The media blacked it out, but Obama made an appearance at the RNC

How did they cover this up?!

You know, Paul Begala suggested that we should watch the McCain speech without the sound and just picture him yelling “hey you kids kids, get off my damn lawn!” Watching these clips, you can see what he’s talking about.

Passing up on free media opportunity

From electoral-vote.com:

Most candidates love getting free television time, especially long interviews where they can make their points at length and have the voters get to know them better. The Sunday talk shows are a favorite. Today John McCain will get a full half hour on CBS’ Face the Nation, Barack Obama goes on ABC’s This Week, and Joe Biden takes the hot seat at NBC’s Meet the Press. Sarah Palin is avoiding free media when every network would love to have her. All it would take is one phone call to CNN, for example, and she’d be on there for half an hour, for free. This behavior gives the impressesion that the McCain campaign is afraid to have her interviewed in depth by experienced reporters for fear of what she might say. The problem is not gaffes–Biden makes them from time to time, but will still be grilled. The real problem is she might say something intentionally that she really and truly believes (like victims of rape should be forced to bear their rapist’s child) and this will shock the viewers. It will be interesting to see how long Palin can avoid giving interviews and whether the media starts to point out this behavior.

In the same post the webmaster reports that the Intrade people are predicting an Obama win.

Also Joe Biden’s son and brother have been sued in a business dispute.

And though McCain did get a poll bounce, Obama remains ahead in the two primary tracking polls.

Meanwhile, the McCain-is-hiding-Palin-from-the-media storyline is becoming an issue.

And with this ad, community organizers (once referred to by the Republicans as “a thousand points of light,” but are now non-grata unless they happen to be faith based) are hitting back.

One faith based C.O. is calling on Palin to apologize.

On the other hand, give credit to President Bush who is touring the country to survey the disastrous effects of his presidency.

Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

Addendum: Anecdotal evidence that while Palin has “shored up the base” she will not have broad appeal to Clinton voters.

A very uplifting Clendenen event

We held a hundred-dollar-a-plate fundraiser tonight. I’ve been cooking up food all day, though we really owe a debt to Katherine Lobato who put together an incredible menu and organized the cooking and serving. The event was held at Linda Lowe’s Redway home and we ended up with more people than we’d planned for.

I think we raised a serious chunk of change tonight, but more importantly we drew attendance of some very surprising faces. I don’t know how public any of these people want to be about their support at this point in time, so I’m not going to give names, but some of them had supported other candidates in the “primary.” It’s possible that you might see some Clendenen signs in prominent Sohum places this fall in neighborhoods which were previously dominated by Estelle signs. I will allow them to reveal themselves as they choose.

There are a number of reasons progressives may support Clif over Estelle. I know that many people support her because she is “one of us,” and because of her service to the community while KMUD’s news director, particularly during the Canoe fire. The ambiguity in her positions may be a factor in a progressive’s choice of Clif, particularly where in response to questions about big box development in Fortuna she has said that it’s Fortuna’s business and “it depends on which big box” (I’m quoting her exactly because some here have taken my exception to interpreting that as support for some form of big box in Fortuna – you can decide for yourself). Or perhaps her ambiguous responses to questions about the general plan as there is some concern in environmentalist circles that she is courting the “property rights” crowd to broaden her coalition, playing into the conflation of issues such as resistance to draconian methods of code enforcement with development issues.

But there are clearly those who don’t see Estelle’s actual positions as significantly distinct from Clif’s moderately progressive views of development and environmentalism. For them winnability is the issue. We have an opportunity to break from the literally bankrupt policies of the past and move the Second District into the 21st century when it comes to the realities of unbridled development without concern for impact on small and larger communities. As cliche as it sounds, Humboldt County is at a crossroads and the question is what voice the Second District wants to claim. Johanna Rodoni, a capable woman who does care about the community, represents an entrenched way of thinking that simply does not address the realities we face – the ever present pressure from developers who may or may not have the best of intentions, but who will ruin the unique character of Humboldt County, and put even more pressure on the rivers which are under siege from a lack of planning, and yes, a lack of effective enforcement of codes.

We have an opportunity, and either Clif or Estelle would represent a significant break from the old dead-end road. I believe that despite Estelle’s overtures to the laisse faire crowd couched in terms of “rural values.” But Clif has one asset Estelle lacks. He can defeat Johanna Rodoni in November. Estelle worked the Fortuna neighborhoods hard, to no avail. Clif went toe-to-toe with Rodoni in Fortuna. With more support in Sohum, he will win at least the plurality in the fall, if not the outright majority (and unless someone challenges the elections department in court, I’m pretty certain the plurality win will stand despite the bizarre ambiguity of the law which has convinced the elections department to render the primary election meaningless and allow Johanna to run in what was supposed to be a runoff election).

Clif proved himself in June despite having been written off. He did it with far less money than either of his opponents. The success of tonight’s event is further reinforcement, and a good omen. If Clif significantly improves on his June performance in Sohum, he will win easily. For those of you who have supported Estelle out of loyalty, but are pragmatic and concerned about the future of the county, please give Clif another look. He and his wife are remarkable people, and while he doesn’t have the flashy charisma of some other politicians, he has a great deal of depth with the issues. Don’t let residential geography be the paramount issue of your choice.