This is becoming a very strange campaign.
On CNN last evening both David Gergen and Ed Rollins echoed the current mantra that the “old” noble McCain is gone–and a “new” nastier one has emerged, largely because of his attacks on Ayers, perhaps his planned future ads on Wright, and a few unhinged people shouting at his campaign stops.
Recently Christopher Buckley endorsed Obama, likewise lamenting the loss of the old noble McCain. New York Times columnist David Brooks dubbed Palin a “cancer,” and he suggested that Obama’s instant recall of Niehbuhr sent a tingle up his leg as Obama once did to Chris Matthews as well.
A couple of thoughts: the George Bush, Sr. / Willie Horton campaign was far tougher; so were the Bush 2000/2004 efforts. If anything, McCain’s campaign is subdued in comparison to what we’ve seen on both sides in past years. Indeed, McCain as a vicious campaigner is a complete fabrication, but, again, a brilliant subterfuge on the part of Team Obama that, in fact, has run, via appendages, the far more vicious race.
Obama and his surrogates have repeatedly engaged in racial politics (as Bill Clinton lamented when in fury he denounced the “race card”). When there was never evidence that McCain was using race as a wedge issue, it was clear Obama most surely was–preemptively, on at least two occasions, warning Americans he would soon be the victim of opposition racial stereotyping.
His surrogates like Biden and those in the Senate continue to link legitimate worries about OBama’s past with racism. Second, for about 3 months all we’ve heard are references to McCain’s age, with adjectives and phrases like confused, can’t remember any more, disturbed, lost his bearings, etc.
Moreover, so far, McCain supporters have not broken into Biden’s email, or accused Biden of being a Nazi, or accused anyone of not bearing one of their own children, or photo-shopped grotesque pictures of Obama on the Internet (as in the Atlantic magazine case). I don’t think deranged McCain supporters in Hollywood or television almost daily are quoted as damning Obama in unusually crude terms. Nor are white racist ministers calling McCain a ‘messiah’ or McCain operatives fraudulently swarming voter registration centers. And on and on.
Instead I think what we are seeing again is an interesting phenomenon of the old nice/now mean McCain. A great many moderates and conservatives are worn out and tired of Bush and Bush hatred, the European furor, serial charges of racism and illiberalism, and finally, in their weariness, think that Obama will, in a variety of ways, just make all the ickiness go away–as if he will make all of us be liked abroad and end racial and red/blue fighting at home. They should ask themselves whether Jimmy Carter restored American popularity with his human rights campaigns, praise of left-wing dictators, dialogue during the hostage crisis (cf. “The Great Satan”), boasts of no more inordinate fear of communism, etc., or whether Obama, in his Trinity/Acorn/Pfleger years, brought racial healing and understanding to Chicago.
Second, with Obama now with an 6-8 point lead, some in the DC/NY corridor these last three weeks figure it’s time now to jump or at least sort of jump, since the train they think is leaving the station and there might be still be some space at the dinner table on the caboose. They also believe as intellectuals that the similarly astute Obamians may on occasion inspire, or admire them as the like-minded who cultivate the life of the mind–in contrast to the “cancer” Sarah Palin, who, with her husband Todd, could hardly discuss Proust with them or could offer little if any sophisticated table-talk other than the proper chokes on shotguns or optimum RPMs on snow-machines.
And third, a lot of moderates who would not vote for McCain liked him when he was a sophisticated, ironic maverick loser scoring points against the simplistic Bush and other cardboard-cut-out conservatives. Now he has the onus of winning a campaign and can’t be a noble, tragic loser;so it is easy to say he is no good since he is less than perfect. The sure iconoclastic loser has an attraction that the mainstream conservative possible winner does not.
Obama, as I have said ad nauseam, has brilliantly prepped the battlefield to such a degree that a Farrakhan endorsement or surrogates calling Palin a quasi-Nazi or a bimbo, or smearing McCain as near senile is irrelevant; yet one screamer in a crowd of tens of thousands is proof of McCain’s and Palin’s racism and hatred.
Again, most conservatives know this paradox, but for some being outraged, as the conservative voice of reason, at McCain’s supposed low road ensures a CNN spot, or some future rehabilitation during the expected Obama regnum of the next eight years. I think should I write a column suddenly taking the “high road”, praising Obama’s wit, taste in books, and metrosexuality, I would be dubbed principled rather than cynical, ‘even-handed’ rather than self-serving, and a maverick rather than toadish.
Yet for a self-acclaimed conservative to vote Obama would mean that higher taxes, larger government, more entitlements, more of a UN-centered foreign policy, dialogue with an Iran, less coal,oil, and nuclear energy production at home, more “oppression” studies and “reparations”, leftish Supreme Court judges, open borders (I could go on) were the truly conservative positions, or perhaps suddenly truly the ‘right’ positions. And as far as ethics go, in fact, a cursory review of the past Obama campaigns would reveal a ruthlessness never seen in any of McCain’s efforts. Obama’s record is far more left than McCain’s is far right. Obama the healer has proven to be the most partisan in the Senate, McCain one of the most bipartisan.
Yet to believe that truth would be–if we remember that scene in Tolkien’s The Two Towers--to trust the grating harsh voice of Gandalf detailing the dangers of Saruman rather than the mellifluous charm of the latter who in soothing tones outlines his own victimhood.
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93 Comments
1. Helen Waters:Very well said (as usual). You are spot on as discouraging as that is. I have wondered where Reagan’s Silent Majority has gone. Perhaps underground? You have articulated all of my private thoughts over the last few days as I have watched and read the media reports accusing McCain/Palin of stoking hatred and racism (although I have yet to detect it)all the while suggesting that riots will result if Obama loses. I wish your voice were heard more widely (like shouted from the rooftops)but candor and rational thought appear to be not only in short supply but out of favor as well.
Oct 12, 2008 - 8:45 am 2. Jumping Ship… | PoliticsMuch.com:[...] orginally posted at PajamasMedia.com. We claim no responsibility for this content. Please click on the link above to read and comment on [...]
Oct 12, 2008 - 8:55 am 3. RJ:Let’s go back about 40 years, into the streets of America, during those “anti-war” years. Create a picture in your mind of those demonstrations.
We had the group of demonstrators marching down the street. On the sidelines were those who shouted to these hippies, radicals, etc. that they either should love our country or leave it.
Hidden away at our colleges were violent groups, groups espousing political rhetoric of change, of revolution, of overthrow.
Got a good picture of these players? Now, fast forward 40 years, to today.
Our radical hippies have been teaching at these universities,or playing at politics… they have grey hair, etc. Those red, white and blue Americans who shouted back at them from the sidelines also have similar features and are also integrated into our daily lives.
Are they still at war with each other? I certainly think so.
Only this time our street radicals have a front line candidate who is younger, maybe hip, cool, and smooth with his words. The sideline shouters have a former POW old guy long time politicain working their angles for control and dominance.
This war ain’t over by a long shot. Not until most are in fact dead, buried, and in the ground for sure! My generation needs to get off stage, the sooner the better.
This coming election could very well just be one more battle between these old warring groups.
Problem is, the rest of our country and especially those new citizens, our kids, etc. may not know what lies in wait for them.
And it may not be pretty at all, not at all!
Oct 12, 2008 - 9:03 am 4. Pajamas Media » Abandoning McCain:[...] Read the entire piece here… [...]
Oct 12, 2008 - 9:10 am 5. Sissy Willis:Cravenness, thy name is “Northeast Corridor Conservatives.”
Oct 12, 2008 - 10:06 am 6. Tina Trent:The Obama campaign began with the Mayella Ewelling of Hillary Clinton (remember the dolorous intoning that Obama “had to act passive in her presence,” lest she and her supporters “feel threatened by a black man”? Ugly stuff.).
Now the gloves are off, and the accusations of racism, lynch-mob mentality, Berlin Beer Gardenism and Kennedyesque assassination are thick on the ground, issuing forth from Glenn Greenwald to Frank Rich and lesser mortals between.
Message saturation has reached the local dailies — the St. Pete Times ran a particularly ugly op-ed this week that accused McCain followers of being responsible for allegedly high rates of hate crime. The academician who wrote the piece apparently didn’t get far enough into the hate crime study he was citing to notice that researchers actually arrived at the conclusion that blacks were over-represented as perpetrators and relatively under-represented as victims of what they called racial hate. But facts didn’t matter. The race card narrative, as in, Willie Horton was a victim of racial politics instead of a perpetrator of crimes of intense sadism and sexual torture, is everywhere now.
Oct 12, 2008 - 10:06 am 7. Minerva:– Buckley’s father would have wept*. (Thank you VDH and Roger Kimball!)
*If you doubt, remember what Bill Buckley wrote about Ronald Reagan, Jr. a couple years ago…
Oct 12, 2008 - 10:19 am 8. Ken:“one screamer in a crowd of tens of thousands is proof of McCain’s and Palin’s racism and hatred”
Actually, Victor, it’s not just one person, not even remotely. How about a little honesty? It’s seen too in the crowd booing when McCain says that Obama is a decent person who they don’t have to be scared of as President. See here, for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLlIigHg1v0. There are other examples.
Oct 12, 2008 - 10:21 am 9. pxfagonard:I have wondered where Reagan’s Silent Majority has gone.
Wasn’t “The silent majority” Nixon’s term? Unfortunately, there are a lot of parallels between the end of Nixon and the end of Bush. Both presidents much despised.
The silent majority will stay silent as long as McCain keeps singing his “I’m a bipartisan” song. He needs to get partisan in a hurry. He needs to distinguish his policies clearly. He needs to articulate the danger of radical economic socialism. He needs to connect the dots between Democratic lawmakers and ACORN’s pressure on banks to lend money to people who can’t pay it back, Fannie Mae’s political sponsors and their efforts to keep up that dangerous practise and the market’s meltdown. Whoever has the best explanation of what happened and why will win this election.
If McCain shows growth in this number 1 item on the agenda (the only one, really, at the moment), then he can move to ACORN’s voter fraud, the 100M the Deomocrats tried to earmark to them in the “Bailout Bill”, Ayers’ Marxist education projects (that Obama was in on), Wright’s Marxist Black Liberation Theology (that Obama was in on) and so on. But he has to make the definitive argument against Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Barney Frank and Chris Dodds first. He has to prove that he worked hard to make them live up to minimally responsible lending standards. And he has to either bury President Bush or praise him. Perhaps some of both but like the number 1 issue, clarity is the key (He was right on this, wrong on that). Bush is the number 2 issue and it won’t go away. The Democrats are fighting 2000 for the third time. They’ve had some practise and they feel lucky.
Oct 12, 2008 - 10:25 am 10. jane:I agree that there is often little difference between elite conservative pundits and elite liberal pundits.
The conservative talking heads have decided that it’s time to jump ship because they certainly don’t want to be associated with those “loser” conservatives that they have actually always thought a tad beneath them. How else will they remain relevant if Obama wins? They see it as their responsibility to bemoan the loss of gentility – and they were so looking forward to being free of that callow Pres Bush.
I imagine if McCain was on track to win somehow they would be able to find amusement in the populist VP because in their hearts they would be sure that McCain was only using her to get support from the conservative part of the base. The reason McCain used to be a darling of the media was because he wasn’t that partisan – he wasn’t like those crass conservatives. He was more like them – a gentleman who wouldn’t get dirty in a fight.
Oct 12, 2008 - 10:27 am 11. thegr8_1:Are Obama’s people planting these screamers of hate at the McCain Palin rallies? Read at homelandsecurityus.com what happened to Jerome Corsi when he went on a fact finding trip to Kenya.
Oct 12, 2008 - 10:34 am 12. DougW:VDH is being quite honest with his remarks above. Obama supported throw terrible remarks at McCain and Palin. A professor vomits at the sight of Palin and blames that act on the Governor. This past week crowds at McCain rallies vocally express their outrage at Obama but that have not rioted nor is it suggested they will.
Has freedom of speech now been limited to only Obama’s supporters? Or, is it still allowed throughout our land?
It’s interesting that the very characteristics attributed to McCain/Palin supporters are those used with much practice and sharp intent by Obama’s legions.
What’s next, paeans sung about Obama the Leader or preachers invoking the image of Obama as the Messiah come to Earth?
Oct 12, 2008 - 10:49 am 13. Self-hating boomer:Based on my experiences with Republican rallies (I was at the 40,000+ rally with Rush Limbaugh when he was stumping in 2000 for John Carlson running for governor of Washington), I think thegr8_1 has a valid question. Republicans simply don’t behave that way, ever, under any circumstances. I’d bet 50,000 quatloos at 10:1 odds that those screamers are the meatspace equivelent of mobys.
At the Carlson rally, with over 40,000 people, there was absolutely nothing for the cleanup crew to do afterward. They were just sent home. The trash was all in the containers, and there wasn’t as much as a bubble gum wrapper on the ground anywhere. The only people who behave like this are leftists. You can take that to the bank.
Oct 12, 2008 - 10:52 am 14. CALIndie:It interests me that what we view as a foregone conclusion of victory, or as some believe, a decisive victory by Barack Obama, is really nothing more than the culmination of the most effective marketing campaign American politics has ever seen.
When we think of the MSM overtly supporting Obama, do we see it for what it really is, free advertising? The American society is one of the most, if not the most susceptible societies in the world to carefully crafted marketing messages designed to influence behavior.
To top it off, Obama has a handful of the most positive multipliers a candidate could want and a wheel barrow full of the most negative multipliers against a current administration.
With a degree in marketing and having spent the better part of 20 years crafting high impact marketing messages myself, it is obvious to me that Barack Obama’s 6-8 point lead has little to do with measurable, definable “change” and more to do with slight of hand and grand illusions.
In politics you can culitivate “mindshare” on both ends of the marketing spectrum, with positive and negative messages. Here’s the Obama marketing plan: Start with a good measure of Saul Alinsky style deception and rules for radicals, add in a strong mix of Chicago style liars, cheats and cons (ACORN, Rezko, Wright, Phleger etc.), a handfule of messiah (little m) worship for the lost and hurting and boil it all over a high flame of hate for George W. and all things Republican. It is a flat out miracle John McCain is even close at this point in October.
So what do we do? Stay strong and speak the truth as VDH has done here and so many others on PJM. There is no jumping ship for this freedom loving, terrorist despising, constitution waving, free enterprise advocating, supply side thinking, independent American.
In the still, quiet confines of the vinyl voting cubicle many Americans will reject all the lies and distortions a 450 million dollar marketing budget can buy and vote for transparency, honor and bi-partisan leadership. Will it be enough to win? Let’s hope.
The frustration we feel right now has little to do with facts or the truth and more to do with a masterful marketing campaign sowing seeds of discouragement and doubt to manipulate us in to giving up. Some will be scared off by the deception, but in the end, the great wizard behind the curtain will be revealed as the phony little man that he is.
Oct 12, 2008 - 10:55 am 15. Claire Solt:Many have been lulled into a false delusion by the tributes to MLK. When he died, dreames of peaceful integration died too. Malcolm X brought black power and the apartheid of the “black community.” It is all based on perpetrating anger over racism and extortion of the government. It serves to keep a group of mostly ministers ensconced in p ower. To some extent, that is threatened by the willing support of white supporters of Obasma, so it is shored up, at every opportunity with charges of racism. For, without racism the rationale of the black community and its tyrants crumbles.
Oct 12, 2008 - 10:59 am 16. dgforbes:I’m constantly puzzled that ordinary Americans should even care that Europeans are alleged to hate them (which many don’t outside the self-perpetuating liberal-left elite who almost wholly own the politics, media and academy in EU countries and drive public perceptions to an unhealthily incestuous degree). The pathology dates back to the 18th century and is usually emotional (the fear of Catholic culture for the rival Protestant ‘other’) rather than rational. The hating is more intense when the Republicans are in power but never abates entirely. Carter’s naivete made them snigger just as much as GWB filled them with rage. The point is that America will never gain acceptance from the European intelligentsia because such acceptance is outside their field of conceptual possibility. Of course, they will love Obama (unelectable in any European country) to start with. But their adoration will surely pall when they see that he governs as an American as any American president must.
Oct 12, 2008 - 11:01 am 17. dawn:I am a fiscal conservative and I am truly disturbed that McCain is allowing our capitalist system to be socialized right before his eyes yet stays silent. I would rather have our financial system crash and have to rebuild than to witness it being socialized. I am not alone in my thinking by a long shot. McCain ignores fiscal conservatives entirely, in fact, all he has done is introduced more ideas that further expand the government’s role.
Oct 12, 2008 - 11:04 am 18. BackwardsBoy:I watched the McCain/Palin rallies on YouTube and it sickened me. As a party the Republicans have pushed away the fiscal conservatives to pander to, let’s be honest, religious nuts and racists.
I won’t vote for McCain because he doesn’t represent me at all. His campain managers should be blacklisted for all time.
I’ve seen some rough political campaigns in my lifetime, having grown up in Alabama during the Wallace years. But I have never seen such an effort to smear and besmirch good, honest candidates and their supporters as I witness today. The barrage of fabricated stories, images, slanted news articles, dishonest polls, and outright lies foisted upon conservatives by the leftist media is evidence of hysteria and mental instability. Honesty and objectivity in coverage of this most important election is nowhere to be found in the Old Media.
Oct 12, 2008 - 11:06 am 19. Sandra M:The good news is that the Silent Majority knows what is happening and refuse to be swayed by the very vocal minority of leftists who dominate the news. Poll after poll (the ones that you have to dig for online) shows that ours is basically a center-right population. The radical leftists nonsensical talking points will ultimately fall on deaf ears. We know that there are people who, for some unexplained reason, have the insane notion that there is something inherently wrong with the country that needs to be changed by substituting our system of free markets and individualism with the consistently failed notion of the government as Big Sister. We also know, deep in our hearts, that we’re living in the most unique country in the most unique time in history. The essential values we share will never be defeated regardless of the amount of artificial peer pressure heaped upon us.
Terrific oped, VDH. I forgive you for giving “fair and balanced” advice to Obama to always use a teleprompter — advice he took.
Now,as a believer in 6 degrees of separation, will someone please find someone with a camcorder who can photograph the boarded-up public housing Obama and Tony Rezko collaborated on — and the $14 million dollar mansion Rezko helped Obama buy.
Also, Obama as chairman of the board of the Annenberg Challenge spent $387 million dollars not on teaching poor disadvantaged black kids how to read — but on radicalizing them. I think lots of Black voters would like to know of what Obama has achieved for them in public housing and education.
Fox News Channel showed a documentary last night SAVING OUR ECONOMY, which will be shown several times on both FNC and Fox Business Channel.
I think many Americans are about national politics the way I am about local politics. I ignore them until they begin to seriously interfere with my life.
Losing one’s retirement money will tend to focus the mind. WHO is responsible. The documentary names names.
Now, BARNEY FRANK has a gerrymandered district which in any other year would be impregnable. This year? I gave a donation to Earl Sholley, his Republican challenger. I loathe John Murtha, donated to his Republican opponent, William Russell, who I think has a real chance.
Credit card interest rates a loan shark would envy, a punitive bankruptcy law, and support for a Global Poverty Act which would take a percentage of our GNP to give to the UN to spend on world poverty — all courtesy of public humiliator and high-tech lyncher,
Senator Joe Biden, also up for re-election to the Senate. His Republican challenger, Christine O’Donnell has more info on her web page.
I also have info on biden on my blog, just hit my name above this comment and you’ll be whisked to sandrabarracuda.wordpress.com
We are going to win this election. Too many scandals on the other side bubbling to the surface.
Oct 12, 2008 - 11:12 am 20. ic:Whence the winds blow, thence I go.
Who the heck is Christopher Buckley, but William Buckley Jr.’s Jr. Who, except those working at National Reviews, knows of his existence, and cares? Christopher Buckley is competing with David Brooks to replace David Gergen as the liberals’ go to token conservative talking head. David Gergen has been “the” conservative voice for three decades, he is going stale. These conservatives need to be viable, their books need to be blurbed by the NYT to make money. Have anyone heard of a pro-Bush book on the NYT best seller list?
Anyone wondered why Greenspan who has the most to do with the economy for decades criticized Bush instead of owning up to his own complicities in wrecking the economy? William Jefferson goes back to Congress, Charlie Rengal remains chairman of Ways and Means, Duke Cunningham is in jail. “Conservatives” know that if they want to thrive, they need to “change”.
Oct 12, 2008 - 11:25 am 21. Ron Kean:A day in the life of Barak Obama.
Barak – ‘I’m home.’
Daughters – ‘Daddy Daddy Daddy’s home!’
Barak – ‘Hi! How are my beautiful little girls today? How is school? Do you like your teachers?’
Daughters – ‘Present. Present.’
Barak – ‘Ha Ha Ha. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Michelle…We ran out of arugula…did you get more at the store?’
Michelle – ‘Present. By the way, it was so nice of the Rezko’s to get the seller to shave 300 grand off the price of the house. I was thinking of getting them something. Do you have any ideas?’
Barak – ‘A…present!’
Whole Family – ‘Ha Ha Ha Ha!’
Later that day at ACORN
Community Organizer – ‘C’mon everybody. Names Names We need more names… Hey Barak…good of you to make it. Did you bring the cash?’
Barak – ‘Yes. Here. But I want to tell you that I’m very disappointed. I hear that you’ve been signing up fictitious names and dead people. I don’t like that.’
Community Organizer – ‘ Ohhh Mr. Haavard Yaad is speaking. This is Chicago. It ain’t Kenya Mr. Kunta Kinte. You want to get votes? Take out your legal pad and take notes. This is how we do it here.’
Barak – ‘Still…I love this country and I want to fight within the system…100% legit.’
Community Organizer – ‘Listen…we’re getting thousands of names to vote for you…Y…O…U. Thousands. Get it? The senate. Get it?
Barak – ‘Here’s another name…’Chicken George.’
Oct 12, 2008 - 11:34 am 22. BrklynGrl82:The McCain photos were doctored by and posted on photographer Jill Greenberg’s website – not The Atlantic’s. But you’re not interested in the facts are you…
Oct 12, 2008 - 12:04 pm 23. Marc Malone:Ron Kean – Hilarious!
Oct 12, 2008 - 12:12 pm 24. TLM:VDH,
Good to see that some conservatives and moderates are holding fast to their beliefs. I appreciate the essay and the above comments. If Obama wins the election, this site will see much traffic.
Brooks is one of my favorite writers, but it’s probably too much to ask of him and other conservative intellectuals that they take to Sarah Palin. Overt populism of whatever ilk rubs these people the wrong way. With the media complicit in shoving down our throats the notion that Palin, like Bush and McCain, doesn’t have the academic “credentials” or intellectual demeanor that is required of modern presidents, it was inevitable some conservatives would abandon the cause. What with computerized glamour marketing, a drippy ghost-written memoir, and fluency in a faux-intellectual pabulum that allows him to never be caught on the wrong side of a question, Obama had some of these people in the bag along time ago. They just didn’t know it.
Furthermore, the MSM have convinced everyone in this country that the Republicans in general are Know-Nothing, neo-Luddites who wish to take this country backwards across that “bridge to the 21st century”, leaving us wholly unprepared for “new” challenges. Like, say, a 1929 style Depression, the rise of nationalism and atavistic yearnings for a Socialist utopia. But, who believes history repeats itself, right?
It’s a new century, a new millennium in fact, and, therefore there must be a new paradigm. Never elect a white Republican. That’s passe, and connotes backward Bush-league thinking. Intellectually, we’ve evolved beyond that. We must repudiate our past and elect our first black president, the physical embodiment of CHANGE, one who is — by definition, by merely breathing the same air we do — different, thus beyond partisan/racial politics. And he hails from Chicago, that most democratic of cities in the American heartland, where aging radical terrorist brats get along easily with the latest generation of Daleys and Black Power political preachers. Where else could the past and the present meet, meld together peacefully and forge a future president like Obama? So, welcome to the era of Chicago politics, that most intellectually stimulating form of political “discourse”.
See, anyone can come up with the kind of pseudo-intellectual bullsh*t that now constitutes the media message to the masses. Conservative intellectuals are going to be swamped by new hordes of liberal “thinkers” in the MSM. They’re afraid they’ll be dumped overboard when there is no longer a reason to listen to a countervailing viewpoint. That’s their worry, and should be ours as well.
Oct 12, 2008 - 1:00 pm 25. s sommer:Dawn, I am with you. Mc Cain is not the same guy he was in 2000. I fought him on immigration reform but would have held my nose and voted for him, had he not totally sold out to the evangelical crowd by accepting their “nomination” of her as VP just so he could count on their votes to pursue the honor of becoming President. He did not consider the good of the country, or what happens if something happens to him, he just sold out for his own ego’s sake. If Palin had to step up to the plate and perform as President, God Help America. There are NO fiscal conservatives in power, and Phil Gramm having Mc Cain’s confidence terrifies me. He is a lying, conniving snake, no better than a Democrat.
All we can do is ride our own elected representatives HARD. The only ones who will listen to any of us are those we can personally vote for. Let your representatives know who you are, what you expect, watch them closely & give them feedback. Rally your friends and neighbors to do the same, no matter who wins. Our involvement matters.
There is nobody who is going to be elected and do the job we need done, Nobody.
Oct 12, 2008 - 1:13 pm 26. Darryl:“The McCain photos were doctored by and posted on photographer Jill Greenberg’s website – not The Atlantic’s. But you’re not interested in the facts are you…”
Hey, we conservatives are hard — TOO hard — on our own. Our interest in the facts overall is far greater than the liberals’interest in truth when it comes to Sarah Palin. Hatred, vitriol and lies in that case are quite acceptable, even required. I don’t need liberal preaching on distorting facts for personal purposes.
Oct 12, 2008 - 1:22 pm 27. jane:sawn – if you’re sickened by McCain/Palin’s lack of fiscal conservative principles are you saying that Obama/Biden’s complete socialism is preferable?
Or are you one of those voices in the wilderness who thinks a vote for Barr or some other Libertarian candidate will “teach the Republicans” the error of their ways? Sure.
Oct 12, 2008 - 1:44 pm 28. clamflats:I think the deluge of conservative pundits jumping ship is to avoid having the odor of loser stink on their future columns and the reasonable worry that the only Republican to gain this year will be Sarah Palin. Call it east coast condescension, elitism, beltway inside politics, whatever. The idea that they will have to spend the next four years monitoring this women or even promoting her because the GOP base coalesces behind her is frightening to them.
Oct 12, 2008 - 1:56 pm 29. TLM:McCain ought to give it another week or so and, after the debate, if he’s still trailing by 7 – 10 points, consider jumping ship. On the bailout. He should publicize and run on what’s in the 454 pages of spending that we’re going to be stuck with. I know he voted for it (with a gun to his head) but passing the bill hasn’t changed the dynamic in the financial meltdown. He could argue it has failed in its primary purpose and should be discarded. Make an appeal to fiscal conservatism and let the chips fall where they may.
If Obama does win, I hope it is by a substantial margin. There would be several benefits to this as opposed to a close election where he still wins:
Clearly we’re not racist anymore. Period.
Without George Bush to kick around, the Europeans would be forced to recognize the role Democrats played in causing this financial mess. A recession/depression would be seen as a failure of the Democrats (who control Congress and the White House). After all, they’d still rely on American bogey-man to blame their own shortcomings on.
Republicans won’t riot and worries that they would will be seen as unfounded. They will rebuild their party.
Rioting and disunity, however, will break out in the Democratic Party as each of its partisan factions grabs for their piece of the pie.
The MSM will become progressively more discredited as they try to put the best face possible on their anointed One. Eventually, this will become untenable.
The Dems will try to curtail free speech. With the Second Amendment question settled, this will become the new issue galvanizing conservatives and independents. This expands the base.
Failure to prevent a deep recession will be blamed on the bailout, which is why McCain should disavow it.
Oct 12, 2008 - 2:19 pm 30. SAF:McCain is being overwhelmed by the financial advantage Obama has. Obama, to his credit, has figured out how to win an election: buy it.
Does not help McCain that the republicans did a poor job as stewards of the government. Combine that with MSM bias and it makes it near impossible for a republican to win this election.
I hear many people talk about the “change” Obama will bring but when you ask them what it is they can’t say.
Now that is the power of a message repeated often.
Oct 12, 2008 - 2:27 pm 31. Dave Majors:Helen:
“I have wondered where Reagan’s Silent Majority has gone.”
It is still there – but a candidate has to be positive, passionate and must BELIEVE in conservatism in order to tap into it.
We have had many politicians try to claim it but none of them have had the above traits
Stop and think -A Bush, Dole, or McCain (Not a conservative among them). These types will never be able to tap into it.
Contrast them with the draw of Palin who IS able to tap into it even with her relative inexperience
Oct 12, 2008 - 2:28 pm 32. Dave Majors:Hi Helen:
“I have wondered where Reagan’s Silent Majority has gone.”
It’s still there but our current crop of moderate nothingburgers will never be able to tap into it.
To tap into that you have to be positive,passionate,and BELIEVE in American Exceptionalism and Conservatism. If you have that the rest naturally follows. If you don’t…well we’ve seen the results.
Think about who our recent nominees have been -Bush I,Bush II,Dole,and McCain. How many of them have demonstrated the above traits?
Oct 12, 2008 - 2:39 pm 33. LeighB:I still hope the polls turn around for McCain / Palin. As I have said before, I worked for HRC in two states earlier this year so I saw firsthand what the BHO campaign looks like, up close and personal. It is as rough and tumble as people whisper it is.
McCain is not willing to do anything to win, he was smeared in 2000 and the same thing is happening again in 2008. JSM is the same honorable man we have always known, I cannot say the same for some of the name callers. I used to look forward to hearing from and reading anything by David Gergen–that man has truly lost his way.
Oct 12, 2008 - 2:45 pm 34. Chip:The Democrats have put up another enormously flawed candidate.
John Kerry went to France and talked with North Vietnamese officials while he still held an active commission in the US Navy.
Two directly conflicting roles, but which one did he swear his allegiance to?
Barack Obama listed himself as a Muslim within his Harvard Law School application and his tuition was subsequently paid by a prominent Muslim. That is the only way he could get into Harvard Law. Again, a confluence of conflicting realities, but one is definatively real and the other is not…
Oct 12, 2008 - 2:55 pm 35. Chuck Pelto:Or is it?
TO: All
RE: Heh
Every people gets the governance it deserves.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
Oct 12, 2008 - 4:05 pm 36. Michael Lonie:Those who disdain Palin while going gaga over Obama should note that in twenty months as governor she accomplished more than Obama did in his entire political career. If she had to step into the Oval Office she would prove a quick study, sort of like Harry Truman. The disdain for her is based on nothing more than snobbery.
We should also note that she ressigned from a job paying $118,000 per year, almost as much as all her family’s other income, when the governor who appointed her to the commission refused to take any action on her complaints about corruption in the handling of oil matters in Alaska. She then ran against the governor and then against a Dem challenger and won. Palin has an integrity that is sadly lacking in Washington, let alone in Chicago, where Obama has been part of the corrupt Dem machine throughout his career. I think that one of the reasons for the hate directed against her is the fear of that integrity, and a jealousy of her by those who lack such integrity.
Attractive to the people, integrity, a quick learner, Palin terrifies the liberals as their first view of the coming generation of Republican national candidatwes.
Oct 12, 2008 - 4:30 pm 37. Matt Brough:Victor,
I agree with some of this, but your Proust line was absurd. Those of us who think McCain’s VP selection was a horrible choice is not because we wish Sarah Palin was some snobby ivy-league intellectual. We just want her to actually know something about policy, which she very clearly does not.
You said in an earlier article you were not calling for “yokelism” or “false-populism,” but you have yet to talk about what has become bloody obvious to many of us – that Sarah Palin does not seem to have a grasp on foreign policy, the economy, Supreme Court rulings, or any other issues that don’t have to do with energy or local Alaskan politics. When she repeats the vague talking points, it is painfully clear. When she tries to talk extemporaneously, it even more cringe-worthy and absurd. Please don’t pretend that it is an example of effete working-class-bashers who have been critical of Palin. I would have loved for her to come into the “in-depth” interviews with a breadth of knowledge of everything from the Middle East to housing lenders to snowmobiles. It would have been a brilliant answer to hyper-feminists who are always so cross at those who do not hold their own “enlightened” views.
But honestly. If Obama had picked a rookie like Tim Kaine and he had an interview where he had offered as many blunders and collisions of useless platitudes as Palin did and has, you would have rightly written an article critisizing it the next morning. Fair is fair. She was a bad, purely political, and impulsive choice. And that is the main reason why a lot of people are jumping ship. And why I don’t think I’ll be one of them, I can certainly see their point.
Oct 12, 2008 - 5:08 pm 38. TLM:Remember Sec Def McNamara pleading with the American public circa 1967, telling us that we were winning in Viet Nam? All his metrics told him so, therefore it had to be true.
How about those math geniuses on Wall Street who bet on using complicated algoriths of derivative investments to reduce risk in the financial industry? They obviously lost the risk reduction war, and trillions of dollars to boot.
Should MLB managers select pitchers based solely on stats, or on numbers plus their feel for the guy and the game?
Polls are a numbers game, one that’s easily tweaked. Obama’s no doubt ahead of McCain, but by how much is still in question. And, anything could happen on Nov 4th.
Ironic that a progressively math-illerate society gives so much credence to numbers placed on the unquantifiable.
Oct 12, 2008 - 5:32 pm 39. Larry J:Ken:
“one screamer in a crowd of tens of thousands is proof of McCain’s and Palin’s racism and hatred”
Actually, Victor, it’s not just one person, not even remotely. How about a little honesty? It’s seen too in the crowd booing when McCain says that Obama is a decent person who they don’t have to be scared of as President. See here, for example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLlIigHg1v0. There are other examples.
You want to see raw hatred, Ken? How about this or this. Nobody hates like the left. Nobody.
Oct 12, 2008 - 5:34 pm 40. Winston:Obama presidency will be a disaster of enormous proportions.
Oct 12, 2008 - 5:54 pm 41. Marc Malone:Chip – I paid no attention to Kerry’s trip to France. Don’t know if it actually happened, but so what?
Any military officer technically has the power to negotiate with the enemy. He is the President’s representative. There are limits, but he is allowed to negotiate.
Oct 12, 2008 - 6:03 pm 42. Wil:Matt
Oct 12, 2008 - 6:17 pm 43. Marc Malone:You greatest problem is this , you had bought into the Left’s description of Sarah Palin , hook , line and sinker . Let us be honest here , Palin had no basic idea of what McCain’s basic policies are when she first accepted the position of being his running mate and if rumors are correct , Palin’s political policies are 180 degrees incompatible with McCain in many areas and what makes things worse for Sarah Palin was the McCain is playing for time instead of trying winning the presidency which was winnable in September and still winnable in October . The person who sabotaged the McCain presidential campaign was McCain himself and the only reason why it had not sunk yet was Sarah Palin . Sarah can be taught but it would not matter if McCain had already conceded defeat .
Matt Brough – Regarding Palin, she actually sounds like Obama when he started out. His poor policy was quite astonishing. It still is. If he weren’t black, he’d've been cast aside.
Get off the contempt for Palin schtick. I look at the quality of her accomplishments, and the demonstrated integrity, and I’m satisfied. I don’t expect her to have a great mastery of policy. Most Governors don’t, either.
Her knowledge of right and wrong, and her knowledge of energy is enough. Energy is the all-important thing right now, anyway. McCain can handle the foreign policy.
Tim Kaine would’ve been defended by the media. He’d've gotten softball questions. They’d've said that conventional policy wisdom is flawed, anyway.
Remember, Obama picked biden to balance the ticket, which is to say, cover for Obama’s lack of experience. Look how well THAT turned out. The guys just makes it up as he goes along. I’d like people to quit deriding Palin while ignoring Biden. It’s just dishonest.
Oct 12, 2008 - 6:19 pm 44. mrkwong:Oh, dear Matt Brough, the difference between Palin and, say, Biden is that Palin hasn’t had the expensive legal training and a quarter-century of practice in lying convincingly. Biden’s performance at the debate was beyond cynical – he clearly didn’t give a damn about facts, it was all about presentation, because he figured most of the audience didn’t know enough to know he was dissembling on almost every answer.
I don’t want a President (or VP) who claims to be an expert at everything; I want a President who knows his limitations and gets the best Cabinet he can find.
As for squishy Republicans – for me, and I’m sure for many others, these folks have put themselves out of the tattered big tent by violating Ronald’s first commandment, and it’s now time to keep them out at sword-point.
Sarah Palin is not a cancer in the GOP. George Bush and his breed of big-government pseudo-conservatives is the cancer, she’s the chemotherapy. If she kills the GOP then it deserved to die.
Oct 12, 2008 - 6:36 pm 45. Joseph Marshall:“Obama, as I have said ad nauseam, has brilliantly prepped the battlefield to such a degree…”
I must confess to bewilderment as to what this means. I think anyone with eyes can see that McCain is losing because of what he didn’t do, rather than anything Obama has done.
A man wants to be President of the United States. Okay, but if I’m going to vote for him, he ought to, in all fairness, tell me something more than that he’s a “maverick”, he’s “ready to lead”, and “this election is about character, not issues”.
No matter how wonderful his “character”, I want to know where he wants to lead us to, and why. Obama has told us this and McCain hasn’t. A lot of what Obama has told us is pretty sketchy, much of what he has told us is anethema to PJM and its readers. But it is something not nothing.
McCain has frittered away countless opportunities to tell us this, and at least two of the times he could have told us this, McCain could also have decisively taken and kept the lead by doing so.
Oh, and by the way, I can tell you exactly where “the silent majority” are. They are sitting at home watching $2 trillion of pension money go down the drain, including their own. No matter how much they may have disliked George McGovern or Jimmy Carter, and no matter how much they liked Ronald Reagan, $2 trillion is $2 trillion dollars.
They are also the people who gave Bill Clinton the highest favorability ratings of any President at the end of his term. If you want to understand what has happened to you and your candidate you should think about why.
Further. McCain has violated the two most imporant rules of Karl Rove and Lee Atwater. First, before you put up any attack ads, you have to unequivocally establish a positive view of your candidate and your brand. Second, you must never, never, never let your candidate’s name appear on the attack ads. They always must appear to come from a source outside the official campaign.
At the end of every ad what we have is, “I’m John McCain and I approved this message.” And, frankly, that’s just about all that we know he approves of or thinks. He’s put his own name on them, so he has to own the tactic.
Finally, as to Sarah Palin, Joe Biden, and pointy headed liberal intellectuals, I’m a liberal intellectual myself and I frankly don’t care whether she reads Proust or even Plutarch, like VDH does.
But I really would like to ask her, in a spontaneous interview, what she thinks of The Federalist Papers.
Any guesses here on what she might say?
Oct 12, 2008 - 7:07 pm 46. crossover:Yeah,
Oct 12, 2008 - 7:08 pm 47. gs:the war goes on. The ‘hair heads’ and we of the so called ’silent majority.’ I guess as we become older we become more ‘erratic’ and are not so silent anymore.
We have maybe 20 years left, but as a conservative I hope to outlive all the Pinko Hippie hair heads, or a least visit them in a nursing home of their CHOICE.
Some of us fought North Vietnamese in Vietnam, built homes and raised kids, only to have to deal with ‘pay-back’ from these idiots as teachers in our so called higher education and destroyers of our retirement incomes, stock market, and support of a socialists Obama party.
But know this! More than half of the 78 million baby boomers love our country and our kids. And if the Obanation does take power and tries anything to destroy our peace or freedoms,
Only the North Vietnamese could ever know what we would have done to them if all of our fury had ever been fully unleashed. That was held back by a democrat also. And now that I have spoken- I need to find my medicals.
A nominee like Obama would be unthinkable if the electorate perceived the GOP as fit to govern. Although publicizing Obama’s deficiencies may be necessary to win the election, it is insufficient.
That is, if the election is still winnable: I suspect that by his intemperate behavior when the financial crisis broke, McCain crashed his growing prospects for the biggest upset since Truman-Dewey.
Oct 12, 2008 - 7:17 pm 48. Richard Cook:Dawn:
We DO NOT have a Capitalist system. When the markets are on the upswing we are capitalist. When they are on the downswing (like these days) we are as socialist as any European. We like the benefits on the upswing and want government to bail us out on the downswing.
Oct 12, 2008 - 7:24 pm 49. TeamPlayer:Ok, this is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read in a political blog – from FreeRepublic:
“I’m voting for McCain so that makes me a racist with some Americans . If I were a TRUE racist , would I listen to reggae music and jazz played by black musicians ?”
You can’t make this stuff up. Hilarious.
Oct 12, 2008 - 7:51 pm 50. cedarhill:McCain still has a target rich battlespace. We’ll see Wednesday if he brought along any ammunition or his normal round of blanks.
For the Lefties – If B.H.Obama wins, I’ll become just like most of his supporters: I’ll quit paying any taxes (I’ll retire) and join AARP and DEMAND more drugs, more income from Social Security, and more benefits for seniors. Might as well have a hell of a time while the liberal fascist destroy the best country God ever created.
Oct 12, 2008 - 8:16 pm 51. TLM:Re Larry J
You wonder how many of those crowd screamers at McCain/Palin rallies are Acorn agitprop types. We’ve got it all this election — bomb throwers, Anarchists and agents provocateurs.
Leftist bloggers routinely make fun of McCain’s physical disabilities, likening him a penguin, etc. If his constrained movements were the result of cerebral palsy instead of injuries sustained in Viet Nam, these characterizations might be considered hate speech against the disabled.
Oct 12, 2008 - 8:31 pm 52. Bigben:It aint over till the fat lady sings.
Oct 12, 2008 - 9:35 pm 53. vfiore:I’m not ready to concede the election to American Socialism.
Brooks, Buckley et al are lightweights and speak for no one except their own vested interests in future book deal and as talking heads.
Gergen has cease being a conservative years ago.
I also (to use a Palinism) am not a fan of teh Palin selection for many reasons. However, I would vote for just about anyone to keep Obama’s third world socialism out of teh oval ofice.
My hope is that if Obama wins (and I’m by no means convinced he will), he will quit being the abominable marketing stunt he is, and will govern as your average USA President.
Otherwise, many of us feeling uneasy in aging, politically-correctness-plagued, islamization-prone Europe would have to bitterly mourn for the loss of their virtual homeland.
Oct 13, 2008 - 1:35 am 54. vfiore:oh, and speaking of race card : anybody here thinks Obama would even have been measurably voted in the primaries if he had not been part-black ? (African-american he is not, strictly speaking…)
Oct 13, 2008 - 1:38 am 55. Ed Wallis:To the contrary…
“Obama Supporters Deserting over ACORN scandal”:
http://www.israpundit.com/2008/?p=3751
_____________________________
I agree with “Bigben”:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/obamas_three_strikes_1.html
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/10/why_obamas_socialism_matters_1.html
*** McCAIN / PALIN ‘08 !!! ***
Oct 13, 2008 - 2:24 am 56. Sandy:McCain and Palin are not being negative and nasty. They’re telling the truth!!! Something we all need to hear!! Obama CAN’T be trusted!!He has so many shady characters in his past. Fox News is the only cable news channel that is reporting the truth. All those liberal channels are still living in dream world!! And the network news, forget about it!
Oct 13, 2008 - 4:35 am 57. Ron Kean:Joseph Marshall
‘But I really would like to ask her, in a spontaneous interview, what she thinks of The Federalist Papers.’
I’d rather ask Obama’s ally, co-worker, and neighbor of the last decade what he thinks of Das Capital.
Oct 13, 2008 - 4:57 am 58. TLM:“Obama Supporters Deserting over ACORN scandal”
Good article. The polls are narrowing today.
With the public fully apprised of the “Brad-ley effect”, The polls may have been artificially tweaked to give Obama a bigger lead. If the election is closer than the polls indicate, or McCain wins, the media can always blame it on racism, as they are wont to do.
Oct 13, 2008 - 5:18 am 59. TLM:The above comment only went through when I hyphenated Brad-ley. I posted it 3 times before changing the spelling.
Oct 13, 2008 - 5:20 am 60. G.R.Langworth:Quote: “…Yet to believe that truth would be–if we remember that scene in Tolkien’s The Two Towers–to trust the grating harsh voice of Gandalf detailing the dangers of Saruman rather than the mellifluous charm of the latter who in soothing tones outlines his own victimhood….”
Perhaps the coldest, most stunning moment lit up this past weekend of non-stop McCain dismissals: Spielberg’s German soldier, wrestling on the board floor with the frantic GI, quietly presses the bayonet closer and into him, whispering, “Shhhh… Shhhh… It’s going to be alright…Shhhh…”
Oct 13, 2008 - 5:46 am 61. Larry J:TLM:
Re Larry J
You wonder how many of those crowd screamers at McCain/Palin rallies are Acorn agitprop types. We’ve got it all this election — bomb throwers, Anarchists and agents provocateurs.
Leftist bloggers routinely make fun of McCain’s physical disabilities, likening him a penguin, etc. If his constrained movements were the result of cerebral palsy instead of injuries sustained in Viet Nam, these characterizations might be considered hate speech against the disabled.
Actually, those characterizations should be considered hate speech against the disabled. What difference should it make whether a person is born with disabilities or acquires them via accident, illness, or military service? I know they don’t respect military service (”I support the troops” my ass!) but McCain’s service related disabilities are disabilities none the less.
As for the screamers at the rallies, who knows who they are? There are certainly loons on both side of the political spectrum. They could easily be left wing plants like the “Iron my shirt” screamers at a Hillary rally early this year or they could be individual loose cannons from the right. Regardless, the Press is once again showing their bias for highlighting one or two people (out of thousands) at a single rally while ignoring the 8 years of left wing hatred manifested by the left.
Oct 13, 2008 - 6:06 am 62. John:If I have to watch one of them subject the nation to left wing policies, Obama may as well take the blame for it.
I won’t vote for McCain. He’s a Democrat running as a Republican. Big Government Bush wasn’t much better.
I’ll vote Libertarian. Maybe the Republicans will get the effing message for once.
Oct 13, 2008 - 8:17 am 63. HonestAbe:Yeah, evil LEFTISTS!!! YEAH what do they know?? Our fiscally conservative, pre-emptive warhawking, religous fundamentalism has worked out great for 8 years..WOOOHOOO!!! YEAH, our real incomes have risen like rocketships for the past 8 years and our standing in the international community is gangbusters..Woohoo! Palin’s going to be awesome at dropping pucks and winking at foreign ambassadors. Man, I can’t wait to keep all those pointy heads out of the White House.
Oct 13, 2008 - 8:25 am 64. jane:In what alternate universe does booing an opponent qualify as inciting hate but calling a female candidate a c*nt doesn’t?
Oct 13, 2008 - 9:08 am 65. Linda Brecht:I went to the Carson, CA rally. We had a great time, even standing in long tedious lines. Were chatted amiably among ourselves, (with people we didn’t know and would probably never see again). We were so thrilled to have a REPUBLICAN National Candidate, actually do a rally, instead of just flying in to raise money, and leave again ignoring the rank and file. Everyone submitted to the metal detector, and handbag searches, with smiling good nature. The LA Sheriffs were even smiling; I actually caught a few smiles on some of the Secret Service and Plain Clothes Security guys. Even the DOD guys (I had to wait for the DOD dog to sniff my wheelchair) were pleasant and efficient. EVERYONE was ecstatic to be able to get together with like-minded conservatives. There was only raucous,laughing, good-natured booing. NOONE was angry or vicious, except the Obama Cultists. They were screaming, their vile hatred, with the most evil viscous looks on their faces. As we were leaving, the cops had to put a car between those of us walking out, and the (20-30) screaming, hateful cultists. They were actually scary, their faces were distorted with rage, fist pumping in hate, and they were saying the most vile, evil things. Now THEY were a MOB!
Oct 13, 2008 - 9:11 am 66. Trouble:Dawn pretty much summed up my thoughts on what’s happened to the GOP. It’s thrown fiscal and constitutional conservatives under the bus in favor of anti-abortion zealots, and has lost its soul in the process.
Look no further than Kansas (my home state) to see how this plays out. The Republicans nominated a one-issue zealot to run against the truly loopy Kathy Sebelius – and lost.
A big part of the problem is that the anti-abortion crowd will crawl on their knees in a snowstorm to vote for their candidate in the primary, and thus have a disproportionate influence on candidate selection. The only solution is to run these people out of the GOP. Yes, part of the “base’ will dissolve, but the long-term payoff would be tremendous.
I still plan to vote for McCain, because I think Obama is a socialist jellyfish. But… balanced budgets and term limits, anyone?
Oct 13, 2008 - 9:37 am 67. kourosh:It is unfortunate but it is the fact that Obama has associated himself with Islamists and radicals who worked against US from the get go. His college bodies, his business, spiritual, and ideological associates are all those who can be categorized as radical with strong anti-American feelings. Why pointing out these facts are racists? Iranian have a good perspective on all this Obama phenomena. They said Obama remind them of Khomeinie. He talks soft and in humanely voice, all creatures from BBC, ABC, and all other media, to all socialists, and Marxists and everything in between, Amnesty Int. and peace organizations, human rights entities and the whole spectrum of peace and dog lovers have supported him with thinking about the consequences. Anybody trying to resist the temptation of pure stupidly was shut down. The same is happening here in the US. How on the earth, you give the helm of the most capitalist country to a pure and proven socialists without much experience is beyond me. I guess just for the feeling good and the hell with the results. There are Iranian from the old Marxists school of thought that are working for Obama camp and injecting the same anarchists ideas as they did during Carter. My only hope is people in US are a bit smarter that people in an almost third world country.
Oct 13, 2008 - 9:53 am 68. TLM:“In what alternate universe does booing an opponent qualify as inciting hate but calling a female candidate a c*nt doesn’t?”
In the socialist universe we may soon be inhabiting.
LarryJ: I agree with you. The double standard extends beyond race and gender issues.
If McCain wins there may be riots and social strife. No one will blame the media for setting the stage for this by trumpeting latent racism in this election, vilifying Republicans, etc. It will all be McCain’s doing, with Rove’s help, of course.
Oct 13, 2008 - 9:55 am 69. Ardsgaine:You can’t jump out of a ship you were never in. If we’re going to have a socialist for president, let him be a Democrat. At least then the Republicans in Congress won’t feel compelled to go along with him.
Not that I will vote for Obama. When asked whether one would prefer to die by being shot or being decapitated, the correct answer is: F* you.
Oct 13, 2008 - 10:06 am 70. ic:Ardsgaine:
You can’t jump out of a ship you were never in.
That makes no difference in a deluge. You need to get into a leaking ship if that is the only one available and start bailing.
Oct 13, 2008 - 11:14 am 71. HonestAbe:Kouroush,
Can you name some of these radical advisors and the exact relationship – like head of Calif operations, or director of economic policy or something that can let a reader do some independent research of his affiliates? The idea of Ayers as a close advisor for example, is even less credible than Todd Palin as a close advisor to McCain given his seven years in a secessionist group. Please provide us with a starting point for your claims.
Oct 13, 2008 - 11:52 am 72. Romney Marsh:LOTR consider Sarah Palin as Arwen.
Flight to the Ford clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYUrCZnpbK4&feature=related
Seem analagous to anything today?
Oct 13, 2008 - 1:19 pm 73. view from afar:trouble I am both a fiscal conservative and anti-abortion, which bus am I under in your book?
Oct 13, 2008 - 2:48 pm 74. BC:Next point, I don’t think that term limits and a balanced budget will ever pass, why would any of the political spectrum cut their own throats? Even businesses run over or out of budget some years, thus search diferent credit…however, the differnce between bsinesses and political spheres is that businesses go broke if they never balance the budget..hmm…
McCain would have been much better off being the McCain of 2000 instead of this odd mishmash reincarnation that seems intent on pleasing everyone, but has only succeeded in alienating both the right, because of his policies, and the left, because of his choices. And I don’t think his behavior the past couple of months helped. If Clinton, whom a surprising number of conservatives feel comfortable with, was his opponent (with maybe Obama as the running mate), the polls would likely have McCain behind by at least 20 points.
McCain 2000 may still have been behind in the polls just as much, but at least he was his own person and could be respected as such for that, win or lose.
Oct 13, 2008 - 2:58 pm 75. Joseph Marshall:Well, Ron Kean, just what do you think of it?
Oct 13, 2008 - 4:16 pm 76. MUST READ: Victor Davis Hanson on Ship Jumping « Blogs for McCain:[...] READ: Victor Davis Hanson on Ship Jumping via Pajamas Media: A couple of thoughts: the George Bush, Sr. / Willie Horton campaign was far tougher; so were the [...]
Oct 13, 2008 - 4:28 pm 77. David Thomson:“I won’t vote for McCain. He’s a Democrat running as a Republican. Big Government Bush wasn’t much better.”
You should perhaps not be per se pro-John McCain. He does indeed leave something to be desired. However, you should greatly fear Barack Obama—and a vote for any third party candidate, for all practical purposes—is a vote for Obama. The “Messiah” is something of a secular anti-Christ. Although he most assuredly does not have 666 branded on his forehead, Obama remains a very dangerous man.
Oct 14, 2008 - 2:06 am 78. Lynn:KEN; #8
Oct 14, 2008 - 4:23 am 79. Al Reasin:For heaven’s sake, Obama supporters boo McCain too. Where is your brain? And, what about the riots at the RNC. Those Dem supporters were outrageous when they destroyed store fronts and cars. More violence has come out of the leftists then the conservatives. Always has. (Notice I didn’t say liberals)
I have always voted for the person, sometime more against someone than for the other. I look for the hard to find principled politician, but I generally look at character first and policy second. Mr. Obama has little integrity as far as I can see. His mentors since his teen years have been very socialistic/left of center and many times very anti-American (Mr. Frank Marshall Davis, Mr. Ayres and Rev. Wright). While he may not believe in their total ideology, to have “run” with such people tells me a lot about his core beliefs and his Machiavellian form of politics. His support for the removal of the private vote during union elections certainly shows this as well and displays his ideology which increases my foreboding of his possible election as our president.
I suggest that if Mr. Obama is elected he will rule as an authoritarian socialist with the Patriot Act firmly under his control; sort of like President Adams and the abused Alien and Sedition Act or President Wilson and his misused Sedition Act or in more modern times a Hugo Chevas-lite with his civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well funded as the military.
Your statement “yet one screamer in a crowd of tens of thousands is proof of McCain’s and Palin’s racism and hatred.” is certainly what is portrayed in the media. I wonder of some of those people were plants. It doesn’t appear that they have been tracked down and interviewed
Oct 14, 2008 - 4:34 am 80. jane:Oh what a great idea – McCain should be the same candidate he was in 2000 so he could be respected while he lost. Liberals love a Republican who plays nice while they practice their style of slash and burn politics
I thought it was the left that loved him when he stuck it to the Republican Party. IMO if he doesn’t want to at least try and represent the Republican Party he shouldn’t bother running on the Republican ticket.
Oct 14, 2008 - 6:29 am 81. Chip:RJ wrote:
“Problem is, the rest of our country and especially those new citizens, our kids, etc. may not know what lies in wait for them.
And it may not be pretty at all, not at all!”
All you have to do is look back at the Jimmy Carter years to see what will happen if Obama moves into the White House.
The youth you mention have no frame of reference as to how many of their potential opportunities will be lost.
Now Obama is talking about tax incentives for those corporations that will create jobs. That will not accomplish squat because all of these corporations know darn well that Obama will not allow corporate profits from overseas operations to be allowed back into the country at anything less than the 35% tax level.
McCain has the RIGHT idea by adjusting corporate tax rates to meet with foreign tax rate competition. And he will push for liquidity to be introduced from profits by US companies overseas at a lower tax rate. The last time that happened was in 2005. The Democrats took over in 2006, killed that incentive, and the economy has turned to mush since the first day that Pelosi took over.
Obama, if elected, will kill off jobs in droves and we will finally wake up when the unemployment rate nears 12%.
I still think that John McCain may very well win in a very very close election, simply because many of these young voters are hearing from the media that Obama is a lock and won’t bother to actually go and vote.
We shall see!
Oct 14, 2008 - 7:21 am 82. Ardsgaine:ic wrote: “That makes no difference in a deluge. You need to get into a leaking ship if that is the only one available and start bailing.”
All I see Republicans doing amounts to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. When McCain came out in favor of the bailout, I knew he was sunk. The man is clueless about the value of the free market. Listen to his own words:
“I’m not going to spend $700 billion dollars of your money just bailing out the Wall Street bankers and brokers who got us into this mess. I’m going to make sure we take care of the people who were devastated by the excesses of Wall Street and Washington. I’m going to spend a lot of that money to bring relief to you, and I’m not going to wait sixty days to start doing it.”
And he has the gall to compare Obama to Hoover? I wouldn’t give you a penny for the difference between the two as far as their “solutions” to the economic crisis. Instead of acknowledging that the crisis was caused by the government, and rolling back government control of the economy, they both intend to increase government involvement in the economy and make the situation ten times worse. Let the Democrats take the heat for that, and let Republicans sit on their thumbs for two years and contemplate their many sins against small-government, free market, fiscally responsible conservatism. They have failed us on a massive scale, and they deserve to lose.
Oct 14, 2008 - 10:45 am 83. nlcatter:1 Without Nader there would have been no bush 43 or GOP president
2 without butterfly ballot there would have been no bush 43
3 With full democracty Gore would have won
and you all have gall to complain?
Oct 14, 2008 - 10:57 am 84. nlcatter:One screamer does not make the crowd racist!
But Ill take any win after GOP lost popular vote in 2000 and still got in white house.
Oct 14, 2008 - 10:58 am 85. nlcatter:Republican machers Walter and Leonora Annenberg gave the former terrorist $50 million. They also gave money to Rick Santorum, Strom Thurmond and Mitt Romney. Annenberg was Nixon’s ambassador to Britain. If Obama is “palling around with terrorists,” the Republican Annenbergs are funding them.
Yesterday, the McCain campain put out a press release boasting that Leonore Annenberg had just endorsed him for president. Why is McCain happy to accept the endorsement of a funder of terrorism?
Oct 14, 2008 - 11:03 am 86. JimCap:I wish you were right about all of this, Victor. I really do. But I’ve been talking with my extended family and co workers. It’s not pretty. A few weeks ago, many of them absolutely hated and distrusted Obama, swore they’d never vote for him. Now, some of them are.
The one they really hate, all of a sudden is McCain. And, a lot of them who liked Palin at first are now having second thoughts about her. They’re just listening to the MM too much. But it’s like they’re tuned out to all rational thought these days.
If we’re doing well, we shouldn’t be defending Indiana, North Carolina and West Virginia. I’m pretty disgusted right now. Maybe we should all contribute to our favorite Senate candidate instead.
Oct 14, 2008 - 5:59 pm 87. Miles Ingram:“Moreover, so far, McCain supporters have not broken into Biden’s email, or accused Biden of being a Nazi, or accused anyone of not bearing one of their own children, or photo-shopped grotesque pictures of Obama on the Internet”
No, they’re just yelling ‘kill him!’, ‘bomb Obama’, ‘Obama bin Laden!’, ‘terrorist!’ and ‘treason!’ at the mention of his name. But sure, OBAMA is the one with crazed supporters. You idiot.
Oct 14, 2008 - 6:08 pm 88. Eric:Dont republicans take any responsibility, if you have forgotten, the last two presidential elections were won by them. If you voted for Bush and was so happy Vote for another Republican Prez and VP that tow the line. Its scary that Sarah may have a even lower IQ then Bush.
Oct 14, 2008 - 7:25 pm 89. a few notes while fishin’ « lumpenscholar:[...] teacher, Victor Davis Hanson, Vodkapundit, Works and Days | There seems to be a consensus that McCain has already lost. Non-Obama pundits are planning what-next scenarios, and all of it sounds [...]
Oct 15, 2008 - 11:03 am 90. Donna:I’d like to make just a quick comment re something that JANE #10 wrote on Oct 12th. She is absolutely right with her opening sentence; McCain supporters are starting to ‘jump ship’ because they don’t want to be associated with a ‘loser’. This while true is the sophomoric thinking and behavior of the American Voter; it is sad and pathetic that ‘adults’, seemingly successful and educated adults still elect their leaders like elementary and high school students. Deciding who to vote for not by what the candidate(s) stands for and what they can do as our leader(s), but voting for the candidate who is seemingly leading in pre-election polls. Have we never escaped our adolesence thinking and mindsets; sounds like, NO!!!!
Oct 16, 2008 - 2:02 pm 91. Ratatosk:As an independent, I hope all of you pundits (on both sides) go soak your heads when this is all over. Obama and McCain are good Americans, good men and good senators. Sure we all have disagreements about this policy or that policy, but that doesn’t make you unamerican. Nowhere in the Constitution does it say we have to support the old, infirm and poor. Nowhere in the Constitution does it say we have to be Capitalists. Nowhere.
To blame McCain for the outrageous behavior of idiots in the audience is absurd. To claim that Obama isn’t an American, or that he’s secretly planning to destory America with Weathermen and Black Panthers is equally absurd.
Oh there are traitors in our nation. Every citizen that denigrates his fellow for a difference of opinion, every fool that makes absurd claims about these two servants of the people… every last one of them have betrayed the foundations of this nation.
If you can’t respectfully disagree, if you can’t raise useful issues rather than idiotic canards, then don’t bother to state your opinion. It does nothing but weaken our nation.
Oct 17, 2008 - 12:43 pm 92. kevin c:oh I JUST LOVE HOW THESE COMMIE SCUM TELL EM ABOUT THE “BRILLIANCE” OF THE LIKES OF CHRIS DODD AND THE BACKDOOR SANTA,BARNEY THE FAGGOT. FUNNY HOT THESE SO-CALLED “GENIUSES” CANT FIGURE OUT IF SOMETHING DOESNT GET PAID FOR ITS ESSENTIALLY WORTHLESS. OF COURSE,SCUM LIKE DODD AND THE BACKDOOR SANTA BOTH WANT US ALL TO BE DEPENDENT ON THEM. THOSE IDIOTS COULDNT MAKE IT IN THE REAL WORLD.
Oct 18, 2008 - 9:38 am 93. Previous Commentaries « THE MILLSTONE DIARIES:[...] that “Obama’s record is far more left than McCain’s is far right,” and that Obama has been “the most partisan in the Senate, McCain one of the most [...]
Apr 13, 2009 - 8:03 pm