North Carolina--Dole-Hagan TV Ad Brawl

One of the so-called 'battleground states' in this campaign has been North Carolina, where Barack Obama seems to have made inroads into this traditionally Republican state.

And at the center of the fight is the U.S. Senatorial race between Elizabeth Dole, R-NC, and challenger Kay Hagan.

Hagan has been running unusually personal attack ads against Dole, aided by the Democratic Senatorial Election Committee, which has put up the funds for many of the attacks.

Finally, Dole fought back with an ad accusing Hagan of cavorting with and accepting money from a group of atheists whose values are antithetical to that of most North Carolinians.

Hagan went ballistic, accusing Dole of character assassination, attacking her 'Christian faith,' and descending into the sewer of politics.

All of this makes for the appearance that Hagan is so thin-skinned that although she can dish it out with no problem, she can't take it.

Particularly irksome to Hagan is her contention that Dole claimed in the ad that Hagan is 'godless.'

In actuality the ad does not say anything of the kind. The ad says the group in question that contributed to Hagan's campaign is godless.

Apparently Hagan traveled to Massachusetts to meet with and accept campaign donations from a group of atheists that refer to themselves as 'secularists.' Dole highlighted this meeting in the ad.

But Hagan claims the meeting never took place and that she never took donations from the group.

She is also suing Dole for defamation of character.

Attorneys for Senator Dole say that the information in the ad is 100% factual and that they have the documentation to prove it.

But in a TV ad in which Hagan responds to Dole's claims, she never denies the meeting took place nor does she deny accepting campaign donations from the group. Rather, she whines about 'gutter politics' and defends herself by saying she was once a Sunday School teacher in a Presbyterian Church.

None of this, of course, addresses the issue of the donations from the group in question.

One thing is for sure, however. When you make attack ads the focus of your campaign as Hagan has done, you can rest assured the chickens WILL come home to roost.

More MSM Attempts to Suppress McCain Vote

As we swiftly fly down the home stretch to the 2008 Presidential election, the mainstream media (MSM) has kicked it into high gear to suppress the McCain vote and promote their man Obama.

The latest example is AOL News.

In AOL's headlines this morning, the top story is that a new ad Elizabeth Dole is running in North Carolina may seem to suggest that Senator Dole (R-NC) is conceding the Presidential election to Barack Obama.

First of all, the ad must be considered in context. Dole is in the fight of her life in her U.S. Senate race. The Democratic Senatorial Election Committee has been relentlessly attacking her in very personal ads.

One ad even had two old men claiming that Dole was 'too old' to be a Senator.

Dole's opponent is Democrat Kay Hagan, who has fully shown herself to be an opportunist who has used the present financial crisis in the housing markets to hammer away at Dole.

And, as North Carolina has fallen victim to hordes of new out-of-state residents who couldn't wait to move to the state yet seem to detest its ways and culture, the ads have worked.

Dole's response has been to remind voters that should Barack Obama win with a greater Democratic majority in the Senate and House, there will be absolutely no check on runaway legislation that would turn the stomachs of most traditional voters in North Carolina.

But AOL thinks this is an indication that Dole and the GOP have given up on McCain.

Nope. It is a very effective campaign strategy to use against a possible 'evil triumvirate' uniting Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid to 'rule the country.'

McCain has shown signs of an historic surge within the last 2 weeks of the campaign. If the trend continues he will be one of only a handful of candidates in U.S. history to dramatically come from behind at the last minute to win the White House, as did Harry Truman in 1948.

It would seem the mainstream media is pulling out all the stops to prevent McCain from doing just that.

Bailout Passes Senate; DeMint, Dole Vote Against

By an overwhelming majority, the U.S. Senate passed the Wall Street bailout bill by a vote of 74-25.

Among those voting against the bailout measure were 2 of the Carolinas' most popular Senators--Jim DeMint, R-SC, and Elizabeth Dole, R-NC.

DeMint has insisted from day one that it is Constitutionally wrong for the government to be giving money to bad businesses and that it is even worse for the government to be in the mortgage business, such as with FannieMae and FreddieMac.

Both Dole and DeMint have heard an overwhelming outcry of protest from voters in the Carolinas who are against the bailout.

The bill, which was originally 3 pages in length, has now grown to over four hundred pages with sweeteners added to it so that both sides of the aisle can feel placated.

But the really bad news is that the Senate retained the original request of 700 billion dollars of taxpayers' money that will be funneled into Wall Street.

The question is, what will the House do with it when it returns from recess tomorrow? House Republicans are dead-set against the Senate version.

But President Bush has said he will oppose the House Republican alternative bill, and Nancy Pelosi has already referred to House Republicans as 'unpatriotic' for refusing to support the massive bailout.

Thus, the pressure will be on.