Exclusive: Wednesday, July 9

by PRESIDENTIAL WATCH July 9, 2008

FLASH! Ultimatum to GOP from powerful group - GO HERE.

About That Democratic 'Unity'

Patrick Casey, American Thinker.com

It seems that despite the media-targeted love-fest in Unity, New Hampshire a week and a half ago, the Hillary-Obama marriage of convenience hasn't really taken off. CNN posted the following story on it's website on Saturday: Poll: Some Clinton supporters still not embracing Obama. And the Wall Street Journal posted its own take this morning, concentrating more on Hillary's financial backers: Obama Faces Resistance From Top Supporters of Clinton.

The title of the CNN piece downplays the findings of Friday's CNN/Opinion Dynamics poll. It's not just "some" Hillary supporters who are not climbing aboard Obama's bus -- it's nearly half (43%) who would still rather see Hillary as the nominee, and the number is trending up:

A growing number of Clinton supporters polled say they may stay home in November instead of casting their ballot for Obama, an indication the party has yet to coalesce around the Illinois senator four weeks after the most prolonged and at times divisive primary race in modern American history came to a close.

This number is going to get worse for Obama because of one simple fact -- and it's not the "sexist treatment of Hillary" anger that we've heard so much about. Read article.

No Change: Meet Obama's foreign policy, same as the old foreign policy.

Mark Hemingway, NRO.com

When Obama announced he was going to "refine" his position on Iraq last week, not surprisingly many of his supporters were in a snit. It's hard to blame them.

Obama campaigned on a promise to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq immediately, at the rate of a brigade or two a month, effectively removing the U.S. presence within 16 months of him assuming office. To bolster his antiwar credentials when jumping into the primary, in January of 2007 he introduced legislation in the Senate to have all of the troops out of Iraq by March of this year. And during the primary, he reminded anyone with a microphone that he was the only major candidate who had opposed the Iraq war from the beginning.

If Obama were to refine his positions such that he were no longer explicitly in favor of ending the Iraq war promptly, it could represent a significant blow to his credibility among party activists and longtime supporters. Read article.

Blogger admits Hawaii birth certificate forgery, subverting Obama claims (Uh-oh)

Free Republic.com

Jay McKinnon, a self-described Department of Homeland Security-trained document specialist, has implicated himself in the production of fraudulent Hawaii birth certificate images similar to the one endorsed as genuine by the Barack Obama campaign, and appearing on the same blog entry where the supposedly authentic document appears.

The evidence of forgery and manipulation of images of official documents, triggered by Israel Insider's revelation of the collection of Hawaii birth certificate images on the Photobucket site and the detective work of independent investigative journalists and imaging professionals in the three weeks since the publication of the images, implicate the Daily Kos, an extreme left blog site, and the Obama campaign, in misleading the public with official-looking but manipulated document images of doubtful provenance. Read article.

Proof positive that Photoshop was used on the BC image posted in the Daily Kos

Polarik, Polarik.blogtownhall.com

Was the Daily Kos image originally taken from a digital camera file, modified in Photoshop CS3 running under Mac OS 2.0, and subsequently saved on June 12, 2008 at 8:42am?

Or, does Photoshop add Exif information? I could not find any Photoshop information or Exif information in the nonphoto image files I've saved with Photoshop.

I analyzed the Kos image using an EXIF Reader. Here is what it found: Read article.

Obama Built His Entire Legislative Record in Illinois in a Single Year, And None of it Was His.

Bill Dupray, Patriot Room.com

These days when Obama is asked on the campaign trail about his legislative accomplishments, he often rattles off several bills he sponsored while in the Illinois state senate. Todd Spivak knows a little about Obama's career in Illionois and there is a lot less to it than meets the eye.

"It's a lengthy record filled with core liberal issues. But what's interesting, and almost never discussed, is that he built his entire legislative record in Illinois in a single year.

"Republicans controlled the Illinois General Assembly for six years of Obama's seven-year tenure. Each session, Obama backed legislation that went nowhere; bill after bill died in committee. During those six years, Obama, too, would have had difficulty naming any legislative ­ achievements."

Obama also touts all his "experience" as a community organizer. What that has to do with his qualifications to be president is anyone's guess. But, nevertheless, turns out he didn't really do that either. No legislative record. No experience as a community organizer. Obama truly is an empty suit. Read article.

Obama's 143 Days of Senate Experience

Cheri Jacobus, GOP USA.com

Just how much Senate experience does Barack Obama have in terms of actual work days? Not much.

From the time Barack Obama was sworn in as a United State Senator, to the time he announced he was forming a Presidential exploratory committee, he logged 143 days of experience in the Senate. That's how many days the Senate was actually in session and working.

After 143 days of work experience, Obama believed he was ready to be Commander In Chief, Leader of the Free World, and fill the shoes of Abraham Lincoln, FDR, JFK and Ronald Reagan.

143 days -- I keep leftovers in my refrigerator longer than that.

In contrast, John McCain's 26 years in Congress, 22 years of military service including 1,966 days in captivity as a POW in Hanoi now seem more impressive than ever. At 71, John McCain may just be hitting his stride. Read article.

Obama Strikes First

Morris & McGann, Vote.com

The campaign of 2008 started on July 1 when Obama launched his first national advertising buy of the season. How McCain responds and whether or not he does, will have a big impact in determining whether Obama can solidify or expand his current lead in the polls. As always, the media fails to cover the significant events of the campaign - but this is one of the most critical.

The Obama ad, which introduces him as someone who worked his way through college, fights for American jobs, and battles for health care also seeks to move him to the center by taking credit for welfare reform in Illinois which, the ad proclaims, reduced the rolls by 80%.

But there's one problem - Obama opposed the 1996 welfare reform act at the time. The Illinois law for which he takes credit, was merely the local implementing law the state was required to pass, and it did, almost unanimously. Obama's implication - that he backed "moving people from welfare to work" - is just not true.

With Obama running the ad in all the swing states (Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Virginia), this gross usurpation of credit affords the McCain campaign an incredible opportunity for rebuttal. Read article.

Obama, patriotism, and terrorism

Robert Robb, JWR.com

Barack Obama doesn't want his patriotism questioned.

Liberals believe that their patriotism is being unfairly maligned all the time. There is some justification for this. There are those on the right who openly equate liberalism with treason.

However, there is more going on here than that. Liberals don't only object to direct attacks on their patriotism, which are objectionable.

Liberals also tend to regard any criticism of their positions on national security issues as an attack on their patriotism. Here what is objectionable is their attempt to hide behind patriotism to shield themselves from such criticism.

The liberal logic goes something like this: Protecting the country is patriotic. Criticizing my national security positions is saying that I won't protect the country. Therefore, it is an attack on my patriotism.

When Republicans raise national security issues, Democrats accuse them of trying to use scare tactics to divide the country and impugn the patriotism of those who disagree. Read article.

Obama's flip-flopping June: Is His Campaign Dishonest or Disorganized?

Editors, Philly.com

There's nothing wrong with a politician changing his mind. They all do it, and constancy in the face of error can be as harmful as flip-flopping.

Yet the month of June saw Barack Obama abandoning positions at a clip so brisk it should give even his most stalwart supporters pause.

In the wake of last week's Supreme Court ruling overturning Washington's handgun ban, for instance, the Obama campaign disavowed a 2007 statement it had made about the constitutionality of gun laws as "inartful."

After claiming in May that he would debate John McCain "anytime, any place," Obama declined to participate in a series of 10 town hall-style meetings, which the McCain campaign proposed.

Obama's very bad June suggests two possibilities: He may be one of the more unprincipled politicians we've seen recently - remember, Obama once mocked the Clintons for their prevarications, saying "They don't tell you what they mean." Or perhaps his mistakes are honest - which would make the Obama campaign one of the more intellectually disorganized enterprises in recent presidential history.

It's unclear which prospect is greater cause for concern. Read article.

Should Jewish Voters Back Obama? - Be Afraid!

Matthew Brooks, Palm Beach Post.com

Are Jewish voters in Miami and New York the obstacle to peace in the Middle East? Of course not. But Gen. Merrill "Tony" McPeak, Sen. Barack Obama's national campaign co-chairman and top military adviser, thinks so.

Sen. Obama's refusal to demonstrate principled leadership and remove Gen. McPeak has been a powerful example of his problems with the Jewish community. In temples, community centers, coffee shops and delis across Florida and the nation, Democratic, Republican and Independent Jewish voters have wondered if they can trust Sen. Obama to protect America and Israel.

Why are they skeptical? Having served barely three years in the U.S. Senate - two of which he has spent running for president - Sen. Obama's record is thin. Jewish voters need to evaluate his candidacy by asking additional questions: Read article.

Obama a victim of "Islamophobia"?

Jihad Watch.com

As everyone knows, Obama has been going to some lengths to make sure nobody thinks he's a Muslim. Nor has he been making any particular effort to add, "Not that there's anything wrong with that." Today the reliably dhimmi Wall Street Journal gives space to Junaid M. Afeef, director of public and government Affairs at the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago, to blame this not on Obama's canny political calculation and tacit awareness that people are suspicious of the violent and supremacist elements of Islam, but on "Islamophobia," that rampant plague which, he says, has claimed yet another victim: the sainted candidate himself.

It is a particularly grotesque irony that the Wall Street Journal would print this whine about "Islamophobia" the day after a man shouting "Allahu akbar" murdered three people in Jerusalem -- as if the problem (yet again) were not the people who commit such acts in the name of Islam, and the utter failure of peaceful Muslims to take the first step toward cleaning house. Oh no -- that doesn't provoke any "Islamophobia" at all. It's all about racism and bigotry.

"Obama Should Embrace His Muslim Heritage," by Junaid M. Afeef in the Wall Street Journal, July 3. "The vast majority of Americans are sincere and open-minded; anti-Muslim sentiments are a product of fear and lack of understanding. These sentiments can be overcome."

Mr. Afeef, anti-Muslim sentiments are a product of Muslims Allahu-akbaring while operating bulldozers, AK 47s, and passenger jets in order to kill infidels. Read article.

Change the Teamsters can believe in

Joel Mobray, Powerline Blog.com

Wall Street Journal reporters Brody Mullins and Kris Maher reported in early May how Barack Obama won the Teamsters' endorsement for president. In a meeting earlier this year, he privately "told the union that he supported ending the strict federal oversight imposed to root out corruption[.]" Obama holds himself out as a new kind of politician who refuses to play the old games. The story should have blown Obama's pretense up several times over, but it has generated next to no coverage.

The page-one Wall Street Journal story by Mullins and Maher turned a spotlight on the Teamsters' endorsement of Barack Obama. According to the Journal, Obama advised the Teamsters prior to its endorsement of him that he supported dissolving the permanent injunction to which the Teamsters agreed in 1989 and under which it has been operating ever since. Dissolution of the consent decree would require judicial blessing, but if the government were to seek dissolution of the decree, it would be highly likely to secure it.

Taking a leaf from the Clinton scandal management playbook, the Obama campaign dismissed the Journal story as old news. Even if it was old news, the Journal story provided the detail and attention that the story richly deserved. Read article.

The Politics of Can't-Possibly-Do

Daniel Henninger, Online WSJ.com

In a few months we'll arrive at the seventh year after the events of September 11, 2001. All can recall the coming together of the nation in the aftermath, and then how the coming together fell apart.

Reflecting the nation, the two parties have fought over the prison at Guantanamo, waterboarding three of the captured terrorists and tapping their overseas phone calls. Both candidates in the six-month Democratic primary said repeatedly that the president's strategies against the terrorists who did the airliner atrocities have made us "less safe."

Given a choice between unity and politics, we chose the indulgent pleasures of politics.

This week the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey issued a stunning document to explain why Ground Zero has remained nothing but a hole for some seven years.

It is arguably the greatest political and bureaucratic fiasco in the history of the world. Remember the line about how if we don't rebuild the towers "the terrorists will win"? The terrorists will be dead of old age before this project is finished. Read article.