Former DNC Chair laughs about hurricane
August 30, 2008
RedState.com has video of former DNC Chairman, Don Fowler laughing about the timing of Hurricane Gustav as it relates to the Republican National convention. He says it proves “God is on our side.” He also notes that Gov. Sarah Palin is “Dan Quayle on steroids.”
UPDATE: RedState.com has this comparison of the experience of Sen. Barak Obama and Gov. Sarah Palin. Who is the more prepared to be President of the United States? You decide.
UPDATE II: Former DNC Charman, Don Fowler, apologized for his statements.
UPDATE III: Here is the cleaned audio from the above video.
Hillary praises pick of Pailn
August 30, 2008
Hillary Clinton at the 2008 Democrat National Convention
In a brief statement released on Friday, Senator Hillary Clinton offered more inital praise to the Vice Presidential nomination by John McCain of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin than the Obama campaign did:
“We should all be proud of Governor Sarah Palin’s historic nomination, and I congratulate her and Senator McCain. . . . While their policies would take America in the wrong direction, Governor Palin will add an important new voice to the debate.”
Seems forced, but Hillary, like all Democrats, must praise this pick even if grudgingly. But we anticipate the honeymoon will be over soon and the attacks on Gov. Pailn will begin in earnest revealing the inherent duplicity in the liberal camp.
Sphere: Related ContentTim Gill “end career of next Rick Santorum before it starts”
August 28, 2008
This video of billionaire philanthropist and gay activist Tim Gill says in a concise manner what left-wing money people have been doing to build Democrat momentum across the country. It doesn’t start with the federal candidates. It starts at the state level by targeting up and coming leaders who are or might become state legislators.
Conservative activists and donors need to understand this if they want to turn back the liberal tide in the future. The initiative Tim Gill describes here (which he undertakes with the help of other liberal billionaires Pat Stryker and George Soros, et. al.), is the untold story of recent gains by Democrats. This in combination with a lack of Republican resolve between 2000 and 2006 is the explanation for the shift in Congress in 2006 and may well be the story if Democrats make more gains in 2008.
Sphere: Related ContentRussian President ready for new Cold War
August 27, 2008
Russian President Dimitri Medvedev says Russian is ready to fight a new Cold War after his country approved annexation of two “breakaway” regions of Georgia. He made a very disturbing statement in The Times of London:
Sphere: Related ContentPresident Medvedev set tensions soaring when he recognised the independence of two breakaway republics inside Georgia. We are not afraid of anything, including the prospect of a Cold War, he said. Hours earlier he had ordered his Foreign Ministry to start establishing diplomatic ties with the secessionist regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
Obama is still in trouble with Hillary voters
August 27, 2008
Barak Obama is in bad shape, and he should be concerned. First of all, Hillary Clinton showed in her speech on Tuesday night exactly why she would have been a formidable opponent to John McCain. The audience of Democrats in the Pepsi Center in Denver were loud and highly supportive. You could sense a strong connection between Hillary and the crowd. One came away from the speech wondering if the strongest audience response of the entire Democrat convention had just happened. Thursday night will need to be a barn-burner for Obama, or he is sunk with this crowd.
The second reason is exemplified by the reaction of the Clinton delegate in the video below. This is a clear example of how many in the Democrat party seem to feel about the nomination process and its end result. And this sentiment is clearly showing itself in the polls. With McCain and Obama drawing closer in the polls during Obama’s nominating convention and the disappearance of the gender gap, Barak Obama seems to have no foundation. And this convention is not causing the cement to harden. A key ingredient for him is clearly missing
UPDATE: Maureen Dowd captures the “anxiety” undertow at the DNC.
Sphere: Related ContentMcCain and Obama at Saddleback Church
August 16, 2008
It was surprising that Charles Krauthammer on FoxNews felt Obama looked relaxed and confident. That wasn’t the case at all. Obama looked tight and worked harder to avoid mistakes than to give confident answers. His choices of heroes were nice sounding and “safe” but lacked thoughtfulness. He remains canned and vapid in his responses even in this relaxed forum. His most poor response was to choose Darfur and the streets of America as the prime examples of evil in the world. Evil? Yes. But are these the most critical problems of evil in the world?
McCain seemed very comfortable and relaxed. His response to the question of his three heroes was pretty good. His choice of Petraeus was marvelous. John Lewis was a good choice. We should honor Lewis for his personal sacrifice on behalf of civil rights though he is a horrible liberal. And the CEO of Ebay was good but kind of gives one the response of “Eh! Ok.” He showed confidence on the most difficult questions. And he was clear and decisive on his responses to questions of national security and international conflict. And McCain in answering the question of what should be done about evil in the world said that he would go “to the Gates of Hell” to track down Bin Laden. This was a stark and favorable contrast to Obama on the same issue.
Rick Warren was pleasantly surprising. He did grapple with the abortion issue, and I was personally pleased that he mentioned the horror of 40 million abortions since Roe v. Wade. And he took on the marriage issue. I don’t know that we should have expected Warren to go hard at either candidate. And the questions asked smoked out the real positions of the candidates.
Overall, this was an excellent forum and proves why Obama doesn’t want to do Town Hall events with McCain. This is McCain’s forum of choice because he does it very well. And the fact that McCain can comfortably work within this framework will continue to emphasize his readiness for leadership as opposed to Obama’s novice understanding of the issues.
Sphere: Related ContentMcCain on Education
August 16, 2008
One of the best lines of the night was McCain’s in response to Rick Warren’s question about instituting merit pay for teachers. “If a teacher cannot teach, they need to find a different profession.”
That was a Home Run!
Sphere: Related ContentMcCain on national security
August 16, 2008
McCain proves he has a grasp of the need to lead. This is in stark contrast to Obama who could not–once again–promote American excellence and leadership. McCain appropriately spoke of our responsibility to show leadership in the world. He spoke strongly against Russia for its invasion of Georgia and asserted Georgia’s territorial sovereignty. He stayed away from the temptation to criticize Georgian President Saakashvili for “provoking” Vladimir Putin and instead praised Saakashvili for his commitment to freedom.
Overall, McCain seemed very comfortable with leading on these tricky international issues. He seemed confident that he has answers for these problems, yet he was humble enough to know that the difficulties on the international scene take patience and courage in the face of great problems and potential disaster.
Sphere: Related ContentMcCain on taxes
August 16, 2008
Two proposals that will be debated after his answer on this question are as follows:
- $7000 tax credit for every child
- $5000 tax credit for each family to go find their own health insurance.
The first one will receive the inevitable “we can’t pay for it” banter. Will the balanced budget approach of McCain withstand that pressure? Will he back off under the heat? This remains to be seen.
The $5000 tax credit for health insurance was offered up and against plans for nationalized health insurance. It’s a good approach worth study. Some are saying that this would destroy the employer based health system. But it also puts the decision making back into the individual. This amounts to a monthly tax reprieve of $416/mo. That doesn’t pay for the average family insurance cost on an employer plan, and individuals would have to make up the difference–especially those who have wives in their child-bearing years. Needs more discussion and parsing. But it is an approach which goes into the proper direction and puts the decision back into the individual which is precisely the direction we need to go for true reform and the ability for the uninsured to get obtain insurance further driving down costs with more people contributing insurance premium into the system.
Sphere: Related ContentMcCain on abortion and marriage
August 16, 2008
Very important that he defined life as beginning as conception.
“I will be a pro-life President and my administration will have pro-life policies.” That is a very strong statement. He has supported embryonic stem-cell research in the past. That is not a pro-life position. With the advances in adult stem-cell research, one hope he will decide to change that position in a pro-life administration.
Now he is asked directly about this. He affirms his support for “stem-cell research” (with embryos too?). But hopes that adult stem-cell research will make the embryonic stem-cell approach “academic.” Well, this plays pretty well, but what does his insistence on supporting the destruction of embryos mean for his overall pro-life policy? This is significant and concerning, but his overall answer is very heartening for the pro-life community. Will it allow conservatives to rally around him? This took him a long way down the pike.
He affirms marriage as the union of one man and one woman. He continues to reject a federal marriage amendment until a federal court would rule against the definition of marriage. But doesn’t this just give those who support homosexual marriage a signal to get to federal court? It’s the equivalent of Obama’s call for a 16 month withdrawl of troops. It tells the enemy the timetable for action. And if the federal DOMA is overturned in federal court, will we truly have the ability to obtain a federal amendment out of the current Congress when we couldn’t obtain it in a Republican Congress? And if McCain gets a Republican Congress again, he has said he will take a pass. Very weak.
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