Senator Obama should hit this specific issue HARD. McCain personally got involved in this smear, and he should be made to pay for it.

(and speaking of making people pay, as one reads the follow-up news, it appears that these flags were STOLEN by the GOP operatives!! even if they were only 25 cents each, that’s a $3,000 theft….and if you swipe $3,000 worth of stuff from Best Buy, you’re going to prison!)

At least Talkingpointsmemo.com is on to this:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/214283.php

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_10398830?source=rss

an excerpt:

This morning, Republicans tell me that a worker at Invesco Field in Denver saved thousands of unused flags from the Democratic National Convention that were headed for the garbage. Guerrilla campaigning. They will use these flags at their own event today in Colorado Springs with John McCain and Sarah Palin.

Before McCain speaks today, veterans will haul these garbage bags filled with flags out onto the stage — with dramatic effect, no doubt — and tell the story. “What you see in the picture I sent you is less than half of total flags,” a Republican official emailed. “We estimate the total number to be around 12,000 small flags and one full size 3×5 flag.”

Because, of course, it gives Democrats orgasmic pleasure to physically mistreat the American flag, doncha’ know? “They” all hate America and are flatly unpatriotic, as “we” all know, right? And, John McCain wasn’t gonna impugn the patriotism of his opponent….at least until he did! (sorta like Gov Palin’s opposition to earmarks, except when the earmarked pork is headed her way!)

Well, we’ll see if this sort of stuff works again, soon enough.

What I recall about that convention was that we were being assured that the economy was fine, and that the Democrats would surely foul up the good thing we have going…which struck me as willfully disingenuous and “not straight”, whereas Biden’s comments struck me as very straight. (and indeed, the out-of-power folks will always attack the status quo, while the incumbents will always defend it. It WAS interesting to watch the supporters of the exciting Palin and her pallid “straight talking” presidential nominee try to both claim that all is well, while vigorously disowning the extant Republican party!!)

IMO, Biden was the straight-talking one, but we shall see.

Here’s an aside for Jeff -

http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2008/09/palin-owes-some-good-people-an.html

Here’s a couple interesting excerpts:

Wednesday morning I got an e-mail from a former member of our Sojourners community. Perry Perkins is now a community organizer in Louisiana with affiliates of the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF). “Perk,” as we used to call him, reported on the enormous consequences of 2 million people being evacuated because of Hurricane Gustav, much of the state now being without power, how hard cities like Baton Rouge were hit, the tens of thousands of people in shelters and churches, and the continuing problems caused by heavy rains and flooding. Then he talked about how their community organizers were responding to all of this — responding to hundreds of service calls, assisting local officials in evacuation plans, aiding evacuees without transportation, coordinating shelters and opening new ones, providing food, essential services, and financial aid to those in most need. Since Katrina, Perry’s Louisiana interfaith organizations have played a lead role in securing millions of dollars to help thousands of families return to New Orleans and rebuild their homes and their lives.

and the money quote -

Palin’s effort to attack the experience of Barack Obama, a former community organizer in Chicago, turned into a bad joke and an insult. Palin owes a lot of good people an apology.

agreed

but I have shown you to be wrong.

no.

This is why we hold elections, yes? Right or Wrong get decided by what majorities of people in states with the correct total of electoral votes think.

In this particular discussion, I agree with moe, but there are any number of folks who will agree with your assessment, Danny. In 8 weeks, we’ll see who was right

Moe, you can stand by your statements all you want, but I have shown you to be wrong. It doesn’t matter. You’re safe here. No one (else) will call you on it.

And regarding quotes from McCain and Palin, I was never asked to give any, so why would I have? We were talking about Biden not being so “damn straight.” Remember?

For another example of the wobbly nature of the GOP’s convention, which has a local (to Fort Wayne) hook, see Mitch Harper’s blog at

http://indiana.typepad.com/fwob/

It seems that one of the Code Pink party crashers who interrupted Governor Palin’s address gained access to the floor using the credentials of one of our local alternate delegates!

http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/b/buffy.html

It’s about six miles from Walter Reed.