I believe that Obama's inspirational leadership, contemplative nature and well-reasoned, forward-looking policies offer our troubled nation a real opportunity to face and overcome its many challenges at home and abroad.

On an array of domestic issues, including health care, education, tax policy, the environment and alternative energy sources, Obama promises a clean break from the recent past and tangible hope for a return to fiscal responsibility, economic security and true environmental stewardship, all of which are essential to restoring our greatness. Now, Obama must be aware of the hopes that he has raised through his discussion of these issues. Many people will rightly take his words as his commitment and will judge him accordingly.

On the international front, his thoughtful and responsible approach to extricating our troops from Iraq, reallocating our finite resources elsewhere in the war on terrorism, and reviving effective use of our diplomatic corps all warrant our support. To be successful in these endeavors, Obama must be an active student of history. In attempting to bring peace to the Middle East, for example, he should recognize that the United States has played a role in the region since Franklin Roosevelt went to Saudi Arabia to meet with King Abdul-Aziz. Obama must appreciate that he is not writing on an empty page and will need to be sensitive to that which has come before him.

Obama represents the better choice to successfully address the issues that dramatically affect the health and well-being of our nation today. The fact that he is also a black American adds special significance for me as someone who was witness to and participated in at least a part of the past century's discourse on civil rights.

Mathias served in the House of Representatives from 1961 until 1969 when he was elected to the U.S. Senate and served until 1987.

MCCAIN: You’ll have to tell me what’s changed. I love it when they say, “Oh McCain has changed.” And I say, “What have I changed on?” They can’t name a single issue or they’ll name an issue and its false. I’m the same guy. I’m proud of our campaign.

It is not exactly a winning message but the interview presented itself with a rather easy challenge: name McCain's flip-flops.

Think Progress identified 44 of them.

Shelly in Utah wrote to Barack Obama to tell him about the discrimination she faced in the corporate world. Ten years ago, because of stories like hers, I introduced the Paycheck Fairness Act. Every year, the Republican Congress blocked our bill. But after 10 long years and a new Democratic Congress, we were successful. That doesn’t mean our work is done.

The Supreme Court ended a woman’s right to challenge discrimination, and when Congress tried to change it, John McCain didn’t even bother to show up to vote. Barack Obama was there. He voted yes. As president, he will continue saying yes to equality for women because he knows that women can’t afford more of the same falling wages and income.

How fitting that I speak to you on Women’s Equality Day, when we celebrate ratification of the amendment that gave women the right to vote. Even as we celebrate, let’s also remind ourselves: the fight for equality is not over. I know that from personal experience. I was a trailblazer when I went to work as a female supervisor at a Goodyear tire plant in Gadsden, Alabama.

My job demanded a lot, and I gave it 100 percent. I kept up with every one of my male co-workers. But toward the end of my 19 years at Goodyear, I began to suspect that I wasn’t getting paid as much as men doing the same job. An anonymous note in my mailbox confirmed that I was right. Despite praising me for my work, Goodyear gave me smaller raises than my male co-managers, over and over.

Those differences affected my family’s quality of life then, and they affect my retirement now. When I discovered the injustice, I thought about moving on. But in the end, I couldn’t ignore the discrimination. So I went to court. A jury agreed with me. They found that my employer had violated the law and awarded me what I was owed.

I hoped the verdict would make my company feel the sting, learn a lesson and never again treat women unfairly. But they appealed, all the way to the Supreme Court, and in a 5-to-4 decision our highest court sided with big business. They said I should have filed my complaint within six months of Goodyear’s first decision to pay me less, even though I didn’t know that’s what they were doing.

In dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote that the ruling made no sense in the real world. She was right. The House of Representatives passed a bill that would make sure what was done to me couldn’t happen again. But when it got to the Senate, enough Republicans opposed it to prevent a vote.

We can’t afford more of the same votes that deny women their equal rights. Barack Obama is on our side. He is fighting to fix this terrible ruling, and as president, he has promised to appoint justices who will enforce laws that protect everyday people like me. But this isn’t a Democratic or a Republican issue. It’s a fairness issue. And fortunately, there are some Republicans—and a lot of Democrats—who are on our side.

My case is over. I will never receive the pay I deserve. But there will be a far richer reward if we secure fair pay. For our children and grandchildren, so that no one will ever again experience the discrimination that I did. Equal pay for equal work is a fundamental American principle. We need leaders in this country who will fight for it. With all of us working together, we can have the change we need and the opportunity we all deserve.

Thank you.

Leaders like them come along rarely. But once or twice in a lifetime, they come along just when we need them the most. This is one of those moments. As our nation faces a fundamental choice between moving forward or falling further behind, Senator Obama offers the change we need.

Everywhere I go in this country, people tell me that Barack Obama is making them feel hopeful the way they did when my father was president. It’s partly the words he uses—words that remind us that we are all in this together and that we each have something to contribute to this country that has given us so much. But it’s the life he has led that is the true source of this inspiration—a life spent fighting for ordinary people in neighborhoods and courts, in the state senate and the United States Senate.

I have never had someone inspire me the way people tell me my father inspired them, but I do now, Barack Obama. And I know someone else who’s been inspired all over again by Senator Obama. In our family, he’s known as Uncle Teddy. More than any senator of his generation, or perhaps any generation, Teddy has made life better for people in this country and around the world.

For 46 years, he has been so much more than just a senator for the people of Massachusetts. He’s been a senator for all who believe in a dream that’s never died. If you’re no longer being denied a job because of your race, gender or disability, or if you’ve seen a rise in the minimum wage you’re being paid, Teddy is your senator too.

If your children are receiving health care thanks to the Children’s Health Insurance Program, if you see a nurse at a community health center or if you’re benefiting from the Medicare program that he fought to create, and that just last month he returned to the Senate to save, Teddy is your senator too. If your child is getting an early boost in life through Head Start, or attending a better school or can go to college because a Pell grant has made it more affordable, Teddy is your senator too. And if you’re an 18-year-old who’s going to vote for the first time—and I bet it’ll be for Barack Obama—Teddy is your senator too.

Not only has Teddy helped put the American dream within reach for so many families, he’s been a powerful force around the world for human rights and human dignity, for refugees and the dispossessed. He helped end apartheid in South Africa and bring peace to Northern Ireland. He’s been a leader on nuclear arms control. And he took a strong, early and courageous stand against the war in Iraq.

He is a man who always insists that America live up to her highest ideals, who always fights for what he knows is right and who is always there for others. I’ve seen it in my own life. No matter how busy he is, he never fails to find time for those in pain, those in grief or those who just need a hug. In our family, he has never missed a first communion, a graduation, or a chance to walk one of his nieces down the aisle.

He has a special relationship with each of us. And his 60 great nieces and nephews all know that the best cookies and the best laughs are always found at Uncle Teddy’s. Whether he is teaching us about sailing, about the Senate or about life, he has shown us how to chart our course, take the helm and sail against the wind. And this summer, as he faced yet another challenge, he and Vicki have taught us all about dignity, courage and the power of love.

In this campaign, Barack Obama has no greater champion. When he is president, he will have no stronger partner in the United States Senate. Now, it is my honor to introduce a tribute to Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

Below are excerpts of the article, which can be found online at:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0508/10464.html

Politico.com
Racial woes: GOP fails to recruit minorities
By: Jim VandeHei and Josh Kraushaar
May 19, 2008

"Just a few years after the Republican Party launched a highly publicized diversity effort, the GOP is heading into the 2008 election without a single minority candidate with a plausible chance of winning a campaign for the House, the Senate or governor...the GOP is fielding only a handful of minority candidates for Congress or statehouses - none of whom seem to have a prayer of victory.

"At the start of the Bush years, the Republican National Committee - in tandem with the White House - vowed to usher in a new era of GOP minority outreach. As George W. Bush winds down his presidency, Republicans are now on the verge of going six - and probably more - years without an African-American governor, senator or House member. That's the longest such streak since the 1980s. Republicans will have only one minority governor, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, an Indian-American, when the dust settles on the '08 elections. Democrats have three minority governors and 43 African-American members of Congress, including one - Illinois Sen. Barack Obama - who is their likely presidential nominee. Democrats also have several challengers in winnable House races who are either black or Hispanic...

"So who's to blame for this diversity deficit? Jack Kemp, the former Republican congressman and vice presidential nominee, says the culprit is clear: a "pitiful" recruitment effort by his party. 'I don't see much of an outreach,' he said. 'I don't see much of a reason to run.'...In all fairness, Republicans have never been very good at attracting strong minority candidates, especially African-Americans...The dilemma is simple: Who wants to run when the Republican brand is so unpopular and money is so scarce?"

"The historic 1954 decision in Brown vs. Board of Education earned a special place in history by rejecting decades of discrimination and unequal access to America's educational system. More than half a century later, however, the growing economic divide in rural, suburban and urban areas of our nation has resulted in a new form of segregation that yields unequal educational opportunities for America's children, often reflected through race and ethnicity. Fifty-four years later, much work remains before us.

"The Democratic Party is committed to electing a President in 2008 who will work to ensure every child in America has access to a quality education regardless of race, ethnicity, or economic standing. The American people are looking for leadership that puts our nation's best interests first, and that starts by empowering our children with the tools to succeed and reach for the American dream. That includes reigning in the rising cost of attending college, but also insisting that this generation of Americans stop passing on their debt to the generations that follow. And it begins by never forgetting that it took decisions like Brown v. Board to help America move forward."

The decision overturned the ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) that established "separate but equal," ruling that it was unconstitutional.

Today, we celebrate this glorious decision and reaffirm our commitment to the betterment of our schools and the advancement of equality for all.

Read the full decision here.

"The Supreme Court of California today took a step forward in the long march toward protecting equal rights under the law for every American. This should not be a matter of politics or partisanship; it is a matter of protecting the rights and dignity of all American families."

"Now that Reverend Hagee is apologizing for his anti-Catholic comments, does John McCain think that Hagee should also apologize for his other comments? If so will he have the courage to say so publicly? said Democratic National Committee Communications Director Karen Finney. "Unless John McCain's idea of being a new kind of Republican includes cozying up to radicals who compare women to dogs, hold racially insensitive fundraisers and call one of the worst natural disasters in our country's history God's punishment, he should renounce John Hagee's endorsement immediately. Given John McCain's history of putting political calculations ahead of his principles, we're not holding our breath."

McCain Spent One Year Courting Hagee Endorsement. "In an interview that will appear in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine, controversial televangelist Rev. John Hagee declares, 'It's true that [John] McCain's campaign sought my endorsement.' McCain has attempted to distance himself from some of Hagee's views, much as Barack Obama is doing in relation to Rev. Jeremiah Wright. But unlike McCain, Obama has not stood on stage with Wright and accepted his accolades this year." [Editor and Publisher, 3/20/08]

Rev. John Hagee on Hurricane Katrina: "All hurricanes are acts of God because God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God and they were recipients of the judgment of God for that." [NPR Fresh Air, 9/18/06]

• Hagee Repeated Claim: "The topic of that day was cursing and blessing… What happened in New Orleans looked like the curse of God, in time if New Orleans recovers and becomes the pristine city it can become it may in time be called a blessing. But at this time it's called a curse… In the case of New Orleans, their plan to have that homosexual rally was sin. But it never happened. The rally never happened." [Dennis Prager Radio show, 4/22/08]

Hagee on African Americans: The San Antonio Express-News reported that Hagee was going to "meet with black religious leaders privately at an unspecified future date to discuss comments he made in his newsletter about a 'slave sale,' an East Side minister said Wednesday." The Express-News reported: "Hagee, pastor of the 16,000-member Cornerstone Church, last week had announced a 'slave sale' to raise funds for high school seniors in his church bulletin, 'The Cluster.' "The item was introduced with the sentence 'Slavery in America is returning to Cornerstone" and ended with "Make plans to come and go home with a slave." [San Antonio Express-News, 3/7/96]

Hagee on Women: "Do you know the difference between a woman with PMS and a snarling Doberman pinscher? The answer is lipstick. Do you know the difference between a terrorist and a woman with PMS? You can negotiate with a terrorist." [God's Profits: Faith, Fraud and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters, Sarah Posner]

More Hagee on Women: "[T]he feminist movement today is throwing off authority in rebellion against God's pattern for the family."["Bible Positions on Political Issues," John Hagee]

Hagee on Islamic Beliefs: Fresh Air host Terry Gross asked if Hagee believed that "all Muslims have a mandate to kill Christians and Jews," to which Hagee replied, "Well, the Quran teaches that. Yes, it teaches that very clearly."[NPR Fresh Air, 9/18/06]

Rakolta is just one of a troubling circle of radical friends and cronies surrounding McCain. As the Chicago Tribune noted this week, McCain has praised G. Gordon Liddy and attended fundraisers in his home despite the fact that Liddy served a four-year prison term for his role in the Watergate break in. He spent a year seeking the endorsement of Rev. John Hagee, despite Hagee's history of anti-Catholic, anti-women, anti-LGBT, and anti-African American rhetoric. McCain's former campaign manager, Terry Nelson, was responsible for a racist ad against Harold Ford in 2006. McCain himself even campaigned for George Wallace, Jr., a known apologist for racist groups.

"John McCain consistently says he will be a new kind of Republican, but time and time again he surrounds himself with some of the most radical and inflammatory voices in his Party," said Democratic National Committee Communications Director Karen Finney. "McCain's failure to distance himself from people who compare political opponents to Hitler, propose kidnapping war protesters, or defend radical organizations is one more reason John McCain is the wrong choice for America's future. If McCain is willing to stoop to this level, he truly will do anything to win."

McCain's Friends on the Fringe

HITLER AD FINANCIER JOHN RAKOLTA

Voice the Vote Bankrolled by Rakolta, Liggett and Cummings Families. Michigan's Voice the Vote PAC, which was active during the 2006 mid-term elections, "placed a racially charged ad…in a weekly Detroit newspaper that compared Gov. Jennifer Granholm and other Democrats to Adolf Hitler.." According to campaign finance records, "state Republican fund-raising heavyweights Julie and Peter Cummings, John and Terry Rakolta and Robert Liggett contributed more than two-thirds of the cash the group raised." [Detroit Free Press, 3/15/07]

Voice the Vote PAC Produced Ad Comparing Democrats to Adolf Hitler. In 2006, the Detroit-based political action committee Voice the Vote ran ads in the Michigan Chronicle that "featured photographs of Hitler, Granholm and former Democratic presidents, claiming Granholm was the latest in a long line of Democrats to take black voters for granted." [Detroit Free Press, 3/15/07]

WATERGATE CONSPIRATOR G. GORDON LIDDY

McCain Praises Liddy's Values, Says He's "Proud" of Him. "In 1998, Liddy's home was the site of a McCain fundraiser. Over the years, he has made at least four contributions totaling $5,000 to the senator's campaigns--including $1,000 this year. Last November, McCain went on his radio show. Liddy greeted him as 'an old friend,' and McCain sounded like one. 'I'm proud of you, I'm proud of your family,' he gushed. 'It's always a pleasure for me to come on your program, Gordon, and congratulations on your continued success and adherence to the principles and philosophies that keep our nation great.'" [Chicago Tribune, 5/4/08]

Liddy Plotted Murder, Plotted to Kidnap War Protesters, Has No Regrets Over Watergate Role. "Which principles would those be? The ones that told Liddy it was fine to break into the office of the Democratic National Committee to plant bugs and photograph documents? The ones that made him propose to kidnap anti-war activists so they couldn't disrupt the 1972 Republican National Convention? The ones that inspired him to plan the murder (never carried out) of an unfriendly newspaper columnist? Liddy was in the thick of the biggest political scandal in American history--and one of the greatest threats to the rule of law. He has said he has no regrets about what he did, insisting that he went to jail as 'a prisoner of war.'" [Chicago Tribune, 5/4/08]

RADICAL REVEREND JOHN HAGEE

McCain Spent One Year Courting Hagee Endorsement. "In an interview that will appear in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine, controversial televangelist Rev. John Hagee declares, 'It's true that [John] McCain's campaign sought my endorsement.' McCain has attempted to distance himself from some of Hagee's views, much as Barack Obama is doing in relation to Rev. Jeremiah Wright. But unlike McCain, Obama has not stood on stage with Wright and accepted his accolades this year." Editor and Publisher, 3/20/08]

Rev. John Hagee on Hurricane Katrina: "All hurricanes are acts of God because God controls the heavens. I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God and they were recipients of the judgment of God for that." [NPR Fresh Air, 9/18/06]

• Hagee Repeated Claim: "The topic of that day was cursing and blessing… What happened in New Orleans looked like the curse of God, in time if New Orleans recovers and becomes the pristine city it can become it may in time be called a blessing. But at this time it's called a curse… In the case of New Orleans, their plan to have that homosexual rally was sin. But it never happened. The rally never happened." [Dennis Prager Radio show, 4/22/08]

Hagee on African Americans: The San Antonio Express-News reported that Hagee was going to "meet with black religious leaders privately at an unspecified future date to discuss comments he made in his newsletter about a 'slave sale,' an East Side minister said Wednesday." The Express-News reported: "Hagee, pastor of the 16,000-member Cornerstone Church, last week had announced a 'slave sale' to raise funds for high school seniors in his church bulletin, 'The Cluster.' "The item was introduced with the sentence 'Slavery in America is returning to Cornerstone" and ended with "Make plans to come and go home with a slave." [San Antonio Express-News, 3/7/96]

Hagee on Catholicism: "Most readers will be shocked by the clear record of history linking Adolf Hitler and the Roman Catholic Church in a conspiracy to exterminate the Jews." [Jerusalem Countdown by John Hagee]

Hagee on Women: "Do you know the difference between a woman with PMS and a snarling Doberman pinscher? The answer is lipstick. Do you know the difference between a terrorist and a woman with PMS? You can negotiate with a terrorist." [God's Profits: Faith, Fraud and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters, Sarah Posner]

More Hagee on Women: "[T]he feminist movement today is throwing off authority in rebellion against God's pattern for the family." ["Bible Positions on Political Issues," John Hagee]

RACIST AD CREATOR TERRY NELSON

Racist Ad Against Harold Ford Approved By Terry Nelson, Former Senior McCain Strategist. Terry Nelson, who served as McCain's campaign manager in 2006 and part of 2007, was the head of the independent expenditures operation for the RNC responsible for the content of the advertisements run against African American Senate candidate Harold Ford that experts said played on racial fears of voters. "John Geer, a professor at Vanderbilt University and a specialist in political advertising, said that it 'is playing to a lot of fears' and 'frankly makes the Willie Horton ad look like child's play.'" Despite Nelson's role in approving the ad, McCain strategist John Weaver said that the campaign had no intention of firing him. [New York Times, 10/27/06; Washington Post, 7/11/2007; New York Times, 10/26/2006]

• Washington Head of NAACP Said Ad Plays To Racial Fears. Hilary Shelton, Washington director of the NAACP, said the ad plays off racial fears of some voters. "In a Southern state like Tennessee, some stereotypes still exist…There's very clearly some racial subtext in an ad like that." [AP, 10/26/2006]

MLK HOLIDAY OPPONENT RICHARD QUINN

Richard Quinn, McCain's South Carolina Spokesman, Criticized the MLK Holiday as "Vitriolic and Profane." Richard Quinn, identified as "McCain's South Carolina strategist" in 2008, also worked for the Senator in the 2000 campaign. In 1983, Quinn wrote a column "arguing against the recognition of Martin Luther King Day," saying, "King Day should have been rejected because its purpose is vitriolic and profane. The Black leaders who lobbied so furiously for King Day confirmed another unpleasant reality. By celebrating King as the incarnation of all they admire, they have chosen to glorify the histrionic rather than by heroic and by inference they spurned the brightest and best among their own race." [Greenville News, 3/16/2008; Spartanburg Herald-Journal, 1/6/2006; Philadelphia Tribune, 2/22/2000]

• Quinn Served As Editor Of Magazine Described As "Rabidly Devoted To The South's Confederate Heritage." In its November 2004 issue, Vanity Fair described Southern Partisan, the magazine of which Richard Quinn served as editor, as "rabidly devoted to the South's Confederate heritage." [Vanity Fair, 11/2004]
• Quinn Praised Ku Klux Klan Member David Duke. In Southern Partisan, Quinn praised David Duke in a 1990 entry, writing, "what better way to reject politics-as-usual than to elect a maverick like David Duke?" [Newsday, 2/17/2000]
• McCain Repeatedly Defended Quinn, Refused To Fire Him Despite Views. In 2000, when the group, People For the American Way, called on McCain to fire Richard Quinn, McCain defended him saying, "this is a fine man who worked for Ronald Reagan and Strom Thurmond and other fine people." In a 2000 ABC News interview, McCain said Quinn was "a man who is very intelligent, and a man who has done a great job for me in the state of South Carolina. And I do not believe that he is a racist." [Associated Press, 2/18/2000; ABC News, "This Week," 2/6/2000]

HATE GROUP DEFENDER GEORGE WALLACE, JR.

McCain Endorsed George Wallace Jr., Called Him A "Committed Conservative Reformer," Despite Speeches to Hate Group. In November 2005, McCain visited three Alabama cities to endorse George Wallace Jr. for lieutenant governor. McCain said, "I'm proud to offer my support to this committed conservative reformer. George will bring great leadership and integrity to the lieutenant governor's office." [AP, 11/17/2005]

• Wallace Spoke Repeatedly To White Supremacist Group. Wallace had spoken on numerous occasions to the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), a white supremacist hate group; once in 1998, twice during 1999, and gave the opening remarks to their national meeting in June of 2005. The audience for his speech included "Don Black, proprietor of Stormfront.org, the most influential hate site on the Internet, and former Alabama grand dragon of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan; Jamie Kelso, right-hand man and Louisiana roommate of former Klan leader David Duke; Jared Taylor, editor of the neo-eugenicist American Renaissance magazine; Alabama CCC leader Leonard "Flagpole" Wilson, who got his nickname shouting "Keep Bama white!" from atop a flagpole during the University of Alabama race riots in 1956." [Southern Poverty Law Center, Intelligence Report, "Into the Mainstream," Summer 2005, http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=541 ]
• Wallace Said There Was "Nothing Hateful" About The CCC. After speaking to the Council of Conservative Citizens, George Wallace Jr. said the group appeared to him to be "good patriotic people…There is nothing hateful about those people that I've seen." According to the Associated Press, "the Council of Conservative Citizens says it opposes interracial marriage, massive immigration of non-European and non-Western peoples, hate crime legislation, and multicultural and 'Afrocentric' curricula in schools." [AP, 6/6/2005]

Our friends at the country club around the corner point to a stop McCain made in Wilcox County, Alabama as evidence that Compassionate Conservatism 2.0 isn't just a gimmick. (Beta tests show it, apparently, has a few bugs.)

So let's take a look at Wilcox County, population 13,183, according to census data from 2000.

Wilcox County rests inside Alabama's 7th Congressional District, currently represented by Democratic Rep. Artur Davis who was elected to his first term in 2002 with 92 percent of the vote against a Libertarian candidate. Rep. Davis won re-election in 2004 with 75 percent of the vote and twice as many votes as the Republican challenger. He ran unopposed in 2006. Republicans are so scarce in the area that they didn't even field a candidate.

Earlier this week, Alabama Democratic Party Chair Joe Turnham spelled out how John McCain's swing through the state's "blackbelt" is just more empty Republican rhetoric.

"These Republicans purport to be the champions of the poor in Alabama's Blackbelt but are the very ones who are denying our people with public policy that they deserve. Just recently Sen. McCain voted against the renewal of health care for children in the Blackbelt by his opposition to SCHIPs reauthorization, and Gov. Riley opposes removing the state sales tax on food in the Alabama Legislature at this very moment." said Joe Turnham, Chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party.

"In the wake of the public disaster of the Bush presidency, 'More of the same McCain' comes here to speak about empowerment to the very people he and the Republicans have continued to wreak havoc upon since 2003. I think Alabamians have heard enough empty rhetoric and would rather not see what would be a virtual third Bush term," exclaimed Turnham.

"Sen. McCain should temper his visit with some reality and honesty about the plight of Alabama's and America's working poor. The George Bush budget deficit, trade deficit, endless war in Iraq and failure to address economic freefall in America should be confronted and repudiated by McCain and Riley in this visit if they want to win the hearts of voters in our state." Turnham stated.

Under the Bush economy that John McCain promises to extend for another four years, Alabama has lost more than 100,000 jobs with 40,000 of them in the manufacturing sector since 2001. Gas prices are up 166 percent in Alabama over the last six years. The New York Times reported that the McCain campaign has "no estimate of how many of America's 47 million uninsured would likely gain coverage under its plan."

Just over a week ago, John McCain had the temerity to say that the economic fears of many Americans are, basically, all in their heads.

But nevermind that. John McCain and the RNC want credit just for showing up.

His stops in Selma, Thomasville, and Gee's Bend were the first of many unconventional campaign visits where the Senator will spend time in areas that have been "forgotten," and face significant economic and social challenges. [emphasis added]

This speaks volumes: when John McCain and his fellow Republicans campaign in areas caught in tough economic times, or have troubled social justice histories, it is "unconventional."

Democrats haven't forgotten these areas. Democrats visit them quite frequently and try to help them through the legislative process. When Republicans campaign there, they find it quaint.

Speaking in one of the hardest hit places of the Bush economy, Youngstown, Ohio, John McCain compared the lives of Americans facing foreclosures on their homes to the tough days on the campaign trail when he was forced to carry his own bags and fly Southwest. (You can see the connection here.)

John McCain's empty rhetoric on the historical social challenges of millions of Americans smacks of hypocrisy and political expediency coming from a guy who voted against honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday as a federal holiday, and is unapologetic about his vote against the 1990 Civil Rights Act.