May 22, 2012
FSM HOT TOPICS
Exclusive: Wednesday, August 27
by PRESIDENTIAL WATCH August 27, 2008
See the whole story about Obama’s support of infanticide - CLICK HERE.
Themes for the Barackathon
Jed Babbin, Human Events.com
Before this week ends, the Democrats will have convinced themselves that John McCain is a combination of George W. Bush and Barry Goldwater. One of the major themes of the Denver Barackathon was tipped yesterday by the Dems’ think tank, the New York Times.
Yesterday the Times set out one of the main themes for the Democratic National Convention this week in two columns.
First, Frank Rich wrote that “McCain’s trigger-happy temperament and reactionary policies offer worse than no change.” Second, the lovely and talented Maureen Dowd wrote of McCain, “Did his captivity inform a search-and-destroy, shoot-first-ask-questions-later, ‘We are all Georgians,’ mentality?”
We already knew the first Barackathon theme, that electing McCain is tantamount to re-electing Bush to a third term. Now we have the second theme: that McCain is a reckless shoot-from-the-hip warmonger. The last time the Dems used this script, it worked. Read article.
The Case Against Obama - In His Own Words
Lorie Byrd, Townhall.com
It would be hard to make a better case against a Barack Obama presidency than the one Obama has made in his own words. The most memorable thing about Obama’s speeches is not generally what he says, but rather how large and enthusiastic the audiences are. If voters pay attention only to the symbolism and get caught up in the excitement of the Obamessiah and his throngs of fainting disciples, he stands a good chance of winning in November. If voters pay attention instead to the things Obama is saying, the case against an Obama presidency will be clear.
Last May, he claimed that Kansas tornadoes killed a whopping 10,000 people:
Earlier this month in Oregon, he redrew the map of the United States: “Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go.”
Last March, on the anniversary of the Bloody Sunday march in Selma, Alabama, he claimed his parents united as a direct result of the civil rights movement. Obama was born in 1961. The Selma march took place in 1965.
Some of Obama’s gaffes go beyond simple slips of the tongue and confusion over numbers though and display a lack of knowledge on important issues. Read article.
Obama is his own worst enemy: Democrats know their man is faltering
Jack Kelly, JWR.com
Democrats begin their national convention with a queasy feeling in the pits of their stomachs. Barack Obama has plunged in the polls, falling into a statistical tie with John McCain. The election that was supposed to be in the bag isn't.
Democrats blame the plunge on negative ads. They plan to respond in kind. The first few days of their convention will feature nonstop assaults on the presumptive GOP nominee.
The Democrats' strategy is driven by what they think happened to John Kerry in 2004. His plans to run as a war hero came a cropper when 15 of the 23 officers who served with him in Vietnam declared him "Unfit for Command." Democrats believe Sen. Kerry's sluggish response to their charges is what cost him the presidency. Sen. Obama has declared he will not be "swift-boated."
But the Democratic strategy has two serious flaws. The first is the blithe assumption by Democrats that if voters prefer the Republican candidate, it has to be because the Republican played a dirty trick. The thought that voters might prefer the Republican because of perceived shortcomings in the Democrat never crosses their minds.
It should. The Swifties' charges hit home because they were credible and came from a credible source. It is Sen. Obama's inexperience and ego, not the brilliance of Sen. McCain's ad writers, that have made his ads mocking Sen. Obama's celebrity status resonate. Even if Democrats succeed in tarnishing Mr. McCain, it won't solve their fundamental problem, because this election is mostly about Barack Obama. Who is he? What does he really believe? Does he know enough, is he strong enough to lead?
"McCain's message is pretty clear and essentially twofold," wrote liberal blogger Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo. "Obama is, in so many words, a frivolous phony, someone who really doesn't have any business running for president. McCain is a strong leader who can defend the country. “ Read article.
Why Won't the Mainstream Media Question the Obama Narrative?
Michael Barone, USNews.com
Once upon a time, the two parties' national conventions chose presidential nominees. Now, they are television shows that try to establish a narrative, one that links the long-since-determined nominee's life story with the ongoing history of the nation, one that shows how this one man is perfectly positioned to lead America to a better future. The hope is that the nominees will get a bounce in the polls.
And they usually do. Gallup Poll data show that nominees got a 5 percent or better bounce from 14 of the 16 national conventions between 1976 and 2004. And that's even for nominees who in retrospect seem less than inspiring. In 1988, Democrats presented Michael Dukakis as the son of immigrants who produced the Massachusetts miracle; Republicans presented George H. W. Bush as the pioneer who went to Texas and was now ready to take on another mission. Both got 11 percent bounces.
The biggest of all—30 percent—went to Bill Clinton, "the man from Hope," in 1992, helped by Ross Perot's withdrawal on the day of his acceptance speech. The notable exceptions came in 2004, when a polarized electorate gave George W. Bush only a 4 percent bounce, and John Kerry—"reporting for duty"—actually lost ground.
The narrative of this year's Democratic National Convention can be forecast with some assurance. It will emphasize Barack Obama's roots in Kansas more than Kenya or even Hawaii; it will portray him as a leader from a new generation eager to cast off the partisanship of the past decade.
An interesting question is whether mainstream media have any appetite for undermining this undeniably attractive narrative. Of "the whole Obama narrative," one reporter told the New Republic's Gabriel Sherman, "like all stories, it's not entirely true." Obama's record of reaching across party lines is, as his own answer to Rick Warren's recent Saddleback Civil Forum question showed, pretty thin. His paper trail is surprisingly thin, too. Read article.
For Obama, Believing is Seeing
George Will, Townhall.com
Barack Obama has made his economic thinking excruciatingly clear, so it also is clear that his running mate should have been not Joe Biden, but Rumpelstiltskin. He spun straw into gold, a skill an Obama administration will need in order to fulfill its fairy-tale promises.
Obama recently said he would "require that 10 percent of our energy comes from renewable sources by the end of my first term -- more than double what we have now." Note the verb "require" and the adjective "renewable."
By 2012 he would "require" the economy's huge energy sector to -- here things become comic -- supply half as much energy from renewable sources as already is being supplied by just one potentially renewable source. About 20 percent of America's energy comes from nuclear energy produced using fuel rods, which, when spent, can be reprocessed into fresh fuel. Read article.
Barack Obama heads for victory rally - but the race is far from over
Tom Baldwin, TimesOnline.co.uk
Barack Obama has come a long way since his first Democratic convention in Los Angeles eight years ago when, by his own account, he was down in the dumps and broke after being decisively beaten in his bid to win a seat in Congress.
On arrival at the airport, his American Express card was twice rejected and it took half an hour of negotiations to hire a car. Later, denied credentials to the convention floor, he spent a desultory few days watching speeches on TV screens and trying to follow friends into "skyboxes where it was clear I didn't belong" before going home early.
Four years on, still largely unknown and not yet even elected to the Senate, he burst onto the national stage with a speech at the Boston convention that electrified a party preparing grimly to annoint leaden John Kerry as its choice for the White House. Read article.
Obama, Ayers, and the Annenberg Challenge Cover-Up
Tom Maquire, Pajamas Media.com
Barack Obama and the unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers have worked closely together on education reform since 1995, and possibly since 1987. Obama has obfuscated and minimized this association in his public statements and on his website. Why the cover-up? We don’t know, since we aren’t sure what is being concealed.
It’s becoming known as the Annenberg Challenge cover-up and it’s become big news since the McCain campaign highlighted it in a press release late Wednesday.
In the past few days, Stanley Kurtz of the National Review has been trying to get access to the archives of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, an education reform group co-founded by Bill Ayers in 1995 and chaired by Barack Obama from 1995 to 1999. After originally giving Mr. Kurtz permission, the library then told him that he could not proceed because they did not have proper authorization from the donor of the archives. They would not identify the donor, but the library assured Mr. Kurtz that they hoped to conclude an agreement and make the documents available soon. And why that cover-up? Read article.
When Daley says shhh, library is quiet on Obama
John Kass, Chicago Tribune.com
Conservative writer Stanley Kurtz—researching an article for the National Review about connections between Barack Obama and former Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers—made a big mistake.
The poor man took a wrong turn on the Chicago Way. Now he's lost.
Kurtz's research was to be done in a special library run by the University of Illinois at Chicago. The library has 132 boxes full of documents pertaining to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a foundation vested heavily in school reform.
Kurtz believes the documents may show Obama and Ayers were close—far closer than Obama has acknowledged—over oodles of foundation gifts on education projects the two worked on together.
The relationship between the ambitious Obama and the unrepentant Ayers is a subject that excites Republicans, who haven't really thwacked that pinata as hard as they might. It really irritates Obama and his political champion, Chicago's sovereign lord, Mayor Richard M. Daley.
"This is a public entity," Kurtz told us Wednesday. "I don't understand how confidentiality of the donor would be an issue."
You don't understand, Mr. Kurtz? Allow me to explain. The secret is hidden in the name of the library. Read article.
Michelle, Anti-American Radicals, and U of C
Stanley Kurtz, NRO.com
The Washington Post today has published a long story that has a great deal to say about Michelle Obama’s work at the University of Chicago. The Post story concentrates on Michelle’s involvement in a program to bring medical care to poor South Side Chicago residents. Yet there is a great deal about Michelle Obama’s work at the University of Chicago that goes uncovered here. In particular, the Post has almost nothing to say about Michelle’s five year stint as "founding director" of the university’s community service center. As long as the Post has opened the issue of Michelle’s work for the University of Chicago, I think it’s only fair to say that Michelle’s service there, and particularly her first job, deserves greater scrutiny.
In short, just after Barack Obama effectively secured a seat in the State Senate, the University of Chicago invented a new job, for which it hired Michelle Obama. In that job, Michelle would be able to channel University of Chicago students into the radical anti-American groups that she and her husband worked with, and whose ideology has received far too little scrutiny. Some of these organizations, even if unofficially, provided campaign workers for Barack Obama on election day.
At any rate, that’s how it looks. It seems to me that if the mainstream papers like the Post are going to look into Michelle Obama’s work bringing medical care to poor South Side residents, her earlier position and its link to politically radical–even intensely anti-American–community organizers deserves scrutiny as well. Read article.
Biden is no threat to Obama - but no asset
William Rees-Mogg, TimesOnline.com
Joe Biden has one crucial qualification to be the next vice-president of the United States, at least in the eyes of Barack Obama. He is not Hillary Clinton. Mr Obama has made the opposite decision to the one made by another young and relatively inexperienced Senator in 1960. John F.Kennedy distrusted and detested Lyndon Johnson, but he asked him to become his running- mate in the election because he thought that Johnson would help to deliver the Texas vote. He did, and Texas was one of the key states that took Kennedy into the White House.
Senator Biden is no Hillary Clinton; he presents no threat though little promise to Mr Obama. In the primary elections, Mrs Clinton gained 18 million votes. Among women she had a devoted following - and who still believe she should have been the candidate. If she had been on the ticket, she would have brought a lot of votes with her, as did Johnson. In rejecting her as his running-mate, Mr Obama has taken the risk that his margin of victory might be wiped out.
If Mr Obama had chosen Mrs Clinton, the Clintons might have overshadowed his campaign. Their baggage, particularly Bill Clinton's past scandals, might have been embarrassing. Like Johnson, Bill Clinton is a big political figure. One can understand that Mr Obama wanted to emphasise that he was his own man. Yet in rejecting Hillary Clinton, Mr Obama may have lost the White House. Many Democrats do believe that. Read article.
In Denver, Deep Doubts About Obama
Byron York, NRO.com
Undecided swing-state voters have trouble supporting the Democratic nominee.
On the eve of the Democratic National Convention, in a downtown high-rise conference room lined with two-way mirrors, 21 undecided Colorado voters sit trying to decide whether they have more doubts and reservations about Barack Obama or John McCain. It’s not easy.
The group has been convened by the pollster Frank Luntz, who usually does this sort of thing on live television but has instead organized the session at the behest of the American Association of Retired Persons and the related activist group Divided We Fail. As the voters answer Luntz’s rapid-fire questions, a small group of reporters watches from the other side of the mirrors. And after two hours of talking, and a pre-convention buildup here in Denver in which Democrats have received lots of positive coverage in this critical swing state, you’d have to say that the news is pretty good for McCain. The undecideds have plenty of problems with him, and they can’t stand George W. Bush, but they seem more deeply concerned about Obama than McCain, because they have still not answered the threshold question about the Democratic nominee: Is he ready? Read article.
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The 15 best liberal fairy tales
May 22, 2012 09:03 PM
#LiberalFairyTales are all the absurd stories that liberals tell themselves and, sadly, everybody else. Here are the absolute best ones twitterers ever did tweet.
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 [...]
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