Abe Greenwald, Commentary Magazine.com

 

Yesterday on Meet the Press, Tom Brokaw asked Joe Biden if the troop surge in Iraq had made possible the increased security and reconciliation we now see in that country. Here is Biden’s answer:

 

SEN. BIDEN: No. The surge helped make that–what made is possible in Anbar province is they did what I’d suggested two and a half years ago: gave local control. They turned over and they said to the Sunnis in Anbar province, “We promise you, don’t worry, you’re not going to have any Shia in here. There’s going to be no national forces in here. We’re going to train your forces to help you fight al-Qaeda.” And that you–what you had was the awakening. The awakening was not an awakening by us, it was an awakening of the Sunnis in Anbar province willing to fight.

 

So according to Joe Biden, the troop surge played a bit part in the turnaround of the Iraq War. The real catalyst? Joe Biden (with some help from the Sunnis). Let’s revisit Biden’s war plan and give the great military sage his due, shall we?

 

On May 1, 2006 Biden and Leslie H. Gelb wrote an op-ed for the New York Times entitled, “Unity Through Autonomy in Iraq,” in which the authors proposed to establish three largely autonomous regions with a viable central government in Baghdad. The Kurdish, Sunni and Shiite regions would each be responsible for their own domestic laws, administration and internal security. The central government would control border defense, foreign affairs and oil revenues. Baghdad would become a federal zone, while densely populated areas of mixed populations would receive both multisectarian and international police protection.

 

Three segregated regions with their own laws? Sure, that sounds exactly like what we see in Iraq today. Read article.

JB Williams, NMJ.us

 

The 24/7 Obama press was sent into frenzy last Friday when John McCain named the one VP running mate that they had not performed preemptive personal sludge searches upon in preparation for the announcement. They thought that they were ready to bury whomever McCain announced, but nobody had Sarah Palin on the war room radar...

 

Lacking any sludge prep on Palin, the Obama press immediately turned to left-wingnut blogs like Daily Kos for anti-Palin material.

 

·          Nobody knows who she is...

 

·          She’s a girl...

 

·          Alaska’s not a real state, so she’s not a real governor...

 

·          She was only mayor of a small town...

 

·          She has no foreign policy experience...

 

·          Her daughter mothered her secret grandson...

 

·          Her 17 year old daughter is pregnant out of wedlock...

 

·          Her husband has a 25 year old DUI...

 

·          She opposes a woman’s right to kill...

 

·          She likes guns...

 

·         She’s a card carrying member of the vast right-wing conspiracy...

 

·         She had an extramarital affair...

 

This is the best personal mud they could throw on the wall quickly and none of it stuck. Read article.

Nick Cohen, Guardian.co.uk

 

My colleagues in the American liberal press had little to fear at the start of the week. Their charismatic candidate was ahead in virtually every poll. George W Bush was so unpopular that conservatives were scrambling around for reasons not to invite the Republican President to the Republican convention. Democrats had only to maintain their composure and the White House would be theirs. During the 1997 British general election, the late Lord Jenkins said that Tony Blair was like a man walking down a shiny corridor carrying a precious vase. He was the favourite and held his fate in his hands.

 

If he could just reach the end of the hall without a slip, a Labour victory was assured. The same could have been said of the American Democrats last week. But instead of protecting their precious advantage, they succumbed to a spasm of hatred and threw the vase, the crockery, the cutlery and the kitchen sink at an obscure politician from Alaska.

 

Hatred is the most powerful emotion in politics. At present, American liberals are not fighting for an Obama presidency. I suspect that most have only the haziest idea of what it would mean for their country. The slogans that move their hearts and stir their souls are directed against their enemies: Bush, the neo-cons, the religious right. Read article.

Kimberley A. Strassel, Online WSJ.com

 

Tammy Bruce, SFGate.com

 

In the shadow of the blatant and truly stunning sexism launched against the Hillary Rodham Clinton presidential campaign, and as a pro-choice feminist, I wasn't the only one thrilled to hear Republican John McCain announce Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. For the GOP, she bridges for conservatives and independents what I term "the enthusiasm gap" for the ticket. For Democrats, she offers something even more compelling - a chance to vote for a someone who is her own woman, and who represents a party that, while we don't agree on all the issues, at least respects women enough to take them seriously.

 

Whether we have a D, R or an "i for independent" after our names, women share a different life experience from men, and we bring that difference to the choices we make and the decisions we come to. Having a woman in the White House, and not as The Spouse, is a change whose time has come, despite the fact that some Democratic Party leaders have decided otherwise. But with the Palin nomination, maybe they'll realize it's not up to them any longer.

 

Clinton voters, in particular, have received a political wake-up call they never expected. Having watched their candidate and their principles betrayed by the very people who are supposed to be the flame-holders for equal rights and fairness, they now look across the aisle and see a woman who represents everything the feminist movement claimed it stood for. Read article.

 

Jack Cashill, WND.com

 

America is poised to elect a man to the presidency whose known mentors and sponsors – al-Mansour, Rezko, Said, Wright, Ayers – put a lie to just about everything Obama has said on the campaign trail.

 

Having written a book on intellectual fraud, "Hoodwinked," and being something of a literary detective, I had no doubt on reading Barack Obama's 1995 memoir, "Dreams From My Father," that Obama did not really write it.

 

The style is above his pay grade, way above.

 

As Obama tells the story of the book's genesis, "a few publishers called" after he had been elected president of the Harvard Law Review in 1990.

 

In the real world, publishers don't call unknowns unless someone influential prompts them. Obama does not tell us who.

 

Nor does Obama tell the reader how he got elected president of the Review in the first place. Historically, the position had gone to students whose writings in the Review had shown real skill.

 

Prior to his election, however, Obama had written only one unsigned note and that one heavily edited. Once elected, Obama contributed not a word.

 

As Matthew Franck has pointed out in National Review Online, "A search of the HeinOnline database of law journals turns up exactly nothing credited to Obama in any law review anywhere at any time."

 

Beyond his ethnic appeal, however, Obama had something else going for him. As I previously reported, this information came to light last week courtesy of a newly surfaced DVD that features an interview with Percy Sutton on the New York-based "Inside City Hall."

 

A Manhattan borough president for 12 years and the most powerful black politician in New York state, Sutton spoke knowingly with host Dominic Carter about the Obama candidacy.

 

"I was introduced to [Obama] by a friend," Sutton told the interviewer. Sutton named the friend as "Dr. Khalid al-Mansour." Sutton described al-Mansour as "the principle adviser to one of the world's richest men." The billionaire in question is Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal. Read article.

 

Valerie Richardson, Washington Times.com

 

When Sarah Palin compared herself to a pit bull last week at the Republican National Convention, most delegates laughed. Not Alaskans.

 

Mrs. Palin may be a newcomer to the national scene, but in her not-quite two years as governor, she's built a reputation as a tough negotiator who's willing to butt heads and make a few enemies in order to push through her agenda.

 

Getty Images Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Republican vice-presidential nominee, makes an entrance on Day Three of the Republican National Convention at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn.

 

And her agenda is ambitious. Last month, she notched a win of historic proportions when the Alaska Legislature gave the go-ahead to a massive natural-gas pipeline project over the objections of the state's leading oil companies and the Senate Republican leadership.

 

During the final two-hour debate on Aug. 1, Senate leaders described the vote as one of the biggest in the Legislature's history. The 1,715-mile pipeline is estimated to cost as much as $30 billion.

 

"People who underestimate her are making a huge mistake," said Ken Minesinger, a lawyer who has worked with the governor on oil and gas issues. "She's really stood up to Big Oil in a way that her Republican predecessors had not, and as a result, real progress is being made for the first time on the natural-gas pipeline project, which will be the largest infrastructure project in North American history." Read article.

 

Ronnie Crocker, Chron.com

 

Palin, the Alaska governor who is John McCain's running mate, got a rousing reception for casting Democratic nominee Barack Obama as an out-of-touch elitist.

 

Twenty years ago, Richards, then the Texas treasurer, got a similarly enthusiastic reaction during her keynote address to the Democrats' convention. Her target then was the GOP nominee, George H.W. Bush.

 

Both women also paid homage to their home state and their small-town roots.

 

A look, then and now.

 

On the opposition ...

1988, Richards: "For eight straight years George Bush hasn't displayed the slightest interest in anything we care about. And now that he's after a job he can't get appointed to, he's like Columbus discovering America. He's found child care. He's found education."

 

2008, Palin: "This is a man (Obama) who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state Senate. This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting and never use the word 'victory' except when he's talking about his own campaign." Read article.

 

Howie Carr, Boston Herald.com

 

The trust-funded Beautiful People of the mainstream media and the Democratic Party are unanimous. Sarah Palin is a bad person. A very, very bad person.

 

Here is a list - a very partial list - of the reasons that the governor of Alaska is not qualified to be vice president of the United States.

 

She has never been on “Meet the Press.”

 

She doesn’t - or didn’t - have a passport.

 

She goes to a little Assembly of God church with one of those little message boards out front with a new Biblical verse on it every weekend and a minister has never once shouted from the pulpit, “God damn America!”

 

She’s shrill, shrewish, bossy, brassy - you know, all those adjectives that are sexist if you apply them to Hillary Clinton, but brilliantly insightful if used against Sarah Palin.

 

She never heard of David Gergen, Sally Quinn or Jann Wenner, and she doesn’t care what they say about her. Read article.

 

Etgar Lefkovits, The Jerusalem Post

 

Evangelical Christians living in Jerusalem on Sunday voiced unflinching support for presumptive Republican nominee John McCain, and heaped praise on his surprise selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate.

 

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain hugs Republican Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin after announcing her as his Vice Presidential running mate, Friday.

 

"McCain has a depth of understanding of foreign policy - including in the Middle East - which makes him the best choice for Israel," said Michael Mott, a native of Colorado who has lived in Israel for the past 12 years.

 

McCain's choice of Palin was a "strategic move" that "blew away" last week's Democratic National Convention, he said, adding that it was certain to win him more votes in the November election.

 

The selection of Palin, who is anti-abortion and pro-gun rights, electrified social conservatives, including Evangelicals, who had previously been tepid about McCain's candidacy. Evangelicals living in Israel said the decision had only made the Arizona senator a stronger candidate.

 

"I definitely feel that McCain is the better candidate in the race," said Roy Sanders, executive director of Christian Friends of Israel and an Iowa native who has lived in Israel for the past two decades. "He has the foreign policy experience that [Democratic nominee Barack] Obama doesn't have." Read article.

 

Larry Elder, Townhall.com

 

The John F. Kennedy legacy came up repeatedly during the Democratic National Convention. But today, would JFK even be a Democrat?

 

Kennedy supported, in today's lexicon, a George W. Bush-like "belligerent" approach to fighting the Cold War, and told CBS' Walter Cronkite it would be "a great mistake" to withdraw the American presence from Vietnam. In his 1961 inaugural speech, Kennedy said, "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty."

 

How would such a man feel about fighting today's global peril -- Islamofascism?

 

Barack Obama likes to point to the 1961 Kennedy-Khrushchev summit to support his desire for meetings "without preconditions" with enemies such as Iran and North Korea.

 

But Kennedy's secretary of State, Dean Rusk, urged against such a non-conditions-based summit. And later, Kennedy called the summit meeting the "roughest thing in my life. (Khrushchev) just beat the hell out of me. I've got a terrible problem if he thinks I'm inexperienced and have no guts." Indeed, Khrushchev thought Kennedy a weak amateur. Following the summit, Khrushchev built the Berlin Wall and placed missiles in Cuba, an action that led the world to the brink of nuclear conflict. Read article.

 

Drew Zahn, WND.com

 

On the heels of the New York Times multi-week No.1 best-selling book, "Obama Nation," comes another potentially explosive look into the real politics of Barack Obama from WND Books called "The Audacity of Deceit: Barack Obama's War on American Values."

 

"'The Audacity of Deceit' is the perfect complement to Jerome Corsi's 'Obama Nation,'" says Joseph Farah, founder of WND Books. "I think there is a strong market still for more information on Obama – a lot of material left unaddressed."

 

In "The Audacity of Deceit," author Brad O'Leary zeroes in on Obama's domestic policy prescriptions, demonstrating how Obama's campaign promises would affect average Americans should the Democrat be elected president. O'Leary looked at the potential consequences of an Obama administration and reached the following conclusions: Read article.

 

Hank Adler, Townhall.com

 

Senator Obama’s first public show of male chauvinism was in Detroit in May. Detroit reporter Peggy Agar asked a question about help for local autoworkers and received this response from Senator Obama: “Hold on one second sweetie”; he also ignored her question.

 

Now, on Sixty Minutes, he describes Governor Sarah Palin: "Obviously, she's a fine mother and an up-and-coming public servant." So, the three year Senator from Illinois now refers to the two year Governor of Alaska as an "fine mother and an up-and-coming public servant." Oh my God!

 

This is not the audacity of hope; this is the audacity of arrogance. In the dictionary, under male chauvinism, we can place a picture of Senator Obama describing a governor as a “fine mother”. This gives condescending new meaning.

 

While this relatively inexperienced Vice-Presidential candidate aspires to be a heart beat away from the presidency, this equally inexperienced Senator from Illinois wants to be that heart beat.

 

Let us be clear here, if international experience is a requirement of either the Presidency or the Vice-Presidency, neither Obama nor Palin has, as they say in poker, openers. The closest the Senator has ever come to international experience was being named to chair a Senate subcommittee on Europe. When he holds his first meeting, his international experience can begin. Read article.

 

John Hawkins, Townhall.com

 

·         You blame the oil companies for high gas prices, but believe in doing everything humanly possible to keep them from drilling for more oil.

 

·         You'd have no problem with a Democratic President talking with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Kim Jung-Il without conditions, but would be very upset if he started seriously negotiating with Republicans over national security or energy issues.

 

·         You don't see a conflict between "supporting the troops" and trying to insure that they lose the war that they're fighting.

 

·         You tell everyone who'll listen that Bush is "worse than Hitler" and that Republicans are fascists, but you never stop to consider that if that were true, you'd be dead or in a gulag already.

 

·         You think Christmas songs at school plays shouldn't be allowed because they might offend people who don't believe, but don't understand what the problem is supposed to be with government funded "art" that defiles Christianity. Your idea of "reparations for slavery" is white people who have never owned slaves giving money to black people who were never slaves, more than a hundred years after slavery ended. 

 

Your idea of "reparations for slavery" is white people who have never owned slaves giving money to black people who were never slaves, more than a hundred years after slavery ended. Read article.

 

Burt Prelutsky, Townhall.com

 

I’ll be the first to admit that I think Barack Obama made the perfect choice when he selected Sen. Biden to be his running mate. But, then, why wouldn’t I? After all, I’m a Republican.

 

Frankly, although Biden’s name had been floating around for quite a while, until Obama made it official, I had worried that he’d pick Hillary Clinton. It would have been an uncomfortable fit, but not all that much more awkward than John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson or Ronald Reagan and George Bush.

 

There are, after all, millions of female Democrats who think that Obama and the party knifed their Hillary in the back, and they may not be won back just because the convention will give her a moment in the spotlight. They just might see it as the equivalent of a philandering husband who figures all he needs to do to keep his wife from going after the community property is to send her a dozen roses. Read article.

 

Col. Bob Pappas, USMC, Ret, Gulf1.com

 

The Conventions are over and the lines are drawn, McCain, with his gift of scars and bent body that visibly proves his patriotism has sheltered and nourished a kept man who except for those gifts would likely not have the opportunity to even speak, much less run for public office. That man is the left's darling, Barack Hussein Obama, Jr..

 

There are many in this country who actually believe that Islamic Terrorism poses no danger. I don't know what cave they have been dwelling in, but I would like to remind those dimly lit minds that there were attacks of 9/11/2001 that could have proven more far-reaching than they were except for the Grace of God.

 

Those same pathetic souls believe that by appeasing the nation's enemies, by smooth talking and diminishing, no, denigrating the contributions of the Bush Administration to the security of this nation, that it advances their political agenda. Such people are despicable, unworthy of the title American and would serve us and themselves well by taking up residence elsewhere like: China, Russia, Venezuela, Cuba, Vietnam, Iran, North Korea or some other vermin infested hole, like Hollywood.

 

The mistakes of the Bush Administration are obvious to anyone who pays attention, but the over-the-top swill fed by leftist to ignorant lemmings and willing fifth columnist accomplices is treasonable. No politician is patriotic who makes public statements that undermine the military effort of the United States while it is prosecuting an armed crusade against evil agents of foreign powers or sovereign foreign enemies. Read article.

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