Melanie Phillips: Is America Really Going To Do This?

As the election draws near, British columnist, Melanie Phillips, shares her thoughts here.

I Am Joe Too!

The Conservative Fun House: Episode 17

Topics discussed: Joe the Plumber, the liberal media's attempt to destroy Joe, Senator Government, Howard Stern displays the ignorance of Obama supporters, the racial divide of America, the media's protection of Barack Obama, Bill Ayers: Terrorist, ACORN

Who's Playing The Race Card?

Just after publishing my last posting, I came across this new editorial by the Washington Post's Charles Krauthammer. Remember what I said about Barack Obama being a true politician and about the mainstream media not doing their jobs?! Krauthammer provides evidence ... over & over & over again.

The Lighter Side of the Presidential Campaign

John McCain killed!

More on Joe the Plumber

I'm convinced that the upcoming presidential election is going to come down to one issue: How many voters share Joe Wurzelbacher's view of America and how many share Barack Obama's? Make no mistake, they are diametrically opposed.

Lisa Schiffren carefully outlines the differences. Here are some key sections:

Joe, who is, as you know, a plumber, not a candidate for high office, or even, probably, a college graduate, is much clearer about the economy and how job creation actually works in a real life, micro-economic way than either man who might be president. John McCain understands what Joe expresses, but cannot articulate it.

Barack Obama has no clue that there is an economically and socially valuable stratum of our society that is comprised of millions of guys (and women) like Joe, who didn't need a handout to get started; were willing to work hard for their piece of the pie; will "redistribute" their earings far more effectively by expanding their businesses and hiring new employees than by handing over money to the state to give to the non-productive. Or maybe Obama understands the argument, but holds the usual Marxist contempt for the "petite bourgeois," of whom Joe is surely one.

It was only a decade ago that this country did away with "welfare as we knew it," because it had become all too evident that it functioned more as a trap than as a safety net. Did we not learn that welfare undermines the kind of ambition, personal discipline, and habits of mind needed to expend the effort to educate oneself, earn money, save, invest, and accomplish things?

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How thick is the irony that my country of Canada has just voted in a Conservative government for the second time in a row, yet the United States of America is entertaining the idea of a Great Socialist Experiment. Strange times in this New Millennium! Strange times indeed.

Sadly, McCain Will Lose

I woke up this morning and saw John McCain say this:

I want to be President of the United States and obviously I do not want Senator Obama to be, but I have to tell you . . . he is a decent person and a person that you do not have to be scared as President of the United States.

That may be true but it is the very last thing a politician should ever say to his supporters.

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In The Untouchables, Sean Connery's character said this:

You wanna know how to get Capone? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. *That's* the *Chicago* way! And that's how you get Capone. Now do you want to do that? Are you ready to do that? I'm offering you a deal. Do you want this deal?

Through his endless supporters in the MSM, ACORN, and a host of other highly partisan organizations, Barack Obama has brought a machine gun to the fight. They will say & do anything to win, no matter how vile and despicable. John McCain refuses to bring anything to the fight other than his bare knuckles. McCain is an honorable man who has given his life to his country. But his country will not elect him president on November 4th.

Republicans Are Finally Getting Mad!

The Great Financial Swindle of 2008

Arguably the most important, clear, and concise article to date on the U.S. Sub-Prime Mortgage mess was published yesterday in the Wall Street Journal. You can read it here.

Now that I have taken the time and made a concerted effort to gain a much clearer understanding of what caused this huge financial problem, I am absolutely amazed that Democrats and many of their friends in the media are trying to blame the Republicans for this problem. Does not truth matter anymore?

Prominent Democrat Now Supporting John McCain

I heard an interesting interview on Michael Medved's show with Lynn Forester de Rothschild, regarding her decision to now formally back John McCain. Of course, the knives have already come out for her from the Radical Left!

Paraphrasing, here are the reasons she gave for supporting McCain:

1. She's a lifelong Democrat and never thought she would ever vote Republican but frightened by the MoveOn.org, Nancy Pelosi, and Howard Dean influence on her party. She's a Centrist Democrat and needs for America to have a strong foreign policy and a strong growth policy, which Obama does not.
2. What Obama said in Denver was all "tax & spend". History has shown that this is the wrong course for America. Obama seems to lack a real understanding of basic economics.
3. Obama constantly fluctuates with his positions and we really don't know what he believes in.
4. She hates to see the class warfare that the Obama campaign is trying to play.

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Update: Here she is on CNN:

John McCain Tribute Video

Jill Greenberg: "Professional" Photographer

Well, you decide on the "professional" part: here, here, here, & here.

Expect the McCain-Palin polls to rise even further.

Ronald Reagan, John McCain, and Sarah Palin

The Inane Campaign

The New Jersey Star-Ledger newspaper published this editorial today condemning both McCain and Obama for not focusing on real issues. Mostly McCain though.

Here was my response to them:

You make a good point about irrelevant issues occupying the majority of time in the election campaign so far. But I disagree with you about the blame falling mostly on McCain's shoulders. This is clearly incorrect. The greatest blame of all falls collectively with all of you in the mainstream media.

It started the day after Sarah Palin's introduction to the national stage. Radical Left bloggers started generating an endless stream of rumors and smears and the mainstream media (MSM) blindly reported on many of them without any fact checking. This wave of attacks didn't destroy her but only made her more popular.

So then vicious personal attacks started occurring from MSM columnists, many of them women. Are they entitled to their opinions? Absolutely, but clearly in the minds of many a line was crossed. This 2nd wave of attacks didn't destroy her either. Her popularity just kept going up.

At the same time countless news articles kept coming out with a clear bias against Palin. The headlines were often misleading and often the interior text seemed more like an editorial than a news story. Ditto again on the end effect and her popularity.

The 3rd wave of attacks occurred on TV. The worst of all was the coverage at the RNC by MSNBC but other networks were far from unbiased. Then last night there was Charlie Gibson's interview on ABC. Tough questions are what we all want (of ALL politicians incidentally!) but his body language spoke volumes, especially to tens of millions of women watching. Also, we learned today from Charles Krauthammer that Palin was not the one who made the gaffe about the Bush Doctrine. Gibson was. If a journalist is going to try to lead a politician down the "Gotcha" path, they better have their facts correct.

Recent polls have been done, asking for people's perceptions of media bias in favor of Obama and against Palin. Even in very liberal Washington State, the vast majority of respondents could clearly see it.

All of this was a gift from God for the Republicans and they milked it for all it was worth. As would everyone else in the same situation!

So yes, with just 53 days left, serious issues should be discussed. The American people demand it! Step #1 is for every journalist who cares about their profession to put their own egos aside, stop worrying about their own popularity, and start doing their job. Step #2 is for media outlets to not play into the "You are too; I am not" nonsense. Just don't report on it and the politicians will be forced to focus back on the real issues facing America.

But can even a minority of the MSM accomplish Step #1? Somehow I doubt it.

Ooops, Looks like "The Gaffe" Wasn't Palin's!

Looks like Palin wasn't the one who made the gaffe in the recent interview with Charlie Gibson. It was actually HIM and the Washington Post's Charles Krauthammer explains why.

Be sure to take a look at the comments on Krauthammer's article. The new line of attack from those with PDS (Palin Derangement Syndrome) is that whenever she answers a question succinctly, "it must be a prepared answer". I recall that at the Saddleback forum, McCain was accused of "cheating" in a similar way. If a student takes a math test and gets 95%, is your first inclination to condemn him for "being prepared"?

The further we get into this election, do you get the sense that Obama's supporters are like those parents of a young child who interject themselves far too much into the kid's sporting activities? In the deepest recesses of their minds they know he's only a mediocre athlete but keep talking to the coach as if he's a superstar. "Why don't you give Barry more playing time?", they ask, "he's the real star on the team. Why can't you see that? It's SO obvious!"

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On a related note, let me say something that I assure you is with the greatest sincerity. In order for a good democracy to function there must be at least two strong opposing parties. In America, where there are really only two major political parties, if one is hamstrung or enfeebled in some way then democracy suffers. Period.

It is becoming crystal clear that the Mainstream Media and their comrades in the Extreme Left Blogosophere are losing this election for Barack Obama. Not just by a little, but by a lot. An awful lot. Some Democrats are speaking out about this now but the major players in the media seem to be too arrogant to hear what is truly sage advice.

There are just 53 days left until election day. If things continue as-is then not only will no important issues get debated, but Journalism, which was once an important institution in the election process will continue to be discredited. And rightly so with their current behaviour.

I don't support Barack Obama primarily because of his proposed economic policies. His rhetoric is just too spookily similar to that which I've heard all my life from [far-left socialist] NDP leaders in Canada and the provinces of British Columbia and Ontario. I've lived through NDP regimes in both of these provinces and the economy was ruined by both of them. That's why I think Obama is a poor choice. But I do believe that Americans deserve to have McCain and Obama seriously debate real issues and then from that the people can decide. Too bad the media disagrees.

Detailed Analysis on the U.S. Election So Far

John Romano is a music producer in Los Angeles. He's also a frequent contributor to George Webley's show on BBC London Radio. He was on this evening, sharing his thoughts on 9/11 and providing his analysis of the U.S. presidential campaign. I wrote him afterwards. Here's part of that e-mail.

There are a few things that I keep on trying to get across to George's audience but I don't think they grasp or accept what I'm saying:

1. Sarah Palin is the new superstar on the American political scene. I don't believe her popularity is going away anytime soon; certainly not before November 4th.
   
   
2. Barack Obama may be the leader of the world in the minds of many around the world, but his halo is quickly fading in America. He has made a few gaffs of late and it's now clear that he's somewhat of a stutterer when there's no prepared speech on a teleprompter; not a good handicap for a politician.
   
   
3. I believe that Palin's appeal to the average middle-of-the-road American has several components:
1. She appears to be a real person, not a phoney politician.
2. She is reminiscent of the sturdy frontier women of the 19th Century, an image that has been ingrained in people's minds through many Western films.
3. She is bright and confident and definitely a self-made person, not a blue-blood elitist.
4. She hunts and fishes up in Alaska, activities that many in Europe simply cannot understand.
   
5. She represents a fresh change in Washington, DC, something that cannot be said of McCain or Biden and increasingly perhaps not even of Obama.
   
   
4. These 5 traits above would have made her popular, but do not explain the superstar status she has achieved so quickly. For that to happen, here are the factors that I believe are responsible:
1. The left-wing blogosphere went way beyond the pale during the Labor Day Weekend, viciously attacking Sarah Palin and her children. Many of the rumors started circulating out into the mainstream news. Like a great battle of old, the conservative blogosphere researched and disproved these rumors, one by one. This hurt the credibility of those who created the rumors. Once proved false, no reasonable person could remain unoffended by the smears, especially those against her children.
   
   
2. That same weekend and continuing steady for at least another week, much of the mainstream media seemed to throw the Rules of Journalism book out the window and spread the rumors without first double-checking them. Polls were taken last week, asking if people thought the media was deliberately out to hurt Palin. The results were an unequivocal and loud "Yes!", even in very liberal states like Washington.
   
   
3. Very "catty", often vicious attacks against Sarah Palin started coming from a legion of supposedly "feminist" female columnists and politicians. To the average person, this made no sense, for though one might very well not agree with Sarah Palin's views, clearly there was no disputing that she was a real feminist herself. Apparently not the right kind of feminist to her attackers though. In less than 2 weeks the hypocrisy of so-called feminists was exposed like never before in history. One feminist who stayed true to actual feminist convictions was Camille Paglia. She wrote the best analysis yet of Sarah Palin's entrance onto the national political stage. Finally on this point, one thing I can't prove but have long suspected is that a majority of American women and the vast majority of American men have not been at all comfortable with the radical left's version of feminism. They've tolerated it, not wanting to be labeled as sexists, but were never really comfortable with it.
   
   
5. So the more Sarah Palin was attacked, the greater her popularity became. When attacked on her experience, it mostly exposed Obama's lack of the same, which is a bit surreal since he is running for the top job and her only for the VP position. Your quip about "running to be president" not being realistic experience to actually be president was spot on.
   
   
6. Foreign bloggers, journalists, politicians, and comedians insisted upon getting in on the action, criticizing Palin & McCain and/or praising Obama. This only helped the former and hurt the latter. Obama endorsements by Fidel Castro and the leadership of Iran has to be icing on the cake for Republican strategists. You can already envision the TV ads.
   
   
7. There's now talk/hope amongst some on the left that Joe Biden will suddenly step down for health reasons or the like, Hillary Clinton will replace him, and the Democrats will cruise on to a certain victory. I'm not so sure that such an obviously contrived move would guarantee anything but great weakness within Obama. But more significant than that, such a suggestion dismisses Hillary's ambitions and intelligence. It's very much in HER best interest for Obama to lose this election, so she can come back in 2012 as the candidate that the Democrats are almost certain to nominate. By that time mistakes will have been made in the McCain-Palin presidency and Palin will amost certainly not be as popular as she is right now.
   

Anyway, that's my analysis of what has occurred so far. Only time will tell how right (or wrong!) I am.

The Charlie Gibson interview on ABC will now occupy the news cycle until at least mid-week next. I've seen the short version that ran this evening. A one hour version will be tomorrow night at 10pm. The usual suspects on the left will say she blew it, the ones on the right that she did great.

Technical Side-Note: On the conservative blogosphere there is frequent mention of strange editing cuts. Undoubtedly the RNC handlers will have filmed the entire interview too. If it is revealed that ABC made even one edit that makes Palin look bad, expect a renewed backlash against the media for being in the bag for Obama.

Finally, it's becoming clear just how powerful the New Media now is. If this is correct then it means that even prominent mainstream media outlets like the Washington Post are having their news articles scrutinized like never before. I actually think that's a great thing because there absolutely should be a separation between "news" and editorial comment.

Film Discovered of John McCain's Release in Hanoi in 1973

September 11, 2008 - 10:03
Malin Rising, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Swedish broadcaster SVT has released a previously unseen film clip purportedly showing the release of presidential candidate John McCain to the U.S. military in Hanoi in 1973.

A former SVT reporter, Erik Eriksson, said Thursday he found the video in the network's archives when he was looking for footage for a book he was writing about his experiences as a war correspondent in Vietnam.


More info here.

Pigs with Lipstick & Fish in Newspaper

Maybe Obama meant it as a dig, maybe he didn't.

Either way, it's an insignificant issue. Next!

Barack Obama, A Post-Partisan Politician ... As If!

John McCain and Sarah Palin in Colorado Springs

Video here.