Send a trackback to this post, but don’t forget to link it.

Poor Joe Klein at Time. He is watching his candidate implode. Reminds me of Don Imus beating his head against a wall after a John Kerry interview while saying “this is my guy, and I don’t know what he is talking about”

A few days before Barack Obama was to announce his choice for Vice President, he was asked at a North Carolina town meeting what qualities he wanted in a running mate. He wandered through a derisive, if desultory, critique of Dick Cheney, then switched gears. “I want somebody … who shares with me a passion to make the lives of the American people better than they are right now,” he said. “I want somebody who is mad right now that people are losing their jobs.” And I immediately thought, Uh-oh.

Memories of John Kerry in 2004 came flooding back, of how he tended to describe his feelings rather than experience them, of how he suddenly —and unconvincingly — started to say he was “angry” about this or that when his consultants told him that Howard Dean’s anger about the war in Iraq was hitting home with voters. And then, in the general election, Kerry kept repeating the word strength rather than demonstrating it. Clearly, Obama’s consultants have given him similar advice, that he was on the short end of a passion gap — that it was time for emo. A day earlier, he had said wage disparities between genders made his “blood boil.”

Or, Joe, it could just be that Obama is a neophyte when it comes to tough elections, since he has never had to fight hard in them. For his first Illinois election, he had most of his competitors disqualified. For his 2004 Senate run, the GOP opponents were first Jack Ryan, who left because of the sex charges in his divorce papers, then Alan Keyes. It was a walk over. Now, he has a tough one on his hands against a seasoned veteran, one who has specific policies. Obama has very few policies that he would want to share. Abortion on demand, hell, terminating babies who are still alive after an abortion, are not issues that will excite the average American. Perhaps the far end progressives, but not average Americans.

Joe thinks Barry should concentrate on the economy. Great! Can’t wait to hear that debate and the substance, considering Barry has really done nothing in during his short pants time in office, versus McCain, who has been there, done that.

But, Joe, see, it is not the passion, the feelings, the empathy. It is the lack of substance, and his poor character. And, as Peggy Noonan points out, people are starting to really pay attention to the race. The people who are the swing voters. And they want to know who the hell they are voting for, and what his policies will be. Not the patronizing ones. The real ones. And what the character of the Democrat nominee is, after 7+ years of Democrats complaining about Bush.

Say, whatever happened to Barry’s healthcare plans? We don’t hear much about that anymore.

The Surrender Monkey jumps in the way back machine today, to a time when he put on his pink party dress and visited Queen Nancy on the floor of the House, along with his French cousin Reddition, in light of this new story by the San Francisco Chronicle

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-S.F., has done something worse than commit a crime against the First Amendment. The speaker’s censorship of nonobtrusive posters featuring men and women who gave that last full measure of devotion in service to their country is a blunder that could alienate 23 million veterans and their families from the Democratic Party. If she is endowed with a crumb of constitutional or political sense, she will reverse course.

The tale of Pelosi’s folly begins with Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C. He wished to pay tribute to the service members of Camp Lejeune who had been killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. Accordingly, Walter placed a poster flat against the wall in the corridor outside his office showing their names and pictures.

It was altogether fitting that Jones saluted the fallen soldiers on congressional premises. Congress authorized the wars that occasioned their tragic deaths. Congress appropriated the money that dispatched them to mortal danger. The posters communicated to congressional visitors that war is a combination of heroism and hell. Voters would leave with more informed judgments about the costs of the twin wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There was no tension between Jones’ wall poster and the ordinary use of the House Rayburn Office Building to host direct communications between Members of the House and the public. On one occasion, for instance, a mother from Minnesota entered Jones’ office with tears in her eyes to thank him for displaying the picture of her son who had been killed while serving the nation.

But, Queen Nancy did not like that. She wanted it cleaned up. She told Jones to remove the poster back in July. Now, apparently, she had it forcibly removed at the beginning of August. A poster paying homage to the troops who died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Removed. So much for any free speech.

What is so surprising is that it was an article in the San Fran Chronicle. A bastion of far, far liberalism. Of course, the bulk of the writers argument is that she is going to cause Democrats to lose military votes in November. Typical.

He said he was against lobbyists, and against PACs. Remember his ad, where he said “I’m Barack Obama, and I don’t take money from oil companies or lobbyists, and I won’t let them block change any more”? And this

In a statement today, Obama spokesman Bill Burton, reiterated that Obama doesn’t take PAC money or money from federal registered lobbyists, and “that includes oil companies and oil lobbyists.”

Interesting, eh? Pretty much everyone refuted those statements. But, did you know that Barry has his own PAC, Hopefund? It is not exactly a secret, but it is not something I have seen covered much, and the links about it I find are stories that are typically buried.

Question: is it proper for a Congressman to spread around money to other sitting Congresspeople? What kind of propriety does that show? Is that part of Hope and Change and Change and Hope, or simply the politics as normal that Obama learned from the Chicago Machine?

Is it proper for a sitting US Senator, and presidential wannabe, to spread money around to reelection campaigns for other congresspeople and state reelection groups, in effect using his PAC to skirt the donation rules? Is this the politics of Hope and Change?

And, is this year old report from The Hill part of the “new politics” of Barry?

Two weeks after Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) won the first endorsement of a lawmaker from Iowa or New Hampshire, a new fundraising report shows that he has spent the past two months using money from his leadership political action committee (PAC) to court them.

Obama showered lawmakers from Iowa and New Hampshire with contributions while other presidential hopefuls turned their focus to raising money for their presidential campaign accounts, records show.

Just more Hope and Change, Chicago Machine style. Especially the $202,807 he has taken from MoveOn. He won’t take money (so he says) from oil companies, which provide a product to help us get to work and keep our economy going, but, Barry will take money from unhinged extreme leftists.

A press release from Camp McCain via The Corner

Please see comment from me on Barack Obama’s new ad supposedly running in Georgia:

Barack Obama’s ad is ridiculous. Because of John McCain, corruption was exposed and people like Jack Abramoff went to jail.

“However, if Barack Obama wants to have a discussion about truly questionable associations, let’s start with his relationship with the unrepentant terrorist William Ayers, at whose home Obama’s political career was reportedly launched. Mr. Ayers was a leader of the Weather Underground, a terrorist group responsible for countless bombings against targets including the U.S. Capitol, the Pentagon and numerous police stations, courthouses and banks. In recent years, Mr. Ayers has stated, ‘I don’t regret setting bombs … I feel we didn’t do enough.’

“The question now is, will Barack Obama immediately call on the University of Illinois to release all of the records they are currently withholding to shed further light on Senator Obama’s relationship with this unrepentant terrorist?” —McCain spokesman Brian Rogers. Question: how soon will Camp Barry jump in the waaaaah!-mbulance and start calling Mccain mean and of running a mean an un-civil campaign? Barry won’t respond to the allegations, of course, nor will the Credentialed Media follow up.

Via Stop The ACLU, which also links to Doug Ross, who tears apart the Barry’s camps insinuations about Abramoff, and shows Barry’s links to Perp Jack.

Sister Toldjah: Unfortunately for the Obama campaign, they clearly haven’t learned that if you’re going to engage in a battle of wits, it’s best you come armed with more than just a lofty speech.

Technically, she is not a MILF, but, I wouldn’t mind if she was my sugar momma! Maureen continues her assault on the Messiah in today’s column, Two Against One, and shows a sense of actual humor, something most progressives are lacking. Crying, fainting, smearing feces on themselves (which, I guess is humorous, if disgusting,) screaming in rage, yes. Humor, no. Maybe she is slowly coming to the dark side

In the dead of night in a small hideaway office in the deserted Capitol, a clandestine meeting takes place between two senators with one goal.

They grin at each other as they lift their celebratory shots of brutally cold Stolichnaya.

“Our toast to The One,” they say in unison, “is that he’s toast.”

“Obama should have picked you, Hillary,” John McCain tells her. “It isn’t fair, my friend. But it just makes it easier for me to whup him.”

“Don’t worry, John, I’ve put it behind me,” Hillary replies. “I’m looking toward the future now, a future that looks very bright, once we send Twig Legs back to the back bench.”

Wait, did she just call Barry “Twig Legs?” The NY editors are going to get strongly worded letters shortly which all seem to look the same. Will the Barry camp whine about Mo being mean?

“He’s a bright young man, but he got ahead of himself,” McCain says. “He needs to be taught a lesson, and we’re the ones to do it. Have you seen the new Bloomberg poll? Obama’s dropped and we’re even again. The Bullet’s getting all the credit, but you and I know, Hillary, that it’s these top-secret counseling sessions we’re having. And thanks again for BlackBerrying me the Rick Warren questions while I was in the so-called cone of silence.”

“Oh, John, you know I love you and I’m happy to help,” Hillary says. “The themes you took from me are working great — painting Obama as an elitist and out-of-touch celebrity, when we’re rich celebrities, too. Turning his big rallies and pretty words into character flaws, charging him with playing the race card — that one always cracks me up. And accusing the media, especially NBC, of playing favorites. It’s easy to get the stupid press to navel-gaze; they’re so insecure.”

I suppose Mo’s point is that the McCain campaign is using many of the same tactics against Barry as Camp Clinton did, but, Mo seems to approve. If it works, do it.

Read the rest of this entry »

When I first heard the audio of Barry’s speech on Rush Limbaugh’s show while driving from a staff meeting, I was floored. I wasn’t sure I heard it correctly. And, being so busy today, I had no chance to check till now.

Barry’s speech was a litany of consistent “we suck, we aren’t winning in Iraq, The Surge hasn’t worked, let’s vamoose. He also had a little blurb about it being our fault for fighting back that Islamic extremists want to kill the Infidel (”In the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, I warned that war would fan the flames of extremism in the Middle East, create new centers of terrorism, and tie us down in a costly and open-ended occupation.”) You can listen and watch some of it, but, check out at 1:10

What he said

But understand what the essential argument was about. Before the surge, I argued that the long-term solution in Iraq is political – the Iraqi government must reconcile its differences and take responsibility for its future. That holds true today. We have lost over a thousand American lives and spent hundreds of billions of dollars since the surge began, but Iraq’s leaders still haven’t made hard compromises or substantial investments in rebuilding their country. Our military is badly overstretched – a fact that has surely been noted in capitals around the world. And while we pay a heavy price in Iraq – and Americans pay record prices at the pump – Iraq’s government is sitting on a $79 billion dollar budget surplus from windfall oil profits.

Glad Mr. 57 States has a solid grasp on the number of American soldiers who have made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq.

I’m tempted to pick apart the rest of the speech, including his idiotic windfall profits for the Iraqi’s stupidity, but, after that gaffe of epic proportions on the troops, just one more. Paragraph 12

This is a war that we have to win. And as Commander-in-Chief, I will have no greater priority than taking out these terrorists who threaten America, and finishing the job against the Taliban.

Barry does realize that the Taliban was not the group who attacked us, right? And that the Taliban is much less a threat to America then Saddam Hussein was, right? And that Al Qaeda is a separate group, right? And, while they gave shelter to Al Qaeda, they really had nothing to do with implementing 9/11, right? And that Al Qaeda is a worldwide group, right? Maybe Barry could pick someone who has more actual foreign policy and anti-terrorism experience and knowledge then himself. Someone like Paris Hilton or Britney Spears.

PS: Barry also had a little hissy fit

“I will let no one question my love of this country. I love America, so do you, and so does John McCain. When I look out at this audience, I see people of different political views. You are Democrats and Republicans and independents. But you all served together, and fought together, and bled together under the same proud flag. You did not serve a red America or a blue America -– you served the United States of America.”

Guess Free Speech is out under an Obamafuhrer reign.

Notice something wrong? That’s right. Now the DNCC has taken on the Nutroots/Barking Moonbat predilection for using upside down American flags. (via Hot Air from Weasel Zippers)

Some viewers contacted 9NEWS Saturday, questioning the design of the credentials to see Sen. Barack Obama accept the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination at INVESCO Field at Mile High.

The viewers say with the stars and blue field in the lower left corner, it looks like an upside down American flag. Published flag etiquette states the stars should always be displayed in the upper left corner. An upside down flag represents an international symbol of extreme distress.

Matt Chandler with the Obama campaign says the flag is not upside down. He says it is a stylized flag designed to blend the stars on Senator Obama’s shirt with the flag blowing in the wind.

Natalie Wyeth with the Democratic National Convention Committee sent 9NEWS the following statement Saturday night:“The DNCC community credentials incorporate patriotic design elements. They do not depict an actual American flag. The DNCC has full and complete respect for the flag and all rules of display.”

Do they know what an American flag looks like, or, did they just think it was some interesting art?

Change you can hate America with. Hope it becomes something the Founders never envisioned. Kinda like the Chicago political machine Barry emulates.

This is what passes for civilized commentary on the Left, as cable news’ biggest attention whore attacks John McCain (thought the attention whoring has still not translated into, you know, ratings)

Now as promised a Special Comment on the remarks of the Senior Senator from Arizona about Senator Obama at the VFW Convention, and about NBC News and MSNBC.

Four times in just two days, Senator McCain’s campaign managers have, simply, hung him out to dry.

First, trying to scapegoat the media, in the exact way that has spelled doom for other presidential candidates already watching from the sidelines.

Second, doing so with a petulant statement so full of holes that it virtually **confirms** that which was reported, and which set off this pointless temper tantrum in the first place.

Third, sending the candidate out to speak before the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention, even as the millstones of a series of disastrous, anti-veteran votes, still figuratively dangled from around his neck.

And fourth, encouraging Senator McCain, while there, to address his opponent in the language of unseemly contempt, undignified calumny, and holier-than-thou persiflage unsupported by reality… near-nonsensical bluster that — at best — makes the speaker look like a dyspeptic grouchy neighbor shouting “Hey you kids, get out of my yard.”

That is just the start of a 12 minute rant. You can read the whole thing at Crooks and Liars, which is all giddy over Keith, though, if they were honest, they would admit that they rarely, if ever, watch Keith. Video available, if you can stomach Mr. Angry, at Crooks and Liars or Youtube.

It’s good to see the McCain campaign fighting against the biased media and against the most radical elements of the Left (which is, of course, the Democrat base nowadays), something we on the Right begged Dubya to do. Michael Goldfarb at John McCain 2008: Smears The Left Can Fight For

In the least credible and most viciouscorner of the internet, liberal bloggers at the Daily Kos are accusing John McCain of plagiarizing from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. The story Solzhenitsyn told was of a prisoner who drew a cross in the dirt in a Soviet Gulag. McCain’s story is of a guard who drew a cross in the dirt in a Vietnamese prisoner of war camp.

The only similarity between the two stories is a cross in the dirt, but it is hardly an unlikely coincidence that there were practicing Christians in both Russia and Vietnam, or that in the prisons of those two Communist countries the only crosses to be found were etched in the dirt, as easily disappeared as the Christians who drew them.

But those desperate to discredit Senator McCain’s record will have to impugn his fellow prisoners as well. Orson Swindle, who was held as a prisoner of war along with McCain, tells the McCain Report that he heard this particular story from McCain “when we first moved in together.” That was in the summer of 1971, Swindle said, though “time blurred” and he couldn’t be sure. He said it was some time around then that the Vietnamese moved all “36 troublemakers” into the same quarters, where they “talked about everything under the sun.”

It may be typical of the pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons crowd to disparage a fellow countryman’s memory of war from the comfort of mom’s basement, but most Americans have the humility and gratitude to respect and learn from the memories of men who suffered on behalf of others. John McCain has often said he witnessed a thousand acts of bravery while he was imprisoned, and though not every one has been submitted into the public record, they are remembered by the men who were there (one such only recently reported by Karl Rove though it escaped mention in any of Senator McCain’s books). But as Swindle said, this is a “desperate group of people trying to make something out of nothing.”

What it comes down to is that the Left on the Internet tend to follow in lockstep with a few sites, Daily Kos being one of them. If you want to get noticed as a blogger on the Left, you mostly have to go the kook fringe moonbat conspiracy BDS “Republicans are turning America in a Nazi state” route. They even suck in supposed “Conservatives (insert wink here)” like Excitable Andy. You remember Andy, right? He’s the guy who offered Ron Paul supporters to come and chat, but forgot that comments have to be open to do that.

Confederate Yankeedestroys Excitable Andy, Kos, and others, in his post.

Anyhow, it’s funny how the left tells us that it is verboten to attack Obama over his character, his inability to show any patriotism, his wife’s America loathing (till Barry almost had the nomination in the bag), Jeremiah Wright, etc and so on, but it is OK to go after McCain on this. Go figure.