Just a slip of the tongue?

In a presidential campaign that has now stretched on for more than a year, in which candidates are making anywhere from three to five public appearances each day, some flubbed lines and twisted facts are likely to slip into their normal stump speeches.

That would explain Obama’s reference to campaigning in 57 states, or misstating the German concentration camp where his grandfather was part of the Allied liberating forces at the end of World War II, or even his declaration last week that “Israel is a strong friend of Israel’s.”

One could easily excuse Sen. John McCain for an occasional blown line.

But the number of recent gaffes uttered by McCain on the campaign trail could be more than simple slip-ups.

It’s occurred during his repeated inability to distinguish between Sunni and Shiites in Iraq, in misstating the history surrounding the  troop surge in Iraq, in misidentifying the Czech Republic as Czechoslovakia (this coming some 15 years after Czechoslovakia split into two separate, independent nations), in referring to Vladimir Putin as the president of Germany, in his suggestions that Iraq and Pakistan share a common border (when, in fact, it is Afghanistan and Pakistan), when he misidentified Sudan as Somalia in discussing the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, and when he misstated a well-publicized antedote about his captivity as a POW in Vietnam.

We already have a president who habitually misstates the facts and mangles the English language.

Four more years of this? I don’t think so.

McCain can’t have it both ways

It’s pretty clear that John McCain was outmaneuvered domestically and abroad this week by Barack Obama.

It left McCain grasping for a way to spin Obama’s successful visit to Afghanistan, the Middle East and Europe, all while trying to deflect criticism that his campaign lacks focus or a unified message.

McCain previously criticized Obama for not visiting Iraq and Afghanistan. This week he criticized Obama for visiting Iraq and Afghanistan.

He previously criticized Obama for supporting a timeline for withdrawing combat forces from Iraq. But after Iraqi Prime Minister Miliki endorsed Obama’s timeline, and after McCain himself spoke of a timeline for removing combat troops from Iraq, McCain this week was strangely silent about timelines.

Instead, his campaign wildly tossed around sought other verbal assaults on his Democratic opponent.

McCain faulted everything about Obama’s whirlwind visit across Europe. He has claimed Obama is not ready for the presidency, but also says Obama acted too presidential in his speeches and visits with heads of state.

McCain was clearly outflanked by Obama’s unprecedented visit to Germany. McCain’s response? Visiting a German sausage factory. Obama delivered a major address before a crowd of 200,000. McCain spoke in front of a supermarket cheese display case.

His campaign’s talking heads ripped Obama for canceling a visit to wounded troops at Rammstein and Landstuhl Air Force Base hospitals. In fact, the campaign rushed a new TV commercial seeking to exploit the issue by accusing Obama of slighting the wounded soldiers.

(But here’s what CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr wrote back in April 2008 about the politically delicate issue of presidential candidates appearing at military installations:

(“Candidates for office have long been prohibited from engaging in political activities at U.S. military installations or using U.S. military personnel in their political appearances. Presidential campaign staffs generally are very familiar with these military rules.
(“DoD officials have privately noted for some weeks that the whole matter of drawing the line between Senate business and campaigning is sensitive.

(A U.S. Army official told CNN there are no pending requests from any of the campaigns to visit Army bases at this time. He noted that Sen. Barack Obama recently visited Fayetteville, North Carolina, but did not go to Fort Bragg; and Sen. Hillary Clinton visited Killeen, Texas, but did not go to Fort Hood.”)

In TV commercials and in speeches, McCain blames the media for having a “love affair” with the Obama candidacy. Where were the network anchors, he asked, on his recent visit to Iraq?

Turns out the McCain campaign never invited the media to come along.

We ought to expect more from someone who travels aboard “the Straight Talk Express.”

One leads, and one follows

It’s amazing to see how many of Barack Obama’s campaign messages are being echoed by his political opponents, too.

The fanatical right immediately jumped all over Obama for his pledge to remove U.S. combat troops from Iraq during the first 16 months of his administration.

Setting a timetable for withdrawal simply emboldens the enemy, according to some of the talking heads on Faux News and far-right talk radio.

I wonder how they’ll react today after learning Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said he supported Obama’s 16-month timetable. Maliki says he wants U.S. troops out of Iraq, too; the White House insists it hasn’t embraced the notion of a withdrawal timetable but has agreed with Maliki on “a general time horizon for meeting aspirational goals” (whatever the hell that means) that pledges to have the U.S. forces leave Iraq at some unspecified date.

Obama also was criticized by the right-wing scream machine when he said the real war on terror should be taking place in Afghanistan, and his call to add an additional 10,000 to 15,000 U.S. troops to the Afghan front.

McCain immediately criticized the suggestion — he said it was up to the United Nations to beef up troop levels. But now McCain’s singing a different tune. He’s echoed the call for more U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Funny, but that’s the same position being taken by U.S. military commanders, too.

It’s unconscionable that we’ve allowed the Taliban to regroup. It’s unconscionable that we’ve allowed the poppy crop to return to pre-2001 levels. And it’s unconscionable that Osama bin Laden and his band of killers remain free.

Remember it was Bush who said at a news conference a couple of years back that he didn’t spend much time thinking about bin Laden.

With Obama speaking out forcefully about our failed war on terrorism in Afghanistan, suddenly the White House is starting to pay attention, too.

Who’s ready to lead now? Who’s ready for that 3 a.m. phone call?

It’s not McCain.

Czechoslovakia?

If it was a just one-time slip of the tongue, perhaps it could be dismissed as a verbal miscue in the heat of a long, tiring presidential campaign.

But Monday was not the first time John McCain has referred to Russia’s policy on fuel sales to “Czechoslovakia.”

Czechoslovakia? That nation hasn’t existed in more than a decade.

And McCain cites his experience in both domestic and international affairs?

For the record, Senator, Czechoslovakia ceased to exist back in January 1993 when the country split into two independent nations: Czech Republic and Slovakia.

It makes you wonder which international hot spot McCain will next focus on. Rhodesia? The Soviet Union? Burma? Formosa?

Maybe he’ll just attack the League of Nations.

This is no rhyme–It’s past Jesse’s time

This won’t be written in iambic pentameter, but maybe Jesse Jackson will still comprehend.

To borrow from the Andy Warhol observation, your 15 minutes of fame expired a long, long time ago.

Now you’re just an embarrassment — to your supporters, to Barack Obama, to the nation.

Before you make matters worse, just step back, out of the national spotlight. No more media events. No more headline-grabbing publicity stunts. No more freedom marches, no more hunger strikes. No more dim-witted sound bites destined to fill the seemingly endless hours of airtime on right-wing talk radio.

Use your devotion to prayer — and pray that your vulgar comments about Obama will soon be forgotten. Pray that the day will come again when the American public really wants to know your opinion on major issues of the day.

You speak often of forgiveness. Obama may have forgiven your vulgarities, but we haven’t. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

The silence from the right is deafening

Just as sure as the sun rises in the East, you can count on the right-wing scream machine to throw out charges of “surrender,” “capitulation” or — my personal favorite — “cut and run” any time the issue is raised about a timetable for withdrawing our forces from Iraq.

Set a date to leave and the bad guys will simply sit back and wait to take over the country, or so the pundits of the right would have us believe.

Funny how silent those pundits have become now that the call for a troop withdrawal timeline has been demanded by none other than Iraq’s top government leaders.

If Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie can see the need for U.S. forces to begin a phased withdrawal, how can the right-wing fanatics remain so blind?

Barack Obama hasn’t waivered from his pledge to begin bringing U.S. combat troops out of Iraq — the details about timing may be subject to further revision, but his intent remains clear.

Expect the GOP attack ads to begin ramping up against Obama on this issue, just as soon as — they hope — voters begin to forget that Iraq’s leadership agrees with the Democrats on this one

Are newspapers dying?

Sadly, these announcements no longer seem to raise the collective eyebrows of Americans: Over the past week alone, more than 1,000 talented print journalists in newsrooms across America have been told to start looking for other work.

At major newspapers like the Los Angles Times and Baltimore Sun, midsized papers like the Palm Beach Post and Hartford Courtant, and community papers like the San Jose Mercury News and Contra Costa Times, publishers have announced new rounds of newsroom layoffs this week in a desperate attempt to deal with rising costs and falling revenues.

At most newspapers, this wasn’t the first round of layoffs or buyouts. And, sadly, it won’t be the last.

It would be easy to call the combination of factors weighing down on the newspaper industry a “perfect storm” except there’s nothing “perfect” about it: Newsprint costs are at an all-time high; display ad revenues have fallen by double-digits; and the housing slump has cut deep into real estate and classified ad revenues.

Add to that the near-crushing debt load for newspaper owners who leveraged high-priced acquisitions and it’s no surprise that newspaper stocks are near, or at, 52-week lows.

And then there’s the Internet. A generation of computer users who think they don’t need newspapers to get their daily dose of news and innovative ad-placement sites have also taken a mighty toll.

Ask any newspaper owner about the future of newspapers and he (or she) will say the future lies with the Internet. Then ask the logical follow-up question: How are they going to make money from the Internet?

That’s the great unknown. But those owners had better start figuring that one out…and soon.

Texas injustice

The final chapter has now been written, it seems, in the sad tale of Texas vigilante Joe Horn.

A Texas grand jury on Monday cleared Horn in the shotgun slayings of two men who were trying to flee after burglarizing a neighbor’s home. Not HIS home, a neighbor’s home.

The national media is paying attention to this shocking case, and for good reason.

Horn saw the two men breaking a window to force their way into his neighbor’s home and he promptly called 9-1-1.

After reporting the crime-in-progress, however, Horn advised the police operator that he had a shotgun in his home and would shoot AND KILL the burglars if police didn’t arrive in time to arrest the two.

Despite REPEATED warnings from the 9-1-1 operator to remain inside his home, and to NOT attempt vigilante justice, Horn fired three shotgun blasts at the two burglars as they ran across his property after leaving the scene of the crime. Both were shot in the back; both died at the scene.

On Monday, a grand jury refused to indict Horn.

In Texas, the state penal code allows the use of deadly force if the “actor reasonably believes the deadly force is immediately necessary.”

Deadly force can also be used to protect property when “the other is fleeing immediately after committing burglary.”

But to shoot two fleeing burglars in the back?

Critics have raised the specter of a racially motivated killing. In his 9-1-1 call, Horn, who is white, described both burglary suspects as black. Both suspected burglars actually were Colombian nationals, were suspected of being part of a residential burglary ring and had criminal backgrounds. And both were in the U.S. illegally.

But does any of that justify being shot in the back? And, for what, the theft of some jewelry and cash?

In Houston, the answer, regrettably, is yes.

Joe Horn has become today’s poster child for the “Don’t Mess With Texas” campaign.