The Obama Project@WindonWater.net

Last week I posted on this topic, and I referenced the unreliability of the sources of information. I also stated that McCain needs to provide his medical records so we would know facts, not suppositions and innuendo based on external evidence. I stand by that argument.

In so doing, I’m obliged again to report a new medical concern for John McCain. Apparently, John McCain is taking an herbal supplement to enhance mental focus and energy. Ok, no biggie. Lots of people do that. This supplement also purports to aid in Alzheimers and dementia. Well… supplements claim all sorts of things, and generally come with a disclaimer that the statements are not FDA approved. Snake oil claims are often wrapped around otherwise innocent herbs. If my grandparents were living and I found them taking this, I’d check with a doctor to make sure the herbs wouldn’t negatively interact with other medications, and if the doctor said it was ok, I’d figure “probably won’t help, but can’t hurt, and might do some good, though unlikely to do what it’s claiming.”

Those are the disclaimers. Having said that – a 72 year old man taking, or being given by his campaign, herbs making this claim is alarming – not because the herbs are likely to do anything, but because it could suggest that either the man or the campaign has something to worry about.

I’ll go one step further. What if there has been a late breaking diagnosis? What if some of McCain’s unwillingness to look at Obama has more to do with being angry at being cheated out of his chance at the presidency, but knowing he needs to step aside? What if the oddness of the vice presidential candidate going against the wishes of the top of the ticket reflects her fighting back, with hopes that he wins, so that she steps in at a sooner than expected crucial moment?

Well – that last paragraph is conspiracy theory, and I don’t tend to live in that space. The blog that talks about the supplement reads a bit like conspiracy theory to me. But I persist in saying – until we have McCain’s medical records – odd health news has to carry some weight.

QT

I’m chronicaling this here, because it needs to exist somewhere.  I hope that there’s nothing here of note, but that said, I have to compile the evidence – such as it is.
First – full disclosure: I signed on with the 2000+ doctors calling for McCain’s medical records to be released.  I know that other candidates haven’t released their records in full detail, but the top of the Republican ticket is 72 years old and a 4 time cancer survivor, as well as a former pow who suffered torture at the hands of enemy captors.  I think his medical records are more relevant, and more necessary.
Second – I’ve seen some of the videos asserting that McCain is having a problem with his left eye.  The videos seem to come from one particular blogger – who has a penchant for slowing down live captures or taking stills to look at the pictures.  I think thats useful, but not as useful as being able to do a side by side comparison to the live action – real time video.  Slowing a video down distorts the picture and exaggerates a person’s expressions in odd ways – dissociating their facial movements from their words.   I think these videos have to be taken with a huge grain of salt – I don’t find them particularly credible.

Third – however, I do think they are worth looking at.  As I said – McCain’s health is a legitimate issue and questionable videos only have interest in absence of information.  So look away. Make your own judgment. Demand anwers…

OK.  The disclaimers out of the way – here’s my question.  Does Sarah Palin know something about John McCain’s health that the rest of us don’t? If John McCain is elected, are we looking at a Palin presidency much sooner than anyone could have expected?

Why do I ask? Sarah Palin has made two very odd gaffes/statements.  The first was obviously a gaffe – she called the ticket the Palin-McCain ticket.  Of course this was an error – but what an odd error to make! Interestingly – the balance of the ticket is such that it isn’t an unreasonable error – Palin is the one who draws the crowds, and is the one who excites the Republican base.  She probably has a right to call some of the shots from behind the scenes, because McCain needs her.  (Here, for example, is proof that the base sees things a little differently than the media: http://www.palinmccainsigns.com/?gclid=CIPH_cfch5YCFQOIFQodIy6rFA.  No similar Biden-Obama stuff seems to be cropping up at least in a google search.)

Besides the Palin-McCain gaffe, there is her insistence that America wants change over experience.  After taking a swipe at Joe Biden’s age, Katie Couric questioned Palin about the wisdom of such a swipe given the age of her running mate.  Take a look:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/30/couric-asks-palin-how-she_n_130642.html.  She talks around it, but essentially lands in the same place – America wants change.

She’s not wrong.  The problem (at least on the surface) here is that Palin is on the bottom of the ticket and will bring very little change if McCain gets elected and the vice presidency goes back to being 2nd instead of shadow government.  So – what could possibly be gained by making such a comparison – which argues for the Obama-Biden ticket better than the McCain-Palin ticket?

Once again – this goes to the issue of the base.  The base is electing Sarah Palin.  The change thing that she’s throwing out there in that context comes across as a wink and a nod – a way of telling the base – I’m really the one – nevermind old man McCain.

What does any of this have to do with John McCain’s health? Perhaps nothing.  But it occurs to me that Sarah may in fact be thinking about herself in the Presidential role, and not at all in the Vice Presidential one.  And that thought pattern might be rather dominant if she knows something about McCain’s health that we don’t know.

OK – I’m all done here.  This post is off-topic for this blog, but I needed to get it said at least once and fully, so I’ve done that.  I have a next post to come – but I won’t give away too many details as I have a lousy track record when it comes to promising posts and then actually delivering.

QT

It seems odd to me to think that this is even a debate, and it seems odder that the press acts as though the only legitimate criteria for sound judgment is polls.  Our free press (are they still free?), with a journalistic obligation to truth-telling, and with a unique worldview born of covering national and international figures and events over time, nevertheless fails to aggressively pursue a line of discourse about John McCain’s choice of vice presidential candidate that reflects a genuine concern for the respect of office? It seems unpatriotic and a waste of the 4th amendment for the press to only report on how “popular” such a wrongheaded move is.
Well.  Here’s Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic on the same subject: http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/2224950/33157262

I started to answer Sarah Palin’s speech point for point, but it just got tiring.  Here are tools to find out the facts for yourself:

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/gop_convention_spin_part_ii.html

http://www.obamataxcut.com

http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxtopics/presidential_candidates.cfm

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/campaign_2008_/2008/09/palin_v_reality.php

But these statements need answering:

This world of threats and dangers is not just a community, and it doesn’t just need an organizer.

Hard not to take that personally, but I long ago promised a post on the submect of community organizing and I’m delinquent.  It will be up by Monday, in honor of my dad, who I will bury that day.

In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers.

And then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change.

Yet another character insult, and this one highly offensive.  I wish John McCain has used his career to stay the course of change, but instead he is now lock-step with the far right of the republican base – the very same who have been running the country for 12 of the last 20 years, including the last 8.   But alas, it was not to be.

What does he actually seek to accomplish, after he’s done turning back the waters and healing the planet?

Frankly, though the nation may not be fully appreciative, if this were “all” that was accomplished – notwithstanding, this will have been a LOT to accomplish.

http://www.exisle.net/mb/index.php?showtopic=53990

http://www.exisle.net/mb/index.php?showtopic=48360&hl=cities
QT

In an otherwise brilliant post, Bob Cesca nevertheless missed a key point.  He quotes John McCain here:

“[Senator Obama is] claiming putting air in your tires is the equivalent of new offshore drilling,” McCain said. “That’s not an energy plan, my friends — that’s a public service announcement.”

Yes, it’s a lie. Yes, it’s ignorant. But most importantly, it’s disingenuous — deliberately ignorant with the intention to deceive. Not unlike FOX News Channel, Senator McCain is not just exploiting the ignorance of his supporters — he’s counting on it. He’s and his cynical strategists are counting on their own supporters to be unaware of the verifiable fact that if we maintain proper tire pressure, we would conserve more oil than would be attained with the McCain plan for offshore drilling. And he’s counting on his supporters to blindly ditto this line — a line that’s specifically designed to be easily repeated for the sake of painting Senator Obama as weak and ineffectual. Ironic, isn’t it.

In point of actual fact – Obama’s support of tire gauges IS a public service announcement – that’s the concession that McCain had to make since, after all, it’s true. The LIE is the idea that this is Sen. Obama’s plan. It is not. Obama gave a full detailed, multi-faceted plan and McCain refuses to acknowledge it or give it a fair debate.

That, my friends, is not a leader we can believe in.

QT

BTW – A link to Bob Cesca’s blog is to the left. He’s both brilliant and funny – so have a look-see.

More on Barack Obama
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