Something to consider

Despite what we hear, the election of 2008 is not a done deal. Pollsters claim one in seven Americans could still change their votes even if they lean one way or the other. There are those who claim they aren't leaning either way. If all the undecideds went for McCain, it'd likely be a tie. If voters planning to vote for Obama changed their minds, Obama could lose.

What boggles my mind is how can there still be undecideds? I think it relates to the tactics of the far right that have worked with too many people. Their methods and claws will be out this week-end howling more loudly than any scary trick-or-treaters could have last night.

Some want to use a connection Obama had to the moderate Palestinian, Khalidi, who teaches at Columbia University. He is the newest boogie man for the Republican fear and smear machine. Never mind that McCain has also supported Khalidi's work to bring peace in the Middle East (with more money than Obama's group gave). Never mind that Khalidi has nothing to do with Obama or McCain for policies other than both wanting peace in the Middle East and to see moderate thinking overcome the more radical. Never mind that Khalidi is a moderate Palestinian, who has never said anything about destroying Israel, who has not done anything but try to bring peace to his people and the Israelis. Never mind because fear is not about truth, and the Republican right wing has become the party of fear. What happened to the Grand Old Party? Where did it go?

Then there's still talk about Reverend Wright-- another boogie man. People who aren't disturbed by a witch doctor protecting Sarah Palin from witchcraft, who aren't bothered that her husband belonged to a militia, secessionist group in Alaska, a group Palin spoke well of, whose leader also said how awful the United States is and it's why they wanted Alaska to leave it, those people are very upset that Reverend Wright preached maybe only a couple of times on the evils the United States has done to peoples like Native Americans, Chinese, Japanese, and blacks. You'd think the preacher had spent his entire career spewing hate of the United States. A few words out of 20 years is all it takes.

I have said it before. It's not bad that Obama has known people who are different, who maybe haven't done right in their own choices. It has not rubbed off on him. There is no proof that he in any way follows their ethical choices. He is a man with his own code and he makes it clear he's his own man. What amazes me the most is he doesn't even appear to get angry the way I do when I read some of the more ridiculous accusations being thrown at him. He has a lot more balanced nature for his years than most of us.

I have voted; but if you have not, if you are among those undecideds, please consider watching the following links, not about fear and smear but to hear what Obama is really promising.

You have heard how he isn't ready, how he's a socialist, how he's a terrorist secretly, how he will doom this country. Just take the time before you vote, to hear what he says. There are two parts to the Maddow interview-- both worth seeing. Listen with an open mind:

Rachel Maddow interview with Barack Obama Part I



Part II with Obama on Rachel Maddow



Finally, the Infomercial-- Infomercial Part I and if you want to watch it all, there are four parts on YouTube.

Obama is not about fear. He is about ideas and the impetus to make this country what it has said it was. He has the intelligence and drive to make it happen. He needs our votes-- not just to win but to give him the mandate that he will need to buck the system and make real change happen.

The Republican party has become the party of fear of the new, fear of different, fear of the 'other'. Americans can rise up on Tuesday and show that this no longer works. Give the Republican party a chance to take back its own party by making these ideas fail.

And if you are Republican, who is not a neocon, who is not a religious zealot, and you have been been disillusioned, vote for Obama as a way to say no to what has happened but don't stop there. Get back in your party, donate to genuinely conservative leaders, make your voice known. Do not let the zealots take over the Grand Old Party. They will if they can.

Because of her enthusiastic crowds and neocon leaders like Bill Kristol, Palin thinks the party will be hers after this election is over-- win or lose. If she and her ilk succeed, it will be because the real conservatives in the Republican party didn't roll up their sleeves and get to work.

The right wing fear and smear machine, the religious bigots, they will get in there and work. Will you? If you don't put your money and heart into getting the Republican party back to true conservatism, you are getting what you deserve-- unfortunately so might we as a nation. We have seen how well that works after eight years of it with George Bush and Republicans who voted as automatically as those robocalls. It's not too late to give our country two viable political viewpoints from which to choose. It is too late this election.

(Finally, I had planned to put a blog, before the election, on abortion, but space is running out; and there are other more immediate issues that I thought needed to be addressed. I posted it instead (along with the other two that relate) onto Rainy Day Extras. So if you want to read my thinking on abortion, it's at: Will Abortion Remain a Choice?