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July 8, 2008
Exclusive: Tuesday, July 8
The Meta-Messages in Obama's Patriotism Speech
Lee Cary, American Thinker.com
meta-message: A term, widely credited to Gerard Nierenberg, used to refer to messages that are not directly delivered but emerge from between the written or spoken lines.
Senator Obama's "The America We Love" speech, delivered in Independence, Missouri on June 30, might be more accurately entitled, "My Definition of Patriotism." It was as much about him as America, and it was full of meta-messages.
A close reading of his 3,000-words address reveals meta-messages at various depth levels. Here are several listed in their order of appearance: Read article.
Laptop links Obama, Chavez, Colombian revolutionaries
WND.com
Narco-rebels say Venezuela is aiding them, and they expect more help from a new Democrat U.S. president.
A laptop computer captured in the possession of a slain Colombian revolutionary provides tangible evidence Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is aiding the narco-rebels and that they see more help coming next year if Barack Obama becomes president.
The laptop was seized Saturday after a raid by Colombian government forces on commandos of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. Some 23 rebels were killed in the raid, including Raul Reyes, their leader. The files on the computer provide details and context to what the Colombian government claims is Chavez's effort to subvert the U.S. ally. Read article.
Pres Obama = Civil War?
J. Grant Swank, Jr., Mosque Watch.Blogspot.com
Feelings are so heated against B. Hussein Obama that if he gets into the White House, civil war could break out in America.
The first item that will spark the fire is when B. Hussein sides with Muslims. He has already stated in his book, "Audacity of Hope," that if things turn ugly, "'I will side with Muslims.'"
You can be sure that in his first week or month on Pennsylvania Avenue, Muslims will cry that somebody has brought the "ugly" upon them. Then B. Hussein will have to defend aggressively, thither and yon.
That will ignite non-Muslims into a major frenzy fit, and justifiably so.
America has yet to fully understand how much Muslim B. Hussein truly is. Those into mob hysteria are crazed by his celebrity status and may indeed waltz him into the Oval Office. That is a real, frightening possibility. Read article.
Obama's 'Dignity' Ad isn't Dignified (Or truthful)
Ross Kaminsky, Human Events.com
Although he's not yet in the league of Al "I invented the Internet" Gore, Barack Obama's new campaign ad, "Dignity" contains several exaggerations about his role in getting tax and welfare reform legislation passed during his tenure as a State Senator in Illinois. His push to expand "health care for kids" also shows something most of us already assumed, namely that his goal to socialize health care and spend taxpayer money trumps any desire for fiscal responsibility.
The thirty second ad, which can be seen HERE, spends 10 seconds of black-and-white footage, describing how Obama "worked his way through college and Harvard Law, turned down big money offers..."
Apparently not enough of them for Obama to fail to get a remarkable deal on a $1.65 million home, possibly with the help of now-convicted Tony Rezko. And just after the ad says Obama "turned down big money offers", the footage cuts to pictures of small row houses discussing how Obama "helped lift neighborhoods stung by job losses." If he couldn't actually lift a neighborhood, at least he found a way to lift himself into a better one. Read article.
Sept. 10th Democrats
Rep. Peter Hoekstr, Human Events.com
Is it fair to say that Congressional Democrats and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama have a "September 10th" mindset on U.S. national security? While Democrats vigorously object to this charge, evidence is mounting that this is indeed the case.
By a "September 10th" mindset, I mean the naïve national security positions advocated by Democrats until September 10, 2001 that failed to focus on real threats to our nation. These positions included favoring after-the-fact litigation against foreign terrorists, over preventing attacks by maximizing our intelligence and military resources.
In the aftermath of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center, President Clinton prosecuted those directly responsible for the attack but did little else. He failed to recognize the broader threat and failed to immediately adopt a preventative policy to thwart future attacks. Obviously, this approach failed. This mindset is evident in other bad policy decisions. CIA Director John Deutch's "Deutch Doctrine" limited the recruitment of human intelligence sources and ended up devastating U.S. human intelligence assets. Read article.
Imagining the Election: A battle of archetypes.
Victor Davis Hanson, NRO.com
One way to envision the McCain-Obama presidential race is as a boxing match - particularly like the famous Mohammed Ali championship fights.
The deliberate McCain is like a Sonny Liston or George Foreman trying to cut the ring in half and force his lighter-footed opponent onto the ropes. For McCain, this comes in the form of numerous proposed town-hall debates, where he hopes that face-to-face questions and answers will fall on his less-seasoned opponent like sudden haymakers.
In turn, Obama is like Ali; his style is to keep moving - and stay out of reach of his opponent. Obama does this through rhetorically masterful addresses to large, adoring crowds. He knows that the more McCain is forced to spar at a distance via set speeches in front of a teleprompter, the more he wears down the elder senator, who appears outclassed on the evening news.
Or maybe the better analogy is Aesop's fable of the tortoise and the hare. At 71, a slower McCain keeps plodding along at a steady pace, hoping that an overconfident, dashing Obama will rest on his wide lead in many polls, coast, make some more gaffes, and then let him crawl on by. Something like that happened in the Republican primary when the once dead-last, written-off McCain eventually walked past all his front-running rivals.
Pundits talk a lot about Obama's current 12-15 point lead in the recent L.A. Times/Bloomberg and Newsweek polls. Less noticed is that the two are dead even in the venerable Gallup survey. Read article.
Why I Support John McCain
Dennis Prager, Townhall.com
Last week, a conservative magazine reported that I would not vote for John McCain for president. The magazine based its claim on a column I had written in May 2007 about why I could not support John McCain for the Republican presidential nomination.
The magazine was wrong. Though I did not support Sen. McCain in the Republican primaries, the moment he became the presumptive Republican candidate I endorsed him wholeheartedly for president of the United States. Having not been a supporter from the outset, perhaps my endorsement of John McCain will carry more weight among conservatives who are still undecided about whether to vote for John McCain.
My bottom line is this: The gulf between John McCain and conservatives is miniscule compared to the gulf between John McCain and Barack Obama. This is true regarding virtually every issue of significance to America. The America that a President Barack Obama would shape, with the help of a Democratic Congress and a liberal Supreme Court, would be very dissimilar from the America shaped by a President John McCain.
Conservatives who will not vote for McCain are well-intentioned utopians. Read article.
Cindy McCain, quite a woman!
Judith A. Klinghoffer, JWR.com
I must admit I knew nothing about Cindy McCain beyond the fact that she is beautiful. So, I was rather surprised to discover while reading Holly Bailey's Newsweek article In Search of Cindy McCain that she is a woman of substance.
Unlike Hillary Clinton or Michelle Obama, she is not motivated by ambition and the lust for power rather, like Laura Bush, by the wish to be her own woman and set her own goals. In other words, Cindy McCain is as independent minded as her husband. I suspect he would not have it any other way. And, yes, their's seems to be a very modern but sweet love story.
In the spring of 1979, Cindy joined her parents on a trip to Hawaii. At a Navy cocktail party, a cocky captain came up and introduced himself. John McCain was the Navy's chief liaison to the Senate in Washington. He was 41, but told her he was 37. Cindy was 24, but told him she was 27. By both accounts, it was love at first sight â€"though for McCain, it was far more complicated. He was a married father of three. His relationship with his first wife, Carol Shepp, was coming apart, and the two were separating, though he didn't divulge any of that to Cindy that first night.
What kind of a wife is Cindy? Read article.
Mr.Obama: Don't Betray My People
Amil Imani, Amil Imani.com
It looks as if Senator Obama has a shot at the White House. It also looks like my people are going to be betrayed once again by a badly misguided American president. Jimmy Carter helped give birth to the virulent Shiite Islamism by forbidding the Shah of Iran to crush the bloodthirsty Ayatollah Khomeini and his band of rabid Islamists. Now, Mr. Obama intends to confer legitimacy on the illegitimate child, the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Jimmy Carter, the self-appointed touring ambassador of bad-mouthing America must be rejoicing in the prospect of Mr. Obama's presidency. Mr. Obama holds the promise of not only carrying on the Carterian misguided policies, but taking them to their very ruinous end.
Jimmy Carter did his thing and my people died. In no time at all, the vicious Mullahs gutted the Iranian armed forces and executed many of its most capable officers. Saddam Hussein watched gleefully as the Iranian military disintegrated, and found the opportunity to carry out his Pan Arabism ambition by attacking Iran. Some eight years of barbaric butchery killed and maimed millions on both sides, gutted the vibrant Iranian economy, and visited misery of all sorts upon the Iranian people.
Mr. Obama, if you get elected as president, don't you even think of doing anything that would further whet the insatiable appetite of the Islamists. Your mentor and idol, Carter, helped the Islamists and an untold number of my people died and are still dying. And by "my people," I include both innocent people of my native birthplace Iran, as well as many noble compatriots of my adopted homeland, America.
Mr. Obama, you are either naïve or find it politically expedient to propose your foreign policy approach. In either case, you'd best keep in mind that the Islamist enemy plays by a completely different set of rules. Negotiating with the Islamists is like flipping a coin: Heads they win, tails you lose. Read article.
Better by Juxtaposition: An Obama presidency would rescue the Bush legacy.
Jonah Goldberg. NRO.com
Breaking news! The ultimate White House insider plans a tell-all book about the Bush years. Boasting unprecedented access to the president's thinking, it will run counter to almost everything we've been told about Bush's radical presidency.
Who will be the latest to break the code of silence after former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan? George W. Bush.
At least that's what went through my mind listening to the president during a meeting with a small group of journalists in the Oval Office on Monday. Dressed in a pale blue suit with a crisp blue tie, the president seemed to be in high spirits as he discussed developments in North Korea and other diplomatic initiatives, crushing my hopes for a poignant "Bush in winter" column. "When I write my book," the president teased, people will understand how much behind-the-scenes diplomacy went on during this administration.
I'm sure he's right. In fact, if only a fraction of what he had to say was accurate, then the conventional bleats about unilateralism, war lust and cowboyishness will go down in history as the excessive caterwauling of an imaginative and hyper-partisan opposition. Read article.
Ms. Hillary's Comeuppance
Dr. Paul Keng, Townhall.com
It was springtime. The year was 1969. The spirit of la revolucion was in the air.
Ms. Hillary Rodham and her Wellesley sisters sat in the crowd awaiting words of inspiration from their speaker. The commencement speaker that year was Senator Edward W. Brooke (R-MA), who in 1966 became the first African-American elected to the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction. Brooke came to extend his congratulations to the 401 women. It was a good speech, perfectly reasonable-but not to Hillary Rodham.
The young Hillary was dissatisfied. She judged that the good senator had missed the paramount issues of the time. That was an opinion she did not keep to herself, as the Wellesley brass soon learned in horror. Indeed, the powers-that-be at the college had decided that this commencement would be the first in which a graduating senior was permitted to speak. Hillary ensured that the administration would regret its decision.
Though she had spent weeks preparing an approved text, Hillary Rodham tossed aside the script as she approached the platform. She then launched into a point-by-point rebuttal of the senator's remarks, with all the moral certainty, righteousness, and wisdom of a 21-year-old Poli Sci major from the suburb of Park Ridge, Illinois.
"We feel that for too long our leaders have used politics as the art of the possible," lectured Ms. Rodham. "And the challenge now is to practice politics as the art of making what appears to be impossible, possible." She spoke of her and her generation's struggles with an "inauthentic reality," a "prevailing acquisitive and competitive corporate life," and their yearning for "a more penetrating ... existence."
She continued her stern-it has been called "scathing"-rebuke of Senator Brooke, one that would get national press, with an excerpt published in Life magazine and a front-page article in the Boston Globe the next day, the latter of which delightfully reported that Rodham had "upstaged" Brooke. And though the liberals at the Globe would enjoy this latest moment of enlightenment from the campus community, many of the parents were appalled. Who was this petulant brat? Read article.
Elections Have Consequences
Chad Groening, OneNewsNow.com
Pro-family activist Gary Bauer says a disturbing report out of Canada should send a clear message to American voters that elections have consequences.
ABC News recently reported that Canadian, British, and American intelligence agencies are concerned that a significant terrorist attack may soon take place. According to that report, Hezbollah sleeper cells have been reportedly activated in Canada, and terrorist operatives have been tracked moving from Lebanon to Canada, Europe, and Africa.
Bauer -- chairman of American Values -- believes there is another very ominous aspect to this report. "[Terrorists'] families have been sent back to Lebanon -- the sort of thing you might expect if they [were] expect[ing] a government crackdown in Canada after a terrorist attack," he says. "So once again we're reminded that it's a very dangerous world."
And Bauer contends that Americans must be very careful about who is in the Oval Office when facing these dangers. "Do we want somebody [who shows that he]...is naive about foreign policy [or] thinks that all these problems can talked away?" questions Bauer. "Or do we want somebody who has a long record of serving his country and also dealing with defense issues and national security issues?" Read article.
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