I have driven up to the beautiful state of Oregon many times. I love Oregon! Of course, to a Shakespearean actor like me, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival is a kind of heaven on Earth.
Once back in the '80s, as I crossed the border I saw an official sign that read something like, "Welcome to Oregon -- just don't stay here."
How is that for hospitality? I guess Oregonians have a dim view of Californians. They think it's okay if we go up there to spend money, but they don't want us moving up there.
1. What the world has been waiting for: Barbra Streisand speaks out on McCain choosing Palin as his VP:
Maybe he was sick of the lack of media attention…maybe he had enough of the late night talk show hosts poking fun at his age…maybe he realized that belonging to a party that has been associated with rich, white men was not going to connect with voters in this historical election year. Or maybe he was just ready to take back some of the spotlight that has shined so brightly on Barack Obama and the Democrats since the beginning of the Democratic convention. Desperation can motivate people to make some pretty cynical and hypocritical decisions. Whatever the reason, John McCain’s Hail Mary-- in the form of Vice Presidential pick Governor Sarah Palin--sent a very clear message to America about how he views female voters. Women, he thinks, will vote another woman into office regardless of the candidate's values, experience and political positions.
Palin shored up McCain's conservative base and she appeals to independent women voters. She even appeals to some moderate Democrats, as Gallup reports McCains support among Democrats has risen from 9% to 14% since the convention. I don't think McCain could have picked another person in America who would have helped him so much as Palin.
2. John Hawkins has decided to vote for McCain for a similar reason to why I used to vote Republican.
...it may have been Barack's inability to do the job that had me rethinking my non-vote for McCain, but it has been the Left's treatment of Sarah Palin that put me over the top.
...
Andrew Sullivan, the Daily Kos, and the rest of the slime merchants drug everyone from Palin's baby to her husband through the mud. Then the same mainstream media that spent weeks protecting John Edwards immediately launched countless attacks at Palin's family. Do a search on Sarah Palin's name and you'll find more disproved rumors and outright lies than facts -- and it's meant to send a bullying message to other conservative women.
"If you oppose the Left, we won't just lie about you and try to destroy your reputation, we'll come after your children, too. So, you just keep your mouth shut and stay out of the spotlight."
The only way the Left can be persuaded not to continue these tactics is to defeat them. If the McCain/Palin ticket goes to the White House, the lies and attacks on Palin's children will be considered to be a failure, and the Left will back off. If not -- if they win -- you will see even more attacks on the families of conservatives. In other words, it's sad to say, but the only way to protect the families of conservatives is to hit the Left in the only place that really hurts them -- at the ballot box.
Hawkins is wrong. The left will not learn a lesson about smearing if they lose the election. Being liberal means never having to learn from your mistakes. They will continue to smear because they believe in force, not reason.
3. With the radicalization of the Democrat Party and the advent of Borking, the Dems have become dependent on "October Surprises" to win elections. An October Surprise is the late release of dirt about an opponent that hurts him in the election.
Today we hear that the Obama campaign has 30 people in Wasilla, Alaska digging for dirt on Palin.
...Democrats have airdropped a mini-army of 30 lawyers, investigators and opposition researchers into Anchorage, the state capital Juneau and Mrs. Palin’s hometown of Wasilla to dig into her record and background. My sources report the first wave arrived in Anchorage less than 24 hours after John McCain selected her on August 29.
Well, good luck, Dems. If you people were half as knowledgeable about economics as you are about character assassination, all of our problems would be solved.
Any Governor who sells the private jet because she thinks it wasteful is probably honest. The Democrats had best find a blockbuster or do nothing at all, otherwise the world will laugh at them.
4. Gallup shows the convention bounce.
You can't blame the Democrats for not seeing Palin coming. Conventional wisdom says people don't vote for Vice-Presidents. In Palin's case, however, people are voting for McCain/Palin because of Palin. It has been said that Palin is the biggest thing since Reagan entered politics 44 years ago. Actually, she is bigger than that. I don't think any Vice-Presidential candidate has made such a difference in American history.
I hope the Democrats spare us the usual excuses when they lose: the Republicans are Godzilla, the Democrats are Bambi; the media have a right-wing bias, the people are hypnotized by corporate America, America is racist, Diebold, etc. Sometimes you just get hit by something unprecedented. (Doubtless, the religious right will explain Palin as the will of God. She is America's Joan of Arc!)
5. Obama is tight with the religious left.
At the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Obama tapped Wallis to oversee the drafting of the faith-based plank of the party platform (which, by the way, champions outreach programs for "ex-offenders").
"This is a very faith-friendly convention," Wallis said. "I think Democrats have really gone through an important change." But their newfound faith is not one most mainline Christians would even recognize, let alone embrace.
Like Wright and Obama, Wallis believes that biblical faith compels radical social action. Their political ministry is called the "social gospel," but it's really just socialism dressed up in a cheap tunic. They refuse to separate personal faith from political activism, whether at home or abroad.
...
Wallis agrees with Obama that American racism and capitalism are to blame for inner-city poverty, and echoes his oft-repeated call for "economic justice." They share a spread-the-wealth vision, including subsidizing the working poor beyond expanded tax credits and minimum-wage hikes.
Everything about Obama is scary -- except that he seems to be an incompetent mediocrity with a slow mind. I find all those traits oddly reassuring.
6. Afro Ninja. Because you need a laugh.
7 comments:
There is a seemingly-bulletproof liberal conceit these days that their people genuinely don't smear the opposition, but the opposition smears them. This is, of course, because they view their people as noble and the opposition as evil, and anything an evil person says about a noble person is a lie, while anything a noble person says about an evil person is just "telling it like it is." There is a separate liberal conceit that only they have been enlightened with the Truth about the Issues and the Solutions to our Problems.
These two conceits, combined, lost the 2004 election for them. Kerry was projected to win 317-202 or something like that in late August, and we all know how that turned out. Mainstream America is less partisan than the hardcore left, and they do not like being the subjects of condescension. The liberals will keep it up -- they can't not do it; it's not who or what they are to stop doing it -- and it will come down to a battleground state, just like before, and the accusations will fly, no matter who stands the "winner" at the end.
They who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Buying a cache of guns and seeds and setting up a bunker for the long night is seeming like a wiser and wiser project every day...
Mike wrote:
"There is a separate liberal conceit that only they have been enlightened with the Truth about the Issues and the Solutions to our Problems."
Indeed. And the problem is that the bumpkin peasants that make up most of the electorate are too stupid and unenlightened to put their faith in those who know far better than they what is in their own best interests. They are concerned with stupid idiotic stuff such as their standard of living, quality of life and such.
Given that there are so many selfish peasants out there, that's why it is so important to be proactive and register lots of illegal aliens and dead people to vote and to encourage them all to turn out multiple times on election day. That's the path to victory. And we can get lots of trail lawyers to volunteer to "observe" polling places and be prepared to look for/create grounds to file immediate lawsuits. And perhaps Jimmy Carter can be persuaded to monitor the election to make sure that the correct side wins. I'll bet that the contacts that Nancy Pelosi has been using when trying to negotiate foreign policy with the Columbian FARC terrorists are also friends with Hugo Chavez and can put her in touch with him - that is, assuming that she is not already in touch with him. Hugo Chavez knows how to run an election.
"Everything about Obama is scary -- except that he seems to be an incompetent mediocrity with a slow mind. I find all those traits oddly reassuring.
Apart from your reference to "mediocrity", there is nothing in Obama's biography to support your assessment especially as regard "incompetence" or a "slow mind". Quite the opposite.
But . . . if it makes you more comfortable to believe this image, knock yourself out.
Are you conceding, Anonymous, that Obama is a mediocrity?
"Are you conceding, Anonymous, that Obama is a mediocrity?
Yes. As is McCain. As is, in fact, nearly every other player, "major" or minor, in American politics today.
McCain is a mediocrity also, yes. He has admitted his ignorance of economics and intends to interfere greatly in the economy.
I would note that it's a common observation on the right that Obama has problems when he is away from a TelePrompTer. (Did I get those caps right?) On his own, he makes a lot of mistakes. I mean, introspect and ask yourself: at your weakest, your most tired, would you say there were 57 states?
Barbra Streisand says about McCain picking Palin as his running mate: "Women, he thinks, will vote another woman into office regardless of the candidate's values, experience and political positions."
Remember when the feminists immediately came out fighting for Anita Hill, when she charged that Clarence Thomas sexually harassed her, regardless of what Thomas had to say and the actual facts involved? Remember when feminists gave Bill Clinton a pass, when it was revealed he had "sex with that woman" Monica Lewinsky, regardless of the fact that the situation presented a classic feminist example of sexual harassment--that is, a male boss (you can't get any more powerful that president of the United States) has sex with a female subordinate (in this case, the lowest of the low: an intern). Remember when feminist championed Lorrena Bobbit for slicing off her husband’s penis, as if that were a rational recourse for the situation she put herself in with her unfaithful husband?
Feminism, at root, is all about “voting” for the woman (whether in a voting booth, a court of law, the White House, or the bedroom), *regardless of the facts involved*—so long as the person on the other side is a man, a conservative, or in Clinton’s case, an ideological sympathizer.
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