Hagee, Parsley, witch doctor. game. set. match.

All they can really do is hint at bringing up Wright. If they make him an issue they're own blessed reverends are in game.

They'll shout the election was stolen and Obama is a brazen thief undeserving of being inaugurated. Would someone in the media please look McCain in the eye and ask him were someone purporting to be Mickey Mouse to show up at a polling place would he be permitted to vote? Merely because ACORN had turned in a registration saying Mickey Mouse lived at 349 E. Main Street in Toledo, Ohio? Or would Fred Smith get to vote 73 times at apparently every single precinct in Harrisburg, PA merely because ACORN had registered him 73 times? Does it occur to fricking CNN the various states screen these registrations? Isn't it apparent no state election system lets someone claim they are eligible to vote in multiple precincts or with the name of a cartoon character. They have a goddamned driver license and electric bill that says they're Mickey Mouse? Geez. Our news media are more worthless than a pork barbecue stand in Mecca.

They think they're eating their cake and having it too (and thanks to George Carlin, I know that's the way this saying's supposed to read). By talking about Wright in the context of McCain's reluctance to bring up right, they hope it makes McCain look above negative campaigning while simultaneously engaging in negative campaigning. They've been doing it for months. Why stop now? Aside from the old belief that doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.

I am so goddamn sick of the GOP and their Ayers/Wright/Terrorist/Osama/Obama bullshit.

I mean really. Our society is coming apart at the seams, and we need someone who can bring this country together (at least those willing to try). All the republicans can come up with is fear tactics.

If we don't get it right this time and silence the GOP once and for all, then this country deserves what it gets with a McCain presidency.

I am so sick and tired of a fossilized, 19th century voting block determining the course of this great nation. This really sucks.

And yet, I guarantee that if McCain comes up short on Election Day, the far-right chorus will shout in unison about McCain not having the guts to play rough.

Fine, they can shout that all they want for 3 years and people will be sick of them. Then they can nominate Caribou Barbie to run against Obama in 2012, if Alaska hasn't seceeded by then.

If the Republicans bring up J.wright, then Palin's connection to witchcraft should be discussed publically and with in the media. That will stop all the talk. J. Wright has a right rto Freedom of Speech.

All of this kinda sounds like the "whitey tape" doesn't it?

honest question: I gather that Americans cannot register to vote on election day. Is there ANY good reason why not? I'm Canadian, and our federal election was yesterday (the bad guys won...sigh), I just moved into a new riding and so had to register at the polling station. It took no time whatsoever, just showed my lease and my passport...took all of two minutes. It got me thinking - why on earth doesn't the US allow this? Is there a justifiable reason?

I hope McCain plays the Rev. Wright card. Because I'd love to hear Obama bring up Palin's belief in Witchcraft. She belongs to a really nutso church.

The smart conservatives don't want to play the Wright card because, even though it might be tactically effective, it's strategically dumb.

The last thing the Republicans need to do is turn people off to the notion of religion in politics. That already hurt them in 2006.
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steve duncan wrote: "Does it occur to fricking CNN the various states screen these registrations?"

What "occurs" to CNN -- and to the rest of the handful of giant corporations who own and control virtually all of America's mass media -- is that John McCain has promised them $1.44 BILLION in corporate tax cuts, plus millions more in personal tax cuts for their ultra-rich CEOs, plus a continuation of the Cheney-Bush administration's radical deregulation of media ownership, to allow those corporations to gobble up America's last remaining independent radio and TV stations and networks.

The giant media corporations are not performing a public service by impartially and accurately informing the American people of the facts about ACORN or anything else. They are engaged in propagandizing the American people in furtherance of their own interests and agenda -- and in this election they have billions of dollars at stake, and a powerful financial interest in putting Their Man McCain in the White House.

The barrage of lies about ACORN is not limited to Fox and CNN. This morning, the corporate-funded "public" radio network NPR had a brief report about ACORN which contained very little of substance but a lot of inflammatory language that suggested, without actually saying so, that ACORN was engaged in large scale deliberate election fraud.

It just won't work...I hate to say it , but thank you Hillary for bringing it up in the Primary - it's old news now and any mention of it will a)Make them look desperate and b) Only appeal to the mouth breathing knuckle dragging 30 % Ain't going to change no independents.

neilt- some states allow same day registration (Wisconsin, for example), but most don't. Voter registration is just one of the many things the USA has not standardized, unlike your enlightened Canada ;).

fearing a Wright attack would smack of desperation and racism

You don't say.

Here's my thought on Wright:

Obama has basically dared McCain to bring up Ayers in the debate, and McCain has suggested that he is going to take the dare. That's bad news for John McCain. Obama's Ayers response is rock-solid factually and will be well planned out rhetorically. McCain will look very small and silly.

On the other hand, what if McCain were not to bring up Ayers and instead brought up Wright? This could work out much better for him. Obama's rebuttal on Ayers would be brutal; his response on Wright won't be a strong. It requires a bit more nuance and won't transition as naturally to attacks on McCain. And no one will accuse McCain of chickening out by not bringing up Ayers if he brings up Wright.

If this is their plan, all of this back-and-forth on whether to use Wright is a strategy to lay the groundwork to give the story more legs when he drops it in the debate.

Wild theory? Perhaps. But it seems plausible to me.

Also in the "having your cake and eat it too" category, I think they're trying to mollify their Frankenstein wing by talking about talking about Wright while soothing the media and the general electorate by not talking about it.

One might feel a little sorry for them, if they weren't such a nasty bunch of lizards. (And I LIKE lizards.)

The question I have is, does this finally spell an end to the outsized political influence of the throbbing-vein, hoarse-shouting knuckle-draggers? Are enough people finally sick enough of their garbage that they will be re-relegated to the fringes whence they came and generally ignored? Will the media stop playing faux-balance by repeating their rantings and tut-tutting when rational people roll their eyes at the nonsense? Or is it back to Clinton Rules as soon as the economic dust settles?

To Steve and Secular
I was thinking the same thing. The MSM (especcialy CNN and Faux ) are talking this up like Micky Mouse is going to shaow up at the polls and vote. Have these people never voted? You know where you go to the voting place and show your voter registration card and/or id and when they match it with the voter roll you are allowed to vote. What friggin fantasy world are they in ... oh wait we have Obama whuppin McNastys ass we need an "issue" to generate viewers ..quick roll out Lou Dobbs and Frank Lutz IFF (ignorant fat fuck)

Republicans have been running dirty campaigns in every election for years. Often it works, sometimes it doesn't. Mainstream media, in previous years, viewed these attacks as boorish and ignorant. This year, these attacks are more, they are seen as fundamentally IMMORAL.

Why the change?

What does this say about the kind of criticism of President Obama that will be tolerated? If Republicans were to try to impeach him over a sex scandal, would such a move now have racial component to it?

I think everyone knows the answer to my questions. The real question is, why is such a double-standard good for our country?

Is anyone going to mention that there is no large scale registration fraud going on and zero evidence that the miniscule examples of past registration fraud actually resulted in real voter fraud?

Didn't think so. God I hate our media.

SecularAnimist has hit the proverbial nail on the head.

Is it true that a CNN report on the AIP was squashed?

I am interested to see how the republicans are going to react to a Democratic president. You can look at how they were to Clinton and how they have been in Congress since they dropped into the minority to get a sense of what they will do, but I wonder just what level of viciousness, dishonor, and obstructionism they will take it to. I imagine an 11 at least. But I also wonder with the major problems this country is facing if the American people will fall for it. I'm sure the Hannitys and all are sharpening their knives as we speak. Might we see an "Illinois Project"?

Anyone else think Election Day should be a federal holiday?

The McInsane negative campaigning has clearly hurt his polling. Add Wright back into the mix and it could become disastrous. If these leaks are true, McInsane is right to think that the reverand issue will smack of racism. Neo-CONS need to understand that the country is tired of hearing them call everyone who disagrees with them an appeaser, traitor or terrorist.

Let them keep it up. It will guarantee we won't see a Republican't majority in generations.

This Wright stuff never would have come up if Rove had let me pick my VP.

"I guarantee that if McCain comes up short on Election Day, the far-right chorus will shout in unison about McCain not having the guts to play rough."

Actually, I disagree slightly. The best case scenario is that the far-right will complain for four years that Obama wasn't legitimately elected (i.e. voter fraud).

On the ther hand, unlike Dems, who honored the Supreme Court's bogus decision in 2000, the right could very well explode into some sort of violent revolt. They're that ignorant and that crazy.

I remember the good old days when just saying "9/11" was enough to whip up support for the Repugnicant cantdidate.. Bye bye! Let's see what you can morph into 12 years from now. Definitely ex-pat time then! Can anybody imagine what a neo-(neo-conservative) American political resurgence would look like? Planet of the Apes maybe?

Not everyone followed the Democratic primaries, including, I'd bet, a fair fraction of "undecideds." So I don't think we can predict just how a move to Wright would play out. But if it turns out to be their October Surprise (you know they have one, or think they do) it's likely to be too little, too late, even if it gives them a couple points...

And yet, I guarantee that if McCain comes up short on Election Day, the far-right chorus will shout in unison about McCain not having the guts to play rough.

That'd be good. That sort of misreading would mean in addition to winning this election we'd start out with a big advantage next election.

I want to see McCain bring up Wright. actually, America NEEDS McCain to bring up Wright---so that we can (1) set the record straight on Jeremiah Wright by playing the cherry-picked soundbites of the GOP's "Ren and Stimpy" wing in the proper context of their complete statements, and (2) expose the xenophobic manic-schizoid freakishness of the American Taliban to the 90-some percent of the electorate who would gladly send them packing to a distant place---Alaska, perhaps---where they can do their Armageddon Valhalla shimmy-sham-shimmy routine until they've "in-bred themselves" out of existence, and into the fossil-record of some future generation's middle-school science text....

I say, bring it on. My sense of the nation is that most people are freakin' sick of slime over substance. The problem with flinging shit all the time is that it gets on your hands. The more time you spend flinging shit, the more of it that sticks to you. My friends, the straight talk express has a LOT of shit on its hands.

I agree with cj on the violence. After the election the word "apoplexy" will have a picture at the side of an unshaven white guy sporting a ball cap and a torn, chili stained t-shirt. Molesting a sheep.

"Is it true that a CNN report on the AIP was squashed?" - grinning cat

No, it aired last night at about 8:45 pm CST and lasted a full 10 minutes and featured David Neiwart (? sp). It was awesome. Check it out on You Tube. When you do, take a look at the polar bear plaque on the wall behind the AIP leader. Is that the same polar bear pin that Palin wears? Just askin...

At every mention of Wright, my ears only hear 'Southern Strategy.' And as inept as McCain has been regarding the economy, if he gets through the last 20 days without personally playing the race card, I'll grant him the respect of being a maverick willing to lift the GOP out of that hate game.

Even though I expect they'll call him a loser and trot out the strategy one more time, in 2012.

McCain hasn't impressed me a whit in 2008. But he stands to change that on this issue alone, if he simply displays the integrity to resist his colleagues and prove his mettle on the subject of race.

He won't get my vote, but I might write him a personal note of appreciation. And I will welcome the day that race becomes irrelevant to our national discourse on elective politics, following his lead.

McCain is setting the stage for his rehabilitation. He can claim he was not a vicious slanderer, because he didn't use Wright. He is honorable, see?

Savage Radio (Right wingnut) on Fox Radio Network already has this theme playing. In fact, Savage was connecting it to McCain's POW experience. Essentially he said McCain's torture whilst a POW has taken any fight out of him, has broken his spirit to fight, and thus McCain is incapable of making the attacks he needs to.

I find that line of amateurish psycho-analysis appalling actually.

The far right only seems to understand fear and the use of force to solve problems. Attacking Obama is no different than the paranoia-driven War on Terror. They should never be in charge.

No there's much more than Caraboo Barbie's witchdoctor and AIP that JSM is worried about. If the Republicans bring up Ayers/Wright Barck can counter with...Oh, dubious connections, eh?
Try this, John. Cindy's daddy and his ties to the mob and Kemper Marley, unindited co-conspiritor in the Don Bolles car-bombing murder, among other things,as well as the nickname he got in Hanoi from fellow POWs: "songbird"
Want to see the connections? This is the short form because I'm not going to post some 74 links, OK?
James(daddy) Hensley: http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2000-02-17/news/haunted-by-spirits/6 (long read)
"songbird: http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/make_believe_maverick_the_real_john_mccain ((longer read)

John Sidney McCain just can't afford it.