Prop 8 backers looking forward to high pro-Obama turnout.

Presidential candidate Barack Obama has expressed his opposition to Proposition 8, California’s proposed ban on gay marriage. But the people behind proposition are counting on Obama supporters to seal win for Prop 8… what gives?

Farhad Manjoo at Slate explains:

The Democrat is expected to bring a surge of black and Latino voters to the polls on Election Day. This spells trouble for gay marriage; in some surveys, minority voters have expressed much greater support for banning same-sex marriage than have whites. Chip White, a spokesman for the pro-Proposition 8 campaign, stopped short of saying that Obama’s presence on the ballot will help the measure. But he did point out that the campaign plans a big push in minority communities, especially through churches and other religious networks. “Traditional marriage initiatives have historically been supported by African-Americans,” he says. “We think this one will be no different.”

While this indicates some gloom for gay marriage proponents, some campaign finance details may indicate otherwise.

Stats released by the Nielsen Company showed that the “Young Digerati” segment of the US population were the largest donors to the Obama campaign, with over 80% of their support going to the Democrat. This segment, described as “comprised of affluent, highly educated, ethnically mixed and tech-savvy residents of fashionable urban fringe neighborhoods,” likely consists of employees for companies such as Apple and Microsoft who, at least in California, appear to overwhelmingly favor voting no on Proposition 8. As mentioned last week, $32,322 was raised to oppose Prop 8 between the folks at Mac and PC, while other employees at those companies only gave $6,695 in support of the proposition.

California GOP distances itself from leaders Obama smears twice in as many days

image from Sacramento County Republican Party via Wired.com

On the day of the final Presidential debate, the leaders of two different GOP offices at opposite ends of California were forced to retract and apologize for smears and overtly racist material issued by their campaigns.

Chaffey Community Republican Women, Federated of the Inland Empire had sent out a newsletter with a mock foodstamp depicting Barack Obama surround by images of watermelon and fried chicken. Diane Fedele told the Press Enterprise on Tuesday that her intent was to point out the “outragousness” of a statement Obama had made this summer that “doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.” She said she didn’t mean to offend anyone, and would be mailing out an apology.

And also on Tuesday, after a call from the state Republican Party, the Sacramento County Republican Party removed an image from its website calling for Obama to be waterboarded, along with another comparing Obama to Osama bin Laden.

Marin County town renamed Obama, CA

Well, not officially. But drivers passing this pedestrian crossing sign in Olema may think twice. Resident Kelly Emery created and installed the sign outside of her bed and breakfast last weekend in accordance with local laws.

[...pic from Obama in Olema, details from the Marin Indepenent Journal]

Former L.A. Mayor Riordan vs. John McCain

As former LA Mayor Richard Riordan entered Tuesday night’s Barack Obama fundraiser in Beverly Hills he told CBS2, “When I was mayor I had dealings with McCain where I didn’t respect him.”

Riordan, a Republican, is now endorsing Obama for President, saying, “I think he’s a much more open person. He’s young, he has more energy, more electricity.” [watch here]

And Riordan knows something about age in politics – he was 72 in 2002 when he was beat in the race to be California Governor to the much younger Gray Davis, a factor that Politico’s Gary South, who worked on Gray’s campaign attributes to Riordan’s loss.

…the overwhelming majority of [voter focus group] participants thought Riordan was younger than he was, most guessing in his 60s. When informed of his actual age, it was an instant disqualifier for 25-30 percent of the participants in nearly every focus group (and this, of course, was for governor, not president). As of today, it will be quite evident to every voter that McCain is, in fact, 72 years old.

The focus group then, on their own, began making connections between Riordan’s age and former President Ronald Reagan’s alzheimers, “surmising that the onset of the latter’s Alzheimer’s had actually occurred while he was still in office.” The Riordan campaign attempted to deflect the age issue by distributing photos of Riordan riding a bike with Lance Armstrong and pumping iron in his basement gym.

New York Post “journalist’s” not so reputable past.

The moment I spotted a New York post article headlined, “Obama tried to stall GI’s Iraq withdrawl,” my bullshit meter was on high alert. A little light research immediately brought up the writer’s past history of misinterpreting information and standing by stories not backed up by the facts.

The journalist in question, Amir Taheri contends that Barack Obama “tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence,” citing Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.

According to Ben Smith of Politico, “An Obama aide accused Taheri of confusing the Status of Forces agreement with a Strategic Framework Agreement, for which Obama has pushed for congressional review.”

That the journalist would confuse anything seems to be in line with his less than reputable past.

In 2006, the National Post of Canada had to retract an article Taheri wrote claiming that Iranian parliament had passed a law requiring non-Muslims to wear clothing identifying their religion. Both Reuters and the Associated Press, or any other news agency who looked into the matter, could find any evidence of such a law even being proposed.

Taheri also accused Iran’s US ambassador Javad Zarif of participating in 1979 Iranian hostage crisis, even though Zarif was confirmed to be a teaching assistant at San Francisco State Univeristy at the same time. (via Wikipedia, which does cite sources on this, along with other instances where Taheri has been caught fabricating stories).

What makes this bothersome is that in spite of Taheri’s less than credible blackground, the New York Post, owned by the same parent company as Fox News, seems more than willing to print his material. Of course, don’t count on right wing bloggers to question the integrity of the journalist or to delve more deeply into the outrageous claims.

Sarah Palin crashes Obama fundraiser

Jessica Chisum as Sarah Palin at the gObama benefit party last Saturday evening.

President George W. Bush and Alaska’s Governor Sarah Palin made for an unlikely addition to over 150 attendees at “gObama,” a Barack Obama fundraiser last Saturday night in the Mount Washington neighborhood of Los Angeles, resulting in $3,300 in donations for the Obama campaign.

Lindsey Walker tells me after she and her boyfriend Chris Goodson moved into the rented Mount Washington home they began brainstorming ways to utilize its three backyard patios for events and other small functions, Initially thinking a film festival or poetry reading, after the idea of an Obama fundraiser was brought up, it stuck.

“It was finally something bigger than all of us individually that moved us to act,” Walker said. “This campaign has created a connection between people that I haven’t seen since 911 – where complete strangers can comfortably recognize each other on the street because of the symbol of Barack Obama.”

Six weeks of planning and “strategery” followed, with friend Jessica Pregnolato and Lindsey’s sister Hilary joining the team.

Emceed by comedian Lauren Weedman, the resulting event featured music from the US Mail Band, DJ Nick Romaniak, the Eric Layer Band, Joe Green and the Heavy Steppers, and Silver Phial.

Additional entertainment included a video by Radical Lyons (Peter Darchuk), and the aforementioned visit by George W Bush (aka Chris Goodson) and Governor Sarah Palin (aka Jessica Chisum). In spite of being impersonators, the crowd spared no expense booing the two and challenging them with questions that would have unprintable even on the Daily Kos. Chisum, who also hails from Alaska, demonstrated her perfect Palin accent as she proudly showed off her son Trig swaddled in a bear pelt.

A photo booth by theatrical set designer Gary Smoot was set up where attendees could put their faces into the infamous Obama New Yorker cover, while more professional portraits could be taken by the We Are the Ones Project, who have been taking photos of Obama supporters across the nation. Finally, attendees who wanted to send Obama a message could be interviewed at the video booth.

Guests get a pic “fisting” as the evening’s George W Bush called it.

More photos below…

Sarah Palin: Governor of San Francisco?

John McCain’s Vice Presidential running mate, Alaska’s Sarah Palin, went from mayor of a town of 8,500 to governor of a state with 670,000.

Dallas Morning News blogger Colleen McCain Nelson tries to put this into perspective:

Her entire state has about as many people as Memphis, Tennessee, the country’s 17th-largest city.

So, 16 U.S. mayors — including Dallas’ very own Republican, Tom Leppert — have more constituents than Sarah Palin. Of course, she has her own mayoral pedigree, in Wasilla, Alaska, population 8,500.

To put it in California’s perspective, Alaska’s population of 670,000 is:

• About the population of Bakersfield and Anaheim combined.
• 1/6th the size of the City of Los Angeles (4,045,000), 1/2 the size of San Diego (1,336,000), and smaller than the cities of San Jose (989,000) or San Francisco (824,000).
• Less than Los Angeles City Council Districts 4, 5, and 13 combined.
• Approximately 1/3rd less than the number of Los Angeles residents who marched in the 2006 “Great American Boycott.”

Alas, maybe Eric Garcetti could have been on Obama’s shortlist along with Hillary…

McCain’s VP pick to be announced within hour… eBay’s Meg Whitman still a possibility

There’s still some buzz surrounding the chance McCain will pick California resident Meg Whitman as his Vice Presidential pick. I don’t buy it, but here’s a few off hand reasons why or not she’d make for a decent pick:

Why he might:

• Her business background is stellar as she grew eBay into the monolith it is today with the help of millions of small businesses or individuals who profited along with them. Counter balances McCain’s poor economic acumen.
• Still bitter Hillary supporters may jump on board because Whitman is a woman.
• Whitman has never held a public office – talk about a change agent!
• She’s a Californian. We rock.

Why he probably won’t:

• Whitman has never held a public office – talk about risk! McCain’s age is a small enough factor in this election that voters will probably at least someone who knows the ins and outs of Capitol Hill to take the reigns.
• Expanding on the above, if someone with little political experience is chose, the McCain camp will have a hard time repeating their mantra that Obama has no experience… which, frankly, is their most resonant talking point.
• Very little chance of benefitting from a boost in Californian electoral votes.
• Mere choice of a woman may backfire and look like its pandering to the Hillary crowd.
• She’ll be slaughtered by Lieberman in debates.

I have no idea who McCain will pick, but would also cross Mitt Romney off the list, along with Joe Lieberman. McCain will play it safe, choosing someone with experience and a Republican track record, and little about their religion or background to question.

CNN texts that Biden is VP pick, will millions who signed up for Obama’s message feel hosed?

Heck, I sort of do. The Obama campaign was able to gain the cel phone numbers of millions of constituents on the promised that they’d be first to know who his VP pick was, but tonite CNN sent a text message of its own saying they’ve confirmed that Sen. Joe Biden will be Obama’s #2.

On the bright side for Obama, not needing to send a text message out could save his campaign tens of thousands of dollars. While I’m making an estimated guess as to how many people signed up to receive the text messages, if it cost Obama a nickel per person to send the message (a conservative amount, according to Tech Crunch), the total for this single blast would be $50,000.

Not surprising, though – considering all the prep that would need to be done ahead of announcing a VP choice (ie, dispatching a Secret Service detail) – it was inevitable that a news outlet would scoop the campaign’s text announcement.

That said, nearly 20 minutes after CNN has confirmed this, the Obama campaign has yet to “click send” on that text message. Did someone fall asleep at their computer?

Did John McCain hint at his VP choice in Orange County?

At Saturday’s televised one on one session between Rick Warren and John McCain, Warren asked the Republican presidential candidate who were the three individuals he “would rely on most” if elected.

McCain named Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq; John Lewis, the Democratic congressman and civil rights leader; and his economic advisor, Meg Whitman, the ex-CEO of eBay. That allowed him to remind the audience of three campaign themes: his foreign policy credentials, serving a cause greater than one’s self-interest and his pledge to use the advice of people like Whitman to turn the economy around. [LA Times]

Sounds like a great opportunity to float out some names and try them on for size… possibly for people McCain would consider adding to his cabinet, or a running mate. However, each have obvious drawbacks: Petraeus as a military man brings nothing fresh to the table, Lewis has the Democrat thing going for him, and Whitman has never been elected to a political post (although it’s believed she’ll run for California governor in 2010).

Obama answered the same question with his mother and grandmother, proving the definition of reliance is up for interpretation.