Democrats In The Headlights

I love the above cartoon.

Every Democrat spokesperson I have seen on television since the announcement that Sarah Palin will be the Republican candidate for Vice-President has looked just about like this. Sure, they have tried their best to attack Palin, but the looks on their face betray them. At best they appear as "deer in the headlights." And, many of them are not just stunned, but horrified. Some of them have gone from "We can't lose" to an "OMG what is happening?" as they see their chances to win the White House slipping away.

However, I think the above cartoon it is wrong about Hillary's response to the news regarding Sarah Palin's nomination to become Vice President of the United States. I think that Hillary probably feels vindicated in a "You should have chosen me" kind of way.

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Barack Obama And The Global Test

John Kerry once said that actions of the United States should pass "the global test." Evidently, Barack Obama has been studying for that exam. I found many of the things he said in this week's speech in Germany to be little more than pretty words and cliches. However, there were a few gems that that made my knees tremble, ... WITH FEAR.

What exactly does Barack Obama mean when he says "But the burdens of global citizenship continue to bind us together." I want to know exactly what Barack Obama means by "the burdens of global citizenship."

His speech may have passed the global test this week, but it made me more frightened than ever of a Barack Obama presidency.

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Politicians: They Know, The Just Don't Care

Friend #1: "How can Democrat politicians NOT know that deep-water oil exploration is the right thing to do. It will take the speculators out of the market resulting in an immediate 25% drop in gas prices, and the money will be going to American companies to reinvest in American jobs and in new energy technologies, AND the money won't be going to some Middle East country where it can be used to support terrorism. How can Democrat politicians NOT know this?"

Me: "They know, they just don't care."

Friend #2: "How can all of these people NOT know that Barack Obama is an empty suit. He has no experience and surrounds himself with terrorists, racists, and crooks. He hasn't a clue when it comes to policy; he was for unconditional talks with dictators and tyrants before he was against it, he was for public funding for elections before he was against it, he was for his pastor before he was against him, he was for all kinds of things before he was against them. He is as much a waffler as John Kerry. How can Obama supporters NOT know this?"

Me: "They know, they just don't care."

I have never been able to understand the way some people can ignore what they know to be true, simply because it doesn't match up with what they want to be true. And, it is not limited to the realm of politics either. Consider this example taken from the book Casanova Was A Book Lover;

The Beardstown Ladies, celebrated for their putatively brilliant investment club, sold eight hundred thousand copies of their first book, success that led to other books. Nothing much changed when a mean-spirited little whippersnapper in Chicago reported that their investments really weren't that good and neither was their math. The little old ladies had not known the right way to calculate annualized returns; the proper calculations showed their returns fell far below the market annual averages. They were sorry. "We're saddened by the people who judged us guilty and suggested we were in it for the money," said Betty Sinnock, the lady who can't add. "I feel like [the reporter] really didn't related what the Beardstown Ladies were all about." Accepting the apology, the public keep buying the books, in which the publisher didn't work too hard at inserting corrections slips. Sinnock remained on the individual investors committee to the New York Stock Exchanges. The reporter attended a speech for which Sinnock received a standing ovation. "The got away with it, and more power to them," of of the members of the audience told him. "Look at how many books they've sold."

In other words, for this member of the audience the popularity of the Beardstown Ladies excused the lack of substance. Sounds familiar doesn't it.

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Presidential Election From 30,000 Feet

They were ridiculed as hypocrites; seven men and a woman campaigning to become the Democrat nominee in the 2008 presidential election. Each was attempting to out "green" the others to win over the voters. Yet, each had flown to the South Carolina debate in a separate private jet. It didn't look good.

I have been critical, okay, very critical, of these folk, but I'm going to have to defend them on this one. Maybe they could have done some jetpooling, but anyone who has spent much time in business knows that it is frequently more economical and a wiser use of resources to charter a flight than it is to fly commercial.

Time is valuable and privacy essential in both business and politics. When on a tight schedule and on urgent business you simply cannot take the risk of flight delays. And, if you are bringing along equipment it can end up costing much more than money, much more than imaginable, if you end up in Dallas but your equipment ends up in Seattle. Outsiders looking on may not understand, they may even call you a hypocrite as in the scenario above, but there are times when the only intelligent thing to do is to go with a business jet charter.

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Obama Cuts And Runs

Today, Barack Obama submitted his resignation from membership in the Trinity United Church of Christ. The political burden of Jeremiah Wright and Michael Pfleger became too much for him.

My question is this, if it is right for him to withdraw from membership now, why was it not the right thing to do for the last twenty years when the same anti-American, anti-white vision has been cast from the pulpit?

I think it was the "Wright" thing for him to do now, but he still must answer questions about why he has chosen to remain in that environment and raise his children in it. Without answering questions about his twenty year membership he leaves the impression that his withdrawal at this time is not a principled decision but an act of political expediency.

If Obama was deeply disappointed by Michael Pfleger's "divisive, backward-looking rhetoric," then why has he not expressed that concern in the past. Michael Pfleger is acting and speaking as he has always acted and spoken. And, in the past, Obama has embraced Pfleger and Wright. What has changed? The only thing that has changed is that Barack Obama is running to become President of the United States and it doesn't set well with the American voter for a candidate to spend all his time hanging out with those who are terrorists, slum lords, racists, and anti-American.

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Clinton Regrets Assassination Remark

Hillary Clinton says she was simply making the point that there have been Democratic primary contests have that gone into June. Clinton has apologized for referencing the assassination of Robert Kennedy.

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Barack Obama Assassination?

Much is being said about Hillary Clinton's comment that she is staying in the presidential race because there is a chance Barack Obama could be assassinated. That was a really stupid thing for her to say. But are such thoughts completely out of left field?

Just a few weeks ago there were several international news articles addressing this possibility. Here is an excerpt from Mideast Youth:

A lead op-ed in the New York Times today by Edward N. Luttwak draws attention to Obama’s irtidad, his decision to leave the Muslim faith he was born into. According to Islam, which defines the children of any Muslim father as Muslim themselves, Obama’s conversion to Christianity is an act of apostasy. “Indeed,” writes Luttwak, “it is the worst of all crimes that a Muslim can commit, worse than murder…”

Blogs from The Daily Howler to the San Francisco Sentinel are abuzz with this “new” finding–that Obama as president would be at risk of assassination. Luttwak notes that Muslim law “prohibits punishment for any Muslim who kills any apostate, and effectively prohibits interference with such a killing.” The security ramifications are huge, Luttwak claims:

At the very least, that would complicate the security planning of state visits by President Obama to Muslim countries, because the very act of protecting him would be sinful for Islamic security guards. More broadly, most citizens of the Islamic world would be horrified by the fact of Senator Obama’s conversion to Christianity once it became widely known — as it would, no doubt, should he win the White House. This would compromise the ability of governments in Muslim nations to cooperate with the United States in the fight against terrorism, as well as American efforts to export democracy and human rights abroad.

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Who Will McCain Pick For VP?

Plenty of intrigue in the news these days about the presidential election. All of the talk about Hillary staying in the race just in case Barack Obama is assassinated - - did she really say that out loud? McCain inviting potential VP candidates to his vacation home in Sedona to talk -- Charlie Crist, Bobby Jindal, and ... what? Surely not Mitt Romney. It shouldn't be a surprise that my preference would be Mike Huckabee.

Here is what Mike Huckabee had to say about the VP slot on a recent interview with Tavis Smiley:

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The Many Faces Of Hillary

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Portrait of Barack Hussein Obama

I don't believe that all of the content of the below video is fair. However, it show very clearly the difficulties that Barack Obama is going to face in the coming months.

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Religionists Are Just Frustrated & Bitter

I can't believe that even Barack Obama would stoop low enough to say the following:

"You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

Excerpted from a speech by Senator Barack Obama's at a fundraiser in Pacific Heights in San Francisco on Sunday, April 6, 2008.

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Quotes of Rev. Jeremiah Wright

"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes three-strike laws and wants them to sing 'God Bless America.' No! No! No! God damn America for killing innocent people."

"The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color."

"It just came to me over the past few weeks, ya'll, why so many folks are hating on Barack Obama, He doesn't fit the model. He ain't white. He ain't rich. And he ain't privileged....Hillary (Clinton) fits the mold. (Rudy) Giuliani fits the mold. Europeans fit the mold. Rich, white men fit the mold."

"Hillary never had a cab whiz past her and not pick her up because her skin was the wrong color. Hillary never had to worry about being pulled over in her car as a black man driving in the wrong … ,"

"Hillary was not a black boy raised in a single-parent home - Barack was. Barack knows what it means to be a black man living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich, white people. Hillary can never know that. Hillary ain't never been called a n-----. Hillary ain't never had her people defined as nonpersons. Hillary ain't had to work twice as hard just to get accepted by the rich, white folk who run everything or to get a passing grade when you know you are smarter than that C-student in the White House."

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In 2008 U.S. Religious Vote Fragmenting

The following is an excerpt from an article by Agence France-Presse:

Meanwhile the Democrats no longer escape to a secular refuge whenever religion enters into the political debate.

Obama this month pointed to Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, which starts "Blessed are the poor," as being a more fundamental tenet of Christianity than "obscure" passages of the Bible denouncing homosexuality.

And while dogged now by incendiary sermons by his former pastor, the Illinois senator has placed the "audacity of hope" squarely in a Christian tradition that does not embrace left-right divisions.

For her part, Clinton has described how her Methodist faith helped her survive the personal anguish of her husband Bill's affair with Monica Lewinsky.

The former first lady has accepted an invitation to an April 13 event in Pennsylvania called "The Compassion Forum," an inter-faith dialogue taking place just before the state's April 22 primary. Obama and McCain have also been invited, organizers say.

The success today of bestselling books such as "The Great Awakening," by nationally prominent preacher Jim Wallis, also suggests a blurring of the old divide in religion and politics.

"Those on the religious right did it wrong, allowing their religion to become too partisan, too narrow, and too ideological," Wallis writes.

"They were used by politics and did plenty of using themselves -- using both people and issues to further their own agenda. But I believe their day is over, and we have now entered the post-religious right era." (Read more...)

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Did Obama Plagiarize Another Speech?

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New Video Footage From Hillary's Bosnia Trip That Proves She Was Telling The Truth

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Bill Richardson Endorses Barack Obama

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson endorsed Barack Obama's presidential bid in a move that shocked everyone including Hillary Clinton.

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Clinton Embellishes Past Experience

Hillary Clinton greatly misstated an experience in Bosnia that has opened the door for her foreign policy experience to be scrutinized.

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Did Obama's Speech Defuse The Jeremiah Wright Controversy?

Jeff Greenfield and pollster Frank Luntz tell Maggie Rodriguez that while Sen. Barack Obama's speech was exemplary on the subject of race, it may not defuse the Rev. Wright controversy.



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Religion, Race & Rhetoric

Pastor's Of Black Churches Shock Jocks?

Barack Obama's Pastor

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Religion, Race, & Rhetoric

Rick Stengel, managing editor of Time magazine, and Debra Dickerson of Mother Jones discuss Sen. Barack Obama's speech on race in America with Russ Mitchell.



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RELATED

Barack Obama's Race Speech: Video & Transcript

Pastor's Of Black Churches Shock Jocks?

Barack Obama's Pastor

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Barack Obama Speech Emphasizes Need For Racial Unity

Sen. Barack Obama used a speech in Philadelphia Tuesday morning to address issues of race in America, and to address controversial comments made by his longtime pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

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