May 17, 2012
FSM HOT TOPICS
Exclusive: Tuesday, September 2
by PRESIDENTIAL WATCH September 2, 2008
Obama's Gestapo tactic to silence free speech - This should scare the hell out of every single American - Text of Obama campaign email to supporters HERE.
McCain POW Cellmate Speaks Out on McCain's Heroism - SEE HERE.
See the McCain-Palin rally in PA HERE.
Bristol Palin's Brave Choice - Rejecting the Cultur of Death
Ben Domenech, Red State.com
"If my daughters make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby." - Barack Obama
The 17-year-old daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is pregnant, Palin said on Monday in an announcement intended to knock down rumors by liberal bloggers that Palin faked her own pregnancy to cover up for her child.
Bristol Palin, one of Alaska Gov. Palin's five children with her husband, Todd, is about five months pregnant and is going to keep the child and marry the father, the Palins said in a statement released by the campaign of Republican presidential candidate John McCain.
Bristol Palin made the decision on her own to keep the baby, McCain aides said.
The foul denizens of Obama's online base, who find the very idea of Sarah Palin as a strong feminist conservative mother absurd, engaged in the worst kind of putrid mudslinging over the past few days, suggesting in no uncertain terms that her daughter was the mother of Trig Palin. Of course, those of us who laughed at the baseless suggestions of the child-hating left (she's not fat enough! they shriek) now know that to be impossible. We also know that McCain himself knew of Bristol's pregnancy - which had to have made this past 48 hours all the more frustrating for the campaign. For all these reasons, it's good to have this announcement come now. Read article.
Gingrich on the Power of Authenticity
William Kristol, Weekly Standard.com
Newt Gingrich e-mailed me the following, which he gave me permission to share with the wider world:
Authenticity is the one word threat to the Obama-Biden ticket.
There is something going on this weekend which traditional pundits, traditional consultants and traditional politicians are simply missing. All of the normal biography-oriented and issue-oriented analysis misses an emotional gestalt event comparable to when Ronald Reagan in 1980 crystalized his leadership in New Hampshire when he seized control of the GOP debate.
In one sudden moment Friday, John McCain fundamentally changed American politics in a manner that transcends issues and details.
The great threat to the Obama-Biden ticket can be captured in one word: authenticity.
There is something unaffected and "unsophisticated" (in the Columbia, Princeton, Harvard and University of Chicago meanings of the word) about Governor Palin. She really was point guard of a state championship basketball team. She really is a competent hunter. She is a hockey mom. She has one son about to go to Iraq.
She has 13 years in elected office
By any practical standard she has done far more in the real world with much more spontaneity and practicality than Barack Obama. This is a moment of stunning authenticity versus a sad collapse on the part of the Obama campaign from " change you can count on" to politics as usual, as marked by Obama's choice of a senator first elected when Palin was 9 years old. Read article.
Palin’s Instincts - Don’t discount Palin’s foreign-policy credentials.
Tom Gross, NRO.com
Critics are already trying to damn Sarah Palin for her perceived lack of foreign-policy experience, but what they are not allowing for is something more important — that she has the right basic attitudes and sense of priorities. She understands that aggression has to be resisted and commitments have to be honored.
Certainly there is every sign that she will be better for at least one of America’s closest friends and allies, Israel, than Joe Biden.
It is true that Biden talks of his support for Israel in principle, but the reality is that he has done his utmost to thwart keeping the possibility of a military option open to stop Iran acquiring nuclear weapons. As a result he was even praised recently on the Iranian regime’s official propaganda arm, Press TV.
It is no accident that Biden was dubbed “Tehran’s favorite senator” in an article in the Washington Post last week.
By contrast, the very first reference to foreign policy that Palin made in her acceptance speech after being chosen as John McCain’s vice-presidential candidate Friday was that Iran must be stopped from getting nuclear weapons. She mentioned this even before she mentioned the issues of Iraq and Russia. Read article.
Giuliani: Palin More Qualified Than Obama
CBS News.com
Speaking on Face The Nation Sunday, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani said that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who was announced Friday as presumptive GOP nominee John McCain’s running mate, is more qualified to be president than Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.
“You know why? She had to make decisions,” Giuliani told Face The Nation anchor Bob Schieffer. “All Senator Obama has had to do is talk. That's all he does.”
Citing her executive experience, the Republican National Convention keynote speaker called Palin “somebody of accomplishment” because “she's vetoed legislation, she's taken on corruption, and in her party, and won. She took on the oil companies and won. She administered a budget successfully.”
He also said Obama “is the least experienced candidate for president in the last 100 years."
“I mean, he's never run a city, he's never run a state, he's never run a business, he's never administered a payroll, he's never led people in crisis,” Giuliani said. Read article.
A Reform Ticket
Review & Outlook, Online WSJ.com
If any doubt remained that former fighter pilot John McCain loves to take unconventional risks, he put them to bed Friday by picking Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. Introduced in Dayton by Mr. McCain, Governor Palin swung the bat pretty well. We'll now see if she can hit curve balls.
It's a daring pick because Mrs. Palin has never faced national scrutiny and hasn't had to deal with foreign policy. Most VP choices are designed to do no harm, and we tend to agree with the maxim. Democrats are already saying they can't wait for Mrs. Palin's debate against "statesman" Joe Biden. On the other hand, the record shows that Sarah Palin's political career is a case study in taking on the big boys. We suspect her record of fighting the status quo was uppermost in John McCain's decision.
Experience?
For starters, we'd say Governor Palin's credentials as an agent of reform exceed Barack Obama's. Mr. Obama rose through the Chicago Democratic machine without a peep of push-back. Alaska's politics are deeply inbred and backed by energy-industry money. Mr. Obama slid past the kind of forces that Mrs. Palin took head on. This is one reason her selection -- despite its campaign risks -- seems to have been so well received by Republicans yesterday. They are looking for a new generation of leaders.
Don't expect this remarkable personal Palin narrative to get an Obama-like break from the national media. Their main focus will be her lack of experience, claiming it undercuts Mr. McCain's criticism of Barack Obama. One mispronounced foreign leader's name, and she's going to be hammered.
If she can survive this gantlet, Governor Palin could help Mr. McCain with some liabilities of his own. The alternative would have been a ticket of two familiar GOP names in a political cycle where the Democrats have seemed to the party of energy and freshness. A self-described "hockey mom" with a commercial-fisherman husband, Governor Palin will have more credibility with families than a Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee. With energy supplies and prices one of the top issues, Alaska's Governor also should bring some first-hand realism to the debate over drilling and the environment. Read article.
Victory and Energy for the Second American Century: Cheering the Palin Pick
Hugh Hewitt, Townhall.com
Conservatives are thrilled with the selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running-mate. Scroll through the postings at RobinsonandLong.com, or listen to the hosts and callers on any of the talk shows today.
There are six reasons, all of them huge and enduring.
First, over the past month we have gone from hoping Senator McCain would win to thinking he might actually be able to win. With the selection of Governor Palin most of us are convinced he will win. Which means the country will be well led on the war for at least another four crucial years. The reason behind this new confidence leads us to the second factor.
Sarah Palin is a real deal conservative, down the line, on all of the issues. This has the immediate effect of energizing the base to battle to keep the White House and to close the gap in or take back the House of Representatives. It is especially important that she is ardently pro-life, and the story of her family is certain to resonate with those values voters who prize faith and family as the center of life. Read article.
Palin's Gas Pipeline Isn't Hot Air
IBD Editorials.com
As congressional Democrats dither on a vote for oil drilling, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has pushed through a gas pipeline project to bring new supply and price relief to the lower 48.
On Aug. 1, the same day the call for a vote on drilling began on the House floor, the Alaska state Senate approved a package of measures to license a new natural gas pipeline. House Bill 3001 lets Palin award the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act license to TransCanada Alaska, a pipeline builder that cast a winning bid of five.
The legislature had been trying for 30 years to authorize something like this and, up until now, had blown it. Palin got it through. Getting it off the ground, the state says, will be the biggest construction project in U.S. history.
Palin considers the $26 billion project her biggest accomplishment as governor. "It was not easy," she told IBD. "Alaska has been hoping and dreaming for a natural gas pipeline for decades. What it took was getting off the dime and creating a competitive market in Alaska."
The 1,715-mile gas line would stretch from Alaska's North Slope to Fairbanks and down to Alberta, Canada. Then it would take existing gas lines to Idaho. In 10 years, Palin says, the lower 48 states would receive 4.5 million cubic feet of natural gas a day. Read article.
A Speech For McCain
Douglas MacKinnon, Townhall.com
After tens of conversations with “non-political” Americans living outside of the poisonous echo chamber that is our Nation’s capital, I offer up this draft speech:
“Thank you for that warm welcome. I’m greatly honored to be here tonight.
"As an American and as a Republican, I am fond of quoting one of our greatest patriots and presidents – Abraham Lincoln. During one of the most trying times in our nation’s history, Mr. Lincoln said, ‘If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. It is true that you may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all the time.’
"As we all know, there is a growing perception in this country that political campaigning is now more about fooling some of the people than it is about honesty, integrity, and trying to figure out how best to solve the very serious problems that plague our citizens and threaten the national security of our nation.
"Let’s face it. Somewhere along the line, the message has been badly twisted and all but obliterated by a political process that needs an immediate and forceful overhaul. This election is not now, and never has been, about mindless statistics, slick sound bites, or hollow rhetoric.
"This election has to be about the welfare of our people and the very future of our Republic.” Read article.
Congress Is a Perfect Target for McCain
Karl Rove, Online WSJ.com
Democrats and Republicans have scripted their conventions as tightly as possible. But after delegates return home with buttons, badges and banners, the curtain will rise on a more unruly drama: the fall session of Congress. And it could affect the November election more than the conventions.
The House and Senate return to Washington Monday, Sept. 8. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid hope it will be a short session, ending on Sept. 26. That will allow members to go home and campaign, not to return until after Election Day. Good luck.
Congress hasn't yet passed any one of the 12 appropriations bills needed to fund the government when the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1. And Congress isn't likely to pass them through both houses and get them to the president before leaving town.
The goal here for Mr. Reid and Mrs. Pelosi is to delay passing a budget until the next president is inaugurated. If the Democrats get their wish and sweep the November elections, Barack Obama's swearing-in ceremony will mark the opening of the spending floodgates. Read article.
McCain: The Stuff of Presidents
Bruce Herschensohn, Townhall.com
One of my favorite conservative columnists recently started a column with the words, “Back before the Republican Party was saddled with John McCain as its nominee…” How was the Republican Party “saddled” with him when more Republicans voted for him than for anyone else running in the Republican primaries and caucuses?
I was one of those who voted for John McCain in the California primary—and did it with enthusiasm. As someone as conservative as the columnist, of course I have had disagreements with Senator McCain on some issues, but all the issues of disagreement are secondary to winning the war in which our nation’s survival is at stake, as well as the survival of civilization as we know it. I am convinced that John McCain was born to be commander in chief in this war. Foreign policy and the military are in his blood. That is not true of the Democrats’ choice.
Early in 1961, President Kennedy invited former Vice President Nixon to the Oval Office to discuss world affairs. Former Vice President Nixon was seated on a lounge chair while President Kennedy was pacing the floor as they discussed Cuba, Berlin, the Congo, Laos, Vietnam, India, Pakistan, Indonesia and the U.N. President Kennedy stopped pacing and said to former Vice President Nixon, “This is the stuff of presidents! I mean, who cares if the minimum wage is $1.15 or $1.25?” He meant, of course, that the minimum wage “is the stuff” of Congresses. Read article.
Barack Obama Is Not in the League of Presidents
Paul Ibrahim, North Star Writers.com
I rarely have much praise for what airs on television these days. But John Adams, the recent HBO mini-series that I am thoroughly enjoying on DVD, deserves any praise it gets for being a wonderful illustration of America’s birth and infancy. But I have also found it just as important for reminding me of the great character and qualification of our nation’s first presidents.
Prior to becoming president, George Washington served for many years in several military ranks over a span of 30 years. A delegate to the Continental Congress, he fought back against British oppression and soon became general of the Continental Army. Within six years and four months, he had defeated the world’s dominant imperial power and allowed America to experience its true independence.
Our second president, John Adams, was also a delegate to the Continental Congress and was another advocate for freedom.
Barack Obama has been a senator for three and a half years, campaigned for half that time, and made a speech in Berlin.
And for that he believes he deserves the same office that George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson struggled so hard to earn.
Have we truly come to the point where we think so little of the office of the president of the United States, the most powerful office in the world, that we are seriously considering filling it with someone who is asking to be elected solely for his promises?
What is going on, America? Read article.
GOP Platform Opposes Amnesty
Josiah Ryan, CNS News.com
A draft copy of the GOP platform, which was obtained by CNSNews.com on Wednesday, says “We oppose amnesty” for illegal immigrants.
But Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the presumptive presidential nominee for the Republican Party, has been a leading proponent in Congress for giving illegal aliens a “pathway to citizenship.”
"Amnesty has to be an important part of [any immigration solution] because there are people who have lived in this country for 20, 30 or 40 years, who have raised children here and pay taxes here and are not citizens. That has to be a component of it,” McCain reportedly told the Tucson Citizen on May 29, 2003.
In June, McCain told the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials that comprehensive immigration reform is his "top priority -- yesterday, today and tomorrow." Read article.
Obama's Advisors - A Source For Concern
Yoram Ettinger, YNet.com
Senator Barak Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate, is not a key member of the Senate committees on foreign relations, armed services or intelligence, has not initiated-led any significant legislation and has not devoted himself to national security issues. He surged into the Senate and the presidential race from the Illinois local-political-social arena. Obama relies on a battery of experienced advisors, who influence/shape his world view and maybe even US policy and US-Israel relations for the next 4-8 years. However, the record of his advisors – most of whom served in the Carter and Clinton Administrations – constitute a source of concern.
For instance, Tony Lake, served as the influential Director of Policy Planning under Secretary Cyrus Vance and President Jimmy Carter. He played a lead role in the policy, which stabbed the Shah of Iran – a most loyal ally of the US in a most critical area to US interests - in his back, catapulted Khomeini to prominence and constituted a tailwind to the Islamic Revolution. Lake was the luminary and National Security Advisor of President Clinton, who shaped a policy, which approached international and Islamic terrorism as a challenge for law enforcement agencies rather than for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs-of-Staff. Lake ’s policy defined terrorists as criminals who should be brought to justice, rather than wartime lethal enemies who should be brought down on their knees. The outcome of Lake’s world view has burdened the US and the Free World since September 11, 2001.
Susan Rice served as John Kerry’s senior foreign policy advisor in his 2004 presidential campaign. She wanted to appoint Jim Baker or Jimmy Carter – the most anti-Israel Secretary of State and President since 1948 - as the Special Emissary to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Rice was an Assistant Secretary of State under Secretary Albright and President Clinton, representing a worldview, which blames the West for the predicament of the Third World, identifying Israel with the West and the Arabs with the Third World. Read article.
Obama's Gestapo tactic to silence free speech - This should scare the hell out of every single American - Text of Obama campaign email to supporters HERE.
McCain POW Cellmate Speaks Out on McCain's Heroism - SEE HERE.
See the McCain-Palin rally in PA HERE.
Bristol Palin's Brave Choice - Rejecting the Culture of Death
Ben Domenech, Red State.com
"If my daughters make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby." - Barack Obama
The 17-year-old daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is pregnant, Palin said on Monday in an announcement intended to knock down rumors by liberal bloggers that Palin faked her own pregnancy to cover up for her child.
Bristol Palin, one of Alaska Gov. Palin's five children with her husband, Todd, is about five months pregnant and is going to keep the child and marry the father, the Palins said in a statement released by the campaign of Republican presidential candidate John McCain.
Bristol Palin made the decision on her own to keep the baby, McCain aides said.
The foul denizens of Obama's online base, who find the very idea of Sarah Palin as a strong feminist conservative mother absurd, engaged in the worst kind of putrid mudslinging over the past few days, suggesting in no uncertain terms that her daughter was the mother of Trig Palin. Of course, those of us who laughed at the baseless suggestions of the child-hating left (she's not fat enough! they shriek) now know that to be impossible. We also know that McCain himself knew of Bristol's pregnancy - which had to have made this past 48 hours all the more frustrating for the campaign. For all these reasons, it's good to have this announcement come now. Read article.
Gingrich on the Power of Authenticity
William Kristol, Weekly Standard.com
Newt Gingrich e-mailed me the following, which he gave me permission to share with the wider world:
Authenticity is the one word threat to the Obama-Biden ticket.
There is something going on this weekend which traditional pundits, traditional consultants and traditional politicians are simply missing. All of the normal biography-oriented and issue-oriented analysis misses an emotional gestalt event comparable to when Ronald Reagan in 1980 crystalized his leadership in New Hampshire when he seized control of the GOP debate.
In one sudden moment Friday, John McCain fundamentally changed American politics in a manner that transcends issues and details.
The great threat to the Obama-Biden ticket can be captured in one word: authenticity.
There is something unaffected and "unsophisticated" (in the Columbia, Princeton, Harvard and University of Chicago meanings of the word) about Governor Palin. She really was point guard of a state championship basketball team. She really is a competent hunter. She is a hockey mom. She has one son about to go to Iraq.
She has 13 years in elected office
By any practical standard she has done far more in the real world with much more spontaneity and practicality than Barack Obama. This is a moment of stunning authenticity versus a sad collapse on the part of the Obama campaign from " change you can count on" to politics as usual, as marked by Obama's choice of a senator first elected when Palin was 9 years old. Read article.
Palin’s Instincts - Don’t discount Palin’s foreign-policy credentials.
Tom Gross, NRO.com
Critics are already trying to damn Sarah Palin for her perceived lack of foreign-policy experience, but what they are not allowing for is something more important — that she has the right basic attitudes and sense of priorities. She understands that aggression has to be resisted and commitments have to be honored.
Certainly there is every sign that she will be better for at least one of America’s closest friends and allies, Israel, than Joe Biden.
It is true that Biden talks of his support for Israel in principle, but the reality is that he has done his utmost to thwart keeping the possibility of a military option open to stop Iran acquiring nuclear weapons. As a result he was even praised recently on the Iranian regime’s official propaganda arm, Press TV.
It is no accident that Biden was dubbed “Tehran’s favorite senator” in an article in the Washington Post last week.
By contrast, the very first reference to foreign policy that Palin made in her acceptance speech after being chosen as John McCain’s vice-presidential candidate Friday was that Iran must be stopped from getting nuclear weapons. She mentioned this even before she mentioned the issues of Iraq and Russia. Read article.
Giuliani: Palin More Qualified Than Obama
CBS News.com
Speaking on Face The Nation Sunday, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani said that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who was announced Friday as presumptive GOP nominee John McCain’s running mate, is more qualified to be president than Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.
“You know why? She had to make decisions,” Giuliani told Face The Nation anchor Bob Schieffer. “All Senator Obama has had to do is talk. That's all he does.”
Citing her executive experience, the Republican National Convention keynote speaker called Palin “somebody of accomplishment” because “she's vetoed legislation, she's taken on corruption, and in her party, and won. She took on the oil companies and won. She administered a budget successfully.”
He also said Obama “is the least experienced candidate for president in the last 100 years."
“I mean, he's never run a city, he's never run a state, he's never run a business, he's never administered a payroll, he's never led people in crisis,” Giuliani said. Read article.
A Reform Ticket
Review & Outlook, Online WSJ.com
If any doubt remained that former fighter pilot John McCain loves to take unconventional risks, he put them to bed Friday by picking Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. Introduced in Dayton by Mr. McCain, Governor Palin swung the bat pretty well. We'll now see if she can hit curve balls.
It's a daring pick because Mrs. Palin has never faced national scrutiny and hasn't had to deal with foreign policy. Most VP choices are designed to do no harm, and we tend to agree with the maxim. Democrats are already saying they can't wait for Mrs. Palin's debate against "statesman" Joe Biden. On the other hand, the record shows that Sarah Palin's political career is a case study in taking on the big boys. We suspect her record of fighting the status quo was uppermost in John McCain's decision.
Experience?
For starters, we'd say Governor Palin's credentials as an agent of reform exceed Barack Obama's. Mr. Obama rose through the Chicago Democratic machine without a peep of push-back. Alaska's politics are deeply inbred and backed by energy-industry money. Mr. Obama slid past the kind of forces that Mrs. Palin took head on. This is one reason her selection -- despite its campaign risks -- seems to have been so well received by Republicans yesterday. They are looking for a new generation of leaders.
Don't expect this remarkable personal Palin narrative to get an Obama-like break from the national media. Their main focus will be her lack of experience, claiming it undercuts Mr. McCain's criticism of Barack Obama. One mispronounced foreign leader's name, and she's going to be hammered.
If she can survive this gantlet, Governor Palin could help Mr. McCain with some liabilities of his own. The alternative would have been a ticket of two familiar GOP names in a political cycle where the Democrats have seemed to the party of energy and freshness. A self-described "hockey mom" with a commercial-fisherman husband, Governor Palin will have more credibility with families than a Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee. With energy supplies and prices one of the top issues, Alaska's Governor also should bring some first-hand realism to the debate over drilling and the environment. Read article.
Victory and Energy for the Second American Century: Cheering the Palin Pick
Hugh Hewitt, Townhall.com
Conservatives are thrilled with the selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running-mate. Scroll through the postings at RobinsonandLong.com, or listen to the hosts and callers on any of the talk shows today.
There are six reasons, all of them huge and enduring.
First, over the past month we have gone from hoping Senator McCain would win to thinking he might actually be able to win. With the selection of Governor Palin most of us are convinced he will win. Which means the country will be well led on the war for at least another four crucial years. The reason behind this new confidence leads us to the second factor.
Sarah Palin is a real deal conservative, down the line, on all of the issues. This has the immediate effect of energizing the base to battle to keep the White House and to close the gap in or take back the House of Representatives. It is especially important that she is ardently pro-life, and the story of her family is certain to resonate with those values voters who prize faith and family as the center of life. Read article.
Palin's Gas Pipeline Isn't Hot Air
IBD Editorials.com
As congressional Democrats dither on a vote for oil drilling, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has pushed through a gas pipeline project to bring new supply and price relief to the lower 48.
On Aug. 1, the same day the call for a vote on drilling began on the House floor, the Alaska state Senate approved a package of measures to license a new natural gas pipeline. House Bill 3001 lets Palin award the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act license to TransCanada Alaska, a pipeline builder that cast a winning bid of five.
The legislature had been trying for 30 years to authorize something like this and, up until now, had blown it. Palin got it through. Getting it off the ground, the state says, will be the biggest construction project in U.S. history.
Palin considers the $26 billion project her biggest accomplishment as governor. "It was not easy," she told IBD. "Alaska has been hoping and dreaming for a natural gas pipeline for decades. What it took was getting off the dime and creating a competitive market in Alaska."
The 1,715-mile gas line would stretch from Alaska's North Slope to Fairbanks and down to Alberta, Canada. Then it would take existing gas lines to Idaho. In 10 years, Palin says, the lower 48 states would receive 4.5 million cubic feet of natural gas a day. Read article.
A Speech For McCain
Douglas MacKinnon, Townhall.com
After tens of conversations with “non-political” Americans living outside of the poisonous echo chamber that is our Nation’s capital, I offer up this draft speech:
“Thank you for that warm welcome. I’m greatly honored to be here tonight.
"As an American and as a Republican, I am fond of quoting one of our greatest patriots and presidents – Abraham Lincoln. During one of the most trying times in our nation’s history, Mr. Lincoln said, ‘If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. It is true that you may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all the time.’
"As we all know, there is a growing perception in this country that political campaigning is now more about fooling some of the people than it is about honesty, integrity, and trying to figure out how best to solve the very serious problems that plague our citizens and threaten the national security of our nation.
"Let’s face it. Somewhere along the line, the message has been badly twisted and all but obliterated by a political process that needs an immediate and forceful overhaul. This election is not now, and never has been, about mindless statistics, slick sound bites, or hollow rhetoric.
"This election has to be about the welfare of our people and the very future of our Republic.” Read article.
Congress Is a Perfect Target for McCain
Karl Rove, Online WSJ.com
Democrats and Republicans have scripted their conventions as tightly as possible. But after delegates return home with buttons, badges and banners, the curtain will rise on a more unruly drama: the fall session of Congress. And it could affect the November election more than the conventions.
The House and Senate return to Washington Monday, Sept. 8. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid hope it will be a short session, ending on Sept. 26. That will allow members to go home and campaign, not to return until after Election Day. Good luck.
Congress hasn't yet passed any one of the 12 appropriations bills needed to fund the government when the new fiscal year begins Oct. 1. And Congress isn't likely to pass them through both houses and get them to the president before leaving town.
The goal here for Mr. Reid and Mrs. Pelosi is to delay passing a budget until the next president is inaugurated. If the Democrats get their wish and sweep the November elections, Barack Obama's swearing-in ceremony will mark the opening of the spending floodgates. Read article.
McCain: The Stuff of Presidents
Bruce Herschensohn, Townhall.com
One of my favorite conservative columnists recently started a column with the words, “Back before the Republican Party was saddled with John McCain as its nominee…” How was the Republican Party “saddled” with him when more Republicans voted for him than for anyone else running in the Republican primaries and caucuses?
I was one of those who voted for John McCain in the California primary—and did it with enthusiasm. As someone as conservative as the columnist, of course I have had disagreements with Senator McCain on some issues, but all the issues of disagreement are secondary to winning the war in which our nation’s survival is at stake, as well as the survival of civilization as we know it. I am convinced that John McCain was born to be commander in chief in this war. Foreign policy and the military are in his blood. That is not true of the Democrats’ choice.
Early in 1961, President Kennedy invited former Vice President Nixon to the Oval Office to discuss world affairs. Former Vice President Nixon was seated on a lounge chair while President Kennedy was pacing the floor as they discussed Cuba, Berlin, the Congo, Laos, Vietnam, India, Pakistan, Indonesia and the U.N. President Kennedy stopped pacing and said to former Vice President Nixon, “This is the stuff of presidents! I mean, who cares if the minimum wage is $1.15 or $1.25?” He meant, of course, that the minimum wage “is the stuff” of Congresses. Read article.
Barack Obama Is Not in the League of Presidents
Paul Ibrahim, North Star Writers.com
I rarely have much praise for what airs on television these days. But John Adams, the recent HBO mini-series that I am thoroughly enjoying on DVD, deserves any praise it gets for being a wonderful illustration of America’s birth and infancy. But I have also found it just as important for reminding me of the great character and qualification of our nation’s first presidents.
Prior to becoming president, George Washington served for many years in several military ranks over a span of 30 years. A delegate to the Continental Congress, he fought back against British oppression and soon became general of the Continental Army. Within six years and four months, he had defeated the world’s dominant imperial power and allowed America to experience its true independence.
Our second president, John Adams, was also a delegate to the Continental Congress and was another advocate for freedom.
Barack Obama has been a senator for three and a half years, campaigned for half that time, and made a speech in Berlin.
And for that he believes he deserves the same office that George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson struggled so hard to earn.
Have we truly come to the point where we think so little of the office of the president of the United States, the most powerful office in the world, that we are seriously considering filling it with someone who is asking to be elected solely for his promises?
What is going on, America? Read article.
GOP Platform Opposes Amnesty
Josiah Ryan, CNS News.com
A draft copy of the GOP platform, which was obtained by CNSNews.com on Wednesday, says “We oppose amnesty” for illegal immigrants.
But Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the presumptive presidential nominee for the Republican Party, has been a leading proponent in Congress for giving illegal aliens a “pathway to citizenship.”
"Amnesty has to be an important part of [any immigration solution] because there are people who have lived in this country for 20, 30 or 40 years, who have raised children here and pay taxes here and are not citizens. That has to be a component of it,” McCain reportedly told the Tucson Citizen on May 29, 2003.
In June, McCain told the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials that comprehensive immigration reform is his "top priority -- yesterday, today and tomorrow." Read article.
Obama's Advisors - A Source For Concern
Yoram Ettinger, YNet.com
Senator Barak Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate, is not a key member of the Senate committees on foreign relations, armed services or intelligence, has not initiated-led any significant legislation and has not devoted himself to national security issues. He surged into the Senate and the presidential race from the Illinois local-political-social arena. Obama relies on a battery of experienced advisors, who influence/shape his world view and maybe even US policy and US-Israel relations for the next 4-8 years. However, the record of his advisors – most of whom served in the Carter and Clinton Administrations – constitute a source of concern.
For instance, Tony Lake, served as the influential Director of Policy Planning under Secretary Cyrus Vance and President Jimmy Carter. He played a lead role in the policy, which stabbed the Shah of Iran – a most loyal ally of the US in a most critical area to US interests - in his back, catapulted Khomeini to prominence and constituted a tailwind to the Islamic Revolution. Lake was the luminary and National Security Advisor of President Clinton, who shaped a policy, which approached international and Islamic terrorism as a challenge for law enforcement agencies rather than for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs-of-Staff. Lake ’s policy defined terrorists as criminals who should be brought to justice, rather than wartime lethal enemies who should be brought down on their knees. The outcome of Lake’s world view has burdened the US and the Free World since September 11, 2001.
Susan Rice served as John Kerry’s senior foreign policy advisor in his 2004 presidential campaign. She wanted to appoint Jim Baker or Jimmy Carter – the most anti-Israel Secretary of State and President since 1948 - as the Special Emissary to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Rice was an Assistant Secretary of State under Secretary Albright and President Clinton, representing a worldview, which blames the West for the predicament of the Third World, identifying Israel with the West and the Arabs with the Third World. Read article.
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