leo's blog

The Chicago Tribune is channeling the Weekly Standard:

Having made hay of Barack Obama's relative youth and his foreign-sounding name, his opponents are now homing in on his neighborhood.

For his critics, the presumptive Democratic nominee's home turf offers a tempting opportunity to paint him as an elitist and, perhaps more damaging, an egghead.

It gets better:

Obama left himself open to this line of political attack when the media discovered he'd had some sort of relationship with Bill Ayers, an unrepentant 1960s radical, and Obama shrugged it off, saying Ayers was just a "guy who lives in my neighborhood."

His response permitted The Weekly Standard to wonder: "Wow, what kind of neighborhood does Barack live in?"

See, this is how the game is played: instead of automatically identifying this as pure rubbish, the Chicago Tribune uses it as a jumping off point -- literally the context -- of a brief look at life in Hyde Park and U. of C.

What's next? Call Obama a drug-addict -- no, rather say his "critics" call him a drug-addict -- and then look at how easy it is to score some weed in Washington Park?

This is how a GOP smear campaign gains traction. It's happening before our very eyes.

P.S. "...some sort of relationship with Bill Ayers..." Can you get any sloppier?

I never got this 'Fascism' thing among the rightwingers -- unless they conceive of it as some kind of dance step or fashion accessory.

The appeal to authority and misuse of national and religious symbols are so much part of their operating procedure that there's nothing much left to accuse us poor liberals of. [h/t Rick Perlstein]

Message to the scoundrels running the McCain Campaign:

It's something called 'leadership' plus something called 'hope' that got those 200,000 Germans packed into that Rally for Obama in Berlin.

The fact that you're unable to recognize this -- or worse, are actually running against it -- says more about your candidate and campaign than it does about Obama.

UPDATE: Check out the Obama Campaign's new Low Road Express...

Just about the best endorsement the Dems could get. From the WSJ:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is mobilizing its store managers and department supervisors around the country to warn that if Democrats win power in November, they'll likely change federal law to make it easier for workers to unionize companies -- including Wal-Mart.

[h/t ThinkProgress]

Ever wonder why the rightwingers (and their apologists in the media) never talk about "Costco Democrats"? Sign-up and donate to Walmart Watch...

UPDATE: Sign the AFL/CIO Working Family's Petition telling Walmart to "stop intimidating workers TODAY" - go here...

From Chris Hayes:

...You have a super rich guy who got super rich not through any of his own genius or hard work (obvious proviso here about his undeniable courage and heroism in Vietnam, but that has nothing to with his net wealth). This super wealthy guy who has married into a family of millionaires flits around in private jets to his many houses while campaigning on an economic policy that tells working people that the economy is great, and if they don’t think it’s great they’re whiners. Meanwhile he’s pushing a tax code that would make him, his wife and his rich donors much richer.

Money isn't bad. We could all do with a bit more of it! But you'd wish McCain and the rest of the GOP crew would be honest enough to admit whose interests they have at heart.

Because America deserves a leader who's way past his prime:

I saw a lot of old friends at the big and lively rally for Obama at the Broadway Armory on Sunday. Here's a shot of Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky addressing the audience early on.

[Even the 'Polizei' were coming in close -- to take snapshots of the guy.]

Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland explains the significance of Barach Obama for our European allies:

...[T]here is not a serving politician in the world who is now more popular than him, even though at the moment he's only ever been elected to the junior Senate seat from Illinois. It's a pretty remarkable state of affairs.

But he does -- what he embodies is and he becomes an outlet for is that degree of yearning I think you're hearing here, which is a lot of people across Europe, misjudged as being anti-American during the Bush years, really were not.

As Christine Ockrent says, they were people who actually believe in the American dream and have wanted somebody who can allow that belief to come, almost a valve, an outlet for that pro-Americanism. They've not been able to feel that in the Bush years.

And Barack Obama comes along with his improbable journey, as he puts it, his remarkable life story, what he embodies, and therefore says, "It's OK. You can be pro-American again. You can believe in America again."

The comparison of Ronald Reagan's speech in West Berlin with John Kennedy's speech 25 years earlier is ahistorical and completely bogus. It's a complete rightwing fabrication that's swallowed whole by the MSM.

NPR Host, Melissa Block brings up the myth in this evening's 'All Things Considered' only to be swathed down by SUNY Buffalo Prof. Andreas Daum who actually knows something about the two events.

All of West Berlin turned out to hear Kennedy. It was a speech of historic proportions that served to mark an era. It had an extraordinary effect on all who participated. You only had to ask Berliners about this as I repeatedly did while I was living there during the 1980's.

The visit by Ronald Reagan on the other hand was a completely orchestrated event with maybe 20 thousand "hand-picked" participants, as the Professor puts it. Many parts of the city were in complete lock-down by the police to prevent the kind of civil disturbances that had erupted during Reagan's earlier visit in 1982.

The truth is, most Berliners thought of Ronald Reagan much in the same way they now think of George Bush. He was no liberator -- except in the minds of his modern-day partisan defenders who are hell-bent on re-writing history. The only affect his visit had on Berliners at the time was relief to see him go.

It's ironic that NPR points to the "legend" on its site of John Kennedy calling himself a jelly donut. Yet it doesn't realize that it's indulging in a historical fiction of equal proportions which it uses as the premise no less of its entire segment.

In any case, the segment closes with Melissa Block wondering what few words in German Barack Obama might tell the Berliners. I think I'd suggest something we haven't heard from a Leader of the Free World since George Bush took the oath of office:

"Wir Kommen als Freunde..."

On the anticipated reception of Obama in Europe:

It's not only Obama's youth, eloquence and energy that have stolen hearts across the Atlantic. For Europeans, there have always been two Americas: one of cynicism, big business and bullying aggression, another of freedom, fairness and nothing-is-impossible dynamism.

If President Bush has been seen as the embodiment of that first America, Obama has raised expectations of a chance for the nation to redeem itself in the role that — at various times through history — Europe has loved, respected and relied upon. [Matt Moore and Melissa Eddy, "Obamamania in full flight ahead of tour of Europe", AP]