McCain leads: Obama leaves, politics as usual

Two years ago at our darkest hour in the war in Iraq, John McCain said he would rather lose an election than see his country lose a war. He doubled down, calling for a surge of troops to victory.

It was a huge gamble, but McCain, Gen. Petraeus, President Bush, our troops and our country won.

Now John McCain is taking another huge gamble, saying he'd rather lose an election than see his country's economy sink. And he's doubling down again, suspending his campaign until the crisis is solved and calling on Obama and the Democrats to join him in working out a solution.

Tomorrow morning, I will suspend my campaign and return to Washington after speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative. I have spoken to Senator Obama and informed him of my decision and have asked him to join me.

I am calling on the President to convene a meeting with the leadership from both houses of Congress, including Senator Obama and myself. It is time for both parties to come together to solve this problem.

We must meet as Americans, not as Democrats or Republicans, and we must meet until this crisis is resolved. I am directing my campaign to work with the Obama campaign and the commission on presidential debates to delay Friday night's debate until we have taken action to address this crisis.

Obama's response? He turned down McCain's invitation this afternoon and says he will continue with his campaign, politics as usual. Whatever happened to that bold, new candidate who wanted to "change" politics as usual and lead us on to greener pastures? Captain Vapid rides on alone.

"Vapid: Insipid, tedious, dull, uninteresting." (The American College Dictionary)

"Vanity Fair: From John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, a fair which goes on perpetually in the town of Vanity. Symbolizes worldly ostentation and frivolity... given over to vain pleasure or empty show." (The American College Dictionary)

When Christopher Hitchens at Slate, a columnist for Vanity Fair and a big-time Obama supporter, asks "Why is Obama so vapid and hesitant and gutless?" to mangle a Jeff Foxworthy phrase, that just might be a sign that Obama ain't a redneck, plus a sign he ain't getting no redneck votes.

Us rednecks do not read Vanity Fair and until this redneck looked it up in the dictionary, I wasn't even sure what "vapid" meant. "Airhead" was the first thing that popped to mind. Close enough. I also didn't know just where that fancy-dancy, leftwing-liberal Noo Yawk magazine Vanity Fair got its name. But I have heard of John Bunyan's Christian classic, Pilgrim's Progress, and it's a pretty good sign that your magazine's philosophy "Symbolizes worldly ostentation and frivolity... given over to vain pleasure or empty show" when that's the name you call yourself.

But I guess I'm an even stupider redneck than I thought I was or there's not as many of us rednecks as I thought there was. Obama's doing just fine without us redneck voters. Captain Gutless Vapid don't need no stinkin' plan for the economy. He's a Democrat and that's enough.

Else why has Captain Vapid, who has yet to offer even a hint of a plan to get us out of the current economic crisis we are in, suddenly vaulted into his first clear lead in the race, 9 points overall and a 14-point lead in dealing with the economy, sez a Washington Post-ABC News poll?

And while Captain Vapid hums insipidly, the adult on the other ticket takes a risky move. John McCain has suspended his campaign to return to Washington to work in the Senate to help resolve the crisis.

Captain Vapid says "Why bother to lead when my numbers improve dramatically in the polls?"

More voters trust Obama to deal with the economy, and he currently has a big edge as the candidate who is more in tune with the economic problems Americans now face. He also has a double-digit advantage on handling the current problems on Wall Street, and as a result, there has been a rise in his overall support. The poll found that, among likely voters, Obama now leads McCain by 52 percent to 43 percent. Two weeks ago, in the days immediately following the Republican National Convention, the race was essentially even, with McCain at 49 percent and Obama at 47 percent...

In the new poll, voters once again gave Obama higher marks than McCain when it comes to dealing with the economy, 53 percent to 39 percent. Two weeks ago, Obama's edge on the question was a narrow five points, his lowest of the campaign. Among independents, Obama's advantage on the economy -- now 21 points -- is greater than at any point in the campaign... He also now holds a double-digit lead as the more honest and trustworthy candidate, flipping what had been a slight McCain edge two weeks ago.

That last sentence is the one that gobsmacks me. As Ace named him, "Captain Bullshit" is "the more honest and trustworthy candidate"!!!???? This man has been on the stump for more than two years, telling whoppers that would make Bill and Hillary blush, and the big majority of the voters think he's "more honest and trustworthy" than McCain, whose biggest problem is he tells the truth even when it hurts? Sanity has left the planet.

I can sorta, kinda get where voters lean to Democrats on the economy. They're wrong, but I get why. But Obama is "honest and trustworthy"?! I'm speechless. If Obama and the media have sold the voters that bag of BS, us rednecks might as well lean over the kiss our behinds goodbye.

Conventional wisdom has long said voters trust Democrats to handle the economy ever since Herbert Hoover started the Great Depression and FDR ended it, right? Wrong as hell! Herbert Hoover paddled and bailed but he couldn't save the ship. Democrats in Congress touched off the panic with some stupid banking regulations and the Roaring '20s came to a crashing end in a perfect storm of economic consequences piling up.

Conventional wisdom is the product of a liberal-dominated public school system, that been telling lies as history since the Great Depression, like Joe Biden's ridiculous rewrite of history, remembering how FDR came on the TV to reassure Americans when the stock market crashed in 1929.

And FDR didn't end the Great Depression on TV. His government programs spending money like water on make-work "jobs" actually competed with private enterprise and made the Depression worse. World War II put Americans back to work with good ol' American capitalism, making real products like guns and tanks in the shut-down factories. Thank you Hilter and Tojo, we couldn't have done it without you. May you rot in hell.

Hitler was right about one thing: If you tell the people great big whoppers often enough and long enough, they'll start believing it's the truth.

And here we are again, paying the tab for a Fannie-Mae & Freddie-Mac meltdown created by Obama, Barney Frank and the Democrats in Congress in 2005, which Senator John McCain and a few Republicans tried to head off at the pass but got cut off at the knees. So who do the voters trust to handle this mess? The same SOBs who created it!? And who gets the blame? The poor slobs who tried to stop it!? Madness.

Ain't Fox News the most popular TV news show by far? I hope lots of voters saw Jim Angle's report last night on the Democrats whodunit and the Republicans who tried to stop them. Angel answered the big question "Who's responsible for the Fannie and Freddie Mess?" Guess who.

OK, rant over. My only hope is this poll is by WaPo-ABC, so it could be BS. Maybe the pollsters asked if McCain had stopped beating his wife? Maybe they asked if Obama is honest or trustworthy, pick one? Maybe WaPo-ABC is so far in the tank for Obama they'd tell a big baldfaced lie?

You think? If not, it's looking like even if Obama dumped Michelle and eloped with Clay Aiken, they'd become the first all-male White House duo.

WaPo-ABC's numbers do seem a bit high for Obama. The latest Gallup has Obama maintaining a 3-point edge, Rasmussen has Obama up by 2.

And Kathryne Jean Lopez at The Corner on NRO reports: "The poll — shock! — skews Dem. There were 10-percent more of them polled. Fight on."

Actually the WaPo-ABC poll is based on a "16-point Democratic party ID advantage" says McCain-Palin campaign lead pollster, Bill McInturff.

So just in case there's still hope voters ain't so stupid after all, here's the straight skinny from the Ace of Spades on the Fannie-Freddie mess.

It was Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, ACORN, Franklin Raines, Penny Pritzker, Jim Johnson, and of course Barack Hussein Obama who actually built the bomb.

And I Repeat... Even now, the lisping marble-mouthed shufferin'-shucatash socialist moron Barney Frank is still fighting to federally guarantee the zero-money-down "seller financed" down payment mortgages that got us into this mess.

Because he's fucking stupid. As are most Democrats. They have no idea how money is made or how services and goods are exchanged. All they know is they want to distribute those services and goods more "fairly."

He doesn't agree with the basic idea that People who don't have enough money to afford a house shouldn't have one. He honestly believes that idea is "unfair."

Everyone should have a house. People who can't afford them most of all.

And if you tell him doing so will cost the government another 1-2 trillion in ten years, and will put the economy in crisis again, he'd say, "Fine." It's a fair trade as far as he's concerned.

Because who's paying that 1-2 trillion? People who have money. If provoking a crisis is the only manner to get the wealth distribution he craves, that's fine by him.

Thanks Ace. I know you're a big shot blogger up in Noo Yawk City, but I think I'm gonna induct you as an honorary Southern redneck.