1. David L. Wylie | 10.03.08

Is Sarah Palin Opposed to Gay Equality? You Betcha!

When moderator Gwen Ifill asked the VP candidates about their views on gay marriage during Thursday night’s debate, there was a distinct and stark contrast in their answers. While Biden readily admitted that he and Obama did not support gay marriage, the Senator was adamant about his ticket’s support for full civil unions for gay couples and full equality on the basic civil rights issues for all LGBT individuals. The most gays can expect from Sarah Palin is tolerance. The following is transcripts of the candidates exchange on LGBT issues: http://www.gaysofla.com/content/view/393/51/

2. Alex | 10.03.08

Thanks for the information. Added you to bookmark))
Your new reader.

3. Lakin | 10.03.08

Palin was not replying to questions as she was just repeating what they had coached her to say - she focussed all the time on her actions in Alaska (whose oil fields are certainly not the solution for an over consumerist society of the world’s energy resources.She seemed at times too girlish, at times talking to a public like to children. Biden had stature, depth and long term foresight, sounded sincere and yes, more Christian and more spiritual and whom world leaders would respect.ktn

4. Maya McLoota | 10.03.08

Watch the debates and turn off the critics. Let everyone make their own minds up based on what they hear and dare to believe. Most of us have been through this before we know (or should know) what is real. A lot of us will make our mind up in the voting booth on Nov. 4.

5. Pamela | 10.03.08

Obama supports partial birth abortions and has terrorist connections!
Biden I guess now thinks that Obama is ready and experienced to lead our country my how the colors change when tapped for VP! There is also light coming on he may not even be a American citizen! Than there is the Chicago elite social scene who is telling him what to do and that pesky weatherman thing buzzing around him too!

The mcCain/Palin ticket is the only one ready to “serve us” in the White House!
They are for the people and have the knowledge to run this country!

6. Ngozi | 10.03.08

As far as I am concerned - Paulin was the winner last night. Biden looked tired!!!!!!!!!!!!!

7. Dee | 10.03.08

I disagree with the view on if Palin was opposed to Gay Equality and Biden was for it. Biden skirted the issue and Palin said in plain English exactly what Biden had said. When re-asked the question both Biden and Palin said they believed the same on the issue…equal rights for gays but no redefinition of marriage (changing it from “One man and one woman”).

8. barbara shearing | 10.03.08

If Biden looked tired last night, he was just showwing how tired he is of the Republican let down of the American people who have been deceived by Bush and Cheney and their new cohorts to be reflect much of the same!1

9. RueDee | 10.03.08

The way she was struttin’ onto stage blowin’ kisses, you’da thought she was runnin’ for Mrs. America. Then I had an awful thought. Perhaps she DOES understand American mentality, hence the corn pone pandering.

10. Tracey | 10.03.08

Bush got back in 4 years ago because he made Americans scared through promoting the terror we face and now look at where we are. Mavericks McCain and Palin’s answer is lets shoot em all down and blow them up. Ridiculous. Since when do we tell our children the answer to issues is to fight. First we do all we can to resolve an issue through talking. To discredit Obama for saying that before American goes in guns blazing, that we need to exhaust all diplomatic efforts should make all Americans question the judgement of Palin and McCain.

The rest of the world used to look at America as the great leaders of the world. Over the last 8 years that has disappeared and before choosing the new President you should look at what great leaders of our allie nations are saying about the candidates. Their is disbelief at the McCain/Palin policies and talk, and for the first time ever you have countries like the UK and Australia talking a position on an American election and announcing their preferred candidate to be Obama.

Its one thing to be loyal to your preferred party, but another to be ignorant about the danger their elected running mates are putting this country in for the future.

11. RLW | 10.03.08

Although I was not as versed on all the issues I caught one lie that Biden made on energy. He did say prior to the debate that coal was not supported and also Obama was NOT for raping the land. Obama only later mentioned that he would consider drilling. I HEARD THIS. Also Biden has a long history of lying and according to Fred Thompson last night he knew of at least 4 times he misrepresented things. Fox news reported that Palin gave wrong numbers for pre surge troops. Rove said he picked up 10 Biden misrepresentations and 6 questionables to be researched. Honesty is important too in a leader. None of them are perfect but you do not have to get the worst ones from under a rock. McCain and Palin are my choice at this point and I do not believe he did that well in the debate - my opinion

12. LASurfer | 10.03.08

What contempt Biden (and nObama) must have for the American public that we can’t remember what they have said, and what they support (or do not support) by their actions! They know better than the public? How elitist of them–I mean that with all the comtempt that word implies. And how complicit of the Monitor to let it slide without a word.

In last night’s VP debate Biden “mis-stated” facts (real Americans call it lies) of both his record and nObama’s. He supported his substantive advantage–as reported by the Monotior and its compatriots–by revising his record on the spot. No unbiased journalist would allow that to happen.

I’m very surprised that the Monitor, of all sources, has not exposed the managed duplicity of the nObama/Biden campaign’s words vs. their actual record. I expect more from you, and yet you perform well below my expectations.

I have waited through three changes in Editors and will finally cancel my 10 years of Monitor subscription. You, like so many others, are not the valued resource you once were, and have devolved into the same ommission journalism of the mainstream press. Shame on you.

I don’t think your founder would have approved.

13. Kai | 10.03.08

Palin obviously sucked. She knows very little about the most important issues facing our country. I can’t support a ticket with an ill-prepared VP.

14. Hil’Lesha | 10.03.08

All I heard from Palin was about the neverending war, drilling oil, and hockey moms. They accuse Obama of trying to raise taxes yet they spend trillions of tax money on a war when THIS money could be helping the homelessness and getting kids off the streets and in the schools. McCain and Palin expect people to live with less while they live high on the hog. They don’t care about America as long as they have what they need and want.

15. MichL | 10.03.08

If you really care about what foriegn leaders think, than you should be concerned about these facts. Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro,Kim Jong Il, Ahmadinejad all hope he wins. Oh, and let’s not forget that Muammar Al-Gaddafi calls him ” our brother Obama, all the people in the Arab and Islamic world prayed for his success”. Let us not be fooled as to the reasons these leaders are interested in who our next President will be. Please, think long and hard before you cast your vote. Please, please, think!

16. MJR Aussie Observer | 10.03.08

Well, I’m amazed at the unthinking pandering that the American press is having in relation to McCain /Palin.
It is so obvious that they together lack the substance to be world leaders.
Palin should be proud of her ability to remember her lines she did well as a child might in an audition. An actress would have delivered these lines with greater nuance and inspiration than she. Her courage to bluff her way through without answering questions is admirable, but to even consider her as President at all, is inconcievable. It is cruel that Sarah Palin is without enough self appraisal to decline this position. The manipulations needed to pretend that the empress is clothed in fine garments [wisdom,insight and a real grasp of the issues] when in fact she is TOTALLY NAKED, [perhaps a child will tell] is amazing.
To watch Fox News Promote her with complete BIAS is total propaganda and should be illegal. I apologise as an Australian for the way Rupert Murdock has allowed this entity to be so corrupted.
Thankgod the monitor seeks to be impartial.

17. jefflz | 10.03.08

According to many, she didn’t make a complete fool of herself once again. That performance standard alone tells it all. She repeated the text they prepped her with, not being capable of adding anything more to the debate but the usual clichés about being Joe Six Pack, a Maverick, and a hockey mom. People that support her because she is similarly uninformed must ask themselves if they are ready for the White House too. What an absurd measure of leadership. She never once offered any policy differences between McCain Palin and Bush. Biden , on the other hand, pressed the attack with clear policy statements, and facts - mostly correct.. The differences between candidates were stark, one seasoned and knowledgeable, the other a wind-up Pit Bull with Lipstick who hasn’t a clue about how poorly prepared she really is. In this regard, more than 2700 concerned medical doctors placed a full page add in the New York Times today asking for McCain’s full medical report in light of his bout with highly lethal invasive melanoma. The unobstructed release of this report for expert review is more critical than ever.

18. Anna | 10.03.08

McCain and Palin have been lying non stop since this campaign started, and unfortunately many of their supporters do the same. (as can be seen in these comments) Just to set the record straight–

Obama was born in Hawaii which, for you McCain supporters, is a part of the United States. The lies which say otherwise are just more McCain/Palin desperation. See http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html for more information.

Obama has no “terrorist ties.” William Ayers lives in Obama’s neighborhood and is a Prof. at the University of Illinois. They once sat on a board together and Ayers contributed $200 to Obama’s campaign. That’s it.

There is unquestionably an honesty gap between these two campaigns, and that honesty gap extends to McCains willingness to even lie by charging his opponents with his own crimes. Anyone who takes the time to sort through the rampant dishonesty in the McCain campaign will come to that conclusion.

I reccomend http://www.factcheck.org. Pay particular attention to what lies come directly from the McCain campaign and which few minor distortions (there are a few) come from the Obama campaign. There’s no contest. How do you know when McCain/Palin are lying? Their lips are moving.

19. Hemi | 10.03.08

If you really care about what foriegn leaders think, than you should be concerned about these facts. Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro,Kim Jong Il, Ahmadinejad all hope he wins. Oh, and let’s not forget that Muammar Al-Gaddafi calls him ” our brother Obama, all the people in the Arab and Islamic world prayed for his success”. Let us not be fooled as to the reasons these leaders are interested in who our next President will be. Please, think long and hard before you cast your vote. Please, please, think

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Why is Chavez a terrorist? Because he won’t let Exxon/Mobil make billions off his oil. The same thing with Ahmadinejad. Who are we to tell Iran that they can’t have nuclear technology. Just because McCain says their going to nuke Israel doesn’t make it so. I think Iran knows what will happen to them if they tried to nuke Israel. Every one of our nuclear allies would turn Iran into a hole in the ground. And why are the people fighting against Israel called terrorists? Their fighting for their land. Were we called terrorists when we were fighting for this land? Israel is still taking their land and building on it even though they know their not supposed to. And do you know how many civilians have turned into so called terrorists because of Bush’s Torture policy? He’s torturing innocent people to find out if their terrorists. Holding them for years without charge or trial. If you ask me we got a bunch of mad men running this country and McCain is right there at the top with them. The only people we should label terrorists and go after are the Religious nuts that kill because the want everyone to live by their rules. I think you should Please Please think. If we keep acting like this we’ll keep making enemies and sooner or later they’ll get through. A few small nukes could turn NYC into a ghost town for a few hundred years. If you think that Killing everyone that don’t agree with us is the answer then you need to vote for McCain.

20. Tim | 10.03.08

Biden is such a liar he thinks he’s telling the truth…Sen. Biden from last night:

“When we kicked — along with France, we kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon, I said, and Barack said, ‘Move NATO forces in there. Fill the vacuum, because if you don’t know — if you don’t, Hezbollah will control it”
1. The U.S. and France and kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon.

2. Biden and Obama publicly argued for a NATO presence in Lebanon after we kicked Hezbollah out.

The first claim is silly and unsupportable. Hezbollah has been a continuous and weighty presence in Lebanon since its inception.

Katy’s, a diner on Union Street in Wilmington, DE that Biden mentioned so he could make himself look like an average guy, has been closed for at least 15 years now.

Just another example of how Biden is an idiot who doesn’t know what he’s talking about.

I personally counted at least 15 lies! WOW an airbag! Say it aint so Joe!

21. Hockey Dad | 10.04.08

Umm Obama has several terrorist ties. Domestically and foreign too!

His relationship with Bill Ayers shows a complete lack of judgment and a hatred of America. Add the fact that he attended over 500 services at an America hating church and it’s easy to see that Obama is bad news.

want proof here you go

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122212856075765367.html

Add foreign donations from terrorist organization Hamas to the list also.

http://www.newsmax.com/politics/Obama_fundraising_illegal/2008/09/29/135718.html

A vote for Obama is a vote to destroy America.

22. Keith | 10.04.08

People who quote Fox News (a documented biased source) and say that they have an informed opinion are clearly not well versed in what the vast majority deem factual information.

Yes, it is an opinion, but that which Fox News spun right into your mind. You would have to watch an equally liberal broadcast to return back to neutral.

It is better to just read into all the facts yourself on each of the candidates web-pages, government sites showing their records and neutral fact checking sites. Or even foreign news broadcasts if you must get your information from a talking head owned by a multi-billion dollar company.

23. Wylee | 10.04.08

My apologies upfront but I just have to say this. I have been shocked this election year by the hatred and ill talk/statements I have heard/read by people calling themselves ‘conservative christians.’ This reminds me of what I’ve seen, at times, on a sports field where the parent lives through their child and gets angry and behaves inappropriately and says inappropriate things when they are feeling like they were wronged or the child’s team is about to lose.

I think there are more constructive ways to make a statement than some of the earlier statements on this board. The other observation is that a lot of people are stating things as if they are fact without citing their references.

I have a hard time with the person who spews hatred and contempt without researching the facts themselves, e.g., restating what somebody told you, who heard it from somebody else, who heard it from somebody else is a poor example of factual information. There are many things stated above that I have researched and discovered that they are not true. If nothing else, please go to Factcheck.org and get the facts. Factcheck is a non-bias group that receives no funding from either party. It’s just the facts.

To vote a person into office just because that person makes you ‘feel good’, meaning you could sit down and have a cup of coffee with them, you feel like you could have a conversation with them, you feel like they’ve experienced life as you have, etc. is, to me, not a good reason to vote somebody into the highest office in the country.

I would like to believe that peole are voting with their minds and not their hearts. Personally, I would want a person in office who is intelligent, wise, logical, patient, respectful, and methodical in this day and age. We have much to repair and we need to get past this ‘wild west’, shoot ‘em up mentality.

I believe this is about thinking smarter and more logically and the only way I can feel comfortable with my decision is to research every single thing that is said. That does not mean that I go to my favorite website and leave it at that. It means, actually taking the time and going to multiple websites, Factcheck included, taking notes and comparing. It does not mean listening to the radio, the news, or reading magazines, and believing what is said (those things are owned/controlled by political parties as a way to manipulate facts and slant to their specific viewpoint - Sociology 101.)

All I ask is that people stop being lazy and if they care, do their homework and do it as if they were preparing a report to where all sides of a topic had to be presented with supporting citations. Then, and only then, can a person speak factually.

24. BarbaraJ | 10.04.08

I have thought it funny that everyone touts Palin’s friendliness because she asked him if she could call him Joe. That was just to set it all up for later when she would use his name to try to slam him.
But more importantly, on the climate issue, she cant have it both ways…she can not claim that climate change has nothing to do with man (which she has said numerous times before she became McCain’s running mate) and then say man has to fix it. If we can fix it, it is because we have caused it.

25. Nat | 10.04.08

On a different topic from the debate. I saw one commenter here slamming the Monitor. Well, I’ll take the other side and say that the CSM continues to be one of the most diverse and thoughtful news publications available. Thank you CSM!!

26. Fred D | 10.04.08

As Gov. Palin so eloquently put it during the VP debate on Thusday: Sen. Obama wants to “waive the white flag of defeat” in Iraq. I think most Americans, right of left of the aisle, do not want that to happen. Regardless of whether or not you supported the war at its onset, not to mention the debacle it transitioned into before Gen. Petreaus got there, we are clearly winning now. The terrorists are on the run, safety is improving, and if we don’t get it right this time, we’ll probably have to go back 10 years from now to fix it anyways. It’s like snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Iraq has been doing well lately and it would be crime to let the lawlessness that has reigned for the last 3 years loose once again to ravage the country and its people.

Palin went on to point out that Obama is insistent on pursuing “dangerous” foreign policies and remains “naive” when it comes to the ways of the world. Imagine what people would say about anyone else promoting a 16 month withdraw plan for well over 18 months, and then saying that no revisions were necessary? That sounds pretty naïve to me. Obama says that we must win in Afghanistan, which to him is the central front on the War on Terror (the Generals in the military disagree), and not necessarily Iraq. I can’t imagine how we could possibly win in Afghanistan if we capitulate in Iraq. That is a very dangerous thinking.

I think Palin made the decision that voters face this year very clear. Vote for a winner, or vote for a loser.

The real Obama: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S26C-rxIVW8

27. Suz | 10.04.08

In response to Kai 10.3.08
I would much rather have an ill-prepared VP in the house than
an ill-prepared President running our country!!

28. GeraldD | 10.04.08

The Bail Out Crooks Are Counting On Obama Appointing One of Them as Attorney General so they can avoid prison time.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=67068

http://www.youtube.com/user/TheMouthPeace

29. Leah | 10.04.08

I’m a conservative Christian who is appalled by my fellow…is it evangelicals? Actually I think the lowbrow hatred I’m hearing is coming mainly from the fundamentalists. There’s a distinction, and most people don’t realize that. Fundamentalists are basically anti-academia; and they think it’s unpatriotic to think culturally and internationally (with the exception of witnessing to the unsaved, that is). But I’m not letting evangelicals, who are the bearers of the Puritan-Pilgrim tradition and who admire and commit to learning through academia and follow current events carefully while attempting to remain humble–while realizing how very difficult this is.

I’m not letting evangelicals off the hook, though. I’ve read Christianity Today articles that scare me (maybe they’re being overrun by fundamentalists these days).

Anyway, I hope with all my heart and soul that my fellow American Christians will quit spewing gleeful vitriol and shallow, partisan definitions of “patriotism” and will embrace everyone in this troubled, needy world as the children of God they believe us to be…and quit making Christians look more like the problem than “the fix.” I’m ashamed to fellowship with American conservative Christians…I can relate, now, to how difficult it must have been for the true Christians who had to spend time in worship with others who bought into Nazi propaganda and who began to support–or to purposely ignore–the horrors happening around them. Sorry to sound so dramatic, but I truly believe we are at a crucial point in our history, and it’s becoming easier all the time, now, to spot the following characteristics in all Americans: we’re seeing more of what is beautiful, true, honorable, good, and kind; and then we’re continuously subjected to all that’s mean-spirited, prideful, false, and dishonorable.

Christians have representatives in both groups these days, and what a travesty. I, for one, still side with those who have the audacity to hope that we can all work together to make this a nation we can, without fear of being branded “unpatriotic,” one we can all thrive and where we can share what we’ve achieved with the rest of our world.

30. matt | 10.05.08

http://breakthematrix.com/BreakTheMatrix/Why-not-include-them

A grassroots response to the deficiencies that are so glaringly obvious in our existing mainstream media structure.

“If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” –Thomas Jefferson

31. John Stipe | 10.05.08

Palin on Obama’s ties to Weathermen is a lie. How can the Republicans support lies and call themselves true Christians. I’m a Christian and I know the issues since I am that average American that Palin tries to address. And I’m not voting for a lying Palin.

32. Larry Mac | 10.06.08

Right from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Communist_Manifesto-
10 Planks of the Communist Manifesto Written in 1848… Apply Housing crisis to #1, Banking crisis to #5, Death Tax to #3, please read…..

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all right of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production.

According to the Communist Manifesto, all these were prior conditions for a transition from capitalism to communism

33. jay | 10.07.08

There are many interesting comments on this site.
#19 Hemi is a real eye opener.
Please read this commentary and think carefully about what is being said.
Are YOU ashamed of America?
Do YOU believe that this country has been run by “mad men” ?
This is the mind set of Bill Ayers, The Rev. Wright and sadly Sen. Obama.

When confronted with his plan for Afganistan, Obama said that we needed to stop “just making air raids and killing innocent civilians.”

Are we an evil empire or the land of the free ?

34. Anone | 10.10.08

Precedent for the Palin/McCain campaign strategy?

“Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.”
Adolf Hitler

35. barbara | 10.10.08

i was once a conservative. the party in power has changed that. the lies, the naked power grab, the obvious self serving me oriented vote for your pocket book focus has made me take another look. these ideals go against Christian values. It is clear that the only really Godly person in this election is Obama.
every time i hear the generals speak they echo what i have just heard from Obama. in an article from US News “Petraeus has repeatedly warned that progress in Iraq remains fragile and tenuous. He noted, however, that there are indications that al Qaeda’s leadership is more concentrated on Afghanistan these days.” http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/iraq/2008/10/09/petraeus-offers-words-of-caution-on-iraq-afghanistan-outlook.html this is in contrast to what someone said in a previous comment. in addition “Indeed, they continue to struggle with how to apply counterinsurgency lessons to two very different countries. On the topic of reconciliation, Petraeus echoed the need “to talk to enemies.”"

1. Palin, Biden both liars say Obama, McCain | 10.03.08

2. Palin, Biden both liars say Obama, McCain - Christian Science Monitor | 10.03.08