As the American public ponders who they’ll vote for in the 2008 presidential election, lawyers behind the scenes are gearing up to ensure that everyone’s vote counts.

In the battleground states like Florida, Ohio, Colorado, Virginia, and Nevada, the Democratic and Republican parties are deploying teams of lawyers at the polls to ensure that bureaucracy and voting violations don’t take place on Nov. 4.

The Ledger.com of Lakeland, Florida reported Oct. 5:

“In the past, the Election Day process wasn’t considered to be as crucial as the campaign that led up to that,” said Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer. “Now we see that the Election Day process is equally as important, or more so.”

Since the historic 2000 election between Al Gore and George W. Bush, voting will never be the same. Many people still remember the notorious “hanging chads” in Florida and going to bed on the eve of the 2000 election thinking Al Gore had won the presidency bid. Since this debacle, Help America Vote Act (NAVA) of 2002 was passed to nix punch card (read: chads) voting systems, create the Election Assistance Commission to watch over Federal elections, and establish minimum election administration standards. Thus, lawyers are showing up at the polls, especially in key swing states, to ensure NAVA is followed to the letter.

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The presidential debate last Friday has been analyzed and critiqued to the hilt, especially the candidates words.

Check out this funny video by Scott Bateman that dissects the body language of John McCain and Barack Obama and what wasn’t said in last week’s presidential debate. A lumpy-faced McCain takes on a tall-headed Obama in this clever video.

I thought we had a separation of church and state in the United States. Apparently, some ministers overlooked that memo.

This past Sunday, Christian ministers across the country took the laws into their own hands by telling their congregations to vote for John McCain.

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, at least 33 ministers knew they were breaking the federal tax law but chose to do so anyway in protest.

“As Christians it’s clear we should vote for John McCain,” said Rev. Fran Pulto of Calvary Chapel in Philadelphia in a Wall Street Journal. “He is the only candidate I believe a Christian can vote for.”

For these pastors, pushing conservative social values like anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage were worth the IRS investigation.
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According to most national polls and surveys, Democratic presidential nominee Obama is the assumptive winner of Friday’s 2008 presidential debate, the first in the series of three. The Republican nominee John McCain and Obama debated foreign policy, national security and spent half the time discussing the current economic crisis.

This debate clarified three keys issues for Americans to consider in this presidential selection process.

First, the discussion revealed that McCain’s policy and thinking is rooted in the past. And Obama’s orientation is towards the future. McCain wanted the American viewers to remember his record on national security, and foreign policy and service. The problem is that Americans already know his record because that’s what his two decades in the Senate reflect. And his Vietnam P.O.W. experience is undisputed. However, what McCain seemed to forget is that Americans want to know what he is going to do for them in the future. Obama was smart to spend most of his two minutes detailing the components of his economic plan and simultaneously overcame criticisms of him being too vague or gives lofty speeches.

Obama: What I do is I close corporate loopholes, stop providing tax cuts to corporations that are shipping jobs overseas so that we’re giving tax breaks to companies that are investing here in the United States. I make sure that we have a health care system that allows for everyone to have basic coverage.

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From the looks of a YouTube video that surfaced online Wednesday, Republican veep candidate, Sarah Palin, may have her own Reverend Wright challenges.

The Associated Press reported that the 2005 video shows the pre-governor, Sarah Palin, being blessed in her hometown Wasilla Assembly of God church. Thomas Muthee, a Kenyan Pastor who AP said has been linked to her church, is shown praying for her protection against “witchcraft” before she starts her campaign for governor of Alaska.

In addition to warding off spells, Muthee also calls on God’s help for Palin’s campaign finances. He said, “Make her way my God. Bring finances her way even for the campaign in the name of Jesus. … Use her to turn this nation the other way around.”

A few months after this blessing, Palin filed campaign paperwork and was elected governor in October 2005.

According to AP, a person from the Wasilla church has confirmed the video but declined to comment. And the McCain team has also declined to comment at this time.

Pop and Politics’s own Tara Graham offers additional insights into Palin’s Pentecostal, evangelical roots, which may or may not help to understand her 2005 witchcraft protection blessing.

McCain’s recent education ad deals Obama some pretty harsh blows. The ad claims Obama wants 5-year olds to learn about sex before reading. And it says Obama has accomplished zilch in the education arena. Of course, it doesn’t speak at all to McCain’s track record on sex education or lessons for the kiddies.

Well, I’ve done a little digging and found that the statements are largely untrue, according to FactCheck.org.

STATEMENT 1: The ad claims that Obama’s one accomplishment is “legislation to teach comprehensive sex education to kindergarteners.”

FALSE – Although the Illinois bill McCain speaks of included the phrase “comprehensive sex education,” it also mandated age-appropriate instruction for kindergartners about issues like sexually transmitted diseases, inappropriate touching, etc. Obama supported the legislation because it would update Illinois’ sex education curriculum by making it “medically accurate.” And under the legislation, parents could remove their children from the class – no questions asked.

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So where does McCain really stand on the issue of torture? Is the Republican presidential candidate and former prisoner of war in Vietnam, in favor of the use of torture or against it.

When asked by Marie Claire magazine recently which celebrity he identifies with most, McCain said:

“Kiefer Sutherland. [laughs, imitates a voice from the show 24] ‘It’s Jack Bauer.’ We have a lot in common because he escapes all the time.”

However, when reminded of Jack Bauer’s use of torture in the show, McCain does a Hollywood Retake. He says:

“Yeah, that’s right. That’s where Jack and I disagree. He believes in torture, but I don’t. He says, “Tell me where the weapons are.” The person says, “I won’t.” Bam! “OK, I’ll tell.”

I’m not sure which is more disconcerting. McCain’s choice of Jack Bauer from “24” as the character he most identifies with. The fact that policymakers like McCain are actually influenced by fictional television characters. (Who said TV doesn’t affect the viewers?) Or maybe McCain’s choice of Bower was a Freudian slip on his torture views?

Yet despite his denial, McCain’s record on torture belies another story. According to his voting record, McCain voted against a bill banning the use of waterboarding by the CIA. And after the bill passed, he asked Bush to veto it.

So, let’s ask the question again. Is McCain for or against torture? Here is a little refresher of McCain’s stance on torture back in February 2008, courtesy of MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann.

Back in July, McCain accused Obama of pulling the race card after Obama told supporters in Missouri that he didn’t look like the other presidents on the dollar bill. Well now, someone “loosely” associated with the McCain & Palin duo is truly showcasing the race issue. However, in this particular case, I’m not sure it’s believable.

According to a video circulating around YouTube, an African American guy named Kevin is claiming to be the father of Bristol Palin’s baby. He says that Bristol was sexually intimate with him “outside of her relationship” with Levi Johnston, the reported father. He even asks Bristol to call him, and he would take the video off YouTube.

Kevin actually blames race as the reason the truth about the child’s paternity is being kept a secret. In the video, he said:

I didn’t want to pull the race card but feel like Ms. Palin (he mispronounced as PAL-in, not PAY-lin) is keeping me away from my child to keep her political career in good standing. She understands that an African American male being the father of her child wouldn’t be best for her career.

The kicker to this paternity video is that old Kevin doesn’t agree with Gov. Palin’s politics, and is voting for Obama. And it probably comes as no surprise; Kevin is a “musician working on his urban rap career in LA.”

smooches,

The Caramel Bella

Today’s theme at the DNC is “Securing America’s Future,” a topic made more urgent by the Iraq war and the simmering Russian-Georgian conflict.

Like me, I am sure you are wondering what national security will look like if Barack Obama is elected president. And I wonder how the democrats will face the challenge that Obama is losing to McCain on the issues of national security.

The CNN and Opinion Research Corporation poll released today “indicates that the American public considers presumed Republican presidential nominee John McCain better than Obama on terrorism and Iraq, and voters consider McCain a stronger leader who would have better judgment in an international crisis.”

In fact, the poll shows that 78 percent feel McCain can handle the responsibilities of commander-in-chief with only 58 percent who feel Obama can. McCain also led Obama on perception as a stronger leader and who would have best judgment in an international crisis by 10 percent or more spread.

So, I recently attended the “Next Administration’s National Security & Defense Priorities” event presented by the Truman National Security Project to answer these questions about Obama as the next commander-in-chief. The presentation featured Obama advisors former Secretary of Defense William Perry and former Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig and Joe Klein of TIME magazine was the moderator.

At the outset, I was surprised to find a discussion held by progressives on national security. Many people seem to think that Republicans are the only ones concerned about defense, military capabilities, national security and foreign policy. This misconception couldn’t be farther from the truth. The Truman event showed that Democrats and Progressives across the country have been developing alternative ways to structure national security discussions, but who is listening? Is their message getting through to the voting America public?

The former Secretary of Defense William Perry began the event by stating national security involves more than the use of military force, but a cohesive and comprehensive national security agenda to develop tactical initiatives. Former Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig agreed and believes the Bush Administration went wrong in this area.

“The Iraq surge was ill-conceived because it was simply tactical without an overall national security strategy,” said Danzig.

Danzig proposed America make investments in a broad range of national security goals, not a single wartime event or military tactic.

He proposed that America consider a new paradigm on national security policy and cited three components of Obama’s national security proposal.

1. We (U.S.) can’t do all of this ourselves. We must work with others. – The world is multilateral. We can’t handle all of the world’s problems alone.
2. Other nations must be in the forefront. – The U.S. needs allies to take the lead.
3. We (U.S.) must understand the huge political dimensions in the world. – Our actions don’t exist in a vacuum, so we must understand their political ramifications. We must also respect and understand the politics of other nations.

Obviously, Danzig supports Obama’s thoughts on national security but he also believes that character matters heavily in selecting our next commander-in-chief.

“A sense of trust in the candidate to be commander-in-chief is important,” said Danzig. “Obama has the quality of character required.”

Danzig said the key qualities are an evenness of temperament, an ability to listen and an awareness of the phenomena of the 21st century. All of these qualities Obama possesses said Danzig.

“I’ve seen Obama under a great amount of pressure and I’ve never seen Obama lose his temper and balance,” said Danzig. “And McCain is well known for ‘losing it.’”

Obama also talks with people that both agree and disagree with his positions, which Danzig said is key to a great commander-in-chief. “Obama’s position is that he wants people to disagree with him so he can understand their perspective.”

Danzig noted that McCain does not have these same character traits. And he said “McCain often arrives at views too quickly, digs in very deeply and this quality is very destructive.”

And although youthfulness is not a requirement for our next president, Danzig thinks it’s a good idea for our next commander-in-chief to understand the century that we are living in and modern technology.

McCain doesn’t use a blackberry. And when asked about the Internet, McCain said he is going to check out “the Google,” said Danzig. Will McCain comprehend cyber security and other more technologically advanced security threats?

After hearing an hour and a half of discussions on national security and the strengths and weakness of Obama and McCain, my biggest realization was that the Democratic Party has some serious work to do. For some reason, Americans seem to trust Republicans more in times of war and foreign policy, which is surprising in light of the Iraq war. And the democrats, Danzig, Perry and Truman policy analysts may have some great ideas, but who is really listening? Can Obama’s choice of Senator Joe Biden (D-DE), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as VP level the playing field?

Obama and Biden have some serious work to breakthrough misconceptions on Democrats and national security and even more work to lead the discussions. Let’s get cracking boys!

Is the best energy policy coming from Paris Hilton? Hilton has responded to her unauthorized appearance in John McCain’s recent attack ad against Obama, which featured her and Britney Spears. In the ad, McCain calls Obama a celebrity and questions his ability to lead.

Hilton, upset about being featured in the tv ad, decided to craft her own response. She might possibly have the best energy plan out there – drilling, alternative energy development and nuclear power.  Take a listen. Hilton for VP, anyone?

The Caramel Bella