opinetree

Just after Dianne Feinstein and just before Aretha Franklin, evangelical minister Rick Warren will deliver the invocation at Obama's inaugural ceremony. Cue immediate gay/lesbian/transgender/bisexual/trigenital freakout.

Mark my words, this is but the first in a long series of disappointments among America's liberal community, as they will slowly realize that the mantra of "change" was simply a slogan, and Obama is only a slightly blacker (albeit more handsome) puppet, with strings tied to the same hands that have been running this country for decades.

Gays and indeed most liberals are shocked, shocked that Obama would pick a Christian who supported Prop 8, the amendment to the California state constitution defining marriage as between one man and one woman. I'll remind liberals that their Messiah himself supports this traditional definition of marriage, but is in favor of legal, taxation, and employment equality, and for domestic partnerships or civil unions.

This is the exact same position as Warren's. Is nobody realizing this? You want he should have picked Jeremiah Wright? Where were your voices of outrage over his 20 year relationship with that "Christian?"

This is really just a nod from Obama to America's religious community; an attempt to bolster his manufactured image as a centrist who is sensitive to the desires of religious Americans. But liberals are fah-ree-king-out:

"By choosing homophobe Rick Warren, who helped pass Prop 8 in California, to do the invocation at the inauguration, Barack Obama just said to LGBT Americans that we're not part of that event." -- AMERICAblog

Get over yourself! On the one hand, I'm glad you aren't blindly following The One, but honestly, doesn't this at least show you what a calculating man he is? He is, after all, a politician. I also love the notion that if you support Proposition 8, you are automatically a "homophobe." I need a couple hands to count the number of gay friends I have, and I supported Prop 8. I guess I just secretly hate gay people.

"With this choice, Obama sends three destructive messages. Number one: In Obama's America, equal rights and reproductive freedom aren't for everyone. Number two: President-elect Obama likes sharing the national stage with hate. Number three: While Obama enjoys his equality before the law, LGBT Americans can go to Hell. Literally. Gee. Is this change we can believe in?" -- Firedoglake

I love it! Now even liberals are asking the "change we can believe in" question with their tongue planted firmly in their cheek! Once again, supporting traditional marriage = "hate." He may not like sharing the stage with hate, but he's fine with sharing a church with it. Do they not realize that Obama has been courting Warren for years now?

"This is more than a serious faux pas; this is an insult to all the queers and non-believers who worked their asses off to elect Obama-Biden. We need to let the President-Elect know that parading a homophobic bigot at his big parade rains on ours." -- Mike Tidmus

Liberals generally follow certain guidelines when deciding whether or not to castigate fellow liberals. It's amazing really. Liberal feminists will still cheer the likes of Bill Clinton or Ted Kennedy. Liberals who claim to be tolerant of other races will support former KKK member Robert Byrd. The only thing liberals can do wrong is to either be insufficiently liberal, or to somehow suggest legitimacy to conservative ideas.

The shoe incident notwithstanding, Bush is undoubtedly glad to get out.

Labels: Marriage, Obamamania

Today, Al-Qaeda's second in command (if you think Osama is still alive), Ayman al-Zawahri, said that Obama's election has not changed the American policies he claims are aimed at "oppressing Muslims." But that was before he called him a Negro.

You crossed the line, son! I know you didn't just say that about no Barack!

Ayman al-Zawahri said in the message, which appeared on militant Web sites, that Obama is "the direct opposite of honorable black Americans" like Malcolm X, the 1960s African-American rights leader.

In al-Qaida's first response to Obama's victory, al-Zawahri also called the president-elect - along with secretaries of state Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice - "house negroes."

Speaking in Arabic, al-Zawahri uses the term "abeed al-beit," which literally translates as "house slaves." But al-Qaida supplied English subtitles of his speech that included the translation as "house negroes."

Daaaaaamn, no you didn't! Listen man, I know you like our black people when they're Muslims, but my cuz Obama was born Muslim, didn't you know? He even attended school as a Muslim in Indonesia - that don't count for nothin'? Can't we just chill?

"The Muslim nation received with extreme bitterness your hypocritical...stance toward Israel...You were born to a Muslim father, but you chose to stand with the enemies of Muslims."

Ohhhhh snap! What about Afghanistan n'all that?

"Be aware that the dogs of Afghanistan have found the flesh of your soldiers to be delicious, so send thousands after thousands to them."

Shiiiiiiiiit...come on man, it ain't gotta be like that. This is my man Barack! Change! Y'know what I'm sayin? He's got all that hope n'shit, man!

"America has put on a new face, but its heart full of hate, mind drowning in greed, and spirit which spreads evil, murder, repression and despotism continue to be the same as always."

...Shit's cold as ice, son.

Labels: Obamamania, Terrorism

In an interview with Ben Smith of the NY Daily News, Rahm Emanuel (Obama's White House chief of staff) chuckled and brushed off plans for mandatory civil defense training. The Daily News has more, but first you've got to listen to this:
A circle of love! Oh how I love my nanny state!

Here's another surprise: gun sales have shot up since the election. Why can't a presidential candidate flip-flop on a definitive Second Amendment case in the middle of a campaign without people wondering if he's serious about gun rights?

Labels: Obamamania

Saturday, a congressman from the 10th district of Georgia deemed President-elect Obama's agenda "Marxist," and called out John McCain for running an "inept" campaign. Paul Broun is especially worried about Barack's pledge to create a "civilian national security force." First, the local story:

"In my opinion, we've elected a Marxist to be president of the United States...Mr. Broun qualified his remark, saying he believes Mr. Obama's policies of bigger government and shared wealth are Marxist..."I'm very disappointed with the McCain campaign," he said. "In my opinion, it was inept."

Then from the wire service that doesn't like to be quoted:

"It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he's the one who proposed this national security force," Rep. Paul Broun said of Obama in an interview Monday with The Associated Press. "I'm just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may — may not, I hope not — but we may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism."

You don't need an outright Marxist revolution in America. You don't need a coup. You don't need a violent uprising. You don't even need to take people's guns.

When you control the value of people's money, the amount of money they get to keep, and the education of their children, achieving national socialism is like shooting fish in a barrel, you just have to shoot one at a time and over a period of decades, and the public will eventually clamor for the nanny state that has already been designed for them.

Bush was just an appetizer.

Labels: Obamamania

It's 1:42 AM Wednesday morning, and I've just returned from venturing outside my Atlanta apartment amid cheers, car horns, and indistinguishable chants. What follows is a non-exaggerated account, to be taken simply as a true life anecdote in a media-drenched world full of slogans, soundbites, and bullshit narratives.

As I walked east on 3rd street, it was mere moments before I heard a boisterous voice, loud and clear. He was a black man in his twenties, strolling confidently on the opposite site of the street, posturing the way hip-hop artists do when they know there are cameras around.

I heard his triumphant cry: "Yeah baby! It's all about the O! Fuck McCain!" I couldn't help but look, and my gaze remained fixed upon him as we trotted in opposite directions. We made eye contact, and he directed his shouting my way. Slowing his pace, he asked me, "you hear what I said? Obama baby!"

I never talk to strangers. I never like when they talk to me, which is virtually every day, be it on the train, bus, or on foot. For some reason, though, I felt compelled to buck his sense of vicarious accomplishment. "What's he going to do for you?" I shouted back. His reply was simple, and cringe-worthy. "He's gonna give me change! What's he gonna give you?"

"He's going to dissolve my liberties and yours," I said, to which he poignantly replied, "Yeah bitch, that's why you voted for the nigga with the short arms."

Baffled, I kept walking. And then I heard the horns. The blaring sustained car horns that I can still hear out of my window, zooming with a mesmerizing Doppler effect up and down Peachtree street, the main thoroughfare which is to Atlanta as Broadway is to New York City. Obama/Biden signs sticking out of car sun roofs, sensationalist Obama apparel with airbrushed phrases like "Change" and "Hope," and more surreal commotion than I've ever seen after 1:00 am on a Tuesday.

I walked south for two blocks until I reached North Avenue, where an even bigger gaggle of Obama nighthawks were shouting and carrying on, decked out with shirts, placards, stickers, and flags. The rallying cry: "O-ba-ma, O-ba-ma!"

"Mar-xis-m, Mar-xis-m," I muttered quietly to myself. Not quietly enough it turned out, as while my attention was arrested by the celebratory cries of the half-moon droves, a homeless man meandering down North Avenue matched my pace and asked me a very honest question: "Hey man, you ain't pissed are you?"

I had to stop and think. What was I feeling? I wasn't angry. I wasn't even disappointed; it's pretty hard to disappoint someone as cynical as I am, and admittedly a significant part of me was undeniably touched by the historic implications of this election. I had always thought about the idea of a "black" president (or at least someone other than an aging WASP) ever since I realized at a young age that, while throughout the history of our republic, black people had overcome tremendous odds and catalyzed their own self-determination to achieve greatness, the presidency seemed just out of reach for a mainstream black American.

Barack Obama is anything but mainstream, but I digress...

My honest answer was "No." By this time, we had walked a full block and were standing on the corner of North Avenue and West Peachtree street. I told him I was concerned that people would be distracted from the real ways in which they could improve their lives. I told him that simply electing someone and feeling good about it would never change a thing, and would only serve to further exacerbate the mentality of entitlement and the systemic apathy that has stagnated communities across America for years.

His words were as surprising as they were candid: "People cain't be gettin' complacent, y'understand? These people cain't just be voting for some character and expect that they can just sit back and let whatever they dreaming about come to 'em. Ain't no politician nowhere who ever said some magic spell and changed people's lives."

I smiled, and I smiled big. This man, a middle-aged black man named Angelo with ill-fitting clothes and a scraggly beard, had once again reminded me that the average person isn't so average after all. As we continued walking west, I told him how much I agreed with him and how much I respected his point of view. I was talking politics with a bum, and I was intrigued by and grateful for every second of it.

He described what he saw as a "cycle," in which values and ideas are passed on to future generations, either for the betterment of society, or for the detriment of society. I was sure he was unemployed, yet he spoke of the virtue of "getting up and going to work," "makin' your living," and "taking care of your family."

I silently thought of two reasons for the amount clarity that came from a man living on the streets of Atlanta. The first was the fact that without a job, a family, and possessions, Angelo's only real pasttime was spent thinking about his life and his values. The second, even more telling of the state of our society, was the fact that without exposure to television, radio, and the internet, I was talking to a man who lived in a complete media vacuum. He lived a life completed unswayed by a liberal dominated mass-media monolith.

We walked for another block, and as we crossed Spring street in front of honking cars and shouting city dwellers, I felt more comforted by his honesty and integrity - things which I imagined were rare commodities among the numerous Atlantans forced to live one day at a time, without a bed to sleep in, a family to rely on, or a paycheck to collect.

I walked into North Avenue's BP gas station, the hub of nightlife for the southern tip of Midtown, and bought Angelo something to eat. I didn't have any cash on me, but I couldn't deny that if I could have paid for this conversation, I would have. He thanked me, wished me luck, and after learning that I was a mere 22 years old, reminded me I had a lot of living to do, and a lot of perspective to gain.

I walked the remaining 3 blocks to my house, satisfied with the knowledge that somewhere, somehow, the true spirit of America would survive. I felt assured that no matter who possessed the keys, this country was built by people who didn't believe in government, corporations, banks, demogogues, politicians, or rhetoric.

This country was built by people who believed in themselves.

Labels: Election 2008, Obamamania

"Price Signals." Otherwise known as punitive taxes and fees, which would primarily affect the middle class, just like the One's plan to tax small businesses. Watch as Obama advocates sending "price signals" to the middle class in order to "change their behavior."

Labels: Election 2008, Energy, Obamamania

This Barack Obama sign was recently spotted in Albany, California. Obviously this is just silly, but then again, parents listening to the political "wisdom" of their kids is about as silly as a dog-owner taking his pooch into consideration while pulling the lever. Here's the sign:

Now for the non-silly part. This sign is actually an almost exact copy of a Soviet propaganda poster painted by Russian artist Alexander Rodchenko in the 1920s:

Canine placards notwithstanding, Is there anything about Barack Obama that doesn't reek of communism?

Labels: Election 2008, Obamamania

Something that should have sounded a few more Leftist alarm bells was Barack Obama's explanation for his support of raising (read: doubling) the capital gains tax.

Charlie Gibson confronts Obama and clues him in to the fact that every time the capital gains tax has been lowered, the government actually collected more money in tax revenue. Likewise, when the tax was raised, government revenue went down. Barack's response? It's not about providing the government with more funds. It's about fairness.

GIBSON: All right. You have, however, said you would favor an increase in the capital gains tax. As a matter of fact, you said on CNBC, and I quote, "I certainly would not go above what existed under Bill Clinton," which was 28 percent. It's now 15 percent. That's almost a doubling, if you went to 28 percent.

But actually, Bill Clinton, in 1997, signed legislation that dropped the capital gains tax to 20 percent.

OBAMA: Right.

GIBSON: And George Bush has taken it down to 15 percent.

OBAMA: Right.

GIBSON: And in each instance, when the rate dropped, revenues from the tax increased; the government took in more money. And in the 1980s, when the tax was increased to 28 percent, the revenues went down.

So why raise it at all, especially given the fact that 100 million people in this country own stock and would be affected?

OBAMA: Well, Charlie, what I've said is that I would look at raising the capital gains tax for purposes of fairness.

Obama doesn't see taxation as a way to finance the activities of government (which it's not, but that's a separate story), but rather the instrument with which the government can mandate fairness. This is the man who says he's going to cut taxes for 95% of Americans, which is curious considering that 40% of Americans don't earn enough to pay income taxes.

Gibson presses him again later, and while you might be thinking that Obama played the fairness card because he couldn't deny the facts, well...he does exactly that.

GIBSON: But history shows that when you drop the capital gains tax, the revenues go up.

OBAMA: Well, that might happen, or it might not. It depends on what's happening on Wall Street and how business is going.

That's like saying, "Wow you know, every time we increase taxes on businesses, they cut jobs and raise their prices to make up for the increased tax liability. But you know, let's try it again. 'Cause it might happen, or it might not."

Are you starting to see a relationship between the likelihood of an Obama presidency and the plummeting of the stock market?

Labels: Election 2008, Obamamania, Taxes

Douglass K. Daniel, a writer and editor with the Washington bureau of the wire service that doesn't like to be quoted, apparently thinks that even pointing out Obama's ties to white radicals is racist. Putting the "anal" in "analysis," Daniel writes that Palin's charge that Obama has "palled around with terrorists" is unsubstantiated and (gasp) racist.

From "Analysis: Palin's Words Carry Racial Tinge:"

Palin's words avoid repulsing voters with overt racism. But is there another subtext for creating the false image of a black presidential nominee "palling around" with terrorists while assuring a predominantly white audience that he doesn't see their America?

In a post-Sept. 11 America, terrorists are envisioned as dark-skinned radical Muslims, not the homegrown anarchists of Ayers' day 40 years ago. With Obama a relative unknown when he began his campaign, the Internet hummed with false e-mails about ties to radical Islam of a foreign-born candidate.

Whether intended or not by the McCain campaign, portraying Obama as "not like us" is another potential appeal to racism. It suggests that the Hawaiian-born Christian is, at heart, un-American.

Most troubling, however, is how allowing racism to creep into the discussion serves McCain's purpose so well. As the fallout from Wright's sermons showed earlier this year, forcing Obama to abandon issues to talk about race leads to unresolved arguments about America's promise to treat all people equally.

The post-racial candidate has become the most-racial candidate. "It suggests that the Hawaiian-born Christian is, at heart, un-American?" Yeah, funny how much associating with unrepentant terrorists and then telling Americans "they cling to guns and religion" does to paint that picture.

Labels: Election 2008, Obamamania

First off, do you remember Barack's infamous Gaza phone bank? Here's a refresher:


Now, Ken Timmerman has written an excellent article on some of Obama's shadier campaign contributions, from folks like "Good Will" and "Doodad Pro." Sure, Obama isn't required to identify contributions of less than $200, but given that McCain does it voluntarily, along with the fact that Obama claims to be all about a different type of transparent politics (and has famously been helped by small/grassroots donors), it's a little odd that he hasn't released this information.

Timmerman agrees:

In a letter dated June 25, 2008, the FEC asked the Obama campaign to verify a series of $25 donations from a contributor identified as "Will, Good" from Austin, Texas. Mr. Good Will listed his employer as "Loving" and his profession as "You."

A Newsmax analysis of the 1.4 million individual contributions in the latest master file for the Obama campaign discovered 1,000 separate entries for Mr. Good Will, most of them for $25. In total, Mr. Good Will gave $17,375.

Following this and subsequent FEC requests, campaign records show that 330 contributions from Mr. Good Will were credited back to a credit card. But the most recent report, filed on Sept. 20, showed a net cumulative balance of $8,950 - still well over the $4,600 limit.

There can be no doubt that the Obama campaign noticed these contributions, since Obama’s Sept. 20 report specified that Good Will’s cumulative contributions since the beginning of the campaign were $9,375.

In an e-mailed response to a query from Newsmax, Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt pledged that the campaign would return the donations. But given the slowness with which the campaign has responded to earlier FEC queries, there’s no guarantee that the money will be returned before the Nov. 4 election.

Similarly, a donor identified as "Pro, Doodad," from "Nando, NY," gave $19,500 in 786 separate donations, most of them for $25. For most of these donations, Mr. Doodad Pro listed his employer as "Loving" and his profession as "You," just as Good Will had done. But in some of them, he didn’t even go this far, apparently picking letters at random to fill in the blanks on the credit card donation form. In these cases, he said he was employed by "VCX" and that his profession was "VCVC."

Following FEC requests, the Obama campaign began refunding money to Doodad Pro in February 2008. In all, about $8,425 was charged back to a credit card. But that still left a net total of $11,165 as of Sept. 20, way over the individual limit of $4,600. Here again, LaBolt pledged that the contributions would be returned but gave no date.

In February, after just 93 donations, Doodad Pro had already gone over the $2,300 limit for the primary. He was over the $4,600 limit for the general election one month later. In response to FEC complaints, the Obama campaign began refunding money to Doodad Pro even before he reached these limits. But his credit card was the gift that kept on giving. His most recent un-refunded contributions were on July 7, when he made 14 separate donations, apparently by credit card, of $25 each.

Just as with Mr. Good Will, there can be no doubt that the Obama campaign noticed the contributions, since its Sept. 20 report specified that Doodad’s cumulative contributions since the beginning of the campaign were $10,965.

Also worth noting is this excerpt from the Economist:

Until recently, the Obama Web site allowed a contributor to select the country where he resided from the entire membership of the United Nations, including such friendly places as North Korea and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Unlike McCain’s or Sen. Hillary Clinton’s online donation pages, the Obama site did not ask for proof of citizenship until just recently. Clinton’s presidential campaign required U.S. citizens living abroad to actually fax a copy of their passport before a donation would be accepted.

With such lax vetting of foreign contributions, the Obama campaign may have indirectly contributed to questionable fundraising by foreigners.

So the Messiah is bringing in heaps of cash from foreigners who may or may not be citizens, as well as equally large piles of money from inside the country from untraceable phantoms who make up identities and break up their contributions into smaller amounts, for which the reporting requirements aren't as strict.

Change!

Labels: Election 2008, Obamamania

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Here's an idea of how "neutral" the moderator for tomorrow's debate with Caribou Barbie and Greasy Joe will be. Gwen Ifill is releasing a book entitled The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. Really sounds nonpartisan, doesn't it? Here's an example of what you'll be getting:


I'd like you to forget about bias for a moment. Let's just assume Ifill isn't biased towards Barack Obama in her book. If Obama manages to lose, do you think her book will sell? Sure, it will. But a hell of a lot more copies will leave the shelves if Obama wins. A child could explain this to you.

So by moderator, they apparently mean "a person with a financial stake in the outcome of this election." You would think this would be immensely obvious, and it is to most rationally thinking people. If she had any shred of journalistic integrity, she would realize this herself and turn down the offer. But alas, she's got a book to sell, and a candidate to help win.

I'm surprised toward the end she didn't add, "Hold on Jim, I'm having trouble hearing you over whatever boring song they're singing."

Update: Here are some accurate comments from PBS viewer Brian Meyers of Granby, Connecticut about Ifill's convention coverage directly following Palin's speech.

"Her attitude was dismissive and the look on her face was one of disgust," Meyers said. "Clearly, she was agitated by what most critics view as a well-delivered speech. It is quite obvious that Ms. Ifill supports Obama as she struggled to say anything redemptive about Gov. Palin's performance."

Labels: Election 2008, Obamamania

Here are a couple stories that aim to tell you what you (should) already know. First, we go to Vienna, Austria, where the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has said that "all is not well with the IAEA." He also adds that after 6 years of inspections, the UN can't rule out "the possibility that [Iran] may be running clandestine nuclear programs."

A six-year probe of Iran has failed to rule out the possibility that the country may be running clandestine nuclear programs, the chief U.N nuclear inspector said Monday, urging the country to end its secretive ways.

"All is not well with the IAEA," ElBaradei said, asking the opening session of the agency's general conference for more money and authority.

Back in America, an email has surfaced via Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit, sent in by a reader who works in a mainstream media newsroom:

"Off the record, every suspicion you have about MSM being in the tank for O is true. We have a team of 4 people going thru dumpsters in Alaska and 4 in arizona. Not a single one looking into Acorn, Ayers or Freddiemae. Editor refuses to publish anything that would jeopardize election for O, and betting you dollars to donuts same is true at NYT, others. People cheer when CNN or NBC run another Palin-mocking but raising any reasonable inquiry into obama is derided or flat out ignored. The fix is in, and its working."

The only surprising thing here is that someone on the inside admitted what we all (should) know.

Labels: Election 2008, Iran, Media, Obamamania

Labels: Election 2008, Obamamania, Video

God forbid Barack's prompter goes Ron Burgundy on him:

Labels: Election 2008, Obamamania, Video

Sit down for this one. The Obama campaign is asking for the involvement of prosecutors and sheriffs who will be "reminding voters that Barack Obama is a Christian who wants to cut taxes." Apparently the politics of change includes dispatching government officials to stifle criticism. Are you joking?
St. Louis Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce is maintaining that the tactics will not be used for "prosecuting people," not through any decisions made by Obama's Brownshirts, but through a little something called the First Amendment.

As a citizen, I believe that elections should be about issues. I also have enormous respect for our First Amendment and freedom of speech. My sole purpose in participating in this initiative is about getting truthful information to the voters. This has never been or never will be about prosecuting people.

Then why is it, Jennifer, that Obama's campaign is "asking Missouri law enforcement to target" people? No one has to be prosecuted for this to work. The goal isn't to jail anyone (because again, thanks to the First Amendment they can't); the goal is to have the fear of potential litigation factor into anyone's decision to criticize the Messiah.

The Governor of Missouri lays it out pretty clearly in his statement:

"This abuse of the law for intimidation insults the most sacred principles and ideals of Jefferson. I can think of nothing more offensive to Jefferson’s thinking than using the power of the state to deprive Americans of their civil rights. The only conceivable purpose...is to frighten people away from expressing themselves, to chill free and open debate, to suppress support and donations to conservative organizations targeted by this anti-civil rights, to strangle criticism of Mr. Obama, to suppress ads about his support of higher taxes, and to choke out criticism on television, radio, the Internet, blogs, e-mail and daily conversation about the election.

Barack Obama needs to grow up. Leftist blogs and others in the press constantly say false things about me and my family. Usually, we ignore false and scurrilous accusations because the purveyors have no credibility. When necessary, we refute them. Enlisting Missouri law enforcement to intimidate people and kill free debate is reminiscent of the Sedition Acts - not a free society."

He promised you a new type of politics, didn't he?

Labels: Election 2008, Obamamania

So after a year and a half of campaigning, claims of practicing "post-racial" politics, endless cries of racism toward any detractor, and columnists even predicting a "race war" if McCain "steals the election" (by winning it), it's come to this: Joe Biden telling black voters to elect Barack Obama because he's black:

Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden, campaigning in North Carolina where black votes could help swing the state to the Democrats, said today that electing a black person to the White House would be transformative.

Biden said the policies of running mate Barack Obama make his presidency even more urgent and declared this to be the most important election that any living person has seen in their lifetime. But he particularly singled out the meaning of electing someone who is black.

"That will be a transformative event in American politics and internationally," Biden said. "That all by itself will be significant."

Anyone remember what Biden had to say about Barack before he secured the nomination? I'm surprised he didn't tell the voters of North Carolina how clean and articulate Obama is:

"I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," Biden said. "I mean, that's a storybook, man."

You stay classy, Joe.

Labels: Election 2008, Obamamania

Rational-thinking Briton Gerard Baker writes in the Times Online today that the reason the presidential race is so close is because there is a "yawning gulf between what [Barack Obama] says and how he has acted." He's right.


It's a pretty sober column, and worth reading in its entirety, but here are some excerpts:

This election is a struggle between the followers of American exceptionalism and the supporters of global universalism. Democrats are more eager than ever to align the US with the rest of the Western world, especially Europe. This is true not just in terms of a commitment to multilateral diplomacy that would restore the United Nations to its rightful place as arbiter of international justice.

It is also reflected in the type of place they'd like America to be - a country with higher taxes, more business regulation, a much larger welfare safety net and universal health insurance. The Republicans, who still believe America should follow the beat of its own drum, are pretty much against all of that.

This is of course true, and explains why Barry is so immensely popular with Europeans, young and old alike. Obama and the rest of the American Left are essentially the arbiters of egalitarian values; values which seem to work just fine for Europe, but which are distinctly un-American. However, Baker says this isn't the only reason to be nervous about Obama:

Even if you think that Americans should want to turn their country into a European-style system, there is a perfectly good reason that you might have grave doubts about Mr. Obama.

The essential problem coming to light is a profound disconnect between the Barack Obama of the candidate's speeches, and the Barack Obama who has actually been in politics for the past decade or so.

Speechmaker Obama talks about an era of bipartisanship, He speaks powerfully about the destructive politics of red and blue states.

Politician Obama has toed his party's line more reliably than almost any other Democrat in US politics. He has a near-perfect record of voting with his side. He has the most solidly left-wing voting history in the Senate. His one act of bipartisanship, a transparency bill co-sponsored with a Republican senator, was backed by everybody on both sides of the aisle. He has never challenged his party's line on any issue of substance.

If you're an Obama voter, yet still possess some capacity for rational thought, this could be devastating. If I were John McCain, I'd be loading my cannons with this ammunition. This isn't an opinion, it's a fact, and one that I'm glad someone outside the United States is mentioning: John McCain, as insufferable as he can be at times, is the only person running for president with real reform experience, and a resume full of uncomfortable positions which went against his own party's interests. Or, to put it in terms Mr. Obama can understand, "change from the politics of usual."

Of course we know Barack Obama had the number one most liberal Senate voting record in 2007, and has never broken from his party on the Iraq war, abortion, redefining marriage, health care, taxes, immigration, or any issue of importance to the American people. He's a dyed-in-the-wool Leftist who, until just a few years ago, no one knew existed. Baker continues:

Speechmaker Obama talks a lot about finding ways to move beyond the bloody battlegrounds of the "culture wars" in America; the urgent need to establish consensus on the emotive issue of abortion.

Politician Obama's support for abortion rights is the most extreme of any Democratic senator. In the Illinois legislature he refused to join Democrats and Republicans in supporting a Bill that would require doctors to provide medical care for babies who survived abortions. No one in the Senate - not the arch feminist Hillary Clinton nor the superliberal Edward Kennedy - opposed this same humane measure.

So it seems Obama does break with his own party, but only to run even farther to the left of them. Gerard sums up his analysis with the following gem:

The fact is that a vote for Mr. Obama demands uncritical subservience to the irrational, anti-empirical proposition that the past holds no clues about the future, that promise is wholly detached from experience. The second-greatest story ever told, perhaps.

As I've said before, as the Hope-ium and Dreamamine highs slowly wear off, and the enlightened and anoited drift back down to Earth, Captain Change doesn't seem quite so bulletproof anymore.

Labels: Election 2008, Obamamania

First, you'll need watch McCain's latest ad, which accuses the Messiah's campaign of being "disrespectful" towards Sarahcuda, after asserting that she was lying about her record:

Check out the latest McCain ad, especially the line, "How disrespectful." Doesn't it just drip with contempt? The sort of old-fashioned contempt that whites often held blacks in (and obviously still do).

I agreed with Jim Geraghty at National Review Online when he said, "If Obama becomes president...I fear that for at least four years, the president's disapproval rating would be widely described as the new National Racism Index."

If anyone with criticism of Barack Obama is going to be labeled a racist, then consider me a racist, because the man doesn't have my vote.

Labels: Election 2008, Obamamania

This is of course the wisdom from New York Democrat governor David Paterson. You might remember him as "that blind guy who became governor when that other guy got caught with prostitutes." Paterson has implied that Republicans want to use Obama's "blackness" to portray him negatively, and that substituting "community organizer" for "black" is how they're going to do accomplish this.

This is race-baiting, pure and simple. Remember, the mocking of the idea that Barack's community organizing qualifies as legitimate experience only found its way into Palin's rhetoric after the Obama campaign ridiculed her credentials as mayor of Wasilla and governor of Alaska.

From the CBS article, here's what the governor had to say:

"I think the Republican Party is too smart to call Barack Obama 'black' in a sense that it would be a negative. But you can take something about his life, which I noticed they did at the Republican Convention - a 'community organizer.' They kept saying it, they kept laughing," he said.

Paterson sees the repeated use of the words "community organizer" as Republican code for "black".

"I think where there are overtones is when there are uses of language that are designed to inhibit other people's progress with a subtle reference to their race," he said.

Hope!

Labels: Election 2008, Obamamania

What happens when you make your convention speech in front of a giant blue video screen? Your day is made:

For you Obama voters: Sorry, it's not real.

Labels: Obamamania, Video