McCain Making Reverend Wright an Issue

One of the biggest things in politics not to do is bring up religion when it comes to any Presidential candidate. John F. Kennedy had to explain to the American people that he was not beholding to the Pope if elected President of this very religious nation as a Catholic. Governor Mitt Romney, a Mormon, had to explain that his faith as a Republican would not intervene if elected President. Mike Huckabee, well, we are all going to hell for not voting for him in the primaries and Fox News gave him his own “News” show.

Over at the Gun Toting Liberal, a site I proudly once wrote for, they have a great piece on playing the religion card from the McCain campaign double speak from Rick Davis. They intend on or are implying that they will bring up Reverend Jeremiah Wright once more against Barack Obama. I have to ask an honest question here, when did they stop bringing up Reverend Jeremiah Wright? Not for nothing, but I honestly believe that I have seen more than a couple of television advertisements a week for the past couple of months citing Reverend Wright?

GTL (Gun Toting Liberal) brought up these key points and I think he nailed this topic down cold and hard…

Obama Team Rethinks Playing The “McCain’s Spiritual Guides” (I.E. — Revends Rob Parsely And Ted Hagee) Card

Question: Should Barry Obama Go After John McCain’s Wacko “Spiritual Guides” Or Should That Be Considered “Off-Limits”?

Thus far, Señor Juan Sidney McCain Of Arizona Panama’s long-standing ties to the VERY controversial (to say the least) self-proclaimed “spiritual guides”, Reverends Rob Parsely and Ted Hagee, who were (in)famous for some of their recent remarks, have been considered “off-limits” by the Barry Obama Campaign. To re-wind a bit, let’s take a look at some “greatest hits” from these two “highly-respected (by Señor McCain) reverends:

Rod Parsely: “America was founded, in part, with the intention of seeing this false religion [of Islam] destroyed.” …

John Hagee: “Hurricane Katrina was, in fact, the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans.” …

Not to mention the fact Sarah Barracuda Palin’s spiritual advisers have been known to play around with rattlesnakes, daring them to pierce the “Inpenetrable Veil of Jesus” and bite them as rumor has it. - Gun Toting Liberal

Many Catholics across this nation are looking at John McCain in a very favorable light based on just one issue. Abortion. In our faith this is an open and shut question but our government in America is not, can not, and should not be based on faith alone and your vote as a Catholic should not be based on just one issue. There is a much larger picture to this Presidential race and it is bigger than all of our faiths combined. No religion can win all of its dogma and belief with any candidate for President. It is the ultimate Catch 22 if you blindly vote your faith but hand over your government to those that would ultimate ignore your faith. As Christians we are taught to look out for and care for the poor. Republican Presidential candidates and the poor is the ultimate Oxymoron.

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If John McCain, Rick Davis and Karl Rove and company want to bring up faith then let’s go to the facts. John McCain accepted an endorsement by John Hagee for President and later had to slap Reverend Hagee upside the head with a “Thanks, but no Thanks” after numerous reports cited Hagee as calling the Catholic Religion pretty much Satan worshipers. Mind you, my Jesus is your Jesus no matter what Christian Church pew you sit in, but all of us Catholics were damned to hell by Hagee! I didn’t like it, I don’t accept his apology because I think he wasn’t sincere and honest. With that one statement by Hagee he sent my five baby girls to hell and he was and is in John McCain’s corner. That was when many Independent and Moderate Catholic voters moved to Obama’s corner in this election.

Don’t even get me started on all of the ways that McCain is enabling big business to screw over the poorest amongst us and leave the cleanup for faith based organizations to take up the slack. From homeless veterans, cutting VA benefits for our troops, voting against minimum wage every single time. John McCain really does not care about feeding the homeless, or offering them shelter till they get on their feet which is what faith based kitchens and shelters all across America are doing 365 days a year now.

John McCain is a very angry man and if he wants to use Jesus Christ as a weapon against Barack Obama, a fellow Christian, then I have just one question. What would Jesus say?

Pitting one form of Christianity against the other is not a smart political strategy and it makes your political campaign look more than just desperate. It’s lining up Christian against Christian and that is not what our faith and belief in Jesus Christ is all about.

Papamoka

Related post...
Catholics, McCain, and Hagee

Financial Market Time Bomb

Latest reports from Hank Paulson over at the U.S. Treasury is that the U.S. Government is going to financially prop up banks but there is a catch. They want stock in return for the favor. I suppose that is better than handing the banks a check and getting a toaster in return for it. Doing the math the deal works out to 15,555,555 toasters at $45 a piece. I don’t think Uncle Sam could ever sell that many toasters on Ebay without greatly affecting the world wide toaster markets so I‘m good with that deal.

For all of you folks following the markets and politics, Rachel Maddow has this interesting video on it…

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Is it just me or does it not make sense to anyone else for the McCain campaign manager Rick Davis to make a statement like he did in the above video?

“There’s very little a candidate for President, and frankly, after watching today, very little even the President can say about what’s happening in the stock markets other than to hope that they correct themselves.” - Rick Davis

Is it possible that Rich Davis is a “Closet” Obamaican? Then when asked why John McCain or Sarah Palin are not talking about the markets he had this to say in the above referenced video…

“I don’t know if you really want to turn a campaign into a CNBC News show on the stock market. I mean it doesn’t mean that we don’t care and aren’t trying to do something about it. It’s just I’m not exactly sure what you would say everyday.” - Rick Davis

If for no other reason, both candidates need to be talking about this issue every single day for a reason. To instill calm in the markets should either one of them become President. Well it turns out that Obama is talking about it in a logical way that will support new jobs in the small business markets. Just like after 9/11, making credit available to the thousands of small businesses that needed to either rebuild, restructure, or start all over again. It also turns out that John McCain is talking about it but his plan leads to panic in the markets. McCain is proposing, take a deep breath, suspending the “Regulations” (I never saw that one coming…NOT!) to allow people to draw out their 401K and IRA’s without penalties?

One plan builds up small businesses, the other puts a rush by millions all across America to dump their stocks, bonds, and every other investment vehicle for the old Mattress Savings Bank.

Just something to think about over the weekend. John McCain himself has said in the past that he knows nothing about economics and his latest plan would in fact put a full run on banks, company 401K’s, and investments in any form of retirement fund. Common sense dictates what would happen if the penalties for early withdrawal were suspended.

Papamoka

John McCain, Rick Davis, Freddie Mac Connections

Why didn’t I get the memo that the Three Stooges had reunited again? Apparently, the new version of the Stooges is all about the money trail that has lead this nation down the road to a very expensive bailout. What a freakin’ knee slapper that is! Then again maybe this isn't so funny, Rachel Maddow of MSNBC has this informative interview on the facts behind this McCain/Davis scandal...

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It seems that Rick Davis, the campaign manager for John McCain has some skeletons in his closet over at Freddie Mac. Follow the money and you find the source of the problem. Over at the New York Times they have let the horse out of the barn on Freddie Mac still paying Rick Davis (Lobbyist) former firm $15,000 per month for doing… Nothing?

McCain Aide’s Firm Was Paid by Freddie Mac

By JACKIE CALMES and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: September 23, 2008

WASHINGTON — One of the giant mortgage companies at the heart of the credit crisis paid $15,000 a month from the end of 2005 through last month to a firm owned by Senator John McCain’s campaign manager, according to two people with direct knowledge of the arrangement.

The disclosure undercuts a remark by Mr. McCain on Sunday night that the campaign manager, Rick Davis, had had no involvement with the company for the last several years.

Mr. Davis’s firm received the payments from the company, Freddie Mac, until it was taken over by the government this month along with Fannie Mae, the other big mortgage lender whose deteriorating finances helped precipitate the cascading problems on Wall Street, the two people said.

They said they did not recall Mr. Davis’s doing much substantive work for the company in return for the money, other than to speak to a political action committee of high-ranking employees in October 2006 on the approaching midterm Congressional elections. They said Mr. Davis’s firm, Davis Manafort, had been kept on the payroll because of his close ties to Mr. McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, who by 2006 was widely expected to run again for the White House.

-SNIP-

From 2000 to the end of 2005, Mr. Davis received nearly $2 million as president of the coalition, the Homeownership Alliance, which the companies created to help them oppose new regulations and protect their status as federally chartered companies with implicit government backing. That status let them borrow cheaply, helping to fuel rapid growth but also their increased purchases of the risky mortgage securities that proved to be their downfall. - New York Times

Obviously the McCain campaign is going to deny these accusations and rightfully so. If Davis goes down then so does McCain. So what do they do from here? Let’s play “Where’s Waldo?” Davis is ducking out of campaign appearances and scheduled events for the time being. I wonder why? Over at the Chicago Sun Times they have the starting point to not place your guess…

WASHINGTON--John McCain campaign manager Rick Davis--under the spotlight because of his work for mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac--is skipping a Wednesday lunch with reporters sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor.

On Tuesday, word came that McCain political director Mike DuHaime will substitute for Davis because he is "heading out on the trail" today. - Chicago Sun Times

It’s beginning to look more and more like the McCain for President campaign has a self destruct button. First they trot out the mother of all liars Sarah Palin with her bridge to nowhere and endless “Thanks, but no thanks” stump speech, now they have Rick Davis, McCain’s campaign manager, dodging the press over his connections to Freddie Mac?

One of the things in Presidential politics is the association of guilt even if it isn’t true. George Bush and Karl Rove perfected it in 2000 and 2004! Rick Davis may not have worked for his lobbying firm for a couple of years but he still receives dividends from the performance of that firm. So yes, he does have financial gains from the Freddie Mac contract.

One of the bigger questions in this whole mess is the fact that Freddie Mac blindly paid Davis former firm $15,000 per month for access to John McCain as a candidate for President because of Davis. If $15, 000 per month is the going rate to buy a candidate for President then I’m sure that we are in fact in an economic depression. I’m thinking that President Bush and V.P. Cheney’s lobbyist were paid at a much higher rate per month. No bid contracts for Iraq just don’t miraculously appear on just one certain companies doorstep for nothing! Frankly, maybe we need to do a bailout for lobbyist too! Poor bastards…

Papamoka

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Bridge To Nowhere Grows Legs

Chris Wallace over at Fox News is calling the McCain campaign on the carpet for the so called bridge to nowhere that Governor Palin has flip flopped on. In a grilling session with Rick Davis, Wallace fact checked the bridge to nowhere and Davis had to point the finger everywhere else but where the lie actually lives. In Governor Palin’s lap. She backed the bridge to nowhere, she ran for Governor on the bridge to nowhere, the congress killed the bridge to nowhere, not Governor Palin. She should have used performance bonds. She did see fit to take a large chunk of the money to build the access road to a bridge that will never exist. Spend two million on a ferry and blow the rest on other projects in Alaska.

I’m beginning to think that Fox News is tired of carrying the water for the blatant lies coming out of the McCain campaign recently. Fox News has to protect its own credibility as a legitimate news source, if they do not point out the obvious truth then they might as well turn the news channel into yet another home shopping channels to see what they can sell next week. Even the best spin doctors like Rick Davis can’t paddle the bridge to nowhere upstream during a flood. Like a man about to drown, he is giving it his best effort though. If Rick Davis manages to sell the bridge to nowhere that Palin has not listed on Ebay, then I have a certain bridge in Brooklyn that I just happened to have available.

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I ran across this story on Memeorandum over at Think Progress and I could not help but add my own thoughts to it. Sarah Palin lied about the bridge to nowhere, if she didn't lie then it wouldn't be worthy of the Sunday news shows. Sarah Palin has put a sense of distrust in the minds of people and she did it all by herself. The only problem is that she now has her future boss following her leads including the lie about the Governors jet that she supposedly sold on Ebay. Never happened. Another lie. Either McCain is a fool or nobody in his campaign is handing him the current events on what is going on with his Vice President pick Governor Sarah Palin. I'm betting that the Maverick is showing his temper loud and clear to all of his campaign staff. This whole scenario shows very poor judgement on his part as a Presidential candidate.

Kudos to Chris Wallace for a stand up “Tim Russert” like interview. Don’t take sides, just ask the question, point out what the people in question said that is documented, and simply wait for the explanation.

My thoughts are running towards the arguement of how long John McCain will let his credibility and his final run for the office of President bleed? Check back here for the possible news that McCain lets Palin go and inserts Vice President candidate B?

Papamoka

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Bridge to Nowhere for Governor Palin