Smilin' and dialin'

Yesterday I put in a shift at my local Republican Victory Office phone bank, calling identified Republicans to remind them to vote our Republican ticket, from John McCain and Sarah Palin, to Sen. Norm Coleman and Third District Congressional candidate Erik Paulsen, to Brian Grogan for Minnesota House (43B), to John Cooney, the Republican endorsed candidate for the nonpartisan Hennepin County Commissioner in District 6.

Phone bank work is essential, not only to remind Republicans to vote, but also to update party records with current names and phone numbers, which are constantly changing as folks move and get new phone numbers.

We're down to the final week before the general election, and your entire Republican ticket needs your help now. Contact your local Republican Victory Office to find out how you can make a difference.

Hate mongers

The mainstream media and lefty blogs have focused during the current news cycle about those angry, dare we say "hateful," Republicans at John McCain's last two rallies in Waukesha, Wisconsin and Lakeville, Minnesota.

Polinaut's Tom Scheck titled his blog post on the Lakeville rally, "Out for blood..." At least he exercised some typographic restraint: it could have been OUT FOR BLOOD!!

The crowd at John McCain's townhall meeting in Lakeville was, shall we say, a bit partisan. Some called for McCain to fight Obama at next Wednesday's rally. Another woman said she didn't trust him because he was an Arab. Another said they didn't know if they could live in a country that had Barack Obama as its president.

Helpfully, Sheck also posted the full audio of the town hall, from McCain's entrance to his closing remarks. The audio reveals that the crowd at the suburban Lakeville South High School sounded more like Minnesota Nice than "out for blood." Unreported was the crowd's applause when McCain corrected the ignorant characterization of Obama as an "Arab."

Yet Sheck was mild compared to Bob von Sternberg in the financially troubled Star Tribune. In Sternberg's version of the story, "In Lakeville, McCain tamps down hostility," McCain was "Struggling to contain an emotional fire his own campaign kindled."

Shocking reports of "hate" and "anger" (or even partisanship) were curiously missing from media coverage of anarchist "demonstrations of free speech," in which real damage was done to property and persons peaceably assembled for the Republican National Convention. Pheisty and Michelle Malkin have documented other recent examples of liberal hate speech (viewer discretion advised).

The McCain rally reports hype a few exceptional comments but fail to further understanding about how Midwestern grassroots activists feel about issues like socialism, the economy, and the right to life. Intentionally or not, they serve Obama's campaign by stereotyping conservatives and attempting to demoralize the Republican base. Don't fall for it.

Some of the passion shown at the rallies is directed at the McCain campaign as the game clock winds down with our team down by a field goal. We have the better ideas and the better candidate, so let's score a touchdown and win this game, Senator.

Lewis, Bachmann voice conservative angst

On Wednesday's Jason Lewis Show (100.3 KTLK-FM), Lewis, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN6), and several callers expressed their frustration at John McCain's lack of walking the conservative walk.

After pledging as president to veto any bill that contains earmarks, McCain voted (with Barack Obama) in favor of the $800 billion lender bail-out bill, which one caller called "the mother of all earmark bills."

In March, the New York Times reported, "McCain Rejects Broad U.S. Aid on Mortgages." At Tuesday's town-hall debate, McCain proposed a $300 billion government mortgage buyout plan. Even Obama called the plan "costly and out of touch."

Bachmann said that she was almost "breaking pencils" during the debate as McCain passed up several golden opportunities to make the conservative case against Obama's liberal positions.

As McCain runs toward the middle, he is running away from the conservative base of the Republican party — you know, the likely voters who man the phone banks, drop literature, pound lawn signs. When he announced Sarah Palin as his running mate, and Palin made her national debut in Saint Paul last month, McCain enjoyed a post-convention bump in poll numbers, fundraising, and volunteer enthusiasm. Post bail-out, McCain's poll numbers are sagging along with grassroots morale. It will be interesting to see how many show up to McCain's (Palin-less) Lakeville town hall meeting on Friday.

Conservatives are afraid that "change is coming," alright: socialism, regardless of who wins in November.

Lewis urged frustrated conservatives to redouble their efforts to support solid conservatives down-ticket, to rebuild the Republican party from the grassroots up. One caller speculated about a Palin-Bachmann ticket in 2012.

American graffiti

Here is the situation on Vicksburg Lane in Plymouth. Nearby Obama and other Democrat candidate signs were untouched.


The taggers missed this one on the same property (no, I don't know where you can buy these signs, but let me know if you find the vendor):

Another Democrat for McCain-Palin

Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a prominent Hillary Clinton supporter and member of the Democratic National Committee's Platform Committee has joined the long and growing roster of Democrats and independents supporting John McCain for President.

"In an election as important as this, we must choose the candidate who has a proven record of bipartisanship and reforming government, and that's John McCain," Rothschild said in a press release coinciding with the Wednesday announcement from Arlington, Virginia.

"We can't afford a president who lacks experience and judgment and has never crossed party lines to work for meaningful reform," continued Rothschild. "Amid tough economic times and foreign policy concerns, we need someone who is ready to lead. Although I am a Democrat, I recognize that it's more important to put country ahead of party and that's why I support John McCain."

During the Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, several other prominent McCain Democrats held a press conference to discuss their reasons for supporting the McCain-Palin ticket, including:

• John Coale, former fundraiser for President Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY)
• Jennifer Lee, member of Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in California
• Silver Salazar, Hispanic community leader and former supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton for president
• Cynthia Ruccia, former Congressional candidate from Ohio and women's rights activist
• Brian Golden, former state representative fro Boston and lifelong Democrat
• Ambassador Mark Erwin, appointed ambassador to OPIC by President Clinton

Biden bypasses McCain to insult Republicans

The Democrat/liberal/leftist weapon of choice is the ad hominem attack. When they don't have a better idea, they attack the candidate personally. Tina Fey's relatively gentle parody of Sarah Palin on last week's Saturday Night Live ("I can see Russia from my house") is only the beginning.

Democrat vice presidential candidate Joe Biden took this to a whole new level, bypassing John McCain and instead insulting Republicans in general during his speech in Flat Rock, Michigan on Monday:

The Republican party and some of the blogs and others on the far right, are trying very hard to paint a picture of this man [Sen. Barack Obama], they're trying the best as they can to mischaracterize who he is and what he stands for.

All this stuff about how different Barack Obama is, they're not just used to somebody really smart. They're just not used to somebody who’s really well educated. They just don't know quite how to handle it. Cause if he's as smart as Barack is he must not be from my neighborhood.

If I voted for an elite Washington insider who actually thinks like this, I would surely get the government I deserved.

Romney, Huckabee, Giuliani, and Palin hit it out of the park

I have always been proud to be an American, but I have never been more proud to be a Republican than I am tonight after hearing Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani, and Sarah Palin deliver speeches full of conviction and emotion at the Republican National Convention.