Ronald Reagan Endorses Obama, McCain Still Fraudulently Glomming Off Of Goldwater
McPrickly/Cheney by twolf
Ruh roh, Ronald Reagan has formally endorsed Barack Obama for president! Okay, it is the non-zombie Reagan, Ron Jr., but still:
I assumed most people already knew that I had supported Obama. Anyone who has spent five minutes listening to my program would have known that. But if it helped to make it official, I’m happy to make it so.
This hot on the heels of the news that Dick Cheney, appearing at a Wyoming rally today, gave his glowing formal endorsement to John McCain.
The Salon War Room reports:
The vice president, who may still be a scary costume on future Halloweens even once he leaves office, told a Wyoming Republican event Saturday that he was "delighted" to support McCain and Sarah Palin. "I believe the right leader for this moment in history is Senator John McCain," Cheney said.
Whoo doggie. What a way for John Sidney McCain III to kick off the last weekend of his campaign. First, Ronald Reagan’s former Chief of Staff Ken Duberstein, one of the leaders of the ultra-influential Off The Record Club, flat out endorses Obama and says McCain isn’t fit for the office of President. McCain recovers by getting an endorsement, but it is from the only politician in America with a lower personal approval rating (15% last noted) than George Bush. And now Ron Reagan weighs in.
Very impressive.
In other news, as Marcy points out, John McCain is going to wrap up his campaign in Prescott Arizona.
I would suggest McCain’s decision to make the sentimental stop in New Hampshire, as much as the stop in Prescott, suggests McCain knows any stumping he does this weekend will do little good. Instead, he’s going to relive his glory days of surprise wins in New Hampshire; he’s going to try to elevate this losing bid in hopes it might some day have the same relevance as Goldwater’s 1964 presidential bid. McCain’s campaign stops this weekend are about McCain and his ego, not about mobilizing Republicans to go to the polls.
Yep, it is all about McCain’s ego alright. It always is with John McCain; he cares about only one thing in life, and that is himself. McCain constantly schleps into Prescott trying to lay claim to the mantle of Arizona’a own, Barry Goldwater. But McCain has no such claim, and he never has.
Unlike John McCain, who mindlessly gloms onto Prescott to falsely build himself up with the legacy of another, Barry Goldwater was a native son. Barry’s roots in Prescott were not false and fraudulent; they were real. Goldwater started and ended his campaigns on the steps of the Yavapai County Courthouse, smack dab in the middle of the historic downtown Prescott Town Square, because it was right across the street from the successor to the original Goldwater family store in Prescott.
The Prescott store was an immediate success. It was the first Goldwater store to carry a line of high-fashion goods and to adopt the motto, "The Best Always." At the insistence of Morris, who became manager in 1879, it began catering to ladies. Home fumiture, fumishings, and fancy goods rivaled liquor, tobacco, and flour. Among the store’s best customers were the bordello girls, who frequently purchased champagne at $40 a case. Morris soon became as indispensable to the community as to the store, practicing what he often said-that successful people had the moral duty to repay, by whatever means, the communities that had helped make them. It was a belief that Barry Goldwater would take seriously seventy years later when he pondered how best to repay his city of Phoenix for what it had given him.
Biographer Edwin McDowell points out that Morris and his father Mike, now fifty-five and referred to as the "old gentleman," set a high standard of community service. They were the first to pledge $5,000 in bonds for a railroad into Prescott, and Morris and two partners helped finance the construction of a railroad to Phoenix. Morris later helped develop mines and real estate throughout the territory and served as secretary of the Prescott Rifles, which protected the people from Indian attacks.
And then there was politics. Although only twenty-seven, Morris was elected mayor of Prescott in 1879 by an almost 2 to I margin. It was the first of his ten terms as mayor over the next forty-eight years. He also helped organize the Arizona Democratic party in the 1880s when the territory was under the control of a Republican administration. Known as a Jeffersonian or conservative Democrat, Morris later served as president of the twentieth Territorial Council and vice president of the crucial 1910 Constitutional Convention, which led to Arizona’s statehood in 1912. Following statehood, he was president of the Senate in the second Arizona legislature. He often said, and later repeated to his favorite nephew Barry, that if a man believed firmly in an issue, he should stay with it no matter what the odds or how heavy the criticism pounds, but he was determined to succeed at whatever he tried.
Over the decades, Goldwater’s grew into a statewide chain of very high end department stores (think Macy’s of the west) in Arizona, first under their predecessors, then Barry, and finally Barry’s brother Bob. As Bob Goldwater became older, the department stores merged into May/Robinsons in the early 1980s, and are now occupied by Macy’s.
Almost the entire time until Goldwater’s name merged into May/Robinson’s, Barry and Bob kept a small store open, operating at a loss, in the Prescott Town Square across from the Yavapai County Courthouse to honor the tradition and history of Goldwater’s in Prescott, because that is who they were and where they had come from. On a lighter note, all of the Goldwaters, including Barry, also knew what was on the opposite side of the Yavapai Courthouse from the family store, which was located on Cortez Street. That would be the infamous Whiskey Row on Montezuma Street, which had The Birdcage, The Palace, and Matt’s, hard drinking saloons one and all.
That is the history of a man in love with and tied to Prescott. Barry Goldwater had everything to do with Prescott Arizona; John McCain has nothing whatsoever to do with the town, it’s history, or for that matter, Barry Goldwater.
John McCain is a dishonorable fraud; he was never close to Barry Goldwater, and he carries not one single ounce of his legacy. Barry Goldwater did not like John McCain; in fact, he despised him as an unworthy carpetbagger in Arizona. The direct descendants of Barry Goldwater are voting the conscience of their conservative grandfather, rejecting John McCain completely, and strongly endorsing Barack Obama. The reason is because John McCain is so far from the quality of man that Barry Goldwater was that it is laughable.
John McCain, I knew Barry Goldwater, Barry Goldwater was a friend of mine, and you sure as hell are no Barry Goldwater. Quit fraudulently and dishonorably holding yourself out as his heir.
Good post bmaz! Lucky Prescott to the get the McCain leavings.
I am sure the Prescott College kids will enjoy having him there!
I had to read that twice.
Socialists!
It really was a fantastic and elegant store in the 60s and 70s up until it merged; stayed in operation up through about 1985 or so.
My grandpa was a great fan of Barry Goldwater’s; he and my grandmother loved to spend the winter driving around the Arizona desert after visiting my great-auntie in Tucson. I don’t think they’d be too pleased with McCrankypants glomming onto the Goldwater legacy. I can’t wait for him to go away.
You and me both brother.
Of course, it’s sad for you — when McSame goes away for the rest of us, he’ll be in your locale even more often!
JEBUS
who knew mcsame was such a skeezy fuckin parasite
and just when ya thought the repuglitards couldn’t go any lower
what’s lower than subterranean ???
anywho …
when is bmaz gonna do his howard cosell immitation ???
DOWN GOES texas, DOWN GOES texas
what a fookin game
and in news of the ordinary variety, Oklahoma thumped nebraska, AGAIN
oh yeah, I also found out that zogby is using a 38 Democratic – 36 Republican – 26 Independent voter model
mcsame is TOAST
Freep – reposted from back in the TrashTalk thread – next games for Texas Tech are Oklahoma State THEN Oklahoma.
Penn State would get their ass kicked in the Big 12 South.
don’t misunderestimate a JoePa coached team
vinnie testaverde made that mistake once
Feh. The Big 12 South has four teams in the Top 10. That’s total domination.
No one wants to hear this, but that #3 ranking for Penn State is a sentimental ranking. They will be part of the BCS for that reason, and some very good teams (Like Texas Tech or Texas or OK State) won’t be, and that totally stinks.
Oklahoma already played Texas and still has to play Tech and State.
OK State has already played a #3 (Missouri) and Texas, and still has to play Tech and Oklahoma.
Tech played Texas and still has to play Oklahoma and State.
Texas has played Tech, Missouri, Oklahoma and State.
Then there will be the Big-12 Championship.
Penn State will make it to the BCS and won’t have played a schedule nearly as tough as any one of those teams. Hopefully they’ll draw one of them in their game and get drilled, and people will see that farce for what it is.
The BCS is a joke.
OT-FYI- a long article on the failures of the five major players of bush administration
Battered and Bruised: America Looks Beyond the Bush Warriors
By Erich Follath http://www.spiegel.de/internat…..86,00.html
In his two terms in the White House, US President George W. Bush has presided over a precipitous fall in America’s reputation around the world. History is likely to judge him a failure. Now, his successor will have to dig the US out of a deep hole.
OT-Did cheney use incursion to blow-up Condi’s negotiations with Syria? http://joshualandis.com/blog/
From Syria Comment:
“Imad Moustapha: last month in New York in September, while we were attending the U.N. General Assembly meetings, [U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza] Rice out of the blue requested a meeting with our foreign minister. So we sat with her, and the meeting was pleasant. Two days later, this meeting was followed with an extensive, in-depth meeting with Assistant Secretary of State David Welch. Every issue was discussed, and in general the overwhelming tone of the meeting was very positive. He told us clearly that the United States was reevaluating its policies towards Syria. We thought, “Things [are] finally starting to move in the right direction.”
And suddenly, this [raid in eastern Syria] happens. I don’t believe the guys from the State Department were actually deceiving us. I believe they genuinely wanted to engage diplomatically and politically with Syria. We believe that other powers within the administration were upset with these meetings and they did this exactly to undermine the whole new atmosphere.”
If that is true, Rice should immediately come out, denounce the action and endorse Barack Obama because John McCain represents a direct continuation of the Cheney philosophy and militant hostility over diplomacy. That is what an honest and courageous diplomat, concerned for the well being of the middle east and world, would do. We can expect crickets though.
Whoa. Put that info together with what you left on a previous thread about this info — and didn’t NPR report that Petraeus was taken by surprise by the Syrian raids…? (sorry, no link 8-
Looks like Hadley must be keeping a close eye on Condi (per usual) and coordinating with Cheney’s group to undercut any Condi DoS moves on Syria.
So the neocons who’ve always wanted Syria/Iran demolished continue to act duplicitously, and GWBush does nothing. It figures.
I find it rather ironic that McCain, at this point in the campaign and with a record of doing…exactly what for Arizona — has he done anything? — has decided to wrap himself in the twin flags of Arizona and Barry Goldwater. Goldwater’s family’s ’service’ was Arizona. McCain’s family’s service was the US Navy – except he screwed that up for himself(with the help of his father’s and grandfather’s upper brass friends who turned a blind eye to all of his mistakes and disasters) – and then used his wife’s family’s money and influence to insert himself into Arizona politics. As a matter of fact, McCain should have gone to Mississippi – his family had strong roots there, still owns property there and McCain and his brother had spent a lot of time growing up there. But I guess Cindy’s family couldn’t help him there so he had to do his public service(and I am still trying to figure out if McCain has really served the people of Arizona in any capacity other than promoting the McCain brand) in Arizona. But to show up in Prescott? Jeeze.
McCain has not done squat for Arizona. He assisted one bill or something that decreased flyovers of the Grand Canyon, which is a good thing, they were killing the peace there. But that actually benefitted a supporter who had the grandfathered in air tour company. The other thing is that he did actually help keep Luke Air Force Base open during a base closing round, and it is an important commerce center in the far west valley of Phoenix. That is almost about it for 26 years. He is the worst ever on constituent services; totally worthlesss.
Why did Cheney kill any possible chance for McCain by endorsing him? This is not just a stupid mistake.
Kinda funny decision-making by the McCain strategists or the Bushies. Could they have been looking at the early-voting exit polls and decided Barrasso needed some help in his Wyoming senate race, despite being up 20+ pts.?
With luck the Wyoming voters will see this as a Cheney kiss of death and help Carter win.
OT: Palin’s religiosity.
Stumbled across a blog, Talk To Action I’ve never seen before. From their “About” page, partial statement of purpose:
They’ve done a lot… a lot of research on Palin and connections to all kinds of bizarre religious right activity. My stomach for this voodoo gets damn leery well before the gates of Benny Hinn, but all this stuff takes Hinn as an inspirational starting point.
Twilight zone.
Stumbled across it via an excellent KOS entry penned by Troutfishing: Palin Movement Urges ‘Godly’ To ‘Plunder’ Wealth of ‘Godless’
I was a Southern Baptist* in early 80’s, finally left religion all together as a result of this stuff infiltrating regular church activities and working it’s way to the pulpit & focus of primary purpose… essentially undeclared doctrine. I spoke up, and was more or less shown the door. I bolted through it and didn’t look back.
I could tell you stories, both @ church & volunteer work I did in Phoenix during early days of TBN (I managed logistics for their Phx TV events back then).
A vivid memory, after attending a Jimmy Swaggart (1st time hearing/seeing him), I forcefully tod Paul Crouch that Swaggart was an idiot: after observing this “service”, I told him Swaggart was not communicating anything desirable, only sappy sympathies for empty, emotional drama. Essentially, saying Swaggart was a fraud.
Crouch got irate… told me he’d pray that I “purge the confusion that was in my mind” (still have the letter).
I ended that “affiliation” right there.
It was about 2 weeks later Swaggart got busted w/his pants down in a car getting a blowjob from some cheap hooker. His tear filled mea-culpa did not differentiate itself from his Sunday sermons in any meaningful way.
Also around this time that a bunch of their christian-circuit travelling “healers”… regulars on Crouch’s TV events, were busted for coke/orgies, embezzlement and such. Tammy & Jim’s crash not long after this as well.
My point I guess, that whole turn in my (and family’s) life was a big one then, and really changed our course in a huge way. And in retrospect, drastically for the better. The clear moral hazards presented by all that crap remain indelible memories, as do continuing reminders of the depths of illusion it all fortifies in powerful ways.
I read through bunch of Troutfishing’s links, same w/that Talk-To-Action article. Sure as hell looks to me like Palin’s up-to-her-ass in this stuff, the extent to which I had no idea a couple hrs ago.
Scarrrrrry woman.
(Go RAIDERS!!!)
* NOTE to bmaz: membership then with 1st So. Baptist of Scottsdale, Pastor Roy Fisher… great guy, I still maintain a relationship w/him. He left not long after I, remember his announcement from the pulpit explaining his reason for doing so: (my summary) That all this same crap all these folks were bringing into the church front and center had made it “dead”.
I’m guessing you’ve driven by that church many times. I sometimes wonder what became of them, if it descended into bowels of all this whacko Hinn type crapolla. They had a really nice property there.
I had a lot of friends there, many from whom I’d earned significant respect. When we bolted, many of ‘em called/came by… expressed misgivings similar to my own. Most, however, couldn’t break loose: it was like an addiction.
Geez:
OT – The Wicked Witch of Grosse Pointe Farms
Maureen Dowd today contributes to the false McCain imagery that bmaz so articulately exposes. Her implied theme is, “How could John have done this to the press, to his chances for the White House? We loved him, we gave him a free pass, and he turned on us.” Loving MoDo, on the other hand, must require buying icepick-proof suits and wolverine-proof jockey shorts.
Her man John,
Having acquired such characteristics via a bamboozled press, his journey to the White House ought to have been easy. His principal competitor was, “He Who Walks Alone”:
]
For Maureen, the answer is that McCain is a tragic figure. His downfall is not the consequence of his becoming better known, of tossing principles and long-held beliefs, of displaying erratic behavior and bad judgment, or of choosing an all-lobbyist staff and sociopathic Rove acolytes as advisers. It’s the fault of Steve Schmidt and the Bushies. (Conveniently on their way out, and less able to complain to her publisher or his advertisers than when, say, Valerie Plame was outed.)
MoDo buries her one good question near the end, amid more misdescriptions of John McCain:
Maureen knows the answer. Her article is built around it. Why does McCain not question his choices? For the same reason that he also adopted George Bush’s advisers, slogans, tactics and policies. He is Bush, a smaller, angrier, older, emptier version. Why is his campaign whiny, angry and bitter? Because John McCain is whiny, angry and bitter. Why won’t he become president? Because he’s John McCain, not in spite of it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11…..ef=opinion
maybe it ain’t mcsame
you could say the same about hillary
they aren’t that similar, but hillary and mcsame both hit the same political brick wall, named Barack Obama. One difference is that mcsame sold his soul to beat Obama, and got ripped off
hillary managed to keep her dignity, barely
mcsame was done in by his own failings
but those failings were highlighted by the most charismatic politicians I have ever seen
anybody here familiar with Aladar ???
in any other year, Aladar might have been a triple crown champion
it just wasn’t mcsame’s year, Hillary’s either
The ‘game’ changed.
And when the game changed, the rules changed.
And under the new rules, as bmaz has so brilliantly pointed out, bullshit that’s always been bullshit is finally (!) being exposed for as fraudulent.
And the guys around McCain have mastered the Old Game.
What they’ll do now is anyone’s guess.
for randiego @14
yer startin to sound like a miami huurican, dude
be careful bout that
in 1987 Penn State wasn’t worthy to play miami, cept miami got their asses kicked
and then there was Alabama in the early 1990s
Alabama was not worthy to share the field with miami either, and they FUCKED MIAMI UP too
I wouldn’t take anything for granted (you seen Oklahoma’s record in their most recent title games) and I would never count a JoePa team out
hubris is a killer
thanks bmaz .. for the history lesson .. i lived in mojave valley az for a few years .. BI [before the internet] and had no idea of the rich history of the goldwater clan ..
Bmaz, thank you. and EW. You are good people. You
Hamilton wins – just. That’s the most exciting Grand Prix that I have ever seen.
Check my heated comments back on trash talk. It is a tainted win for Hamilton.
oops
that should be alydar
if you’re wondering how a person with a photograpic memory could be such a terrible speller, It Ain’t About The Words
or
my mind just takes pictures, it doesn’t understand them …
Don’t worry Freep, we use a soft focus filter with you pics.
McCain is closer to Mr. Ed the gluehorse than to Alydar. Anyway, Secretariat would have killed Affirmed.
‘gluehorse’…? Ouch ;-))
But I’d no idea the Goldwater family had been in the mercantile biz; the links with the bordellos and the saloons is so very, very…. ‘western’, in so many respects.
But a lot of those Old Timers did a ton for their local communities, and they definitely had a sense of contributing to the Common Good. They meant to do good, and often ended up doing quite well as a result; despite the fact that was never their primary objective.
I just have a hard time getting my head around Prescott College and John McCain being in the same locale… Prescott’s emphasis on self-directed liberal arts education seems rather at odds with McCain’s egoism.
But Prescott’s reputation for self-direction learning definitely seems to synch with what you describe about the Goldwater emphasis on personal responsibility within a community that allows for innovation.
Relish the paradoxes, eh?
McCain is going to the Yavapai County Courthouse gig in the downtown historic square; doesn’t have anything to do with Prescott College which is nowhere in the vicinity. McCain may not even know Prescott College exists.
not a fair race
Big Red had a HUGE heart
almost twice the size of a normal race horse
there’s a picture of Secretariat coming around the fourth turn at Belmont, the jockey is looking over his left shoulder, and there ain’t another horse in the picture
that, and 1:59 and 2/5, is all you need to know about Secretariat. other horses just couldn’t compete
alydar is unique amongst losers
Secy had oversized lungs too; was just a freak. An awesome freak though; this is an original oil painting hanging in my living room.
There is a local Prescott, AZ, history effort, one of which pages has some interesting photos with a narrative of how the land rush worked around the plaza in the days when there was gold in them thar hills.
Okay, that makes sense.
Sorry to misread your earlier comments; shoulda looked at a map.
Ronald Reagan, Jr is endorsing Barak Obama…?!
Water’s runnin’ uphill, I tell ya…
Ronald Reagan endorses Obama. The Obama team should be running that in a campaign ad. Republican heads would be exploding all over the US!
That is a color picture of the courthouse in the main post. It is really ancient, but is still in use and is still the main courthouse for Yavapai County. We used to go up there during the summers for a few weeks at a time when I was a kid in the 60s. There are a couple of giant gazebos on the north side of the square. On Saturday nights, they would have bands and would have huge square dances and the whole square would be filled with people. The kind of scene you don’t see anymore. Is also a huge July 4th deal there every year called “Frontier Days”. Big parade around the square and up Cortez Street, then back down Montezuma. They also have what has been billed as “The World’s Oldest Rodeo” in conjunction with Frontier Days at the local rodeo grounds.
I rode on a float in the parade two different July 4ths when I was a kid and was at summer camp in the pines above Prescott up the Old Senator Highway (named for the Senator Mine, not Goldwater). Also up the Old Senator Highway, and about a half mile from Friendly Pines Camp, where i went, was the Goldwater’s family house/cabin. Barry had a lot of his kachina collection there, and a lot of other historic stuff. One night each summer, he would host the camp kids for a visit and history talk.
Spambot jerkoffs get their comment deleted.
Trying not to get too excited. Don’t want to jinx anything. Distracting self by looking for fresh Biden. Don’t understand why Americans make jokes about Biden. Self-deprecating humour — that is considered major virtue in the frozen north, and he is very good at it. Won’t someone write an Oxdown about Biden?
About carpetbaggers:
Some states don’t accept that at all. I would guess, for historical reasons, the Southern states would reject it altogether. In Illinois Keynes got nowhere against Obama.
There are some other states which play a bigger game and will accept the right person. For example, New York was okay with Bobby Kennedy and Hillary Clinton. It all depends upon how the state’s residents see their state and where they fit in America.
An interesting case would be California. I don’t recall any examples beyond Ahnold the Governator who were ‘outsiders’ and won, but theirs is a state composed of outsiders — though there are some who want to close the gate to certain kinds of new outsiders. It should also be noted there were extreme circumstances in place when Arnold ran for office. It was entirely contrived and not repeatable and besides, Arnold had lived in Kalifornia for many years and was well accepted despite his heavy accent and foreign heritage.
Name someone else who might be able to go to CA and compete the way he did?
Do they have any other in-state outsiders like Arnold who could try to replicate his election successes in the next few races? There are certainly people there with money, but I don’t know of any on the Republican side who have talked about running. Not being from CA I may not be hearing the whole story.
No, more likely the known home-boys will be in the race. In that kind of race the question is what qualities the electorate will want — especially after their experience with Arnold. What qualities will they want?
wasn’t ronnie raygun an outsider ???
and you’re right about wantin to keep out certain types
okies arkies and texans need not apply (but don’t take it personal, we can’t go to oregon)
an any of you Wisconsinite “almost-a-hosers” lookin for a cheese fix, tell your story walkin pal, you ain’t welcome here
but the rest of the nation is welcome to visit California (cept missouri, of course)
and remember
we said VISIT …
If you think that’s bad, you should see the anti-welcome-wagon people …
We have the same issue here in Arizona; most everybody is from somewhere else. Very few of us longtime natives left in relative population terms. That trend had already started when McCain plopped his carpetbag down in 1980, but it was not exacerbated like it is now. We are just as bad, probably worse, than California now.
But, go figure, McCain relied on the freaking “war hero” and the “only real home I have had is the Hanoi Hilton” (yes, he really has been cynically and shamelessly peddling that crap the entire time from the start) and he had a massive funding advantage from the Hensley family and their friends (including Keating) and he won a very competitive three way primary. The primary was the election in his first House race, because it was a hugely GOP district, but he did not win the primary all that easily. Once he was in though, he has just kept sailing on the same “I am John McCain war hero” BS ever since. Until now.
Ron Reagan Jr. is “impressive”. Out on the streets (GOTV) again in Glouster, Chauncey, Pomeroy, downtown Columbus and on several college campuses here in Ohio. We are pushing hard.. only time will tell..although the folks who have gotten out and voted early for Obama is outstanding.
ouch
the REAL Mavericks have spoken:
linkage buuuuuuddddddy
I was a regular reader of Maury Maverick, Jr. when I lived in San Antonio. It’s about time one of the real Mavericks called McCain out on this. He was about as liberal as you could get away with writing for a San Antonio newspaper.
Wow, that is fantastic.
They must have northern kin up in my part of the US; independent, ornery, and they HATE bullshit.
Have you heard Sarah Palin’s phone call where she gets punk’d by a Canadian radio team. Is this for real?
http://2008central.net/audio/palin_pranked.mp3
yeah, seems real enough
princess pandora was thrilled to be in the same catagory with sarkosy
how would you feel about being in the same category as lincoln, princess ???
with the thoughts that she’s be thinkin, she couldn’t be another lincoln, even if she had a brain …
Oh, it really happened. The campaign staff has admitted it occurred.
Wah admiral won me a prize
Senator Goldwater arguably started the success of the modern Republican conservative movement despite his landslide loss to Lyndon Johnson in 1964, bringing in such future stars as Ronald Reagan.
It would only be appropriate for another conservative Republican Senator from Arizona to close the book on this failed movement by losing in a landslide to Barack Obama in 2008.