We have done a lot of in-fighting lately on this site about which presidential candidate to vote for on Tuesday, but tonight I was reminded why I am choosing a Democratic candidate this year: As President, John McCain is certain to put women's healthcare and reproductive freedom at risk.

Planned Parenthood Action Fund has launched a fantastic new site called The Truth About John McCain which sheds light on his consistently hostile record on women's health. Many Republicans believe the Senator is weak on conservative reproductive issues, but in fact, he has received a zero rating from PPAF, the lowest rating in the U.S. Senate. Here are just a few areas that cause real concern and should help convince readers to choose an alternative candidate March 4th.

Pregnancy Prevention
McCain voted against $100 million to help prevent unintended and teen pregnancies in 2005; the funds would have paid for family planning services and teenage pregnancy prevention programs. It is precisely these programs that help educate young adults on planned pregnancies and help prevent abortion.

Sex Education
John McCain has agreed with and reinforced President Bush's failed abstinence-only sex education programs by opposing legislation that would require lessons to be medically accurate and scientifically-based. Over a billion dollars has been spent on abstinence-only programs under Bush's watch, though there is no evidence that they work and much of the information shared with teens is blatantly false. Moreover, the messages are often confusing to students, 70% of which have engaged in sexual relations by the time they are 18. Senator McCain showed his ignorance on the subject when asked his position on comprehensive sex ed:

Many readers saw the comment/thesis of a reader named "fleaflicker" in the thread about the latest debate. He was responding to Obama's admission that as Chair of the subcommittee that has oversight over NATO, he has yet to hold a substantive meeting because he's been too busy campaigning.

For those who missed or only skimmed the comment, I can sum it up in eight words: Obama's attendance record has been poor while campaigning. After going on a 2300+ word rant, outlining each of Obama's missed votes and committee meetings, fleaflicker then tells readers that only Hillary is actually doing her job. Ipso facto: she's the one to vote for.

Well, tell it to Reuters, fleaflicker. Reuters reports that in the Senate: "Clinton missed 18 of 21 votes while Obama missed 10 of 21 roll calls so far this year." (The article also says that McCain has missed the same number as Obama: 10. This despite the fact that he's had the nomination locked up for three full weeks).



Now, I'm not excusing Obama (or anyone else's) missed votes or participation while campaigning. I share a bit of fleaflicker's base anger towards politicians putting election over governance. But the idea that this is a reason to favor Hillary over Obama is absurd.

I would also say that Obama started without the name-recognition and having pledged not to take money from lobbyists and PACs. He also did not get a flood of max donations for corporate Dems (60% of Hillary's money is from max $2300 donors). So Obama's had considerably more pressure on him to spend his time meeting Americans and raising donations in $15 and $20 increments (Obama now has over ONE MILLION individual donars!).

His constant campaigning is the only reason that he's been able to stand toe-to-toe with the Billary juggernaut. I'm not completely excusing him for missing votes and meetings, but I understand that with so many disadvantages as an insurgent candidate, that he had to spend every moment on the road talking with the American people if he ever hoped to see his brand of change become a reality.

I would love to know what fleaflicker's excuse is for Hillary missing 85% of her Senate votes this year? He's probably long gone though, cutting-and-pasting that same misleading piece into threads all the way to the blogsphere horizon.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet Michelle Obama during her visit to Akron. I was extremely impressed by the organization of the event. Michelle arrived relatively on time - especially given the downpour of snow we received yesterday - and her "team" took care to greet each person that she would personally meet. I briefly had the chance to speak with her. I told her that I felt that Tuesday's debate was her husband's best performance. She told me that she didn't watch it and that she hasn't watched any of the debates because it makes her too nervous. She was extremely warm and friendly and stayed to chat much longer than her "team" seemed to want her to as they kept pressing her to move onward. When I commented to one chief Obama staffer that he and his team were doing an excellent job, he seemed surprisingly reluctant to accept congratulations. He kept saying "we'll see." I am actually glad to see that the Obama camp is still weary to claim the frontrunner status. I think this will help them remain careful and motivated as we move through March 4 and beyond.

OK, I have to say something about this middle name issue. Yesterday I drove down to Columbus to sell some t-shirts at his OSU rally in a rental car without a CD player or iPod. I found myself stuck with AM talk radio looping the same two or three talking points for the four hours that I was on the road. I was really blown away; front and center was Bill Cunningham's tirade at a McCain rally in which he berated Barack and, in doing so, called him by his entire name, stressing his middle name: Hussein.

The baffling part, was the way the issue was being positioned. It was boiled down to this: is the use of middle names in politics, in general, fair game? When the rare caller suggested that this was clearly meant as a racially-loaded shot at Obama, all these radio hosts just played dumb: It was?! I don't see how. It's the man's name! This is no different than Al Franken yelling John Sidney McCain.

That would be true if McCain, over the past few months, had suffered from a whisper and email-forward campaign that had been filled with lies, suggesting that McCain was the owner of several brothels in the Australian capitol.

Look, Barack has suffered rumors that he was educated in a madrassa, that he was sworn into office with his hand on a Koran, that he refuses to say the Pledge of Allegiance (instead he "turns his back to the flag and slouches") that he is actually a radical Muslim etc etc. The use of his middle name in this context and in this way is clearly an attempt to fuel the fire of this larger "Is Obama really not a Muslim?" fear-cloud.

I am so impressed and proud of McCain who came forward immediately and gave a completely genuine denunciation (or is it a rejection?) of Cunningham's comments. I have no doubt that the Obama/McCain race will be civil and one that every American can be proud of.

Fellow Ohio bloggers at Buckeye State Blog have been posting a series of videos from the spin room after the debate in Cleveland on Tuesday. Their interview work has been excellent and some of the videos are actually pretty funny (like this one with Tim Ryan and Kelly Pavlik).

One of their latest posted videos is an interview with Senator Clinton's Senior Campaign Strategist Mark Penn and Senior Campaign Consultant Ann Lewis. In this interview, the Buckeye State Bloggers try to get to the bottom of why Senator Clinton will not release her tax returns so that the voters of Ohio can see where the $5 million she loaned to her own campaign came from. I believe in disclosure, particularly because of this sizable loan.

More post debate analysis: Long time friend of the site Pete Pattakos has launched his own blog called Cleveland Frowns. His latest post is a detailed analysis of Tuesday's debate. Check it out.

Last night was billed as Senator Clinton's last shot and Barack Obama gave his best performance. He gave excellent answers on foreign policy, the economy, and health care. He was thoughtful and in command of the material. He managed to stay above the fray and was, at times, complimentary of his opponent. Senator Clinton did a good job, but Barack Obama was better.

Now, the Clinton campaign has a decision to make in the wake of this loss. I suspect they feel that the Saturday Night Live skit that Senator Clinton (awkwardly) referenced became a reality and she got much tougher questions. Should the Clinton campaign go after Tim Russert and NBC? First of all, Russert threw gotcha questions at both candidates. The fact is Obama neutralized them better than Senator Clinton. **The question about Louis Farrakhan was one gotcha question for Obama that could have turned the race, but most people don't remember it because Obama handled it so well. The second point to consider is the Clinton camp would lose valuable time they could be focused on Obama.

Obama also benefited from a technical error. Coming back from the first commercial break, Williams and Russert clearly intended to open with a question for Senator Obama. NBC played a clip of Senator Clinton in error. It was a break for Obama and he capitalized on it by showing how he can rise above the fray by complimenting Senator Clinton's sense of humor.

The Clinton campaign could also argue that the debate at times was between Russert and Clinton. The best example the Clinton campaign can site was when Russert said, "in my hometown of Buffalo, New York" in the context of an economic question. Buffalo is not in Ohio. New York already voted in the primary. How is that relevant to a debate? Well, it is relevant because the central theme of the Clinton campaign is that it is her experience in office that makes her more qualified to be president. It is the central thesis of her campaign. That question was an opportunity for Senator Clinton to tout her experience and she dropped the ball. I suspect it was that exchange which was most devastating for Senator Clinton here in economy focused Ohio.

There is still a week to go, but as an Obama supporter I feel good about the debate.

*This sentence was quoted on today's Morning Joe with Joe Scarborough

*Click here to listen to a clip of the show
Thanks to Akron's own Ray Horner for having Ben and I on his program to discuss the upcoming primary. It was an extra treat for me to be invited in studio. I have so much respect for these guys who do radio. They are able to present so much material without a pause or stutter. Watching Larry States read the list of school closings was like watching an auctioneer at work. I hope to have an audio clip from the show to post shortly.

We endorsed Obama over a year ago here at The Chief Source. It's been a long year and over the course of it we've seen some questionable attacks and tactics from all sides.

We saw Hillary staffers make statements about Obama "the drug dealer." We heard her surrogates and husband with all their race baiting and "shuck and jive" slip ups. And the madrassa smears and the Obama-is-a-Muslim forwards. Most recently we had the mailers indicating that Obama does not think that all Americans "deserve" health care.

On the other hand we saw Obama use quotes improperly around the word "boon" when quoting a paper which was paraphrasing Hillary, not directly quoting her.

So no ones hands are completely clean.

But through all of this I have yet to see either cross the line which prompted me to say, unequivocally, "I will never vote for you." Well, that moment just happened as I read that Hillary's staff is not even trying to deny that they were circulating this photo entitled "Dressed Obama."

The image is from when Barack was visiting a rural region of Kenya where he wore local garb to show respect (like those odd shots of Bush in a Kimono). In fact, after the Obama camp called the circulation of the image "fear-mongering" the Hillary camp released a counter statement which said that the Obama campaign should be "ashamed" of itself for suggesting that a photo of traditional Somalian garb is somehow "divisive." No joke. That is their comeback... Obama shouldn't be so insensitive to Somali Elders!!!

OK, so after a year of restraint and just as I'm trying to be less abrasive I am going to say this, as nicely and calmly as I know how: Hillary, if you somehow manage to hang onto the nomination, you will not ever get my vote in the general election. I will vote, in good conscience, for John McCain.