John McCain will not approve this message

John McCain’s new attack ad “Celeb” is atrocious.  It fits right into McCain’s new found Bush-style campaign; basically now he’s lying and smearing.  Barack Obama does not support blanket new taxes or more foreign oil.  No, Obama understands our dire energy situation and the reality we need to face to fix it.

Americans and people all over the world follow the lives of celebrities because its entertaining.  With the modern world of technology, we have unprecedented access to the lives of rich, famous, and often foolish celebrities.  Sometimes, their lives make better stories than any director of any movie.  We enjoy comparing our own lives to those of Brittany Spears, Paris Hilton, and more.  We want to see other people live, not just actors on the screen.

How dare McCain compare Obama to a Hollywood celebrity.  How does he sleep at night after approving this message?  McCain’s campaign has no hope, no message, no strategy, and no chance to woe voters with this garbage.

The dedicated supporters of Senator Barack Obama look to him for a completely different reason.  We know, together, we can change the world.

Best Barack Statement

Breaking news:  Republicans are now cute.  Yesterday, they launched the site “BarackBook” in an effort to portray “Obama’s poor judgment.”  For some reason, the Republican National Committee (led by this guy trying to elect this guy) thought it would best to play to the youth vote.  You know, the inspired and progressive generation of college students and young professionals.

Well, I don’t think it worked too well.  The only recent website launch with similar backlash was the new search engine “Cuil,” which irked new users by returning random pages of results, even during a search for “Cuil.”  Likewise, the discussion on BarackBook and the accompanying Facebook application turned quite negative on McCain and the site quite quickly.

The Obama campaign wasted little time with the silly site.  Campaign spokesperson Tommy Vieter:

“For comment on the new RNC site, I’d refer you to their own discussion board, specifically the topic ‘The site is lame.'”

Facebook count

Barack Obama:  1,231,398

John McCain:  184,216

Aaron Robinson:  477

UPDATE: “McCain Allies Find Finance Law Holes” – WSJ

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday the questionable tactics used by McCain supporters to circumvent current campaign finance laws. (You may have heard of McCain-Feingold?) The story comes days after Senator Obama took some flak for opting out of the public financing system, when his initial comments in the campaign seemed to indicate he would participate. Well, right choice to opt out.

First, the WSJ explains:

“In one method, a Republican Party fund aimed at electing governors has started marketing itself as a home for contributions of unlimited size to help Sen. McCain.

The Republican Governors Association isn’t subject to those limits, and has long gathered up large donations from individuals and companies. Now it is telling donors it can use their contributions to benefit Sen. McCain in some key battleground states.

That makes the group “the best way to help McCain,” says donor David Hanna, who gave $25,000 — more than 10 times the legal cap of $2,300 for direct gifts to presidential candidates.”

It was so thoughtful and classy for Senator McCain to oppose any independent 527 groups (like the “Swift Boat Veterans”) working in his favor. But guess who the big donors are to the Republican Governor’s Association? The same people funding the smear swift boat ads from 2004. And there’s more:

“In another Republican strategy, the McCain campaign itself last month began soliciting its biggest donations yet — up to $70,100 per check. The technique is to establish a joint fund-raising account that brings together the legal maximum gifts for the candidate, the national party and four state parties with contests pivotal to the outcome. The combined maximum is the most that any presidential candidate has solicited since the 2002 McCain-Feingold reforms. The campaign raised $3 million for the fund in a matter of days during a string of fund-raisers last month.”

$70,100 is a lot of money, and a considerable amount higher than the legal maximum (set by Senator McCain) of $2,300. The richest of the rich and giant corporations donate dollars to the Republican funds, all in an effort to help Senator McCain win the White House and keep their incredible tax breaks and influence in the United States government. Democrats should be proud of Senator Obama’s choice to opt out. Republicans should be scared. Here’s hoping true public financing takes down corporate influence in 2008.