refusing to put blind party loyalty ahead of what's best for the future of our country. Charlotte Front and Center is mobilizing for John McCain and Sarah Palin with a Citizens for McCain event tomorrow evening:

Citizens For McCain Event

Join and organize with other Democrats
and independents in Charlotte, N.C. this
Thursday, Sept.11, 2008 at Caribou
Coffee, 7510 Pineville-Matthews Rd.
Beginning at 6:30pm

Check out the Charlotte Front and Center website.

SurveyUSA Poll: Things Are Looking Good For McCain-Palin in North Carolina

Very, very good:

RALEIGH (WTVD) -- In an election for President of the United States in North Carolina Tuesday, Republican John McCain suddenly and breathtakingly surges to a 20-point win over Democrat Barack Obama, 58% to 38%, according to this latest exclusive SurveyUSA election poll conducted for ABC11-WTVD.

But wait, there's more:

McCain has gained ground in every demographic group. Among men, McCain led by 9 last month, 27 today. Among women, Obama led by 2 last month, trails by 12 today. McCain holds 9 of 10 Republican voters; Obama holds 3 of 4 Democratic voters; independents, who were split last month, break today crisply for McCain, where, in the blink of an eye, he is up by 25. (emphasis mine)

And all this despite Obama's commercials getting play in the Tar Heel State.

One has to wonder how big that McCain lead would be right now were Obama not treating North Carolina like he actually has a shot of winning here. Thirty points? Forty points, even?

Whatever the case, I'm sure I can speak for a lot of McCain-Palin supporters across North Carolina when I say: Senator Obama, PLEASE keep wasting your resources here!

The one downside is that all this good news might allow some of us to become complacent between now and election day. Don't do it! We have to continue the fight until every vote in North Carolina is counted!

In the words of John McCain:

Fight with me. Fight with me.

Fight for what's right for our country. Fight for the ideals and character of a free people.

Fight for our children's future. Fight for justice and opportunity for all.

Stand up to defend our country from its enemies. Stand up for each other, for beautiful, blessed, bountiful America.

Stand up, stand up, stand up, and fight.

Nothing is inevitable here. We're Americans, and we never give up.

We never quit.

We never hide from history. We make history.

Thank you, and God bless you, and God bless America.

Democrats Desperate to Find Any Smear That Can Stick to Sarah Palin

If the Democratic Party is truly confident that they have the better ticket - if they genuinely believe that Barack Obama and Joe Biden can win on the issues - then why would they resort to such shady tactics?

Democrats understand Sarah Palin is a formidable political force who has upset the Obama victory plan. The latest Washington Post/ABC Poll shows John McCain taking a 12-point lead over Barack Obama among white women, a reversal of Mr. Obama’s eight-point lead last month.

It’s no surprise, then, that Democrats have airdropped a mini-army of 30 lawyers, investigators and opposition researchers into Anchorage, the state capital Juneau and Mrs. Palin’s hometown of Wasilla to dig into her record and background. My sources report the first wave arrived in Anchorage less than 24 hours after John McCain selected her on August 29.

There are only two possible reasons for the Democratic Party to resort to such tabloid-ish antics: 1.) They know that the McCain-Palin ticket is superior to the Obama-Biden ticket on the issues; or 2.) they believe that their ticket is superior on the issues; voters, however, aren't intelligent enough to discern which ticket is better; and so voters ought to be manipulated with A Current Affair/National Enquirer-style politics.

The latter reason fits with Obama's condescending remarks about working-class voters from earlier this year:

"[I]t's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations," Obama said.

It will be interesting to see how Sen. Obama fairs in debates with Sen. McCain. Obama originally bragged that he was up to debating Sen. McCain "anywhere, anytime" back on May 16th, only to refuse McCain's offer of a series of debates throughout the summer.

In the meantime, the sliming of Gov. Palin continues.

h/t: Hot Air

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