Barack Obama spent the Fourth of July in Montana. A Red State. A state that few think he can win. A state that gave huge margins to George Bush the past two elections.

But here he was. On Independence Day. Marching in a parade. Hosting a picnic for hundreds. Trying to rally support for his Presidential run. Trying to show that he can appeal to voters of every political, social, and economic demographic. His web site tells us he “shook hands, kissed babies, signed autographs and posed for pictures.” Patriotism just oozed out of his every pore.

Barack Obama is now as patriotic as the electorate wants him to be. During most of the primaries, he didn’t wear a flag pin on his lapel. He didn’t think wearing pins makes one patriotic, or not wearing one makes someone unpatriotic. But, the right-wing lambasted him for that. Now he wears a flag pin.

And every speech he makes, he is now flanked by several American flags. Just in case anyone thinks he isn’t patriotic. Or is a foreigner. Or worse, a Muslim.

Barack Obama has changed in other ways. Once he said he would pull the U.S. out of Iraq. End that war. Now, he’s calling for a phased withdrawal.

Once, he opposed innumerable pieces of legislation sent to the Senate by the Bush-Cheney Administration—and which a Republican Congress rubber stamped. Now, as the presumptive Democratic nominee for President, he voted a bill that granted immunity to telephone companies that violated both established federal law and the 4th Amendment to the Constitution when they voluntarily gave personal data about subscribers to the government.

Once, he said he would accept government restrictions and decline the excessive private contributions that have muddied politics. Now, with a campaign war chest at least two or three times greater than John McCain’s, he changed his mind and is taking whatever he can get—and doesn’t have to report who gave what.

Barack Obama isn’t the only politician to forsake some of his principles for the greater principle—do whatever it takes to get elected. Hillary Clinton moved more to the center when she began to think she could be the next president, and even voted for the renewal of the unconstitutional PATRIOT Act. John McCain, by any standards a conservative, began playing even more to the right-wing when the evangelical Christians challenged some of his beliefs and voting record. Every politician, even the most maverick ones, say they need to get elected to do whatever it is they want to do. But, once in office they continue to do whatever is necessary to stay in office and get re-elected.

Barack Obama, like every other politician, needs to reflect upon the principles of what the Founding Fathers wanted. And maybe every politician should decide that on this Independence Day weekend, it is time to declare that once and forever they will follow their convictions, their beliefs, and declare themselves to be independent, now and forever, not only of special interests, but also of pandering for votes.

[Walter Brasch has covered politics and presidential campaigns more than 40 years. He is professor of journalism at Bloomsburg University, a syndicated columnist, occasional contributor to ASZ, and author of 17 books. His latest book is Sinking the Ship of State: The Presidency of George W. Bush, available through amazon.com and other stores.]

Paying a ransom for release of hostages is a concept that’s been around for a long time. When it was breathlessly announced in the media a couple of days ago that 15 hostages long held by a Colombian militant group had been freed by the Colombian military the day after John McCain visited, many people were curious about the timing of the release.

Apparently, the hostages were freed without a shot being fired in a coordinated raid. There’s never been any news on whether militants were captured during the raid - and it’s doubtful that any were detained - because they left the hostages right where the military knew to find them.

Was it an intelligence coup of some sort, aided by the Bush administration? It’s not looking that way. In fact, it’s looking like a standard payoff to kidnappers; a $20 million ransom.

Forbes has the story:

Leaders of the Colombian FARC rebel movement were paid millions of dollars to free Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages, Swiss radio said on Friday, quoting ‘a reliable source’.

The 15 hostages released on Wednesday by the Colombian army ‘were in reality ransomed for a high price, and the whole operation afterwards was a set-up,’ the radio’s French-language channel said.

Saying the United States, which had three of its citizens among those freed, was behind the deal, it put the price of the ransom at some $20 million…

Seems cheap to me, for 15 hostages. But maybe FARC didn’t think it was going to do any better, and needed some cash.

Again, it’s not the release of the hostages which is bothersome. That’s a good thing. $20 million was a small price to pay to secure their release. It’s the timing of the events and the accounts of the release that have been suspect.

Today’s morning roundup of campaign stupidity begins with Jonah Goldberg’s column in USA Today. Through a whole bunch of rhetorical hocus pocus Goldberg decided that a phrase used by Barack Obama shows how unpatriotic the candidate is. Alas, as The Jed Report notes, Ronald Reagan used almost the same formulation as Obama. So. . . it seems Jonah Goldberg, one of the most stupid writers on the right side of the spectrum, has questioned the patriotism of Ron ald Reagan by extention. I’m betting Goldberg doesnt have the stones to do such a thing in John McCain’s presence.

Speaking of John McCain, the man has a surrogate problem. While whining about how Wesley Clark supposedly besmirched John McCain’s service, it seems one of McCain’s surrogates besmirched Wesley Clark’s service. This whole story of who smeared who is, of course, about the silliest thing to come out in this silliest of campaign seasons. McCain’s people are coming off as whiners, and Wesley Clark did himself no favor either with his remarks. I’m willing to bet not one little vote was gained or lost in the process. The media had a whole lot of fun, though.

Speaking of McCain’s service, another silly story has appeared, this time in the Daily Mail. It is a story about the Vietnamese man who saved McCain’s life on the day his plane was shot down forty years ago. Yes, the Brits are manufacturing stories trying to get in their swipes at McCain. Except to note the story’s existence, I’m not going to dignify it. Let’s just say that there must not be any legitimate news out there for this thing to make the paper, and words like “betrayal” in a headline should be far more carefully used.

The last story involving McCain is again about one of his surrogates, this time commenting about the “surge” in Iraq. Nancy Pfotenhauer, a senior advisor to McCain, claimed that President Bush was against the “surge” strategy. No, it didn’t take much fact checking to show she was factually in error. What, did she think none of us had a memory that spanned a mere two years? And what about the media that swallowed her version of events? Pfotenhauer clearly is not qualified to advise anything, much less Presidential candidate.

If one can believe the latest Gallup poll, the ideological distance between John McCain and George W. Bush is way too small for a large number of voters. In fact, nearly fifty percent of voters are very concerned that John McCain would pursue the same policies as his predecessor.

McCain faces a challenge in trying to convince voters to allow him to follow an unpopular president of the same party. Democratic candidate Barack Obama has attempted to link McCain to Bush by saying that electing McCain would effectively lead to a “third Bush term.” Although McCain remains competitive in head-to-head matchups with Obama, the poll suggests that McCain may have more work to do to distance himself from Bush.

It is clearly a delicate balancing act for McCain, as Bush remains relatively popular with the Republican base. While only 28% of Americans approve of the job Bush is doing as president, a majority of Republicans (60%) still do. Bush’s approval rating among current McCain supporters is slightly lower, at 55%.

A recent CBS News poll asked registered voters what they thought McCain would do — continue Bush’s policies, change to more conservative policies, or change to less conservative policies. A plurality of 43% believe he would continue Bush’s policies, but more expect some change — either more conservative (21%) or less conservative (28%) policies. Thus, while most voters express concern about McCain being too much like Bush, most do not necessarily expect this to happen.

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That’s the rumor. I wonder what the religious right wing Christian mullahs have to say about that.

There it is. A vandal or two wrote clearly racist messages on a bunch of city vehicles in Orlando, and Barack Obama was the target. This isn’t going to surprise anyone who has been watching this race, but the red herrings left at the scene just might be a surprise. the vandals left a bunch of business cards denouncing Obama and McCain, and there are supposedly words that indicate the culprits were Hillary Clinton supporters. I don’t believe the red herrings for a minute…

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I think that it is important to catch politicians when they are so full of crap their eyes turn brown. What follows is John McCain agreeing entirely with my posting ‘10 Answers on why Drilling in ANWR won’t save us‘ on the energy controversy. At this time I’d like to thank Mr. McCain for helping support my argument…

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I’m not sure there is any other way to look at it. Gordon Smith has served the citizens of Oregon since 1992, and has served in the Senate for nearly 12 years. He’s up for election in trying times for the Republican Party. Smith, it appears, has decided to deny that he’s a member of the GOP. At the very least, just check out the Gordon Smith for Senate web site. Do you see the word “Republican?” Nope, not on the first page. Take a close look and the word “Democrats” is there, though. But there’s more in the last couple days to show that Gordon Smith is running from the Republican Brand as fast as he can. Like a new advertisement where he tries to link himself with Barack Obama…

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John McCain says he knows how hard it is to be proud of America. I suppose some of Michalle Obama’s critics might listen to those of John McCain, if they were honest, but that’s asking a lot. Wold they listen if they knew John McCain had said “I didn’t really love America?” Yeah, that exact phrase. Of course, I’ve taken it out of context, just as those who have used Mchalle Obama’s words have done. Here are the words from the transcript of McCain on the Sean Hannity Show:

HANNITY: — and then I understand you didn’t get any medical help for nine days. You spent two years of this five-and-a-half-year period in solitary confinement. What does that do to a person, to spend that much time in solitary confinement?

MCCAIN: I think it makes you a better person. Obviously, it makes you love America. I really didn’t love America until I was deprived of her company, but probably the most important thing about it, Sean, is that I was privileged to have the opportunity to serve in the company of heroes.

Despite McCain’s words, I do believe John McCain loves America. After seeing this, though, it becomes more and more obvious that FoxNews is all about playing gotcha with Michelle Obama, when they elicit almost the same words from John McCain and it goes unnoticed. Well, some noticed it, such as The Jed Report, who also noticed that FoxNews deleted John McCain’s words from their transcript of that interview. Evidently they are being paid to tout McCain. There can be little other interpretation. Not that we’re suprised or anything.

So, is FoxNews being paid to report on the floods in Iowa? They are sure not likely to look at the guy who quashed the funding that would have shored up those levees. That would be John McCain. How many farmers who have lost millions of acres of crops know this? None if they watch only FoxNews.

The Barack Obama camp is being attacked by John McCain and his folks over the habeas corpus issue. McCain puts the issue like this, as excerpted from a John McCain press relase via Christian NewsWire:

“On the issue of national security, it is very clear to me that it was a wrong decision of the United States Supreme Court. [Barack Obama] supports that decision to give, I understand Osama Bin Laden if he were captured, habeas corpus rights. So we have a fundamental disagreement about it. And I think Mayor Giuliani, who is very well qualified on this issue having been Mayor of New York City at an incredible time in American history, has put it very well, [Obama] doesn’t have an understanding of the nature of the threat. And I will look forward to that debate quite often in the future. And I think that the American people will agree with me that these are enemy combatants, that we passed legislation with an overwhelming majority of the Congress, which he opposed that set up military commissions and commissions that would address and give some rights to the enemy combatants who were being held, but certainly not in a radical departure from history and to want to give them the same rights that citizens have in this country.”

Of course McCain needs Rudy Guiliani out there as a surrogate. McCain himself evidently doesn’t want to run around screaming 9/11 at the top of his lungs and some gibberish about how the sky is falling. He’ll let Guiliani play the fear card in this election for him. But it is McCain who is scared. He’s afraid of habeas corpus, and it is a baseless fear.

First, it is unlikely the Bush Administration is really going to catch bin Laden. Let’s imagine, though, that an Obama Administration captures bin Laden. This seems far-fetched as well, since Osama bin Laden will likely attempt to martyr himself rather than be captured, but let’s focus on McCain’s fantasy here. Osama bin Laden is captured and brought to US soil, and he appeals his capture on ther basis of his habeas corpus rights. Does John McCain even know what that means? As Barack Obama’s people note, it merely means that Osama bin Laden is asking for evidence to be shown justifying his capture. We’ve all seen the evidence. The man has made speeches upon speeches admitting to being the man behind 9/11.

John McCain must merely be scared to allow any judge to do what our system asks them to do — judge. Either that, or John McCain is unqualified to be President because he doesn’t even know what “habeas corpus” means.

Meanwhile, a Republican legislator has called for a “shoot on sight” policy as concerns Barack Obama. Yes, it really happened on talk radio in Chicago. The legislator’s name is Mark Kirk, and the remarks were made on the Don Wade and Roma Show on WLS out of Chicago. There’s audio and a transcript here.