bodhi tree swaying

An interesting article on the role of negative emotions in the election campaign — although it defines negative emotions narrowly in terms of gloom and despondency rather than in the Buddhist sense that includes ill will and craving. Anyway, it suggests that demoralized McCain voters are less likely to motivate themselves to vote.

More McCain supporters also feel angry and bored, while Obama’s are likelier to say they are proud and hopeful.

All of this is a bad sign for McCain, according to George E. Marcus, a political scientist from Williams College who has studied the role emotion plays in politics. Negative feelings about a campaign can discourage voters by making them less likely to go through what can be a painful process: Voting for someone who will lose.

“If I’m getting my head handed to me by a tennis player, my brain is

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There are no words to express how disgusting the McCain campaign has become:

A new e-mail making the rounds among Jewish voters in Pennsylvania this week falsely alleged that Mr. Obama “taught members of Acorn to commit voter registration fraud,’’ and equated a vote for Senator Barack Obama with the “tragic mistake” of their Jewish ancestors, who “ignored the warning signs in the 1930’s and 1940’s.”

So a vote for Obama is a vote for what … a new Holocaust?

Why? Because he’s really in league with Muslim terrorists?

At first blush, it was typical of the sorts of e-mails floating around with false, unsubstantiated and incendiary claims this year.

But where most of the attack e-mails against Mr. Obama have been mostly either anonymous or from people outside of mainstream politics, this one had an unusually official provenance: It was sponsored by the Pennsylvania Republican Party’s “Victory 2008” committee.

And it was signed by several

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I just want to praise Daniel Zubairi and other brave Republicans who stood up to a pair of racists at a McCain rally. It’s good to see people taking a stand against this kind of ignorance and hatred.

(Afterthought: It’s ironic that the McCain campaign wouldn’t let Zubairi be interviewed on TV after this incident. Zubairi is an asset to his party, but I guess the McCain team would rather not address racism head on and may be embarrassed at the idea of having a Muslim speaking on their behalf).

In Something About Sarah, Kathleen Parker has some interesting things to say about men’s (and McCain’s) propensity to become distracted by pretty ladies:

…there can be no denying that McCain’s selection of [Palin] over others far more qualified — and his mind-boggling lack of attention to details that matter — suggests other factors at work. His judgment may have been clouded by . . . what?

Science provides clues.

At least her column seemed interesting to me, but maybe that’s just because she’s kinda hot.

Read the whole article

Terence at Republic of T posted this earlier today with the comment “Pitiful: that’s the only word I can think of to describe this.” Vile was the word that came to my mind.

The “outraged” individual is Republican strategist Brad Blakeman, commenting on why it’s more outrageous for Obama to take a campaign plane to go visit his possibly dying grandmother than for the McCain campaing to spend $150,000 on clothes and accessories for Sarah Palin (that’s in, what, two months? Which is about $2,500 a day?).

As Terence points out, the idea of a presidential candidate, in this day and age, taking a commercial flight is just ludicrous. Not to mention the callous insensitivity of criticizing a man visiting his seriously ill grandmother. Every word that comes from these people’s mouths just digs them into a deeper hole with …

I was suspicious yesterday about the story that a McCain campaigner had allegedly been attacked and the letter “B” carved on her face because her mugger was infuriated at seeing a McCain/Palin sticker on her car. Of course there are nuts out there and anything could happen, but in the picture of the woman’s face it was peculiar that the supposed vicious attacker had been careful not to cause any actual bleeding. It would be peculiar if, carving a letter into a struggling person’s face with a knife, the injuries amounted to no more than a superficial scratch with no bleeding whatsoever.

Here’s the picture.

And here’s what appears to be the truth:

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ? Police say a campaign volunteer confessed to making up a story that a mugger attacked her and cut the letter B in her face after seeing her McCain bumper

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Apparently John McCain is “absolutely proud” of the RNC’s new mailer, which has a cover saying “Terrorists don’t care who they hurt” and then opens to reveal a picture of Barack Obama.

I’m saddened that John McCain has decided that it’s more important to try to win the election by any means than it is to end with his honor intact. I’m also sad that he hasn’t recognized that the US has changed since the days such despicable negative campaigning on the part of the Bush campaign derailed his last presidential bid.

Over and over again it’s been shown that negative campaigning and lies are turning voters away from the GOP, and yet McCain’s team seem incapable of learning, and just keep on repeating the same old mistakes, but getting worse each time. I can only assume that they think they will reach some kind of tipping …