There are the swelling numbers of unemployed now homeless, including military veterans. Now students are joining the ranks of the homeless. There is no government funding for homeless shelters. And existing shelters are swamped. Meanwhile, Obama’s administration is trying to shutter the Boeing plant in South Carolina. The Boeing story is becoming a major campaign issue, infuriating middle-class people who believe that the federal government shouldn’t mess with companies that want to hire Americans rather than get cheaper labor overseas. But Obama is more interested in keeping his Labor groupies happy and Labor’s campaign cash flowing.

Why did I post the photo of Michelle Obama — besides noticing that TOTUS is part of the group hug? Do you see the “cuff” bracelets she is wearing? Well, here we go: “Michelle Obama dazzles New York in $42,150 diamond bracelets“:

Michelle Obama dazzled in true First Lady style at the DNC fundraiser this week, her left wrist dripping with diamonds as she supported her husband at the party event.

In total, she sported an astonishing $42,150 worth of bracelets to the New York Democratic Party dinner.

Designed by Texas-based jeweller, Katie Decker, the three white gold cuffs glittered and sparkled, catching the spotlight as she spoke to the high-powered audience.

The First Lady, 47, chose to wear Miss Decker’s Lotus cuff, with 2.9 carats of diamonds, costing $15,000, the Gothic cuff with 2.17 carats of diamonds, costing $15,350, and the $11,800 Quatrefoil bracelet with 1.73 carats of diamonds to the Gotham Hall event.

According to Houston’s culturemap.com, Mrs Obama’s stylist found the sparkling cuffs in Miss Decker’s showroom at SoHo’s Fragments store. …

So Michelle has a stylist. Every woman needs one.

In Steve’s excellent post — “The Real Barack Obama” — we learn how the indolent, disinterested Obama spends his days — in shorts and flip-flops, watching sports on TV — while earning a $400,000 annual salary. About the only times we see Obama are when he is feigning concern for the nation’s unemployed while his real agenda is to raise money for his reelection campaign.

By the way, several months ago, Larry Johnson posted material that sounds eerily similar to what Steve posted. I wonder if the White House source is the same person. Maybe not — there are some differences in style and the person’s self-described access to the White House. Check out Larry’s post, “Is Barack Losing It?”

So if Obama doesn’t appear interested in the job of president, what does he do day after day? Well, he takes his meetings just like any other president would, though even then, he seems to lack a certain focus and on a few occasions, actually leaves with the directive that be given a summary of the meeting at a later date. I hear he plays a lot of golf, and watches a lot of television – ESPN mainly.

I’ll tell you this – if you want to see President Obama get excited about a conversation, turn it to sports. That gets him interested.

You start talking about Congress, or some policy, and he just kinda turns off. It’s really very strange. I mean, we were all led to believe that this guy was some kind of intellectual giant, right? Ivy League and all that. Well, that is not what I saw. Barack Obama doesn’t have a whole lot of intellectual curiosity.

When he is off script, he is what I call a real “slow talker”. Lots of ummms, and lots of time in between answers where you can almost see the little wheel in his head turning very slowly. I am not going to say the president is a dumb man, because he is not, but yeah, there was a definite letdown when you actually hear him talking without the script. . . .

You’ll also want to revisit Larry’s post to read about Obama’s serious problem with paranoia and his inappropriate behavior with staff (such as throwing temper tantrums).

Here we have it: A president who is utterly unconcerned about the jobs crisis and lives a lifestyle the rest of us can only dream of.

A $42,000 bracelet would keep a single mother and children in housing and food for over two years, if they budget carefully.

Just saying …

I AM FURIOUS.

Politico has a good article about the Boeing plant situation. From “South Carolina Boeing factory turns sour for Obama“:

“It’s like a lightning rod,” said Gary Chaison, an industrial relations professor at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. “The Boeing case is so dramatic. All the anti-union forces and all anti-Obama people are coalescing.”

At the same time the president was selling his American Jobs Act in the Rose Garden last week, Mitt Romney was visiting Boeing’s South Carolina factory. The former governor of Massachusetts drew loud cheers for suggesting that any stimulus package should include legislation telling the board to drop its complaint.

“It’s an egregious example of political payback where the president is able to pay back the unions for the hundreds of millions of dollars they have put into his campaigns at the expense of American workers,” Romney said.

Newt Gingrich toured the new plant and called for cutting the NLRB’s funding, while Jon Huntsman did his own swing through the manufacturing facility, advocating that the president step in before it scares business from South Carolina. Rick Perry has accused Obama of stacking the board with “anti-business cronies.”

Despite the assertions of his critics, Obama’s hands are tied — and the case could get dragged out for years with delays and appeals. Beyond vetoing any congressional proposals, if they make it to his desk, the president has little influence over the complaint or the board’s acting general counsel Lafe Solomon. [WHEW!]

P.S. That airplane that Boeing is building in South Carolina? It is “the world’s most fuel-efficient commercial jet.”

Wouldn’t that classify the positions held by the thousands of workers Boeing has hired in South Carolina as “green jobs”?

Tonight’s special event is sponsored by the National Pork Producers Council because you can’t get enough pork and, besides, it’s good for you. (TOTUS claims that Joe Biden wanted to rename the flu “‘The Squeeler from Tequiler’ or ‘Montezuma’s Revenge Part Dos’.”) NPPC is grateful to “Bruno Napolitano” for renaming the bug “H1N1.”

The Council’s sponsorship is also part of our recognition of the pandemic known as Obamabotism, a virulent strain of political fever that causes severe mental confusion sometimes leading to psychosis and/or paranoia towards anyone who doesn’t share the disease. Obamabotism has recently been discovered to be an environmental hazard, given the increased production by Obamabots of greenhouse-gas emissions, exactly like the hazard created by flatulent cows.

Join us promptly at 8:00 p.m. ET, or drop on by at any time. We’re welcoming submissions of YouTube videos that you’d especially like to share with the crowd. In particular, we’re looking for YouTube videos pertinent to Obamabotism.

There’s nothing you need to do and no software to download. Simply show up at the blog and click the big arrow to enter the chatroom. It’s even easier than having ACORN vote for you.

U.S. Senators are asking us to “thank President Obama for his [two weeks of] public service” while in her latest opinion piece, Well, That Certainly Didn’t Take Long, Maureen Dowd takes Obama to task for his arrogance. Cognitive dissonance anyone? Ms. Dowd writes:

It took Daschle’s resignation to shake the president out of his arrogant attitude that his charmed circle doesn’t have to abide by the lofty standards he lectured the rest of us about for two years.

What happened to the McDowd love fest for Prez Obama? Gee, Mo, I bet Hillary’s starting to look pretty good to you about now. Clueless leadership sitting in front of the hoi polloi of newscasting to refreshingly, but frighteningly, offer a mea culpa about Daschle:

Unlike W. and Dick Cheney, who heroically resisted acknowledging their historically boneheaded mistakes, President Obama summoned a conga line of Anderson, Katie, Brian, Chris and Charlie to the Oval Office to do penance, over and over.

“I think I messed up. I screwed up,” he confessed to Couric.

He told the anchors that the man who helped make him president, Tom Daschle, had made “a serious mistake” by not paying taxes on a car and driver….

Mr. Obama admitted that “ultimately it’s important for this administration to send a message that there aren’t two sets of rules. You know, one for prominent people and one for ordinary folks who have to pay their taxes.”

Uh, yeah.

Before he recanted, his hand forced by a cascade of appointees who “forgot” to pay taxes, his reasoning was creeping perilously close to that of the outgoing leaders he denounced in his Inaugural Address: that elitist mentality of “we know best,” we know we’re doing the “right” thing for the country, so we can twist the rules.

Wow, Mo. Everyone campaigning for Obama had a ‘we know best attitude,” telling us we had to vote for him even though his resume was paper thin. Don’t worry. Be happy.

Someone needs to explain how the likes of Dowd, or any of Brian, Katie, Charlie, George S., the late Timmy, Chris Matthews, any of them who have been around politics as long as they have, could possibly have fallen for this splendid piece of marketing.

Ms. Dowd then talks about President Obama’s “high standards”:

Betrayed by their bankers and leaders, Americans were desperate to trust someone when they made Barack Obama president. His debut has left them skeptical about his willingness to smack down those who would flout his high standards or waste our money.

High standards? This lofty talk was never backed up by anything. Certainly not his twenty years in the unfortunate cesspool that is Chicago politics. Perhaps his staff thought he could get away with a ‘do as I say, not as I do’ attitude. The press, including Ms. Mo enabled him to do so. And you can never convince me they didn’t know it was the height of recklessness to do so.

Ms. Dowd rightly points out that “Companies that have gotten bailouts continue to make a mockery of taxpayers” by spending untold millions on disgraceful recreational junkets for their higher ups. What will Obama do about this? While I don’t think we should get into salary setting for the private sector, if you come with your hand out – you better show me you are using the money responsibly. Or that hand should be lopped off. Can you imagine a friend coming to you saying they are in dire straits and you lend them $2000 so they can pay their bills for the month – then you find out they blew it on caviar and champagne? Where is the outrage. A snarky column, Maureen? Is that it?

Dowd is merely an example of the willful blindness exhibited by all but a few press and pundits. She complains that President Obama should have cut the pork in the stimulus package that the Republicans and some Democrats are rightly complaining about. How could she, or anyone, possibly think that a man we spent almost 2 billion dollars electing – one who thought the tit was ever-flowing – would have any notion of fiscal discipline or holding anyone else’s feet to the fire. He relegated putting the initial package together to none other than Nancy Pelosi. Hell, he just successfully confirmed a man who cheated on his taxes as Treasury Secretary.

The title of Ms. Dowd’s piece is most interesting. “Well, that certainly didn’t take long.” Could the bloom be officially off the rose for her as well. Just like it was for many of us a year ago.

Dowd irreverently comments on his need to escape the White House after two weeks there to hang out reading a story to a bunch of school kids to make himself feel better.

Senators Dick Durbin and Barbara Boxer are also trying to help him feel better by asking us all to sign “thank you” letters to our new President as we speak. No, I kid you not. The text follows:

Dear Friend,

As Barack Obama begins his term as the 44th President of the United States, please join me to thank him for his public service, and offer our best wishes as he guides our nation through these challenging times!

Please click the link below to add your name to Dick Durbin’s Inaugural Card to Barack Obama.

Thank you!

Forgive me, but what public service are we thanking him for? He’s been in office two weeks! Does he really require this kind of stroking and adulation on a constant basis?

Yes, he’s had a rough couple of weeks. But who wouldn’t, walking into this disaster of a situation. Surely, I would not want that job. But he did. Very badly. So he shouldn’t complain about it now. He knew what he was getting himself into – or at least pretended to.

Do we need to send him thank you, feel better letters – like a teacher giving a kid a gold star? The comparison is terrifying.

I hate to keep harping on this. Well, actually, I’m lying. I lurv to keeping harping on this – do you think anyone would be sending little consoling missives to ‘President Hillary Clinton’ right about now? No. But she probably wouldn’t expect or need them. She’d just put her head down, plow forward and keep doing the job. As she would be expected to do.

Well, I am putting all these types on notice: every single one who trashed Hillary in favor of the man with training wheels, every one who stood silent as she was unfairly dragged through the mud and caricatured while he received a free pass:

None of the pundits and reporters, and NONE of the politicians who staked their reputations backing him better turn their backs on him. EVERY LAST ONE BETTER STICK BY HIM TILL THE BITTER END. They stuck us with a man whose own wife rightly said “it’s too soon, he hasn’t done anything yet,” but still they trumpeted his name from the highest hill. They better NOT criticize him now in a feeble attempt to stay relevant.

“McDowd,” as President Obama liked to call her, made her bed. Now let her lie in it.

Now you must Pay.

Does this man’s evil vindictiveness make you shiver or what?

Update from Larry Johnson:
So much for “new” politics. One of the ostensible justifications put forward by Obama acolytes to explain why a guy with such little experience should be President is that he is “above politics.” He will bring us hope and a welcome change from partisan wrangling. In other words, he is not going to act like all of those other nasty, partisan politicians, especially Republicans. He is going to bring Republicans and Democrats together.

Horseshit!! If that was true he would have welcomed the Washington Times and Dallas Morning News on to his plane despite their endorsement of John McCain. He could have demonstrated thru action that he would welcome even those who oppose him. He could have taken the high road. But he showed his true colors. If you don’t worship at the feet of the Obama Messiah then get your ass off the damn plane.

I don’t fault Obama for doing what other politicians–like Richard Nixon–have done. I just wish he stop with the sanctimonious bullshit and admit that he is a normal Chicago politician who plays hardball and says what he needs to say in order to get elected.

Tonight Senator Obama starred in his own prime time special, about Senator Obama. Is it me or is Obama passé? I find his voice — artificially deep to project gravitas — to be just as grating as George W. Bush’s faux-Texas accent.

Obama the brand is wearing thin. He has his own hand sign, his own temple, music videos, Dish Channel, a fake presidential seal, coffee mugs, t-shirts, etc. But still Obama the man comes across as a caricature of his own creation. And whether we want to be or not, we’re witnesses to his ego-trip. So stale is Obama’s image, it’s reported that even the youth may not be showing up for The One. Obama fatigue is setting in.

Like George W. Bush, another megalomanic with whom he shares many personality traits, Obama is thin-skinned, irritable, paranoid, and in constant need of having his ego stroked. Bush made his chief of staff, Andy Card, greet him every morning with an obsequious, “Thank you for the privilege of serving today.” Would a President Obama command a hand salute and a recitation of passages from his bizzare “race” speech? I am not being facetious.

Obama knows well that the false image he’s projected to the public could crumble at any moment, exposing the man who has accomplished nothing. Both Richard Nixon and George W. Bush forced the nation to ride along on their exhausting megalomania-fueled train wrecks of ego-feed and self-destruction. Can the nation afford another president who sees himself as anointed?

Obama could possibly make a perfect candidate for Donald Trumps’ “The Apprentice,” but I doubt Trump would hire him. Instead this election feels like the reality show, “The Surreal Life,” with Obama in the mansion along with his sordid friends: Ayers, Wright, Khalidi and Rezko. The media force-feeds the nation this junk food. Just think, we could be listening to Hillary talk about the intricacies of health care or something else intellectually nutritious. Instead, it’s more Obama drama.

Early in the primaries, President Clinton told Charlie Rose that picking Obama would be a “risk” and suggested that nominating Obama would be like nominating a “a gifted television commentator.” How right you are, Mr. President. Although “gifted” appears to have been an overstatement.

White House staff have met with both presidential candidates and their senior staffs to brief them on possible terrorist threats and current National Security issues between election day and January. Vetting of potential presidential staff members has also become–for both campaigns.

So what gets pimped all over the place by the Obama campaign? Not a story that both candidates have been briefed. Nope. This:

Senior Aides To Barack Obama have been meeting George W. Bush’s staff to begin planning a smooth transfer of power.

No kidding. You can’t make this shit up. How’s that for cocky?

…………………………………

From my blog, “Uppity Woman.”

There are reasons the LGBT community supported Clinton over Obama: Obama refused to be photographed with Gavin Newsom in 2004, when the San Francisco Mayor was the center of a national uproar for his support of gay marriage; Obama participated in a gay bashing “Gospel Tour” in South Carolina with Donnie McClurkin, an African-American minister who views homosexuality as a disease Jesus Christ can cure; Obama cites his Christianity when he mentions his opposition to gay marriage in his text entitled The Audacity of Hope; Obama stigmatizes and minoritizes gay marriage when he refers to it as such in his political speeches and texts; Obama admits to seeking spiritual counsel from a certain Rev. James T. Meeks, a homophobic minister in inner city Chicago who was named by the Southern Poverty Law Center as one of the “10 leading black religious voices in the anti-gay movement;” Obama refuses to march in gay pride parades; and Obama will not allow himself to be interviewed by the LGBT press. Because Obama has a record of homophobic speech, actions and affiliations, the LGBT community rallied behind Hillary Clinton. And they may rally behind McCain-Palin, for Obama’s continued disrespect for this constituency will compel many LGBT voters to reconsider their support for the homophobic Democrat.

Obama, according to The Advocate, will launch a gay bashing “Faith, Values and Family” tour with homophobic Catholic legal scholar Douglas Kmiec. I quote with added emphasis:

The Christian Broadcasting Network is reporting that the Obama campaign next week will kick off “Barack Obama: Faith, Family, and Values Tour,” designed to woo the votes of left-leaning Catholics, progressive Evangelicals, and some conservative mainline Protestants. If LGBT people find the tour eerily reminiscent of the South Carolina gospel tour the campaign arranged last year with antigay “ex-gay” gospel singer Donnie McClurkin, their instincts may not be far off.

CBN names Catholic legal scholar Douglas Kmiec as one of the religious surrogates who will hit the road stumping for Obama. Kmiec wrote a June 13 op-ed for the San Francisco Chronicle supporting California’s Proposition 8, the ballot measure to ban same-sex marriage, titled “On Same-Sex Marriage: Should California Amend Its Constitution? Say ‘No’ to the Brave New World.” Kmiec’s first two sentences in the piece read, “The California ballot initiative intended to set aside the state supreme court’s judicial invention of same-sex marriage deserves public support. Maybe it is enough to say, as many do in conversation, that it merely re-secures a millennia of tradition and common sense.”

Obama, in other words, will campaign with a legal scholar who believes “a millennia” of “tradition,” “common sense” and homophobia should be preserved. Kmiec, by the way, is the former constitutional legal counsel to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. Republican jurisprudence is the change in which the LGBT community can believe, I guess.

But it gets worse, for Kmiec writes the following in his 13 JUN op-ed for the San Francisco Chronicle. I quote with emphasis added again:

Separating marriage from procreation may also have other remote, but frightening, ill consequences. Society should be skeptical of wider use of asexual procreation. An earlier dark moment in U.S. history employed eugenics to forcibly sterilize the mentally disabled. The push for artificial wombs and the genetic manipulation of intelligence already peppers scientific literature – a push that would no doubt grow, accommodating even the minimal same-sex desire for simulating natural child birth – claimed to be of interest for 20-30 percent of same-sex couples. When carefully assessed, the acquisition of unnatural reproductive means often advances the interests of the very affluent through a libertarian exercise that would threaten all hope of democratic equality.

According to Kmiec, gay marriage is a harbinger for a social eugenics that manipulates the human genome in the name of maintaining social hierarchies. A threat to democracy, the LGBT community in Kmiec’s warped mind is attempting to eliminate the heterosexual population. Raising specters gleaned from science fiction novels, Kmiec stokes the fires of a fear of a queer planet.

For some reason Barack Obama finds this entirely acceptable. Indeed, Barack Obama desires to use the campaign funds he has collected from Democrats and from members of the LGBT community to give this Catholic legal scholar of the lunatic, Republican fringe a platform in Colorado, Indiana, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Florida, New Mexico, Virginia and Wisconsin. If we witness a spike in hate crimes against the LGBT community in any of these states before votes are cast in November, we will only have Barack Obama and Douglas Kmiec to blame.

We also know who to blame if Barack Obama loses the general election. For the LGBT community does not take too kindly to gay bashing in the name of garnering votes from Evangelicals and other conservative Christians. Barack Obama never had our votes, and he certainly will not gain them if he continues to terrorize devout Christians with the specter of a queer planet.

Obama, by the way, refuses to attend LGBT Democratic events: Michelle Obama was the one who addressed the Gay & Lesbian Leadership Council of the Democratic National Committee in New York City in June, and she was the one who headlined the lunch for LGBT delegates in Denver during the August convention. Barack Obama was nowhere to be found. But then again, the man who has received spiritual guidance from homophobic ministers probably fears that the audience would try to genetically clone him into a gay man.

How odd it is that the Democratic Presidential candidate is a gay basher and the Republican Vice Presidential candidate is a woman who vetoed anti-gay legislation. While Obama is routinely criticized in the LGBT press for his homophobia, Sarah Palin receives accolades from Gay.com for joining the cause of the ACLU and nine homosexual couples employed by the state of Alaska and by the city of Anchorage. Perhaps the LGBT community is one of those constituencies Barack Obama and Donna Brazile believe they can shed as so much toxic waste from the Democratic Party’s past. If this is the case, then I guess the LGBT community should consider supporting the McCain-Palin ticket. After all, Palin supported the community while Obama was bashing it with Donnie McClurkin and Reverend James T. Meeks.

And now Obama will bash the community with the former legal counsel to the Bush and Reagan administrations in 12 states. While this may yield one or two Evangelical votes for Barack Obama, Obama’s continued and unrestrained gay bashing will also result in tens if not hundreds of thousands of LGBT votes for John McCain and Sarah Palin. For similar to the Evangelicals and conservative Christians Obama and Kmiec will court, the LGBT community votes “ALL our values.”

Also see Reverend Amy’s essay on Barack Obama’s second gay bashing tour.

Ah, the arrogance and hubris of the messiah from Honolulu truly is a wonder to behold. He could apologize but he won’t. Instead he will have that McCain ad running and running.

Obama’s charge might be true if it were true that only the McCain campaign is outraged or if they were the first to be outraged. Neither are true. The outrage goes far beyond the McCain campaign and it started long before the McCain camp put out an ad on the subject.

How out of touch can one be?

From the Los Angeles Times:

The emergence of Sarah Palin as a political force in the presidential race has left many top Democrats fretting that, just two weeks after their convention ended on an emotional high, Barack Obama’s campaign has suddenly lost its stride.

Obama has responded aggressively this week to Palin’s presence on the Republican ticket, using TV ads and campaign rallies to attack her contention that she is a political reformer who will take on the Washington establishment — a role Obama has long claimed as his alone.

But some Democrats are now worried about the perils of Obama’s strategy, saying that his campaign, instead of engaging the Alaska governor, should avoid any move that draws more attention to her and could enhance her appeal among the white, blue-collar voters who remain cool to Obama’s candidacy.

A series of new polls suggests that Palin has given a major boost to John McCain’s campaign, exciting the GOP base, winning over white women and all but erasing Obama’s lead.

Concern among Democrats was high enough Tuesday that Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), one of Obama’s strongest supporters, felt it necessary to cite historical polling data at a lunch of Democratic senators to convince them that post-convention “bounces,” such as the one that has followed last week’s GOP convention, have often faded in past elections.

To reassure nervous lawmakers, Durbin also reviewed Democratic registration gains this year in key battleground states.

Still, Democrats expressed anxiety about the new challenge suggested by recent surveys showing McCain has gained ground among independent voters and women, who could decide the race in states such as Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released Tuesday, for instance, shows that McCain is now winning among white women 52% to 41% after having been statistically tied with Obama in that crucial category just a month ago.

“Whenever you see that kind of movement, you ought to be concerned; you ought to try to address it,” said Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), a strong Obama backer.

David Bonior, the former Michigan congressman who managed Democrat John Edwards’ unsuccessful presidential bid, called the new poll findings a “real concern,” adding: “We can’t lose white women and expect to do well in this race.”

One Democratic operative familiar with the campaign’s deliberations worried that the “freshness, newness and aura around Barack has been eclipsed. The campaign has been knocked off stride.”

Another explained that Democrats expected Palin to “have the opposite effect” and drag McCain down, adding: “Whenever there is conventional wisdom in Washington and it’s wrong, that shakes people up.”

The two Democrats, like others interviewed for this story, requested anonymity in order to speak about internal campaign strategy. Obama over the last two days has begun vigorously attacking Palin for decisions she made as governor and has tried to tarnish her image as a political maverick and reformer, highlighting, for example, her initial support for the “bridge to nowhere.”

One new TV ad released this week accuses Palin of lying in claiming to have killed the $398-million link between Ketchikan and its island airport. McCain has ridiculed the project as an egregious example of the kind of pork-barrel spending he has long fought.

Palin has made her opposition to the federally funded bridge a staple of her stump speech, even though she defended it in her 2006 campaign and did not kill it until it was clear that Congress would not pay for it. Also, Obama and his aides have started using increasingly aggressive language in recent days to denounce Palin’s and McCain’s attempts to cast themselves as harbingers of change.

The typically even-keeled Obama on Tuesday night invoked an old cliche and accused Republicans of trying to put “lipstick on a pig” in their adoption of the change mantra, noting that not long ago McCain had tried to present himself as the candidate of experience.

Republicans seized on the comment and tried to portray it as a sexist allusion to Palin, who in her convention speech said that the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull was lipstick.

Obama aides waved off the attacks as a “pathetic attempt to play the gender card.” It was not clear late Tuesday whether the lipstick spat would garner much attention, but the exchange demonstrated the challenges facing Obama as the McCain camp tries to squeeze every possible advantage out of the Palin candidacy. Some Democrats are eager for Obama to be even harder on Palin.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said that independent voters’ enthusiasm for Palin will fade when her conservative record is better known. “They need to get that information out, and they need to get it out quickly,” he said.

But others say that Obama will only help the GOP by attacking Palin and that he should try to relegate her to the campaign’s margins, where his own running mate, Joe Biden, now seems to be residing.

Moreover, some said, attacking a charismatic woman too harshly could backfire. They worry that it would play directly into the Republican strategy of courting female voters and portraying Palin as a middle-class mom under fire from the left and the establishment media. At the same time, they fear it could cloud Obama’s carefully honed image as a post-partisan politician.

“The Obama campaign should stick to their message and not overreact to Palin,” said one Democratic strategist, adding that accusing Palin of being a liar is “a long way from their core brand and shows that they haven’t found the answer of how to deal with her.”

Democratic consultant Eric Jaye, who works with candidates in Michigan, a working-class state that Republicans believe is now more in play because of Palin, said that the Obama campaign needs to be “very careful not to turn Sarah Palin into a working-class heroine.”

Obama aides said this week that the campaign’s position remains strong in key battleground states and that its formidable get-out-the-vote operation will carry it to victory despite the Palin buzz.

Campaign manager David Plouffe dismissed Palin’s potency so far, saying she had been relying on scripted speeches and was doing little more than energizing the GOP’s core conservative base.

“The question is: Over time, day after day, week after week in these last eight weeks, you know, how does that take hold with the swing voters, and what does that really mean to their field operation?” Plouffe said. “And, you know, do they have the architecture and the infrastructure to really take advantage of it?”

From my blog, By The Fault.

if we pull out a 4% spread on election day, I’ll be very pleasantly surprised. It’s much more likely that we are going to see the same result as in ’04 and ’06, a tie or 2% lead. That’s it.

A tied race is particularly bad place for Obama. The Obama campaign planned on putting McCain on the defensive in Western states and overwhelming him with money in the key battleground states. The selection of Palin will probably nullify any Obama inroads in the West and the Republicans are suddendly at financial parity with Obama. Bloomberg News reports:

With an increase in fundraising following McCain’s choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate, Republicans say they are no longer in danger of being swamped by Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama‘s campaign cash.

“The money game is essentially off the table now,” said Eddie Mahe, a former deputy chairman of the Republican National Committee.

In addition to the financial boon brought on by Palin, the attempted swiftboating of Alaska’s governor has created a situation where the public overwhelming perceives the media as being biased for Obama. Armstrong suggests that the attacks on Palin will actually strengthened McCain:

The media has been busy digging a grave for us this past week, by following up on the vicious personal smears that have been pushed by prominent liberal blogs into the mainstream. Not only did they mostly backfire by not being true, but they confirmed the popular opinion that the media favors Obama. It’s become conventional wisdom. This presents two huge problems.

First, McCain can basically wield whatever attacks he’d like, and not have to worry about the critique of the media. They are not seen as objective judges in the matter.

Second, the only way that the media can change this public opinion is to go overboard the other way, by attacking Barack Obama with multiple feeding frenzies.

To date, the media has been unwilling to investigate or critique Obama, so a feeding frenzy is unlikely; there’s nothing to suggest that this will change. The public’s understanding of this bias gives McCain the opportunity to define Obama and link him to the media’s elitism and the D.C.-establishment culture. Obama’s selection of Joe Biden makes McCain’s task much easier. McCain/Palin now own the Change narrative. As Bob Somerby says:

That “maverick” narrative is deeply entrenched—and this planet is driven by narrative. (If we might borrow a bit from Lord Russell: It’s novels, all the way down.)

The Associated Press is reporting that Palin’s speech (and perhaps McCain’s as well) was viewed by more viewers than Obama’s, and her critiques of Obama appear to be taking a toll on the Democratic nominee. Obama seems rattled and is now defending his mysterious work as a “community organizer.” Carolyn Lockhead of the SF Chronicle (h/t Paul Villareal) writes:

Sen. Barack Obama ditched his normal languid cool today, punching back at Gov. Sarah Palin as he spoke with reporters in York, Pa, hotly defending his work as a community organizer. He said he assumes Palin “wants to be treated same way guys want to be treated, which means their records are under scrutinty [sic]. I’ve been through this for 19 months. She’s been through it, what four days?” (emphasis added)

Lockhead seems to be approving of Obama as the political pugilist, as Obama “punches” at his rival’s VP pick. Instead, by saying that Palin “wants to be treated same way guys want to be treated,” Obama is drawing attention to her gender and implying that if she complains of his tactics that she’s not as tough as the “guys.” This is classic Obama sexism: it’s the condescending put-down meant to disempower his female opponent by playing into stereotypes.

In the next sentence, however, Obama comes across as defensive:

Obama’s hackles were clearly raised by Palin’s dismissal of his community organizing –a response to his earlier dismissal of her record as a small-town mayor. “Why would that kind of work be ridiculed?” Obama said. “Who are they fighting for?” The idea that community organizing is not relevant to the presidency, he said, just shows why Republicans “are out of touch and don’t get it.”

The McCain Team should be wary of a cornered Obama. In a similar situation in January, on the heels of back-to-back defeats in New Hampshire and Nevada, Obama, sensing defeat, began to sound rattled. In a column titled “Now or Never,” David Broder described Obama’s desperation in psychological terms:

But all that is down the road from South Carolina. For now, Clinton and her husband, the former president, have gotten inside Obama’s head and rattled his composure. Obama seemed unusually defensive in his speech here Sunday evening, launching the final burst of campaigning in the state

Obama’s firewall in South Carolina, as has been well-documented, was the despicable use of racial politics against the Clintons.

McCain’s selection of Palin has shifted the narrative of this race away from Obama’s Hope message and back to the familiar Marverick narrative. While McCain/Palin own Change, Obama/Biden are the verbose Washington insiders. Independents and women voters are swinging back to McCain, and the electoral map projections will change the “inevitable” narrative. The McCain Team should be wary. In times like these, when Obama is feeling down, he lashes out.

Furthermore, if you’ve ever been lucky enough to have turned on C-Span during one of the exceptionally well-organized forums that Steve sets up (which is what he does for a living), you have been in for a treat. One of our best regular readers — whose comments are always a must-read — is “Mr. Murder.” He sent me an e-mail on August 15th about Steve’s latest forum, “Scripting America’s Priorities: The Democratic Party Platform.” Go to Steve’s blog, and read all about this important forum. (And thanks to Mr. Murder for sending me his e-mail.)

Steve Clemons’ fealty to the “Golden Rule” is an amazing feat since he is very well-connected in Washington, D.C. and knows nearly all of the major players, and I can only imagine how difficult it is to stay true to himself in such a hardball city. It would be natural to become cynical and to indulge in the gossip common in that cut-throat environment. (A prime example is Sally Quinn, who with one hand proudly holds up her religious faith, and with the other cuts people like the Clintons to shreds because they don’t meet her rather snobbish criteria for inclusion in her inner sanctum. Her snobbery is a dishonor to her supposed faith.)

So, when I read this written by Steve Clemons at his fine blog, Washington Note, I know he has thoroughly checked this story, and that he knows whereof he speaks.

Furthermore, I sense, strongly, that Steve Clemons was very unhappy as he wrote this:

“Obama to General Wesley Clark: Your Services Not Needed”

General Wesley Clark is not attending the Democratic National Convention. I was told by General Clark’s personal office in Little Rock that he would not be attending.

Clark was informed by Barack Obama’s people that there was no reason to come.

General Clark has been given no role of any kind at the convention.

Rubbing salt in the wound even more, the “theme” of Wednesday’s Democratic convention agenda is “Securing America.”

Wesley Clark’s PAC also happens to be called SECURING AMERICA.

This speaks volumes about Barack Obama. As the person who sent this article to me added, Barack Obama “holds grudges and is petty.” That is true. Furthermore, it is just plain stupid. One of Barack Obama’s glaring electability issues is his complete lack of experience in the essential arena of NATIONAL SECURITY. Barack Obama needs Gen. Wesley Clark FAR MORE than Gen. Clark needs Barack Obama. This rebuff demonstrates not only pettiness, it proves that Barack Obama lacks common sense.

Here is more from Steve Clemons about the Obama’s campaign notice to Gen. Clark that he is not welcome at the convention in Denver:

This is a mistake in my view. There are a lot of perspectives and competing agendas about how to direct America’s next national security posture — and General Wesley Clark should be one of the top tier names and personalities at the table. …

Please read all of Steve Clemons’ article. And consider the heavy heart with which I sense he wrote this.

[NOTE: I hope that our cartoonist PatRacimora also writes about this. PatRacimora knows Gen. Clark and has long been involved in his campaign activities and his PAC. She will add an important personal touch to this disappointing story.]

During the primaries, Steve Clemons made every effort to be fair to all of the candidates, including both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. He was also critical of all of the candidates when he felt they deserved to be criticized.

He told it like it is. Always. There were a couple times when I wrote to him about columns he published that were critical of Hillary Clinton, and he always — always — wrote me a thoughtful reply.

He is an honorable person. To his core. And so is General Wesley Clark.

In other words, his blog operates as an even-minded resource in the blogosphere — a true rare instance of “objectivity” these days when, frankly, we hunt and choose which stories to write about based on our own feelings and prejudices. I’m as guilty of that as anyone, at times. But Steve never is.

And now, let’s consider how this makes General Clark feel. He was a devoted partner to Hillary Clinton throughout her primary contests. Then, as soon as she suspended her campaign, he went to bat for Barack Obama. Because of one statement he made about John McCain, he became persona non grata to the Obama campaign.

There are other FINE PATRIOTS who have been similarly treated by the Obama camp. Former ambassador Joseph Wilson, a true American hero who campaigned in several states for Hillary Clinton, immediately CALLED Barack Obama’s campaign and offered his services in any way he could. He has never received a call back.

When heroes such as these are cast aside by a presidential campaign, one must ponder what the campaign is really about.

When such EXPERTS in national security are ignored, one must ponder if Barack Obama has any common sense. He needs these patriots’ advice. Desperately.

Aside from winning, that is.

It is a bit understandable that, for a while, the Obama campaign might be wary of General Clark’s services after his sincerely unintended “faux pas” regarding John McCain, which he in NO way meant as an insult but simply as a statement of fact. (It was unfortunate, but what’s past is past. And General Clark has such a distinguished record that the WHOLE of his professional and personal history must be honored.)

And why ignore Joe Wilson? Why ignore Valerie Plame Wilson? Why not appreciate and promote these fine Americans who have given their careers — and in both instances have paid a high price for sticking to their true American values — to protecting this nation and trying, always, to do the right thing?

What possible excuse can Obama invent to justify his continuing mistreatment of Hillary and his disrespect for the greatest president for African-Americans since Lyndon Johnson passed the civil rights and voting rights acts?

In case Obama has forgotten, under the Clinton administration, poverty was reduced 25 percent—one-quarter—with more than 7 million people moved from welfare to work—and 22 million new jobs created—and family incomes and real wages increased for the first time in a generation—and crime reduced by more than 25 percent.

Yes, that Bill Clinton, the one Obama smeared as a racist.

Yes, that Hillary Clinton, the one Obama smeared as racist, too, for stating the historical truth that Lyndon Johnson was essential in passing the civil rights acts and that we need a president on the side of civil rights to make them real.

And if it so happens that Obama is elected, he will be judged by those Clinton benchmarks—a president he dismissed as not producing change compared to…Ronald Reagan—who blocked progress for African-Americans.

Now what possible alibi can the Obama campaign offer for continuing to poke Hillary and those 18 million voters in the eye?

Chuck Todd, NBC’s political editor, explained today on MSNBC’s Morning Joe. According to Big Tent Democratic, on Talkleft.com, Todd has been talking to the geniuses of the Obama campaign. Here’s what they told him:

On Morning Joe, Chuck Todd said that the “feeling in Chicago,” presumably referring to the Obama campaign, is that Hillary Clinton is seeking treatment that she would never have given Barack Obama had the roles been reversed. If they REALLY believe that, then they are fools. If Hillary Clinton were the nominee, Barack Obama would have been the vice presidential nominee a month ago. I can not believe Todd is passing on this foolishness.

But Chuck Todd is not the problem. He’s just relating the unbalanced state of mind of Obama’s campaign.

Let’s follow their whacked out thinking. They fantasize that Hillary would cut them out and dump on them if she were the nominee. Therefore, it’s legitimate for them to cut her out and dump on her and her supporters. Make sense?

Had Chuck Todd consulted with any psychiatrist he would have learned that the Obama campaign suffers from what Freud identified as neurotic “projection.” Projection is a defense mechanism by which negative impulses, motives and actions are displaced onto others, especially on those serving as the objects of those negative feelings and attacks. Projection can be a fantasy rationalization and lead to full-blown paranoia. It is also obviously a form of denial.

Unless treated, the symptoms will worsen.

Obama’s campaign doesn’t have a theme song, except maybe for Ludacris’ foul-mouthed jingle calling Hillary a “bitch.”

Wouldn’t this one from Gnarls Barkley be an appropriate theme song for the Obama campaign?

Check out this video of Gnarls Barkley’s great song, “Crazy.”