Careful, Nick, the Democrats are not only throwing "slime", but they're committing voter fraud:

From Market Watch:

"But here like elsewhere across the country, more problems with ACORN. Take a look at these ACORN forms. These are among the more than 800 voter registrations that officials here say they believe are fake, phony, more phony ACORN forms. This is the one that Gretchen you referred to earlier. Under the name Monica Ray, ACORN registered Monica Ray ten times. She has three different birthdates, four different Social Security numbers, six different phone numbers, and they don't even know if this person Monica Ray is real. This is what they're finding. It's really clogging up the system. And, by the way, it's illegal, a felony in most states."

Recent review of political ads put out by both campaigns, 100% of McCain ads are negative while only 30% of Obama ads are negative. On top of this, for the first time in history, a potential first lady has been sent out to smear the opposition candidate when Cindy McCain accused Barack Obama of "not supporting the troops" when he voted against a funding bill. However, she neglected to add that her husband, John McCain, voted against a similar bill a short time later.

What does one say when half-truths are put out into the public arena? Considering Sarah Palin's discredited remarks regarding Barack Obama being a "pal" of a terrorist and calling into question his character because of his "unAmerican-sounding name", this level os Swift-boating falls below the Karl Rove smear of McCain in 2000.

Fortunately, the American public is seeing the desparation in the McCain campaign and has turn away in disgust. Turning away from economic issues and toward a campaign of personal smear will serve as a unfortunate legacy for a man who at one time was a person of honor and integrity.

McCain has morphed into the angry, old man headed to irrelevance in today's world.

Obama is also spending 3 times as much on ads. So multiply the quantity of Obama's negative ads and it would then equal McCain's.

While I think that if McCain is going to go after bad associations he should not got after Ayers and Write but go after Raines, Johnson, Frank, and Dodd, the people responsible for the failure of Freddie and Fannie and this econonmic crisis.

But the truth is: Obama has a lot of shady friends.

We don't believe a single thing McCain/Palin have to say, thanks to the slimyness of the campaign they're running.

And of course Mike Richards the GOP was clean when Bush got into office and has been clean ever since - give me a break and there has always been fraud and if people had to show ID it might help to stop it but no party is innocent but for sure the GOP is not a clean office

Nick: This is a brilliant letter. It's forcefully written and most of all it's true. It exposes McCain for the slimeball he is.

Right-wingers don't have any ethics and haven't had any since before Reagan was president.
Their moral fiber of what is really important doesn't exist.

Jr @6:46,

So, you approve of the ACORN fraud? You accept that as "politics as usual"? You want Obama to win by any means?

@Mike Richards: Accusations do not prove anything. What happened to being innocent until proven guilty?

Besides, the MarketWatch you quoted didn't specifiy the democrats are behind this anyway.

jr- Why is it the Democrats are the only ones against requiring an ID when you vote. When laws get passed requiring them, they always file lawsuits to stop enforcement.

5:29- So do you believe Biden? If you do, you cannot vote for Obama. He has stated on multiple occasions during this past 9-mos that Obama is not qualified to be President at this time. So unless they plan a Co-Presidency, which I have not heard word of yet, that ticket is not ready to be elected, by biden's own admission.
By the way, why would Obama launch his political career at the house of a terrorist, Ayers, if they were not friends? Why would he wait 20-years, until it was affecting his campaign, to leave his church if he disagreed with all of the anti-American rhetoric? At best, bad judgment. Most likely, he really agrees with those ideologies.

Gus- When did Palin attack Obama based on his name? Others may have, but I have not heard it from her. She has questioned his associatons, which we all should. Stop the blatant character assassinations on Gov Palin.

But, if you have any understanding of polls and statistics, they are actually tied, where is this great lead that Obama has.

For example, they report that Obama is at 47% and McCain is at 45%. So you think that Obama is leading. What most people don't pay attention to is that it has an error of +/- 3%. Which meanst aht McCain could be at 48% and Obama at 44%. Come on people, engage your brain, the race is dead even.

There are no negative Republican run adds, there are only informational adds desperately trying to inform people of about the history of Obama. They only seem negative to the Democrats because they do not know anything about their candidate and when they find out they refuse to believe it. It is not our fault the Democrats have chosen an uber hyper left wing Marxist radical for president. After he is elected you like the Germans, who I am one, will one day realize your mistake but it will be too late. It looks like you Democrats will get all the power you lust for, you Democrats destroyed the financial system I cant wait to see how fast you will destroy everything else. We will be waiting, we will rebuild and you will never again have any power ever, till the end of time.

The party of Clinton and Frank can give us a lecture on ethics and slime.

You are referring to national polls. Looking at the electoral college, Obama has a comfortable lead in all the states Kerry won in '04 and is leading McCain by between 3 and 5 points in at least 5 states Bush won in '04--any combination of which gives him the election. If you look just at the states that are SOLID for one candidate or the other, McCain has 163 electoral votes and Obama has 264--just 6 votes shy of victory. The election is still very close and could change, but it is not dead even, as you say. Obama is ahead by any measure.

Incidentally, your take on how the margin of error works is wrong. A margin of error does not mean that you add/subtract that margin to both percentages. The margin you describe would be closer to a margin of error of 6%. A closer interpretation of the margin of error of 3% would say that each number could be off by 1.5%.

Nick,
If you really think Obama and the Democrats DON'T make any negative comments about their opponent or run negative adds... YOU are the one trying to tell people, "black is white, up is down and day is night". Or maybe you just had a little too much DNC coolaid this morning.

I have never in my life seen such slime.
Calling your opponent "a terrorist" and referring to him as "that one" is just the tip of the iceberg of slime in these days where the most ignorant of us worship the likes of Rush Limbaugh.

Now I know what it must have been like during the 3rd Reich days.

RE: DBG 7:39 - Remember that some people believe in innocent before proven guilty -- unless that person is a liberal. Or conservative. It goes both ways.

Don't forget,

War is Peace, and
spying on you keeps you safe.

@RedShirt. I don't think the polls show 47% to 45%. I guess you were looking at yesterday's Zogby poll. But ARG has Obama up 4, Gallup up 11 and Rasmussen up 6.

Besides, it's electoral votes that matter, and on the electoral map McCain has a tough row to hoe.

RE: michaelh 8:23 - No negative Republican ads? How about the "Obama wanted to teach sex ed to kindergarteners?" That was pretty negative, and a huge distortion of the truth! There's more, but that one has been debunked, and it's becoming known that the McCain campaign has had a hard history with honesty in this election.

It is so ironic that the Mccain campaign is trying to make an issue of the insignificant realtionship between William Ayers and Barack Obama. I think Matthew Yglesias said it best in his Atlantic Monthly article,

"Ayers is an extreme figure. But then again so is G. Gordon Liddy, the former White House "plumber" and Watergate burglar. On behalf of the Nixon administration he masterminded a break-in at the office of Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist and managed a 20-year prison sentence only because his most far-fetched schemes (including kidnapping anti-war protestors and bombing the Brookings Institution) never came to fruition. Liddy's sentence was commuted by Jimmy Carter, and since that time he's built a career as a radio host. McCain has appeared on Liddy's show and congratulated him for his "continued success and adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great." Are we supposed to hold McCain accountable for this association?"

On a more personal note that hits closer to home, columnist Jack Anderson once stated that Liddy intended to assassinate him for things he had written about Nixon. So, as Yglesias asks, what are to think of McCain associations?

DBG, 7:39,

Reported from the Kansas City Star:

"Federal authorities are investigating the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, otherwise known as ACORN, in at least ten states including Missouri.

Thousands of fraudulent voter registrations have surfaced after having been submitted by ACORN. In some parts of Ohio, over half of the registrations submitted by ACORN are at least questionable. ACORN even admits that it is unable to insure there is no fraud. In the Kansas City area, one name, Monica Ray, registered 20 times."

Kettle... Meet Mr. Pot.

Here's more voter fraud:

"According to STATSIndiana, In 2007, Indianapolis/Marion County had an estimated population of 876,804. Of that number 232,607 were below 18 years of age, for a total of 644,197 people in Marion County/Indianapolis 18 or over and thus eligible to vote. (Indiana allows felons to vote as long as they are not incarcerated).

So we have 644,197 people eligible to be registered in Marion County/Indianapolis, and 677,401 people registered. Congratulations go to Indianapolis for having 105% of its residents registered!"

@Alex: You are right and that was my point. One can google "Republican Voter Fraud" and see it happen with republicans as well. To solely blame democrats as being the only party doing this is being ignorant. It does happen in both parties.

Two can play the "guilt by association" game. How about Palin's Pal Joe Vogler, founder of the Alaskan Independence Party, who said, "I'm an Alaskan, not an American. I've got no use for America or her damned institutions.“ “The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government. And I won't be buried under their damn flag. I'll be buried in Dawson. And when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home." Todd Palin, Sarah Palin’s husband, was a registered member of this party from 1995 to 2002. Sarah Palin is "said" to have been a member in the 1990s. Sarah addressed the 2008 AIP convention and said: “I share your party’s vision…..Good luck on an inspiring convention, keep up the good work, and God bless you.” How's that for a little GUILT BY ASSOCIATION?

ECR 9:14,

Is the Bill Ayers connection "insignificant"?

Ayers recieved about $50 million from Annenberg to be matched with $100 million for the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC). Obama was the first chairman of the board and Ayers co-chaired the body that shaped education policy, according to Stanley Kurtz who recently reported the connection in a Wall Street Journal article.

Kurtz reported, "The Daley archives show that Mr. Obama and Mr. Ayers worked as a team to advance the CAC agenda."

Kurtz further reported, "Mr. Obama once conducted "leadership training" seminars with Acorn, and Acorn members also served as volunteers in Mr. Obama's early campaigns. External partners like the South Shore African Village Collaborative and the Dual Language Exchange focused more on political consciousness, Afrocentricity and bilingualism than traditional education."

----

It's about time that journalists across America stop acting as Obama's press secretaries and start digging out the facts about Obama, who he is, who his associates are, and what his real agenda is.

Alright I asked this several times yesterday on another thread and of course the people throwing around the rhetoric disappeared. So let me restate my question as a statement here, please feel freer to ignore it if you choose. If you want to through around wild rhetoric about Obama or McCain please provide specific evidence that can be verified by giving a reference. without it I for one will ignore your post and would suggest others do the same. Please understand that my choice to ignore unsubstantiated rhetoric from both sides in no way suggest I think you are right only that I am seeking an adult conversation about the policy issues that face our country.

Mike, it looks from your facts like Indiana has a registration problem. It is not a voter fraud problem unless more vote than live there. Since the election is a month from now AND this stuff is known, it should not be a problem to correct the situation before the vote. Also, wasn't it Indiana that passed the law you need to show an ID before you vote? Since the normal vote in a Presidential election is just over 50% a county like you mention would stand out like a sore thumb after the voting giving the media a field day to trace and place blame.

In previous elections (when Republicans had a big campaign war-chest $$$ advantage) and could out advertise their opponent, Democrats and their supporters used to complain bitterly about the Republicans ability to raise funds and outspend them. Now days (with Obama having a 3 times the money to spend on his campaign) you don't hear that complaining anymore.

What happend to the Democrats that used to complain every election that we need to limit the fund raising and spending on political campaigns?

I wish you guys would get off Obama's back, saying he dosen't have any experience & ect.

He funded ACORN, with money from Ayres

He trained ACORN how to picket and intimadate banks, that wouldn't give loans to some one who had just went bankrupt, or couldn't qualify.

He trained ACORN how to use felons to register voters.

He provided legal council for ACORN.

Obama was skillful in diverting money from Ayres to radical groups around Chicago, which was supposed to go to schools.

Look how sucessful he has been in covering up his relationship with Ayers the terroist, and not leaving a big paper trail.

Obama knows how to have a bigot and hate America Preacher for twenty years, and not know it. Look how skillfuly he was able to throw him under the bus.

Obama was skillful in being the number two receiptant of money from Fanny May & Freddie Max. And he did it in just a couple of years.

Look how well Obama was able to use a telepromter while he tries to reprogram his brain from his radical ideas.

Look how well he has covered up his past, so get off his back.

you asked "jr" the following "You want Obama to win at any means?" are you suggesting the voter fraud is the result of an Obama campaign conspiracy? Do you have any evidence to support such a claim or do you plan to stick with innuendo and rhetoric?

Alex 9:13,

The Obama sex-education for kindergartners statement is is as true as the sky is blue. He stated that he wanted "age appropriate" sex-education for kindergartners. When you take the time to read the facts about what the schools considered "age appropriate", you'll find that they were willing to give five-year old children explicit sexual information that most parents would not give their own junior-high school age children.

Obama likes "change", especially when that "change" is to twist what he said to make us believe that he said something completely different.

The letter and the comments are laughable. Politics in general is ruthless and slimy. The letter writer would have us believe that only the republicans are "slimy" and democrats are not.

Newsflash for all...The are all slimy!

Wake up people!

For the record:

Barack Obama was never an ACORN community organizer, was never an ACORN trainer and never worked for ACORN in any other capacity, and ACORN was not part of Project Vote, the successful voter registration drive Barack ran in 1992.

Let's get real here people and quit grasping at straws because your guy is in deep doo-doo. This is not a street stick-ball game, this is serious stuff.

And, Mike, so what if Indiana allows ex-felons the right to vote. Isn't this a state issue so dear to the hearts of conservatives? Am I wrong, or does the law state that anyone can vote if they are 18 years old by election day. Hence, young people under the age of 18 are allowed to register as long as they will turn 18 before they vote.

And, yes, voter fraud is a serious issue. But so is attempts by Republicans to keep qualified people from registering and/or voting because they may not vote Republican (Florida, 2000; Ohio, 2004). Remember, low voter registration and low voter turnout on election day favors Republicans.

Anyway, quit trying to link Barack Obama with ACORN. The same nonsense that he and Ayers are "pals"!

Obama has a 90% chance of winning. Utahans never lets facts ruin their beliefs. Obama has a 0% of winning in Utah.

Having more voters is to be expected. Government requires funds to run. They could simply not have the money to clean the voters roles.

I'm sure you have read the Florida can't implement their republican passed changes to the election law. There are people who registered that won't be able to cast their votes.

Please google "Fact Check" before posting. You will find the "half truths" are coming from both sides. In fact, the only true comment made by both side is that "The other side is lying."

I like the fact that Obama can see dead people. In his speech on Memorial Day he said that he could see many of the people that we honor on Memorial Day.

How about Biden asking a wheel chair bound person to stand up.

Obama also wants every asmatic to have a breathalizer. I guess they drink a lot.

Hey Nick,

Your candidate is a lying left wing liberal wack case nut job empty shirt elitist who hates this country.

Dr. KVC you are still full of half-truths. When William Ayers was protesting the Vietnam War Barack Obama was eight years old. It is true that Ayers was an activist and his first arrest came for a sit-in at a local draft board. He was also involved in the Students for a Democratic Society. You can read about it in his memoir, "Fugitive Days" He is currently a professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, holding the honor of Distinguished Professor. To suggest that Barack Obama is a terrorist by association with events that happened forty years ago is ridiculous,

How is pointing out the facts that Obama hangs out with slimey characters now slime? Obama lied and mislead the public when he said his association with William Ayers was only because he was in the neighborhood and was arms length. Turns out Obama had his only administrative job distributing $50 million grant for Ayers through the Annenberg foundation to promote liberal radical education programs in Chicago. So the lineup for Obama is a follows:
Administrative mentor, William Ayers
Religious mentor, Jerimiah Wright, the hate monger
Money man for his campaigns, Rezko the shady Chicago real estate agent who got Obama a home $300,000 lesst than market value.
Not a good resume for a President. The truth hurts but it needs to be stated. How is that negative?

Is the watchword for 90% of the media. I find it incredable that the liberals can find anything to whine about with such biased media. The slanderous behavior of the liberal sponsored Sarah Pahlin "look alike" is enough to make any conservative puke.

hhere is just one of the examples of lies told by McCain: "Democrat X favors higher taxes and wasteful spending." the McCain-Palin campaign has repeatedly pushed this line far beyond what the facts will support. Among the whoppers: that Sen. Barack Obama has voted to raise taxes on families earning as little as $32,000 per year, that Obama wants to tax your electricity and your heating oil, that he has voted for "higher' taxes 94 times, and that he will raise taxes for 23 million small-business owners. Each of these claims is false. Sen. John McCain also claims Obama will raise taxes on your investments, which is untrue for all but those at the top of the income scale. source:factcheck.org

So unable to accept the idea that a majority of Americans might just elect Barrack Obama, I knew it was only a matter of time before some extremists started laying the groundwork for explaining away his victory by alleging voter fraud.

Thanks Mike Richards! I knew we could count on you!

The McCain-Palin campaign has released a new ad that once again distorts Obama's tax plans.

The ad claims Obama will raise taxes on electricity. He hasn't proposed any such tax. Obama does support a cap-and-trade policy that would raise the costs of electricity, but so does McCain.
It falsely claims he would tax home heating oil. Actually, Obama proposed a rebate of up to $1,000 per family to defray increased heating oil costs, funded by what he calls a windfall profits tax on oil companies.

The ad claims that Obama will tax "life savings." In fact, he would increase capital gains and dividends taxes only for couples earning more than $250,000 per year, or singles making $200,000. For the rest, taxes on investments would remain unchanged.

source:fact check

@Mike Richards: Like I said, until proven guilty. Accusations, investigations, mean nothing until proven guilty in a court of law.

Republicans have done the same thing. So quit throwing around the conspiracy theory.

Could there be a more biased, tunnel-vision opinion than this one?

If the letter writer really thinks the Obama campaign is clean and fair, I have some property in Florida to sell him. And a bridge in Brooklyn. And a socialist on the ballot.

Mike Richards - The issues you bring to light do not illustrate any wrong doing on the part of Obama - or Ayers for that matter. Obama has publicly denounced Ayers previous misdeeds of the 1960-1970's era. Obama has never commended Ayers for "continued success and adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great" as has McCain for the life of G. Gordon Liddy who was every bit the "terrorist" that William Ayers was and who was convicted for those acts. The point of my post was to illustrate the hypocrisy of the McCan campaign and those who support it with their unwillingness to admit wrong decisions on the part of McCain.

In the article I previously cited Matthew Ylglesias further commented, "The truth is that the Vietnam era was a time of political extremism in the United States. And part of the way that era was brought to a close was by turning away from efforts to banish the extremists from public life. Segregationist politicians went on chairing their congressional committees. Black Panthers ran for congress and won. Liddy got a radio show and Ayers became a professor."

Nice propaganda piece. Rush Limbaugh would be proud.

Some questions about your attempt to equate the relationship between Sarah Palin - Joe Vogler and Barack Obama - William Airs:

-How is Palin connected to Vogler? Indirectly through an old association of her husband at one time in history? You gotta admit, that's a pretty weak connection! Reminds me of the Democrats pointing fingers at Sarah Palin because the man she eventually married had a DUI citation before they even met. But the same people have NO PROBLEM with Barack Obama's admitted abuse of cocain and alchohol! They excuse Obama's own drug abuse, but get all upset at the bad behavior of Palin's husband back before they even met!!!

-How tight was Palin with Vogler??? Her husband met him? It's been said that she was a member 20 years ago? Was he her college mentor? Did she announce her presidential bid from his house just a year ago? In my book, succession rhetoric is different from promoting, planning and participating in the violent overthrow of the US Government, Fire-bomgings, etc.

If you're going to play the 'association game', Obama comes out way worse than Palin. This is just one example.

Mike Richards your logic is so linear. Mike; why aren't you bothered by Homeland security letting a known terrorist walk the streets. The Bush administration has not got the Department of Justice seeing why a terrors lurks in Chicago?

There is nothing, the government can charge Bill Ayers with?

What can Obama do? You don't always pick your coworkers. The world isn't Utah where only morally uplifting people live and everyone agree with their government.

Annenberg was a conservative.