Tick tock…

# of days that Sarah Palin has refused to hold a proper press conference: 25

# of days that we have left to learn whether she’s qualified to lead the U.S. in the event of a crisis: 40

David Letterman on John McCain (video)

So McCain bailed on Letterman today to “rush to the airport” to deal with the economic crisis after, y’know, ignoring it for the better part of a year.

The good stuff starts around 6:30, but if you have time, watch the whole thing.

Moment of Truth – Lobbyists

As we await the glorious moment when Ms. Palin does the right thing–the American thing–and opens herself up to the media for an unfettered press conference, we here at Palin Clock will also attempt to cut through the white noise and get at the truth. The truth of what the candidates say, the truth of what the candidates do, the truth behind some of those ridiculous campaign ads.

Today, we tackle lobbyists.  Both camps have substantial ties to lobbyists in one way or another. They’re politicians. It’s Washington. It’s virtually impossible not to. But given recent events, ties to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae seem to be the supreme indicator of a candidate’s potential corruptibility (I know…whatever.)  Given that both candidates have Fannie and Freddie lobbyists working for, or with them, let’s take a closer look at the most egregious claim bandying about the media and the blogosphere. 

Sen. Barack Obama is the second highest receipient of campaign contributions from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae ($126,349).

Yes, Sen. Obama received $126,349 from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. What does every biased report leave out? Total Contributions to Obama from Fannie and Freddie PACs = $6,000. Total Contributions from Individual Employees = $120,349.

 

Now lets take a closer look at contributions to both candidates from Directors of the of the Freddie and Fannie Boards (People like Geoffrey Boisi, Alfonse D’Amato and the like.) Total contributions to John McCain = $169,900. Total contributions to Barack Obama = $16,000. [Source NY Times]

 

Nineteen McCain advisers and fundraisers lobbied for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

McCain Senior Adviser Wayne Berman Continues to Lobby for Fannie Mae. Wayne Berman has lobbied for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from 2004 through the 2nd quarter of 2008. Their firm earned over $100,000 from Freddie Mac in 2004 and over $1 million from Fannie Mae. [Senate Lobbying Disclosures]

 

Six of McCain’s advisers and fundraisers lobbied for Freddie Mac including:

 

·         McCain’s Current Chief of Staff Mark Buse,

 

·         top McCain adviser Charles Black,

 

·         Carlos Bonilla,

 

·         Al D’Amato,

 

·         Juleanna Glover Weiss

 

·         Susan Molinari.

 

Thirteen of them lobbied for Fannie Mae including:

 

·         McCain’s Congressional Liaison John Green,

 

·         Head of VP Search Team AB Culvahouse,

 

·         Wayne Berman,

 

·         Kirk Blalock,

 

·         Alberto Cardenas,

 

·         Kirsten Chadwick,

 

·         Richard Holht,

 

·         Kate Hull,

 

·         Aleix Jarvis,

 

·         Tom Loeffler,

 

·         Peter Madigan,

 

·         Allison McSlarrow

 

·         Aquiles Suarez.

Alaskans don’t like Palin either… (video)

Protest rally members at Palin’s “homecoming” in Alaska last week apparently outnumbered supporters by a substantial margin:

w00t (video – Senator Obama on the current economic crisis)

One interesting result of posting a lot of video material related to Election08 has been watching the traffic. Posts like Matt Damon on Sarah Palin, and Tina Fey’s SNL performance have, understandably, done very well.

What’s striking to me is the magnitude of the difference. Both of the candidates have several hours of really excellent speeches on YouTube, with only a few hundred views apiece, while Matt Damon’s one off comments just passed 1.3 million…

All of which is to say, Senator Obama’s comments re: the economic crisis this morning were, IMO, really excellent – and deserve 5 minutes of your time if you care about the future of this country. Please watch:

Is McCain Palin’s b-tch? (video)

I somehow neglected to post Lisa Nova’s video previously. Consider the oversight corrected

John McCain’s health problem (Brave New Films video)

It bears repeating: there is a better than 1 in 3 chance that McCain won’t survive his term in office. His father and grandfather both died at ages younger than McCain is today.

All of which makes the Palin choice even more reckless than would ordinarily be the case. Russian roulette, as I’ve observed previously. And if that doesn’t scare the hell out of you, you’re not paying attention.

Cliff notes

Also for P, who wanted a quick reference guide for use while phone-banking. Somebody over at DKos put together an excellent one-stop reference document: “Know your stuff, Obama supporters.”

John McCain *has* more experience with the lending industry than Barack Obama

See?

(by johnzep over at 538. he apologized for the “Windows Movie Maker production values” – but I think it’s pretty good. check it out.)

Tick tock…

# of days that Sarah Palin has refused to hold a proper press conference: 18

# of days that we have left to learn whether she’s qualified to lead the U.S. in the event of a crisis: 49