McCain Versus Obama
It is interesting how Obama has been evolving toward McCain’s positions rather than vice versa. Take Iran. At first, to Obama it posed little threat; now it is a danger large indeed—as McCain insisted all along. Obama used to ridicule the surge and claim it had failed; now he assures us that it has worked beyond our wildest dreams. Obama was opposed to oil drilling, and was silent about coal and nuclear power. Now suddenly he has dropped mention of inflating our tires, and is referring to oil, gas, coal, and nuclear production as legitimate means to wean ourselves off foreign oil. In political terms, all this is wise, since voters ultimately want to be reassured about centrist positions rather than worry over consistency. As Anbar quiets and we leave, expect him to suggest his pressure and criticism were responsible for the Iraqi government’s turn-about.
On matters like abortion, capital punishment, gun control and FISA, Obama again moves closer to McCain rather than vice versa. Apparently, he realizes that no northern Democratic liberal has been elected since JFK, nearly a half-century ago—an amazing fact in and of itself—and so has to follow the Bill Clinton centrist route, which can be accomplished by a variety of measures.
Thus Biden is playing up his distant Scranton childhood; Michelle is muzzled; Ayers, Pfleger, and Wright are no doubt somewhere in suspended animation; and Obama has suddenly dropped all talk of reparations, oppression studies, America’s tragic history, typical white people, etc. And when he does start in on his preemptory “they’re going after me” stump whine, he doesn’t mention race, only his name and the faux charge of being a Muslim. Again, if he continues, in another month he won’t sound like a Pelosi liberal anymore, and perhaps eat into the working class white voting block.
Where do the candidates then differ? Mostly on taxes and spending. Obama would raise most taxes, albeit mostly (but not completely) on the more affluent, by ending FICA limits, raising income rates, upping capital gains, and raising the death tax. He would use the resulting trillions (if such taxation did not itself stifle economic growth and thus not bring in additional revenue) not to pay off the deficit, but to fund new entitlements in education, health, and housing.
McCain would not likely create new programs or new government health and education entitlements, but hope to cut where he could and lower the deficit by spending restraint rather than by new taxation. In times of recession, I think cutting spending is far preferable to raising any taxes on anyone. Bottom line: for a couple making $300,000, there would probably be at least $20,000 more to pay to the fed, and that money in turn would be redirected to a couple making $50,000 in various additional entitlements. If one lives in a high-tax New York or California, one can imagine paying 60-65% of much of one’s income going to FICA, federal and state taxes, on top of capital gains, property and sales taxes.
Obama would appoint more judges like Breyer and Ginsburg, McCain more like Roberts and Alito. That seems a wide difference. I don’t think the Right will allow another Souter or Kennedy, and the Left would never allow, one time, anyone like Roberts.
On foreign policy, Obama would, to be fair, return more to the Clinton than the Carter model—welcome to some after the blood and treasure lost in the Iraqi war, frightening to others, as they remember the 1990s and the serial terrorist attacks on US soldiers and diplomats that went unanswered and logically led to 9/11.
A forgotten difference is that Obama has navigated a great deal in the Ivy League, Chicago’s corrupt politics, and Trinity Church, without executive or managerial experience and without a lot of knowledge of Middle America. One does not see any antithesis on his part to all this, in the manner Palin took on the old-boy, corrupt Republican Alaskan establishment.
I have led a sort of schizophrenic life, growing up and living in rural Selma, farming, and remodeling various farm houses and buildings, juxtaposed with graduate school at Stanford and years working, speaking, and writing in academic environments. From my perspective, I have been far more comfortable with, and have far more confidence in, the pragmatic judgment and worldview of rural America than I have found among the blinkered and intolerant sophisticated and educated elite. Out of politeness, I’ll stop there, since I confess that Columbia, Harvard, Chicago wards, and Trinity Church do not offer any stimulus for pragmatism, self-reliance, or American exceptionalism, but are landscapes in which government is the answer, a particular elite know best, politics is the art of dispersing someone else’s money, and America is to blamed first not last in matters of controversy.
Obama would now be far better prepared had he taken a three-year hiatus from community organizing in Chicago and gone downstate to work with struggling Illinois farmers—or better yet, apprenticed for a year on a John Deere and “seen the world” so to speak.
For some reason the nation is arguing over whether the Republican Vice Presidential nominee is as minimally qualified for office as the Democratic Presidential nominee, and that simply can’t be good for Obama.
The Boomerang keeps on boomeranging
I wrote last week in several venues that this media hysteria over Sarah Palin would incite a terrible backlash, manifested in furor expressed at the New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, etc., the climb in the McCain-Palin polls, and a surge in Republican fund-raising. I think that has already happened. An outraged Chris Matthews or snide Andrew Mitchell or disappointed Anderson Cooper should in toto be worth 2-3 points for McCain.
For some Pavlovian reason, the media’s talking heads still harangue about Palin’s oration being written by a speech writer, as they send hundreds of reporters scurrying to Alaska to talk to the sorry miscreant brother-in-law trooper. No such emissaries were sent to inquire about Biden; when a freelance inquirer like Stanley Kurtz tries to wade through the Obama archives, he’s met with institutional obstacles. Isn’t there one honest person in the media who will stand up to the madness, and cry “ENOUGH!”?
My favorite example was the dour CNN reporter interrogating the Palin former brother-in-lawyer trooper. Even he seemed taken back at the fellow’s maze of transgressions, as we inadvertently learned that, as a state trooper, the ex-brother-in-law was drinking on the job, shot a moose out of season, really did Taser his step-son, and is now married and divorced four times. The question is not whether Gov. Palin worried that this miscreant should be fired, or why the poor trooper went public, but why CNN itself thought it could extract anything negative about Palin after talking to this confused employee. If anything, the entire episode was a reminder how state bureaucracies and employee unions have conspired to make it impossible to fire anyone for anything.
In the Palin case, there seems a sort of the straw-that-broke-the-camel’s-back phenomenon about the sheer hypocrisy of the elite liberal media. For decades they have been championing the independent, audacious woman, which, we learn, only meant any female that toed the hyper-liberal, secular, pro-abortion, affirmative-action, big government, more entitlement, and power-couple professional agenda. But more importantly, we learn that there is a gatekeeper sect who adjudicates who is a proper feminist and who is not, and its top rung is limited to an New York-Washington DC economic, political and journalistic/media elite, with auxiliary status accorded to the southern California and Bay Area wealthy celebrity crowd.
Perhaps Andrea Mitchell summed up the assumptions best when she explained why no sane feminist would vote for McCain/Palin: “She is not appealing to the same women who were really voting or supporting Hillary Clinton on ideological issues but they think that they can peel off some of these working class women, not college educated, who, the blue collar women who were voting for Hillary Clinton and may be more conservative on social causes.” But wait, Sarah Palin is college educated—with the same degree BA degree that Andrea Mitchell received—at least if non Ivy-League University of Idaho still counts in the mindset of New York and Washington.
As I wrote last time, one artifact of this creepy frenzy is reexamination of how today’s uberwoman really makes it to the top. And the answer is revealing since it is surely not the way Sarah Palin did, with the small-town, rural Alaska, Idaho BA, five kids, calloused-handed, snowmobiling husband resume.
Who Will Police the Feminist Police?
So I invite readers to play a small game with me, and recall in various fields as many liberal feminist icons as they can, especially in politics or the media. Ponder their pedigrees and then speculate just how they reached their present celebrity and influence. And, lastly, ask whether it has anything to do with the much reviled old-boy patrimonial lineage or the much caricatured old-boy matrimonial connections. Here I mean again politicians like Barbara Boxer, Hillary Clinton, Diane Feinstein, Mary Landrieu, Nancy Pelosi, or a media person like Campbell Brown, Gail Collins, Andrea Mitchell, or Sally Quinn.
Let’s briefly collate some, and then see just how many powerhouse-feminists were either (a) themselves the daughters of powerful politicians; (b) married insider politicians or government officials, or influential media figures, or (c) inherited substantial money or found plenty of income by marrying wealthy men who energized their careers.
An Ode to Palin
I predict we will be astonished that in comparison to their normal cursus honorum, Sarah Palin’s up-by-the-bootstraps background is itself nothing short of astonishing. Here, I don’t wish to suggest that one finds enormous success without talent, or is to be criticized de factis for being lucky by birth or in marriage, only to suggest that all these woman who themselves tsk, tsk Palin should take a deep breath and ask themselves whether they would have made it as Vice Presidential candidate should they have shared the Palin background.
The View from the Distant Shore
Apparently the federal government is going to open up coastal waters for wind turbines. But we all know that in key places off the coasts of Massachusetts and California suddenly we will hear that the windmills are either dangerous, harmful to wildlife, uneconomical, and any other reasons to stop these obstructions from marring once scenic views from the living rooms of the blessed. Here I think the left has it all wrong: with new horizontal drilling techniques, it would be far less conspicuous to go after gas and oil.
Letters….
Lawyers Again
Many readers questioned my suggestion that the Democrats should try nominating from a field far wider than just lawyers. I have nothing against lawyers (my mother was an appellate court justice and I remember her advice that “a competent honest lawyer is a treasure”.) My point is only that modern legal training, given the nature of our now hyper-litigious society, should not become the only requisite background for Presidential candidates. I think that worry was no exaggeration, since every Democratic nominee for both President and Vice President, since Jimmy Carter (with the exception of Al Gore who did not finish law school), has been a lawyer. Again, the point was really presidential diversity, not that legal training is not valuable.
Partisanship
I don’t think my comments about Palin are partisan. Read what David Frum, Dr. Laura, Peggy Noonan, George Will and a host of other conservatives have written about the choice. Whereas, as one reader noted, a Michael Savage can tear her apart, or a Charles Krauthammer can worry over her qualifications, I don’t think Democratic pundits expressed worry over Joe Biden, although his own past had plenty of reasons to evoke worry, whether we talk of plagiarism, invented bios, terrible performances as a Senate judiciary inquirer, or hare-brained foreign policy ideas, and so on.
I don’t know yet how Palin will do on the stump as a candidate; I do know her Middle-America credentials and conservative ideas have sent a particular elite into apoplexy not seen since the Clarence Thomas appointment. And why powerful conservative women or independent black intellectuals do that to the liberal mindset (who should applaud the success of “the other”), is an interesting question all in itself.
Robert Novak
I have been following both the medical problems of Ted Kennedy and Robert Novak very carefully, perhaps because my mother Pauline Davis Hanson, an appellate justice at the Fifth District in California, died, in perfect health, in her sixties in 1989 from a malignant brain tumor— initially (her tumors were removed twice by surgery) wrongly thought to have been a benign meningioma.
It was a terrible time, and I now remember most of it as a blur as I camped out for months in the university library (in the days before the internet for me) reading every scholarly article I could find on the typologies, courses, and treatments of various brain tumors, and then trying to cross-reference that information with dozens of surgeons and oncologists. In the end, all was for naught. And I still second-guess myself daily that I might have erred in directing her to a particular course of treatment, among the very many experimental regimens that were offered in the late 1980s, that unfortunately not only did not bring a cure, but made things far worse—and caused her a great deal of discomfort from the effects of that particular toxic chemotherapy.
So I hope both Kennedy and Novak can beat the diagnoses—even if they prove to be glioblastomas, which, unlike meningiomas, are not so encapsulated and never benign. I disagreed adamantly with Novak on Iraq, and, decades ago, thought both his politics and manner in presenting them were often unnecessarily over the top. That said, I have always liked him, even more so in recent years, since he has a twinkle in his eye, was of good humor, and never seemed to have held a grudge.
I once watched an interview with him about his newfound Catholic faith and found him sincere and at times moving. I read his memoir and, again, found his candor and ‘prince of darkness’ humor admirable. For me the heavies in the Plame affair were two: Joe Wilson who simply could not tell the truth, and exaggerated almost everything he came into contact with, in flamboyant and obnoxious style; and Richard Armitage who knew from the beginning, that he, not Scooter Libby, had first been told about Plame’s status and passed it on to others—and yet reminded publicly silent about it while someone else was demonized for just those supposed transgressions.
So I hope both Novak and Kennedy can beat these tumors and survive well through their eighties—possible perhaps given recent enormous breakthroughs in the treatment of such tumors.
Good luck to both and God bless them!
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122 Comments
1. Mr. K:Great post. I think you have hit key points, one of the biggest is people are comparing and contrasting Palin to Obama, and every argument made against Palin, whether founded or not, rehashes arguments against Obama - whether founded or not. If they bring up her experience, what is his? If they make allegations of an affair, or insinuate that she “had” her daughter’s baby, why not have Larry Sinclair on for an interview? Bring up “troopergate” and then compare it to Rezko deals…bring up AIP, bring up Ayers and Dorn…call her a dominionist, and we can discuss Rev Wright again, or his muslim background, and so on…and all the while, there is McCain, looking presidential…
Sep 7, 2008 - 7:21 am 2. marymcl:You can add Arianna Huffington to that list…
Those are kind and generous words for Messrs Novak and Kennedy, sir, and more generous to the latter than I can bring myself.
Mary Jo Kopechne….one life for his career. I feel nothing for him. For better or worse, some things you just never forget.
Sep 7, 2008 - 8:26 am 3. TurfMonster:You asked and you shall receive:
Barbara Boxer, Brooklyn College, BS(BA?) Economics
Hillary Clinton, BA Political Science, JD Yale Law
Diane Feinstein, BA History, Stanford
Mary Landrieu, LSU, graduated in 1977 with no degree listed in her Wikipedia bio or US Senate bio
Nancy Pelosi, Trinity College (now Trinity Washington University), no degree listed in either Wikipedia or US House bio
Campbell Brown, Regis University in Denver CO, BA Political Science/International Relations
Gail Collins, BA journalism, Marquette University, MA in government U of Mass Amherst
Andrea Mitchell, BA English literature, U of Penn
Sally Quinn, graduated Smith College in 1963, no degree listed
Sep 7, 2008 - 8:42 am 4. TurfMonster:LOL, it would help if I were to read the next paragraph!
Sally Quinn, graduated Smith College in 1963, no degree listed,
Sep 7, 2008 - 8:48 am 5. TurfMonster:Daughter of LT. Gen William Wilson Quinn, married Ben Bradlee, direct descendent of a signer of the Declaration of Independence, has three residences: East Hamptons, a country estate in Maryland, and the house in Georgetown (from Wikipediea).
Andrea Mitchell, BA English literature, U of Penn
Sep 7, 2008 - 8:50 am 6. ~Paules:Married to Alan Greenspan in 1997 but doesn’t seem to have benefited from a, b, or c.
Okay, professor, I’ll take the challenge. The only bootstrap feminist I can name grew up in Milwaukee: Golda Meir.
Sep 7, 2008 - 9:55 am 7. Minerva:At work, the Obama and Hillary women are upset about Palin, which is why I side with her.
Sep 7, 2008 - 10:38 am 8. PAClinger:Dear Professor Hanson,
I do not comment every week but read you religiously. High esteem does not qualify my opinion of your abilities. I feel that you are probably the only one along with Ann Coulter who really has a handle on what is happening in the world today.
That said, I feel that the War in Iraq was from its inception the right thing for this country and has in and of itself helped keep us safe. After 911, I heard an interview on Charlie Rose’s show of Fouad Ajami who was a professor at Johns Hopkins down the road from here. The country was still the swell of patriotism after that awful event. Professor Ajami, himself a Muslim or former Muslim, said that Muslims love to die and will learn to love and respect you, if they perceive you to be more powerful than they. This is opposite from our Christian perspective as set forth in the Beatitudes of St. Matthew which Beatitudes are part of the backbone of our civilization. We can never empathize with that viewpoint, but we can accept it as reality and attempt to destroy its overt manifestations. As authority for this, I refer you to Robert Spencer’s work. At any rate, I feel that boots and rifles on the ground over there help make for peace here at home. As Dennis Miller said, “Baghdad is a salt lick for psychos.”
Hooray for Palin!
Sep 7, 2008 - 11:09 am 9. ET:1. Obama’s centrist conversions: As bland as they are predictable.
2. Feminism: Betty Friedan - the spiritual mentor of the then-modern feminist movement, with the housewives-are-slaves lecturing - didn’t she turn out to have a boatload of wealth backing her armchair pronouncements?
I’ll take Andrea Martin over Andrea Mitchell any day.
Sep 7, 2008 - 11:38 am 10. Pajamas Media » The Race Tightens Up:[...] the entire story here [...]
Sep 7, 2008 - 12:02 pm 11. Self-hating boomer:You’re forgetting the original bootstrap feminist: Dixy Lee Ray. She’d make a better governor of the State of Washington dead than the current one does alive.
Sep 7, 2008 - 12:27 pm 12. Saltherring:Obama has no principles, and thus will alter his positions on issues to whatever it will take to get him elected. Subsequent to election, he and a Pelosi congress can do whatever they please. We, in turn, would have 76 days (Nov 4-Jan 20) to cash in assets and pay down any debts, purchase some unregistered weapons and ammunition, look for side cash income and bury a bit in the back yard, buy seeds in anticipation of a back yard veggie garden, fill a couple of gasoline cans for the car or generator, develop an alternate source of home heat and form a mutual assist pact with some trusted neighbors….as times are gonna get tough. And if you live in a large city, I’d have the sale signs up already, just as a precaution.
Sep 7, 2008 - 1:59 pm 13. Concerned Citizen:Once Obama moves to the middle, those voters still left undecided will have a difficult time choosing between McCain and Obama on the basis of positions. That leaves experience, an area Obama is at a distinct disadvantage.
Sep 7, 2008 - 2:01 pm 14. Obama Supporter:What bothers me about Obama moving to the center is that the unscrupulous repuglicans will create “before and after” campaign commercials in an attempt to discredit my candidate.
This is blatantly unfair at this stage in a political campaign. Let’s be reasonable. Obama deserves to win. Nothing else matters.
Sep 7, 2008 - 2:30 pm 15. Greg:Behavior predicts. Past behavior, predicts future behavior… always!
I think we should prepare ourselves for the Democrats to systematically ramp up every smear, rumor, half-truth and inuendo they can get their hands on about Gov. Palin. Their strategy of course is to saturate the “mindshare” of Americans and create reasonable doubt, not about Palin, that is only a bonus.
Their smears will be so unbelievable about Palin and therefore easily refuted, that the TRUTH about Barack Obama will be dismissed (by Democrats and the MSM) as nothing but smears with no basis in truth. Mark my words, the Democrats are going to live in the gutter over the next 60 days.
The smear merchants realize this is a numbers game in the swing states and they will pull out all the stops to capture that coveted 4-5% of undecided voters. The truth will be whatever the Democrats want it to be. Behavior predicts!
Sep 7, 2008 - 2:35 pm 16. Zhombre:“Let’s be reasonable. Obama deserves to win. Nothing else matters.” Wow. There’s pathological behavior in a nutshell. Thus is follows that any action that helps The Obama win is permissible.
Sep 7, 2008 - 2:44 pm 17. john from cinncinati:MCCain has already closed on Obama and has locked him in, using a fighter pilot verbage. Obama knows he is in Mccains sights and is just taking evasive maneuvers so as to not get shot down. Palin has taken the distance out from between them. John Kerry, Hillary all considered centrist. yeah right.
Sep 7, 2008 - 3:01 pm 18. Jeff:i watched Kerry move from the far left to buckle to buckle with Dubya, in a 9 month period. in the background Hillary, like one of those drawings on a stack of cards, that if viewed one at a time are static, but when you fan them you see a movie, yup she was moving to the middle. now we have obama who except that he doesn’t look like those guys on a dollar bill or John MCCain, is beginning to use the same verbage. if i wanted John Mccain i should vote for the real one not the one made in china
I agree with most Americans that are apprehensive about Barack Obama’s believed lack of experiences, solely based on the GOP’s assumptions and from the majority of right wing critics out there. But to make my point very clear, do we want to take a chance on a candidate that is perceived to have lack of experiences or do we want to take a chance on a candidate that is perceived to have ALL of the experiences but voted on alot of issues that agrees with the Bush Administration 90% of the time? Are we willing to take that 10% chance that this candidate will make a dramatic change from the previous administration’s horrendous 8 years? To clarify my point even further, Bush says to stay the course in the biggest mistake of the 21st century that we called,”The Iraq War”. Guess who else agrees to stay the course? You guessed it, it’s our very own John McCain. Bush pushed for offshore drilling over alternative renewable energy. You can now guess who else also agreed with this idea, right? If you guessed John McCain, you are on the right track and the list goes on and on. So my last question to all Americans out there is that, does McCain bring anything to the table that truly sets himself apart from Bush? If anyone out there can define something significant that even remotely sets McCain apart from Bush, then you are truly on to something because a lot of us have really missed it. So to end this on a good note for the rest of America to really think about, we are voting for the next candidate to take office not for a day, a week, a month, or even a year, we are responsible for our own actions to bring the next candidate into our everyday lives for the next 4 years. So for all Americans out there, would a candidate who is perceived to have lack of experiences but disagrees with a lot of the Bush Administration’s ideas be that bad for our country? Think about this one and think about it carefully.
Sep 7, 2008 - 3:08 pm 19. Jeff:I would like to address my point one step even further on the similarities between Bush and McCain—
Sep 7, 2008 - 3:09 pm 20. TexanRepub:1) Bush will NOT acknowledge that we are in a
recession, so does McCain. The fact is that
we have the highest rate of mortgage
foreclosures and unemployment today than any
other time in history since the Great
Depression of 1929.
2) Bush feels that the right war on terrorism
is in Iraq, so does McCain. The fact is that
Osama Bin Laden attacked us on 9/11/01 from
Afghanistan, NOT Iraq, so the right war on
terrorism is in Afghanistan, NOT Iraq. Osama
Bin Laden is still hiding in the comforts of
his cave somewhere up in the mountains on the
border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. He
is still unscathed and untouchable by our
troops to this very day.
3) Bush feels that we should win this needless
war in Iraq, so does McCain. The fact is
clear now that the war in Afghanistan IS the
war on terrorism that we should win. But
they both still put more emphasis on Iraq
than Afghanistan and the troop deployment in
Iraq speaks for itself since it far
outweighs that of Afghanistan in terms of the
volume of troops on the ground.
4) Bush feels that we are at our safest state
now since 9/11/01, so does McCain. The fact
is that we have less alliances now in the
world’s communities than we did with the
Reagan and Clinton Administrations. True
national securities are the ties that binds
us to our world’s communities and the ties
that binds them to us.
5) Bush feels that the solution to independence
of foreign oil is to push for offshore
drilling here at home, so does McCain. True
independence of foreign oil is to promote
alternative renewable energy sources so that
we will not be dependent on foreign oil, ONCE
AND FOR ALL! Oil will be yesterday’s news.
Only one candidate disagrees with all of the Bush Administration’s views and truly sees all of the facts stated above and his name is Barack Obama. Does this make things alot more clearer, America?
“Obama deserves to win. Nothing else matters.” — Obama Supporter
This is the ‘entitlement’ argument that has so badly hurt the democratic party. Where in the constitution say anyone is entitled to anything? I think the language of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution provides a clear picture of a society that should work to improve, both individually and collectively, but allows no room for one to feel entitled to anything for which they have not worked.
Sep 7, 2008 - 3:09 pm 21. Evil Pundit:Jeff: The problem with your argument is that the Bush administration was a good one, not a bad one.
Sep 7, 2008 - 3:39 pm 22. Paul M Hupf:Professor Hanson:
Your articles are always perceptive and to the point. No one writing on the pending election is more informative or interesting.
Please do not stop.
Sep 7, 2008 - 3:41 pm 23. shandee:Obama supporter, DESERVES you have got to be kidding.
Sep 7, 2008 - 3:47 pm 24. SAF:I perceive Obama’s lack of experience using the tried and true read the resume technique. The republicans couldn’t possibly have spun a worse resume than Obama’s.
He has zero executive experience, by his own words.
He is unqualified. What worries me is if he gets elected who pulls his strings?
Sep 7, 2008 - 4:03 pm 25. Ron Kean:“Isn’t there one honest person in the media who will stand up to the madness, and cry “ENOUGH!”?
You’re all alone out there professor.
Jeff,
Sep 7, 2008 - 4:09 pm 26. constitution first:1. Independent government agencies publish the numbers. The numbers say growth or downturn. Same agencies, same methods Democratic or Republican administration. In the last decade, people with lousy credit got big loans. The inevitable happened.
2. So we kill Bin Laden. So what? Would that end anything. Would militant Muslims have packed it up and gone home? Rather, we went in and flushed them out. At this moment, militant Muslims are losers.
3. There are 50,000,000 people in both countries who are safer and freer now. They’re free to make it better or free to screw it up.
4. Do you think Saudi Arabia, China, Russia, Australia, or France worries what other countries think of them? They couldn’t care less and neither do I. This is the greatest country that does the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people in the world. Anybody who doesn’t like America can take a hike.
5. If you don’t want to drill now, you must not own a car.
Jeff,
Do the Libs want the definition of a recesion changed so they can keep saying that we are in one?
I’m pretty sure you just summed up the platform that Libs use. They don’t see a short term solution to problems and only to a long term one ignoring problem for now. McCain wants alternative energy but he actually has a plan to get us there.
I actually like your argument… It just made me even more sure of why McCain is the ONLY CHOICE we have. Obama scares most americans he’s lying to us now acting like he’s a centerist… He’s out of touch with the moderate dem on right. Most if not all those moderate dems are going to run to the McCain camp in droves as he is allowed to come back to his centerist roots.
Sep 7, 2008 - 4:25 pm 27. Angela:Jeff: I don’t particularly want John McCain to set himself apart from George Bush. The most important fact to me is that his name will be in the Republican column, and I will feel much safer with Sen. McCain at the helm than any Democrat that you can name!! Neither candidate can to anything to change my mind! I expect my state to go red AGAIN!
Sep 7, 2008 - 4:32 pm 28. BigShyBear:Jeff,
Sep 7, 2008 - 4:36 pm 29. god:In the last 50 years (since the 60’s) there have been 4 periods where unemployment was higher than they are now. See:
http://seekingalpha.com/article/74387-u-s-unemployment-short-and-rare
so that meme doesn’t work.
And this latest peak can be placed on the increase in minimum wage since the most affected are 16 to 24 year old job seekers i.e. entry level job seekers.
See: http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2008/06/is-min-wage-behind-50-jobless-rate-jump.html
Victor Davis Hanson:
You are obviously a Republican.
You come across as an Obama hater.
Extremist are somewhat dangerous, because they mislead the uneducated.
Try to find the good things in people. This country needs a LOT of fixing, but not with fighting everything in sight. Being impartial and fair would be very hard for you to do. Would it?
Sep 7, 2008 - 4:40 pm 30. Clint:“And why powerful conservative women or independent black intellectuals do that to the liberal mindset… is an interesting question all in itself.”
It makes you wonder how they would have reacted had Condoleezza Rice entered the race.
Sep 7, 2008 - 4:42 pm 31. Sandra M:Oprah said: “He is THE ONE.” “The Chosen” . These are references to her guru, Eckhart Tolle’s, teachings. Oprah has apparently been pushing this cult heavily in her various media and that may explain the blissed-out 70’s Moonie-like aspect of Obama’s followers. HUMAN EVENTS has an article on the Oprah/Obama/Tolle connection online.
Moving into second place as my favorite online columnist after VDH is “Spengler”, pseudonymously writing for Asia Times. Using his knowledge of anthropology, sociology, and psychology, he casts light on the sociopathic empathy of Obama who convinces too many people he agrees with them while being careful never to reveal his own beliefs.
In his article on Obama’s women, Spengler reminds me of the disrespect Obama’s children display towards their father, obviously learned from Michelle whose initial theme was “He’s no great shakes. Doesn’t pick up his socks, snores, is smelly in the morning.” Obama is henpecked.
Spengler’s two recent articles on Obam are worthy of careful study.
As my favorite reading teacher said: Some writings are meant to be read. Others to be studied. These are worthy of serious study and wide dissemination.
Sep 7, 2008 - 4:42 pm 32. Henry B:I’m a Democrat and I will always be one, but in my seventy-two year lifetime the worst President I’ve encountered is Jimmy Carter. He entered the Presidency with the goal of promoting nuclear power. As the President he used his influence to create an oil shortage emergency and did in fact create a demand for nuclear power stations but coincidentally it created at the same time a demand for smaller cars. The demand for smaller cars gave rise to the Japanese auto dynasty and stoked the appetite for the globalized offshore goods, which has all but destroyed our manufacturing ability.
As for the nuclear age that President Carter started I was employed in it for a large part of my working years. The nuclear bubble burst within ten years as people realized that the promise of safe disposal of plutonium failed to materialize and people with the thought of all the nuclear power stations each collecting enough of the poison to eradicate the planet was growing out of control. The later part of my work in the industry was dismantling for scrap something like four power stations in the making, which went for 8 billion dollars each at the time.
I see the same thing about to happen. The president/oil industry collusion has created an oil emergency to promote drilling in more of our offshore waters and to building more nuclear power plants.
I am not against nuclear power plants. We have enough poison in our nuclear arsenal to eradicate the world without worrying about nuclear power plants. I am not against offshore drilling. What I hate is being forced into it by dumb people.
Sep 7, 2008 - 4:50 pm 33. Huan:1. the US economy under Bush has been better than the economy of most of the EU states and japan
Sep 7, 2008 - 5:00 pm 34. P. Ami:2. the center of the war on terror has to be based in the middle east/mesopotamia rather than near central asia
3. we are winning in iraq
4. most of europe is close to the US now than ever. Germany, France, UK, eastern europe, japan, australia. India is closer to the US than ever.
5. drill for now and for the future
The other problem with Jeff’s comment is he leaves out key distinctions. McCain wants to drill, but he also wants us to develop alternatives. McCain was for the war in Iraq, for very good reason, but did not agree with the Rumsfeld strategy. It turns out that McCain pushed for the strategy he thought would work and has now shown the success that Obama never believed in but McCain always pushed for. I wonder if Jeff has noticed that the Iraqis had their own surge. Their army more then makes up for the soldiers we’ve already moved out of success in Iraq and sent to Afghanistan. There are others worthy distinctions that McCain has made between himself and Bush or Obama. Jeff, thanks for your attempts. I know it was done with good intention.
Sep 7, 2008 - 5:01 pm 35. penny:“Behavior predicts. Past behavior, predicts future behavior… always!”
Greg, that’s one of the soundest principles applied in psychiatry and among cops. It’s why executive and congressional voting records are so valuable. Invoking 100 “present” instead of “nay” of “yea” votes in his short Senate career says a lot about Obama. Either he was a shallow dilettante or was cunningly avoiding a paper record of his positions.
Sep 7, 2008 - 5:06 pm 36. Mudpie:Professor:
Sep 7, 2008 - 5:23 pm 37. Ed Wallis:Your mothers advice is correct “A competent
honest lawyer is a treasure”. Anything that
rare is!
So much for Zerobama and the military (nice video):
http://www.thepeoplescube.com/red/viewtopic.php?t=2281
Sep 7, 2008 - 5:27 pm 38. cv:Obama agreed with the Bush administration 50% of the time. The other 50% of the time he was wrong.
Sep 7, 2008 - 5:36 pm 39. John:Memo to Obama Supporters
You can not tax your way out of an economic downturn.
John
Sep 7, 2008 - 5:39 pm 40. Mike from OH:Jeff,
I was about to rebut your post point by point in detail but my daughter asked me to make her a Led Zeppelin CD. So I must be brief.
OBL is not the leader of the entire Islamic terror phenomena, violence is a problem inherent with extreme Islam and exacerbated by the Iranians. Check a globe and think strategic.
Part of the foreclosure problem is the greed of the banks for loaning money to those who couldn’t afford the interest and the greed of borrowers who speculated an bought more than they could afford.
Alliances are like gang members. Everyone is your friend until a rival draws a gun. Never depend on them for your security.
Any argument that supports ‘alternative energy’ solutions without supporting drilling ignores a simple axiom, “There is no guarantee of the next invention.” I spent 40 years in corporate research and a common problem with the non-technical staff was getting them to understand that. Continue research on all possibilities, increase domestic production AND foster conservation. In case you don’t understand the definition, conservation means ‘WISE USE’ not preservation which means ‘NEVER USE’.
Sep 7, 2008 - 5:53 pm 41. chicago:As Giuliana said in his speech, “I have some advice for Barack Obama, next time, call John McCain!”
Obama’s move to the center is a typical leftwing strategy. first they declare themselves as the most liberal in order to win the primary, then they move to the center and deceive people into thinking that they are one of them.
as for Jeff’s points…I’m not even goin to rebutt all of it. a liberal is a liberal, you won’t change their dysfunctional minds. the undecided voter however are seeing through the O’s empty promises and the way he’s trying to pain himself as one of them. Palin’s words - “we tend to prefer candidates who don’t talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.”
that line resonates through all of middle america and caused people to see past the glitter of the O.
Sep 7, 2008 - 6:12 pm 42. always right:I wonder about Charles Krauthammer’s worry over Gov. Palin’s ‘qualifications’ (and Mort Kondracke’s skepticism) to be Commander-in-Chief.
Considering there are only two candidates left on McCain’s ’short list’: Gov. Pawlenty and Gov. Palin.
Are these pundits also going to worry about Pawlenty’s ‘qualifications’? If not, what resume and/or experience does Pawlenty have that ease their worry?
Are they implying Gov. Palin would not be a ‘quick learner’ then? Because from where I am sitting, Gov. Pawlenty is just as ‘inexperienced’.
Mort Kondracke is especially insincere: according to him, unless the choice is a long time Washington Insider, he doesn’t consider anybody ‘experienced’.
Sep 7, 2008 - 6:20 pm 43. Tom:come on guys, Obama Supporter wrote some great sarcasm - hilarious…Women THINK for 1 sec - you won’t vote for Palin, but you want Hil - well Hil is out right now….If the O gets elected and he is a crappy Prez, people will not be fooled again, and the Republicans take it in 2012 and it’s at least 2016, maybe 2020 before Hil has another chance. If the O wins and he’s a great Prez, again you’re looking at 2016 at the earliest for Hil, if America is not ‘over her’ by then. So the only realistic way to give Hil a chance is to vote for McCain/Palin. McCain will be a 1 term Prez, and in 2012 2 women could slug it out …….
Sep 7, 2008 - 6:21 pm 44. TLM:VDH,
Good post as usual. The “straw-that-broke-the-camel’s-back phenomenon”, Gov Palin’s threat to feminists and their media enablers, is some sort of new mental disease afflicting the liberal Left. Might be related to Bush Derangement Syndrome, but seems more malicious, if that’s possible. Freud might provide a differentiating factor here. Maybe we should call this disease ‘Palin Envy’. Major symptoms would be blind jealousy, hypocrisy, and rabidly frothing at the mouth. Oh, and self-destructive behavior too.
Common things being common, it may also just be the first symptoms of good old fashioned PANIC. In their frenzy to “vet” Palin, the media stepped in it bigtime. Judging by an article from the Public Editor in the NYT today, the MSM are going to reject any criticism of their behavior, and sweep their excesses under the rug. Like stuffing Ayers back in the closet, this may not work. Many Dems think the media showed favoritism to Obama during the primaries. Most Republicans (and many others) believe the media slandered Sarah Palin and her family. And we all know the media has not fully vetted Obama. If a skeleton from his past falls out of the closet now, it will be three strikes and you’re out for the MSM. Maybe that media furor you see is really just fear.
Sep 7, 2008 - 6:33 pm 45. dougf:“It is interesting how Obama has been evolving toward McCain’s positions rather than vice versa.”
How does this add up to anything other than a great big negative for The One ?
Does it not simply demonstrate what an increasing number of people have been saying lately, namely that:
A. He will SAY anything at all in order to deceive the easily confused. He does not believe the ‘new’ stuff, but he now knows that most people truly dislike what he really does believe. So he LIES.
B. He is completely out of his depth on MOST major issues. So he LIES.
C. Why do we need to vote for someone who needs someone else to point out the ‘right’ path ? As Guilliani so cuttingly stated — ” I have some advice for Senator Obama — Next time call John McCain.”
Today he evidently was quoted as stating that he was once considering joining the army, back in the day. Big military support guy that he is. If anyone believes that ‘insight’, there are a lot of bridges on the market that might be available for purchase— Cheap.
As for the ‘media’— I have HATED them with an unconcealed passion for over 3 years now. Since they set out to undermine the Iraq effort. Of course they are biased. They are not an ‘information’ stream; they are merely a propaganda machine. Frankly I hope they continue just as they are. It will just speed up their inevitable demise.
I can’t wait.
Sep 7, 2008 - 6:49 pm 46. 49erDweet:“deserves to win” because of what’s he done or who he is? Hammmmmmm. Lets take that to its logical conclusion. Which of the candidates has done the most for the country, and based on that “deserves” to win.
‘Running against Bush’ is wasting time. Though I voted for him twice I came to the point where I no longer trusted him based on his immigration and financial policies. I believe a huge number of repubs are in the same boat. Other than Iraq there’s nothing repubs have done for four years that makes me proud. Until Palin, I was not a McCain voter.
Now I’ll vote for her. So arguing against McCain is merely wasting energy. Come to thing of it, keep it up. Might keep you out of trouble.
Sep 7, 2008 - 6:51 pm 47. Danny:Jeff, repeating lies doesn’t make them true:
1) The current rates of unemployment are not even close to “the highest since the Depression” - which was in the 30s not 1929. neither are the level of defaults.
2) You are assuming Osama is hiding “on the border”. He most probably is inside Pakistan one of our “allies” you think it is so important to have.
3) Iraq became the front-line for the fight with Al-Qaeda and news just in - they lost.
4) “Less alliances” what like the ones that kept the US safe on 9/11/2001?
5) Again wrong. You need a short-term and long-term strategy. Barak talks about the “long-term” because he has no ideas and would be long gone before you could judge him.
Luckily this looks like an increasingly academic debate with McCain pulling ahead…
Sep 7, 2008 - 7:26 pm 48. chicago:McCain/Palin up 10 points among likely voters on USA Today/Gallup Poll.
The O’s bounce is gone and McCain/Palin bounce is higher than the O’s.
Sep 7, 2008 - 7:42 pm 49. Disillusionist:Jeff:
1) “Bush will NOT acknowledge that we are in a
recession, so does McCain.”
“Recession” is a term with actual meaning, namely 2 or more consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. Considering we haven’t managed to do that yet (3.3% growth last quarter), we are NOT in a recession.
2) and 3) “Bush feels that the right war on terrorism is in Iraq, so does McCain. The fact is that Osama Bin Laden attacked us on 9/11/01 from Afghanistan, NOT Iraq…”
Do you remember the bit about the Taliban being overthrown, with highly skilled assistance from the U.S. military, back in October-November 2001? We did attack him in Afghanistan, not Iraq. And whatever arguments anyone wants to make about the decision to invade Iraq, the fact is that the enemy, namely Osama and al-Zawaheri, have said that Iraq is the central front in al-Qaeda’s campaign against the Great Satan. I’ll take their opinion over yours. (BTW, I’d bet a thousand bucks that OBL is pushing up a poppy field somewhere. What, can’t he afford a video camera in his new digs?)
4) If the evil George Bush has made the US so unpopular with those snazzy Euro elites we should all be sucking up to, why have both Germany and France elected goverments considerably friendlier to the US (Merkel, Sarkozy), than the corrupt crooks they replaced?
5) Oil will be yesterday’s news 100 years from now. In the meantime, solar and wind power (assuming that’s what you mean by “renewable”) can’t meet more than a few per cent of America’s energy needs. And if you actually listened to McCain’s speech, he pointed out that offshore drilling was only one part of the answer, which included wind, solar, and nuclear energy.
Barack Obama is an allegedly intelligent man who does a great job of reading speeches off a teleprompter, and is a walking gaffe-o-matic without one. Can you please point out any concrete accomplishments in his life?
Sep 7, 2008 - 7:58 pm 50. toadski:I can’t count how many times I have seen this lib argument on conservative sites: McCain might be similar to Bush!
Listen, libs. If you want to convince us, rather than just irritate us, use a rationale that doesn’t seem dumb to us. Bush has 37% approval, lots of that is lots of us. No, he wasn’t perfect, but then we don’t expect perfection.
I’m getting real tired of skipping over your posts. If you’re going to post, make your time worth something! Have some self-respect!
Sep 7, 2008 - 8:04 pm 51. Letalis Maximus, Esq.:Pelosi: Father was a Congressman and Mayor of Baltimore, and she married a wealthy man.
Quinn: Father was Lt. General and she married Editor in Chief of WaPo.
Feinstein: Grandfather was officer in Imperial Russian Army, father was a surgeon, married a wealthy man.
Clinton: Father owned his own business, married Yale law grad who became Governor of Arkansas and President of the United States.
You can look it up. The list goes on and on.
Sep 7, 2008 - 8:05 pm 52. poul:Jeff, your laundry list of idiotic assumptions and outright lies is the perfect example of why obama is going to lose, and why he is shifting his position to match mccain.
Sep 7, 2008 - 8:07 pm 53. Moptop:“Bush will NOT acknowledge that we are in a
recession, so does McCain”
A recession has a definition, it is two consecutive quarters of negative growth. I am pretty sure that last quarter we had positive economic growth of a couple percent. So if they “acknowledged” that we are in a recession, then they would be lying.
Sep 7, 2008 - 8:10 pm 54. Ramona Valley Vintner:Victor - how’d the grapes come in this year? I hope well - they did down here.
On other matters, you said:
“Bottom line: for a couple making $300,000, there would probably be at least $20,000 more to pay to the fed, and that money in turn would be redirected to a couple making $50,000 in various additional entitlements.”
Can I quibble? The $20K would be supplemented by another $10K in borrowing. Of that $30K, $15 would be consumed by the agencies involved in transferring the wealth, leaving the $50K couple with a $15K net supplement.
Sep 7, 2008 - 8:14 pm 55. Greg:Jeff - Believe it or not, many Americans think people like you are dangerous for this country. Believe it or not, many experts on radical Islam agree that peace through strategic aggression is not only legitimate in the war on terror, but necessary. Believe it or not Jeff, these same experts on radical Islam understand that the only thing the jihadist movement respects is strength and not cowards like you. Cowards like you are the first to be murdered by Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Lastly Jeff, there are many on PJM that don’t appreciate your paid political advertisements. You want all the freedoms that this great country affords, but you don’t want to do anything but tear down the very fundamentals of freedom that you hide behind. If you don’t want to stand and fight murderous jihadists please don’t stand in the way of those who will. We are defending your miserable existence as well as our own right to life and liberty.
The situation in Iraq prior to the war was clear to the global community. The proposition that WMD’s were moved out of the country and in to Syria or elswhere are still valid. Without WMD’s, Saddam Husein was like the bank robber who says “this is a stick up” with his finger in his pocket. If the police shoot and kill this criminal, like
Saddam Hussein, you and your friends would be the first in line to sue the police officer for excessive force and empower criminals everwhere. George W. Bush has a 100% success rate in stopping additional terrorist attacks on the U.S. post 9/11. That is no small feat. Killing wild eyed terrorists in Iraq played a role in that success whether you acknowledge it or not.
Let’s make this personal Jeff. If terrorists targeted your family specifically, your father & mother, your brothers or sisters, your aunts & uncles and pledged to destroy your family, literally wipe your family from existence, what steps would you take to protect them? Would you buy more guns and ammunition? Would you go on the offensive to the point of pre-emptive attacks? Would you seek to destroy them on their home turf instead of in your backyard? Or would your family be brutalized, raped and beheaded at the hands of radical muslims? Well Jeff, my fellow Americans have been brutalized and murdered in just this fashion and many Americans applaud and cheer our President, GW Bush for his 100% success rate on stopping terrorist brutality after the 9/11 attacks.
You sir can not be trusted with this type of unfortunate responsability. You are a coward in the minds of many Americans like me, who clearly see the threat facing America and have defended this great land in wars waged for our freedom, the freedom you take for granted and the freedom you so easily abuse. Believe it or not Jeff, evil people happen. Simply asking them to be good people will not convert them into law abiding, productive citizens.
Sep 7, 2008 - 8:36 pm 56. Elroy Jetson:Jeff:
Sep 7, 2008 - 8:37 pm 57. William of Orange:1)Politicians get locked in by literal economic definitions. Recession- 2 straight qtrs of negative growth. 2008Q2 showed fairly robust growth.
McCain spoke to the challenges this economy faces in his accpetance Thurs.
2)As Iraqis stand up we are standing down. Al Anbar province was the latest good result.
3)We do need to win the war in Iraq. I think “The One” realizes it now. To leave would only result in chaos and a take over of at least part of the country (including its main port) by Iran.
4) Less alliances? Merkel in Germany, Sarkozy in France are far better allies than Schroeder in Germany and Chirac in France. We have cultivated better relations with Eastern Europe and the Caucauses. The Brits are going to swing conservative in the next election.
5) The Republicans are the “all of the above” party when it comes to energy. Bush has pushed for alternative energy; it’s just that the media doesn’t report it. Obama’s party is occupied by environmental wackos. I don’t trust him to ever press for increased oil production.
Besides, he has never gone against his own party.
Every alternative energy idea has it’s problems. Did you know wind power kills bats and birds? Electric cars require increased electicity. Are you in favor to nukes to increase electricity? Solar requires land by the square mile.
Obama Supporter writes:
What bothers me about Obama moving to the center is that the unscrupulous repuglicans will create “before and after” campaign commercials in an attempt to discredit my candidate.
This is blatantly unfair at this stage in a political campaign. Let’s be reasonable. Obama deserves to win. Nothing else matters.
..you’re joking, right? This is clever sarcasm at its best, no?
Gosh, a million thanks for the comedic relief from the droll political analysis that comes from the mindless tools sent over here to post their KOS mediaspeak blather.
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!
HA!
Sep 7, 2008 - 8:48 pm 58. Ernestine:Great article for those who desire more insight. Truth can be searched out and proven ” A rebel does not care about facts…” “A wise man/woman is hungry for truth, while the mocker feeds on trash.” “The intelligent man/woman is always open to new ideas. In fact. he looks for them.” “Get all the advice you can and be wise the rest of your life.” “Only fools refuse to be taught.” “A fool thinks he needs no advice, but a wise man listens to others.” “The good man/woman wins his case with CAREFUL argument; the evil minded only wants to fight.”-Proverbs.
Sep 7, 2008 - 9:01 pm 59. Minerva:McCain surge in the polls tonight; hits 50%. Meanwhile, changes being made at MSNBC since it came in last of all the cable networks.
Sep 7, 2008 - 9:14 pm 60. Rachel Peepers:Professor Hanson,
You’re writing is so readable; flowing seamlessly from point to point, from thought to thought. Every morsal, every insightful tidbid is served up so nicely. Such tasty writing. My compliments to the chef.
But as I happily dish out praise, I’d like to serve up a nice little bite sized piece of information myself.
To wit, a new USA TODAY poll has the Palin/Mc,or sorry, McCain/Palin ticket ten percentage points ahead of the Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
So, professor, I raise my hand and ask whether these poll results could be the first real concrete piece of evidence that America’s bedrock, traditional principles; our sense of decency and fairness has resulted in a denunciation of the biased, left leaning, pack attack mentality of the mainstream media that now seeks to destroy Sarah Palin.
As a society, have we had enough?
Have we reached a tipping point where as a nation we’re ready to say, (be it left or right) outrageous, hurtful, mean spirited bias, especially when directed at women and children is unacceptable. Send it back to the kitchen. This is not consumable.
Remember when Gore attacked Cheney’s daughter? I thought he’d gone way beyond the bounds of decency. And, this summer, when Chelsea was talked about in pimp terms? I was repulsed. When the Bush girls were joked about, I wasn’t laughing. When Bill Mahar made a disgraceful joke about Sarah’s Down Syndrome child, I felt like throwing up (or a punch). And if anybody ever picked on Barack’s and Michelle’s innocent, beautiful little girls, I would go balistic.
Professor, is it time as a society we say, “No”. When Barack says there are 57 states, when John McCain can’t remember how many homes his wife owns.
“No” in the sense that if you use that as a campaign gotcha slam, we’ll say no and reject not them, but you.
I have a feeling about the latest Obama slip of the tongue. I’m not going to mention it in detail, but it happened today, Sunday.
I have a feeling if John or any of our (Republican. I’m a huge McCain backer), but if some Republican 527 group tries to make a mockery of Barack with his slip of the tongue, well I have a sneaking suspition that it’ll backfire just like the unconscienable Palin attacks have boomeranged and I think mortally wounded the Obama/Biden Presidential campaign.
If our politicans refuse to learn to exhibit a sense of decency and fairness, we might have to teach them a lesson.
Call the course, “Manners 101″.
Sep 7, 2008 - 9:26 pm 61. TedN:I’m pretty sure “Obama Supporter” had his tongue firmly in cheek.
Jeff,
How about we win *all* the wars we are fighting?
Sep 7, 2008 - 9:29 pm 62. publius:“all these woman who themselves tsk, tsk Palin should take a deep breath and ask themselves whether they would have made it as Vice Presidential candidate should they have shared the Palin background.”
THAT is a hell of a thing to consider.
I do think if any of these women considered it, and they had any sense, they wold be very, very humbled at what she has achieved . . . without “getting out” of her small town.
Just a great reflection their Victor.
Sep 7, 2008 - 9:57 pm 63. Jbl:“Isn’t there one honest person in the media who will stand up to the madness, and cry “ENOUGH!”?”
sadly, no. Tim Russert and Mike Kelly are dead. And they seem to have taken journalistic ethics with them.
Sep 7, 2008 - 10:17 pm 64. William of Orange:Rachel Peepers writes:
To wit, a new USA TODAY poll has the Palin/Mc,or sorry, McCain/Palin ticket ten percentage points ahead of the Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
Rachel, this news is somwwhat disquieting. It would be great if, all the way to election eve, Mc/P were trailing by the margin of error in most polls. (Dunno? Maybe the M.O.E. for U.S.A. Today is +/- 10 points.) But we start seeing McCain leading by say 4-5 points after Holloween and we could see a massive turnout of the base (both living and dead) that he and the Democrats worked so hard for the last 18 months to register.
..so, have you had time to give my proposal of marriage any thought?
(cf. a previous post where I complimented you on your efforts. Offer expires soon; not valid with other offer/coupons.)
Sep 7, 2008 - 10:18 pm 65. Jeff:I’m glad that I got all of you up in arms on these debate issues. What this does is that it gets everybody thinking about these issues and not LOOKING THE OTHER WAY anymore, especially with Iraq, whether you are a Republican or a Democrat. These issues must be debated and tackled head on.
So with that in mind, here is something else to debate on –It’s so convenient to make the the biggest mistake of the 21st century called, “The Iraq War” and now to try to sell the “stay the course” strategy. Of course we have to finish it through and ensure that country’s stable welfare now. We can’t just make a huge mistake and then leave that country to tend to our mistake. It will breed further resentment from the Islamic world, so we now have no choice but to do right by our wrong. As far as how huge of a mistake this was, we have spent HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS of taxpayer’s money on this Iraq War and still counting and we have lost over 4,000 of our brave troops. This was our biggest national liability following 9/11. Remember folks, Afghanistan was necessary so it is not a liability, but Iraq IS. We also diverted our attention away from Afghanistan and Osama Bin Laden when we went into Iraq and found no solid evidence of any ties between Saddam and Osama Bin Laden or weapons of mass destructions. Had we solely just fought the Afghanistan War without going into Iraq, Bush might have finished his Presidential legacy by actually bringing Osama Bin Laden to justice. Now, we are all left with the question - WHAT IF?
Sep 7, 2008 - 11:20 pm 66. Jeff:I also have one major question for all of you that I believe most Americans have on their minds right this very moment. With 4 days left, we are closing in on our 7th anniversary of 9/11. Have we, as the strongest nation of this God’s green Earth, been able to bring Osama Bin Laden to justice 7 years after the fact? We all know the answer to this and the answer is NO. That is why Afghanistan should had been the main focal point of the war on terrorism, NOT Iraq.
Sep 7, 2008 - 11:50 pm 67. Ex-fetus:“biggest mistake of the 21st century called, “The Iraq War” and now to try to sell the “stay the course” strategy”
You say that but they are just empty words, such as Ohhhhhh…..BAAMA spews in such a lavish manner. Any evidence to support your claim, or it just something everybody in your neighborhood knows?
As the old lady in the commercial says, “Where’s the Beef”.
“Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.”
Franklin P. Jones
Jeff, how many times are you going to make the mistake of thinking debate means making outrageous claims without a shred of evidence to support them?
Sep 8, 2008 - 12:48 am 68. Pops in Vienna:You should google the word ‘debate’ and find out what it really means.
Another great article Doc,
I believe Lincoln’s resume consisted of one term as a US Rep. and a term or two in the Illinois legislature.
I don’t know if the amount of time spent in elected postions means as much as basic ability and character.
Obama might be a great guy but there’s a disturbing lack of transparency. If he was such a great community organizer, why don’t they provide all the records so we can see for ourselves?
In terms of his time in the Illinois legislature; Rudy Giuliani has pointed out that he voted “present” around 130 times.I have to agree with Rudy that it’s not a good indication that he can make decisions. In fact, it really makes him look like a fence sitter.
During his 143 days in the US Senate, the committee which he heads has not met once. Does this create the impression that he doesn’t take his Senate responsibilities seriously?
McCain and Palin by comparison are quite different, even if you remove the years of service from the equation. I guess the thing that strikes me about McCain, is that he made a very tough decision while a POW. He decided to remain in Hell rather than damn America. Even though Palin doesn’t have a lot of time in government service, I don’t think you could ever say that she’s indecisive. Her decision to have her baby when it would have been easier not to speaks volumes about her character. You can’t vote “present” when considering an abortion.
When the 3 AM phone call comes in, it’s very likely a quick decision will have to be made. I can trust McCain and Palin to make that the decision. Perhaps if I knew more about Obama, I could do the same.
Sep 8, 2008 - 1:02 am 69. chicago:Jeff:
I also have one major question for all of you that I believe most Americans have on their minds right this very moment. With 4 days left, we are closing in on our 7th anniversary of 9/11. Have we, as the strongest nation of this God’s green Earth, been able to bring Osama Bin Laden to justice 7 years after the fact? We all know the answer to this and the answer is NO. That is why Afghanistan should had been the main focal point of the war on terrorism, NOT Iraq.
many keep spouting off that Bin Laden needs to be killed and he’s in Afghanistan and we should focus on Afghanistan….blah, blah, blah.
Afghanistan won’t go away, the US is still there, and the US forces there will be increased.
Bin Laden’s myth/legen needs to be killed first and foremost before his life can be terminated. those who doesn’t have any knowledge on psychological warfare need not apply to be military advisors.
Kill Bin Laden quickly, which the US could certainly have done sooner, and you create a living legend that will never die. the quick death of Bin Laden will create a new Salahdin legend that will inspire thousands of jihadists. Bin Laden’s and Al Qaeda’s defeat in Iraq brings a mortality aspect to the legend of Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. suddenly, Bin Laden and Al Qaeda are not the invincible fighters that they are. they are mortal, and can be killed. furthermore, a muslim country turning against Al Qaeda is a huge victory on the war on terror and sends fear among terrorists that even their own muslim brothers can and will turn against them.
suddenly, Bin Laden and Al Qaeda lost support of an entire muslim country. A failure handed to them by the US Armed Forces in Iraq is a failure that can be replicated in any country which they thought can’t be done.
so, to those who are so called anti-war, yet is calling for more military action in Afghanistan, don’t get your knickers in a bunch. a systematic series of failures for Al Qaeda is necessary in order to kill their legend, their morale, and their faith on the effectiveness of the heroes. only then can you start taking out a messianic leader, do so before undermining their legend and it will grow to infinite proportions.
Sep 8, 2008 - 1:31 am 70. Jeff:I love hearing all your Republican smokescreens about Iraq being the right choice and the excuses for why we haven’t even been able to bring Osama Bin Laden to justice. Don’t you Republicans feel that all of the families of 9/11 need this closure? We will have our 7th anniversary of 9/11 within a few days so think about it. We should had followed through and “stay the course” with Afghanistan, and NOT Iraq.
Sep 8, 2008 - 3:34 am 71. HOSPICE CARE:Regarding the discussion of brain tumors, readers or relatives facing a terminal diagnosis have many NEW options for a dignified passage from this world (once treatment options have been exhausted).
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This frees the patient to resolve personal and spiritual issues with their friends and family. The Nurses, Doctors and Care Providers who work in this area are tremendously kind and supportive people. You will be glad to have them by your side during this trying time.
Sep 8, 2008 - 3:46 am 72. RuleTopia:Of course Obama moves right. His ideas are silly (for all his elite education and brilliance). Of course, the media attacks Palin. She not only will help McCain win the election but she also is re-energizing the conservative movement, not just in these elections but for the next two decades. Why wouldn’t the left quake?
Sep 8, 2008 - 4:13 am 73. RuleTopia:Jeff
The reason Iraq is strategic in a way that Afghanistan could never be is two fold: oil and location. With a major source of oil, Iraq in the hands of Jihadists could fund major mayhem, in a way that Afghanistan never could. Adjacent to Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia, our military has easy access to key areas of potential conflict (remember how long it took to mobilize a large force in either of the first two Gulf wars. The proximity to other Islamic countries also places pressure on them to cooperate with us in our fight against Jihadists. Finally, and most tellingly, Jihadists didn’t flock to Afghanistan. They went to Iraq. They too saw Iraq as the central battle ground.
For all his “brilliance,” Obama wouldn’t know strategy in the Middle East if it bit him on the nose. Why else would he oppose drilling and nuclear power, two efforts that would make us more energy independent and less subject to the dictates of the Saudis? Why else fail to see the long-term implications of Russian aggression? Why else see Iran as a country we could ply with negotiations without preconditions? Why else the hostility to Israel?
Sep 8, 2008 - 4:27 am 74. ajacksonian:One of the misapprehensions about OBL is that he is wasy to get by great armies, by great force, by great numbers… he does not play by any civilized norms nor rules, he comes from that worst of all possible areas of ancient cast: outlaws committing Private War.
Because we are civilized and have rules to warfare and that we respect Nations beyond our own, we have problems going after such outlaws as they stand outsid of our laws. The complaint against OBL is the exact, same ones heard about the Barbary Pirates, various other piratical groups like that lead by the infamous ‘Black’ Bart, by rogue armies of thieves and villains from ancient times all the way up to the 1920’s and, indeed, our modern times. They use our laws to attack us then hide, knowing that we will stay our hand so as to not bring Public War with another Nation. Iraq was far easier in that, no matter how despotic, how genocidal, how truly depraved Saddam was, he still had to lead a Nation. We tried for over a decade to hold him to his words given for a cease-fire and, ultimately, failed. He could not be trusted as a leader of a hostile Nation and had demonstrated that time and time again.
That makes bringing down and building up Nations far easier than going after outlaws who shun all civilization to impose their own barbaric code on the world. They do not wear uniforms, adhere to no flag, recognize no accountability to any law - thus they can attack, threaten, hide, use civilians as shields and perform any number of uncivilized acts in the belief they will escape all accountability, all punishment. The hardest place to get any enemy is in the mountains, where one many may hold off thousands and the air is thin and supply lines impossible to maintain. Find an account of a small group holding off a mighty army, and you will find geography on their side. And that almost always involves mountains, even the 300 had mountains on one side and sea to the other.
Fighting like that is not proper warfare, but it is still waged by uncivilized people. Pakistan is the land of the private army, the ‘Lashcar’, a few hundred or thousand men following a tribal leader outside of any National laws. When you see them, today, you see how the ‘Sea Peoples’ lived after the fall of the Bronze Age, how primitive warrior cultures that cannot form Nations act as primitives like the Higgi or Grand Valley Dani or Yanamamo. When they take haven in the hinterlands of mountains between Nations and ignore all borders and yet recognize that we are restricted by them because we ARE law abiding - what do you propose?
I, too, want that ended, but see the limitations of the National capability that would restrict any Nation that holds to the Law of Nations. We do have the older ways, however, still enshrined in our Constitution. The old Letters of Marque are, strangely enough, not about ‘booty’, per se, but about authorizing private Citizens to inflict an equal amount of damage on those who wage Private War as they have upon us. That is from Grotius, and so makes those Nationally approved actions that are accountable to those going out and those who send them: to the Citizens taking up private arms under National auspices to fight where the Nation cannot. Great and grand armies can bottle up such actors, even kill them if opportunity strikes, but the fine-tooth cleansing and getting the individuals is left for Congress to deem and warrant for those Citizens wishing to take up a different kind of fight… far rougher and yet just as accountable by the Congressional authorization.
I like that as it is Constitutional, adheres to the founding principles of the Nation, acknowledges our Sovereignty to put an end to Private War brought to our shores, and places the responsible way to do so on Congress and the American People who wish to take up that fight on their own. The entire planet does not run by civilized laws, and we have many groups that do not adhere to the Law of Nations but prefer the Law of Nature, red in tooth and claw. They ask for no mercy, follow no laws and hold that they are accountable only to the red blood of killing. Our civil law has limits if they give themselves up to be held accountable to it… mostly that is the old Piracy Code in the US Code: life imprisonment for those in such an organization. Those that aid and abet, 10 years. That is the be-all, end-all of Public Law and Public War, and these that kill us do not abide by either.
I did not force them there.
I want an end to such uncivilized ideas, but we cannot get there by the Public Arms as we hold to the Law of Nations in that area. And in how to deal with those fighting Private War. That is civilized as Washington and Jefferson would attest to in their actions and writings.
And we don’t have the guts to do it.
Sep 8, 2008 - 5:17 am 75. Dan:I played your game, well just for one of the names anyway, and found out something amazing. CNN’s Campbell Brown was born into a politically connected Louisiana family (her father was a State senator, later convicted for lying to the FBI) and raised a Roman Catholic. She graduated from Regis University in Denver, hardly a major insitution. She married a commercial real estate broker (Peregrine Roberts)but they were later divorced. Here is the bombshell: in 2006 she converted to Judaism and married Dan Senor, the former second fiddle to Paul Bremer and lately political analyst for Fox News. Bedfellows do make for strange politics!
Sep 8, 2008 - 5:41 am 76. chicago:Jeff:
I love hearing all your Republican smokescreens about Iraq being the right choice and the excuses for why we haven’t even been able to bring Osama Bin Laden to justice. Don’t you Republicans feel that all of the families of 9/11 need this closure? We will have our 7th anniversary of 9/11 within a few days so think about it. We should had followed through and “stay the course” with Afghanistan, and NOT Iraq.
strategy is strategy. what I love about you liberals is that way you all keep spouting off anti-war rhetoric and how the surge is wrong and then turn around and call for a surge in Afghanistan JUST BECAUSE your messiah saw Afghanistan as a war he can use to polish his military image.
Sep 8, 2008 - 7:07 am 77. always right:Another ‘difference’ bites the dust -
Not only Obama is signalling to the Dem controlled Congress and base that he’s open to ‘drill under the right conditions’, now he says ‘taxhikes in a recession is not so hot’.
Well, if he is not going to raise taxes (on the rich), one must conclude the proposed expanded government programs would not be offered either.
So bottomline - there is no difference at all with McCain on taxes and spending.
Sep 8, 2008 - 8:00 am 78. Cornhead:I. In an interview the other day Obama was speaking about the unfairness of the payroll tax. He said, “My friend Warren Buffett is worth $36B and his social security tax is just a tiny percentage.”
Barack just confused income with net worth.
And, more importantly, if Barack is such a great guy why doesn’t he persuade his friend Warren to not avoid the estate tax and just give his $36B to the US gov’t. The currently plan is that almost all of the $36B goes to the Gates Foundation and different Buffett foundations.
Why does’t Warren want the federal government - lead by Barack - to get the money?
A: Because Warren knows it will be wasted in the hands of the government.
II. VDH: Don’t beat yourself up about trying to research treatment for your mother’s brain cancer. It is hard enough for people in the field for years to figure out what works; much harder for lay people.
Sep 8, 2008 - 8:05 am 79. Edwin Irby:Having lived long enough in the South to watched Democratic politicians run as segregationists only to switch to integrationists the day after they were sworn in, I would strongly suggest that Obama is moving towards McCain solely to get elected. Knowing as much about Obama’s background as one probably can, it is hard to believe that Obama would move very far from his political roots and basic life philosophies. Of course Obama’s may be far more relativistic morally than the average Democratic lawyers trained in elite, Ivy League schools.
I tried to pay attention to what he said, how he said it and where he said it during the pre-primary and primary season. He was clearly selling himself to the left wing of the Democratic Party. Since they helped get him the nomination, once elected there will be pay back.
Still my single bigger concern about Obama, considering his total lack of executive experience, is just who are the ‘wizards behind the curtain’ that selected him, obviously some time ago, to be their nominee for President. Somebody invested too much money, developed too good an organization, way too early to believe that Obama suddenly came in from some political wilderness as a shining star. It is possible that as far back as his election to the Illinois Legislature that he impressed whomever and they saw imagines of a modern, albeit far left, John Kennedy.
Sep 8, 2008 - 8:52 am 80. Vivienne Avare:The fickle, wishy washy Obama trys to sit on the middle of the fence with issues. When he has to take a position, listen to know if he will flip? Just wait untill the polls and public opinion are revealed and compare his ‘before’ and ‘after’ stand and answer, Ha! Ex Democrat
Sep 8, 2008 - 9:10 am 81. Olivia:Even if Obama did some magic jiu-jitsu around the issues. He will not be able to run from his past. It’s not pretty.
Sep 8, 2008 - 9:34 am 82. Jeff:Chicago,
Let’s take out our party alliances and just look at the fact. I’m an Independent who’s been seeing this Iraq cover up, by the way. The fact STILL remains that we went into Iraq for ALL the wrong reasons. There was no evidence whatsoever that Saddam had any weapons of mass destruction or that he had any ties to Osama Bin Laden. If there were such evidence, this war would not be wrong. I know we all have our party alliances but there comes a time in life when you have to acknowledge wrong just as you acknowledge right. Had Bush been a Democrat, he would still be wrong about Iraq.
As far as calling Obama a Messiah, if you were religious, you would know that only Jesus is our Messiah and this word should not be used carelessly, even to mock someone. Republicans stand for faith and religion, you guys should know better than to write articles insinuating that Obama is a Messiah or even thinks of himself as a Messiah. When was the last time any of you guys went to church? For me, it was actually just yesterday.
Sep 8, 2008 - 10:04 am 83. schnargley:Barack Obama, as a brilliant Harvard-educated lawyer, has the ability to to see everything from two sides, and speak thusly. And this is supposed to be a fault? Bah! The man shows amazing adaptability, fluidity, flexibility, rhetorical genius, in order to get the job done, that which, according to what he recently said qualifies him way over Sarah Barracuda’s head as President, the job of campaigning and getting elected.
Sep 8, 2008 - 10:36 am 84. nick:Barack just confused income with net worth.
cornhead should be cornhole
Sep 8, 2008 - 11:29 am 85. chicago:Jeff,
first of all, no one here believes that you’re an independent.
as fare Iraq, you think we went in there for the wrong reasons. I don’t.
it may appear as the wrong reason but what’s been burried by the liberal media is that there’s evidence that WMDs were taken to Syria. inspectors that went in after the big push to baghdad was completed found evidence of WMDs that’s been moved out of buildings.
of course the liberal media would never dig into that.
Sep 8, 2008 - 11:48 am 86. chicago:schnargley:
Barack Obama, as a brilliant Harvard-educated lawyer, has the ability to to see everything from two sides, and speak thusly.
that’s called flip floping! I’m sure it took an ivy league education to be good at that. lawyers are good at that, that’s how they make their living.
“we don’t need politicians that talks one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.”
that’s Barry Soetero’s biggest talent.
Sep 8, 2008 - 11:52 am 87. chicago:Cornhead:
I. In an interview the other day Obama was speaking about the unfairness of the payroll tax. He said, “My friend Warren Buffett is worth $36B and his social security tax is just a tiny percentage.”
what you won’t here from Barry is that Warren Buffett confidently declared a few months ago that the high oil price is due to lack of supply….ooops! Buffett is totally for drilling more!
Sep 8, 2008 - 11:54 am 88. TLM:A “progressive” media panic attack, Freudian Palin Envy by the feministas bordering on hysteria (with all the connotations that word implies), and a silver-tongued orator with the word “muslim” stuck in his craw. What does this portend for the next few weeks?
First, let me be clear. Obama is not a muslim, period. No muslim would ever sit in a Christian church for 20 years — no matter how radical that church is. Obama’s faith should be off limits to attack, regardless of any slip-ups he makes when talking about it.
The slip-up/gaffe-prone Obama may become progressively more tongue-tied as his campaign goes on the defense. Unlike McCain, we’ve not seen him play come-from-behind yet. With poll numbers dropping and the Dems desperate to win this election, these next few weeks could prove to be a real stress test for our Democratic nominee. And, let’s not forget, if elected he would not be a “heartbeat away” from the presidency. He’d be the One calling the shots.
So, for the next few weeks leading up to the debates, I suggest Obama might want to be a little more articulate when speaking off the cuff. Try look presidential and be as well-spoken as, say, George Bush. A bit of focus would help too. Pontificating proves nothing to the people in this country when, in the process, you trip over your own tongue. Oh, and don’t forget. John McCain’s forte is speaking extemporaneously. Over the past year alone, he’s likely faced, publicly, every conceivable question ever dreamed up by a reporter or regular citizen. He doesn’t hem ‘n haw and he doesn’t have a history to hide from. Not to stress you out or anything, Senator Obama.
Finally, for the MSM and the feministas: I’d like to thank you all. You have done more to help John McCain this year than anyone else. However, for the next 60 days or so, please refrain from calling him angry, irrational, temperamental, volatile, impulsive, impetuous,etc.. After your behavior in the Palin affair, that would only add to the charges of hypocrisy leveled against you. We may still have use for you, so try to maintain a modicum of credibility, please.
Sep 8, 2008 - 12:22 pm 89. BMoon:“Barack Obama, as a brilliant Harvard-educated lawyer, has the ability to to see everything from two sides, and speak thusly.”
As in speaking from both sides of the mouth?
Sep 8, 2008 - 12:32 pm 90. TLM:“Palin was the anointed Republican vice presidential candidate, and her family was very much part of the biography she was presenting to voters”.
Thus does Clark Hoyt, Public Editor of the NYT, condone the paper’s treatment of Bristol Palin shortly after her mother was named as McCain’s VP nominee. Three articles on their website and two on the front page of the print version used various angles to discuss Ms. Palin’s pregnancy. You can read Hoyt’s full article online.
For any politician, their family is always “very much part of the biography”. That doesn’t make them a media target. Obama, to his credit, tried to staunch the feeding frenzy of the sharks in the MSM swirling around Gov Palin’s daughter. To no avail. And now, thanks to Hoyt, to no sense of accountability either.
Sep 8, 2008 - 1:12 pm 91. jp:A very interesting article posted this p.m. by Rick Moran on American Thinker: Obama Tipped Off About Search of Annenberg Records. It contains a link to Global Labor and Politics, with links to key Obama Posts and more. So, just as many suspected, the records were scrubbed, but he still had his Obamabots try to disrupt the Chicago Radio show when they were hosting Stanley Kurtz, who was trying to study the relationship of Obama and William Ayers (just a friend who lives down the street) on the CAC.
Seems like a third year legal student requested information on the CAC papers under the
Sep 8, 2008 - 1:46 pm 92. TheOrchidThief:freedom of Information Act, and passed it on.
Jeff;
Sorry; You are flat wrong. You personally may be in a recession, but the US economy is not, 3.3% growth in the second quarter, and much more in the way of satistics. The US economy is much stronger than all of Europe, Japan,and on and on…and on.
As Casey Stengel used to say, “you can look it up”. You will be surprised.
Sep 8, 2008 - 1:57 pm 93. Ron Kean:Henry B:
Sep 8, 2008 - 2:37 pm 94. Ed Wallis:I remember the controversy transporting nuclear waste from state to state. It was a big issue. As a nation, we’ll need to accept that risk as the people in Santa Barbara risk their beach.
“The Orchid Thief”,
“Jeff” could indeed “look it up,” as you suggest, but he isn’t interested.
As an O’bot, the facts and truth are only of use when of worth in attacking opponents.
This is why it is repeatedly of consternation to use logic…sometimes even “the English language itself”…to respond to these O’bots. It seems increasingly that “bla bla yada yada wookie wookie ding dang dong” would be of equal merit to their nonsensical assertions.
Sep 8, 2008 - 3:10 pm 95. Jeff:Chicago,
Talk about flip flopping, McCain has constantly bash Obama for having lack of experiences and what does he do, of all the more deserving running mates like Joe Lieberman, he picked a virtual unknown who has never voted on a single issue inside of Washington. Obama has voted on many issues inside of Washington, as hard as that may sound to you.
McCain has also called Obama one of the fastest rising celebrity in politics. Guess who else is a celebrity now? It’s Palin, once a virtual unknown, now she is achieving major celebrity status. She is even overshadowing McCain. Has she done anything inside of Washington to achieve this celebrity status yet? I wonder.
McCain also once was believed to be a Republican but tries to sell himself as an Independent now at the RNC to distance himself from the Bush Administration. You can’t distance yourself after so many years of agreeing with Bush. That’s why I’m steering towards the Democrats. The RNC was a smear campaign on Obama, filled with mockery from the likes of another fast rising celebrity name Rudy Giuliani, who was also a virtual unknown before 9/11. They never spoke once about the middle class or about the economic crisis that this country is facing with mass foreclosures and unemployment. They mostly talk about McCain’s military service to the country and national security, which is very commendable but what about our economy? Does that ring a bell at all with the RNC?
The DNC, on the other hand, address the problems of the middle class over and over. They seem to relate to the average American and truly see what has happen within these 8 horrendous years. They seem sincere about wanting to fix these underlying problems and to bring the economy back to its feet again.
Sep 8, 2008 - 4:15 pm 96. horn:The DNC portrayed itself in a very professional manner. They did attack the Republicans but mainly on issues and did not resort to childish use of mockery, unlike the RNC. I hope America can see the difference. Leadership is also about professionalism.
You forgot Cokie Roberts! There are very few women higher than her in medialand. Her father was a Senator, of course.
Sep 8, 2008 - 4:25 pm 97. Jeff:Ed Wallis,
There are so many ways to define a recession. Go read and learn some economics and realize that many economists consider the highest rate of mass foreclosures in a country combined with a high unemployment rate as a recession. You cannot just go by GNP alone because the trickle down economics just isn’t what it used to be anymore, since Reagan’s time. The middle classes are not reaping from the GNP anymore, only the largest corporate America is.
It’s easy to use mockery and insults, like our instant celebrity Rudy Giuliani, when there is a total lack of knowledge. When you can’t defend yourself academically, as a kid, the first instinct was to mock or insult the smarter kid. Does that make any sense to you at all, Ed? Or should I use much simpler language, as in most of your unorganized posts that I’ve seen from you so far.
Sep 8, 2008 - 4:39 pm 98. Ron Kean:Jeff:
We know what you’re saying. We’ve heard it before. But we don’t buy it.
Many of us were Democrats for years so we understand, not just the talking points but the underlying philosophy of the left.
You might want to change us. I (We?) would like to change you.
When the USSR fell, communism and socialism were disproved. Read Dr. Hanson’s book about why the West wins wars.
Give me more of my money to spend as I choose rather than give it to people who’s lifestyle I might not approve. The UN is corrupt.
It’s better for them and it’s better for us that people and their countries are free. But it’s a fight.
Obama is all show and no go. McCain can do it and Palins hot.
Give up. Embrace change.
You’re the one we’ve been waiting for.
Sep 8, 2008 - 6:14 pm 99. Javelin:“Let’s briefly collate some, and then see just how many powerhouse-feminists were either (a) themselves the daughters of powerful politicians; (b) married insider politicians or government officials, or influential media figures, or (c) inherited substantial money or found plenty of income by marrying wealthy men who energized their careers.”
Sep 8, 2008 - 6:14 pm 100. TLM:Palin was plucked out of obscurity by McCain, who after he abandoned his first wife married well. McCain’s father’s Admiral rank had something to with his acceptance to Annapolis too. Please spare us the party line Dr.
CNN and others are now slamming Sarah Palin for previously belonging to a Pentacostal Church. Necessarily, they see fit to deride the Pentacostal’s religious practices and beliefs (talking in tongues, the Rapture, etc). Add religious intolerance to hypocrisy and other charges in their attack on Gov Palin.
And since Obama has compared his qualifications to hers, do we now get to revisit his church’s ridiculous beliefs?
Sep 8, 2008 - 7:57 pm 101. Rachel Peepers:William of Orange,
You flatter me, even if your modest proposal was tongue in cheek. Anyway, the boys around school having been kidding me that I’m too much of a tomboy. I play softball on the team, pitch and am very competitive. And am trying to put on a little weight so I get more zip on my fastball. I’m only 5′6″ tall, 119 pounds with of course blue eyes and blond hair. And was prom queen in high school. So I do have a feminine side. Beyond that, I have a double major in Political Science and English. And am in the proces of trying to persuade the office of University President to invite Sarah Palin to speak at the Univeristy’s next commencement. So I can meet her.
Warm Regards,
Sep 8, 2008 - 9:56 pm 102. JMH:Rachel
Y’know, there are oil rigs all over the Gulf, and hurricanes and other storms blow through there with some frequency. Funny, if these rigs were such oil-spill dangers, you’d expect to read a constant stream of reports about beach closures down there, with folks cleaning oil off birds and what not.
Could it be possible that off-shore oil drilling is not quite the ecological russian-roulette the greenies claim?
Sep 8, 2008 - 10:41 pm 103. Pops in Vienna:Jeff needs to start his own blog. It seems more people are responding to his outrageous statements than the wisdom of Doc Hanson.
Sep 8, 2008 - 11:41 pm 104. Akatsukami:“There are so many ways to define a recession.”
No, Jeff, there is only one way to define a recession. The Petulant Left would like, as they have done with “global warming”, “feminism”, “environmentalism”, and a host of other “ism”s, to remake it into rubberized muck that can be stretched to cover whatever situation they are yammering about.
Humpty Dumpty insisted, “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less”. But Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. Rather like what the Obama campaign is experiencing now.
Sep 9, 2008 - 4:08 am 105. Ed Wallis:O’BOT JEFFIE 4:39pm -
I think you may have posted in the wrong thread here. I do not note where I may have referred to recession.
Perhaps you were referring to a post by “Disillusionist” at 7:58pm?
Wow, I must REALLY be getting to you…heh.
Sep 9, 2008 - 4:39 am 106. Pops in Vienna:Hi Doc,
It has occurred to me that if McCain and Palin actually get elected that they won’t be able to accomplish much with a Democratic Senate and House of Representatives. McCain might have to give a lot away in order to drill a couple of oil wells. At best we might avoid getting another Ginsburg appointed to the Supreme Court. And, of course, we’ll have a solid person taking the 3 AM phone calls.
I’d kinda like your take on this issue. Will McCain really be able to “change” Washington with Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi in the way?
On the other hand, if Obama gets elected there will be nothing to stand in the way of implementing the “change” he wants to bring about. Do you see any way that a Republican minority would be able to stop him or at least slow him down?
Sep 9, 2008 - 10:14 am 107. Jeff:People, what Mr. Hanson failed to mention is that throughout the Democratic campaign, Obama has been promoting “change”. They see how the current administration have failed in these 8 years to move the country forward economically, how Washington’s bipartisanship is crippling our country, how the middle classes are working harder but not getting better, how the Iraq War is literally in all of our pockets for the wrong reasons, etc. Their campaign wants to change all this since the beginning.
Now, seeing that the word “change” is attracting the country’s attention, McCain is now promoting this too at the RNC. He wants to change bipartisanship in Washington now too. He wants to change the economy for the better now too. He wants to change this, change that. In order to be able to change anything, one must see all of the faults in the current situation at hand. McCain has never spoken publicly that we have been seeing an economic decline in these past 8 years. Obama has addressed it, time and time over, and he really wants to change it for the better. Who is evolving towards whom now?
Sep 9, 2008 - 7:22 pm 108. Jeff:Also, Mr. Hanson is trying to portay Obama as a modern day Robin Hood, stealing from the rich to give to the poor, as in his insinuation of taxation as seen here below –
~~~Bottom line: for a couple making $300,000, there would probably be at least $20,000 more to pay to the fed, and that money in turn would be redirected to a couple making $50,000 in various additional entitlements. If one lives in a high-tax New York or California, one can imagine paying 60-65% of much of one’s income going to FICA, federal and state taxes, on top of capital gains, property and sales taxes.~~~
It’s very convenient for Mr. Hanson to also throw in 2 of the biggest Blue states with the most electoral votes to make his point on taxation of the rich to fund entitlement programs in education, health, and housing. This is the kind of tabloid propaganda that we, as a society, do not need. What you have left out is that Presidents throughout our histories have also been taxing for these reasons as a means of economic development. It’s been one of the executive strategies that Obama alone does not hold. But to insinuate that this is his ONLY reason is preposterous, at best.
Sep 9, 2008 - 10:38 pm 109. Jeff:To make my point even more clearer, for a couple making $300,000 in New York or California, based on Mr. Hanson’s calculations of Obama’s tax plan, you can imagine paying 60-65% of much of one’s income going to FICA, federal and state taxes, on top of capital gains, property and sales taxes.
So here is the breakdown below—
Sep 9, 2008 - 11:00 pm 110. JMHawkins:$300,000 of a couple’s annual income with 60-65% taxation would be between $180,000 - $195,000 of their income taken away. Does this make any sense at at, America? If so, then Obama is truly an evil man and we are facing another dictatorship.
I generally expect that a Dem majority Congress with Obama in the White House would pull all the plugs - eliminate Filibusters, alter House and Senate rules to expedite their programs, and otherwise run roughshod over a Republican minority. In addition, I expect they would at least threaten to make good on the political prosecutions Biden mentioned, as a way of bullying any recalcitrant (R)s.
They have certainly given the impression of being crusading zealots without much respect for older notions of America. They think the country needs to be remade according to their ideas. They won’t let
Sep 9, 2008 - 11:22 pm 111. Ed Wallis:tradition or constitutions or even good sense get in their way.
“JMH” agreed with your last sentence.
It seems the running Dem “philosophy” [sic] is:
“OLD stuff is BAD! We need PROGRESS! New is GOOD! Change now!”
Yeah…and some farm animals are more equal than others.
Sep 10, 2008 - 3:46 am 112. Ed Wallis:NOT TO “Jeff”:
You DO realize that your posts of 10:38 and 11:00 contradict one another, don’t you?
Sep 10, 2008 - 3:47 am 113. gldnldy:Obama before McCain lead: against offshore drilling
Obama after McCain lead: will consider offshore drilling
Obama before McCain lead: will downsize military
Obama after McCain lead: will increase military spending
Obama before McCain lead: will raise taxes
Obama after McCain lead: will slash taxes
and make tax cuts permanent
Obama before McCain lead: says cannot answer whether life begins at conception because it’s ‘above’ his ‘paygrade’
Obama after McCain lead: He still cannot get himself to say it, so he has Biden state that life begins at conception.
flip…flop…flip…flop…Which Obama do you believe??
Sep 10, 2008 - 7:21 am 114. gldnldy:To Jeff and all who think Iraq was a mistake: once Iraq becomes stable, secure and prosperous, it will be the most important partner and ally we have, because it is in the most strategic location, but also the most volatile region of the world. Imagine having a fully-functioning and truly free democracy right there in the middle of the Gulf, right next to Saudi, Syria, Iran. Think of the impact that will have on all neighboring Muslim countries. Like the domino theory before with first the rapid spread of communism and then its eventual collapse, one country after another, throughout Eastern Europe, democracy in the Middle East will have enormous impact in the region and will give hope to people of the region who also yearn for peace and freedom and democracy. Tiny Bahrain and Jordan are already quasi-democracies, and the hope is that other Gulf states will follow suit. As it is, all of them are yearning (and planning and building) to be the next Dubai. So give Iraq a chance — don’t support Obama’s call to considerably draw down our presence there before the country has even had a chance to stabilize, especially when we’re this close to having a friend like Korea or Japan right there in the Gulf.
After WWII, it took many years before Germany and Japan became democratic, stable, secure and prosperous. And they did so with the generous help of their once-enemy, the U.S. Of course, it didn’t happen overnight for these two countries (like you all want to happen with Iraq), and, as you all know, we still have today, over 60 yrs later, a substantial # of American servicemen stationed in both countries. South Korea is another compelling example of a strategic alliance with America, strengthened over the years by our military’s presence throughout the country. Korea was one of the poorest countries 50 yrs ago, and look at it now — an incredible economic powerhouse and successful democracy. Again, it didn’t happen overnight. Today, we’re still in Korea, and, in fact, we wanted to turn over total military control of Republic of Korea (ROK) forces back to the ROK government in 2009, but because the ROK said they were not yet ready, the agreed year is now 2012 — http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6391799.stm. I see the hand-over probably getting delayed even further due to continued saber-rattling by North Korea and because of China’s growing influence in the region. So, as rich, stable and powerful as Korea is today, it is still saying they are not yet ready to take over control of its own military. So why would anyone think or expect the budding Iraqi govt to already have that same capability? It’s totally absurd (naive) of Obama to think Iraqi security, social and political infrastructure should have by now already been in place. The relative peace and prosperity that took hold of Japan, Germany and Korea took time. It’s going to take time also with Iraq, but we’re almost there. You guys don’t see it in the states because the media doesn’t show all the positive improvements that have been going on in Iraq. Please try to be patient. You’ll see in 5 to 10 years (or maybe longer) that Bush and Blair were completely correct in liberating Iraq.
Sep 10, 2008 - 9:06 am 115. MEC2:The funniest thing about the criticism of Palin’s speech being written by someone else, is that the Joe Biden got in trouble because his really WERE written by someone else…
Sep 10, 2008 - 9:51 am 116. Jeff:Ed Wallis posted Sep 10, 2008 - 3:47 am,
You do realize that you’ve simultaneously been trying to debunk all of my facts and opinions, throughout all of the articles within this radical Right Wing website, without any thread of facts or arguments on your own to contest mine. All of your replies have been at a kindergarten level, at best. I welcome a written challenge, but please, make it conventional wisdom with facts and specifics to counter other facts and specifics. Don’t keep using the kindergarten style of debate, Ed. Please consider education again as I’ve also stressed to you in other posts, my friend.
Sep 10, 2008 - 1:07 pm 117. Anon:Al Gore, Jr. did not attend Vanderbilt law school, and I haven’t been able to find any source other than his Senate bio claiming he ever attended any law school, and it is worded extraordinarily vaguely. There are rumors that he was rejected by Vanderbilt. Soviet agent Armand Hammer’s American Senate pal, Gore’s father, didn’t gain him a legacy entree as happened with Harvard.
And by the way, the most despicable character in the Plame affair was the prosecutor Fitzgerald, a supposed independent prosecutor who previously worked for Bill Clinton in the Southern District of New York covering up his bribery and treason scandals under his U.S. Attorney boss. He knew instantly from whom the information in Novak’s column came, and he also knew within days of his investigation’s start that the information was not a secret. She was publicly identified in the 1990’s by her husband buying her an entry in Who’s Who, mentioning her employer. She also appeared at the White House in 1995 or 1996 at a fundraiser Bill Clinton held, which is to say, she could not possibly have been in any covert part of the agency from at least that time, if she had ever been. Her later remarks on “60 Minutes” make it very likely she was never employed that way, but was employed by the Clinton Administration to impersonate a student in France, to gain information for American bidders whose bribes and contributions were paid off by giving them information on French government contracts.
Sep 10, 2008 - 11:21 pm 118. Jeff:To those of you who have family, friends, or relatives in the Armed Forces serving in Afghanistan or Iraq. It is imperative that I mention these facts below to you. I welcome you all to do your own research on this or Google it.
For a man to be an ex POW in Vietnam who has endured so much torture and punishment and who promotes “Country First” on his campaign, his history should lead him to do better for his fellow men and women in the Armed Forces but here are the FACTS below —
1) For every GI Bill that is proposed to Congress in favor of more spending for the protection of our troops, both in Afghanistan and Iraq, McCain has voted AGAINST it and Obama has voted FOR it.
2) For every GI Bill that is proposed to Congress in favor of deploying more armor and artillery for our troops, both in Afghanistan and Iraq, McCain has voted AGAINST it and Obama has voted FOR it.
3) For every GI Bill that is proposed to Congress in favor of giving more compensation and more medical benefits to our injured troops returning from Afghanistan and Iraq, McCain has voted AGAINST it and Obama has voted FOR it.
4) For every GI Bill that is proposed to Congress in favor of giving more compensation to our veterans of all the past wars, McCain has voted AGAINST it and Obama has voted FOR it.
Please look over these FACTS and do your own research. For a man to promote character, wisdom, and the love for his country; the facts don’t coincide with this man.
This Election 2008 is a colorless election. It is about two human beings that want to lead our country, either in the right direction or in the wrong direction. We have lived the wrong direction for 8 years and have been in the wrong side of history throughout that time. Do we want to live it again?
Sep 12, 2008 - 7:39 pm 119. 888:Jeff, you’re everywhere. Now I’m on the lookout for you ‘cuz you’re spreading misinformation, and I have an obligation to correct and clarify: The reason McCain did not/does not support the latest iteration of the GI Bill is because it allows for military members to get full scholarship and other benefits after only serving 3 years in the military. This version also allows for those 3 years to be in non-combat billets, meaning that a 3-year desk job in South Dakota or Virginia can get a serviceman or woman a full scholarship without even having been in combat. This Bill is not only costly, but it also encourages military members to get out after only 3 years service. It is a great inducement by the liberals in Congress to gain the favors of the young veterans, but it is an unfair proposal. My father served 20 years in the Navy, including on a patrol boat on the dangerous Mekong Delta during Vietnam. He’s 100% disabled from his service in the military and from having been sprayed all over his body with Agent Orange. He deserved his GI Bill, which he used to go to school after he retired. Webb’s GI Bill is not fair to those like my father and others who actually served, or are serving, in combat. That’s why McCain didn’t support the latest GI Bill. Get your facts straight before you try to discredit the honorable veteran.
Sep 13, 2008 - 6:22 am 120. Jeff:888,
I’m not just talking about the current proposal by Webb. I’m talking about previous proposals from giving our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq more artillery and armor for protection to giving them more compensation and medical benefits when they return home wounded. McCain has voted AGAINST all of it while Obama has voted FOR it. Go do some research, kid.
Sep 15, 2008 - 5:06 pm 121. HenryB:I do not think it wise to call a prisoner of war a hero and give him medals. It is a new phenomenon and could someday bite us in the ass. POW’s are out of the war and in a much safer place than a grunt in the trench.
If you ever find yourself in a foxhole with an iron foundry exploding over your head and the guy next to you says,”Frigit, I don’t need this crap, I’m going to tie a white flag to my rifle, give myself up and spill my guts. When it’s all over they will give me a Bronze Star and a Silver Star like McCaine. You are on your own, pal.”
You are on your own, pal.
Is that what you want?
Sep 27, 2008 - 6:12 pm 122. HenryB:I joined the Military at seventeen in the early fifties. At the time I wasn’t thinking of anything but getting away from my surroundings, and my surroundings were just as happy to be free of me. After a little more than three years my hitch was over and I mustered out. The military was good for getting a head straight, but a steady life of it was not for me. A year later I was in college, all but a few expenses covered by Uncle Sam, and four years after that I graduated. The stint in the military was the best thing that ever happened to me. It was a very good time for people like me to get ahead. It disappeared after a while. It should never have been allowed to disappear. Why did it disappear? Why do people resent having it back?
Sep 28, 2008 - 3:53 am