HUGE BOUNCE FOR GOP: USAT/GALLUP: MCCAIN 54% TO OBAMA 44%

DETAILS HERE.

ANOTHER OBAMA 'MISTAKE'?

From this article in the Telegraph:

Barack Obama has said he considered joining the United States military when he left school but decided not to because the Vietnam war was over and "we weren't engaged in an active military conflict at that point".

[...]

Mr Obama was asked by George Stephanopoulos of ABC's "This Week" programme whether he'd ever thought about military service and replied: "You know, I actually did. I had to sign up for Selective Service [a means of conscription in case of war] when I graduated from high school.

"And I was growing up in Hawaii. And I have friends whose parents were in the military. There are a lot of Army, military bases there.

"And I actually always thought of the military as an ennobling and, you know, honourable option. But keep in mind that I graduated in 1979. The Vietnam War had come to an end. We weren't engaged in an active military conflict at that point. And so, it's not an option that I ever decided to pursue."...

There seems to be a little problem or two with Obama's claim. According to blogger Big Dog,

...This little tidbit has NEVER been mentioned during the oh so long campaign and according to the news, Obama did not mention this in either of his books. One would think that might be a big deal. It is likely that Obama is lying about this in order to ingratiate himself with people who actually support the military. The second part of the lie comes in when he said he had to register for the Selective Service when he graduated from high school. There was no registration for the Selective Service when Obama graduated.

The draft and the Selective Service registration were ended by Republican presidents (Nixon and Ford respectively) and the new registration requirement was instituted by a Democrat, Jimmy Carter. Yes, Obama was required to register but he graduated in 1979 and the registration was reinstated in 1980. Therefore, Obama was not required to register when he graduated, as he claims in the interview. He was not required to register until a year later....

Deliberate deception on Obama's part or just another "mistake." You decide.

THE NEW DURANTY TIMES ON THE PALIN NOMINATION

Surprising support for the nomination of Governor Palin in an editorial in the New Duranty Times:

Where is it written that only senators are qualified to become President? . . . Or where is it written that mere representatives aren't qualified . . . Where is it written that governors and mayors are too local, too provincial? . . . Presidential candidates have always chosen their running mates for reasons of practical demography, not idealized democracy. . . . What a splendid system, we say to ourselves, that takes little-known men, tests them in high office and permits them to grow into statesmen. . . . Why shouldn't a little-known woman have the same opportunity to grow?

Actually that editorial was published in 1984 . . . about Geraldine Ferraro.

IT MAKES MORE SENSE NOW!

FANNIE & FREDDIE GO BELLY UP - ANOTHER NOTCH FOR GORELICK'S GUN

The Feds have announced they are putting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in conservatorship, after a careful audit revealed that the two corrupt "Government Sponsored Enterprises" had falsified their assets.

One of the Fannie Mae executives who benefited from inflated bonuses was none other than Jamie Gorelick. Her entry at the Wikipedia notes that she "earned" $26 million in 6 years there. In 2004, a Federal investigation revealed $9 billion in unrecorded losses.

That was 4 years ago. Evidently the problems weren't fixed.

Of course this is the same Jamie Gorelick who as Bill J. Clinton's Deputy Attorney General carefully crafted the "wall" of separation, that made it impossible for the crime-fighting and intelligence-gathering parts of the FBI to work together to prevent terrorist attacks like the September Eleventh atrocities.

Former prosecutor Andrew McCarthy and legal scholar Mark Levin have discussed her shameful role in that debacle. As well as the shame of giving her a seat on the 9/11 Commission.

She also serves as one of the lawyers defending Duke University against the civil suit from the lacrosse players who were defamed and libeled by post-modernist, multicultural, cultural-relativist University officials intent on railroading them into prison.

What a career of filth and shame!

Don't blame the collapse of FNMA and FHLMC on "the system." Blame it on the corrupt Democrat Party politicians who crafted that system to serve their corrupt ends.

We need reform in Washington! We need leaders with proven records of reform.

We need the McCain-Palin ticket, and not the Obama-Media ticket.

Vote accordingly.

RELIAPUNDIT ADDS: I WAS AMONG THE VERY FIRST TO BLOG THIS CONNECTION HERE IN 2004, AND AGAIN IN 2005 HERE, AND AGAIN IN 2006 HERE, AGAIN HERE & HERE, AND 2008 HERE.

AND I STAND BY MY POST OF YESTERDAY:

“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 ...

VIDEO & MUSIC: SARAH SMILE

Enjoy!

AMERICAN DIGEST AGREES THAT PIPER IS A LEADER

American Digest embeds a great video showing Piper Palin's grace and unselfconscious leadership potential. We stated that we thought she showed signs of being the next generation of Republican leadership back on Thursday September 4. Welcome aboard the bandwagon! And kudos to those who have posted the cute videos.

Here's a different one:



The compiler of that one, in a warning to any would-be commenters intent on slandering this adorable child, notes that "we'll always have a Palin in the White House." Indeed that appears to be an appealing prospect right now.

MCCAIN-PALIN GAIN A DIRTY DOZEN POINTS ON OBAMA-BIDEN - IN ONE WEEK

AWESOME.

FINALLY: ISRAELI POLICE RECOMMEND OLMERT BE INDICTED

BBC:

Israeli police have formally recommended to prosecutors that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert be indicted in a corruption investigation.

The decision about whether to indict Mr Olmert now rests with Attorney General Meni Mazuz.

Mr Olmert has already announced that he will resign later this month because of the multiple corruption investigations he is facing.

He has consistently denied all the accusations against him.

The ruling Kadima party is to hold a leadership vote on 17 September.

• OLMERT HAS NOT ONLY BEEN CORRUPT, HE'S BEEN A LOUSY PM.
• GOOD RIDDANCE.
• NOW, I JUST HOPE ISRAEL PICKS BIBI!
  

MORE DEFEATISM FROM THE NYTIMES: TALIBANISTAN

NYTIMES:

Talibanistan

The Taliban and Al Qaeda have established a haven in Pakistan’s tribal areas along the Afghan border. This is where the war on terror will be fought – and possibly lost.

[...]

PAKISTAN’S WILD, LARGELY ungoverned tribal areas have become an untouchable base for Islamic militants to attack Americans and Afghans across the border. Inside the tribal areas, Taliban warlords have taken near-total control, pushing aside the Pakistani government and imposing their draconian form of Islam. And for more than a year now, they have been sending suicide bombers against government and military targets in Pakistan, killing hundreds of people. American and Pakistani investigators say they believe it was Baitullah Mehsud, the strongest of FATA’s Taliban leaders, who dispatched assassins last December to kill Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister. With much of the North-West Frontier Province, which borders the tribal areas, also now under their control, the Taliban are increasingly in a position to threaten the integrity of the Pakistani state.

Then there is Al Qaeda. According to American officials and counterterrorism experts, the organization has rebuilt itself and is using its sanctuaries inside the tribal areas to plan attacks against the United States and Europe. Since 2004, six major terrorist plots against Europe or the United States — including the successful suicide attacks in London that killed 52 people in July 2005 — have been traced back to Pakistan’s tribal areas, according to Bruce Hoffman, a professor of security studies at Georgetown University. Hoffman says he fears that Al Qaeda could be preparing a major attack before the American presidential election. “I’m convinced they are planning something,” he told me.

At the center of all this stands the question of whether Pakistan really wants to control the Talibs and their Qaeda allies ensconced in the tribal areas — and whether it really can.

IF WE DON'T RELENT OR RETREAT THEN WE WILL WIN. IT'S THAT SIMPLE.

• THE TRAITOROUS SCUMBAGS AT THE NYTIMES THOUGHT THE SURGE WOULD FAIL.
• THEY WERE WRONG.
• THEY ARE WRONG ABOUT THIS, TOO.
• OF COURSE WE CAN DEFEAT THE TALIBAN AND AL QAEDA.
• AND WE WILL - IF WE DON'T ELECT OBAMA:
• OBAMA OPPOSED THE SURGE. HIS VEEP "FOREIGN POLICY GURU" BIDEN OPPOSED THE SURGE - AND THE 1991 GULF WAR, TOO.

VOTE ACCORDINGLY.

Tom Friedman: Liberal Fascist

Regular readers of the is blog know I LOATHE Tom Friedman. He's a jerk. (MORE FRIEDMAN IDIOCY HERE! Even more here. Unbelievable Friedman crap here.)

He proved it once again today on MTP:

JONAH:

Global Warming As Noble Lie [Jonah Goldberg]

Tom Friedman on Meet the Press, from a reader:

Jonah,

Tom Friedman on Meet The Press:

"If climate change is a hoax, it's the greatest hoax ever
perpetrated on the United States of America. Because everything we
would do to get ready for climate change; to build this new green
industry, would make us more respected, more entrepreneurial, more
competitive, more heathy as a country."

Notice the context of the word "greatest". He uses "greatest" not as
a way to describe the effectiveness of the hoax's ability to trick the
public, but, as a way to describe how beneficial the hoax/lie would be
for the country.

More Friedman [Jonah Goldberg]

I guess I've got to watch Meet the Press today. From a reader:

I just saw Thomas Friedman on Meet the Press, saying how great it would be for the US to "be China for a day" so that the President of the US could freely impose whatever energy policy he (or she!) wishes. Clearly, you need to send Thomas Friedman a copy of Liberal Fascism.

Keep up the good work.

09/07 12:36 PM

YES: AGW is the biggest hoax since communism - and just as bad.

AGW is an excuse for lefties to do what they have long wanted to do - and Tom Friedman admits he would use fascism to do it.

The AGW crowd - like the commies - are utopianists who think that an intellectual elite or POLITBURO would be more effective at running your life than you, and better at maw-making than a democracy.

The eco-nutsies are as wrong about the root cause of GW (it AIN'T man-made), as the commies were about poverty. That's another why the solutions that each suggest(ed) are doomed to failure.

Communists and eco-nutsies each misunderstood the nature of the problem they perseverated on, and suggested solutions which had to fail. Redistribution of wealth cannot end poverty, only the creation of new wealth can. And Kyoto type schemes and carbon taxes and carbon trading cannot work either. Additionally, the carbon-scheme will create more poverty.

The answer is simple: freedom. It creates prosperity and democracy.

The free market is not only more moral it is more efficient.

BREAKING: OBAMA ADMITS HE IS A MUSLIM

This is either laugh-out-loud funny or frightening depending on whether you believe he just made a mistake, or that he is accidentally admitting the truth.

*******UPDATE: SEE NEWER MORE COMPLETE VIDEO BELOW!!!!!





Thanks to Anonymous for sending it to me.

RELIAPUNDIT ADDS: PALEO LITHICS: “My Muslim Faith” Obama

In a possible slip of the tongue sure to throw fuel on the fire that Barack Obama has never abandoned the faith that he was born into, in response to a question on his faith by George Stephanopoulos on ABC this morning, Obama actually said, “questions about my Muslim faith…”.

George quickly corrected him by saying, “you mean my Christian faith…”

Obama….”uh, yes, my Christian faith…”.

Glad he’s keeping that straight.

******************UPDATE #2: NEW VIDEO - VIA PALEO LITHIC:



BOTTOM-LINE: BARACK HUSSEIN "BARRY SOETORO" OBAMA JUNIOR IS NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME.

*******UPDATE: COMPLETE AND IN CONTEXT - YOU DECIDE - IS IT A FREUDIAN SLIPS?????



UPDATE - PASTORIUS ADDS (and, by the way, what is written below this is total crap. I messed up. Sorry. I will leave it up for the record. Let the records state that sometimes I can be an idiot.)


If you think about it, the wider context given by the additional clip makes the case - for this being a Freudian slip - even stronger.

After all, if Obama were talking about his Christian faith, why would McCain have made an issue of it?

McCain is a Christian himself, and it certainly wouldn't help Obama to be calling another man out on his Christianity.

So, when Stephanopolous stepped in and suggested an a way out of the rhetorical mess Obama had created for himself, Obama shifted the subject to something that didn't make any sense in the context of the discussion.

That is proof that he was grasping at straws trying to make up for a bad mistake.

The predisposition of the American electorate (those who actually tend to vote) is OVERWHELMINGLY Christian.

And, even those who aren't Christian, still support the right of Christians to be Christian, and would not tend to criticize a person for being Christian.

Obama's statement here implies one of two things;

1) McCain would call Obama out on his Christian faith, which makes no sense, because McCain is a Christian too.

or

2) Obama is a Muslim.

Is there another choice that I'm missing?

I don't think so.

Obama killed himself today, and he knows it.

Hallelujah! Obama is dead.

IDEOLOGY TRUMPS BUSINESS AT GOOGLE

Watching the Google Ads banner for the past couple of weeks, I thought that the business department had finally won out over the commissars, replacing lefty ads which our readers aren't likely to click with some more mainstream ads. Now I see they're back topping off our front page with ads for the Obamessiah. I don't know if they think it's cute, if their ad-selection algorithms are a mess, or if they are deliberately trying to starve the conservative blogosphere. But I have noticed.

WILLIE BROWN: "SHE REALLY IS THE PEOPLE"

Willie Brown served in the California State Assembly for 30 years, 15 years as its speaker. He was also elected Mayor of San Francisco. He is a Democrat's Democrat, and a politician's politician. From his San Francisco Chronicle column about Governor Sarah Palin:

I actually went back and watched Palin's speech a second time. I didn't go to sleep until 1:30 a.m. I had to make sure I got the lines right.

Her timing was exquisite. She didn't linger with applause, but instead launched into line after line of attack, slipping the knives in with every smile and joke.

And she delivered it like she was just BS-ing on the street with the meter maid.

She didn't have to prove she was "of the people." She really is the people.

These kudos from a veteran campaigner are yet one more vindication of Senator John McCain's judgment and skills, proving that he is truly fully ready and capable of leading our great Country.

The question for Krauthammer and Mirengoff will be, why'd it take you guys so long to figure this out?

(Hat tip: Jonah Goldberg.)

DON'T FORGET THAT BARRY OBAMA STOLE THE NOMINATION

After reviewing the devastating documentary film that Reliapundit linked to here, which demonstrates how the Obama campaign, using the old time Chicago machine tactics, stole the Texas caucuses, the following thought occurred to me:

Senator Barack [middle name redacted] Obama was not in fact chosen by the majority of Democrat Party voters. He gamed the system to steal the nomination, just as he gamed the system to knock Alice Palmer and his other opponents off the Chicago State Senate ballot in 1996.

That's the hidden weakness that will hurt him throughout this election.

Pakistan blocks fuel supply for foreign troops in Afghanistan

Last week, the United States military made an uninvited incursion into Pakistan to hit at a suspected Al Qaeda base. I said at the time that this was an incident unique in history, where one nuclear power attacked the actual land of another nuclear power.

I wondered if there would be any response, or if Pakistan was tacitly admitting their cooperation by keeping their mouths shut.

Now, Pakistan is answering back by cutting off our supply of oil in Afghanistan.

From Qatar's Leading English daily paper, The Peninsula:

Pakistan blocked a major fuel supply route for Western forces in Afghanistan yesterday in response to a raid by US forces into northwest Pakistan this week, the defence minister said. US commandos attacked suspected militants inside Pakistani territory on Wednesday, killing 20 people including women and children, Pakistani officials said, and drawing a furious response from the Pakistani government.

"We have told them that we will take action and we have already taken action today. We have stopped the supply of oil and this will tell how serious we are," Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar told Dawn Television. Fuel supplies have been blocked from crossing through the main crossing point at Torkham on the Pakistani-Afghan border near Peshawar, capital of North West Frontier Province. Earlier, an official in the northwest said the fuel was being stopped temporarily because of worries about security on the Pakistani side.

Militants have been attacking trucks in the Khyber Pass, on the way to Torkham. The decision to block fuel crossing the border at Torkham illustrates just how vulnerable supplies for US and other foreign forces in Afghanistan are. Most fuel and other supplies for US forces in Afghanistan are trucked through Pakistan, crossing the border at two points: Torkham and Chaman, to the southwest.

The Chaman crossing, where supplies bound for foreign forces in the Afghan south, particularly Kandahar, pass in from Pakistan, was operating normally yesterday. In April, Russia agreed to allow NATO to transport non-lethal supplies through its territory and into northern Afghanistan. A spokesman at the main US base in Afghanistan, at Bagram, declined to comment while a spokesman for a separate NATO-led force said they had no reports of convoys being blocked.

"As far as we know, all our convoys are getting through," the NATO force spokesman said. Wednesday's pre-dawn, helicopter-borne ground assault on the village of Angor Adda in South Waziristan on the Afghan border on Wednesday was the first known incursion into Pakistan by US troops since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

RELIAPUNDIT ADDS: IF THE REPORT IS TRUE, THEN WE SHOULD TREAT THE CURRENT PAKISTAN ADMINISTRATION AS A HOSTILE REGIME - UNTIL A RELIABLE AND TRUSTWOPRTHY ADMINISTRATION IS RESTORED - EVEN IF BY MILITARY COUP.

THAT MEANS WE SHOULD DISREGARD ANY EFFECT OUR INCURSIONS HAVE ON THIS REGIMES STABILITY.

VICE PRESIDENT BIDEN MEET SENATOR LAMONT

IF LAMONT COULDN'T WIN IN CT WHEN THE WAR WAS GOING BADLY,
THEN OBAMA-BIDEN CANNOT WIN NOW.

• MCCAIN-PALIN WILL GET MORE GOP VOTES AND MORE DEMS VOTES THAN BUSH.
• OBAMA-BIDEN WILL GET FEWER DEM VOTES AND FEWER GOP VOTES THAN KERRY.
• END OF STORY.
• UPDATE: an hour and a half later and POWER LINE agrees. We scoop these popular guys every week!
  

PALIN AND THE ALASKA NATIONAL GUARD

VIDEO HERE OF MAJOR GENERAL CAMPBELL.

EXIT QUESTION: HOW MANY DIVISIONS HAS OBAMA OR BIDEN EVER COMMANDED?

McCAIN's HEROIC STORY

The contrast between the multiple-autobiography-elaborating self-aggrandizing story of Barack Hussein Obama, on the one hand, and the heart-rending, largely private, self-effacing story of a real hero, John S. McCain, is becoming sharper every day.

Even today, the stirring story of McCain's deeds is unknown to many otherwise knowledgeable and well-informed people.

Who knows more about politics and history than Michael Barone?

Yet in his brilliant column at US News, Barone admits that McCain's story was not completely known to him.

Fred Thompson warmed up the crowd with a dramatic narration of the imprisonment and torture of John McCain (I learned things I did not know and was moved).

And when he learned them, he was moved.

I am sure that every American watching the speech -- and there were more than 40 million of us -- was moved by Senator McCain's quiet and forthright statement that the North Vietnamese had broken him.

The McCain-Palin campaign needs to break through the wall of the media, and get that story out. Over the next 60 days, I think they will.

For your reading pleasure, here's Barone on Governor Palin:

When I asked campaign manager Rick Davis on the floor Thursday night about how McCain had spotted Palin's talents—a more friendly version of the questions Schmidt was sick of answering—he said they had looked at lots of things, including the YouTube.com videos of her speeches and debates that I watched till too-late hours on Monday and Tuesday nights.

She is clearly a political natural, a rare talent, a hitherto unknown orator who sprang into the national consciousness as suddenly as William Jennings Bryan (then a 36-year-old former Congressman from Nebraska) did at the Democratic convention in 1896. (I wasn't covering that convention but am told my grandmother Darcy heard Bryan speak in Detroit.)

The Palin choice was a gamble, but not a thoughtless one: Just as a skilled card-counter can beat the odds in blackjack, one who is skilled in evaluating political talent can beat the odds in selecting a veep. Note that Palin's speech featured brilliant skewering of Barack Obama and made no (or virtually no) mention of George W. Bush.

It was the speech of an out-party nominee, one from a place as far from the nation's capital as it is possible to be and still be in the United States. And with that grand Pacific Northwest/Alaska variant on the Midwestern accent that is, or should be recognized as, standard English.

Now, hie thee hence and read the whole thing!

LATEST PALIN POSTER: "READ MY LIPSTICK!"

AWESOME.

I JUST HEARD IT ON MTP.

BUT IT'S BEEN REPORTED AND BLOGGED ELSEWHERE - LIKE HERE.

BTW: OL' JOE BIDEN IS ON MTP ... FOR THE 42ND TIME!

AND ALL HE'S BEING ASKED ABOUT SO FAR IS SARAH!

AWESOME.

Sarah Palin: The Venus Fly Trap

Why are these people smiling? (Jeff Swenson/Getty Images--click to enlarge)

62 attempts at slander and counting...and nothing to show for it.

It's been a bad week for the Dems. And that is an understatement.

Obama has gone from from 8 points up to 4 points down, all since last Thursday's hyped-to-the-max Obam-messiah speech from Ancient Greece. Normally, the idea behind a convention is to get a bounce. Enter Sarah Palin.

Palin--the VP choice--is already drawing the kind of crowds that Obama was drawing early in the primary campaign; unbelievable excitement and electricity wherever she goes (witness, e.g. her Colorado Springs appearance today). And one could argue that all of this buzz would never have been possible had it not been for the publicity generated by mainstream media with their non-stop tabloid-like coverage. The only problem for the Dems: the public finally sees the media for what they are; just another arm of the DNC. And this helps the Republicans. When the people believe that others are trying to manipulate them, their initial reaction is to reject the manipulator. And even the most dense can see the bias this year.

And--speaking of tabloid rumors--let's check in on that "Palin had an affair" slander peddled this week by the National Enquirer (via Ed Morrissey):

Nutcase bloggers will have to find another smear against Sarah Palin … again. Did you hear that Todd Palin’s former business partner tried to get his divorce records sealed? Conspiracy theorists immediately began speculating on line that Sarah Palin — that vixen! — must have had an affair and broken up the marriage. Why else would the partner suddenly act to seal his records?

As the Smoking Gun discovered, Scott Richter wanted them sealed — to protect himself from conspiracy theorists (h/t: William Amos):

So when the blogosphere discovered today (via an online court docket) that Scott Richter, a Palin associate, personally filed a sealing motion in Alaska Superior Court, well, conclusions were jumped to. Was Sarah Palin named as the other woman in a messy divorce action? Well, since Richter’s September 3 motion, a copy of which you’ll find below, was denied yesterday, his divorce filings remain open to the public. And a TSG review of the 98-page file shows that the Palins are only mentioned in Richter’s sealing request.

According to the filing, Richter wanted the documents deemed confidential in a bid to cloak details about his home, workplace, and phone numbers because “reporters and news agencies” were using that information to contact him. Richter, a 39-year-old contractor, noted that he is “friends and land owners in a remote cabin” with the Palins and, as a result, journalists were intruding on the “cabin life and private life” of him and his 11-year-old son.

Isn’t that an extra dollop of irony? Mr. Richter wants to protect his son from lunatics. What happens? The lunatics use that as “evidence” that Palin had an affair with Richter and descend on him to get the dirt.

The desperation of Obama supporters keeps becoming ever more clear. We’ve now had them smear Palin and her daughter as sluts, notably Conan O’Brien and his crude “crease” reference on his show last night. Palin’s mothering quality has also been slandered, and her decision to have a successful career derided by those who would normally sneer at stay-at-home moms.

Keep it up — please. Keep informing the public that women have to stay on the ideological reservation or they have to stay in the kitchen, and that they’re not really free to have their own minds. Keep punishing those who express their own opinions and defy the media with despicable slurs and innuendo and by all means keep attacking their children. None of that will have any effect on Palin’s credibility — but it will strip her critics of theirs.

Elsewhere, even the overtly partisan "anchor" Anderson Cooper of CNN is scratching his head coming up with anything credible in the so called "Troopergate scandal".

Meanwhile the excitement for Sarah Palin (aka Palinmania)--continues to grow. Her confident and fiery appearances on each campaign stop (so far) are not doing anything to quell that enthusiasm; and the media continues to fan the flames of keeping her front and center in the news and on every national newsstand. It's beautiful.

The Democrats--lacking an experienced candidate, and lacking any ideological substance whatsoever to rely on (all of their true hard-Left intentions have to be disguised, lest the party be abandoned en masse by the electorate)--have fallen all over themselves to use the only weaponthey have left in their "arsenal"; personal attacks and character assasination. I heard Dick Morris compare their strategy to the Germans in the WWII Battle of Kursk the other day. And he predicted that it would turn out pretty much the same way for the Dems this time around that it did for the Nazis then (not a bad analogy, actually--except I almost would rather have Sarah protecting my back than Russian armor...).

Sun Tzu counseled against interfering with one's enemies when they are already engrossed in destroying themselves. So one can only hope: that we continue to hear stories every day, e.g. Oprah refusing to interview Governor Palin; that the talk show hosts keep telling the vile jokes about her; and that the nutty left and the nutjobs carrying their water in the media keep drumming up "scandals" which turn out to embarass them rather than the candidate.

Meanwhile, the American public is watching. And the myth of an objective Mainstream Media has been obliterated.

Like I said, it has been a really bad week for the Democrats.

I think I'm in love...

DID OBAMA AND THE CHICAGO MACHINE STEAL THE NOMINATION FROM HILLARY?

FWIW: FROM THIS COMMENT THREAD AT TAB: SOME OUTFIT CALLED "WE THE PEOPLE" THINK THAT OBAMA STOLE THE NOMINATION IN THE CAUCUSES - AND THEY THINK THEY HAVE PROVEN IT, IN THIS DOCUMENTARY:

I have learned about a new documentary on Caucus Fraud that is just coming out. “We Will Not Be Silenced, ” by Gigi Gaston, came into being according to their website because ...

... The Democratic National Committee (DNC) made a grave error by depriving American voters of their choice of Hillary Clinton as Democratic nominee. Senator Clinton, by all accounts, except caucuses, won the Primary Election and, therefore, should be the 2008 Democratic Nominee.

That didn’t happen, due largely to illegitimate and illegal acts. We have interviews of many accounts from caucus states recounting threats, intimidation, lies, stolen documents, falsified documents, busing in voters in exchange for paying for “dinners,” etc.

There are at least 2000 complaints, in Texas alone, of irregularities directed towards the Obama Campaign, that have lead to a very fractured and broken Democratic Party.

The preview, all 33 minutes of it, is compelling.

... This documentary is about the disenfranchising of American citizens by the Democratic Party and the Obama Campaign. We the People have made this film. Democrats have sent in their stories from all parts of America.

We want to be heard and let the country know how our party has sanctioned the actions of what we feel are Obama campaign “Chicago Machine” dirty politics.

I DUNNO. COULD BE...

• IS IT JUST MORE LAME VICTIMHOOD CRAP FROM THE DISGRUNTLED LOSERS ON THE LEFT?
• OR DID OBAMA AND THE CHICAGO MACHINE STEAL THE NOMINATION?
• THEY STOLE THE 1960 ELECTION FOR THE KENNEDY'S SO IT IS CERTAINLY POSSIBLE.
• CHECK IT OUT, AND POST YOUR OPINIONS IN THE COMMENTS...
• FROM MY INITIAL VIEWING, SOUNDS LIKE TO ME LIKE OBAMA'S CROWD USED UNETHICAL AND ILLEGAL AND HISTORICALLY STANDARD A.C.O.R.N PRACTICES TO STEAL THE NOMINATION IN THE CAUCUSES.
• AKA "COMMUNITY ORGANIZING" PRACTICES.
  
• NO SURPRISE HERE: OBAMA AND ACORN GO WAY BACK.
• I HOPE THE MCCAIN TEAM IS WATCHING OUT FOR OBAMA'S/ACORN'S LIKELY MASSIVE VOTER FRAUD THIS FALL.......
  

PUTIN'S NEXT MOVE: RUSSIAN NAVY TO VISIT CHAVEZ - STAGE EXERCISES

BBC: Venezuela plans Russia navy visit

Venezuela says it plans to hold joint naval exercises in its territorial waters with Russian forces in November.

A senior Venezuelan naval officer said four Russian ships would take part in the exercises, which would also involve Venezuelan aircraft and submarines.

Correspondents say the move is likely to raise concern in the US, whose relations with Russia have been soured by Moscow's recent conflict in Georgia.

Washington already has rocky relations with Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez.

In July, he called for a strategic alliance with Russia to protect Venezuela from the US.

THIS IS AN ATTEMPT TO INTIMDATE US.

• IF OBAMA IS POTUS THIS KIND OF THREATENING CRAP WILL WORK.
• BUT NOT ON MCCAIN WHO, UNLIKE BUSH, HAS SEEN PUTIN FOR WHAT HE IS SINCE 2000.
  

VOTE ACCORDINGLY.

MCCAIN AND PALIN: SOME STAR-COMBOS ARE JUST MEANT FOR EACH OTHER...

HERE'S THE STAR-COMBO WHICH MOST REMINDS ME OF OBAMA-BIDEN:

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.