McCain-Obama Dead Even: Gallup

McCain's continued strong performance in the national polls (see above) has positive implications for GOP candidates around the country. Obama has a big lead in three large states -- Illinois, New York, and California, as well as a huge lead in the District of Columbia -- and that suggests McCain is doing well in most of the other 47 states. McCain has a decent chance to win PA, OH, VA, FL, MI, MN, and CO -- all battleground states. (McCain, light green, Obama, dark green

The Aug. 12-14 polling shows a slight dip in Obama's support, which had ranged between 46% and 48% (averaging 47%) in August. McCain has averaged 43% support among registered voters so far in August. Thus, the closer margin seen in today's results is due more to movement away from Obama than toward McCain. Twelve percent of registered voters now say they are undecided or supporting another candidate, which is on the high end of what Gallup has measured this year.

Voter preferences have been closely divided between Obama and McCain in each of the last three individual nights of polling, underscoring the notion that the race has tightened for the moment. This could to some degree reflect Obama's absence from the campaign trail while he vacations in Hawaii. He will return to the spotlight over the next few weeks upon naming his vice presidential running mate and accepting his party's nomination for president at the Democratic national convention, and both events have typically been associated with a bounce in support for a presidential candidate.

On Thursday, the Obama and Hillary Clinton campaigns announced an agreement to put her name into nomination for president at the convention. Given that the race has been tight for the past few days, it is unlikely this announcement is related to any change in Obama's support.Since early June when Obama clinched the nomination, he has averaged a three percentage point advantage over McCain in Gallup Poll Daily tracking. (To view the complete trend since March 7, 2008, click here.) -- Jeff Jones

Note: I urge Ohioans and others to visit my other blogs, including: http://camp2008victorya.blogspot.com/, http://hillarysupportersformccain.blogspot.com/, and

http://pennsylvaniaforjohnmccain.blogspot.com/.

Why Barack Hates Small Towns

Will Manly - Dear Barack: You're wrong about small towns.
Dear Barack: You're wrong about small towns.

By Will Manly of the Hays Daily News, Hays, KS

Dear Barack Obama: I grew to like you over the last year. I've always thought of you as dangerously naive at best. Eloquent, gifted, genuine, yes. But dangerously naive at best.

I couldn't vote for you - but not because of your funny name or your lunatic pastor. I couldn't vote for you because you say we should raise taxes (even on the rich, who I'm convinced already pay too much), and because you say we should abandon Iraq (which I'm convinced would be surrendering a war we must win), and because you don't respect the Second Amendment (which I'm convinced should disqualify any politician from any office).

Still, I've liked your message of unity and your ability to inspire. And, since your rise I've hunted quite frantically, for young conservative leaders with your talent. (To my relief, I found Bobby Jindal.) And I've long said if you beat Hillary Clinton, you will have done your country a tremendous service.

But ever more I'm having a harder and harder time rooting for you. First came your wife's comment about being proud of America for the first time - conveniently, right after you started winning primaries. Then came your own words about your grandmother who is just a "typical white person" - a racist, or at least someone with racist tendencies.

(I'm a "typical white person," I suppose, and I'm no racist. In fact, little makes me angrier than when it's insinuated I am.) Sometimes people say things they don't really mean. But this is a pattern.

Recently, we heard your comments about small-town America. Someone at a San Francisco fund-raiser asked you why it's so hard for Democrats to win in rural areas. You said: "You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. So it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them..."

Is that a minority? Hey, Cletus, get the gun! (If only we had a job to go to, some time in the last 25 years). Here's a thought: Maybe gun rights' voters know gun control laws kill people and steal freedom.

Here's a thought: Maybe some of us have moral objections to an immigration system that forces rule-followers to wait decades for legal status and rewards border-violators with amnesty.

Here's a thought: Maybe some Americans cling to their church because their pastor is a nice person, because they find love there, because there they have something they can believe in.

Here's a thought: Maybe, just maybe, us simpletons in small towns findit harder to be bigoted than all o' y'all city folks. Maybe in small towns, where everybody knows your name - and how hard you work, if you pay your taxes, how well you treat your neighbors, how often you volunteer in the community, and whether or not you're a good parent - people see the content of your character, so they don't give a hoot about the color of your skin.

(But I grew up in a small town where about a third of the population is of a different race than me. What do I know?)

And here's my favorite thought of all: Maybe small town folks are - really - capable of thinking. All on our own. You're wrong about why small-town Americans don't vote for Democrats. We don't vote for Democrats because we're self reliant, so we don't like the government trying to "solve" everything for us. And because you tell your rich friends in San Francisco that we're dumb.

And because, each election, whichever one of you is running for president traipses all over the country telling us you have all the answers, that you're the one on our side, that you understand and respect our way of life.

But each time, a little bit here and there slips out - and by the end of the campaign, we can tell what you really think about us. And we manage to learn who you really are.

And we see you're just a horse's ass.

Will the Clintons Denounce Obama?

Sharon Caliendo, formerly from Ohio, now in Oklahoma and a Republican activist there, sent me the following link from YouTube -- it's an Ohio GOP ad, and Sharon says it makes her proud of her home state: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkytVjgn-Uc


Bulletin: There's growing evidence that Bill Clinton is NOT going to back Barack Obama. See my Monday column on: http://hillarysupportersformccain.blogspot.com/. I've titled the column, "Bill, Hillary MUST Denounce Obama." See also the following link: http://purplepeoplevote.com/2008/08/04/clinton-remarks-bolster-mccains-claims-that-the-race-card-was-played/ John McCain has said, "I'd rather lose the presidency than lose a war."

Blog Talk Radio: Obama's Racism

CLINTONS FOR MCCAIN BLOG TALK RADIO
BLOCKBUSTER ON SATURDAY, 5 P.M. ET!

[Scroll down for "Obama's Politics of Racial Identity"]

This Week on Clintons 4 McCain Radio:"Will Black America Wake Up"

Rev. James David Manning Addresses Obama's Racism, Michelle Obama's Comments and Faith Issues


DNC Watchdog, Roger Ryan addresses the Downfall of the Dems

Right VS. Left Go Head to Head on the Issues. Can We All Come Together by November?

This weeks Guests: Rev. James David Manning of Atlah World Ministries weighs in on the racism and 'evil' of the Obama camp.Michelle Obama says, "Black America will Wake Up" but how does Manning feel about that statement?

Tune in as the honorable Rev. James David Manning addresses the racial issues and touches on the Faith issues as hype builds that Barack Obama is Anti-Christian and Anti-Semitic.

Roger Ryan, a Democrat and DNC watchdog with the National Sentinel Committee of the Democratic Party, will discuss the Smoke and Mirrors of the RBC May 31st meeting and The DNC Party Leadership.

[Note to visitors from Ohio and elsewhere. In mid-August, this column will begin focusing on the political situation in the Battleground States of Ohio and Pennsylvania. In the mean-time, you're invited to visit my national blog, my Pennsylvania blog, and my Hillary Supporters blog. I hope you'll bookmark them and return often.]

Right VS Left: Tune in as the Right and the Left go head to head on the issues. A die-hard dem and staunch GOP-ER discuss their voting issues...and we discover if they they can come together by November. Clintons4McCain Radio

When: Saturdays 5 PM ESTWhere: Computer, World WideCall: (347) 633-9273.


http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=0011hf8cq8VpLqN1xO4QW5bArVCeq-hkU5YEpLzVvvuEiaQB4qHFob9_M0cvj2pfntC2NwKgsVjfMsQBd10_bW36TYFNbQVW4bj_OaWR8ukq7ZpwsS38L2LrdTJyOyBQSh14GRb3ffSozc=Radio Co-Host, Steve Maloney

Join us Saturday July 26, 2008 at 5 PM EST on Clintons4McCain Radio

This week's Co-Host Steve Maloney, full-time blogger and former College Professor who was hired as a professional speech writer for major oil, heath and pharmaceutical industries gives his take on Obama, the Republican Party and the issues.

OBAMA'S POLITICS OF RACIAL IDENTITY

I've been writing a lot about Barack Obama's "politics of racial identity." As I explained, I've approached the stage of my life where I can live dangerously and -- I believe -- speak the truth about race. The other day one of Clintons4McCain leaders talked about the psychology of Obama's messages, where he appeals to deep longing and nostalgia in the American people. Ronald Reagan did some similar things, although not at the level of sophistication used by Obama.

This is a campaign about character and charisma, and in this campaign, NONE OF THE ISSUES MATTER. Instead, what counts are culture, race, and guilt.

If yuu want to read a brilliant analysis of what's really going on, read Shelby Steele's brilliant essay on Black moral leverage and white guilt as practiced by Jesse Jackson and Barack Obama. I reprinted it today on my: http://hillarysupportersformccain.blogspot.com.)

I hope everyone will think back to a commercial from many years ago, the one inviting tourists to "come to Jamaica." Actually, the key line was to "come BACK to Jamaica." In the deepest part of our being all of us want to go back to a kinder, gentler (imaginary) time, usually our childhoods. The people who most admire Obama are invariably the most childlike.

A guy in the liberal New Republic analyzed the commercial and why it might have been the most brilliant ad of all time. The whole "come back" leitmotif touched the common chord in American that things used to be "better." The idea exploited was that American was a fallen angel, that we would perhaps never be as good as we once were (except, of course, unless we went to Jamaica).

The commercial was full of happy white people and smiling Blacks.The surface message was to go take a vacation in Jamaica. The New Republic writer said the underlying message was this: "Come back to Jamaica . . . where Black people are still nice!" In that time, like our own, some inconvenient truths rarely got articulated. But the New Republic author broke the code. He told us truths that we in fact knew at some level, but that we pretended we didn't comprehend.

In Shelby Steele's great essay, he notes that John McCain is obviously a man of "character" and "principle." He then adds, "Poor guy!" Of course, the character and principle work against him in politics, where an Obama can easily become all things to all people/voters, Black and white.

Mrs. Clinton and her campaign got chopped up by the Obama buzzsaw -- and the deep psychological messages. One hopes the same doesn't happen to John McCain.

--steve maloney

Barack Obama and Deborah Honeycutt

Barack Obama and his beloved pastor of 20 years, Rev. Jeremiah Wright

On my popular (and sometimes controversial) Hillary Supporters for McCain site today (Tuesday/Wednesday), I have many quotes from Barack Obama illustrating his continual use of racial stereotypes. The Obama statements reflect his tendency to emphasize either his Black roots or his White ones depending on which audience he is addressing.

On my Pennsylvania site this week, I've been discussing a congressional candidate, Dr. Deborah Honeycutt, whom many people believe could be not only the first Black President, but also the first female President. She's someone worth knowing about.

Come visit and, if you wish, leave youir thoughts.

In mid-July, this column will begin focusing on Ohio politics.

How Politics "Money Game" Works

On my Pennyslvania blog Sunday and Monday I will be talking about how the "money game" really works in politics and how Republican candidates can play the "game" to their advantage, something most of them aren't doing. The piece has relevance not only to PA candidates, but also to GOP challengers in Ohio and throughout the nation. On my Hillary Supporters for McCain site, I take about Barack Obama consistenly uses race in his efforts to gain political advantage. On about July 15, I will begin focusing here on McCain and other GOP candidates in Ohio.

Come visit.

Tom/Travis Manion: American Heroes

On my Pennsylvania blog I've received an urgent request from Tom Manion, Republican congressional candidate in PA's 8th district. It deals with an important online poll. Manion, a Marine Corps veteran, lost his son Travis in the Iraq War. Please visit the site for information. http://pennsylvaniaforjohnmccain.blogspot.com/.

Please offer your assistance to this American warrior.