I hope the democrats wake up before it’s too late. When I saw karl rove’s name mentioned in an advisory role for mccain and then the infusion of other surrogates to bush’s campaigns of 2000 and 2004 it was obvious what to expect. They were planning their version of the “kitchen sink” strategy that Hillary Clinton threw at Obama during the primary battle. One thing that may have gone unnoticed during that time-frame, considering Obama ended up winning the “battle,” was that Clinton totally turned everything around with this strategy. By the time she began the so-called kichen sink strategy, the battle for all intense and purposes was lost. However, it allowed her to hold on until the last possible primary and she was able to show Obama’s vulnerability in several key states. I believe that most Obama supporters, including myself, can’t even invision mccain in the White House. However, we all better wake up to the fact that these rogues behind the scenes are masters at manipulating the media to the point where it appears to me that even the people you would feel are clearly opposed to their message are eating out of their hands. They understand how people will react and they have no limits to the “message” they are willing to put out. They can twist any message in whatever direction they wish, and it looks like to me, the people they are using don’t even have a clue as to what is happening. Take for example the Keith Olberman show on MSNBC, Countdown with Keith Olberman. I was watching it the other night after mccain’s ad had come out using the images of Paris Hilton and Brittney Spears to supposedly show Obama as nothing more than a celebrity. The discussion during Olberman’s program was centered on figuring out “why” they would do this, and during this same discussion there was a clip of mccain accusing Obama of injecting race into the campaign for comments Obama made to a conservative gathering in Missouri pointing out (correctly) that the republicans were in the process of trying to scare voters into voting against him. Obama made reference to the fact that he didn’t look like all the other presidents on the “dollar bills.” What bothered me was that mccain’s accusation of Obama injecting race into the campaign and the discussion that ensued on Countdown was a classic example of how the republicans are attempting, and at least temporarily succeeding, into totally twisting the debate. mccain’s accusations totally succeeded in switching the discussion from the offensive add to whether or not Obama was injecting race into the campaign. It was not only on this one show, but on several others, there was little outrage at the subtle, subliminal racial overtone of the mccain ad with the two white “bimbos.” In fact about the only thing I saw all the “commentators” agree on was that if the topic turned to race, this would be bad for Obama. Well, it was so obvious to me that the mccain strategy is to turn the topic to race and then blame Obama for this happening that it made me a bit sick to my stomach, but as I watched the networks (and keep in mind that I refuse to watch fox because I just got fed up with watching and listening to water carriers for the republican party portraying themselves as “fair and balanced” news) fall for this I started to get a bit worried. I fully realize that it is in their best interest to have a “horse race,” that if Obama pulls away to a huge lead it will cost them (the various media outlets) millions upon millions of advertising dollars through lost viewership of the campaign, but I worry even more that the media is part of the corporatocracy that has been in seventh heaven since bush arrived on the scene and they may be willing to do every thing they can to keep Obama and the democrats from getting into the White House. I believe these huge corporations have gotten so infected by their own greed that the welfare of our country is secondary to their profits and power. And mccain has proven himself to be willing to say whatever they (the invisible “advisors” from the bush campaigns) tell him to say (and he’s really not very good at reading teleprompters and note cards) and somewhat a baffoon, which we see from an occasional transparent moment where his remarks are unscripted and show his lack of intelligence along with his lack of understanding of the key issues that he supposedly is the expert on (ie; Iraq/Pakistan border, Iran training Al Qaeda, Chechoslovakia, etc). This gets me back to the ad with Spears and Hilton. How anyone with knowledge of our history in this country and especially the history of the republican party could not see that ad for what it was – a blatant racist message – very subtle to those people who don’t pay close attention or who are naive enough to think that race is no longer an issue in this country – but simply a blatant message to white citizens in key parts of this country connecting a black man with white women, is beyond me. The least I would have expected from Keith Olberman would be one of his passionate “Special Comments.” I guarantee you that virtually every black man in this country fully understands the real message of that ad. It was not intended for people who might think that Obama “is not ready” to lead – it was intended for the white men in Pennsylvania, down South, West Virginia, Michigan – I’m not sure where they ran the ads, but in states where they know that race is an issue, and they are going to make sure that it is an issue, and most frustratingly to me they will accuse Obama of injecting the so-called “race card” into the campaign while they do it. If these people get away with this, “We the People” deserve whatever comes from it. I actually saw republican “pundits” say that the huge crowds that Obama drew in his trip through the Middle East and Europe were an indication that he was not ready to lead, that he is nothing more than an empty speech, that having a president that is admired world wide would not be important. One person even had the audacity to say that the 200,000 plus people who showed up in Berlin, waving American flags, were there because of some rock concert and they just hung around to hear Obama speak, like it was some kind of coincidence. They used words like “arrogant” and “over-confident” for Obama’s demeanor instead of words like confident or competent which would have been used for Reagan or someone of his ilk. Again, this to me is a bunch of people who just can’t accept the idea of the most powerful position in the world being held by an African American. My advice to them is that if they don’t get a clue, and if they could somehow manage to get mccain into office as their next stooge, it won’t be long until the president of the US is not the most powerful office in the world. I believe the rest of the world is watching this election as closely as we are. They want to see this country return to the ideals that made us the leader of the free world in the first place. But these people are not idiots as our present government would have us believe, and our economy is on the verge of collapse. Whether we pull out of this malaise has a lot to do with our relationship with other countries (not to mention who wins this elections), especially the ones who have a financial grip on this nation due to the incredible shift of our wealth to their countries in the form of dollars during the last 35+ years of Reaganomics. I believe they’ve had enough of our greedy wasteful practices and if mccain somehow gets into office, one of the first consequences will be the shift from the dollar to the euro as the world’s default currency. When that happens, our troubles will be magnified significantly. In addition, if Barack Obama is defeated by a sofisticated effort to play the race card, there will be hell to pay in our nation. It is very clear to me, even if the white population of this country doesn’t “get” what the republicans are doing, the black population does. I would expect a backlash of major proportions if this election turns on subtle racist attacks on Senator Obama. My advice to anyone who is in a position to have influence in these matters, if mccain can’t get onto the issues and off of the relentless attacks, especially the ones with racial overtones, there should be a concerted effort to label him the racist he apparently is. Remember, this ad didn’t come from some other source, it said “I’m john mccain, and I approve this message.” This is the man who fought against a holiday for Martin Luther King, a man who is prone to tell racially insensitive “jokes,” a man who you can’t believe a word he says due to his saying so many things that contradict his own words. The negativity and the subject matter of the republican operatives behind mccain’s campaign along with mccain himself need to hear a clear message from the pundits and from the voters, there is no room for race in this race!