Don't know if you saw this on Drudge but here is an aerial view of the Obama set for tomorrow night.
And we are the ones pushing the Obama is the messiah meme. It's all in our heads. I've got one question, how many lictors will be carrying fasces signaling imperium?
US Senate Candidate Jeff Beatty said, "America can't afford to have Barack Obama and John Kerry bringing their remakes of the same, tired failed liberal policies of the past to Washington at a time when so much is at stake. Barack Obama is not ready to lead and John Kerry never has."
Beatty added,"As a U.S. senator, I'll draw on my experience as a business executive to develop and support comprehensive National Economic policies that pass the "common sense" test and I will use my leadership experience as a former FBI Special Agent, CIA counter-terrorism officer and member of the Army's elite Delta Force to pursue National Security policies that will truly secure America's future at home and abroad. We don't need a weaker America with Barack Obama and John Kerry, we need a stronger America with John McCain and Jeff Beatty."
Word is spreading around the blogosphere that Obama and McCain have both failed to meet a deadline for appearing on the Texas ballot. The only candidate to meet the deadline was Bob Barr.
"Unless the state of Texas violates their own election laws, Congressman Barr will be the only presidential candidate on the ballot," says Russell Verney, campaign manager for the Barr Campaign and the former campaign manager for Ross Perot. "Texas law makes no exceptions for missing deadlines."
The PoliTex.com blog says it is too good to be true.
Ah, but it was not to be. Texas Secretary of State spokesperson Ashley Burton said that upon further checking, "Both parties filed before the deadline. We expect their amended filings after both parties finish their nominating process at the conventions." Texas law, changed in 2005, requires that the parties submit their candidates names 70 days before the election. Problem is, neither party has gotten through their nominating process. The Texas Republican Party listed John McCain and "running mate" as their candidates, with an amended certification after the GOP convention in St. Paul. Obama and Biden will be certified after the Democratic Convention.
How would a judge rule if the law wasn't written to take into account late nominating conventions? Hopefully the Barr campaign pursues this. It would be nice to see the major parties run afoul of ballot access laws.
It was a very different time, the Iraq war was just over a year old, and then-State Sen. Barack Obama was in a very different place.
In 2004, former "Nightline" anchor Ted Koppel interviewed the keynote speaker of the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
It never aired, though it will air tonight.
What did Obama have to say about cutting and running in Iraq in 2004?
Obama continued, "All of us assume that when we make that commitment, that we have to finish the job, we owe it not only to the troops who sacrificed their lives, but also the Iraqi people.
Be sure to read the whole thing. Koppel owns Obama.
What if they held a riot and no one came? By Michelle Malkin
DENVER -- Never was so much hype created by so few to simulate the appearance of so many.
The hard-core left vowed to turn out 50,000 protesters for the Democratic National Convention this week. They pledged to "Re-create '68" and cause the kind of tear-gas-infused revolutionary havoc that marked the DNC in Chicago four decades ago. Police prepared for the worst riots. Media from around the world anticipated the best pictures.
But when rhetorical push came to real-life shove, the nostalgic, Marx-adoring organizers of Re-create '68 seem to have mustered no more than, oh, 68 bodies. Their presence here is dwarfed by the massive show of police, press and camera-toting looky-loos. You can't take a picture without someone else taking pictures of everyone else taking pictures of not much else getting in your frame.
The chaos-inducers' mouths were a mile wide. Their crowds have been an inch deep. What's left of the leftover '60s movement is all sizzle and no steak. Or veggie burger. Deep-fried tofu. Whatever...
Finally, in a sorry attempt to re-create Abbie Hoffman's satirical stunt aimed at levitating the Pentagon, a dozen Re-create '68 stragglers dressed up like the cast of "Harry Potter," wielded magic wands and joined hands to float the Denver Mint. The Mint stayed firmly on the ground. To salvage the abysmal turnout, an unhinged contingent of 9/11 conspiracy theorists started barking at me. One buffoon shouted, "Kill Michelle Malkin," while the levitation experts chanted, "Peace and Justice!" and a wizard paraded around in his "Arrest Bush" T-shirt with Che Guevara promoters tossing fake quarters in the air.
To paraphrase a favorite left-wing bumper sticker slogan, discombobulation is the highest form of patriotism. Blame bankrupt ideology, not the altitude.
There I said it. I want John McCain to pick Newt Gingrich as his running mate. There is no-one on our side better qualified to go to intellectual battle with the Democrats than Newt. He would eat Joe Biden alive and spit him out. He is a brilliant thinker and politically savvy. Not that I have any sway with the McCain camp but I want Gingrich the time is now.
Senator Obama has repeatedly denied the success of the surge, credited anything but the surge for reductions in violence in Iraq, and attempted to doom it to failure before it was even fully implemented. Senator Obama in his own words:
“The surge is not working,” Obama’s old Iraq plan stated (on website). Daily News, 7/14/08 "We don't need more spin about how the surge is succeeding in doing what it was supposed to do which is to get the Iraqi's to stand up and take responsibility for their own future, so we can start sending ourtroops home." Sen. Barack Obama, Remarks At a Town Hall, Rapid City, SD, 5/31/08
"I welcome the genuine reductions of violence that have taken place, although I would point out that much of that violence has been reduced because there was an agreement with tribes in Anbar province -- Sunni tribes -- who started to see, after the Democrats were elected in 2006, you know what, the Americans may be leaving soon, and we are going to be left very vulnerable to the Shi'as. We should start negotiating now. That's how you change behavior." Democratic Debate at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H, 1/5/08
“So, I think it is fair to say that the president has simply tried to gain another six months to continue on the same course that he's been on for several years now. It is a course that will not succeed.” Huffington Post Mash-Up: 2007 Democratic on-line debate 9/13/07
"I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence there. In fact, I think it will do the reverse." MSNBC's "Response to the President's Speech On Iraq," 1/10/07
"The Problem -- The Surge: The goal of the surge was to create space for Iraq's political leaders to reach an agreement to end Iraq's civil war. At great cost, our troops have helped reduce violence in some areas of Iraq, but even those reductions do not get us below the unsustainable levels of violence of mid-2006. Moreover, Iraq's political leaders have made no progress in resolving the political differences at the heart of their civil war." Obama For America Website, Accessed 7/3/08
1. Commends and expresses its gratitude to the men and women of the United States Armed Forces for the service, sacrifices, and heroism that made the success of the troop surge in Iraq possible;
2. Commends and expresses its gratitude to General David H. Petraeus, General Raymond Odierno, and Ambassador Ryan Crocker for the distinguished wartime leadership that made the success of the troop surge in Iraq possible;
3. Recognizes the success of the troop surge in Iraq and its strategic significance in advancing the vital national interests of the United States in Iraq, the Middle East, and the world, in particular as a strategic victory in a central front of the war on terrorism; and
4. Recognizes that the hard-won gains achieved as a result of the troop surge in Iraq are significant but not yet permanent and that it is imperative that no action be taken that jeopardizes those gains or dishonors the service and sacrifice of the men and women of the United States Armed Forces who made those gains possible.
This picture from the Boston Herald just about sums it up. The Massachusetts Delegation has a crush on Obama, isn't that nice. No substance, it's a fleeting high school crush.
Obama's radical ties are resonating in Michigan and Ohio. Why else would Barack Obama find it necessary to run a counter ad to the American Issues Project ad linking Obama to William Ayers.
Ayers as you may recall is the founder of the Weather Undergroung, a domestic terrorist organization, responsible for the killing of police officers, as well as the bombing of government targets.
According to the Real Clear Politics Blog Obama is running a new ad in Ohio and Michigan. Here's the text of the ad:
ANNCR: With all our problems, why is John McCain talking about the sixties, trying to link Barack Obama to radical Bill Ayers?
McCain knows Obama denounced Ayers' crimes, committed when Obama was just eight years old.
Let's talk about standing up for America today.
John McCain wants to spend $10 Billion a month in Iraq, tax breaks for corporations that ship jobs overseas, selling out American workers.
John McCain, just more of the same.
First off it wasn't John McCain that brought up Bill Ayers but an issue group, besides that fact let's look at why this is a problem for Obama. To do that I'll let the McCain camp explain their reaction to Obama's new ad:
"The fact that Barack Obama chose to launch his political career at the home of an unrepentant terrorist raises more questions about Senator Obama's judgment than any TV ad ever could. And the fact that he's launching his own Convention by defending his long association with a man who says he didn't bomb enough U.S. targets tells us more about Barack Obama than any of tonight's speeches will."
Exactly. The more America learns about the radical influences that have shaped Obama's world view, the more they will reject Barack Obama. When did Barack Obama denounce Bill Ayers? When it became politically expedient to do so.
The McCain campaign has a new ad highlighting a Hillary Clinton voter who is now supporting John McCain for President.
How many people like Debra are there? A recent ABC News/Washington Post Poll put the number at 30% of Clinton voters. That would mean up to 5.4 million voters! Put another way, that would be 4.5% all all voters who voted in the 2004 general election which was won by GWB by 3 million votes.
Barack Hussein Obama. Even too liberal for Hillary Voters.
Barack Obama's decision to select Joe Biden as his running mate seems to be predicated on three major assumptions (which I've gleamed across the internet). They are 1) Biden's foreign policy experience helps to shore up Obama's inexperience; 2) Biden as an "establishment" figure within the Democrat Party will soothe (if not placate) the concerns of DINOs, party insiders, & Washington power brokers over Obama's lack of connections; & 3) Biden can be the bad cop to Obama's good cop as the former goes into pit bull attack mode against Republican John McCain so that the latter can maintain his role as secular Messiah for the masses (where in some circles said role is already starting to wear thin).
Last point first: Biden has a proven track record of going for the jugular so I have no doubt that he'll do a good job of trashing McCain. However, his appointment undercuts Obama's claim to transcend "politics as usual" & makes "The One" come across as a typical Chicago politician. It dilutes the "feel good" vibe. And in picking an old white male who couldn't make the grade at the outset of this year's Democrat primary season, Obama gives the appearance of dissing Hillary Clinton & her female supporters by reaching out to a (failed) member of the old boys' network. No wonder the PUMAs are going beserk over this selection!
Biden is a familiar face with party regulars, Washington insiders, & the usual DINOs. But again his selection by "The One" undercuts Obama's appeal to transcend "business as usual" in Washington. Some liberal Democrat activists will put aside their disappointments & do "the right thing" for the party. But not all of them will & I can't blame them. Some of them (like the PUMAnians) will rightly view this as a betrayal & might even sit out the election. Within this subset, Team McCain sees an opening & has decided to exploit it. Biden is great for Establishment Democrats - but not its grassroots.
Biden's experience in foreign policy calls to attention Obama's inexperience in the field. But is Biden's experience necessarily a good fit for the realities of the world? James Robbins didn't think so when he recently offered his opinion at National Review Online under the heading "The Biden Myth":
"I'm puzzled why many press reports about Joe Biden touting his foreign-policy expertise and using as example the plan he supported to divide Iraq into three ethnic enclaves. This was a terrible notion, and would have led to far more violence in Iraq than anything we have seen there, along the lines of the Balkan wars of the 1990s, but worse. It would have taken one security challenge and given us three or more even more difficult challenges. Furthermore the plan was opposed by 90 percent of Iraqis, and was being pushed only by a small group of inside-the-Beltway intellectuals who were certain they knew better what the Iraqis needed than the Iraqis themselves. It bespoke of a very unselfconscious type of imperialism. The partition plan was seen as the alternative to the Surge strategy, which once fully implemented turned out to be a highly effective means of reducing violence and increasing cooperation between the various ethnic and sectarian factions. The Surge was a more sophisticated approach than partition, surely. But why analysts cite the partition plan as evidence of Senator Biden's national-security chops is a little perplexing since the plan was never implemented, never needed, and if attempted would have been a disaster."
Reuters reports that a collective groan has emerged from almost all of the political factions within Iraq itself once news of Biden's nomination became known to them. One key figure had this to say:
"This choice of Biden is disappointing, because he is the creator of the idea of dividing Iraq," Salih al-Mutlaq, head of National Dialogue, one of the main Sunni Arab blocs in parliament, told Reuters. "We rejected his proposal when he announced it, and we still reject it. Dividing the communities and land in such a way would only lead to new fighting between people over resources and borders. Iraq cannot survive unless it is unified, and dividing it would keep the problems alive for a long time."
There have been other qualities attributed to Biden that allegedly will help the ticket but upon examination they just don't hold up. In one of his first major choices as a national figure, Obama has chosen a man who not only adds little to the ticket but in some ways detracts from the movement which "The One" had successfully created at the beginning of the year. The ticket is made up of two NorthEast liberals who are like oil & water to each other. I don't see this ticket getting the Democrat grassroots as excited as they were at the start of the campaign (especially Clinton supporters). Nor do I see the ticket appealing to unenrolleds who yearn for genuine "change" agents who will transcend Washinton's partisan gridlock.
Biden's selection now gives McCain an opportunity to solidify his bonafides as a genuine change agent by picking a running mate who can excite the Republican base, attract unenrolleds, & offer segments of the Democrat Party a compelling rationale to vote Republican in the privacy of their respective voting booths.
Bernard Cohen, champion of the taxpayer? That's the impression one would get from his actions this past week. He stared down Dan Grabauskas to rescind the 3% yearly pay raise he was giving his managers. There's an interesing twist to this story. You see Bernard Cohen is not rescinding even higher, up to 7.5%, pay raises he has given his managers, the The Boston Herald is reporting.
Transportation secretary Bernard Cohen asked Grabauskas to halt the raises the T chief gave 273 employees this week as an effort to "leave no stone unturned in restoring fiscal health to all transportation agencies."
But at his own transportation agency, Cohen granted pay hikes ranging from 1 percent to 7.5 percent last year. Some of the annual raises far exceed the hike given to Grabauskas staffers, who were supposed to get a 3 percent raise each of the next three years.
For example, William Aylward, the director of administrative services at the executive office of transportation, made $89,866 last year, and pulled in $95,034 this year, nearly a 6 percent raise.
Why were the T raises bad and his agency's raises good? I'm guessing they have to do with the party registration of he who is giving the raise. You see Dan Grabauskas is a Republican. Here's hoping Dan runs for office in 2010. His able adminstrative skills would be an asset as Secretary of State for instance.
So I put up a little opinion piece yesterday and talked about same on BlueMassGroup and the liberals go nutty. We are not divided they say, it's all in your head, PUMA really is a group of Republicans, never mind the fact they were started by a Massachusetts Democrat from Carlisle. Well I hate to say I told you so but if the Massachusetts delegation is any indication, there are wounds and they need to be healed.
According to PolitickerMA.com, Massachusetts Hillary! supporters are upset with the pick of Biden.
With the news early Saturday morning that presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama has selected U.S. Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate, several prominent Massachusetts supporters of U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton told PolitickerMA.com that they are disappointed she wasn't selected to be the vice presidential candidate and said Obama needs to continue to court their support.
"I'm disappointed that Sen. Clinton won't be the vice presidential nominee," said Jesse Mermell, a Brookline selectman who worked on behalf of Clinton during the primary this year. "Obviously this was a personal choice for Sen. Obama (Ill.) -- it was his and his alone -- but I would have loved to have had the opportunity to vote for her this fall. Hillary Clinton would have brought a lot to the table: a wealth of knowledge and experience about both campaigning and governing, 18 million enthusiastic supporters, and a ready-and-willing volunteer base."
Not just POliticker has the story in today's Sunday Boston Herald they have a version of the story as well.
Sheila Capone-Wulsin, executive director of the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus, shared a sense of disappointment.
"Senator Biden will be a great vice president, but there won't be the exuberance and the joy" had Obama chosen Clinton, she said. "Call me an optimist, but I'm just disappointed."
Clinton supporters said that after not placing her on the ticket, Obama must work to woo back the New York senator's 18 million voters.
But outside the convention arena in Denver, some of Hillary Clinton's supporters plan to air their grievances against Obama, the party's leadership, and the national media, whose coverage of the primary battle they considered sexist. Hundreds of disaffected Democrats from around the country plan to converge in the Mile High City to hold news conferences, protests, and vigils, threatening the party's ability to present a united front against Republican John McCain.
Many Democrats say the success of the convention, and of Obama's fall campaign, depends heavily on how well the party handles the complaints of Clinton's loyalists, some of whom are still smarting from the long and bitter fight, are disappointed that she is not Obama's running mate, and are insulted by reports that she was not vetted as a possible pick or consulted about his choice.
While many Clinton delegates say they will back Obama and do not intend to embarrass him, grass-roots activists planning protests outside the convention hope to disrupt the sense of unity party leaders are cultivating.
"This is a voter's revolt," said Darragh Murphy, who founded Puma PAC, a pro-Clinton political action committee whose acronym stands for People United Means Action.
Two separate supporters are telling team Obama through the media they aren't helping. The divide is deeper than the liberals want to admit. It's there and we are seeing only the cracks on the surface.
Mark my words, Hillary!'s supporters are going to make a play for the nomination. This fight is not over for them, or her.
According to the Chicago Sun Times, Barack Obama's wife Michelle, and his top advisers including Deval Patrick's main man David Axelrod, are involved in a scheme to discharge poor black patients without insurance from her hospital.
Sen. Barack Obama's wife and three close advisers have been involved with a program at the University of Chicago Medical Center that steers patients who don't have private insurance -- primarily poor, black people -- to other health care facilities.
Michelle Obama -- currently on unpaid leave from her $317,000-a-year job as a vice president of the prestigious hospital -- helped create the program, which aims to find neighborhood doctors for low-income people who were flooding the emergency room for basic treatment. Hospital officials say such patients hinder their ability to focus on more critically ill patients in need of specialized care, such as cancer treatment and organ transplants.
Obama's top political strategist, David Axelrod, co-owns the firm, ASK Public Strategies, that was hired by the hospital last year to sell the program -- called the Urban Health Initiative -- to the community as a better alternative for poor patients. Obama's wife and Valerie Jarrett, an Obama friend and adviser who chairs the medical center's board, backed the Axelrod firm's hiring, hospital officials said.
Another Obama adviser and close friend, Dr. Eric Whitaker, took over the Urban Health Initiative when he was hired at U. of C. in October 2007. Whitaker previously had been director of the Illinois Department of Public Health. Obama has said he recommended Whitaker for the state job, giving his name to Tony Rezko, who helped Gov. Blagojevich assemble his Cabinet. Rezko, a former fund-raiser for Obama and Blagojevich, was convicted in June on federal corruption charges tied to state deals.
