XDA

Who won? Not us, we all lost about 84 minutes of irretrievable time to recycled stump speeches. I'm going to talk about just one or two things Obama said. If our ally Pakistan (and they have been our ally, they lost about as many guys fighting al Qaeda/Taliban types in the ungovernable border provinces as we did in Iraq) cannot or will not attack Osama bin Laden, when located (I'm almost sure he's dead but no matter), then President Obama will attack him in Pakistan, borders be damned. "Of course you know," to paraphrase Buggs Bunny, echoing Groucho in Duck Soup, "that would mean war." A new one. With our former ally, nuclear weapon armed Pakistan. If we believed Obama for a second, this position, alone, would be sufficient to disqualify him for the Presidency. He wasn't finished being butch.

We can't allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon. OK, how are you going to stop them? To paraphrase Frost in Aliens, "What do you want us to use, harsh language?"

I actually don't endorse an airstrike on Iran, not just now at least. Nor should we help Israel do it, just yet. For an oil rich nation, Iran is ridiculously vulnerable to attack on its oil refining industry, which is bunched up and creaky. Indeed, a single cellulose housed bomb could bring the whole house of cards down with only a remote chance of detection. But my point is getting away from me. Israel, if it has the nerve (a very big question lately) will have to concentrate eventually on another part of the Iranian energy industry and not just bomb, but occupy the sites and search, like they did with the 'whatever it was' in Syria a few months ago. That will be difficult and very risky. We ought to think about helping them when the time, eventually, comes. Just not now.

McCain's point about not telegraphing your punch was good, sound and lost on the great majority, I fear.

Labels: 2008 Presidential Race, Second Debate

Dafydd at Big Lizards has the most sobering piece I've read on the subject. It appears that in its swan song, the left dominated media still can provide the fabled 15 point advantage to its candidate. They can even do it right out in the open. Food for despair, for Republicans, is this about Nancy Pelosi's pre vote speech in the House:

Make your mind a complete blank on things you have learned from Rush or Hugh or Michael Medved, everything you've read on Power Line or Instapundit or Patterico's or Wolf Howling -- or even here. Just watch and tell me: Does Pelosi come across on this video as a raving left-winger, a bomb-throwing radical, a poison-spewing harpy? Because honestly, I think she comes across as very reasonable and even-handed -- even as she fires lie after lie after vile, despicable lie into the heartland:

And then he gets really bleak.

Labels: 2008 Presidential Race

The Intrade betting predictions market has Obama retrieving 3/4 of his former 20 point lead. That's not totally unexpected, but it's not fun. The normal polls are all over the place but I still think they are unreliable. We just don't know who is going to show up November 4. The most worrisome are the ones where Obama is over 50%, like here in Colorado. Oh, man.

And how can Obama do poorly against McCain in the debates if McCain isn't there? McCain has been going all populist and, well, being pretty foolish, from time to time since Black Thursday. Andrew Cuomo?

There's a good reason he has lost some ground.

Labels: 2008 Presidential Race, Candidate Mistakes

(h/t Say Anything)

Labels: 2008 Presidential Race

As reported by Amir Taheri, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebarihas stated the following about Senator Obama's visit in July: "[Obama] asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement [regarding draw-down of the American military presence] until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington."

Here is an account of the denial of the statement by some previously unknown lackey at the Obama campaign. Money quotes:

Barack Obama's White House campaign angrily denied Monday a report that he had secretly urged the Iraqis to postpone a deal to withdraw US troops until after November's election.
[...]
But Obama's national security spokeswoman Wendy Morigi said Taheri's article bore "as much resemblance to the truth as a McCain campaign commercial."

In fact, Obama had told the Iraqis that they should not rush through a "Strategic Framework Agreement" governing the future of US forces until after President George W. Bush leaves office, she said.

One more time for the slightly slow.

Zebarihas: "[Obama] asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington."

Morigi: "...Obama had told the Iraqis that they should not rush through a "Strategic Framework Agreement" governing the future of US forces until after President George W. Bush leaves office."

I can't find anything more to say that's not venomous invective against Morigi's intelligence.

Labels: 2008 Presidential Race, Democratic idiocy

The senator from Illinois is known as a closer, and there is plenty of time left. Keep the faith.

Tim Fernholz (emphasis added)

Closer? How many of the last 14 primaries did Senator Obama win? How about 5 and not a single big state. Wow, that's quite a kick.

I'm serious--you can't count his first successful try for the Illinois Senate in 1996 because he merely disqualified his serious adversaries ahead of the campaign; nor can you count his being crushed by former Black Panther Bobby Rush for a Congressional seat in 2000. Nor can you count his successful Senate run, as his formidable Republican opponent was knocked out by a 'sex scandal with no sex' (with his wife, the Borg babe) and his subsequent run against non Illinois resident Alan Keyes was not a campaign but a horrible joke. So there are two successful runs for the state house in 1998 and 2002 to judge how good a closer Senator Obama is. It's a safe Democratic seat so the actual election was nothing but a popularity contest between Democrats. Where's the closer?

Looks like Tim is bucking up the Democrats' spirits with fibs.

Labels: 2008 Presidential Race

They used to feature a chart for when Palin would withdraw (like Tom Eagleton) from running for the Vice Presidency. That's no longer on the featured list, but one for Biden pulling out in a Torricelli switch is up now. Hmmm?

I'm not the only one thinking about it.

Labels: 2008 Presidential Race

I've seldom read this guy and now I know why. He compares Governor Sarah Palin to islamic fundamentalist. Favorably. He can't tell the difference. A theocrat is a theocrat, he says. I strike the flat of my hand into my forehead. Darn! How come I didn't see it? It is so plain.

He says she has no values in common with our Founding Fathers, or at least far fewer than she has in common with Muslim fundamentalists.

He repeats the lie (discredited nearly everywhere but at sinking-in-debt Salon) that Sarah Palin supports banning books. He says the Muslims do that too. I seem to remember some socialists in the '20s and '30s burning books but I guess that is ancient history to the intellectual giant Cole must be.

There's more smear but why shouldn't Cole jump on the Democrats 'lie about Palin' bandwagon.

Here is the list of lefty core beliefs Sarah neglects to embrace. Abortion, contraception, Darwinism, anthropogenic global warming, and the separation of church and state. Yeah, Juan, all of these were central to the Founding Father's world view.

What Juan Cole doesn't know about Christianity and this nation's history could fill a library. Guess I'll know what I'm getting into when I read him again.

Labels: 2008 Presidential Race, Juan Cole, Sarah Palin

Here is a Brit who nails the zeitgeist of America as well as any effete, cluless, male chauvenist 5,000 to 8,000 miles away possibly could. Would that his sarcasm was funny in the slightest way.

There are, unfortunately, no highlights.

Labels: 2008 Presidential Race, Sneering at Palin

Here's a good site for the truth and lies in the myriad Palin rumors swirling about. The author seems to be an Alaskan, but maybe I'm jumping to conclusions.

Labels: 2008 Presidential Race, Palin Rumors

Senator Obama apparently is trying a prevent defense with hand picked "townhall" audiences. However, one person asked him about his gun control position. Here is part of what he said in response to the question whether he would enact a gun ban:

Here’s what I believe: that the 2nd Amendment is an individual right and it means something -- that people have a right to bear arms. What I also believe is that there is nothing wrong with some common sense gun safety measures.

Here is some more:

“If you’ve got a gun in your house, I’m not taking it"

But he didn't think he was convincing them, so he kept talking (as usual when he's off teleprompter) and probably wishes he didn't say this:

Even if I want to take them away, I don’t have the votes in Congress

Oh, so he has thought about taking away our guns but realized that he couldn't get it done politically so now he is saying that he doesn't want to ban guns when his zig-zag, straddle history and past votes, along with his recently revealed thoughts, all show just the opposite.

To quote our president. Fool me once shame on you...The point is we won't get fooled again.

Labels: 2008 Presidential Race, Obama Rambles Reveal

You can't talk if I want to talk over you and you can't shut me up no matter how
inappropriate my ravings are.

Of course we can shut you up as this photo clearly shows.

It looks like Code Pink loon Medea (Sally) Benjamin disrupting a speech at the RNC. Do right wingers disrupt any speeches? ANY? Because my memory of speechs recently disrupted by lefties is about 20 incidents long.

Labels: 2008 Presidential Race, RNC disrupted by lefties

In an earlier post, I compared the gracious congratulation ad, on his website, that John McCain gave Senator Obama on the day of his acceptance speech, to some of the low blows against John McCain contained in that very speech. A loyal Democrat reader chided me for the comparison and assured me that McCain would receive his congratulations and certainly would take some swipes at Obama in his acceptance speech. Here is the speech. Here is what he said about Obama:

Finally, a word to Senator Obama and his supporters. We'll go at it over the next two months. That's the nature of these contests, and there are big differences between us. But you have my respect and admiration. Despite our differences, much more unites us than divides us. We are fellow Americans, an association that means more to me than any other. We're dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal and endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights. No country ever had a greater cause than that. And I wouldn't be an American worthy of the name if I didn't honor Senator Obama and his supporters for their achievement.

On the other hand, here is what the Obama site contains in the way of congratulations to John McCain:

[Crickets chirping.]

I could repeat the headline, but it's no longer necessary.

Labels: 2008 Presidential Race

[Palin] opposes just about every issue that women support by a majority or plurality. She believes that creationism should be taught in public schools but disbelieves global warming; she opposes gun control but supports government control of women's wombs; she opposes stem cell research but approves "abstinence-only" programs, which increase unwanted births, sexually transmitted diseases and abortions; she tried to use taxpayers' millions for a state program to shoot wolves from the air but didn't spend enough money to fix a state school system with the lowest high-school graduation rate in the nation; she runs with a candidate who opposes the Fair Pay Act but supports $500 million in subsidies for a natural gas pipeline across Alaska; she supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve, though even McCain has opted for the lesser evil of offshore drilling. She is Phyllis Schlafly, only younger.

Labels: 2008 Presidential Race, Sarah Palin

I first noticed the extreme reaction in the press to the selection of Governor Sarah Palin and thought it was just normal liberal bias. As it grew more savage and unsupportable, I thought that it was just a mental breakdown of the media in a reaction to its continued loss of viewers and readers, money, jobs and power. Now, however, I notice that the attacks on Sarah Palin sound exactly like what the feminists rightly complained about during the 60s. I'm not the only one noticing it. Behold.

But women on the left, who fought long and hard for the ability to raise children simultaneously with election cash, are in spasms. (Some have simply kept silent. Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton - where are you?)

The same lefty media that studiously ignored the adolescence of Chelsea Clinton can't wait to dig into Bristol Palin.

The Diary section of Daily Kos Web site had a curious way to make Palin's daughter into a campaign issue: "Considering Palin was chosen solely for her religious right family values cred, Bristol's shotgun marriage and pregnancy are very fair game. They are the direct result of this lunatic abstinence-only garbage, and should be highlighted as such."

The stupendously sexist New York Times printed a front-page article noting that some unnamed women argue over "whether there are enough hours in the day for her to take on the vice presidency, and whether she is right to try."

UPDATE

Dr. Helen Smith has this to say:

If Palin were a Democrat, we would not be having this national conversation about her children, her ability to mother and the other dirt that the MSM is flinging against her. Instead, the media would hail her as a hero, a role model for young girls and beyond reproach. The hypocrisy is staggering.

Labels: 2008 Presidential Race

Senator Slow Joe Biden (D-DE), candidate for the tough job of Vice President, had this to say about the Democrats' plans for office.

Biden also promised that an Obama-Biden government would go through Bush, administration data with "a fine-toothed comb" and pursue criminal charges if necessary.

"If there has been a basis upon which you can pursue someone for a criminal violation," he said, "they will be pursued, not out of vengeance, not out of retribution - out of the need to preserve the notion that no one, no one, no attorney general, no president, no one is above the law."

I recall scenes from the best American movie ever made, Citizen Kane, where the incumbent in a race for governor against the title character reacts to the speech where Kane (played by a skinny Orson Wells) has promised to pursue a criminal investigation of his opponent. It does't go well for Kane. He would have won had he not promised the post election prosecution.

I'm interested in hearing what Biden thinks are promising avenues for such a criminal investigation. I can think of many mistakes, but no crimes, certainly no malum in se crimes.

I am worried about the continuing criminilization of politics. No use saying who started it. The last thing we need is a new administration indicting wholesale their predecessors every 8 years. That will bring the talent running to government service. That will make things better.

Labels: 2008 Presidential Race, Joe Biden

In a stunningly good piece by a knowledgeable good guy, Michael Barone, who often gets boring going too deep into detail, he points out the perpetual mistake some politicians make--inability to admit a past mistake. His examples are all Democrats, but the lesson should well be remembered by Republicans. Money quotes:

...the Democrats’ charge that Republicans make illegitimate attacks on their candidates, attacks that imply that they are far out of the American mainstream. The two examples they cite are the “Willie Horton” ads against Michael Dukakis in 1988 and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ads against John Kerry in 2004.

[...]

I used to be a Democratic campaign consultant. In that capacity, I would have advised the Dukakis campaign to admit early on that the furlough policy was a mistake. I would have advised the Kerry campaign to go before a veterans’ group early on and apologize for the Foreign Relations testimony. Voters understand that candidates sometimes make mistakes and that young men say outrageous things that in time they come to regret.

[...]

On Ayers, the Obama campaign has tried to suppress discussion. But it will likely fail. The emergence of new media and the First Amendment mean that is like stopping the Mississippi River from flowing to the sea. If I were advising Obama, I would tell him to confess error, as he arguably has on Wright, on both Ayers and the Born Alive Protection Act, lest they cause his campaign as much damage as the furlough ads caused Michael Dukakis and the Swift Boat ads caused John Kerry.

Labels: 2008 Presidential Race

Senator Obama, this is truly a good day for America. Too often the achievements of our opponents go unnoticed. So I wanted to stop and say, Congratulations. How perfect that your nomination would come on this historic day. Tomorrow, we’ll be back at it. But tonight, Senator, job well done.

From John McCain's Convention Night ad, viewable here.

It's not because John McCain doesn't care; it's because John McCain doesn't get it.

You know, John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the gates of Hell, but he won't even follow him to the cave where he lives.

From Barack Obama's Acceptance Speech.

Labels: 2008 Presidential Race