WHY OBAMA DIDN'T WAIT

Obama should have waited four years or eight.

But he didn't wait - even though he knew he wasn't ready:



SO, WHY DID HE IGNORE HIS OWN OPINION AND RUSH INTO IT LAST YEAR??

Because his collective (Ayers, Axelrod, The Chicago Machine, Teddy Kennedy et al) decided this was the year - (because of the weakening economy, a faltering war in Iraq, low approval rating for the GOP and Bush, etc.): they all believed all they had to do was pick off Hillary and they could waltz into the White House.

So they pushed him in.

Too bad for them The Surge worked and the economy has been holding off a recession - albeit by the slimmest of margins. (If we can get oil down some more I think there will be no recession. PREDICTION $99/barrel within ten days!)

But more importantly, the Obama Collective failed to see ONCE AGAIN that most Americans don't want to return to the failed policies of the past.

We don't want Carter Redux. We don't believe that income redistribution will grow the economy. Or that appeasing those who wish us harm brings peace.

As a result, not only will Obama be defeated this year... HE IS THRU FOREVER. The man the left has groomed for decades is about to be delegated to the dustbins of history with Carter and Dukakis and Mondale And Kerry.

Good riddance.

JOHN McCAIN WAS RIGHT ABOUT GOVERNOR PALIN

Senator John S. McCain was right about Governor Palin. He knew more about her than the drive-by media did.

And he knew more about what would happen when more troops on the ground and new rules of engagement were about to be deployed in Iraq -- the "surge" -- than either the media or Senator Barack [middle name redacted] Obama.

And he undoubtedly knows a lot more, and is right about a lot more, than either the media pundits who are enthralled with Obama or Obama himself.

That's what the lamp of experience shows . . .

REFORMERS' RECORDS: PALIN vs OBAMA

Patrick Henry once said:

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past.

So how does the lamp of experience illuminate Senator Barack [middle name redacted] Obama's record as a reformer?

As extensively documented in David Freddoso's recent book, Senator Obama is not a reformer at all.

He "won" his first election to the Illinois Senate unopposed, after having paid consultants use petition challenges to knock every other candidate off the ballot -- including his original sponsor, the incumbent, Alice Palmer. None of the voters he had registered as a "community organizer" had a chance to vote for anybody except him. A pattern typical, by the way, not only of the corrupt Chicago machine, but of totalitarian dictators everywhere.

As State Senator, Obama was part of the corrupt political machine that uses Chicago and Illinois politics as a means of transferring the taxpayers' money into the pockets of politicians, their families, and their corrupt associates. For 17 years, Barack Obama was a close political associate of Antoin Rezko, who made a lucrative career out of defrauding the taxpayers with phony urban renewal projects. Obama intervened on Rezko's behalf, and was so close to him, that Rezko engineered a special deal so that Obama could buy his mansion in Hyde Park.

As United States Senator, Obama intervened on behalf of the machine candidate for president of the Cook County Board, Todd Stroger. He supported the Daley machine.

And he signed off on 750 million dollars in earmarks.

In all of his brief career in elected office, Obama has never worked for or enacted one single real reform. He has no record as a reformer at all.

On the other hand, when the lamp of experience illuminates the governmental career of Governor Sarah Palin, it reveals a long history of successful reforms.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Governor Palin's track record includes:

Overhauling a corrupt deal the previous Governor tried to give the energy companies;

She did not take one earmark Obama voted for - the "bridge to nowhere;"

Taking on her own party and defeating that corrupt Governor in the primary;

Passing a new ethics law;

She beat Alaska's establishment, and that's why the entrenched Washington power grabbers are afraid of her.

Do you want real change? Do you thing Washington needs reform?

Then it is obvious you should vote for Senator McCain and Governor Palin.

THE PROBLEM WITH OBAMA... and Ayers and Wright and Rezko and Khalidi and Davis and Farrakhan and Alinsky... and so on ...

GOOD BLOG.




GREAT AYERS POST.

MORE PALINMANIA: "Opticians Report Surge In Requests For Palin's Frames"

WNBC SANDIEGO: What Women Want -- Palin's Glasses

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is not just rocking the political world -- she's creating quite a frenzy for opticians with her signature frames.

Doug D'Amico said he's rushing to order Palin's glasses. The Encinitas optician told NBC 7/39 he's getting calls from women who want to buy the same glasses worn by Palin during her convention speech Wednesday night.

"It's fun," D'Amico says. "While we stay away from politics, the glasses make a strong professional statement."

The plan is to get the glasses in the store sometime Friday.

D'Amico's office, Europtics, is located at the Lumberyard Shopping Mall in North County, but it's not the only store getting calls.

Reports coming in across the country say that eyewear companies haven't seen interest in a pair of glasses like this in years.

USA TODAY:

It's been awhile since the optical business has been as charged by celebrity specs as it has by the rimless pair the vice presidential nominee wears most of the time. If she wins, it could rock the vision-care market, which totals $26.6 billion a year, says tracker Jobson Optical Research.

It's already shaking up the company that makes them.

"We keep getting calls from dealers who want to stock the exact shape and style that she's wearing," says Amy Hahn, vice president at Italee, the U.S. distributor of the frames designed by Kazuo Kawasaki, a Japanese industrial designer.

ORDER THEM HERE.

AWESOME!


MUCH BETTER THAN HILLARY'S!

FANNIE MAE AND FREDDIE MAC BAILOUT COMING - DUE TO FRAUDULENT BOOK-KEEPING

NYTIMES: Loan Giant Overstated the Size of Its Capital Base

The government’s planned takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, expected to be announced on Sunday, came together after advisers poring over the companies’ books for the Treasury Department concluded that Freddie’s accounting methods had overstated its capital cushion, according to regulatory officials briefed on the matter.

... Just a week ago, Treasury officials were still considering a wide variety of options for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, ranging from doing nothing to taking over the companies completely, according to people with knowledge of those discussions.

The Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., who won authority from Congress last month to use taxpayer money to bolster the companies, always maintained that he hoped never to use that power. But, as the companies’ stocks continued to languish and their borrowing costs rose, some within the Treasury Department began urging Mr. Paulson to intervene quickly.

Then, last week, advisers from Morgan Stanley hired by the Treasury Department to scrutinize the companies came to a troubling conclusion: Freddie Mac’s capital position was worse than initially imagined, according to people briefed on those findings. The company had made decisions that, while not necessarily in violation of accounting rules, had the effect of overstating the companies’ capital resources and financial stability.

... Accusations of questionable accounting are not new for either company. Earlier this decade, both companies paid large fines and ousted their top executives after accounting scandals.

Freddie Mac’s current chief executive and chairman, Richard F. Syron, joined the company in 2003 after the former managers revealed that they had manipulated earnings by almost $5 billion. The next year, Fannie Mae’s chief executive, Daniel H. Mudd, was promoted to the top spot after that company was accused of accounting errors totaling $6.3 billion.

... “We have just had to nationalize the two largest financial institutions in the world because of policy makers’ inaction,” said Josh Rosner, an analyst at Graham Fisher, an independent research firm in New York, and a longtime critic of the government-sponsored enterprises. “Since 2003, when these companies’ accounting came under question, policy makers have done nothing.”

ROSNER IS 10000000% CORRECT: THESE OUTFITS HAVE BEEN THE CORRUPTLY EXPLOITED FOR PATRONAGE FOR DECADES:

• JAMIE GORELICK AND FRANKLIN RAINES WERE CLINTON GANG-MEMBERS WHO DID THE SAME CRAP YEARS AGO.
• THE SAD AND SICK AND MADDENING THING IS WE THE TAXPAYERS ARE GONNA HAVE TO PICK UP THE BILL.
• WE ARE ALWAYS LEFT HOLDING THE BAG.
  
• IF THEY HAD BEEN TRULY PRIVATE THEN WE PROBABLY WOULD NOT BE INT HIS MESS.
• AND WHAT'S THE RESULT NOW!? THEY ARE GONNA BECOME EVEN MORE "PUBLIC".
• THIS IS MORE SOCIALISM, NOT LESS.
• AFTER THE FEDS CLEAN UP THESE TWO OUTFITS THEY OUGHT TO SELL THEM.

MCCAIN DRAWS A HUGE CROWD IN COLORADO!

CHANNEL 7 - THE DENVER CHANNEL:

McCain, Palin Draw Huge Crowd In Colorado Springs

RELIAPUNDIT:

IT'S A KEY BATTLEGROUND STATE, AND I PREDICT IN A WEEK OR SO THAT THE POLLS WILL SHOW IT'S MCCAIN-PALIN COUNTRY.

UPDATE: HOT AIR HAS VIDEO.

BIDEN'S MANSION - AND HIS VERY OWN GENEROUS REZKOS

Compared to Biden's series of slimy dealings detailed here by the local Delaware press (via Hot Air), Obama had it easy: he just had to call longtime friend and totally corrupt influence peddler Tony Rezko, (which we first blogged on way back in 2006 and again in 2007).

BOTTOM-LINE: Obama and Biden are totally corrupt.

ROUND UP HERE.

WEEKLY STANDARD: WHY THEY HATE PALIN

GOOD ARTICLE. BUT LONGISH.

• HERE'S THE SHORT ANSWER: SHE DOESN'T PLAY THE VICTIM CARD; SHE TEARS IT UP - NOT JUST HER POLITICS, BUT HER PERSONALITY, PERSONAL HISTORY AND IDENTITY.
• AND VICTMHOOD IS THE SACRED TOUCHSTONE FOR POSTMODERN LEFTISM.
• SO SHE DEMOLISHES THEM WHERE IT COUNTS.

MORE MEDIA TREASON: WOODWARD AND PELLEY REVEAL IRAQ WAR SECRETS

CBS:

Bob Woodward reveals the use of a top-secret military capability in Iraq that locates enemies and targets them for killing in his first interview about his latest book on the Bush White House.

The interview will be broadcast on 60 Minutes Sunday, Sept. 7, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

"This is very sensitive and very top secret, but there are secret operational capabilities that have been developed by the military to locate, target, and kill leaders-of Al Qaeda in Iraq, insurgent leaders, renegade militia leaders that is one of the true breakthroughs," Woodward tells correspondent Scott Pelley. "If you were an Al-Qaeda leader or part of the insurgency in Iraq, or one of these renegade militias, and you knew about what they were able to do, you’d get your ass out of town."

WHO CAN THE INFO HELP, AND DOES IT HURT?

• IT HELPS AL QAEDA. IT HURTS THE USA. IN A TIME OF WAR.
• PELLEY AND WOODWARD SHOULD BE CHARGED, TIRED AND CONVICTED AND SHOT FOR TREASON.
• THIS ISN'T THE FIRST TIME THESE TWO TRAITORS HAVE LEAKED SENSITIVE NATIONAL SECURITY INFO. PELLEY AND 60 MINUTES WERE ESPECIALLY BAD ON HADITHA, TOO.
• THESE TWO GUYS ARE TRAITOROUS SC*MB*GS.

ARUGULA vs CARIBOU

That line from a sign carried by an enthusiastic voter in Cedarburg, just about says it all, no?

The outcome of this battle in the culture wars is no longer seriously in doubt.

Reliapundit adds: two pictures:




















RELAIPUNDIT ALSO ADDS:

TODAY, OBAMA TRIED TO ACCUSE PALIN OF BEING PRO-EARMARK.

THIS IS ASTOUNDING ON TWO COUNTS:

1. OBAMA (AND BIDEN) VOTED FOR THE BRIDGE TO NOWHERE, WHICH PALIN CANCELED.
2. OBAMA HAS $750 MILLION OF EARMARKS IN HIS SHORT SENATE CAREER, INCLUDING $3MILLION TO BIDEN'S SON.

STILL, IT IS GREAT NEWS THAT OBAMA FEELS THAT IT'S NECESSARY TO GO AFTER MCCAIN'S VEEP!

IT SHOWS THAT OBAMA HAS LOST. IT'S OVER.

REPRISE: LEADING DEMS SAY OBAMA IS NOT READY

NONE OF THESE LEADING DEMOCRATS EVER SAID THE SAME THING ABOUT ANY OTHER CANDIDATE.

THINK ABOUT THAT!

WATCH:

OBAMA'S KEY FINANCIER IS NOT ONLY A LOBBYIST, BUT A KEY LAWYER FOR THE WEATHERMEN

UNBEFRICKINGLIEVEABLE.

ANOTHER BIG LINK BETWEEN OBAMA AND THE WEATHERMEN AND BILL AYERS.

• THIS IS THE SAME TURD WHO TOLD LAURA INGRAHAM THAT PALIN SHOULD BE HOME MINDING THE KIDS.
• WHAT A HYPOCRITICAL LEFTIE SC*MB*G.
• THERE'S ONLY ONE REASON HE'D SAY SUCH SEXIST THINGS ON THE RADIO: THESE COMMIES WILL DO ANYTHING TO GET ELECTED.
• DON'T BE DUPED.

VOTE ACCORDINGLY.

THERE'S NO LONGER ANY NEED TO QUESTION THE PATRIOTISM OF OBAMA'S DEMOCRAT PARTY - BECAUSE WE KNOW THE ANSWER...

THEY ARE NOT PATRIOTIC.

• UNLESS YOU THINK TRASHING THE FLAG IS OKAY.
• (DON'T WORRY: THE MCCAIN-PALIN CAMPAIGN TEAM IS SAVING THE FLAGS.)
• MAYBE DEMOCRATS WILL RESPECT THE FLAG IF OBAMA RE-DESIGNS IT THE WAY HE RE-DESIGNED THE PRESIDENTIAL SEAL.HEH.

VOTE ACCORDINGLY.

Update: great photoshop here.

MUST SEE VIDEO: IRAQI VET RIPS OBAMA A NEW ONE

HERE.

OR HERE.

WATCH IT TO THE END - IT'S UNDER 2 MINUTES LONG.

IT'S AWESOME.

• MEN AND WOMEN LIKE THIS MADE THIS COUNTRY FREE.

• MEN AND WOMEN LIKE THIS MADE THIS COUNTRY GREAT.

VOTE ACCORDINGLY.

RUSSIA ARMING HIZBALLAH

JPOST:

"Russia has sold advanced weapons to the regimes in Syria and Iran. Some of the Russian weapons sold to Damascus have been channeled to terrorist fighters in Lebanon and Iraq," said US Vice President Dick Cheney during a conference in Italy Saturday evening.

"Russian arms-dealing has endangered the prospects for peace and freedom in [the Middle East]," he went on.

PUTIN'S RUSSIA IS PART OF THE AXIS OF EVIL - PERHAPS THE HUB.

WHO WILL DEAL WITH THIS MORE EFFECTIVELY. MCCAIN OR OBAMA?

MCCAIN.

VOTE ACCORDINGLY.

COURAGE UNDER FIRE?

Jim Treacher nails it:

It occurs to me: If Obama's experience in this presidential campaign is itself to be considered one of his qualifications for the Oval Office, what are we to make of his performance over the last few days? Is this an indication of how he deals with adversity? Because -- and this may be unfair -- it seems to me that over the next 4 years, the President of the United States will face much tougher challenges than watching a cute lady with glasses make fun of him on TV.

Hie thee hence.

TAMPA-ST PETE VOTERS (on the other hand) WANT MCCAIN TO WIN

WFLA-TV has just published a poll of American voters in the Tampa-St.Petersburg area. Jack Fowler noticed some of the findings at the Corner:

• Who has the better plan for Iraq? McCain
• For energy independence? McCain
• For Health care? McCain
• Who is stronger on the environment? McCain
• On education? McCain

And there's more:

67% of voters rated McCain's speech an "A" or a "B" -
52% said that the speech improved their opinion of McCain -

Of voters who watched both Democrat and GOP conventions:

38% thought the GOP was reaching out across the partisan aisle, 23% thought Dems were -

And last but not least, 55% of voters think McCain will be elected, versus 40% for Obama.

The data accumulate. McCain by a landslide . . . .

ARAB MEDIA: ARAB LEADERS WANT OBAMA TO WIN

SANA ABDULLAH, IN THE MIDDLE EAST TIMES - (VIA JIHAD WATCH):

As a rule, Arab governments in the region prefer to refrain from showing their preferences in U.S. elections, but the media, including the state-controlled TV and press, have made no secret of their desire to see a new leadership in Washington that is run by Democratic presidential candidate Illinois Senator Barack Obama.

WHY WOULD THEY PREFER BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA JUNIOR AND JOE BIDEN?

• BECAUSE OBAMA AND BIDEN WILL BE MORE ACCOMMODATING TO ARABS AND MORE HOSTILE TO ISRAEL.
• BECAUSE - IN THE GWOT - OBAMA AND BIDEN WILL RELENT, IF NOT RETREAT.
  

VOTE ACCORDINGLY.

PHONY WORDS VERSUS COURAGEOUS DEEDS: OBAMA-BIDEN VERSUS MCCAIN-PALIN

A LIFETIME SENATOR AND A PART-TIME SENATOR.

IN JUST THREE YEARS, SENATOR OBAMA HAS HAD $750 MILLION IN EARMARKS -
INCLUDING $3 MILLION FOR BIDEN'S SON.

THEY BOTH VOTED FOR THE BRIDGE TO NOWHERE.

VERSUS

A WAR-HERO, CONGRESSMAN, AND NOW SENATOR
WHO IS THE AUTHOR OF MOST OF THE MAJOR BI-PARTISAN LEGISLATION
PASSED IN THE LAST TWO DECADES -
WHO HAS ZERO EARMARKS.

AND THE ERIN BROCKOVICH OF ALASKA.

VOTE ACCORDINGLY.

WILL OBAMA "EAGLETON" BIDEN?

American Digest suggests that Obama might force Joe Biden off the ticket, and replace him with Hillary Clinton.

If the Palin factor continues to crush Obama's hopes, ("I can't believe I'm losing to this idiot/woman!") how long will it be before we see the Big-O forced into an "Eagleton" in order to bump Biden off the ticket, and call Hillary in from the sidelines? Not that it would happen, mind you. Just spitballin' here. Just into the What-If alternate universe, ya know.

Coming out of the gate, and Obama-Clinton ticket would have been formidable. But Senator Obama would never take the chance of being upstaged by two Clintons. The coverage they sucked up during the convention shows how they would completely overshadow the ostensible President. So I too think this move is very unlikely.

Would it work? Maybe. But at this point, it might also simply re-enforce Governor Palin's popularity and grass-roots appeal. Hillary might be willing to take that risk. After all, she has a better chance of beating Governor Palin before she serves as Vice President, than in 2012. But I don't think Obama will risk making his campaign look desperate and panicked.

UPDATE: And don't forget the impact of validating Mayor Rudy Giuliani's barb:

I hope for his sake, Joe Biden got that VP thing in writing.

SUSAN REIMER DETECTS THE MOOD OF THE ELECTORATE

Susan Reimer is a columnist at the Baltimore Sun. She wrote a nasty column attacking Senator McCain and Governor Palin:

On Monday, I wrote a column criticizing the McCain campaign for what I saw as a cynical attempt to gather in unhappy women voters by naming Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin his vice presidential candidate and for exploiting the poignant story of her youngest child to appease the Republican Party's pro-life base.

More than 8,200 comments were posted to the column on The Baltimore Sun's Web site. I received more than 700 personal e-mails and about 50 phone calls.

That was something new for her.

A handful of people wrote to say that I had captured exactly their reaction to the Palin nomination. But the rest of the responses were vehement or venomous.

And more than 316,000 people viewed the column on The Baltimore Sun Web site. That number - more than 100 times the attention I normally receive - actually frightened me.

It will be a long, hard fight. But the dominance of the neo-marxist, post-modern, multiculturalist, cultural-relativist journalism-school drive-by media may be ending. And not an election too soon!

BARRY SOETORO HAS A SPEECHWRITER, TOO

Senator Barack [middle name redacted] Obama (Marxist-Lenininist, Illinois) also has a speechwriter, although this Newsweek puff piece fatuously says Barry "doesn't really need his help." The speechwriter, Jon Favreau, previously worked as a deputy speechwriter in Jean-Francois Kerry's 2004 campaign. Newsweek's article concluded (back in January):

Now Favreau has his own team: Adam Frankel, a 26-year-old who worked with Ted Sorensen on his memoirs, and Ben Rhodes, a 30-year-old who worked with Lee Hamilton on the 9/11 commission's report.

So my headline should have been: Barry Soetoro has a TEAM of speechwriters.

"SHE WAS AMAZING . . . FUNNY AND SMART AND POISED AND CONFIDENT"

Watch Sally Quinn confess to Bill O'Reilly how badly she misjudged Governor Palin:



"I thought that she was amazing. . . . She was funny and smart and poised and confident. She gave a great speech, beautifully delivered. I think she's going to be a formidable opponent."

Do you think reality is beginning to set in?

(Hat tip: Instapundit & Michael Silence.)

Here Come the Christian-Bashers. Leftists attack Gov. Palin's 'Controversial Worldview'

An amusing attempt to equate Obama's America-hating church with the regular Christian gospel. You would have to be an amazing ignoramus to think that the two are the same.

"In an obvious attempt to create a Jeremiah Wright-style scandal for the Republican presidential ticket - and to marginalize conservative Christian values - Huffington Post National Editor Nico Pitney is questioning the religious beliefs of GOP Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin and her former pastor.

A Sept. 2 Huffington Post (HP) article by Pitney and Political Reporter Sam Stein begins with an ominous headline: "Palin's Church May Have Shaped Controversial Worldview." They write, "And if the political storm over Barack Obama's former pastor Jeremiah Wright is any indication, Palin may face some political fallout over the more controversial teachings of Wasilla Assembly of God."

Pitney and Stein label Palin's worldview "controversial," and quote snippets from Wasilla Senior Pastor Ed Kalnins's sermons that paint him as extreme. Wasilla Assembly of God church member Karissa Nelson told CMI what she thought of the HP story: "It's sad how people twist your words."....

To define Palin's faith, Pitney and Stein quote what they describe as "provocative" and "eyebrow-raising" statements by Wasilla pastor Ed Kalnins. The minister's teachings, however, may not be as controversial as Pitney and Stein believe. The HP writers display a very poor understanding of conservative Protestant theology and language.

For example, Pitney and Stein quote Kalnins saying in 2004, "I'm not going tell you who to vote for, but if you vote for this particular person [Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry], I question your salvation. I'm sorry." As they understand the statement, Kalnins "questioned whether people who voted for Sen. John Kerry in 2004 would be accepted to heaven." Their interpretation of Kalnins's remarks conflicts sharply with the evangelical Protestant theology of salvation.

Properly understood, Pastor Kalnins was not saying that God would punish people who voted for Kerry by sending them to hell. Kalnins was saying that a person willing to vote for Kerry probably had not already received salvation.

Evangelical theology teaches that a person is saved based not on how he votes, or any other action, but on whether he places his trust in Jesus's sacrifice to pay the price for his sins. Trust Christ today and you're "saved" today. Therefore, salvation is not so much a future event as a present possession. Once people are "saved," however, they undergo a spiritual transformation that affects the way they think, behave, and vote.

Source

As Leftist commentary goes, "controversial" is probably a rather mild term of abuse for evangelical Christianity. The HuffPo must be losing its mojo. I expected "Ayatollah Palin" at least.

I have read the HuffPo article and the authors clearly do not understand the Calvinist influence in Protestant thinking. Following Ephesians 1:4&5, Calvin taught that God had predestined who would be saved -- and this tends to spill over to a view that most of the things that happen around us are God's will. There is even a careful exposition of the doctrine in Article 17 of the 39 "Articles of Religion" promulgated by the Church of England. If you have a copy of the old Anglican "Book of Common Prayer", you can find it right at the back of the book.


(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, DISSECTING LEFTISM, GREENIE WATCH, OBAMA WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, EYE ON BRITAIN and Paralipomena . List of backup or "mirror" sites here or here -- for readers in China or for everyone when blogspot is "down" or failing to update. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

More on the GOP convention

McCain's acceptance speech was aimed at winning over independent voters and moderate Democrats -- so conservatives generally found it to be disappointing after the red meat of Palin's speech. From what I saw, the excerpt below is in fact one of the few conservative comments that really praised the McCain speech. The article is from Britain!

John McCain offered Republicans vision rooted in reality, not Barack Obama's empty promises



As the thousands of red, white and blue balloons, the tinsel and the tickertape descended from the rafters on the Republican convention moments after John McCain had finished addressing it, I at last worked out what had been the key difference between this event and the Democratic beano the week before.

The Democrats have a world view based (as Dr Johnson might have put it) on the triumph of hope over experience. The Republicans' is rooted firmly in reality

In Denver, speaker after speaker lauded and coddled one minority group after another and promised the largesse of the American taxpayer would alleviate their misery. In St Paul the message was about all Americans pulling together, getting government out of their lives, and making everyone richer and happier as a result.

When Mr McCain spoke, the faithful were still galvanised and awe-struck by the performance of his remarkable running-mate 24 hours earlier. In that sense anything he could say or do was bound to be an anti-climax. Yet his steady, measured, statesmanlike speech was the perfect complement to her benign but startling demagoguery.

Thus is the flavour of the next two months established. She will eat their opponents alive; he will be there to explain from the apparently limitless fount of his wisdom what will be done on the tree-strewn road ahead. It is a horrible clich‚, but of the two men aiming for the White House, Mr McCain has more of the demeanour of a president. This is nothing to do with his white hair, still less his white skin: it is everything to do with his gravitas and his record.

Some of us thought, and hoped, that he would win the nomination in 2000 over the manifestly inferior George W Bush. The qualities he had then are the same ones that give him the edge over his opponent now: a "story", to use the campaign's favourite word, of genuine heroism, service and leadership; coupled with what are now the first signs of a grasp of what it is possible to do to right America's economic wrongs without first making them considerably worse.

Mr McCain has been on Capitol Hill for 26 years. He not only knows how the system works, he actively despises it and wants to reform it. He brings immense wisdom and good judgment to the table. It is that, rather than a beauty contest based on some celebrity X-factor, that should decide the election on November 4.

In his speech to the delegates in St Paul Mr McCain dealt only in the broad brush. In this, he was rather like Mr Obama in the Broncos' stadium at Denver a week earlier. But unlike Mr Obama, Mr McCain littered his broad brush with odd moments of detail, and clear statements of vital principle. His delivery may have lacked the charisma and sonority of his opponent's, but what he delivered will have connected with tens of millions of Americans, consolidating the shock of the new imposed on them the previous evening by Sarah Palin.

The biggest gap remains his economic programme: he cannot much longer delay explaining how he is going to cut spending, cut the deficit, and provide the tax cuts he promises.

No-one deserves to get a job on Buggin's turn, or on the basis that he or she has been in the queue for it the longest; but that is not what qualifies Mr McCain for the White House. He drew attention to the most important fact about modern life: not the global economic convulsion, from which America has in the last fortnight started to show the first faint signs of recovery, but the fact that the world is a dangerous place, and getting more so. Mr Obama doesn't know where to start on this, and the claims made for his good ol' boy running mate Joe Biden being an expert on foreign policy are charitable to say the least.

In the next eight weeks Mr McCain needs to hammer home the perils to western civilisation not just of Islamic extremism but also of a new Cold War and a restless China. He made a good start yesterday, but this notoriously inward-looking country still needs more of a wake-up call. His television debates with Mr Obama, starting later this month, will be crucial in what must be his strategy of trumping charm and effortless superiority with raw experience.

The convention was a comparatively sober affair, not simply because of the shadow from Hurricane Gustav but because the revivalist hysteria that smothered the Democrats was absent here. But that, of course, is all about the connection Republicans have with reality, practicality running through their veins as idealism does through the Democrats'.

More here

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your roundup of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH

WSJ ON CRUSADING REFORMER SARAH PALIN

WSJ:

Enter Mrs. Palin. The former mayor of Wasilla had been appointed by Mr. Murkowski in 2003 to the state oil and gas regulatory agency. She'd had the temerity to blow the whistle on fellow GOP Commissioner Randy Ruedrich for refusing to disclose energy dealings. Mr. Murkowski and GOP Attorney General Gregg Renkes closed ranks around Mr. Ruedrich—who also chaired the state GOP. Mrs. Palin resigned. Having thus offended the entire old boy network, she challenged the governor for his seat.

Mrs. Palin ran against the secret deal, and vowed to put the pipeline back out for competitive, transparent, bidding. She railed against cozy politics. Mr. Murkowski ran on his unpopular pipeline deal. The oil industry warned the state would never get its project without his leadership. Mrs. Palin walloped him in the primary and won office in late 2006. Around this time, news broke of a federal probe that would show oil executives had bribed lawmakers to support the Murkowski tax changes.

Among Mrs. Palin's first acts was to reinstate Mr. Irwin. By February 2007 she'd released her requirements for pipeline bidding. They were stricter, and included only a $500 million state incentive. By May a cowed state house—reeling from scandal—passed her legislation.

The producers warned they would not bid, nor would anyone else. Five groups submitted proposals. A few months before the legislature awarded its license to TransCanada this July, Conoco and BP suddenly announced they'd be building their own pipeline with no state inducements whatsoever. They'd suddenly found the money.

Mrs. Palin has meanwhile passed an ethics law. She's tightened up oil oversight. She forced the legislature to rewrite the oil tax law. That new law raised taxes on the industry, for which Mrs. Palin is now taking some knocks, but the political background here is crucial.

The GOP machine has crumbled. Attorney General Renkes resigned. Mr. Ruedrich was fined $12,000. Jim Clark—Mr. Murkowski's lead pipeline negotiator—pleaded guilty to conspiring with an oil firm. At least three legislators have been convicted. Sen. Ted Stevens is under indictment for oil entanglements, while Rep. Don Young is under investigation.

Throughout it all, Mrs. Palin has stood for reform, though not populism. She thanks oil companies and says executives who "seek maximum revenue" are "simply doing their job." She says her own job is to be a "savvy" negotiator on behalf of Alaska's citizens and to provide credible oversight. It is this combination that lets her aggressively promote new energy while retaining public trust.

PALIN IS THE CHANGE AGENT WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR.

CINDY, JODI, HUGO, MEDEA AND OBAMA

CINDY SHEEHAN. JODI EVANS. HUGO CHAVEZ. AND MEDEA BENJAMIN.

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS.

AND TWO OF THOSE WORDS ARE "COMMUNITY ORGANIZER".


YOU GUESSED IT: THAT'S WHAT JODI EVANS IS. JUST LIKE OBAMA.

FROM HER BIO AT CODE PINK:

Jodie has been a community, social and political organizer for the last 30 years. She has used her skills,for the protection of the earth, to give voice to communities and people who go unheard and unseen, in the area of human and civil rights, to protect the rights of women, to raise the minimum wage for farm workers, to protect dolphins, in El Salvador in the early 80's and with Zapitistas since '94.

THIS IS NO SLUR; IT'S WHAT SHE BRAGS ABOUT. SHEESH.

• THE ZAPATISTAS ARE VIOLENT MURDEROUS COMMUNISTS IN MEXICO, NOT UNLIKE FARC IN COLOMBIA.
• AND HER BOSOM BUDDY CHAVEZ IS A COMMUNIST TYRANT, TOO.
• THESE ARE THE FOLKS SHE LIKES.
• AND SHE HATES MCCAIN.
• SHE'S THE ONE WHO STOLE A DELEGATES ID IN ORDER TO DISRUPT MCCAIN'S SPEECH.
• AND SHE'S ANOTHER COMMIE PAL OF BARRY OBAMA'S.
  
• BOTTOM-LINE: SHE'S A NO CLASS COMMIE SC*MB*G.

VOTE ACCORDINGLY.

IF MCCAIN AND OBAMA WERE BASKETBALL COACHES, WHICH ONES WOULD THEY BE?

VOTE ACCORDINGLY.

IT'S OVER: GOP HAD MORE VIEWERS EACH AND EVERY NIGHT

EACH NIGHT, THE GOP DREW MORE MILLIONS OF VIEWERS
THAN THE DEMOCRATS:

This week's ratings, with an average of 34.5 million viewers watching the GOP convention over three days, proved people are becoming more interested in what the Republicans have to say. The Democrats had an average audience of 30.2 million over four days, Nielsen said.

IF THE TICKETS WERE BIRDS, THEN WHICH BIRDS WOULD THEY BE?

VOTE ACCORDINGLY.

IF THE TICKETS WERE CITIES, THEN WHICH CITIES WOULD THEY BE?

VOTE ACCORDINGLY.

IF THE TICKETS WERE SONGS, THEN WHICH SONGS WOULD THEY BE?

VOTE ACCORDINGLY.

THREE STRIKES AND YOU'RE OUT: IT'S TIME FOR DEMOCRAT CHARLIE RANGEL TO RESIGN

CHARLIE RANGEL IS THE THIRD MOST POWERFUL DEMOCRAT IN CONGRESS.

YOU KNOW... THE CONGRESS THAT PELOSI PROMISED US WOULD BE THE CLEANEST EVER.

HA!

FIRST WE RECENTLY DISCOVERED RANGEL HAS SWEETHEART DEALS ON HIS APARTMENTS UP IN HARLEM, INCLUDING AN ILLEGAL DEAL ON ONE.

NOW WE LEARN HE (2) UNDERSTATED HIS INCOME FOR 20 YEARS....

AND (3) GOT A SWEETHEART DEAL ON A LUXURY HOME MORTGAGE.

THAT'S THREE STRIKES: HE'S OUT!

• BUT THAT MIGHT JUST BE THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG:
• ALSO: THE LUXURY HOME IS IN A COMPLEX DEVELOPED BY THE LABOR LAWYER -- TED KHEEL -- WHO HELPED "NEGOTIATE" SEVERAL OF THE BIG FAT DEALS THAT NYC GAVE TO THE UNIONS - YUP: THE TEACHERS AND SEIU AND AFSCME AND TRANSIT WORKERS DEALS.
• THIS IS VERY CORRUPT.
• I WONDER IF THIS "RESORT DEVELOPMENT" WAS USED TO HIDE OTHER PAYOFFS?

ALSO: RANGEL VIOLATED CONGRESSIONAL ETHICS RULES BY SOLICITING FUNDS FROM ENTITIES DONG BUSINESS BEFORE HIS COMMITTEE WITH HIS CONGRESSIONAL STATIONARY.

• I REPEAT: I DEMAND HE RESIGN.
• I ALSO DEMAND THAT PELOSI DEMAND HE RESIGN.

AND I DEMAND AN INVESTIGATION BY NY STATE ATTORNEY GENERAL ANDY CUOMO.

PERHAPS, OBAMA WAS GROOMED TO ACHIEVE THE BAATHIFICATION OF THE DEMOCRAT PARY

[FILE THIS ONE UNDER HYPOTHETICAL SCENARIOS AND EDGY NEAR-CONSPIRACY THEORIES.]

THE BAATH PARTY IS THE PAN-ARAB/MUSLIM SOCIALIST PARTY OF THE LATE SADDAM AND ASSAD. AND IT IS COMPATIBLE WITH AL QAEDA AND CAIR.

IS OBAMA TURNING THE DEMOCRAT PARTY INTO AN "AMERICAN BAATH PARTY"?

MAYBE. AND MAYBE THAT'S BEEN THE PLAN ALL ALONG.

HERE'S THE BASIS FOR THIS HYPOTHESIS:

• FRANK DAVIS (B&W PHOTO AT RIGHT) WAS A CHICAGO COMMUNIST & COMMUNITY ORGANIZER - AND OBAMA'S MENTOR, ACCORDING TO OBAMA.

• THIS CONNECTION IS THE ONLY ONE WHICH EXPLAINS WHY THE KENYAN/INDONESIAN/HAWAIIAN OBAMA WENT TO CHICAGO.

• IOW: DAVIS WAS WHO SENT OBAMA TO CHICAGO.

• OBAMA WENT THERE TO WORK FOR THE SOCIALIST ALINSKY'S MAJOR FOLLOWER. KELLMAN. KELLMAN TUTORED OBAMA IN SOCIALISM AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZING.

• ANOTHER INTERESTING THING ABOUT CHICAGO IS THAT IT IS THE HOME OF THE BLACK MUSLIM MOVEMENT AND LOUIS FARRAKHAN.

FARRAKHAN HAS ALL BUT ENDORSED OBAMA AND CALLED HIM THE MESSIAH:

• FARRAKHAN IS PERHAPS THE ONLY THING THAT CAN CONNECT OBAMA TO AL MANSOUR.

• AND ALSO CONNECT OBAMA AND AL MANSOUR TO SUTTON - THE FORMER MANHATTAN BOROUGH PRESIDENT WHO WROTE A RECOMMENDATION LETTER FOR OBAMA TO HARVARD LAW SCHOOL.

• MANSOUR IS A BLACK MUSLIM FROM TEXAS.

• HOW ELSE WOULD HE KNOW ABOUT OBAMA - EXCEPT IF OBAMA WAS A MUSLIM OR AM ACOLYTE OF FARRAKHAN?

• YES YES YES: WE KNOW THAT OBAMA SAYS HE BECAME A CHRISTIAN UNDER JEREMIAH WRIGHT.

• BUT WRIGHT HIMSELF IS A FORMER MUSLIM AND HIS CHURCH PREACHES "BLACK LIBERATION THEOLOGY" - WHICH HAS MORE IN COMMON WITH FARRAKHAN THAN JESUS.

• WRIGHT AND FARRAKHAN ARE VERY GOOD FRIENDS.

• AND OBAMA KNOWS FARRAKHAN AND WAS INVOLVED IN FARRAKHAN'S "MILLION MAN MARCH." THE NEXUS IS REAL.

• HOW DOES SUTTON COME IN? SIMPLE: PERCY SUTTON WAS THE LAWYER FOR MALCOLM X. MALCOLM X WAS A CHARISMATIC BLACK MUSLIM - ONE (LIKE OBAMA) CLOSER TO ALINSKY THAN FARRAKAHN. (MORE ON THIS HERE. REMEMBER: OBAMA HAS PLAGIARIZED FROM MALCOLM X ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL.)

OBAMA CERTAINLY SEEMS TO PERSONIFY OR EMBODY THE CONNECTION OF CHICAGO SOCIALISTS AND CHICAGO BLACK MUSLIMS.

• PERHAPS THIS WAS THEIR PLAN AND HE IS THEIR MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE?

• PERHAPS THEY HAVE TAKEN OVER THE DEMOCRAT PARTY TO TRANSFORM IT INTO THE AMERICAN BAATHIST PARTY?

• YEAH, YEAH, YEAH: IT'S HARD TO BELIEVE. BUT IT ADDS UP. IN FACT, IT'S THE SIMPLEST EXPLANATION.

• NOTHING ELSE EXPLAINS WHY MANSOUR WOULD ASK SUTTON FOR HELP AND GET IT.

• NOTHING ELSE EXPLAINS WHY OBAMA WOULD WANT TO GO TO CHICAGO. AND BE SO SO SO SO CONNECTED ONCE HE GETS THERE.

HERE'S THE SCARY PART: IT JUST MIGHT PASS OCCAM'S TEST.

THINK IT'S TOO WACKY!?!?

THEN PLEASE, EXPLAIN TO ME WHY A BLACK MUSLIM FROM TEXAS (MANSOUR) WAS SEEKING HELP FROM SUTTON OF MAHATTAN FOR A HALF-WHITE CHRISTIAN/(ATHIEIST ?) FROM HAWAII/(INDONESIA) WHO WAS LIVING IN CHICAGO!?!?!?!?!?!

ASIDE: HERE'S A COGENT MUST READ ON THE ALINSKY-OBAMA NEXUS.

GOP DRAMA VERSUS OBAMA THEATRICS: THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS SCOOPS POWER LINE ... AGAIN!

FOR THE SECOND TIME IN TWO DAYS: GREAT MINDS THINKING ALIKE...

POWER LINE TODAY:

The convention, one more thought

I don't know whether anyone whose vote is up-for-grabs continues to watch a convention after the presidential nominee finishes his speech. However, the ensuing celebrations at the two just-completed conventions were revealing.

At the Democratic convention, Obama and Biden remained on the stage with their families, basking in the glow of mass adulation. After several minutes of this, the two candidates and their wives came forward for what I called "one more bow. . .before they ascend to the heavens."

Last night, McCain looked rather uncomfortable on stage during the celebration. Before long, he descended into the crowd to shake hands. Only then did he look at ease.

The contrast could not have been clearer, and I think it tells us a good deal about the two presidential candidates.

Posted by Paul at 8:52 AM

THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS YESTERDAY - 11:17 pm:

THE DRAMA OF MCCAIN'S ACCEPTANCE SPEECH, AND HOW IT CONTRASTS WITH THE THEATRICS BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA

Barack - a man of absolutely no accomplishment aside from knocking off Hillary - spoke in a HUGE stadium in front of a pseudo-temple seemingly dedicated to his massive ego and to the Dems' massive denial.

McCain - a man of enormous accomplishment - spoke from a modest podium on a proscenium which extended right into the audience.

And when McCain was through, he waded into the crowd: a man of the people, for the people and by the people.

That says everything.

• REGULAR READERS KNOW THIS HAPPENS ALL THE TIME.
• SPREAD THE WORD.
• BLOGROLL US.

OLMERT MAKES MORE ERRORS - AND PERES MAKES A WHOPPER!

JPOST:

Jordan recently facilitated the transfer of close to 1,000 automatic rifles and some 10,000 bullets to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, defense officials revealed Thursday.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak approved the transfer of the weaponry after the PA requested the shipment, which it said would be used in the campaign Prime Minister Salaam Fayad is currently waging against Hamas in the West Bank.

Defense officials expressed cautious satisfaction with the performance of the Palestinian security forces, Israel Radio reported, stressing that their activity so far had been mostly relegated to fighting corruption.

• ABBAS AND FATAH ARE NOT MUCH BETTER THAN MESHAL AND HAMAS. SURE: IF WE ARM ONE SIDE AND IRAN AND SYRIA THE OTHER, THEN WE CAN LET THEM KILL EACH OTHER.

• BUT IT WOULD BE BETTER TO DEFEAT THEM BOTH.

• THAT'S WHY OLMERT'S GAME IS ULTIMATELY A LOSING ONE. AND AMORAL.

WHAT PERES SAID, THOUGH, IS EVEN WORSE: JPOST: Peres: I oppose the use of military force against Iran

"I do not support military action against Iran, but the world must become a united front and impose harsh economic sanctions on Iran," President Shimon Peres said Friday.

Speaking at the Ambrosetti Forum, an annual gathering of global political and business leaders in this Italian lakeside resort, Peres said that most of the Arab states were opposed to Iran having nuclear weapons, and the world at large would not allow terrorists and extremists to have nuclear weapons of mass destruction at their disposal.

UTTERING THIS WHILE OUTSIDE OF ISRAEL IS TREASONOUS. UTTERING IT AT ALL: LUDICROUS.

• ISRAEL CAN NEVER TRUST THE EU OR RUSSIA OR OTHER ARAB STATE TO DO WHAT IS IN ISRAEL'S INTEREST.
• PERES IS A TOTAL ASS.
• PERES IS RESPONSIBLE FOR OSLO AND OSLO BROUGHT ARAFAT BACK FROM TUNIS TO THE SO-CALLED OCCUPIED TERRITORIES.
• AND THAT HAS FAILED.
• IT'S TIME FOR PERES TO RESIGN AND MOVE ON.

OR SIMPLY STFU.

IT'S TIME TO ABANDON THE SO-CALLED "PEACE PROCESS" AND ADOPT A "VICTORY PROCESS".

Al QAEDA RENEWS THREATS AGAINST DENMARK

One of Al Q's top 3 leaders has renewed threats against Denmark. They also released propaganda video from the attack on Denmark's Embassy. Danish intelligence services confirm authenticity, and raise alert levels.

Stay tuned...

*** UPDATED: IBD LOOKS INTO OBAMA LEFTIST CONNECTIONS*** MUST READ: Obama, Community Organizing, and Saul Alinsky

One of the first mistakes the Obama campaign made after the Palin speech was to defend his "experience" as a "community organizer" as being equivalent to being a Mayor or Governor.

As we will see, this is true only to the extent that Mayors and Governors like to stir up anger, bitterness, and the tactics of intimidation--even leading to violence.

First of all, "Executive experience" and Organizing is comparing Apples to Raisins (although arguably organizing can be good training for a terrorist, and anarchist, or a rabble-rousing politician of the Munich Beer Hall genre...)--but second of all the campaign's very defense of this activity opens a huge can of worms that no one in Big Media wants to go anywhere near: the Marxist roots of such "organizing" and its inherent built-in need for an almost anarchic destruction of the status quo. Witness the efforts of other quite similar "community organizers" like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, their "bullying" of local officials through intimidation and threats, and their extortion of corporations.

Steve Gilbert of the great Sweetness and Light has written a very important 3-part series on Obama's Community Organizing which starts by defining "community organizing" as practiced by Obama and as taught (to him) by 60's radical Saul Alinsky in his Rules for Radicals--the "Bible" of anarchist organizations (like the Weather Underground!--is it then any great stretch that Obama befriended former Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers, who just happened to live "in the neighborhood" where Obama was agitating?).

In a moment I will quote from some of Gilbert's excellent research, and we we will see from Obama's own words the truth of the Alinsky connection.

But first this little intro from Kyle-Anne Shiver (written during Obama's campaign against fellow Alinsky-disciple Hillary):

Barack Obama seems to have effortlessly achieved voter adoration, fresher, younger, more at ease within his own skin than she will ever be. He would appear to be as much a natural as her own Bill. It may appear to a great many observers that Barrack Obama is just one incredibly audacious, even lucky, albeit frighteningly charismatic dude.

These personal qualities are not the sole reason he is where he is, and I suspect the wily Mrs. Clinton knows this full well. I suspect it must bother her that Obama also appears to have mastered the playbook used by her own political teacher, the legendary amoral guru of left wing activism, Saul Alinksy.

Hillary has met not only her match in Alinsky tactics, she has met the master of bloodless socialist revolution, in my opinion.

Barack Obama had just graduated from Columbia and was looking for a job. Some white leftists were looking for someone who could recruit in a black neighborhood in the south side of Chicago.

Obama answered a help-wanted ad for a position as a community organizer for the Developing Communities Project (DCP) of the Calumet Community Religious Conference (CCRC) in Chicago. Obama was 24 years old, unmarried, very accustomed to a vagabond existence, and according to his memoir, searching for a genuine African-American community.

Both the CCRC and the DCP were built on the Alinsky model of community agitation, wherein paid organizers learned how to "rub raw the sores of discontent," in Alinsky's words.

One of Obama's early mentors in the Alinsky method was Mike Kruglik, who had this to say to Ryan LizzaThe New Republic, about Obama

(emphasis mine - DT):

"He was a natural, the undisputed master of agitation, who could engage a room full of recruiting targets in a rapid-fire Socratic dialogue, nudging them to admit that they were not living up to their own standards. As with the panhandler, he could be aggressive and confrontational. With probing, sometimes personal questions, he would pinpoint the source of pain in their lives, tearing down their egos just enough before dangling a carrot of hope that they could make things better."

The agitator's job, according to Alinsky, is first to bring folks to the "realization" that they are indeed miserable, that their misery is the fault of unresponsive governments or greedy corporations, then help them to bond together to demand what they deserve, and to make such an almighty stink that the dastardly governments and corporations will see imminent "self-interest" in granting whatever it is that will cause the harassment to cease.

In these methods, euphemistically labeled "community organizing," Obama had a four-year education, which he often says was the best education he ever got anywhere.

Here are the words of Alinsky himself, quoted from Rules for Radicals, highlighted by and commented upon by Gilbert (red highlighting is mine). Read carefully--and consider as you read: THIS--when all the BS is stripped away--is what Obama is touting (and now defending) as his "experience" to be President of the United States:

First, Alinsky himself on "The Process of Power":

From the moment the organizer enters a community he lives, dreams, eats, breathes, sleeps only one thing and that is to build the mass power base of what he calls the army. Until he has developed that mass power base, he confronts no major issues. He has nothing with which to confront anything. Until he has those means and power instruments, his “tactics” are very different from power tactics. Therefore, every move revolves around one central point: how many recruits will this bring into the organization, whether by means of local organizations, churches, service groups, labor unions, corner gangs, or as individuals. The only issue is, how will this increase the strength of the organization. If by losing in a certain action he can get more members than by winning, then victory lies in losing and he will lose.

Change comes from power, and power comes from organization. In order to act, people must get together.

Power is the reason for being of organizations. When people agree on certain religious ideas and want the power to propagate their faith, they organize and call it a church. When people agree on certain political ideas and want the power to put them into practice, they organize and call it a political party. The same reason holds across the board. Power and organization are one and the same…

The organizer simultaneously carries on many functions as he analyzes, attacks, and disrupts the prevailing power pattern…

Therefore, if your function is to attack apathy and get people to participate it is necessary to attack the prevailing patterns of organized living in the community. The first step in community organization is community disorganization. The disruption of the present organization is the first step toward community organization. Present arrangements must be disorganized if they are to be displaced by new patterns that provide the opportunities and means for citizen participation. All change means disorganization of the old and organization of the new.

This is why the organizer is immediately confronted with conflict. The organizer dedicated to changing the life of a particular community must first rub raw the resentments of the people of the community; fan the latent hostilities of many of the people to the point of overt expression. He must search out controversy and issues, rather than avoid them, for unless there is controversy people are not concerned enough to act…

An organizer must stir up dissatisfaction and discontent; provide a channel into which the people can angrily pour their frustrations. He must create a mechanism that can drain off the underlying guilt for having accepted the previous situation for so long a time. Out of this mechanism, a new community organization arises…

The job then is getting the people to move, to act, to participate; in short, to develop and harness the necessary power to effectively conflict with the prevailing patterns and change them. When those prominent in the status quo turn and label you an “agitator” they are completely correct, for that is, in one word, your function—to agitate to the point of conflict…

Enter the labor organizer or the agitator. He begins his “trouble making” by stirring up these angers, frustrations, and resentments, and highlighting specific issues or grievances that heighten controversy…

And so the labor organizer simultaneously breeds conflict and builds a power structure. The war between the trade union and management is resolved either through a strike or a negotiation. Either method involves the use of power; the economic power of the strike or the threat of it, which results in successful negotiations. No one can negotiate without the power to compel negotiation.

This is the function of a community organizer. Anything otherwise is wishful non-thinking. To attempt to operate on a good-will rather than on a power basis would be to attempt something that the world has not yet experienced.

In the beginning the organizer’s first job is to create the issues or problems…

Even where the perception is that there ARE none... Does this should like a "healer and uniter" to you?? Keep in mind this is who is now in court filing a federal lawsuit against a reporter who dared try to get access to Obama's public records while serving on Ayers' Annenberg Foundation. That is one way to "compel"...

Next, from Part III of Gilbert's superb research, we have Obama's own words, from one of his memoirs, plus some additional commentary from Gilbert:

In theory, community organizing provides a way to merge various strategies for neighborhood empowerment. Organizing begins with the premise that (1) the problems facing inner-city communities do not result from a lack of effective solutions, but from a lack of power to implement these solutions; (2) that the only way for communities to build long-term power is by organizing people and money around a common vision; and (3) that a viable organization can only be achieved if a broadly based indigenous leadership — and not one or two charismatic leaders — can knit together the diverse interests of their local institutions.

This means bringing together churches, block clubs, parent groups and any other institutions in a given community to pay dues, hire organizers, conduct research, develop leadership, hold rallies and education cam­paigns, and begin drawing up plans on a whole range of issues — jobs, education, crime, etc. Once such a vehicle is formed, it holds the power to make politicians, agencies and corporations more responsive to commu­nity needs. Equally important, it enables people to break their crippling isolation from each other, to reshape their mutual values and expectations and rediscover the possibilities of acting collaboratively — the prerequi­sites of any successful self-help initiative.

By using this approach, the Developing Communities Project and other organizations in Chicago’s inner city have achieved some impressive results. Schools have been made more accountable-Job training programs have been established; housing has been renovated and built; city services have been provided; parks have been refurbished; and crime and drug problems have been curtailed. Additionally, plain folk have been able to access the levers of power, and a sophisticated pool of local civic leadership has been developed.

But organizing the black community faces enormous problems as well. One problem is the not entirely undeserved skepticism organizers face in many communities. To a large degree, Chicago was the birthplace of community organizing, and the urban landscape is littered with the skeletons of previous efforts. Many of the best-intentioned members of the community have bitter memories of such failures and are reluctant to muster up renewed faith in the process.

A related problem involves the aforementioned exodus from the inner city of financial resources, institutions, role models and jobs. Even in areas that have not been completely devastated, most households now stay afloat with two incomes. Traditionally, community organizing has drawn support from women, who due to tradition and social discrimination had the time and the inclination to participate in what remains an essentially voluntary activity. Today the majority of women in the black community work full time, many are the sole parent, and all have to split themselves between work, raising children, running a household and maintaining some semblance of a personal life — all of which makes voluntary activities lower on the priority list. Additionally, the slow exodus of the black middle class into the suburbs means that people shop in one neighborhood, work in another, send their child to a school across town and go to church someplace other than the place where they live. Such geographical dispersion creates real problems in building a sense of investment and common purpose in any particular neighborhood.

Finally community organizations and organizers are hampered by their own dogmas about the style and substance of organizing. Most still practice what Professor John McKnight of Northwestern University calls a “consumer advocacy” approach, with a focus on wrestling services and resources from the ouside powers that be. Few are thinking of harnessing the internal productive capacities, both in terms of money and people, that already exist in communities.

Our thinking about media and public relations is equally stunted when compared to the high-powered direct mail and video approaches success­fully used by conservative organizations like the Moral Majority. Most importantly, low salaries, the lack of quality training and ill-defined possibilities for advancement discourage the most talented young blacks from viewing organizing as a legitimate career option. As long as our best and brightest youth see more opportunity in climbing the corporate ladder-than in building the communities from which they came, organizing will remain decidedly handicapped.

IN OTHER WORDS: 'WE CAN'T HAVE PEOPLE IN THE COMMUNITY ACTUALLY TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR BETTERING THEIR OWN LIVES--THAT WOULD BE COUNTERPRODUCTIVE TO THE GOAL!!!!!'

An INCREDIBLE admission in Obama's own words.

More Obama quotes from Gilbert:

Nowhere is the promise of organizing more apparent than in the traditional black churches. Possessing tremendous financial resources, membership and — most importantly — values and biblical traditions that call for empowerment and liberation, the black church is clearly a slumbering giant in the political and economic landscape of cities like Chicago. A fierce independence among black pastors and a preference for more traditional approaches to social involvement (supporting candidates for office, providing shelters for the homeless) have prevented the black church from bringing its full weight to bear on the political, social and economic arenas of the city.

YOU MEAN LIKE THAT CHURCH YOU ATTENDED FOR 20 YEARS BUT NEVER "AGREED" WITH WHAT THE PASTOR SAID--EVEN THOUGH YOUR VERY ROLE WAS TO USE IT AS A RECRUITING BASE FOR YOUR OWN AGITATION???

Over the past few years, however, more and more young and forward-thinking pastors have begun to look at community organizations such as the Developing Communities Project in the far south side and GREAT in the Grand Boulevard area as a powerful tool for living the social gospel, one which can educate and empower entire congregations and not just serve as a platform for a few prophetic leaders. Should a mere 50 prominent black churches, out of the thousands that exist in cities like Chicago, decide to collaborate with a trained organizing staff, enormous positive changes could be wrought in the education, housing, employment and spirit of inner-city black communities, changes that would send powerful ripples throughout the city.[....]

This whole chapter is almost word for word from Alinsky’s Rules For Radicals, which could be almost summed up this way:

In theory, community organizing provides a way to merge various strategies for neighborhood empowerment. Organizing begins with the premise that (1) the problems facing inner-city communities do not result from a lack of effective solutions, but from a lack of power to implement these solutions; (2) that the only way for communities to build long-term power is by organizing people and money around a common vision; and (3) that a viable organization can only be achieved if a broadly based indigenous leadership — and not one or two charismatic leaders — can knit together the diverse interests of their local institutions.

For instance, compare:

In fact, the answer to the original question — why organize? — resides in these people. In helping a group of housewives sit across the negotiating table with the mayor of America’s third largest city and hold their own, or a retired steelworker stand before a TV camera and give voice to the dreams he has for his grandchild’s future, one discovers the most significant and satisfying contribution organizing can make.

To Alinsky:

People hunger for drama and adventure, for a breath of life in a dreary, drab existence…

But it’s more than that. It is a desperate search for personal identity—to let other people know that at least you are alive…

When the organizer approaches him part of what begins to be communicated is that through the organization and its power he will get his birth certificate for life, that he will become known, that things will change from the drabness of a life where all that changes is the calendar. This same man, in a demonstration at City Hall, might find himself confronting the mayor and saying, “Mr. Mayor, we have had it up to here and we are not going to take it any more.” Television cameramen put their microphones in front of him and ask, “What is your name, sir?” “John Smith.” Nobody ever asked him what his name was before. And then, “What do you think about this, Mr. Smith?” Nobody ever asked him what he thought about anything before. Suddenly he’s alive! This is part of the adventure, part of what is so important to people in getting involved in organizational activities and what the organizer has to communicate to him. Not that every member will be giving his name on television—that’s a bonus—but for once, because he is working together with a group, what he works for will mean something…

There is no doubt that Mr. Obama is an acolyte of Saul Alinsky. Even if we still aren’t sure exactly what an organizer is or does.

Though Mr. Alinsky’s book tells us that it means little more than being a street “agitator.”

This is the "experience" the Obama campaign is now telling us is "equivalent" to Governor Palin, Mayor Palin, and Councilwoman Palin's "executive experience".

Which of course does not even address that "experience" when stacked up against John McCain's life.

This is a bona-fide MARXIST, a con-artist, a smooth-talking agitator, whose world view in reality shows very little difference from that of the street thugs in Minneapolis who were trying to kill Republicans this week.

Why on God's green earth would any self-respecting American in their right mind want this man to be President?

UPDATE: Via Michelle Malkin some great news from the great Investors Business Daily. I am subscribing today (I ought to... I use Michael Ramirez' cartoons enough!):

Investor’s Business Daily investigates Barack and Michelle Obama’s cozy relationship with the radical “Public Allies.”

Read it.

The piece dovetails well with my “community organizer” column today and the recent piece I did on Obama’s government proposal for subsidizing “social entrepreneurship” and the Democrat Party’s hidden Soros slush fund — as well as all the terrific work Stanley Kurtz has done on Annenberg/Ayers.

The more you get to know about the far left-wing friends of Barack Obama, the tighter you need to hold onto your wallet.