The Real Reformers

Sarah Palin is a very good choice as McCain's VP. I am relieved that he didn't pick Lieberman or Ridge, but Palin is a gutsy choice that should appeal to conservatives, Hillary supporters, and independents (anybody else McCain should be targeting?). Palin is wildly popular in Alaska (80-90% approval ratings), she's a fiscal and social conservative who has had no problems taking on her own party in Alaska over issues of wasteful spending and dependence on the federal government. She's pro-life, the youngest of her five children has Downs Syndrome, which is an interesting contrast with Obama's view that Downs babies that survive an abortion don't have human rights. She snowmobiles and hunts moose! She used to be a commercial fisherwoman! What more do you want, blue-collar and Mountain West people?

Palin should fit nicely into a "Reform" message for McCain. They are both mavericks who have taken political risks by bucking their own party to do what they think is best for the country. Obama also claims to be a reformer, although McCain should do more to highlight his record in the state senate and as a US Senator. Obama was 100% lined up with the dirtiest politicians in all the land. He never once crossed anyone in the Chicago Machine. Even when he had the opportunity to support a liberal Democrat, Forrest Claypool, for Cook County Board President, a candidate that pledged to end the cronyism, corruption and extortion, he instead backed Todd Stroger, the son of the previous president. With Obama's support, Stroger won the primary by 7% of the vote. Stroger has wasted no time, he's increased the sales tax to 10.25%, laid off hundreds of nurses, and cut 43 prosecutors, all so he can hire more friends and family to high paying, do-nothing jobs.

Picking Biden brought Obama down a few points in the polls, but he's certain to get a few points following the convention. Palin's a sure thing to give McCain a couple points back. Now the only thing that can possibly hold the McCain/Palin ticket back is the incredible number of sexists in this country.

From Rhetoric to Practicalities

George Will's column on Obama's upcoming speech is a must read.

Obama and Ayers

Sorry Senator Obama, but William Ayers is not going away.

Have you ever been a friend or business associate of a terrorist? Not someone who, to your shock and horror, turned out secretly to have bombed government buildings. No, the question is whether you’ve ever befriended an unreconstructed radical whose past was well known to you when you entered his orbit and walked through doors he opened for you. Have you been chummy with an unapologetic terrorist who, years after you’d known and worked closely with him, was still telling the New York Times he regretted only failing to carry out more attacks — and that America still “makes me want to puke”?

Barack Obama has.

William Ayers is a former member of the 60's terrorist organization, the Weathermen. He is responsible for a bomb that killed a police officer in San Francisco and for bombing the Pentagon. He and his wife escaped conviction on a technicality. He is entirely unrepentant to this day ("I don’t regret setting bombs. I feel we didn’t do enough" 2001 NYT) but has shifted his focus from terrorism to indoctrinating education students in hard left-wing ideology at the University of Illinois Chicago.

Obama has claimed he is "just a guy from my neighborhood." Umhmm. Perhaps he forgot that he sat on the board for the Wood Fund, a leftist charity, with Ayers for several years. There, they voted to give tens of thousands to groups like Rev. Wright's church and a member of Arafat's PLO. When Ayers received a huge grant to improve Chicago's public schools, he asked Obama to chair the board. Between 1995 and 1999, Obama (in his only executive experience to date) gave out $100 million to his leftist buddies and in the end, even by the group's own admission, they failed to produce any measurable improvement in the schools (imagine how much money he could waste as President). Obama went on to launch his political career at the home of Ayers and his terrorist wife.

Obama was 8 years old when Ayers committed his crimes. No one is arguing guilt by association. However, doesn't Obama's choice of friends (Ayers), advisors (Rev. Wright), and associates (Tony Rezko) tell you that the image he projects disguises his true leftist beliefs? And why would Ayers pick Obama for this board? Obama says Ayers is "respectable" and "mainstream." I think most people would disagree. If John McCain was appointed to chair an organization by David Duke or if he let abortion clinic bombers hold fund raisers for him, I bet the media would let you know about it.

Celebrities Gone Green

In his book Makers and Takers, Peter Schweizer describes many liberals as "friends of goodness," meaning that supporting goodness is not the same thing as actually being good. A good example are those who advocate higher taxes on the wealthy to help the poor while giving almost nothing personally (Obama, cough! Kerry, cough! Gore, cough!). When they do give, it's usually to "the arts," the ACLU, groups that promote increased government spending, or to churches run by crackpot hate-mongers.

But what's even cooler than pretending to care about the poor? Why, the environment, of course! Here are the "7 Most Retarded Ways Celebrities Have Tried to Go Green."

On a tip from Alex.

Joe Biden On Barack Obama

I guess the McCain campaign saw my post on Biden. This is a great campaign ad. I bet we'll be seeing a lot of this one.

Biden

I was hoping Obama would choose Senator Joe Biden as his running mate. It's the safe choice, probably a mistake considering how much ground McCain has been gaining lately. Biden is thought to be experienced on foreign policy, which shores up a major weakness, but he's not exactly on board with Obama's foreign policy. In the last few years he may have been more supportive of John McCain than Obama, but Obama picked him to be a brawler, and that is what we should expect. However, past comments by Biden could come back to haunt him.

Biden on Obama

"I think he can be ready, but right now I don't believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training."

"Having talking points on foreign policy doesn't get you there."

“If the Democrats think we're going to be able to nominate someone who can win without that person being able to [bring to the] table unimpeachable credentials on national security and foreign policy, I think we're making a tragic mistake.”

On Obama’s Iraq plan, Sept. 2007: “My impression is [Obama] thinks that if we leave, somehow the Iraqis are going to have an epiphany. I’ve seen zero evidence of that.”

“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.”

“When this campaign is over, political slogans like ‘experience’ and ‘change’ will mean absolutely nothing. The next president has to act.”

Biden on Iraq

Meet the Press, 2002, on Saddam: “He’s a long term threat and a short term threat to our national security… “We have no choice but to eliminate the threat. This is a guy who is an extreme danger to the world.”

2005: “We can call it quits and withdraw from Iraq. I think that would be a gigantic mistake. Or we can set a deadline for pulling out, which I fear will only encourage our enemies to wait us out — equally a mistake.”

Meet the Press, 2007, on WMDs: "Well, the point is, it turned out they didn’t, but everyone in the world thought he had them. The weapons inspectors said he had them. He catalogued — they catalogued them. This was not some, some Cheney, you know, pipe dream. This was, in fact, catalogued.”

On Obama's Iraq plan, August 2007: “I don’t want [my son] going [to Iraq]. But I tell you what, I don’t want my grandson or my granddaughters going back in 15 years and so how we leave makes a big difference... "[Criticizing Obama and Clinton's efforts to stop funding bills for Iraq] There’s no political point worth my son’s life. There’s no political point worth anybody’s life out there. None.”

Biden on Senator McCain

2007: “The only guy on the other side who’s qualified is John McCain.”

2005: “John McCain is a personal friend, a great friend, and I would be honored to run with or against John McCain, because I think the country would be better off..."

2007: “I’ve been calling for more troops for over two years, along with John McCain and others subsequent to my saying that.”

I Have One House

McCain made a little blunder - when a reporter asked how many homes he owned, he didn't know the answer (he doesn't actually own any, his wife owns them all). Obama seized on this, of course, on the campaign trail. Does Obama really want to get into a discussion on homes and elitism? Did McCain ever get a great deal on property from a convicted felon? Who was it that claimed that rural voters are bitter people who cling to "guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them"? Obama's really just a regular Joe, isn't he? He only made $4 million last year (and gave less than 1% of his income to charity from 2000-04).

From the Onion...

Hurdler Overcomes Many Hurdles To Win Hurdle Race

Alex brought it to my attention that this was a dead link. Sorry about that, it's fixed now.

Courting the Evangelicals

Rev. Rick Warren talked with McCain and Obama at his church in California on Saturday about issues he thought would be important to evangelicals. I didn't get a chance to see it because I was at the beach, but everything I've read and heard indicates that McCain did quite well. Obama's camp is now alleging that McCain somehow heard the questions in advance and that accounted for the difference, although that doesn't seem to be true.

Highlights (thanks NR online):

When asked, “What’s the most gut-wrenching decision you’ve ever had to make?” Obama cited his decision to oppose the Iraq war. That is like me saying the most difficult decision of my life was to support the Iraq war. Obama was not in the Senate at the time this decision was being made and had no more influence on the decision that I did.

When McCain got the question, he was able to tell an old story with a sense of gravity and poignancy that he seldom shows in public. He described his time as a prisoner of war, when he was offered a chance for early release because his father was a top naval officer. “I was in rather bad physical shape,” McCain told Warren, but “we had a code of conduct that said you only leave by order of capture.” So McCain refused to go. He made the telling even more forceful when he added that, “in the spirit of full disclosure, I’m very happy I didn’t know the war was going to last for another three years or so.” In one moment, he showed a sense of pride and a hint of regret, too; he came across as a man who did the right thing but not without the temptation to take an easy out. In any event, the message was very clear: John McCain has had to make bigger, more momentous decisions in his life than has Barack Obama.

They were asked when they “went against party loyalty and maybe even against your own best interest for the good of America.” Obama cited working with McCain on campaign finance reform. Unfortunately, Obama worked with McCain only briefly on the issue before jumping back in the Democratic camp, prompting an angry letter from McCain asserting that Obama had done exactly the opposite of what Warren's question was about. The fact is, Obama doesn't have any examples because he's never gone against party loyalty.

When McCain got the question, everyone in the room thought he would bring up campaign-finance reform, the issue on which he has alienated the Republican base for years. But he didn’t. 'Climate change, out-of-control spending, torture,' he said. 'The list goes on.' McCain’s prime example, though, was his story of opposing Ronald Reagan’s decision to send a contingent of Marines to Lebanon as a peacekeeping force. 'My knowledge and my background told me that a few hundred Marines in a situation like that could not successfully carry out any kind of peacekeeping mission, and I thought they were going into harm’s way,' McCain said. But he deeply admired Reagan, and wanted to be loyal to the party; it was a difficult decision.

“At what point does a baby get human rights, in your view?”

Obama: “Well, I think that whether you are looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade.” Um, er, please don't make me answer this question. As I discussed last week, Obama doesn't even believe all babies that are already born have human rights.

McCain: “At the moment of conception. I have a 25-year pro-life record in the Congress, in the Senate, and as president of the United States, I will be a pro-life president and this presidency will have pro-life policies.”

Perhaps the low moment for Obama was when he was asked, “which existing Supreme Court justice would you not have nominated?” Obama said, “I don’t think he was an exp . . . ” — he then caught himself — “a strong enough jurist or legal thinker at the time for that elevation.” He went on to say that, while he opposed their views on the Constitution, he had no such reservations about the intelligence of the white conservatives on the bench. From the WSJ:

So let's see. By the time he was nominated, Clarence Thomas had worked in the Missouri Attorney General's office, served as an Assistant Secretary of Education, run the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and sat for a year on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the nation's second most prominent court. Since his "elevation" to the High Court in 1991, he has also shown himself to be a principled and scholarly jurist.

Meanwhile, as he bids to be America's Commander in Chief, Mr. Obama isn't yet four years out of the Illinois state Senate, has never held a hearing of note of his U.S. Senate subcommittee, and had an unremarkable record as both a 'community organizer' and law school lecturer. Justice Thomas's judicial credentials compare favorably to Mr. Obama's Presidential résumé by any measure. And when it comes to rising from difficult circumstances, Justice Thomas's rural Georgian upbringing makes Mr. Obama's story look like easy street.

This is all promising, let's just hope McCain doesn't blow it by picking an unacceptable VP.

Barack Roll