Meet Me in St. Louis

100,000 Obama supporters in St. Louis, MO.
Barack Obama made history again today after drawing the highest American crowd of this year's presidential campaign.

The senator who became the first black man to become a candidate was cheered on by more than 100,000 people in St Louis, Missouri.

‘All I can say is wow,’ he said as he took the stage in his latest bid to woo voters in the key battleground state.

...‘George Bush and John McCain are out of ideas, they are out of touch, and if you stand with me in 17 days they’ll be out of time.’

Obama's XBOX Ads

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has taken political advertising into uncharted waters this month. In an advertising first, political ads for the Illinois senator have begun appearing on billboards in "Burnout: Paradise City," a car-racing video game on the Xbox 360 console.

The game features a multiplayer element in which users can play against each other if they hook their Xbox consoles up to the Internet. When the game is connected to the Web, new advertisements can be placed on billboards that players see as they race through the streets.

Obama's ad reads "Early voting has begun. Voteforchange.com. Paid for by Obama for President."

Although Weide cannot predict the effectiveness of political online ads in general, he believes the Obama in-game ads will work to grab the attention of game-playing voters.

"This Barack Obama ad is going to be very effective, because it is an unusual ad in a new and unusual marketing channel -- in-game ads -- so it is bound to get a lot of attention in the target group. Plus, because of this, it is also bound to get a lot of press coverage and indirect PR for the Obama campaign," he pointed out.

Don't It Make My Red State Blue

In a reliably Republican stronghold like Indiana most Democratic candidates don't even waste their time and money campaigning in the Hoosier State. But, not Barack Obama.

The Obama campaign has been working to flip the state into the Democratic column this year.

They have spent significant amounts of money and time in the state, while Republican John McCain is M.I.A.

The Obama campaign has "competed with a ground game that no one's ever seen in the state."
Indiana, with 11 electoral votes, is one of only a handful of states where Obama's advertising has been unanswered by McCain. The Democrat has 32 offices across the state and dozens of paid staffers. His campaign spent about $6 million on television advertising in Indiana leading up to the May primary and has aired at least $1.5 million in TV ads since June.

Obama has made five stops in the state since mid-July, and running mate Joe Biden was returning to the state Wednesday.

The McCain campaign, by contrast, is nearly invisible. It has no field offices or paid staffers working full-time in the state, and McCain hasn't visited the state since July 1. Republicans were expected to respond to Obama's ad presence in the state with ads of their own later this week. George W. Bush won with 60 percent in 2004 and 57 percent in 2000, and the state last went Democratic in the 1964 Lyndon Johnson landslide.

Today, Senator Obama held a rally at the Indiana State Fair Grounds in Indianapolis. According to the firemarshall, over 20.000 Obama supporters were in attendance.

According to the Indianapolis Star: "The closeness of the race in Indiana has drawn national attention. Today, ABC will broadcast its evening news show, with anchor Charlie Gibson, live from Indianapolis. A spokesman for the ABC affiliate in Indianapolis, WRTV (Channel 6), said the show will broadcast its 6:30 p.m. news show from the St. Clair bridge over the Downtown canal."

Candidate Fashion on the Runways of Paris

What does it mean when a presidential candidate becomes a fashion trend? I've been trying to wrap my head around this trend in wearable Obama-gear. Senator Obama's image emblazons t-shirts, sweat shirts, and baseball caps across the urban streets of America.

What is surprising is that the Obama ready-to-wear isn't just an inner-city, urban phenomenon. On the catwalk during Fashion Week in Paris, a model wears a short, bright yellow dress of freedom and hope. This model is sporting a larger than life portrait of Obama, by French designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac during his spring-summer 2009 ready-to-wear collection presented in Paris, Friday, Oct. 3, 2008. (AP Photo/Michel Euler).

Sure our eyes have grown accustomed to his face on t-shirts in the states, but to actually see an Obama likeness on displayed along with the haute couture of Channel is truly remarkable and certainly a sign of our times.

According to Forbes Magazine: "Fashion is getting more accessible," says Nandini D'Souza, senior fashion features editor at Women's Wear Daily, the trade newspaper of the women's apparel industry, and its sister publication, W. "It is entertainment and it is fun. It is incredible business and incredible entertainment."

Win or lose, the Obama-gear fad certainly marks a time an a spirit during an age of change.

Homer Votes for Obama

Obama: Failed GOP Economy

Obama on Letterman

Explain It To Me Like I'm A Four Year-Old

In the 1993 movie Philadelphia starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington, the Attorney Joe Miller (Denzel) often asks his client, Andrew Becket (Tom Hanks) to explain things to him like he was a two year-old. That's what Obama's campaign is lacking. Obviously, the same nation that voted George W. Bush into office not once, but twice needs the simplicity and message management of a small child.

Here's a small clip of Denzel delivering his lines of explain it to me like I'm a two year-old. Keep it simple enough for a small child that still drinks from a sippy cup and wears pull-ups to understand.

http://www.evtv1.com/player.aspx?itemnum=6010

From 20 Setember 2006 issue of Slate: "Obama's Message Deficit: Why he needs an economic slogan" by Jacob Weisberg:

Barack Obama has a range of sensible economic policies. He has a team of prudent advisers with a centrist, pro-trade cast. He may even have some grasp of why the American financial system collapsed last week.

What Obama doesn't have, so far, is an economic message. He's missing a story about what's gone wrong with the American economy and how to fix it. He hasn't managed to present his various proposals on taxes, health care, energy, housing foreclosures, and the rest in a way that resonates with voters. He hasn't emphasized a few signature policies to let us know what his top priorities are. He hasn't got a decent slogan. If you go to the economy section on Obama's Web site, the banner that greets you proclaims, "Responsible Tax Cuts for Ordinary Americans." It's accompanied by an image of two piggy banks, a small one labeled "Taxes" and a big one labeled "Savings." The fat piggie is overflowing with pennies. What, exactly, is the concept here? That we should save less to feed the tax piglet?

The ability to organize economic issues around a simple, lucid theme was a talent of our two most successful recent presidents. Ronald Reagan offered an overarching narrative about how government had come to play too large a role in the economy. His most famous slogans—"Get the government off our backs," "Morning again in America," "Are you better off than you were four years ago?"—all got at his notion of unshackling enterprise from its bureaucratic fetters to restore growth. Bill Clinton had a different tale about how ordinary Americans—people who work hard and play by the rules—were falling behind. His catchphrases—"Putting people first," "It's the economy, stupid," "Building a bridge to the 21st century"—similarly supported the policy changes he thought would help the struggling middle class.

Read the entire Slate column here.

GOP Attack Machine

As he bids to be president, Barack Obama is feeling the force of the mighty Republican propaganda machine. TV and radio hosts, authors and well-funded lobby groups have joined forces in a sophisticated and aggressive smear campaign. Paul Harris, from across the pond at the UK Guardian reports on the attack dogs

The Republican war room in Denver looked harmless. It was on a busy road in a neighbourhood of modest motels and petrol stations. Only a handmade sign, emblazoned with an arrow and the words 'John McCain', pointed the way.

But looks can be deceiving. More than two dozen Republican staffers were camped in Denver last week, spearheading the latest assaults on Barack Obama who was addressing the Democratic convention nearby. 'We came here to piss the Democrats off,' said one Republican aide with a grin.

They have largely succeeded. Each day new adverts have hammered a relentless drumbeat of negativity, painting Obama as too liberal, too inexperienced and practically a danger to America's future. Leading lights of the Republican universe have paraded in front of the cameras in a disciplined display of party message-making. A typical performance came from former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani. 'There are still a lot of serious questions about Barack Obama's preparedness to lead the country,' Giuliani said, before stepping aside to showcase the latest ad on a huge flat-screen TV.

The ad attacked Obama as being so ignorant of foreign affairs that he was virtually a security threat himself. It touched on scare issues such as Islamic terrorism and Iranian nukes. Then it represented Obama's positions on national security as naive and weak. 'These are contrast ads,' Giuliani said afterwards. 'And both sides do them.'

That is only half-true. Democrats do launch attack ads and campaign negatively but no one does it like the Republican party. Under a succession of dark geniuses, the party has perfected the black art of negative campaigning. It has created the most effective attack machine in the Western world, with the sole purpose of destroying opponents and winning elections. For opponents it is a source of shock, misery and more than a little envy. Its tentacles stretch from the McCain campaign into the murky corners of talk radio, the internet and shadowy groups willing to use any outlandish smear.

Now that machine is focused with laser-like intensity on Obama. The clamour is loud and shrill: Obama is vain, inexperienced, liberal and dangerous. It is backed by a clandestine chorus whispering that he has a secretive Islamic past and it uses racially loaded language. It is also only going to get louder. This week, as McCain and the Republicans gather for their party convention in the Minnesota city of St Paul, the noise will become deafening. It has one purpose - to keep the White House in Republican hands at all costs and against the odds.

Read the full article, by Paul Harris, here.

Meet Joe Biden

Scared-4-America supports smart people in politics. While Sarah Palin is certainly a colorful character, not necessarily the trait that one looks for in Executive Branch leadership. Joe Biden, on the other hand, is smart. Joe Biden earned a Jurist Doctorate, while Sarah Palin attended some random Jr. College in Idaho. Senator Biden's spouse holds a Ph.D., while Governor Palin's spouse has a high school diploma. Furthermore, both Senators Obama and Biden are professors in Constitutional Law.

At the top of the ticket, Senator Obama graduated manga cum laude at the top of his Harvard Law School class, while Senator McCain graduated at the bottom of his class at the Naval Academy 894 out of 899.

Joe Biden is a rare mix. A leader who has worked for decades in Washington, but has never lived there. An expert on foreign policy, whose heart and values are firmly rooted in the middle class; one who has stared down dictators, and spoken for America's cops and firefighters. He is uniquely suited to serve as Barack Obama’s partner in the urgent mission to bring about the change America needs to put our country back on track.

Joe's Bio:

Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., age 65, was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on November 20, 1942, to Joseph Sr. and Jean Biden. He was the oldest of four children. In 1953, the Biden family moved from Pennsylvania to Claymont, Delaware. Biden attended parochial school at St. Helena’s School in Wilmington and the Archmere Academy in Claymont. Public service was part of the Biden family, with one of Joe's great grandfathers serving as a Pennsylvania state senator.
After graduating from the University of Delaware in 1965 and from law school at Syracuse University in 1968, Biden moved back to the Wilmington area and set up his own law firm. He practiced law until 1972.

In 1970, Biden – at age 27 – ran for New Castle County Council and won in a Republican district. At age 29, he launched an improbable bid to unseat two-term Republican U.S. Sen. J. Caleb Boggs. With very little help from the state establishment, and with his sister as his campaign manager, Biden defeated Boggs by 3,162 votes.

Just weeks after the election, Biden’s wife, Neilia, and their 1-year-old daughter, Naomi, were killed and their two young sons critically injured in an auto accident. Biden was sworn in at his son's hospital bedside and began commuting to Washington every day by train, a practice he has maintained throughout his career in the Senate.

In 1977, Biden married Jill Jacobs. Jill Biden, who holds a PhD in education, has been an educator for over two decades in Delaware's schools. Currently she is a professor at Delaware Technical Community College.

Senator Biden has three children: Beau, Hunter and Ashley. Beau currently serves as Delaware's Attorney General; a captain in the 261st Signal Brigade of the Delaware National Guard, he will be deployed to Iraq this October. Ashley is a social worker and Hunter is an attorney. Senator Biden also has five grandchildren: Naomi, Finnegan, Roberta Mabel, Natalie, and Robert Hunter.

In addition to serving as U.S. Senator, Biden has been an adjunct professor at the Widener University School of Law since 1991, where he teaches a seminar on constitutional law.

Source: Barack Obama.com

Obama, McCain Put Politics Aside on 9/11 Anniversary

By Julianna Goldman. Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Barack Obama and John McCain will put their presidential ambitions on hold today to make an unprecedented joint appearance at a commemoration marking the seventh anniversary of the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

With no speeches and little fanfare, the two candidates will walk together down a ramp into the pit where the World Trade Center towers once loomed over lower Manhattan and lay a wreath at Ground Zero for the Sept. 11 attacks.

In the seven years since the terrorist strike that killed almost 3,000 people in New York, at the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania, Sept. 11 has been a tool and a trap for U.S. politicians. Yet the day itself has remained sacred.

``Both parties have used it for their own political benefits, but it is risky,'' said Trent Duffy, a former aide to President George W. Bush and a partner at the Washington communications firm HDMK. The candidates ``realize that the best statesmanship, and hence the best political move, is to not play politics on 9/11.''

Keeping up the nonpartisan spirit of the commemoration, McCain and Obama later will make back-to-back appearances at a televised forum on civic engagement sponsored by Columbia University. The subject is one of the few on which the candidates generally agree.

Commemorations

Bush today observed a moment of silence at the White House and then went to the Pentagon to dedicate a memorial to the victims there. McCain, before heading to New York, attended a service in rural Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where United Air Lines Flight 93 crashed after passengers tried to overpower the terrorists steering the plane toward Washington.

``I have had the great honor and privilege to witness great courage and sacrifice for America's sake, but none greater than the sacrifice of those good people who grasped the gravity of the moment, understood the threat and decided to fight back at the cost of their lives,'' McCain said in his remarks.

This is only the second presidential campaign since 9/11 and the first year that the Democratic and Republican candidates will appear at Ground Zero on the anniversary.

City officials urged the candidates not speak at Ground Zero to avoid even the appearance of politics.

read the rest of the story here.

Barak Obama email:

"Today, we honor the memory of the lives that were lost on Sept. 11, 2001, and grieve with the families and friends who lost someone they loved in New York City, at the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pa. We will never forget those who died. We will always remember the extraordinary efforts of our firefighters, police and emergency responders, and those who sacrificed their own lives on Flight 93 to protect their fellow Americans. And we give thanks for the Americans defending us every day in our communities at home, and in our military abroad."

"On 9/11, Americans across our great country came together to stand with the families of the victims, to donate blood, to give to charity, and to say a prayer for our country. Let us renew that spirit of service and that sense of common purpose. Let us remember that the terrorists responsible for 9/11 are still at large, and must be brought to justice. Let us resolve to defeat terrorist networks, defend the American homeland, stand up for the enduring American values that we cherish, and seek a new birth of freedom at home and around the world."