Quotes From Around Yon Blogosphere

Obama and McCain are giving us a clear sense of who they are and how they would lead. It would seem that Obama has been studying the 1932 campaign of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The key to Roosevelt’s victory was not a big program but a jaunty sense of optimism in the midst of despair that led to his signature inaugural line — "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Less famously, Roosevelt declared in his acceptance speech that "this is no time for fear, for reaction or for timidity."

In recent days, Obama has painted himself as calm, pragmatic, open and hopeful. He seemed to be channeling FDR when he told a crowd in Indianapolis on Wednesday: "This isn’t a time for fear or for panic. This is a time for resolve and steady leadership."

As for McCain, his campaign is trying to sow fear and panic about Obama. That's exactly what Herbert Hoover tried to do with Roosevelt. Days before the 1932 election, Hoover attacked Roosevelt’s "inchoate New Deal." He predicted it would "crack the timbers of the Constitution" and warned voters to beware of the "glitter of promise."

Hoover stopped short of declaring Roosevelt a celebrity. But Donald A. Ritchie reports in his excellent 2007 book, Electing FDR, that Hoover saw Roosevelt as "his weakest and most vulnerable" foe and "did not respect him as a political rival." McCain conveys unmistakably that he feels the same way about "that one" running against him.

It's too early to predict that the 2008 campaign will turn out like the one in 1932. But history suggests that in American elections, the candidate who underestimates his opponent often loses, and hope almost always beats fear.

-- E.J. DIONNE

What made the Great Depression a catastrophe, a leading economist points out, was "that some of the worst shocks occurred right before the 1932 presidential election. There then followed an extended interregnum between the election and inauguration of the new president when no one was in charge."

As Barack Obama and John McCain spend these next weeks trolling for votes, it would be comforting to see each of them set up a council of economic advisors to work on a set of specific measures that the winner would announce on November 5th to start putting a 21st century New Deal into motion.

As Hillary Clinton used to say in another context, the new President has to be ready to move on Day One.

-- ROBERT STEIN

The McCain campaign has famously spent the past week trying to increase doubts as to Mr. Obama's nature, background, intentions. Their crowds have been irascible. Here is a warning for Republicans: When your crowds go from "I love you" to "I hate the other guy," you are in trouble, you are on a losing strain. Winning campaigns are built on love. This is the time for "McCain is the answer," not "The other guy is questionable."

-- PEGGY NOONAN

An analysis of campaign finance records by The New York Times this week found nearly 3,000 donations to Mr. Obama, the Democratic nominee, from more than a dozen people with apparently fictitious donor information. The contributions represent a tiny fraction of the record $450 million Mr. Obama has raised. But the questionable donations — some donors were listed simply with gibberish for their names — raise concerns about whether the Obama campaign is adequately vetting its unprecedented flood of donors.

. . . There is no evidence that questionable contributions amount to anything more than a small portion of Mr. Obama’s fund-raising haul. The Times's analysis, conducted over a few days and looking for obvious anomalies, like names or addresses with all consonants, identified about $40,000 in suspect contributions that had not been refunded by the campaign as of its last filing with the Federal Election Commission, in September.

It appears that campaign finance records for Senator John McCain, the Republican nominee, contain far fewer obviously false names, although he has taken in about $200 million in contributions, less than half Mr. Obama’s total. Mr. McCain did collect about $173,000 from donors who appear in campaign finance records with only a name and have no other identifying information. Mr. Obama collected about $314,000 from such donors.

-- MICHAEL LUO and GRIFF PALMER

“Angry” GOP crowds notwithstanding, all Americans are upset and fearful of the future. It is a fact of life that politicians would seek to capitalize on this fear. Both sides are trying to do it and both have done it in the past. Many voters no doubt will give in to this fear. Perhaps many more will not and it is among those voters that the election will be decided.

-- RICK MORAN

Obama has in him — I think, despite his sometimes airy-fairy "We are the people we have been waiting for" silly rhetoric — the potential to be a good, perhaps even great leader. He is, it seems clear enough, what the historical moment seems to be calling for.

So, I wish him all the best. We are all in this together. Necessity is the mother of bipartisanship. And so, for the first time in my life, I’ll be pulling the Democratic lever in November. As the saying goes, God save the United States of America.

-- CHRISTOPHER BUCKLEY

Perhaps McCain can ultimately sow doubts and fears, perhaps not. (The fact that the GOP, at this late date, feels compelled to run anti-Obama ads in red-state Indiana is clearly a sign of weakness.) But what’s beyond dispute is that, by adopting the standard smear tactics of Republicans on the cusp of defeat, McCain has renewed his Faustian pact with the party establishment and forfeited anew any claim to the crown of “maverick.” As former Republican governor William Milliken of Michigan said yesterday, "He is not the McCain I endorsed."

-- DICK POLMAN

There was always going to be a point of revolt and panic for a core group of Americans who believe that Obama simply cannot be president - because he's black or liberal or young or relatively new. This is that point. As the polls suggest a strong victory, the Hannity-Limbaugh-Steyn-O'Reilly base are going into shock and extreme rage. McCain and Palin have decided to stoke this rage, to foment it, to encourage paranoid notions that somehow Obama is a "secret" terrorist or Islamist or foreigner. These are base emotions in both sense of the word.

But they are also very very dangerous. This is a moment of maximal physical danger for the young Democratic nominee. And McCain is playing with fire. If he really wants to put country first, he will attack Obama on his policies - not on these inflammatory, personal, creepy grounds. This is getting close to the atmosphere stoked by the Israeli far right before the assassination of Rabin.

For God's sake, McCain, stop it. For once in this campaign, put your country first.

-- ANDREW SULLIVAN

A woman at a McCain rally today said into the microphone, "I'm scared of Barack Obama . . . he's an Arab terrorist." According to Ana Marie Cox, who reported this from the scene, McCain interrupted the woman by taking the microphone away from her and stating, "No, no ma'am. He's a decent family man with whom I happen to have some disagreements."

Cox seems to think that this is a way for McCain to have his cake and eat it too; now that the crowds are sufficiently roused against Obama and the smears have a life of their own, he wants to play the noble McCain role again.

Perhaps that's true. . . .We shall have to see, of course, if McCain continues this and if Palin follows suit. But in Lakeville, Minnesota, a group of potential extremists were told by their nominee for President that Barack Obama is not a terrorist, that McCain respects him and that there is no reason to fear an Obama presidency. If this helps a few people to deal with the inevitable in a non-violent way, I will be profoundly grateful.

Good job, Senator McCain.

-- STEPHEN SUH