This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden

  • The Pope of the Democrat Party speaks

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     Somehow the Democrats thought that it was earth shattering news that Al Gore would support Barack Obama’s candidacy for President. I never had a doubt that he would, did you? The nightly news was abuzz with the news, I even got an email from Al Gore personally addressed to “Dear Friend“. I felt honored.

     Dear Friend,

    A few hours from now I will step on stage in Detroit, Michigan to announce my support for Senator Barack Obama. From now through Election Day, I intend to do whatever I can to make sure he is elected President of the United States.

    Over the next four years, we are going to face many difficult challenges — including bringing our troops home from Iraq, fixing our economy, and solving the climate crisis. Barack Obama is clearly the candidate best able to solve these problems and bring change to America.

    This moment and this election are too important to let pass without taking action.

    That’s why I am asking you to join me in showing your support by making a contribution to this campaign today:

    He repeated the same message from the stage in Detroit (Washington Times link) ;

    Mr. Gore, who resisted calls to make another bid for the presidency last year and who avoided taking sides during the primary battle, told supporters that he will do “whatever I can” to ensure Democrats win the White House in November.

    “The outcome of this election will affect the future of our planet,” Mr. Gore told a cheering crowd of about 13,000 gathered at Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena Monday night. “We’ve got to have new leadership, not only a new president but new policies, not only a new head of state but a new vision for America’s future.

    “This election matters more than ever because America needs change more than ever,” he said in introducing Mr. Obama. “After eight years of incompetence, neglect and failure, we need change.”

    They call Republicans fear-mongers yet they tell us that without Obama we’re doomed. Like Obama’s victory speech when he announced that the oceans will begin to recede now that he’s been nominated. I find it typical of Democrats to cling to their losers, though. They trot out Al Gore and John Kerry like their respective defeats are some sort of badge of honor. America loves winners not the likes of Al Gore and John Kerry.

    But, I think it’s time Americans started asking what “change” the Democrats are offering. After eight years of a Gore vice presidency, what is Obama going to change that Al Gore didn’t? After two years of a Democrat-controlled Congress, what has John Kerry or Barack Obama changed?  Apparently the only thing they like about America is that they can promise change while delivering squat.

  • Iran holding out for Obama

    The EU sent an emissary to Iran with a sweet deal mix of education, economic, technological and political rewards if they’d just stop enriching uranium. Of course, we all know how it turned out don’t we? (ABC News link)

    “If suspension is included in the package, it won’t be considered at all,” the official IRNA news agency quoted Iran’s government spokesman, Gholam Hossein Elham, as saying Saturday. “The position of the Islamic Republic of Iran is clear. Preconditions can’t be raised for any halt or suspension.”

    Bush and Sarkozy were informed of this as as they went into morning meetings. Their session capped warm talks that began over an elegant palace dinner Friday night. When the U.S. and French leaders appeared together before reporters in a grand palace hall around lunchtime, they presented a single front — contrasting with the tension shown between Bush and Jacques Chirac, Sarkozy’s predecessor.

    Um, I wonder where they learned that word “preconditions”. I guess they figure that Obama is going to win the election, so why should they give up anything since he’s going to hand them the world on a silver platter.

    It should tell people what they’re in for under an Obama presidency when our sworn enemies, who call us the Great Satan every-damn-day, are putting the world on hold waiting for him…oh, and developing nuclear weapons in the process. It’s a cryin’-ass-shame we have to learn these lessons over-and-over just because of the political ambitions of a few.

  • Defend, disassociate and regret

    The Wall Street Journal‘s Editorial Board calls those the “three stages of Barack Obama” in their editorial piece this morning “Ex-Friends of Barack” (which follows yesterday’s “Friends of Barack“)in discussing the Jim Johnson exodus yesterday afternoon;

    As for Mr. Obama, Mr. Johnson now joins an intriguing and growing list of Mr. Obama’s ex-associates that includes the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Father Michael Pfleger, and former terrorist bomber William Ayers. We might call this list eclectic, except that there is a consistent pattern of bad judgment followed by an initial defense, then followed by rapid disassociation and regret that none of them were the men Mr. Obama “knew.”

    We can only wonder if Eric Holder, who is also among Mr. Obama’s veep vetters, will be the next to join this club. As Deputy Attorney General in the Clinton Administration, he played a role in the Marc Rich pardon that also deserves to be fully vetted – all the more so if Mr. Holder is on the short list to be Mr. Obama’s Attorney General. Caroline Kennedy, the other member of Mr. Obama’s veep vetting team, has probably already inherited a stack of files from Mr. Johnson. She might want to take a peek at Mr. Holder’s too.

    Ramesh Ponnuru, in the Washington Post, reminds us of Jim Johnson’s last turn at a VP selection committee;

    Not to mention the fact that Johnson was involved in vetting Geraldine Ferraro in 1984. She was a disastrous candidate who ended up spending much of the campaign playing defense on, yes, ethics.

    Michelle Malkin says he’s going to need a bus with more ground clearance under which he can throw the rest of his staff;

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    Rick Moran wonders if there aren’t more people under Obama’s bus than riding on it (link sent by Rurik) .

    All of this is a direct indication of Obama’s lack of sophistication and experience. He surrounds himself with terrorists , racists and corporate criminals because he’s someone else’s pawn – he can’t speak without a teleprompter and rails at the media for asking him questions he can’t answer. This man is not ready for prime time and he demonstrates that for us every day, it seems.

  • Disunity among Democrats

    According to the Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire, not all Democrats are as crazy for Obama as they’d like us to think;

    House and Senate Democratic leaders today in Washington D.C., pledged the party’s unified support behind their nominee, Barack Obama, but their calls for unity were undermined by defections in the ranks.

    Democratic Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, a top backer and ally of Sen. Hillary Clinton, definitively ruled out the possibility of joining Obama on the ticket. The Illinois senator hasn’t tipped his hand in regards to his prospective list, but Strickland has been viewed as vice-presidential material. “Absolutely not,” he told NPR’s All Things Considered. “If drafted I will not run, nominated I will not accept and if elected I will not serve. So, I don’t know how more crystal clear I can be.”

    Meanwhile, Oklahoma Democratic Rep. Dan Boren similarly voiced dissatisfaction with Obama today. “Our nominee is not my first choice,” he said, calling Obama “the most liberal senator in the U.S. Senate,” according to the Associated Press. Boren has declined to formally endorse Obama, calling it a moot point. In April, Boren’s father, former Sen. David Boren, however did endorse Obama.

    It’s good to see that there are still some principled Democrats around. Of course, if there was even one Republican that was vocal about his/her lack of support for McCain, the press would be quoting him every half hour. Look how often we hear about some of the more noteworthy bloggers who’ve not been solid McCainiacs.

    But, I expect further defections from the Democrats as Obama becomes more of a liability to incumbent Democrats from the South and the West where those “conservative” Democrats won last midterms.

  • Spit it out, Barry (Updated)

    If George Bush did this, it’d be on every news channel running in a loop;

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    But he didn’t. What’s missing from the video is what he said right after this sputtering “I’ve been up for 48 hours”, so the poor baby who wants to lead the entire free world needs a nap and he can’t stay on message.

     Update: Still tired, I suppose, Barack tries to explain his dilemma being a leader who doesn’t want to get his hands dirty (video from Liberty Pundit)

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    Jammie Wearing Fool has the transcript;

     “Well, look,” Obama said, “the, the, I mean – first of all I am not vetting my VP search committee for their mortgages, so you’re gong to have to direct — ”

    “But shouldn’t you?” asked Miller.

    “Well, no,” Obama said. “It becomes sort of a, um, I mean, this is a game that can be played – everybody, you know, who is tangentially related to our campaign, I think, is going to have a whole host of relationships — I would have to hire the vetter to vet the vetters. I mean, at some point, you know, we just asked people to do their assignments.

    Yeah, he’s a regular silver-tongued, smooth-talkin’ messiah. McCain will eat him alive.

  • A clear choice

    Now that the presidential race has begun, the choice between candidates becomes even clearer. Although most Americans think that Barack Obama will do a better job on the economy than John McCain, the more Obama talks, the more Americans will doubt he can. Take this from the Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire;

     Obama economic advisor Austan Goolsbee outlined three key principles of the economic plan, which includes a $50 billion additional economic stimulus package, the creation of a $10 billion fund to ward off home foreclosures, and middle class tax cuts which include a $1,000 tax cut for families earning $150,000 or less.

    “This slowdown is not a random, business-cycle event. It is very much the result of a failed philosophy,” Goolsbee said. He criticized President Bush, and alternately McCain, for a tax system that he argues favors the wealthy over “ordinary Americans.”

    Advisors said Obama’s agenda would not increase the federal deficit and would be paid for by repealing tax cuts to the wealthiest of Americans, as well as funds that would become available when the war effort in Iraq is scaled down. McCain Senior Policy Advisor Doug Holtz-Eakin disputed that claim, countering that the agenda does not offer enough specifics to verify precisely how it will be paid for. “It’s an assertion without a foundation,” he said.

    The Washington Times reports that the McCain campaign confidently predicts tax hikes in an Obama administration;

     On the difference between Mr. McCain – who opposed Mr. Bush’s tax cuts as too skewed toward the wealthy but now says their extension is the only way out of the economic mess – and Mr. Obama, Mr. Burr said more taxes are a foregone conclusion.

    “It’s impossible for Senator McCain to run from a 20-plus-year career in the United States Senate, thousands of votes, but it’s very easy to focus on the 94 times in just three years Barack Obama has voted to raise taxes. I think there are certain things that America voters can predict, and raising taxes on the part of Senator Obama is a pretty certain thing,” the senator said.

    I think we all know who Democrats consider “rich” when it comes to raising taxes. Bill Clinton promised a middleclass tax cut in 1992, but then raised our taxes in 1993. We can expect the same from Barack. Obama also promises to tax oil companies to the tune of $50 billion – who thinks the oil companies will pay that? Again, working Americans will get shafted with increased gas prices. Now Obama cn claims increased taxes will only be levied on families making over $150,000/year – but how easy is it to make it $75k after making excuses like Bill Clinton?

    The Obama campaign claims that this isn’t a normal business cycle downturn that we’re in (at least they stopped labeling it a recession), but what is it when we’ve had growth in the GDP every month since March 2001? When unemployment fell and sustained it’s rate for the longest period ever?

    The Democrats blamed the stalled economy in 2000 on candidate Bush’s “talking down the economy” – well, what are these clowns in the Democrat party doing these days?

    So the choice for President becomes clearer –  do you want to pay more for goods and services with less money in your paycheck…and lose your 401k savings – or do you want sustained economic growth with more money in your pocket?

  • Freakin’ hippies

    I read this over at Little Green Footballs and it’s so mindnumbing, jawdroppingly vacant of any rational thought, I just had to drag it over here for my readers. It’s from SF Gate (wherelse?) and entitled “Is Obama an enlightened being?”. Here’s the most offensive part;

    Many spiritually advanced people I know (not coweringly religious, mind you, but deeply spiritual) identify Obama as a Lightworker, that rare kind of attuned being who has the ability to lead us not merely to new foreign policies or health care plans or whatnot, but who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet, of relating and connecting and engaging with this bizarre earthly experiment. These kinds of people actually help us evolve. They are philosophers and peacemakers of a very high order, and they speak not just to reason or emotion, but to the soul.

    The unusual thing is, true Lightworkers almost never appear on such a brutal, spiritually demeaning stage as national politics. This is why Obama is so rare. And this why he is so often compared to Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., to those leaders in our culture whose stirring vibrations still resonate throughout our short history.

    How much pot does a human being have to smoke to reach this level of drivel? Dostoevsky once wrote that if a person talks nonsense long enough he’ll finally get to sense – Mark Moford writes this kind of nonsense for 17 paragraphs and never even gets close to the ballpark of sense.

    Of course, because this pot-for-brains is so in tune with those enlightened folks he speaks about, the rest of us can never understand (what with our “cowering religious” facade and all) so we should just take the word of this blowhard and put the planets in line by voting for Obama.

    So we’ve made the leap from this being an ideological struggle to it being a spiritual reawakening of the whole of mankind.

    Wake me when the fountains run red with wine.

  • Juan Williams; time for another race speech

    This morning Juan Williams, in the Wall Street Journal, calls for another race speech from Obama, because Willaims says the last two aren’t working for him;

    This time he has to admit to sins of using race for political expediency – by knowingly buying into divisive, mean messages being delivered from the pulpit. He has to say that, as a biracial young man with no community roots, attaching himself to Rev. Wright and the Trinity congregation was a shortcut to move up the ladder in the Chicago political scene. He has to call race-baiting what it is, whether it comes from a pulpit or calls itself progressive politics. And he has to challenge his supporters, especially his black base, to be honest about real problems at the heart of today’s racial divide – including out-of-wedlock births, crime, drugs and a culture that devalues education while glorifying the gangster life.

    Mr. Obama also has to raise the bar for how political criticism is handled in his camp. Step one is to acknowledge that not every critic is a racist. His very liberal record and his limited experience, like his association with Rev. Wright, is a fact, not the work of white racists. Just as he calls for the GOP not to engage in the politics of fear over terrorism, Mr. Obama needs to declare that he will refrain from playing the racial victim, because he understands such tactics will paralyze political debate and damage race relations.

    And then Obama needs to tell his minions to have discussions about issues instead of them pointing at opponents and charging racism merely because they oppose his intellectually  vacant proposals. Is Juan Williams racist? He’s Black and he’s Panamanian, so it’d be hard to make the case that he’s racist, but we can expect the “Uncle Tom”s to start rolling out from our newest visitor’s keyboard at any moment.