Credit where credit is due. Sen. McCain showed good character at a campaign event in Minnesota today where he personally tried to quell some of the outrageous behavior and dangerous lies seen and heard at some of his recent campaign events.

For the more troubling side of what’s going on out there, check out this disturbing video from a recent campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

Like I have said before, this race needs to be decided on the merits of it’s candidates, their policies, and where they plan to take American in light of the most devestating financial crisis in modern times. The kind of mob mentality above has no place in this or any election in our Country. We’re better than that.

After digesting some more of the campaign event in Waukesha yesterday, and listening to some of the right-wing radio spin on the event, I think the McCain campaign faces an unenviable predicament.

Do they side with the tactics encouraged by ultra-conservatives - McCain’s base - like those at the Waukesha event yesterday; make the nastiest race in recent history even nastier, ignore issues like the economy, and go in to full character assassination mode? They want more blood, they want to destroy Barack Obama but, and here’s the key, they’re already going to vote for Sen. McCain.

On the other hand, McCain could focus on the economy and other important issues to American voters, especially swing voters. For the most part, these folks are the ones who will decide the election, and in contrast to the voters described above who are characterized by the crowd in Waukesha yesterday, they don’t like the nastiness of the campaign or politics in general.

That’s one of the major reasons they’re swing voters if you think about it.

So McCain is faced with the problem of either continuing to feed the base the red meat of character assassination and nastiness and turning off swing voters, or ignore the base and try to appeal to the swing voters by emphasizing his record, policies, and character.

Like I said, it’s an unenviable position to be in. It will be interesting to see where the McCain campaign decides to go, as well as how a conservative base who was never entirely comfortable with their candidate to begin with, reacts.

The elite lefty liberal east coast media should start asking the tough questions of the candidates in this race!!

…unless of course, the questions are being directed at Sarah Palin. Then it’s just the elite lefty liberal east coast media trying to filter her!

County Executive Scott Walker never fails to amaze in his ability to be an absolute hypocrite when it’s politically advantageous from himself…

The Milwaukee County Board is going to send out informational letters about an upcoming referendum (more on that effort here) and Scott Walker is claiming it’s all “political” for the sole reason that he’s dead set against the referendum.

So who’s being overly political again?

Of course, this is from the same guy who sits on the phone with right-wing radio talk show hosts to advance his gubernatorial campaign and the Republican party on a regular basis. Or in this case, is busy writing emails to said right-wing talk show hosts to complain about what’s appropriate use of tax dollars.

So I have a few things I’d like to point out to County Exec. Scott Walker…

A couple things: No matter how much you try to confuse the public about the facts of this referendum, it will lower property taxes. Again, you can toss around baseless accusations that it somehow won’t simply because you say it won’t, but that doesn’t make it so. The facts are not on your side on this one, and that’s exactly why you resort to the above mentioned accusations and half-truths.

Secondly, this has nothing to do with the pension scandal, but nice try in your attempt to score points
with negative association. Seeing as though you’re a leader in the same party as George W. Bush, I’m sure you know what I mean.

Finally, the approx. $25,000 being used for this mailing is about as much as you wanted to hike the pay for your chief recently.

Is this what we can expect from McCain supporters in Waukesha tomorrow morning? I sure hope not.

As seen at recent McCain events, this afternoon’s crowd was vocal in their support for McCain and their anger with Senator Obama. At one point one man could be heard yelling, “Off with his head,” when McCain spoke about Obama’s tax plan.

Hopefully the crowd here in Wisconsin won’t stoop to the level of depravity being showcased in other McCain/Palin appearances over the past week where racial slurs and shouts of “kill him” and “terrorist” were the norm.

Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin will be dropping the puck at the Philadelphia Flyers home opener this Saturday. While it sounds like a simply political stunt, I did some digging and was surprised at what I found about this event.

First, the press release:

Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, the nation’s most popular hockey mom, will join the winner of the Philadelphia Flyers regional search for the “Ultimate Hockey Mom” contest and drop the puck at the ceremonial opening face-off as the home team Flyers host the New York Rangers at the Wachovia Center on Saturday, October 11 at 7 p.m.

“Because of the tremendous amount of publicity she has brought to our sport, we invited the most popular hockey mom in North America to our home opener to help us get our season started,” said Comcast-Spectacor Chairman Ed Snider who founded the Flyers in 1967. “We are very excited she has accepted our offer and we are very proud of the publicity she is generating for hockey moms and the sport of hockey.” - Philly.com

This seemed like a questionable move on the part of the Flyers to me. It will come across as nothing more than a political endorsement from the Flyers for the GOP’s VP candidate.

You’d think that would be the kind of thing a sports team would want to avoid, right?

So I dug around a bit, and it turns out Ed Snider, who founded the Flyers, has maxed out his contributions to the campaign of Sen. John McCain this year, contributing $4,600 to his campaign last June.

Candidate Contributor Employer Date Amount
McCain, John SNIDER, EDWARD M MR
PHILADELPHIA,PA 19147 COMCAST-SPECTACOR 6/30/08 $2,300
McCain, John SNIDER, EDWARD M MR
PHILADELPHIA,PA 19147 COMCAST-SPECTACOR 6/30/08 $2,300

Surprise, surprise. This has nothing to do with the publicity Gov. Palin has brought to hockey and everything to do with her political leanings.

How any reasonable fan can see this as anything other than a political endorsement by the Flyers is beyond me, and that only diminishes the Flyers while interjecting politics into the one place it doesn’t belong: sports.

If I were a season ticket holder, I’d be calling up the sales office of the Flyers and voicing my extreme displeasure at the endorsement of a political candidate.

I’m very excited to announce a group dedicated to improving Milwaukee County that I’ve been spending a lot of time and energy working with over the past month.

The Quality of Life Alliance is a grassroots organization made up of elected officials, labor leaders, transit advocates, parks supporters, business men and women, and every day citizens who are deeply concerned about the future of Milwaukee County and all of Southeastern Wisconsin.

We’re going to be very clear and vocal in our efforts to refute the misinformation that County Exec. Scott Walker, his supporters on the County Board of Supervisors, and right wing radio hosts throughout Milwaukee have been spreading about the November 4th referendum for the last several months.

That said, here are some facts about the November 4th sales tax referendum:

• This is very real property tax relief. For every $150,000 of assessed home value, your property tax bill will go down by $170
• The $2.00 fare for a one way trip on a Milwaukee County bus is one of the highest in the nation. County Executive Scott Walker is now proposing to raise the fare for a one way bus ticket to $2.25 - a 12% increase!
• Milwaukee will not become a tax island. If this argument from opponents of the referendum were true, then why are cities like Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle, Las Vegas and Phoenix all seeing massive growth? The “tax island” argument is nothing more than a scare tactic that has zero basis in economic reality.
• Milwaukee County is the only major metro are left in the Country that still relies on a property tax to fund it’s transit services.

Those are just a few of the facts that we’re going to be spending the next four weeks informing people about. You can find out more information and lend your support at the Quality of Life Alliance website.

The conventional wisdom heading into tonight’s debate between Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain was that the “town hall” format would favor Sen. McCain. That wasn’t the case tonight.

The most memorable lines I took away from the debate tonight? When Sen. Obama said healthcare was a right and Sen. McCain said it was a “responsibility”. How are people who can’t afford healthcare in this Country not being “responsible”?

When Sen. Obama talked about his mother fighting with her health insurance company on her death bed, that was a powerful moment and something I think that will resonate with anyone listening to the debate tonight.

Once again, there was no “knockout punch” in this debate by either candidate. That said, there was a clear difference in how the candidates acted towards the crowd, towards each other, and towards the moderator. Sen. Obama played the role of the calm collected candidate while at times Sen. McCain played the role of someone who was trying to pick a fight.

Sen. McCain needed that “knock out” punch tonight to regain traction in the polls and didn’t get it. Sen. Obama reinforced his image as a candidate who was “Presidential” and spoke to the problems of the American people.

And lest you take my word for it, here is the snap poll from CNN:

Who expressed his views more clearly in the debate?
Obama 60
McCain 30

Who spent more time attacking his opponent?
Obama 17
McCain 63

Who seemed to be the stronger leader?
Obama 54
McCain 43

Who was most likeable?
Obama 65
McCain 28

In every category, a huge win tonight for Sen. Obama.

The question now will be the strategy of the McCain campaign in the final four weeks of this election. Do they continue to be 100% negative or actually try to articulate what their candidate stands for, not just against?

One last thing about the debate. Did you notice that after it was completed that Sen. Obama and his wife circled the room to shake the hands of nearly every person in attendance and take pictures with those who asked? For at least 15 minutes after the McCain’s left the stage, Barack and Michelle were still out there shaking hands and talking to the participants in the debate.

That says something.

To be fair, the exact same thing happened in Cedarburg last month. The crowd was booing and flipping off the bus load of pool reporters traveling with the McCain campaign.

How dare anyone ask her gotcha questions like what newspapers she reads!?

Worse, Palin’s routine attacks on the media have begun to spill into ugliness. In Clearwater, arriving reporters were greeted with shouts and taunts by the crowd of about 3,000. Palin then went on to blame Katie Couric’s questions for her “less-than-successful interview with kinda mainstream media.” At that, Palin supporters turned on reporters in the press area, waving thunder sticks and shouting abuse. Others hurled obscenities at a camera crew.

One Palin supporter shouted a racial epithet at an African American sound man for a network and told him, “Sit down, boy.” - Washington Post

Ugly.

The Republican party in America realizes it’s been backed into a corner, and is predictably resorting to the worst kind of attacks against Democrats and Barack Obama in particular as a result.

Have a look at the decent into despicable if you can stand it.

Gov. Palin says Sen. Obama “pals around with terrorists” to cheers and worse:

It was time to revive the allegation, made over the weekend, that Obama “pals around” with terrorists, in this case Bill Ayers, late of the Weather Underground. Many independent observers say Palin’s allegations are a stretch; Obama served on a Chicago charitable board with Ayers, now an education professor, and has condemned his past activities.

“Now it turns out, one of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers,” Palin said.

“Boooo!” said the crowd.

“And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, ‘launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,’” she continued.

“Boooo!” the crowd repeated.

“Kill him!” proposed one man in the audience. Philly.com

“Pennsylvania Republican Party: OBAMA - A TERRORIST’S BEST FRIEND.

And finally, a supporter at one of John McCain yells out “TERRORIST” in response to the question of “Who is Barack Obama”, the sickest example of them all. And what does Sen. McCain do in response? Watch for yourself:

This campaign has officially sunk to new lows folks. You may agree or disagree with Sen. Obama, but this kind of unadulterated slime has now passed out of the realm of reasonable debate and discourse and into very dangerous territory.

The Presidential campaign of a major political party in America, America!, is now openly suggesting that their opponent is not only a friend to terrorists, but may be one himself.

In my there wildest dreams there were two subjects I never thought any politician would have the shamelessness to exploit. One was the tragedy of 9/11 and the other was even thinking about trying to label their opponent a terrorist. Sen. McCain’s campaign has done both in just the last month.

Shameful. Absolutely shameful folks.

The DOW Jones is under 10,000 for the first time in years, credit markets are frozen, nearly a million lost jobs since January, and recession is here.

And the focus of the Republican Presidential campaign is character assassination?!

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin expanded her attack on Democrat Barack Obama’s character Monday to include his relationship with an incendiary former pastor as well as his ties to 1960s-era radical Bill Ayers.

In the process, Palin toned down her description of the Obama-Ayers relationship after her weekend remarks were criticized as exaggerated, but at the same time she embarked on a discussion of Obama’s relationship with his former paster, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., which Republican presidential candidate John McCain had signaled he did not want to be a part of his campaign. - AP

All I can say is, wow. It’s telling when in the last month of an election, this is what the Republicans are going to try to focus on.