Tonight

The only thing Obama has to do tonight is to make coherent statements, stay calm, and talk about issues. McCain will do the most damage to himself without Obama having to dirty his hands. If Obama does as well as he has done in the previous two debates and almost every public performance, he has this thing in the bag.

At an Obama Rally

I knew I arrived at the location when I encountered a young African-American man selling Obama t-shirts, buttons, hats. He was standing in front of a line that stretched for what it seemed like several miles. The line waiting to get into the Observatory Field in Cincinnati's Old Park mirrored the diversity of America: white, black, brown, Asian, young, old, middle-aged. An African-American boy was sitting on the grass near the line with his laptop doing what it seemed was his math homework. A woman in front of me was reading "A Brave New World." What was fascinating about the gathering was the energy: everyone was laughing, talking lively, cars passing by were honking their horns, and several middle-aged women broke out in a dance.

My brother and I arrived about two hours before the door opened and we were still way behind. When the door finally opened, people rushed, some running, to take the front seats. The day was absolutely beautiful. We waited in the huge field for what it seemed like an eternity, but was about 2 more hours before Barack Obama took the stage.

The noise of the crowd was deafening and a woman next to me kept shouting: "Oh my God, there he is." I realize that this man has almost a cult-like following. This is a movement. Not a political party. And it is this energy that made me convinced that he would be elected.

He seems much smaller in size than he appears on TV. He is tall, but his small shoulders and thin physique give him a non-intimidating posture. When he speaks he always looks around the whole circumference of the stadium making you think he always is looking your way. The aura of self-confidence and intense determination are almost visible around him as he speaks. He is aware of the power of his words: he waits for the words to reach you before moving on. His posture "as if always posing for a coin" (to quote Jon Stewart) reflects his intense concentration, but also the fiery ambition.

I think what is really inspiring about this man is not only his rhetoric, but his steely self-discipline, unwavering determination, and his seeming ability at social perception. While he speaks you feel like he is talking directly to you. While watching him speak I felt the power of mass politics to mobilize your emotions and make you personally invested in the political fate of the candidate.

David Brooks on Barack Obama

David Brooks has been considered one of the intellectuals behind the mainstream conservative movement in the US. This is the wing of the Republican party that has become fed up with the Religious Right's hijacking of that party, which to a large extent is to blame for the Republicans' diminishing prospects. As I said in my previous posts, I rarely agree with Brooks on anything, but the man at least makes coherent arguments and insights that engage even those who disagree.

On Monday, David Brooks gave an interview to the Atlantic Monthly in which he, to his great credit, lashed out at the ugliness of the Palin phenomenon that has dragged the Republicans--and everyone else with them--into the mud. Describing Sarah Palin as a "fatal cancer to the Republican Party" Brooks lamented the anti-intellectualism of today's Republicanism that has been embodied by 8 years of George Bush. Nostalgically remembering the time when even conservatives cherished learning and engaging with ideas, Brooks admits that both Palin and Bush, and those in their wing of the party, seem to despise ideas in their entirety. He shows considerable intellectual honesty when he admits that Sarah Palin is "absolutely" not qualified to be President.

The most interesting part of the interview is David Brooks' story of his encounters with Barack Obama. His observations, I think, show why Barack Obama is such a fascinating figure. I quote David Brooks at length:

"Obama has the great intellect. I was interviewing Obama a couple years ago, and I'm getting nowhere with the interview, it's late in the night, he's on the phone, walking off the Senate floor, he's cranky. Out of the blue I say, 'Ever read a guy named Reinhold Niebuhr?' And he says, 'Yeah.' So i say, 'What did Niebuhr mean to you?' For the next 20 minutes, he gave me a perfect description of Reinhold Niebuhr's thought, which is a very subtle thought process based on the idea that you have to use power while it corrupts you. And I was dazzled, I felt the tingle up my knee as Chris Matthews would say.

And the other thing that does separate Obama from just a pure intellectual: he has tremendous powers of social perception. And this is why he's a politician, not an academic. A couple of years ago, I was writing columns attacking the Republican congress for spending too much money. And I throw in a few sentences attacking the Democrats to make myself feel better. And one morning I get an email from Obama saying, 'David, if you wanna attack us, fine, but you're only throwing in those sentences to make yourself feel better.' And it was a perfect description of what was going through my mind. And everybody who knows Obama all have these stories to tell about his capacity for social perception."

Republicans Blame the Minorities

Every time I tell myself that nothing that comes from the Right can shock me anymore, the Republicans prove me wrong. Just when I thought that Palin-McCidiot smear fest has climaxed with not-so-subtle racist insults hurled at Obama, the Republicans came up with another strategy of deflecting the public's attention away from their culpability in getting us into this mess: blame the minorities.

The Republican attack on Fannie Maie and Freedie Mac's loaning practices are based on the premise that the main culprits behind the financial mess are the minorities, in particular the African-Americans who received mortgages they could not finance. The Republicans then tie the Democrats to the mortgage giants' lobbyists in arguing that it is the Democrats who are to blame for the mess.

First, there is no doubt that many people got in over their heads with the mortgages they could not afford. However, let us remember that they were roped into these deals by banks and mortgage companies who promised to keep their monthly payments low, betting on the continuing bubbling of their home prices. Let us also remember that the very core of the American identity, especially in the post WWII period, is tied to the ownership of home. Most Americans grow up with the notion that owning a home is equivalent to achieving "the American dream." Anything less than that makes you unsuccessful. So, to blame families--many of whom came from very under-privileged backgrounds--for wanting a piece of this dream at a time when the economy seemed to be doing great for everyone, is beyond moral reprehensibility. And to blame the Democrats' plans to make housing more available to the under-privileged and expand the middle class goes to show the extent to which the Republicans will go in keeping the "American dream" accessible only to the white, middle-class cream of America. According to this ideology, to make the American dream accessible to more Americans leads to nothing less than a Stock market crash.

It seems to me that the ripple effect of the mortgage mess is due not only to these bad mortgage loans, but to 1) the falling value of homes due to the previous over-speculation of home prices; and 2) the ability of banks to sell these mortgages to Wall Street and Wall Street's greedy repackaging of these toxic mortgages into bundles that were passed on further down the line, infecting the whole of the American and even most of the world's economy.

So it is the lack of regulation, which allowed for the tearing down of the walls between the different sectors of our economy--such as the banks and the Wall Street--and the dishonesty of banks in issuing mortgages that played a huge part in causing the implosion of the world's financial system. The tightening of credit throughout the market was a rational consequence of this implosion as every market player starts hoarding capital and becomes schizophrenic about giving loans to anyone out of fear that everyone's capital has become infected with these toxic assets.

So for the Sean Hannity-type of Republicans to blame the minorities, and implicitly the African-Americans, is nothing but another racist ploy to desperately cling to the White House by scaring the white voters into voting for McCain because "that one" (as McCain himself referred to Obama last night) is too risky (and gasp, too black). Despicable.

Palin's Campaign Turns into Media Witchunt

Sarah Palin has announced that she has a solution to the worst economic crisis to hit America and the world in the past 70 years. She will "put on her heels and take off her gloves" and attack Obama's character, doggone it! And if anyone in the media has anything to say about it, they are just East Coast elitists.

Sarah Palin's childish behavior would be funny had it not been so tragic for our country. Her rallies are turning into witch-hunts against those who dare criticize her. What's even scarier is that the racists who attend her rallies are becoming increasingly vocal. In his editorial this morning, Washington Post journalist Dana Milbank, a veteran journalist with a great reputation, reports that at her latest rally in Clearwater, Palin's routine attacks "have begun to spill into ugliness." As she lambasted Katie Couric and the mainstream media for exposing her utter ignorance and stupidity, the crowd of about 3000 descended upon the press tent, shouting abuse epithets, "waving thunder sticks!" A man in the crowd turned to an African-American sound man and shouted: "Sit down, boy!"

Considering Palin's associations with a church with a witchdoctor for a pastor, it really should not surprise anyone the type of crowds this chauvinistic thug draws. It is up to us the liberals, the media, as well as the conservatives who care about this country too much to let it be taken over by racist idiots, to shout her down and let reason prevail in November.

The Day McCain campaign Became Criminal

Today should be remembered as the day when McCain lost any remaining shred of decency and threw himself into a pool of utter vileness and became just another common criminal.

At a rally, McCain consistently asserted that Barack is "unknown" to the American people despite having written two memoirs, and having run a 17-month long campaign during which his whole life was displayed publicly (as it should be). The most disturbing part of the rally was when McCain asked the question: "Who is the real Barack Obama" and someone from the audience shouted "A terrorist!" We all know that the intellectual level of McCain supporters is that of a 5 year old with a slight mental retardation, but rather than stepping in and saying "That's out of line, sir..." McCain contorted his disfigured face into a smirk and carried on.

If you thought that this was the climax of this sad day for America, you were wrong. At another rally, being held at the same time, Sarah Palin was throwing the kitchen sink at Obama, trying to associate him with a man who was engaged in despicable acts when Obama was 8 years old and who served with Obama on two charity boards where many conservatives served. She said: "what are we going to do with him?" And someone from the audience shouted: "Kill him."

This should be remembered as the day when McCain and Palin became just two sad, racist, xenophobic, idiotic criminals with nothing but hatred spewing out of their disfigured faces. I will be truly ashamed to be American if these two get to run our exhausted country.

Bracing for Republican Stupidity

As McCain continues to trail behind Obama and Obama starting to surge even in places like Indiana and North Carolina (the latest poll shows a virtual tie in both states!), the McCidiot camp has announced an all-out frontal assault on Obama's character. In a shockingly blunt admission, one of Mcidiot's chief advisers said that they would "raise doubts" about Obama's honesty and integrity, and try to convince the American people that he would be a "risky" character.

I would be worried had the McCain people not proven to be so inept at hiding their real motives before. The whole obsession with Obama being risky cannot be divorced from their nervousness about his skin color. Every time they raise the issue of Obama's "riskiness" and try to paint him as "the Other" the left needs to call them out on it: you are racist, xenophobic, narrow-minded idiots who have nothing else to offer to the American people and instead have to appeal to the worst in America. Obama, on the other hand, with his message of hope, change, and substantive programs, appeals to the best. Every time, the Mcidiot camp raises any of the following issues--Reverend Wright, Ayers, Michelle's patriotism--the left has to step in and call them on it. Shout them down, and shame them into a corner. They should have no place in our public square, especially in times like these when the average American wonders if his/her money in the bank will be there tomorrow morning.

And how does McCidiot offer to calm our anxieties? By repeating the tired, and drained, attack that Obama had links with the "domestic terrorist" Ayers. The fact that this radical conducted his activities in the 60s when Obama was 8 years old and that they met while serving on the same board while a part of the same university, does not preclude them from claiming Obama's ties to Ayers' radical philosophy (despite the fact that Obama has repeatedly condemned his previous activities and even though Ayers is a respected member of the community in Chicago).

I would also be worried had this been 2004 and not 2008. The reason why these tactics worked against Kerry and will not against Obama are manifold, but it mainly has to do with a) timing and b) Obama's character. Obama showed his shrewd political skill by jumping into the race this election season: he gauged the thirst for change in America, something that Hillary miscalculated. His calm, deliberate, and genuinely nice character serve as a protective shield against idiotic attacks by people like Palin who open a bottle of champagne every time they manage to utter two consecutive coherent sentences without stumbling.

And the American people are tired. They want real solutions, at least attempts at solutions, and not these kinds of idiotic attacks. This is why I am convinced that this time, these attacks will not work. And the Obama camp has promised a pre-emptive strike on these attacks (please excuse the word choice here).

The Momentum Shift: Obama Widens his Lead

I know polls can be deceiving and sometimes outright wrong, but what I just heard on the NPR certainly gives me hope for November. The new Pew poll has Obama up by 7 percentage points, 49 to 42 %, the first time the Pew poll (considered one of the most reliable) has Obama in a statistically significant lead. What is more significant than this national poll, given the fact that we don't have national but electoral elections, are the new polls by the Quinnipiac University Poll from Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. These give Obama a widening lead in all of the battleground states: keep in mind, all of the polls were taken after the first Presidential debate and McCain's disastrous decision to "suspend" his campaign during the bailout crisis.

The Quinnipiac University Poll released October 1st, finds Obama with an 8 point lead in Ohio and yes, Florida of all places. Even more significantly, the poll shows Obama with a whopping 15 point lead in Pennsylvania.

The reason behind Obama's widening lead is not only the economic crisis, but the public's increasing disgust with Palin. The same poll found that 51% say that Palin is not qualified to be vice president. As for Obama's performance in the first debate, 72% of those polled find it to have been "excellent" compared to 59% of those who say the same for McCain.

Again, a word of caution: polls are tricky things. They are shifty and can be quite deceiving. But the fact that we are only five weeks away from the election day gives me great confidence that these polls truly do reflect a tremendous momentum shift in the favor of Obama.