ObamaPedia.com

We are all keeping an eye on our checkbooks and wallets. Historically, how taxes are handled always comes into play in politics at every level. Obama’s proposed handling of taxes reflects on both parties’ history: the Democratic ticket will result in lower taxes for lower and middle income groups, with cuts DECREASING as the income increases. The details show that although McCain is seeking to distance himself from the GOP, his policies are, clearly, more of the same.

Nicole Wallace of the McCain campaign has stated, the American people don’t care whether Sarah Palin can answer specific questions about foreign and domestic policy.

According to Wallace in an appearance this morning on Joe Scarborough’s show “The American people will learn all they need to know (and all they deserve to know) from Palin’s scripted speeches and choreographed appearances on the campaign trail and in campaign ads.” - unbelievable!

DURYEA (CNN) – Obama continued to slam the McCain campaign on Friday for manager Rick Davis’s comments that the election would be more about the candidates’ personas, not the issues. The Illinois senator said he’s not running for president for his “pretty good personality” and that it’s a sign Republicans intend to scare voters away from him with false accusations of Muslim and radical connections.

“When [the Republicans] say this isn’t about issues it’s about personalities what they’re really saying is “we’re going to try to scare people about Barack”,” he told a small gathering at a glass factory near Scranton. “We’re going to say that you know, maybe he’s got Muslim connections or we’re going to say that, you know, he hangs out with radicals or he’s not patriotic. Just making stuff up.”

“I mean I think I’ve got a pretty good personality! But that’s not why I am running for president,” Obama said, later adding, “If you want it to be about personalities, you know, we’ll go out for a beer sometime and we’ll talk but you know you don’t have time, you’d rather spend it with your family.”

Obama has repeatedly hit Republicans this week of for lacking substance at their convention in St. Paul and consistently brands the G0P as out of touch.

“If you’ve got the kind of record they’ve got over the last eight years then, of course, you don’t want to spend a lot of time talking about the issues,” said Obama. He blasted McCain on the economy, called his energy plan “made for TV” and accused the Arizona senator of having no education plan.

The move towards the center of the political spectrum has been suspended. Instead, the Obama and McCain voter base has been much more clearly polarized, with the selection of Governor Palin. The controversial issues of gun control and pro-choice or pro-life have now been thrown into sharp focus along left and right. And (dare we say this) the huge elephant of race, of whether or not it matters, looms over the debate. The "conservative" and religious factions of the GOP have now been energized, expressed in no small way through an influx of campaign donations. Now, the "liberal" side can concentrate on the swing from red to blue and on selling Obama’s platform to undecided voters.

When Obama announced his choice of Biden, much was made of how it showed his insecurities and that he was looking to fill in the gaps in his foreign policy experience. Yes, Obama has chosen someone who has been critical of him and who does have the hindsight of many years of life and senatorial experience. That single choice shows a human being of great maturity and openness, who really does want his thinking to be challenged, and who is not afraid to be told he could be wrong. No one can know everything. We should be so fortunate as to have a leader who asks for advice, who then shows native intelligence and judgment to weigh the input and then to implement based on the evaluation of the myriad factors involved in every possible decision.

So much has been said about Vice Presidential picks. How quaint that the raging comparison seems to be that between Senator Obama and Governor Palin. That comparison is between apples and oranges, or perhaps an apple tree and a single orange. In Anderson Cooper’s interview of Senator Obama (aired on Sept. 1, 2008), Obama highlighted the fact (not the spin) of the budget of his campaign being 3 times that of Palin’s Wasilla annual budget in one month alone. And what about Obama’s degrees from Columbia and Harvard, compared to Palin’s Journalism degree from U. of Idaho? And how charming that the woman who could be a heartbeat away from the Presidency and thus leader of the free world has traveled to a grand total of 3 countries, namely Germany, Kuwait and Ireland. Governor Palin is one man’s choice for running mate. Senator Obama has emerged from a gruelling national primary season.

Let the comparisons stop. I am sure Governor Palin is governed by a strong moral compass, with a compelling personal story.

So is my mother.

Throughout his presidential campaign those surrounding Obama have heard him repeat the same thing time and time again "I need to get better".   Those words were spoken after his candidacy was announced and also following the debates, defeats and victories.

Obama has learned to prepare himself for this competition.  At times he seems as much like a skilled athlete as a politician.  Long before Obama entered his political career he began sharpening not only his political skills, but his emotional and mental skills as well.  The rigid self-discipline he has created is so complete that many of his friends and aides have declared he has established control over not only what he does but also how he feels. He does not easily triumph, despair or suffer resentment.   For doing so would be an extravagance, a disruption from reaching his goals. Instead he separates himself from the given moment and assesses the big picture. David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist once noted:  "He doesn’t inhale".

Now that Obama has officially become the Democratic presidential nominee, it is very possible that some of the same qualities which have brought him steps from the White House; his intelligence, his seriousness, his ability to motivate and his seeming imperviousness from the strains that trouble others may be among his biggest hurtles to getting there.

“There’ve been times that I thought I couldn’t last for long/But now I think I’m able to carry on/It’s been a long time coming/But I know a change is gonna come.” Sam Cooke, the great R&B singer, wrote those words in 1963 following a visit to a civil rights event in what was then Jim Crow North Carolina. Thursday evening, an era and more than a thousand miles away, Barack Obama echoed Cooke. “America, this is one of those moments,” Obama said. “I believe that as hard as it will be, the change we need is coming.” He then mentioned health care. If you’re sick, nothing is as important as health care — so I don’t knock it. But the subject is prosaic, and it was just one car in a long train of programs designed to rebut the charge that Obama’s slogan — “Change!” — is political cotton candy. Obama went on and on: taxes and schooling, outsourcing and Social Security, energy and drilling, wind power and solar power, and … etc. It was good. It was necessary, but it was poetry for auditors. There’s a difference between interesting and inspirational.