May 22, 2012
FSM HOT TOPICS
Exclusive: Friday, August 15
by PRESIDENTIAL WATCH August 15, 2008
Here come The Clintons
Michael Goodwin, JWR.com
They're baaacckkk.
Rested and ready, the Clinton crew is busy stirring the pot again.
Fresh from a nearly six-week layoff, Hillary and her team are picking up where they left off in June. Her pledges of unity and wholehearted acceptance of Barack Obama as the Democratic Party's nominee seem to be, well, halfhearted.
One day she's on a YouTube video talking about the need for a "catharsis" at the Democratic convention, which sounds suspiciously like a demand to have her name put in nomination for a roll call. Then an interview surfaces of Bubba refusing to say Obama is ready to be President. And close aide Howard Wolfson rips the scab off the primary wounds by saying Hillary would have won if the media had exposed John Edwards' affair earlier.
This is definitely not the vacation Obama had in mind. From the headlines about Edwards' sordid romps to the Russians' brutal reminder of their Evil Empire days, his downtime before the convention begins Aug. 25 hasn't been stress-free.
Obama, in Hawaii visiting the ailing grandmother he threw under the bus to defend the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's racist rants, has surely scratched Edwards from his surrogate list. And as a mere candidate, there isn't much he can do about the Russians, though as President he would inherit yet another twist in a nasty world order. Read article.
We Could See a McCain Landslide
Rush Limbaugh, Rush Limbaugh.com
RUSH: See, the liberals have to blame this Russian attack on Georgia on Bush, and then, by association, McCain, otherwise Obama has no chance. I don't think he has much of a chance, and I think the dirty little secret is that McCain could win this in a landslide. I actually do. I think there is so much huff and puffery here about Obama, and the bloom has long ago gone off that rose. It happened during the Democrat primaries. Thomas Sowell has a great column. He once attended a course taught by John Kenneth Galbraith, the noted liberal economist, and he came in and did his first lecture to the class, and it was so good they all stood up and applauded, but every other lecture was just more and more generalities on the first lecture, and as the course went on, the class kept dwindling in size and finally people stopped showing up because there was no substance. That's exactly what's happened to Obama. Read TRANSCRIPT.
The Galbraith Effect
Thomas Sowell, Townhall.com
Many years ago, when I was a college student, I took a course from John Kenneth Galbraith. On the first day of class, Professor Galbraith gave a brilliant opening lecture, after which the students gave him a standing ovation.
Galbraith kept on giving brilliant opening lectures the whole semester. But, instead of standing ovations, there were now dwindling numbers of students and some of them got up and walked out in the middle of his lectures.
Galbraith never got beyond the glittering generalities that marked his first lecture. After a while, the students got tired of not getting any real substance.
Senator Barack Obama's campaign this year reminds me very much of that course from Professor Galbraith. Many people were ecstatic during the early primaries, as each state's voters heard his glittering generalities for the first time. Read article.
Old Politics, New Politician
CFIF.org
Time and again, we’ve explained why we’re against campaign finance “reform.” Quite simply, not only do such restrictions violate core free speech and association rights, but all too often our elected representatives manipulate campaign finance rules to advantage themselves and disadvantage their opponents — thus disempowering their constituents, the voters.
Nevertheless, if actions really do speak louder than words, we wondered why haven’t campaign finance “reformers” started questioning just what’s so “different” about Barack Obama’s “kind of politics?”
After all, since announcing his presidential candidacy with rhapsodic rhetoric lamenting that Washington has become “so gummed up by money and influence that we can’t tackle the big problems that demand solutions,” the presumptive Democratic nominee has been practicing politics in the same old ways. As has become perfectly clear, what you hear in Obama’s speeches bears little resemblance to what you get in Obama’s actions — especially when it comes to his campaign’s finances and where they come from.
It’s no secret that the presumptive Democratic nominee’s campaign has been a cash cow. But what wasn’t widely known, until Thursday, was who was being milked and who was doing the milking. Read article.
What Will He Say Next?
Lee Culpepper, NMJ.us
With Obama’s lead in the polls disappearing, a steady stream of doubt is now being poured over Obama’s nervous and inverted campaign. The great orator appears ready to crack. Soon, Obama could be flip-flopping so swiftly that the infamous 90 seconds required to break someone through waterboarding will seem like eternity. If swearing to be a born-again conservative would make him president, Obama would find a way to deliver the announcement and still pacify his delusional and government-dependent audience.
It is nauseating to watch Obama flipping and flopping on the campaign trail as he frantically tries to tell mentally stable Americans what he hopes they want to hear.
Standing before the cameras like a POW paraded for propaganda, Obama encrypts his moderate rhetoric with socialist messages to communicate courage and hope to his ideological comrades. He has not completely broken yet, but as panic and confusion gradually overtake the great orator’s senses, we might expect to see his cult stage protests about Obama’s inhumane campaign treatment. Clearly, campaigning is extracting bogus information from the Democrat’s presumptive candidate.
At the current pace, August may well end with Obama swearing that he advocates -- on a limited basis -- small government and self-reliance. He might even say that although he has opposed the war in Iraq from the beginning, he has always been open to supporting certain parts of it in order to win the election. It is not difficult to imagine that with a few more flips, Obama might flop to the right of McCain – threatening to pose as the more conservative candidate. Read article.
A not-so-public man: the private character of John McCain
Abraham Katsman, Jpost.com
It's pretty amazing when you think about it. War hero John McCain has been in the public eye almost his entire adult life. He's run numerous campaigns, served in Congress for 25 years, and is in his second run for the presidency.
Yet, there is so much of his life that reveals an absolutely sterling character, but remains largely unknown to the public. And in spite of the tremendous political advantages that publicity could confer, McCain instinctively keeps that information private. Although as a presidential candidate he may be forced to overcome this reticence, he honorably shies away from using his personal heroics for political gain.
How aware is the public that McCain has raised seven children? Or that he adopted his two oldest sons as small boys (children from his wife's prior marriage)? Or that he has raised a Bangladeshi girl with severe health problems adopted from Mother Theresa's orphanage? Or that his own sons have served in the military, including in Iraq?
It's widely known that McCain, a Navy pilot, was shot down, captured and tortured by the North Vietnamese for 5 and a half years - an episode worth a forthcoming column all its own. But few are aware that he refused early release until all the POWs captured before him were freed, and that he refused special treatment offered once it was discovered that he was the "crown prince" (the son of the admiral in charge of the Pacific Fleet) because he wouldn't provide the enemy with any propaganda victories. Read article.
The Democrat Plan for Losing
Charles Krauthammer, Townhall.com
Let's see: housing meltdown, credit crunch, oil shock not seen since the 1970s. The economy is slowing, unemployment growing and inflation increasing. It's the sixth year of a highly unpopular war and the president's approval rating is at 30 percent.
The Italian Communist Party could win this election. The American Democratic Party is trying its best to lose it.
Democrats have the advantage on just about every domestic issue from health care to education. However, Americans' greatest concern is the economy, and their greatest economic concern is energy (by a significant margin: 37 percent to 21 percent for inflation). Yet Democrats have gratuitously forfeited the issue of increased drilling for domestic oil and gas. By an overwhelming margin of 2-1, Americans want to lift the moratorium preventing drilling on the Outer Continental Shelf, thus unlocking vast energy resources shut down for the last 27 years.
Democrats have been adamantly opposed. They say that we cannot drill our way out of the oil crisis. Of course not. But it is equally obvious that we cannot solar or wind or biomass our way out. Does this mean that because any one measure cannot solve a problem, it needs to be rejected? Read article.
Pro-Obama Group Threatens Republican Donors
Jim Meyers, NewsMax.com
A new left-wing organization that wants to help elect Barack Obama president is sending letters to nearly 10,000 major donors who contribute to Republican causes, threatening them with potential legal problems if they finance conservative groups.
The nonprofit organization, Accountable America, is even offering a $100,000 reward for information that leads to the criminal conviction or fines of at least $10,000 for violations of campaign finance laws or other statutes by a conservative group, according to The New York Times.
Accountable America is led by Tom Matzzie, former Washington director of the liberal activist group MoveOn.org, and its research director is Judd Legum, who served that role in Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
Matzzie called the organization’s effort “going for the jugular.” He told The Times, "We want to stop the Swift Boating before it gets off the ground.”
The warning letter being sent to potential donors “is intended as a first step, alerting donors who might be considering giving to right-wing groups to a variety of potential dangers, including legal trouble, public exposure and watchdog groups digging through their lives,” The Times reports. Read article.
It's Obama's Viability, Not McCain's, That Should Surprise Us
David Limbaugh, David Limbaugh.com
The press is shocked that Barack Obama has "yet to close the sale," given the "political logic" that favors Democrats in this election. They must not have been paying attention during the final segment of the primary season, when Hillary Clinton consistently thrashed the hollow superstar.
That said, Obama's handlers betray not the slightest concern because they believe that despite the statistical tie in the polls, Obama's supporters are much more intense than McCain supporters. "That is going to mean more favorable turnout patterns; it is going to help us register voters; it is going to help us organizationally," said Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe.
Indeed, political analysts have been speculating for months now that Obama could transform presidential politics by energizing a whole new class of voters.
If that's true, McCain has his work cut out for him because the voters Obama is inspiring seem more enamored with his image than who he really is and what he stands for. Being largely apolitical and emotionally driven, they won't be as receptive to the ever-unfolding, troubling revelations about Obama.
While the media are stunned that Obama is not resonating in line with their expectations, others wonder how he can resonate at all, given his McGovernesque, leftist agenda and his damning associations with America-hating preachers (Jeremiah Wright and Michael Pfleger), terrorists and radicals (William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn) and a mentor (Frank Davis) who was a member of the Moscow-controlled Communist Party USA and who, according to Investor's Business Daily, "fled Chicago after the FBI and Congress opened investigations into his 'subversive,' 'un-American activities.'" Read article.
Obama vs. McCain on the Economy
Jack Kemp, Townhall.com
"It's a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high today and tax revenues are too low, and the soundest way to raise revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now." Those are the words of President John F. Kennedy in 1962. He went on to say, "The purpose of cutting taxes now is not to incur a budget deficit but to achieve the more prosperous, expanding economy which can bring a budget surplus."
What's more, in Kennedy's annual message to Congress, circa 1963, he said: "In today's economy, fiscal prudence and responsibility call for tax reduction, even if it temporarily enlarges the federal deficit. . Why reducing taxes is the best way open to us to increase revenues."
Today, in this presidential debate over a 21st century economic growth agenda, it is ironic that John McCain is far closer to JFK policies than the presumptive Democratic candidate, Barack Obama. Obama has proposed raising tax rates, raising tariffs and expanding government regulations, all of which, in the words of Nobel Prize winning economist Robert Mundell, would plunge the United States into a big recession and further weaken the dollar. Read article.
Reparations By Another Name
IBD Editorials.com
Barack Obama says Washington shouldn't just offer apologies for slavery, but also "deeds." Don't worry, he says, he's not talking about direct reparations. Relieved?
Don't be.
Obama knows that if he pushes too hard on reparations, he might scare off white voters. So he couches race-specific welfare as "universal" social programs that appeal to broad-based political coalitions — "even if they disproportionately help minorities," he confides in his book, "Audacity of Hope."
Obama has a name for his scheme: "universal strategies."
"An emphasis on universal, as opposed to race-specific, programs isn't just good policy," he wrote. "It's also good politics."
Maybe so. But not all his plans for reparations are roundabout. His book and Web site outline a separate plan calling for essentially a government bailout of the inner cities. Among other things, he proposes Read article.
The Silver Tongued Devil: Barack Obama & Power Politics
Lance Fairchok, NMJ.us
“You do what you can with what you have and clothe it with moral arguments.” – Sol Alinsky, Rules for Radicals
In Jerusalem, the prayer Barack Obama wrote on the stationary of the King David Hotel and inserted in the stones of the Western Wall mysteriously made its way to the press. The cover story is that a young yeshiva student pilfered it. Yet the prayer’s content made it to several newspapers, reportedly pre-approved by the Obama campaign. It is a humble, sincere sounding prayer, one that contradicts the strident and hateful rhetoric of Obama’s Chicago church. It was written for that exact purpose, knowing that whether from official release or the inevitable pilfering, it would come out. The images of his staged piety were quickly included in campaign videos.
His ball game with soldiers in Afghanistan was staged, a quick in and out photo op. He could not find enough time to visit wounded GI’s back in Germany, nor have a meal with our military men and women. He did not even do the obligatory “thank you for your service” reception line. Obama was back on the plane when the photos were done, it is the pictures on the six o’clock news that matter. Obama knows people will remember those images, even if they have no idea where he stands on issues. Read article.
First Black President Will Be a Republican
Alicia Colon, NY Sun.com
Is America ready for a black president? Absolutely; it has been for some time. We probably would have had one by now if the black community had ever supported a conservative the way they are now supporting one of the most liberal. More than likely the first black president will be a Republican.
On August 5, the New York Young Republican Club had a fund-raiser in Manhattan for Colonel Allen West, who is running for Congress. The irony is that Colonel West is running for Congress in Florida and therefore has a chance. The black community in New York only supports Democrats.
I followed the link to his campaign site, allenwestforcongress.com, and read his superb bio. Colonel West has a B.S. and M.S. in political science; spent 22 years in the military and won a Bronze Star, three Meritorious Service Medals, three Army Commendation Medals (one with Valor), and, yes, he's black. The best recommendation for his candidacy may be that Keith Olbermann put him on his Worst Person in the World list. Read article.
This is Not about, What the Hell is his name? - Oh, yeah John Edwards
Col. Bob Pappas, USMC, Ret, Gulf1.com
Despite all the publicity, fawning and palm branches that his supporters, and that includes most, if not all of the so called, "mainstream media," cast at his feet, Obama will not be the next President of the United States.
The situation may be historic and one should respect the right of those who choose to place him on a pedestal, albeit one that is largely a product of his oratorical skill: not his experience, not his knowledge, not his ability to run a business, not his accomplishments, not his demonstrated patriotism, and not his contributions to this country; but his ability to expertly read a speech.
One should read if one has not, "The Making of A President." It is a 1960's book turned into stage play. The Democrats have evidently taken the script and applied it to the Obama Campaign; in a nutshell it's all about image. Read article.
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Ky. primary has Barack Obama doing battle with a phantom; Let the mockage begin!
May 22, 2012 07:50 PM
Vote-counting for the Kentucky primary is underway, and Obama is leading among preferred Democratic presidential candidates. But ah, ah, ah … not so fast there, Barack. Looks like not everything’s comin’ up roses in the Bluegrass State. ONE FOR UNDECIDED: Bath County, Kentucky Democrats take "Undecided" over President Obama by 725-715 votes— Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) [...]
May 22, 2012 04:29 PM
The South Carolina AFL-CIO president is on video beating an effigy of Governor Nikki Haley with a bat. War on women, indeed, and it comes from the Left as always. To Leftist thugs and union goons, she was asking for it, you see. That "uppity" woman won't keep her mouth shut and all. Scratch a Leftist and you will find not only a misogynist, but a racist.
Media still covering for no Biden access for press, blame Romney
May 22, 2012 03:39 PM
Media bias alert! RT @zekejmiller: Worth noting, given Romney flap last week, press not given rope-line access to Biden event here in NH— Sarah Huisenga (@SarahH_CBSNJ) May 22, 2012 Um. After the “Romney flap?” You mean the “flap” that the media breathlessly and endlessly reported all while ignoring the fact that reporters were shooed off [...]
May 22, 2012 03:08 PM
I'll see your Cory Booker and raise you a Joe Biden.— David Freddoso (@freddoso) May 22, 2012 Rut roh! Shall we add him to “hostage watch?“ Biden: When Bain companies failed, it cost taxpayers money in unemployment insurance, pension costs.— Mike Memoli (@mikememoli) May 22, 2012 Uh. When they are “too big to fail” and [...]
Dan Savage: Marriage is make-believe just like BDSM
May 22, 2012 02:46 PM
That oh-so-deep thought on marriage was a followup to Savage’s 140 character thoughts on BDSM: Some BDSMers take BDSM very, very seriously, of course, and strive to make it as real as possible. But it's still make-believe.— Dan Savage (@fakedansavage) May 22, 2012 And I respect BDSMers who take it seriously. They're fucking hot. xo— [...]
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