Jacqueline Kennedy, so far as I know, never made a controversial public statement while she was First Lady, or while JFK was campaigning for the office. If JFK had been a stealth candidate, there would have been no way to estimate his true views by his wife's comments.
Barack Obama's core beliefs are, by comparison to JFK's, secret. His message bodyguards are attempting to make his true views off-limits even to speculation. Themes of unity and change are to supplant any untidy specifics of agenda and implementation.
Recalcitrant analysts are therefore left to extrapolate Obama's views from the views of those with whom he has chosen to keep company: Jeremiah Wright Jr., Al Sharpton, Bernie Sanders, Paul Simon and, of course, Michelle Robinson Obama.
Here is Ronald Kessler's recent effort at doing so.
The Real Barack Obama
by Ronald Kessler
Michelle Obama’s comment that, for the first time in her adult life, she feels proud of America helps crystallize who Barack Obama is.
To be sure, the wife of a candidate is perfectly free to have views that are distinct from her husband’s. But on a matter that is so fundamental to one’s being as love of country, it is difficult to imagine that Michelle Obama would publicly twice make such a statement suggesting disdain for America unless she felt it comported with her husband’s views.
Equally important, her statement aligns perfectly with the hate-America views of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s minister, friend, and sounding board for more than two decades. On the Sunday following 9/11, Wright characterized the terrorist attacks as a consequence of violent American policies. Four years later, Wright suggested that the attacks were retribution for America’s racism.
“In the 21st century, white America got a wake-up call after 9/11/01,” Wright wrote in his church magazine Trumpet. “White America and the Western world came to realize that people of color had not gone away, faded into the woodwork or just ‘disappeared’ as the Great White West kept on its merry way of ignoring black concerns.”
Wright has been a key supporter of Louis Farrakhan, and in December, honored the Nation of Islam leader for lifetime achievement, saying he “truly epitomize[s] greatness.” Farrakhan has repeatedly made hate-filled statements targeting Jews, whites, America, and homosexuals.
Those who think two of the closest people to Obama could publicly make anti-America statements unless Obama himself felt that way, are fooling themselves. To date, Obama has proven himself to be nothing more than a great orator, rendering the statements of those around him even more important in illuminating his true character and agenda.
During his Senate career, he skipped 17 percent of the votes and sponsored only one bill that became law. That bill was to promote “relief, security, and democracy in the Democratic Republic of Congo.”
Bereft of official accomplishments, Obama has distinguished himself mainly by being against measures that protect American security, such as finishing the mission in Iraq. If we were to leave Iraq quickly, as Obama vows he would do, it would become a launch pad for al-Qaida attacks on the U.S.
Obama avoided voting on extending the Protect America Act, thus putting America at risk when immediate interception of terrorist communications is required. Last August, Obama voted against a measure that would have allowed the U.S. to continue to monitor overseas conversations of terrorists like Osama bin Laden without first obtaining a warrant. If his radical vote had prevailed, bin Laden would have been given the same rights as Americans.
To this day, Obama has not distanced himself from most of Rev. Wright’s comments.
In a statement supposedly issued to address the matter, Obama ignored the point that his minister and friend had spoken adoringly of Farrakhan and that Wright’s church was behind the award to the Nation of Islam leader. Instead, as outlined in a Jan. 17 Newsmax article, he disingenuously claimed he thought the magazine bestowed the award on Farrakhan for his efforts to rehabilitate ex-prisoners.
Neither Wright’s encomiums about Farrakhan nor the Trumpet article mentions ex-prisoners.
Similarly, after John McCain’s wife Cindy responded to Michelle Obama’s remarks by telling a Wisconsin rally, “I have, and always will be, proud of my country,” Barack Obama told a radio interviewer that his wife did not say what people think she said. He then proceeded to rewrite her comments, claiming that she had meant she was encouraged by the “large numbers of people” who have gotten involved in the political process. Michelle Obama then made a similar revision of her remarks.
In her speech in Milwaukee, Michelle Obama said flatly, “For the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country, and not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change.”
And what has been wrong with America up to now? That it gave Michelle the opportunity to attend Princeton and Harvard Law School? That it gave Barack Obama the chance to attend Harvard and Harvard Law School and become a U.S. senator making more than $1 million a year from book royalties?
Was it that America stopped Nazi Germany from continuing to murder millions of Jews? That America has provided Africa and other countries with $15 billion to combat the spread of AIDS/HIV and that another $30 billion is on the way? That 46 percent of all Americans classified by the Census Bureau as poor own their own homes, 76 percent of them have air conditioning, and 75 percent of them have at least one car? Or that America allows us to express our views freely without fear of being put in jail, as is the case in Russia?
A lawyer, Michelle Obama is perfectly capable of expressing herself precisely. In fact, she spoke from a written speech.
Those who do not want to believe she meant what she said — and that Barack Obama could not be so close to Rev. Wright if he did not himself believe in much of what he has said — are in denial.
The real Barack Obama is starting to emerge, and for those of us who are grateful to America for everything it represents, it is not a pretty sight.
Ronald Kessler is chief Washington correspondent of Newsmax.com.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Now, Michelle Obama is Proud of America
John F. Kennedy was blessed, most agree, with the perfect political wife - Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy. To the best of my knowledge, she never embarrassed or disadvantaged him.
Barack Obama, too, is blessed with a "keeper." Michelle Obama grew up in a stable two-parent family, went to Princeton as an undergraduate, then Harvard Law School, then returned to her native Chicago for a richly compensated legal career. She is, by all accounts, a devoted mother to their two daughters.
"Michelle Obama has achieved enormous professional success, political influence and personal acclaim in America," writes conservative blogger Michelle Malkin. "Ivy League-educated, she's been lauded by Essence magazine as one of the 25 World's Most Inspiring Women; by Vanity Fair as one of the 10 World's Best-Dressed Women; and named one of "The Harvard 100" most influential alumni. She has had an amazingly blessed life. But you wouldn't know it from her campaign rhetoric and her griping about her and her husband's student loans."
Although Mrs. Obama communicates for a living, she has brought discredit on her husband this week by an appalling gaffe.
In Wisconsin, Mrs. Obama told supporters Monday that "people in this country are ready for change, and hungry for a different kind of politics and let me tell you something, for the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback."
"America hasn't been good to her?" asks blogger Jim Geraghty in The Campaign Spot. "What, opportunities to go to Princeton, Harvard Law, working for top-shelf law firms and hospitals, sitting on the board of directors for a major Wal-Mart supplier — that's not enough?"
"If American ingenuity, a robust constitutional republic and the fall of communism don't do it for you, hon, then how about American heroism and sacrifice?" writes Malkin. "How about every Memorial Day? Every Veterans Day? Every Independence Day? Every Medal of Honor ceremony? Has she never attended a welcome home ceremony for the troops?"
"Michelle Obama is 44 years old," writes Commentary magazine editor John Podhoretz. " She has been an adult since 1982. Can it really be there has not been a moment during that time when she felt proud of her country?
"Forget matters like the victory in the Cold War; how about only things that have made liberals proud — all the accomplishments of inclusion? How about the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1991? Or Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s elevation to the Supreme Court? Or Carol Moseley Braun’s election to the Senate in 1998? How about the merely humanitarian, like this country’s startling generosity to the victims of the tsunami? I’m sure commenters can think of hundreds more landmarks of this sort. Didn’t she even get a twinge from, say, the Olympics?"
"The narcissistic, self centered, arrogant insult delivered by Michelle Obama," writes Liberal blogger and Clinton supporter Taylor Marsh, " is a slap at the American spirit that runs throughout this country, regardless of political party, race, gender, creed, religion, you name it. "
"I am a proud American first," she writes, "a liberal second. But Michelle Obama will never speak for me."
Malkin who, like Obama, is a woman of color and working mother of two, cited Michael Kinsley to the effect that a gaffe is when a politician tells the truth. "In this case, it's what happens when an elite Democratic politician's wife says what a significant portion of the party's base really believes to be the truth: America is more a source of shame than pride."
But "even Dennis Kucinich would probably have no problem finding something to be proud of in the past two decades," blogger Mickey Kaus writes in Kausfiles. "If Michelle Obama's default position is set to 'Aggrieved,' it also suggests something personal, no?"
It's personal for John and Cindy McCain.
"I'm proud of my country," Cindy McCain, wife of the Arizona senator, told supporters Tuesday as she introduced her husband at a rally. "I don't know if you heard those words earlier. I'm very proud of my country."
"I have never lived a day, in good times or bad, that I haven't been proud of the privilege" of being an American, the senator said in his victory speech Tuesday night.
Barack Obama, too, is blessed with a "keeper." Michelle Obama grew up in a stable two-parent family, went to Princeton as an undergraduate, then Harvard Law School, then returned to her native Chicago for a richly compensated legal career. She is, by all accounts, a devoted mother to their two daughters.
"Michelle Obama has achieved enormous professional success, political influence and personal acclaim in America," writes conservative blogger Michelle Malkin. "Ivy League-educated, she's been lauded by Essence magazine as one of the 25 World's Most Inspiring Women; by Vanity Fair as one of the 10 World's Best-Dressed Women; and named one of "The Harvard 100" most influential alumni. She has had an amazingly blessed life. But you wouldn't know it from her campaign rhetoric and her griping about her and her husband's student loans."
Although Mrs. Obama communicates for a living, she has brought discredit on her husband this week by an appalling gaffe.
In Wisconsin, Mrs. Obama told supporters Monday that "people in this country are ready for change, and hungry for a different kind of politics and let me tell you something, for the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback."
"America hasn't been good to her?" asks blogger Jim Geraghty in The Campaign Spot. "What, opportunities to go to Princeton, Harvard Law, working for top-shelf law firms and hospitals, sitting on the board of directors for a major Wal-Mart supplier — that's not enough?"
"If American ingenuity, a robust constitutional republic and the fall of communism don't do it for you, hon, then how about American heroism and sacrifice?" writes Malkin. "How about every Memorial Day? Every Veterans Day? Every Independence Day? Every Medal of Honor ceremony? Has she never attended a welcome home ceremony for the troops?"
"Michelle Obama is 44 years old," writes Commentary magazine editor John Podhoretz. " She has been an adult since 1982. Can it really be there has not been a moment during that time when she felt proud of her country?
"Forget matters like the victory in the Cold War; how about only things that have made liberals proud — all the accomplishments of inclusion? How about the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1991? Or Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s elevation to the Supreme Court? Or Carol Moseley Braun’s election to the Senate in 1998? How about the merely humanitarian, like this country’s startling generosity to the victims of the tsunami? I’m sure commenters can think of hundreds more landmarks of this sort. Didn’t she even get a twinge from, say, the Olympics?"
"The narcissistic, self centered, arrogant insult delivered by Michelle Obama," writes Liberal blogger and Clinton supporter Taylor Marsh, " is a slap at the American spirit that runs throughout this country, regardless of political party, race, gender, creed, religion, you name it. "
"I am a proud American first," she writes, "a liberal second. But Michelle Obama will never speak for me."
Malkin who, like Obama, is a woman of color and working mother of two, cited Michael Kinsley to the effect that a gaffe is when a politician tells the truth. "In this case, it's what happens when an elite Democratic politician's wife says what a significant portion of the party's base really believes to be the truth: America is more a source of shame than pride."
But "even Dennis Kucinich would probably have no problem finding something to be proud of in the past two decades," blogger Mickey Kaus writes in Kausfiles. "If Michelle Obama's default position is set to 'Aggrieved,' it also suggests something personal, no?"
It's personal for John and Cindy McCain.
"I'm proud of my country," Cindy McCain, wife of the Arizona senator, told supporters Tuesday as she introduced her husband at a rally. "I don't know if you heard those words earlier. I'm very proud of my country."
"I have never lived a day, in good times or bad, that I haven't been proud of the privilege" of being an American, the senator said in his victory speech Tuesday night.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Who Will Name the Next Supreme Court Justice, and Whom Will He Name?
Conservative Republicans are suffering considerable anxiety about Sen. John McCain's likelihood of being Soutered should he have the opportunity to nominate a Supreme Court nominee.
As a judge of character, he hasn't inspired much confidence by welcoming Mark McKinnon, Juan Hernandez, Jerry Perenchio and Janet Murguia into his inner counsels, and it was McCain himself who said last month that "I'll rely on people to judge me by the company that I keep."
It was hard enough for Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush to identify reliable conservative judges to nominate to the Supreme Court. Even George W. Bush flirted with an ambiguous nomination, in Harriet Miers. Is McCain motivated to get it right?
He has said nice things about Janice Rogers Brown, a brilliant conservative jurist comparable in intellect to Robert Bork, and perhaps comparable also in her prospects of Senate confirmation. One has to wonder if McCain isn't just mentioning Brown as bait to gather vagrant conservatives back to the fold before the general election, knowing full well that he'll have to back off Brown and submit a more ambiguous nominee.
Ah, for the good old days when a president could send a nominee to the Hill with confidence that the Democrats there would bring it to a vote. They might be rejected, as LBJ and Nixon found out, but the Senators had to stand up and make their case against the nominee, and bring it to a vote promptly.
President Kennedy's only appointment to the Court was Byron White from Ft. Collins, Colorado. White was an All-American football player nicknamed "Whizzer," and a member of Phi Beta Kappa at the Univ. of Colorado, from which he graduated as valedictorian in 1938. He then went to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar (1939-40), and received his law degree at Yale in 1946 after serving in the Navy in World War II.
White served (1946-47) as law clerk for Chief Justice Frederick Vinson before going to Denver to practice corporate law. He supported Kennedy for the presidency in 1960, and was appointed deputy attorney general in 1961. In 1962, Kennedy nominated him to succeed Justice Charles Whittaker on the Supreme Court.
How would Barack Obama's first Supreme Court nomination compare to JFK's? Well, don't get your hopes up. In today's partisan cage-fighting, White would stand no chance of confirmation. He was one of two justices to dissent from the Roe v. Wade (1973) abortion decision, and in Bowers v. Hardwick (1986) he wrote a decision that upheld Georgia's sodomy statutes. And in an Obama presidency, White would have no chance of nomination in the first place. Obama never met an abortion he didn't like, including partial-birth (infanticidal) abortion.
If William Kunstler were still alive and young enough, I think he would be the ideal Obama appointment. Perhaps he'll settle for Lawrence Tribe or Bill Lann Lee, or shore up his credentials with Latinos by nominating Carlos Moreno. Of these, Moreno is the least partisan and least controversial. But here is my prediction: John Edwards.
Edwards would be a reliable vote for the edgy government programs that Obama has hinted at, and his antics might affect the collegial operation of the court such that some older members might elect to retire, further empowering Obama to fill the court with Balkanized, collectivist, pro-abortion, pro-gay Justices. By providing Edwards the venue of the Supreme Court for his class resentment themes, Obama would satisfy Edwards' enormous appetite for the spotlight but remove him as a 2012 primary challenger, thus freeing Obama to make strategic symbolic moves toward the center during his re-election campaign.
As a judge of character, he hasn't inspired much confidence by welcoming Mark McKinnon, Juan Hernandez, Jerry Perenchio and Janet Murguia into his inner counsels, and it was McCain himself who said last month that "I'll rely on people to judge me by the company that I keep."
It was hard enough for Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush to identify reliable conservative judges to nominate to the Supreme Court. Even George W. Bush flirted with an ambiguous nomination, in Harriet Miers. Is McCain motivated to get it right?
He has said nice things about Janice Rogers Brown, a brilliant conservative jurist comparable in intellect to Robert Bork, and perhaps comparable also in her prospects of Senate confirmation. One has to wonder if McCain isn't just mentioning Brown as bait to gather vagrant conservatives back to the fold before the general election, knowing full well that he'll have to back off Brown and submit a more ambiguous nominee.
Ah, for the good old days when a president could send a nominee to the Hill with confidence that the Democrats there would bring it to a vote. They might be rejected, as LBJ and Nixon found out, but the Senators had to stand up and make their case against the nominee, and bring it to a vote promptly.
President Kennedy's only appointment to the Court was Byron White from Ft. Collins, Colorado. White was an All-American football player nicknamed "Whizzer," and a member of Phi Beta Kappa at the Univ. of Colorado, from which he graduated as valedictorian in 1938. He then went to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar (1939-40), and received his law degree at Yale in 1946 after serving in the Navy in World War II.
White served (1946-47) as law clerk for Chief Justice Frederick Vinson before going to Denver to practice corporate law. He supported Kennedy for the presidency in 1960, and was appointed deputy attorney general in 1961. In 1962, Kennedy nominated him to succeed Justice Charles Whittaker on the Supreme Court.
How would Barack Obama's first Supreme Court nomination compare to JFK's? Well, don't get your hopes up. In today's partisan cage-fighting, White would stand no chance of confirmation. He was one of two justices to dissent from the Roe v. Wade (1973) abortion decision, and in Bowers v. Hardwick (1986) he wrote a decision that upheld Georgia's sodomy statutes. And in an Obama presidency, White would have no chance of nomination in the first place. Obama never met an abortion he didn't like, including partial-birth (infanticidal) abortion.
If William Kunstler were still alive and young enough, I think he would be the ideal Obama appointment. Perhaps he'll settle for Lawrence Tribe or Bill Lann Lee, or shore up his credentials with Latinos by nominating Carlos Moreno. Of these, Moreno is the least partisan and least controversial. But here is my prediction: John Edwards.
Edwards would be a reliable vote for the edgy government programs that Obama has hinted at, and his antics might affect the collegial operation of the court such that some older members might elect to retire, further empowering Obama to fill the court with Balkanized, collectivist, pro-abortion, pro-gay Justices. By providing Edwards the venue of the Supreme Court for his class resentment themes, Obama would satisfy Edwards' enormous appetite for the spotlight but remove him as a 2012 primary challenger, thus freeing Obama to make strategic symbolic moves toward the center during his re-election campaign.
Monday, February 18, 2008
Chicago Politics That Made Obama "Lucky"
Like JFK, Obama's credentials are a bit thin for a presidential candidate. Here, on TownHall.com, his hometown radio host Guy Benson describes the mean Chicago politics that have vaulted a relatively unaccomplished ward heeler to the cusp of the presidency in the period it takes most people to get through grade school.
The Opportunistic Rise of Barack Obama
By Guy Benson
The Opportunistic Rise of Barack Obama
By Guy Benson
Unlike most seasoned politicians, who earn presidential nominations through many years of legislative, executive, or military accomplishments, Obama has exploited his rock-star status to skip to the front of the line.
By now it's a familiar tale: On July 27, 2004, Barack Obama strode to the podium at the Democratic National Convention and captivated the nation with a soaring and memorable keynote address entitled "The Audacity of Hope."
The speech marked America's first encounter with a rising political star. By the time Obama took the stage in Boston, he was already a shoo-in to become the next United States Senator from Illinois; he enjoyed a massive lead in the polls back home, where the state Republican Party was in total disarray and his carpet-bagging opponent seemed to specialize in alienating voters.
Since that summer night more than three years ago, Obama has rocketed into the political stratosphere and now faces the possibility—if not the probability—of becoming his party's standard-bearer in the 2008 election.
Several questions still linger. How did Barack Obama rise from relative obscurity to his current level of prominence? How many Americans have heard of Alice Palmer, Blair Hull, or Jack Ryan? These names may hold no significance to the legions who now chant "yes we can," but they are names that Barack Obama should remember well.
The mainstream press, which affords Obama nearly unanimous glowing coverage, has repeatedly failed to report a reality that doesn't quite fit the Obama-as-Messiah narrative. Namely, that this self-stylized agent of hope and change is a political opportunist extraordinaire.
Barack Obama's dizzying ascendancy to political celebrity has been marked by less-than-inspirational bare-knuckle politics, an unremarkable legislative career, and a slew of lurid scandals that conveniently sunk formidable opponents.
Obama's first big break came in 1995 when Democratic Congressman Mel Reynolds resigned from office amid allegations of a sexual relationship with an underage girl. As state officials convened a special election, a venerable Chicago politician and civil rights leader named Alice Palmer chose to vacate her State Senate seat to pursue the open Congressional slot. After she was defeated handily, Palmer returned to run for re-election, only to discover that her hand picked successor was unwilling to relinquish his spot on the ballot.
Though a series of legal challenges, Barack Obama strong-armed Palmer—and several other Democratic challengers—off the ballot, clearing a path to victory by destroying all potential competition.
During his unexceptional tenure in Springfield, Obama managed to rack up 129 "present" votes, including numerous noncommittal tallies on controversial issues such as abortion and gun rights.
He also developed a curious, albeit rare, pattern of registering incorrect votes—including an accidental "no" vote on a hotly contested child welfare bill. When confronted with his mistaken vote, Obama asserted that he was "unaware" that he had voted the way he had, and asked that the record reflect that he had "intended" to vote the other way. Similar cases of supposed vote-casting confusion afflicted Obama on five additional occasions.
As the 2004 general election approached, Obama began to eye greener pastures. He decided to run for US Senate, positioning himself as an antiwar candidate. His longshot effort attracted throngs of college students, yet Obama gained little traction against the party's frontrunner, millionaire Blair Hull.
But a bombshell scandal resurrected Obama's prospects. In amazingly short order, Hull experienced what the Chicago Tribune described as "the most inglorious campaign implosion in Illinois political history." Late in the primary race, unsealed divorce papers revealed allegations that Hull had verbally and physically abused his ex-wife. The Hull campaign tanked, and Team Obama celebrated. The nomination was theirs.
Illinois political observers then turned their attention to what promised to be a fiercely competitive general election race between Obama and GOP frontrunner Jack Ryan, a well-funded, charismatic businessman.
Once again, however, scandal lurked in sealed divorce papers. Over the objections of both Ryan and his ex-wife—actress Jeri Ryan—the damning documents were made public, and the resulting headlines were salacious: Ryan had allegedly pressured his wife to visit sex clubs. Like Reynolds and Hull before him, Ryan dropped out of public life in disgrace, with Obama happily playing the role of beneficiary.
With Jack Ryan out of the picture, a desperate Republican Party trotted out a polarizing non-Illinoisan to face Obama in the fall. Alan Keyes' disastrous Senate campaign is perhaps best remembered for Keyes' spate of vicious, counterproductive attacks launched against Obama, including the assertion that Jesus Christ himself would have voted against Obama. The rout was on.
DNC organizers, anticipating Obama's assured victory and recognizing his potential widespread appeal, wisely offered him a coveted primetime speaking slot during the summer convention.
Although the Beantown gathering was designed to be a political infomercial for the ill-fated Kerry/Edwards ticket, Obama stole the show with a speech that inspired millions and, more-importantly, transformed him into an instant media darling. Obama had seized his moment and smashed a rhetorical homerun. Less than half a Senate term later, he announced his Presidential bid.
Now only two figures impede Obama's path to the presidency. Unless Hillary Clinton can revitalize her sputtering campaign, or John McCain can defy the political odds and prevail in a tough electoral climate for Republicans, Barack Obama will become our next Commander-In-Chief.
Unlike most seasoned politicians, who earn presidential nominations through many years of legislative, executive, or military accomplishments, Obama has exploited his rock-star status to skip to the front of the line.
With many of his supporters apparently distracted by his powerful persona and vague, uplifting message, few people seem to notice, or care, that Obama's qualifications to be president are more than a bit thin. Americans would be well-served to shake themselves from the "change" trance long enough to examine Senator Obama's relatively meager record.
Guy Benson is the host of The Guy Benson Show on 560 WIND-AM in Chicago.
Sunday, February 17, 2008
McKinnon Poised to Bolt McCain Campaign
McCain aide Mark McKinnon says he will quit the campaign if Barack Obama wins the Democratic nomination.
McKinnon — a Democrat-turned Republican who was President Bush’s chief media adviser in 2004 — told National Public Radio he would leave the McCain team to avoid involvement in any attacks on Obama.
“I met Barack Obama. I read his book. I like him a great deal,” he said. “I disagree with him on very fundamental issues. But I think … it would be a great race for the country and I would simply be uncomfortable being in a campaign that would be inevitably attacking Barack Obama. I think it would be uncomfortable for me, and I think it would be bad for the McCain campaign.”
Hmm. He disagrees with Obama on fundamental issues, but he'll resign from McCain's campaign rather than oppose him. He's willing to run attack ads on Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, but not Barack Obama. And he was the chief media advisor to George W. Bush in 2004. I think this guy is a compelling argument for adding a 53rd card to the Deck of Weasels.
Seriously, Mr. McKinnon obviously has identified Obama as a winner, and is positioning himself for a place at the table - or perhaps some more tangible reward - this time next year.
His highly attenuated loyalty also raises some important questions for Republicans. First, is "big tent" Republicanism really a good idea? They've got moles like McKinnon poised to bolt when they most need him, and they've got Log Cabin "Republicans" directing most of their campaign dollars to Democrats. Can leftists ever have anything but contempt for grass-roots conservative Republicans?
Second, what does this McKinnon affair say about McCain as a judge of character? What other moles would he escort into the inner sanctum? Is he the Most Likely to Be Soutered of the Class of 2008? It was tough enough for Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush to identify conservatives for nomination to the Supreme Court. Is McCain up to it?
McCain's selling point, I suppose, is that he's not Barack Obama. Who's on Obama's short list for Supreme Court nomination? Now that William Kunstler has died, one has to assume that John Edwards has moved up the list. He would be a dependable vote for the edgy new government programs Obama has hinted at, and by enthroning him, Obama would remove him as a challenger in 2012.
John Kennedy's Supreme Court legacy was to nominate Byron White, the last pro-life Justice appointed by a Democrat, and one of the few by either party.
.
McKinnon — a Democrat-turned Republican who was President Bush’s chief media adviser in 2004 — told National Public Radio he would leave the McCain team to avoid involvement in any attacks on Obama.
“I met Barack Obama. I read his book. I like him a great deal,” he said. “I disagree with him on very fundamental issues. But I think … it would be a great race for the country and I would simply be uncomfortable being in a campaign that would be inevitably attacking Barack Obama. I think it would be uncomfortable for me, and I think it would be bad for the McCain campaign.”
Hmm. He disagrees with Obama on fundamental issues, but he'll resign from McCain's campaign rather than oppose him. He's willing to run attack ads on Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, but not Barack Obama. And he was the chief media advisor to George W. Bush in 2004. I think this guy is a compelling argument for adding a 53rd card to the Deck of Weasels.
Seriously, Mr. McKinnon obviously has identified Obama as a winner, and is positioning himself for a place at the table - or perhaps some more tangible reward - this time next year.
His highly attenuated loyalty also raises some important questions for Republicans. First, is "big tent" Republicanism really a good idea? They've got moles like McKinnon poised to bolt when they most need him, and they've got Log Cabin "Republicans" directing most of their campaign dollars to Democrats. Can leftists ever have anything but contempt for grass-roots conservative Republicans?
Second, what does this McKinnon affair say about McCain as a judge of character? What other moles would he escort into the inner sanctum? Is he the Most Likely to Be Soutered of the Class of 2008? It was tough enough for Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush to identify conservatives for nomination to the Supreme Court. Is McCain up to it?
McCain's selling point, I suppose, is that he's not Barack Obama. Who's on Obama's short list for Supreme Court nomination? Now that William Kunstler has died, one has to assume that John Edwards has moved up the list. He would be a dependable vote for the edgy new government programs Obama has hinted at, and by enthroning him, Obama would remove him as a challenger in 2012.
John Kennedy's Supreme Court legacy was to nominate Byron White, the last pro-life Justice appointed by a Democrat, and one of the few by either party.
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Obama Afraid to Debate?
A recent Clinton ad accuses Obama of dodging a debate at Marquette University in Wisconsin. Clinton accepted the invitation, but Obama didn't answer.
In the 1960 debate between Sen. John Kennedy and Vice President Richard Nixon, which was the first televised presidential debate, most radio listeners concluded that Nixon had won. However, most television viewers said Kennedy won. Nixon appeared without make-up, and looked sweaty and nervous compared to the relaxed, composed Kennedy.
Focus groups have generally reported Obama at a disadvantage to Clinton during head-to-head debates, although he is quite good. The conventional wisdom is that there's little for a frontrunner to gain from a debate with his challenger, and it appears that Obama is showing less enthusiasm for debates now than when he was an insurgent underdog.
In the 1960 debate between Sen. John Kennedy and Vice President Richard Nixon, which was the first televised presidential debate, most radio listeners concluded that Nixon had won. However, most television viewers said Kennedy won. Nixon appeared without make-up, and looked sweaty and nervous compared to the relaxed, composed Kennedy.
Focus groups have generally reported Obama at a disadvantage to Clinton during head-to-head debates, although he is quite good. The conventional wisdom is that there's little for a frontrunner to gain from a debate with his challenger, and it appears that Obama is showing less enthusiasm for debates now than when he was an insurgent underdog.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Senator, You're No Jack Kennedy
"Senator, I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."
Who can forget the late Sen. Lloyd Bentsen's zinger to young Dan Quayle in the 1988 vice presidential debates? Quayle, at age 41, was considered green although he had served three terms in the House and was twice elected to the Senate before George H.W. Bush tapped him as his running mate.
Yet Barack Obama is widely accorded the gravitas of a legitimate contender for the post-9/11 presidency although he not only is no Jack Kennedy, he's no Dan Quayle.
"The reality is that Obama has a lot in common with Harriet Miers," writes blogger John Hawkins. "Yes, he has accomplished a lot in his life compared to most people, just as she had, but she was still completely unqualified for the job she wanted to fill just as Barack Obama is completely unqualified to be President of the United States."
Why the rush to the White House? Why the urgency to run now, without the seasoning that we like to see in the leader of the Free World? Is it just an obey your thirst thing? Is he going to be a green, untested president just because he can? Here again, Hawkins is insightful, in a post entitled "Barack Obama: A Human Hallmark Card for President."
"Barack can't wait around and get some seasoning because in another term or two, his incredibly liberal voting record would make him unelectable," Hawkins writes. "He is, after all, the single most liberal senator in the entire Senate. Do you realize what that means? It means that Ted Kennedy, Dick Durbin, and Chuck Schumer are all to Barack Obama's right."
Is it small-minded or backward-looking or unfair to point out Obama's lack of qualifications for the enormous responsibility he seeks? Well, Ronald Reagan called Bentsen's well-rehearsed J.F.K. remark "a cheap shot."
But Dukakis/Bentsen campaign manager Susan Estrich replied that "when the Republicans call something 'a cheap shot,' you know you've scored a direct hit." That is perhaps not the best guide for one's conscience, but neither is its converse. A point is not invalidated by its protest or dismissal by a self-interested, self-serving partisan.
Who can forget the late Sen. Lloyd Bentsen's zinger to young Dan Quayle in the 1988 vice presidential debates? Quayle, at age 41, was considered green although he had served three terms in the House and was twice elected to the Senate before George H.W. Bush tapped him as his running mate.
Yet Barack Obama is widely accorded the gravitas of a legitimate contender for the post-9/11 presidency although he not only is no Jack Kennedy, he's no Dan Quayle.
"The reality is that Obama has a lot in common with Harriet Miers," writes blogger John Hawkins. "Yes, he has accomplished a lot in his life compared to most people, just as she had, but she was still completely unqualified for the job she wanted to fill just as Barack Obama is completely unqualified to be President of the United States."
Why the rush to the White House? Why the urgency to run now, without the seasoning that we like to see in the leader of the Free World? Is it just an obey your thirst thing? Is he going to be a green, untested president just because he can? Here again, Hawkins is insightful, in a post entitled "Barack Obama: A Human Hallmark Card for President."
"Barack can't wait around and get some seasoning because in another term or two, his incredibly liberal voting record would make him unelectable," Hawkins writes. "He is, after all, the single most liberal senator in the entire Senate. Do you realize what that means? It means that Ted Kennedy, Dick Durbin, and Chuck Schumer are all to Barack Obama's right."
Is it small-minded or backward-looking or unfair to point out Obama's lack of qualifications for the enormous responsibility he seeks? Well, Ronald Reagan called Bentsen's well-rehearsed J.F.K. remark "a cheap shot."
But Dukakis/Bentsen campaign manager Susan Estrich replied that "when the Republicans call something 'a cheap shot,' you know you've scored a direct hit." That is perhaps not the best guide for one's conscience, but neither is its converse. A point is not invalidated by its protest or dismissal by a self-interested, self-serving partisan.
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