"Embarracuda"

"... what a desperate empty embarrassment the McCain campaign has become."

Time Magazine's Joe Klein echoed the sentiments of much of the news media on October 6, 2008, about one month before the election.

As had many, Klein referenced the 'palling around with terrorists' and ever-handy Rev. Jeremiah Wright 'God damn America' memes. He related stories about Sarah Palin and Jews for Jesus, and Todd Palin's Alaskan Independence Party.

He also mentioned Fox News show host Hannity's complicity with a lesser known "Jew-hater" who'd been publicly "exposing" Sen. Obama as a Muslim. Klein cited this piece from the Washington Times:

In 1986, when Mr. Martin ran as a Democrat for Connecticut's 3rd Congressional
District seat under the name "Anthony R. Martin-Trigona," his campaign
committee filed papers saying its purpose was to "exterminate Jew power in
America and impeach U.S. District Court of Appeals judges in New York City."

 In January 2011, Pew Research listed these religious affiliations in the 112th U.S. Congress:

304 Protestant
156 Catholic
39 Jew
16 Other or No Declaration
15 Mormon
3 Buddhist
2 Muslim

Throwing stuff against the wall to see what sticks doesn't seem to have subsided in the 2012 presidential race. Conservative meme topics describing President Obama include foreign born, Muslim, felonious, lazy, welfare President, to name a few.

Fargo, Yes; West Wing, No

In 2008, the vice presidential debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin was held in St. Louis on October 2. Howard Fineman, writing for Newsweek, initially thought it would be the longest 90 minutes of Palin's life. But after acknowledging that she did not win the debate, he noted that his original assessment was "ridiculously wrong" and that the debate was no fun for Biden. "Palin grew up a hunter in Alaska. ... She learned to stalk and bag her prey. Here ... she was stalking a pinstriped senator."

As preparations continue for tomorrow's presidential debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, pundits are already predicting winners and losers. Roger Simon of Politico offers this: "There are three things Mitt Romney must do to win the first presidential debate on Wednesday. Unfortunately, nobody knows what they are."

Fun While It Lasted

Senator John McCain announced his VP pick on August 29, 2008. By September 26, interviews with Sarah Palin revealed a candidate who many described as sorely lacking in substance. 

One conservative columnist admitted she began to cringe even before the Governor started an interview. Citing an example of "filling space with deadwood," she offered this quote from Palin: 

“Well, there is a danger in allowing some obsessive partisanship to get into the issue that we’re talking about today. And that’s something that John McCain, too, his track record, proving that he can work both sides of the aisle, he can surpass the partisanship that must be surpassed to deal with an issue like this.”

Just shy of one month into the nomination, calls for Palin to bow out slacked a few jaws. As it turned out, it was only the beginning of a fascinating saga.

Check out the website, King's Dream: Barack Obama Becomes President of the United States of America, for info on where to purchase the book, the Writers' list, Endnotes, the editors' personal election photo diary, and more.

Culture of Distraction

In 2008, during the weekend of September 13-14, the political media couldn't get enough of Sarah Palin and her "lipstick" joke, "drill, baby, drill" mantra, and sightings of Russia.

Meanwhile, as Hurricane Ike raged through Texas, ominous economic news was leaking - the world's largest financial firms were in trouble. Bank of America was taking over the struggling Merrill Lynch, and another giant, Lehman Brothers, was collapsing.

Barack Obama's campaign, falling in the polls and beset with pleas from supporters to "fight back," tried to rally a New Hampshire crowd: "They've been talking about lipstick, and they've been talking about pigs, and they've been talking about Paris and Brittney," said Mr. Obama. "They will spend any amount of money and use any tactic out there in order to avoid talking about how we're going to move America forward to the future."

Come Together

In September 2008, the Barack Obama presidential campaign was foundering - taken off-guard when John McCain's VP pick Sarah Palin began to dominate the news. With prominent Democrats fretting over tight poll numbers, Mr. Obama paid a visit to the master.

Bill Clinton had been a fiercely vocal opponent of Obama during Hillary's run at the nomination but - with the party's best interests in mind - the two former rivals met for lunch and chat at Clinton's office in Harlem on September 11, 2008.

At the Democratic National Convention last week, the Obama campaign once again called on Clinton, who gave a rousing speech in support of Obama that has been lauded by both left and right. Yesterday, Clinton spoke to voters in Florida, and plans additional speeches in other swing states.

Clinton is the only Democrat to serve two presidential terms since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. President Obama hopes to join the club in November.

Organizing the Vote

The 2008 Republican National Convention was held the week after Labor Day. In speeches by several participants, Barack Obama was roundly mocked for his experience as a "community organizer."

On September 4, 2008, Barry Crimmins wrote: "Just as Palin wants to turn the entire nation into a paranoid and intolerant small town, Obama must continue his work to turn American voters into a very large, organized community."

Today, President Obama is in a very close reelection race with Mitt Romney, and he will need the votes of a very large, organized community to win.

Satire Anyone?

On August 31, 2008, political news was abuzz with John McCain's pick of Sarah Palin to be his running mate. In a hilarious New York Times column titled Vice in Go-Go Boots, Maureen Dowd used a chick-flick theme to satirize the GOP ticket, and lamented: "Why do men only pick women as running mates when they need a Hail Mary pass? It’s a little insulting."

Today, political news is abuzz with the GOP-RNC decision to allow actor Clint Eastwood free reign with an empty-chair satire during broadcast TV prime time last night, an odd appearance that is getting as much press as candidate Mitt Romney's convention acceptance speech.

Not Again

On Friday, August 29, 2008, NBC's Kelly O'Donnell broke the news that John McCain had chosen Alaska governor Sarah Palin to be his running mate. "Not again," thought Dee Dee Myers writing for Vanity Fair. "Not again because too often women are promoted for the wrong reasons and then blamed when things don't go right."