All You Should Know For The Presidential Election 2008

All you should know for the presidential election in 10 mins - the truth. It's the Chance to stop our corrupt Government and to restore the Republic and our Rights! John McCain will bomb Iran, Hillary Clinton is ready for the next War too, Barack Obama did not vote against the it. Watch this Movie to understand how important Peace is. The USA could get bankrupt these days. We have to borrow Money from China! Watch McCain vs Miss Teen to ged a Clue ;) .



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Electing a US President in Plain English

A short guide to understanding the U.S. election process.

The Cost of Looking Good on the Campaign Trail for Palin? $150K

Clothes at Saks Fifth Avenue in St. Louis and New York: $49,425.74.

Maybe a pair of stylish red pumps to match a red leather jacket, among other items, at Neiman Marcus in Minneapolis: $75,062.63.

Top-notch baby accessories at Steiniauf & Stroller Inc.: $295.

Looking good on the campaign trail for Sarah Palin: Priceless.

Love her or hate her, the Alaska governor’s got style. But we now know she’s had quite a bit of help picking up the shopping tab.

The Republican National Committee has spent $150,000 on clothing and accessories for the vice-presidential candidate and her family since early September, according to Politico.com. The RNC also spent $4,716.49 on hair and makeup through September after reporting no such costs in August.



According to financial disclosure records, the accessorizing began in early September around the time of the Republican convention. Other bills included $9,447.71 at Macy’s in Minneapolis, where the Palin family stayed during the conventions, and $5,102.71 at Bloomingdale’s in New York.
Campaign finance experts are wondering about the expenditures’ legality under the Federal Election Commission’s opinions on using campaign cash to purchase items for personal use. But a Republican strategist told The New York Daily News the expenditure by the party committee was legal.

Remember Democrat John Edwards’s $400 hair cuts in 2007?

McCain-Palin campaign spokeswoman Maria Comella declined to answer specific questions about the expenditures, including whether Palin ran up the RNC tab just during one period of time, or whether it’s ongoing.

“The campaign does not comment on strategic decisions regarding how financial resources available to the campaign are spent," Comella told Politico.com.

But later Tuesday night, spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt said the clothes will be given to charity after the November 4 general election.

"With all of the important issues facing the country right now, it’s remarkable that we’re spending time talking about pantsuits and blouses," Schmitt said in a statement. "It was always the intent that the clothing go to a charitable purpose after the campaign.”
Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports that Palin charged the state of Alaska more than $21,000 for her children to travel with her since she has been governor, including to events where they were not invited, and later said on expense reports they were on official business.

The charges included:

-Hotel and commercial flights for three daughters to join Palin to watch their father in a snowmobile race.

-A trip to New York, where the governor attended a five-hour conference and stayed with 17-year-old Bristol for five days and four nights in a luxury hotel.

-64 one-way and 12 round-trip commercial flights for the three daughters since December 2006.

Alaska law does not specifically address expenses for a governor’s children, but it allows for payment of expenses for anyone conducting official state business.

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Palin Clothes Spending Has Dems Salivating, Republicans Disgusted

Since her selection as John McCain's running mate, the Republican National Committee spent more than $150,000 on clothing and make-up for Gov. Sarah Palin, her husband, and even her infant son, it was reported on Tuesday evening.

That entertaining scoop -- which came by way of Politico -- sent almost immediate reverberations through the presidential race. A statement from McCain headquarters released hours after the article bemoaned the triviality of the whole affair.

"With all of the important issues facing the country right now, it's remarkable that we're spending time talking about pantsuits and blouses," said spokesperson Tracey Schmitt. "It was always the intent that the clothing go to a charitable purpose after the campaign."

But even the most timid of Democrats are unlikely to heed this call for civility. For starters, the story has the potential to dampen enthusiasm among GOP activists and donors at a critical point in the presidential race. It also creates a huge PR headache for the McCain ticket as it seeks to make inroads among voters worried about the current economic crisis.

Mainly, however, Democrats (in this scenario) are not prone to forgiveness. After all, it was during this same campaign cycle that Republicans belittled the $400 haircut that former Sen. John Edwards had paid for with his own campaign money (the funds were later reimbursed). And yet, the comparison to that once-dominant news story is hardly close: if Edwards had gotten one of his legendary haircuts every singe week, it would still take him 7.2 years to spend what Palin has spent. Palin has received the equivalent of $2,500 in clothes per day from places such as Saks Fifth Avenue (where RNC expenditures totaled nearly $50,000) and Neiman Marcus (where the governor had a $75,000 spree).

Beyond the political tit-for-tat, however, the revelation of the clothing expenditures offers what some Democrats see as a chance not just to win several news cycles during the campaign's waning days but to severely damage Palin's image as a small-town, 'Joe Six-Pack' American.

"It shows that Palin ain't like the rest of us," Tom Matzzie, a Democratic strategist told the Huffington Post, when asked how the party would or could use the issue. "It can help deflate her cultural populism with the Republican base. The plumber's wife doesn't go to Nieman's or Saks."

Indeed, the story could not come at a more inopportune time for the McCain campaign. During a week in which the Republican ticket is trying to highlight its connection to the working class -- and, by extension, promoting its newest campaign tool, Joe the Plumber -- it was revealed that Palin's fashion budget for several weeks was more than four times the median salary of an American plumber ($37,514). To put it another way: Palin received more valuable clothes in one month than the average American household spends on clothes in 80 years. A Democrat put it in even blunter terms: her clothes were the cost of health care for 15 or so people.

There are, in these cases, legal questions surrounding campaign expenditures. Though, on this front, Palin and the RNC seem to be in the clear.

"I don't think it's taxed," said David Donnelly of Campaign Money Watch. "I don't think she can keep it. It's owned by the RNC. They had to use coordinated funds to pay for the clothes."

And certainly the possibility exists that this issue can be effectively swept under the rug. Palin is not known for taking impromptu questions from the press. Moreover, the media, at this juncture, has other major story lines (see: upcoming election) to grapple with, thus denying the piece the relative vacuum that accompanied the Edwards story. Finally, there is little desire among conservative writers or pundits to litigate the matter, even if they were more than happy to jump on board when a Democrat was in the spotlight.

Several hours after Politico posted its findings, the topic remained nearly untouched by the major right-wing outlets. Though as Marc Ambinder at the Atlantic opined:

"Republicans, RNC donors and at least one RNC staff member have e-mailed me tonight to share their utter (and not-for-attribution) disgust at the expenditures. ... The heat for this story will come from Republicans who cannot understand how their party would do something this stupid ... particularly (and, it must be said, viewed retroactively) during the collapse of the financial system and the probable beginning of a recession."

The Blurb That Never Was

It’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up. In the midst of Barack Obama’s continuing insistence that William Ayers was just some guy in the neighborhood (and just some guy on two non-profit boards with whom Obama worked for almost a decade), people asked why Obama then gave Ayers a promotional blurb for his book, A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of Juvenile Court. Team Obama spokesmen Bill Burton and Robert Gibbs categorically denied it.

Maybe it’s another State Senator Barack Obama. You know, another one who would have worked closely enough with an unrepentant terrorist to get an advance look at his new book, and to write promotional material for its sales. One who partnered with Ayers on a multimillion-dollar school reform project that ended up a failure. One who owed Ayers after the unrepentant terrorist help launch his career in a fundraiser in the Ayers/Dohrn household. You know, there has to be at least a dozen Barack Obamas who fit that description!

Opss:


On a more serious note, this wouldn’t be an issue if the Obama campaign would stop lying about the nature of his relationship with Ayers. They’ve continually fibbed about it when the public record is pretty clear that they formed a political alliance meant to boost Obama’s electoral career. Their inability to be honest about this relationship is what makes these lesser revelations more significant than they should be. A modest blurb on an obscure book would have no meaning at all absent the fact that Team Obama lied about it on two separate occasions.

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McCain and Obama campaigns barnstorm into crucial swing states

Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton stressed economic themes at a campaign rally Monday evening in Orlando, the onetime Democratic rivals' first joint event since their appearance four months ago in Unity, New Hampshire.

The rally in June was staged when the prolonged primary fight threatened party unity, but now fewer Democrats worry about Sen. John McCain's appeal to Clinton's disappointed supporters. When some in the Florida crowd began chanting, "Hillary! Hillary!" on Monday, Obama joined them.

Their joint appearance capped a day in which both presidential campaigns barnstormed into the crucial swing states of Florida, Colorado and Missouri, with just two weeks remaining in the presidential race. Each party sounded familiar themes, with Democrats tying McCain to President George W. Bush and Republicans deriding Obama's tax policies as socialism.

With voters' attention focused almost exclusively on the economy and on their bleeding investment portfolios, the Democratic and Republican campaigns spent the day talking about jobs, taxes and an Ohio plumber named Joe, ratcheting up the fight for middle-class voters.

"Sending the Republicans to clean up the economic mess in Washington is like sending the bull to clean up the china closet," Clinton said Monday evening, with Obama standing on her left. "We're not buying that anymore."McCain, the Republican nominee, spoke at rallies in the suburbs of St. Louis and Kansas City on Monday while his running mate, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, was campaigning in Colorado. Republicans won both states in the 2004 presidential election, but polls this year have shown Obama is leading or tied in each.

With 47 electoral votes among them, Florida, Colorado and Missouri are rich prizes for both candidates but comprise a virtual must-win territory for McCain. Obama has made an aggressive play for all three, spending $42.8 million on television advertisements to the McCain campaign's $22.7 million, according to data from TNS Media Intelligence.

At a rally Monday morning in St. Charles, Missouri, McCain stressed economic themes and criticized Obama's tax plans, saying they would stifle small businesses. He again cited "Joe the plumber," an Ohio man who has become a campaign archetype at Republican rallies since McCain repeatedly invoked him during the third presidential debate.

"As Joe has reminded us all, America did not become the greatest nation on Earth by giving money to the government to 'spread the wealth around,' " McCain told supporters, referring to the phrase Obama used while talking to Joe Wurzelbacher, the plumbing businessman now woven into the final weeks of political rhetoric.

Palin sharpened her economic attack as she spoke Monday on the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, telling crowds that Democrats would raise taxes on struggling Americans, "redistribute wealth" and accelerate job losses. She cast Obama's economic plans as tantamount to socialism.

"Now is not the time to experiment with socialism," Palin said to wild cheers in Loveland, Colorado.

Meanwhile, Obama sought to ride the momentum from his record $150 million worth of fundraising in September and endorsement over the weekend from former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Speaking in Tampa, he assailed Republicans, including McCain, who have equated Obama's tax plans with socialism and said they would deepen the economy's troubles.

He defended his plans to raise taxes on individuals with more than $250,000 a year in taxable income, and he pointed out that McCain originally opposed the Bush tax cuts, voting against them in 2001.

"He was right then, and I am right now," Obama said at a rally on Monday.

In an interview on Monday on NBC's "Today Show," Obama provided a few new details of the Powell endorsement, saying that he did not speak to Powell about it until after it was announced, and that Powell could play a role in an Obama administration.

"He will have a role as one of my advisers," Obama said. "He's already served in that function even before he endorsed me. Whether he wants to take a formal role, whether there's something that's a good fit for him, I think is something he and I would have to discuss."

Early voting, already under way in some states, started Monday in Florida, Colorado and Texas, among others. Both parties Monday urged their supporters to vote early if they could, and avoid long lines and logjams that could roil Election Day.

Appearing earlier at a rally in Fort Lauderdale, where she shielded herself from rain by holding a binder above her head, Clinton exhorted Democrats to campaign in their neighborhoods. She warned that Democrats could still lose the presidential race in the sprint toward November.

"Do not get lulled into any false sense of security," Clinton said of polls showing Obama in the lead. "If people start believing this election's over, I don't need to go vote, then we might not be successful."

Following Obama's fundraising announcement, the McCain-Palin campaign released its own financial report on Sunday, showing that their campaign spent $37 million during September — $22.5 million of it on advertising and media. The campaign now has $46.9 million on hand.

McCain accepted $84 million in federal campaign funding, which now limits his spending during the remainder of the election. Obama opted out of public funding, a move that Republicans rebuked as a broken promise, and he has no such spending constraints.

Powell Stands Against Smears

In endorsing Barack Obama this weekend, Colin Powell brought up a photo of the tombstone of Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, being held by his grieving mother. Powell brought it up to make the point that Muslim-Americans are as American as anyone else, and it is wrong that the Republican party allows the whisper campaign to continue, that Barack Obama is somehow a Muslim.

Indeed, while John McCain has corrected a woman who directly told him that Obama was "an Arab," the campaign has also given those who believe Obama is a "secret Muslim" a wink and a nod, by continually using phrases like "he doesn't see America like the rest of us," and tying him to "terrorists." It is, incidentally, the same sentiment promoted by Benjamin Netanyahu in his campaign against Yitzhak Rabin, which Leah Rabin later blamed for her husband's assassination.

Colin Powell, though, might be more on point with his observation than he knew.

One of things you quickly learn when you're sent to Iraq or Afghanistan is that the overwhelming majority of Muslims in those nations are peace loving people, who just want to be able to raise their families in a decent environment. Essentially, their overall hopes and dreams are not much different than ours. Most of them actually have fond views of America and the west, and are constantly curious about American culture. To the extent there are any anti-American sentiments in Iraq, it's that Iraqis want this war to end, and want to get back to a stable life. But, it's not right to say that most Muslims are "anti-America."

That's what's so dangerous about the kind of campaign Republicans are running, and frankly have been running even before Barack Obama. When FOX News continually uses terms like "Islamo-facism," it not so subtly conflates the entire religion of Islam with the select crackpots around the world who use their religion as an excuse to promote despicable acts. But, those terrorists are not representative of Islam, or Islamofacists, any more than someone who bombs an abortion clinic over here is representative of Christianity, or a "Christoterrorist."

To then take someone who has a funny sounding name, and use a flimsy link to a "washed up terrorist" to stoke fears that he might be a Muslim forces the issue down the slippery slope at blazing speed. The Genie of hate is tough to put back in the bottle. No longer does someone need to be an actual Muslim to stoke some people into a frenzy, all it takes is that they're somehow "different" to scare people into thinking someone has secret "anti-America Muslim tendencies."

Think about that on the macro scale, not just in terms of Obama, who is a Christian. Think about how neocons can use a sentiment like that as justification for war against pretty much anyone they want to wage war on - Muslim, Christian, Jew, Buddhist, atheist, etc. "Different" is the only thing they need to whip fear up into a lather. And, if I needed to remind anyone, that's when American troops deploy to war, and many don't come home.

That's the path that John McCain has condoned by allowing innuendo to be pushed around the radical right, to abuse the feelings of fear that many Americans feel at this uncertain time. It's not just dishonest, it's dangerous.

And, that's why Colin Powell breaching this issue, from a position of strength and legitimacy, was so important this Sunday. We can only hope that his strong words shake even more reasonable Republicans from their electoral daze, and cause them to speak up and object to the damage the far-right smear campaign is doing to America.

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Powell support Obama for presidential post

WASHINGTON - Former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed Sen.Barack Obama, D-Ill., for president on Sunday, criticizing his own Republican Party for what he called its narrow focus on irrelevant personal attacks over a serious approach to challenges he called unprecedented.

Powell, who for many years was considered the most likely candidate to become the first African-American president, said in an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he was not supporting Obama because of his race. He said he had watched both Obama and his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, for many months and thought “either one of them would be a good president.”

But he said McCain’s choices in the last few weeks — especially his selection of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as his vice presidential running mate — had raised questions in his mind about McCain’s judgment.

“I don’t believe [Palin] is ready to be president of the United States,” Powell said flatly. By contrast, Obama’s running mate, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, “is ready to be president on day one.”

Powell also told NBC’s Tom Brokaw that he was “troubled” by Republicans’ personal attacks on Obama, especially false intimations that Obama was Muslim and the recent focus on Obama’s alleged connections to William Ayers, a co-founder of the radical ’60 Weather Underground.

Stressing that Obama was a lifelong Christian, Powell denounced Republican tactics that he said were insulting not only to to Obama but also to Muslims.

“The really right answer is what if he is?” Powell said, praising the contributions of millions of Muslim citizens to American society.

“I look at these kind of approaches to the campaign, and they trouble me,” Powell said. “Over the last seven weeks, the approach of the Republican Party has become narrower and narrower.”

In an interview Sunday on Fox News, McCain said he was not surprised by the announcement.

“I’ve always admired and respected General Powell,” said McCain, who cited the endorsements he had received from former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger, Alexander Haig, James Baker and Lawrence Eagleburger. “We have a respectful disagreement.”

Bolstering Obama’s international credentials
Obama said in an interview airing Monday on NBC’s TODAY that he welcomed Powell’s support and looked forward to discussing what role, if any, Powell might have in an Obama administration should he be elected.

“Here is what I can say for certain: He will have a role as one of my advisers. He has already served in that function even before he endorsed me,” Obama told NBC’s Matt Lauer. “Whether he wants to take a formal role — whether there’s something that’s a good fit for him — I think is something that he and I would have to discuss.”

Powell, a retired Army general who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under the first President Bush before becoming secretary of state in the current administration, is one of the most highly decorated military officers of modern times and an admired figure in both parties. The Obama campaign is likely to cite the endorsement as an answer to critics and undecided voters who have questioned the foreign policy credentials of Obama, a first-term senator whose national experience amounts to four years in the Senate.

Powell said a major part of his decision to turn his back on his own party was his conclusion that Obama was the better option to repair frayed U.S. relations with allies overseas.

“This is the time for outreach,” Powell said, saying the next president would have to “reach out and show the world there is a new administration that is willing to reach out.”

In particular, he said, he welcomed Obama’s president to “talk to people we haven’t talked to,” a reference to Obama’s controversial statement that he would be open to direct diplomacy with Iranian leaders.

“I think that [Obama] has a definite way of doing business that will serve us well,” Powell said.

BO: Barack Obama promise to change the world

The supremely confident demeanour and exalted rhetoric of the Democratic nominee at a New Hampshire event betrayed that he is a man convinced he is poised to make history.

While his Republican opponent John McCain, trailing in the polls, is pursuing a strategy of eking out a victory in traditional swing states, Mr Obama is transferring resources to conservative strongholds like Georgia, West Virginia and even Kentucky in pursuit of a landslide victory.

Speaking in an apple orchard against the picture-perfect New England backdrop of an red, green and yellow autumn foliage on a stage adorned with pumpkins and hay bales, Mr Obama reminded voters of the dangers of hubris.

Polls indicated that the young Illinois senator was cruising towards a crushing victory over Hillary Clinton in the state's Democratic primary. His rallies were two or three times the size of hers. The media had declared him the victor, a conclusion shared by Obama aides.

On election day, however, Mrs Clinton won. "We are 19 days away from changing this country. Nineteen days away. But for those who are getting a little cocky, I've got two words for you: New Hampshire," said Mr Obama.

"I learned right here, with the help of my great friend and supporter Hillary Clinton, that you cannot let up, you can't pay too much attention to polls. We've got to keep making our case for change. We've got to keep fighting for every single vote. We've got to keep running through the finish line."

At a glitzy fundraising event in Manhattan at which Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel performed Mr Obama warned high-roller supporters: "Don't underestimate the capacity of Democrats to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Don't underestimate our ability to screw it up."

But much of Mr Obama's speech in Londonderry - punctuated by cries of "We all love you Obama", "I love you" and "We will work with you" - was devoted to the kind of quasi-religious sentiments and motivational-coach style exhortations, the kind of pride that set him up for a big fall in January.

"I want you to believe," said the candidate, clad in an open-necked shirt and barn jacket. "Not so much believe just in me but believe in yourselves. Believe in the future. Believe in the future we can build together. I'm confident together we can't fail."

There was a carnival atmosphere among the crowd of some 4,000, who almost drowned Mr Obama out as he reached his crescendo and said: "I promise you. We won't just win New Hampshire. We will win this election and, you and I together, we're going to change the country and change the world."

Mr Obama was described as "preternaturally confident" in a gushing endorsement by the Washington Post on Friday.

His supreme self-belief has also been the target of late-night comedians. "With just 19 days left until the election, Barack Obama warned supporters today to guard against overconfidence," Tina fey of Saturday Night Live reported.

"Then he boarded Air Force One, blasted 'We Are The Champions' and shouted 'I'm King of the World'."

Both Democrats and Republicans in New Hampshire appear convinced that Mr Obama will win.

"We feel we're on the brink of a whole new life in this country," said Betsy Whitman, 69.

"Sure, he'll win," said Marlene Hulme, 70, at the Londonderry event. "Our expectations were high today and he knocked it out of the park."

A lone McCain supporter at the rally said she too was convinced that the Republican nominee was finished. "McCain has lost," said Deborah Barnhart, 48, who runs a landscaping business.

"He's lost because the Messiah has spoken and we're going to change the world. That's all people want to hear after eight years of Bush. Obama thinks he's won. Everyone here thinks he's won."

Good BO! keep it up to saves your beloved country.Don't talk but do your work once you'll be the top level country management.