I am impressed with Sarah Palin's take on what's been going on in the Florida GOP primary. You owe it to yourself to read her comments in full.
And may I say in passing, that others also recognize the despicably sinister, untrue, totally unfair attacks being levelled at Newt by the GOP establishment who want to sew up Romney's nomination as the GOP presidential candidate. I say this as a Rick Santorum supporter. (See Jeffrey Lord, "Elliot Abrams caught misleading on Newt.")
Click "continue reading" below for Sarah Palin's comments.
Continue reading "SARAH PALIN - "CANNIBALS IN GOP ESTABLISHMENT EMPLOY TACTICS OF THE LEFT"" »
Wintery Knight continues to produce excellent blog posts. He's especially good on Christian apologetics, politics and economics. Here are some posts I looked at tonight and found helpful:
- "Rick Santorum for President of the United States" - (I heartily agree!)
- "A Christian and a postmodern relativist debate atheism and Christianity"
- "Michael Murray explains how to talk about religion in the public square."
- "Bad news for believers in naturalistic explanations of the Cambrian explosion"
Wintery Knight appended a note as he closed out 2011:
I also wanted to report to you that Wintery Knight was recently named to the Top 40 Conservative Blogs for the fourth quarter of 2011 by John Hawkins of Right Wing News. And we were also received one of the Fabulous 50 Blog Awards from Doug Ross. We tied for “Best Political Blogging”. I also want to thank Brian Auten of Apologetics 315 for frequently linking to my posts on Christian apologetics and theology in his Weekly Apologetics Bonus Links.
Noonan - "Gingrich is Inspiring--and Disturbing." Well worth reading. Update: Mike Potemra thinks so too. He writes:
I think this is one of the best attempts to understand Gingrich. (How might Gingrich himself phrase the same sentiment? “This is the most fantastically impressively written newspaper column since Gutenberg invented printing”?) What makes it so remarkable is that is scrupulously fair and even-handed — doing justice to both Gingrich’s immense talents and his (in my view) disqualifying weaknesses — without ever being mealy-mouthed.
Added 12/10/11 - Ross Douthart in "The Tempting of the Religious Right"warns religious conservatives not to throw their support to Newt:
[...] a religious right that rallied around Gingrich would be putting the worst possible face on its cause and at the worst possible time.
His candidacy isn’t a test of religious conservatives’ willingness to be good, forgiving Christians. It’s a test of their ability to see their cause through outsiders’ eyes, and to recognize what anointing a thrice-married adulterer as the champion of “family values” would say to the skeptical, the unconverted and above all to the young. [more..]
Larry Elder wrote a column using the above title and concluded his article saying:
Cain believes what former slave Booker T. Washington wrote a mere 35 years after slavery ended: "When a Negro girl learns to cook, to wash dishes, to sew, to write a book, or a Negro boy learns to groom horses, or to grow sweet potatoes, or to produce butter, or to build a house, or to be able to practise medicine, as well or better than some one else, they will be rewarded regardless of race or colour. In the long run, the world is going to have the best, and any difference in race, religion, or previous history will not long keep the world from what it wants.
"I think that the whole future of my race hinges on the question as to whether or not it can make itself of such indispensable value that the people in the town and the state where we reside will feel that our presence is necessary to the happiness and well-being of the community. No man who continues to add something to the material, intellectual, and moral well-being of the place in which he lives is long left without proper reward. This is a great human law which cannot be permanently nullified."
Or, as Cain puts it, "I left the Democrat plantation a long time ago."
Today she sent the following letter to her supporters
October 5, 2011
Wasilla, Alaska
After much prayer and serious consideration, I have decided that I will not be seeking the 2012 GOP nomination for President of the United States. As always, my family comes first and obviously Todd and I put great consideration into family life before making this decision. When we serve, we devote ourselves to God, family and country. My decision maintains this order.
My decision is based upon a review of what common sense Conservatives and Independents have accomplished, especially over the last year. I believe that at this time I can be more effective in a decisive role to help elect other true public servants to office – from the nation’s governors to Congressional seats and the Presidency. We need to continue to actively and aggressively help those who will stop the “fundamental transformation” of our nation and instead seek the restoration of our greatness, our goodness and our constitutional republic based on the rule of law.
From the bottom of my heart I thank those who have supported me and defended my record throughout the years, and encouraged me to run for President. Know that by working together we can bring this country back – and as I’ve always said, one doesn’t need a title to help do it.
I will continue driving the discussion for freedom and free markets, including in the race for President where our candidates must embrace immediate action toward energy independence through domestic resource developments of conventional energy sources, along with renewables. We must reduce tax burdens and onerous regulations that kill American industry, and our candidates must always push to minimize government to strengthen the economy and allow the private sector to create jobs.
Those will be our priorities so Americans can be confident that a smaller, smarter government that is truly of the people, by the people, and for the people can better serve this most exceptional nation.
In the coming weeks I will help coordinate strategies to assist in replacing the President, re-taking the Senate, and maintaining the House.
Thank you again for all your support. Let’s unite to restore this country!
God bless America.
– Sarah Palin
|
Palin Announces She Will Not Run in 2012 Sarah Palin has just announced on Mark Levin’s radio show that she will not run for president in 2012. UPDATE: ABC News has obtained the letter Palin sent supporters today:
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Cain: Black community "brain-washed" into voting for Dems. - Video
Dennis Henninger sees Cain as impressive:
The GOP nominee is running against the incumbent president. Unlike the incumbent, Herman Cain has at least twice identified the causes of a large failing enterprise, designed goals, achieved them, and by all accounts inspired the people he was supposed to lead. Not least, Mr. Cain's life experience suggests that, unlike the incumbent, he will adjust his ideas to reality.
Herman Cain is a credible candidate. Whether he deserves to be president is something voters will decide. But he deserves a serious look. (Read all of Henninger's analysis)
Wintery Knight has assembled a penetrating look at Herman Caine. WK links to a biography of Herman Caine. Most of us are probably familiar with Caine's extensive and successful business experience, but we may not be aware of his computational excellence as well.
Cain was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on December 13, 1945, the son of Lenora (née Davis) and Luther Cain, Jr.His mother was a cleaner and his father was a chauffeur.He was raised in Georgia. He graduated from Morehouse College in 1967 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics and received a Master of Science degree in computer science from Purdue University in 1971,while he was also working full-time in ballistics for the U.S. Department of the Navy. Cain has authored four books: Leadership is Common Sense (1997), Speak as a Leader (1999), CEO of SELF (October 2001), and They Think You’re Stupid (May 2005). He also authored an article titled “The Intangibles of Implementation” in the technical journal Interfaces (Vol. 9, No. 5, 1979, pp. 144-147), published by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS).
The man is obviously underrated, but Cain is steadily converting people to his cause. He thinks he can gain one-third of the Black vote if nominated. Why not? I would hope it would be more. I'll be keeping my eye on Herman Caine. I also like Rick Santorum. I hope Michele Bachmann can mount a comeback as well.
Update: For a negative view on Herman Caine's economics from a fellow conservative, see Kevin D. Williamson's perspective.
Marion Smith, a graduate fellow at the Heritage Foundation, writes:
Last month, Ron Paul said he would not have ordered the military action that ended in the death of Osama Bin Laden. In his view, “It was absolutely not necessary.” Never mind that the raid by Navy SEALS fulfilled what had been a stated U.S. foreign-policy objective since 2001, tracking down and punishing the perpetrators of 9/11; Pakistan’s “sovereignty” is more important.
That view is consistent with the belief that the U.S. should remain politically and militarily uninvolved in other countries’ internal affairs. But this purist doctrine of non-interventionism is contrary to the founding principles of America’s early foreign policy.
Continue reading "RON PAUL'S "NON-INTERVENTIONISM" FOREIGN POLICY CRITIQUED" »
I respect Stanley Kurtz's opinion about most anything, including his thoughts about Tim Pawlenty, Governor of Minnesota. Kurtz writes: [my bolding]
[...] Instead of pining away for Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, Paul Ryan, or Scott Walker to enter the race, why not wake up and recognize that Tim Pawlenty has already got everything the GOP is looking for — with two successful gubernatorial terms worth of experience to boot. What’s not to like?
Tim Pawlenty has already beaten the Democrats in a government shut-down battle. He’s defeated public-employee unions in a high-stakes strike. He was regularly rated as one of the most fiscally conservative governors in the nation. And he managed to do it all in a blue state. Pawlenty is Scott Walker with experience. It’s just that nobody knows it because Pawlenty’s clashes with his state’s public unions and big Democratic spenders happened some time ago. If anything, Pawlenty ought to be getting extra credit for having faced down public-employee unions and profligate Democratic legislators before it was cool. Are we really so dense — so utterly dependent on the latest news cycle — that we are going to let a major opportunity like Pawlenty slip away out of the misplaced worry that he’s got “no name recognition?”
That is a solvable problem. Just watch: “Hey, Tim Pawlenty was a great conservative two-term governor of Minnesota! He’s tough on defense, conservative on social issues, and well liked by people from both sides of the aisle. He’s faced down Democrats time and again and won. He’s got the biography of a lunch-bucket Democrat and the outlook of a fiscally conservative Republican. And he can win! Yes, Tim Pawlenty can beat Barack Obama in a head-to-head battle for the presidency of the United States. Wake up, Republicans! The answer to your prayers is already running. And if all the pundits would just stop fantasizing for a minute about everyone who’s not running, maybe they’d pay more attention to who actually is.”
Continue reading "TIM PAWLENTY - A GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE DESERVING SERIOUS ATTENTION" »
From the Daily Beast's interview with Andrew Breitbart:
Q: Out of the current field and the people we expect to jump in for 2012, who are you most likely to support?
A: The idea of an Allen West/Herman Cain all-black conservative ticket would titillate me to the point of secretions coming out of every orifice. It would so upset the politically correct, culturally Marxist paradigm in academia and they’d have to start attacking… And I think it would cause the American people to see how unserious the left is when it comes to issues of claiming to represent the best interests of minorities. They use minorities in order to divide and conquer in this country . . .
Me: Brillliant
Shushannah Walshe covers politics for The Daily Beast. She is the co-author of Sarah From Alaska: The Sudden Rise and Brutal Education of a New Conservative Superstar. She was a reporter and producer at the Fox News Channel from August 2001 until the end of the 2008 presidential campaign.
Q: Out of the current field and the people we expect to jump in for 2012, who are you most likely to support?
A: The idea of an Allen West/Herman Cain all-black conservative ticket would titillate me to the point of secretions coming out of every orifice. It would so upset the politically correct, culturally Marxist paradigm in academia and they’d have to start attacking… And I think it would cause the American people to see how unserious the left is when it comes to issues of claiming to represent the best interests of minorities. They use minorities in order to divide and conquer in this country, and I would not just want an all-black ticket. I would like an all-minority, all-female; and let’s get rid of all the white eunuchs like John McCain that would craft an entire political career in the latter part of the 20th century and the first part of the 21st century trying to appease the media left.
- Update 5/16/11 - FRC writes: "...I've been asked a lot about the chances of Gov. Mitch "Truce" Daniels in 2012. On the heels of signing a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, Daniels managed to poke pro-lifers in the eye again when he answered a question about a possible running mate with Condoleezza Rice. Although she has stellar credentials on national defense, the former Secretary of State has long held pro-abortion views, which makes her a non-starter with social conservatives. It is ironic, however, that Governor Daniels seeks a truce with liberals while he attacks the sensibilities of pro-family conservatives within his own party.
Me: Based on this report, I don't have much enthusiasm for any presidential aspirations he may have.
-(Original post) - Mona Charen considers the facts on Indiana GOP Governor Mitch Daniels:
[...] Mild-mannered Daniels may well be the best chief executive in American government.
After stints as a Senate staffer, a senior adviser to Pres. Ronald Reagan, president of the Hudson Institute, president for North American operations at Eli Lilly, and director of the Office of Management and Budget under George W. Bush, Daniels was elected governor of Indiana in 2004. He was reelected in 2008 (when Obama carried the state), winning more votes than any candidate in the state’s history.
Inheriting a $600 million deficit, Daniels transformed it into a $370 million surplus within one year, without raising taxes. “You’d be amazed how much government you’ll never miss,” he grins. Six years on, Indiana now enjoys a AAA bond rating, boasts the fewest state workers per capita in the nation, enjoys the third-highest private-sector job growth in the nation, has seen property taxes drop by an average of 30 percent, and was ranked first in the Midwest for business climate by the Tax Foundation. Daniels was named Public Official of the Year in 2008 by Governing magazine.
Wow. Impressive. And he's pro-life, too. Charen says his "pro-life and pro-family credentials could not be more solid." [Yet, he downplays pro-life issues in favor of economic ones and so muddies his standing to some degree amongst social conservatives.)
More on Daniels...
Continue reading "MITCH DANIELS - GOP PRESIDENTIAL TIMBER?" »
- Update 1/17/11 - Ralph Benko talks to Kathryn Jean Lopez about Mike Pence's vitues and why he would make an outstanding president. Benko has set up a new website, "The Conservative Champion"
- Update 12/9/10 - cf. George Will's article: "Why Mike Pence Catches Conservatives' Eyes"
- Nolan Finley thinks he sounds pretty terrific. Finley heard him speak recently at the Detroit Economic Club. A lot of other people are pretty excited too, including David Limbaugh who wrote a column about Pence's talk on the Presidency at Hillsdale College back in September.
"To restore American exceptionalism, we must end all this Keynesian spending and get back to the practice of free market economics," Pence told the audience. "The freedom to succeed must include the freedom to fail. The free market is what made America's economy the greatest in the world, and we cannot falter in our willingness to defend it."
Limbaugh:
For most of the rest of the speech, Pence laid out a blueprint for restoring the economy that focused on simplifying the tax code; adopting sound monetary policy, perhaps even a return to the gold standard; developing homegrown energy sources; reforming regulations to make them friendlier to job creators; and committing fully to free trade.
But according to Limbaugh, Pence said a lot more:
Media malpractice. Michelle Malkin provides a link to a fascinating (albeit disheartening) website - www.howobamagotelected.com - which features a video of interviews with Obama supporters. If you wondered about the effect of the media on the general populace, your fears will be confirmed.
Note these statistics:
512 Obama Voters 11/13/08-11/15/08 MOE +/- 4.4 points
97.1% High School Graduate or higher, 55% College Graduates
Results to 12 simple Multiple Choice Questions
57.4% could NOT correctly say which party controls congress (50/50 shot just by guessing)
81.8% could NOT correctly say Joe Biden quit a previous campaign because of plagiarism (25% chance by guessing) (Go to page two)
What is one to make of the huge crowds that have turned out to hear Barack Obama, not only in the United States, but also in Europe? Such adulation, and the hope vested in him by so many, I have never seen before in the U.S., and to be frank, I find the phenomenon ominous and chilling. You can imagine how interested I was, therefore, to read an article by Fouad Ajami in the Wall Street Journal (Oct. 30, 2008) titled "Obama and the Politics of Crowds." Ajami, a professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, grew up in Egypt and consequently brings an international perspective to the Obama phenomenon. He begins his article this way (my emphases):
There is something odd -- and dare I say novel -- in American politics about the crowds that have been greeting Barack Obama on his campaign trail. Hitherto, crowds have not been a prominent feature of American politics. We associate them with the temper of Third World societies. We think of places like Argentina and Egypt and Iran, of multitudes brought together by their zeal for a Peron or a Nasser or a Khomeini. In these kinds of societies, the crowd comes forth to affirm its faith in a redeemer: a man who would set the world right.
The whole article is well worth reading, but here are his concluding paragraphs (again, my emphases):
"American sobriety and skepticism about politics--and leaders--set this republic apart from political cultures that saw redemption lurking around every corner."
My boyhood, and the Arab political culture I have been chronicling
for well over three decades, are anchored in the Arab world. And the
tragedy of Arab political culture has been the
Update: National Review Online offers a symposium of views reflecting on the election and the state of the Republican party today.
Update: Byron York offers a more lengthy and comprehensive explanation here.
-- Byron York offers one explanation - the Republican base wasn't that excited about McCain.
Update: - Senator John McCain offered an elegant, genuinely heartfelt, concession speech.
-- Gov. Sarah Palin voting:
Mark Steyn comments:
I like this picture of Sarah Palin voting. Heavy on the Caribou, light on the Barbie. She didn't need to be dunked in RNC bling. And the more the campaign went on and the more she wiggled free of her minders, the better she sounded. If you've got organic style, you shouldn't be shoehorned into generic campaign issue. If the night goes the way it seems to be heading, the differences between the Governor and the campaign will be one of the most interesting parts of the GOP post-mortem.
-- Kay Hagin beat Elizabeth Dole in the North Carolina race for U.S. Senator. Number of pro-life women in the next Senate? Zero. (Fact noted by Ramesh Ponnuru)
-- California Gay Marriage advocates (re: Proposition 8) employ religious hatred in video of Mormons ransacking the home of a same-sex California couple. In so doing, they achieve a new low-- vile in the extreme. Anyone half awake should realize that homosexual activists are not noted for tolerance.
-- Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) loves the "Fairness Doctrine" that would choke conservative talk radio. Here's the video. Jonah Goldberg thinks Schumer's comments (that equate regulating pronography with regulating conservative radio) utterly moronic.
Melanie Phillips has done one of the best jobs I have seen in laying out the serious foreign policy differences between the two Presidential contenders. And I do mean policy differences! They are huge, and frightening, especially as far as Barack Obama is concerned. My emphases do not do justice to her article. Read it carefully. . . word for word... and shudder. She rightly titles her article, "Is America Really Going To Do This?"
The impact of the financial crisis on the American presidential election has somewhat obscured the most important reason why the prospect of an Obama presidency is giving so many people nightmares. This is the fear that, if he wins, US defences will be emasculated at a time of unprecedented international peril and the enemies of America and the free world will seize their opportunity to destroy the west. . .
Keep reading. . .
Thompson's message needs to be heard. Click here. It's about 12 minutes long.
Update: Here is the text of his talk.
To anyone wavering between Obama and McCain, Krauthammer's important column today should make the choice easy. It is must reading. After chastising fair-weather Republicans for
abandoning ship, and after noting Obama's many negatives, Krauthammer lays out a positive case for McCain as follows:
The case for McCain is straightforward. The financial crisis has made us forget, or just blindly deny, how dangerous the world out there is. We have a generations-long struggle with Islamic jihadism. An apocalyptic soon-to-be-nuclear Iran. A nuclear-armed Pakistan in danger of fragmentation. A rising Russia pushing the limits of revanchism. Plus the sure-to-come Falklands-like surprise popping out of nowhere.
Who do you want answering that phone at 3 a.m.? A man who's been cramming on these issues for the past year, who's never had to make an executive decision affecting so much as a city, let alone the world? A foreign policy novice instinctively inclined to the flabbiest, most vaporous multilateralism (e.g., the Berlin Wall came down because of "a world that stands as one"), and who refers to the most deliberate act of war since Pearl Harbor as "the tragedy of 9/11," a term more appropriate for a bus accident?
Or do you want a man who is the most prepared, most knowledgeable, most serious
Continue reading "Charles Krauthammer - McCain for President!" »
Excellent question. It caught my attention. Pat Buchanan wrote a wide-ranging article on the media's totally biased treatment of the presidential election, and concluded with the way the media treats Sarah Palin vs. the way it treats Michelle Obama. Buchanan wrote:
The media cannot get enough of the "Saturday Night Live"
impersonations of Palin as a bubblehead. News shows pick up the Tina
Fey clips and run them and run them to the merriment of all.
Can one imagine "Saturday Night Live" doing weekly send-ups of
Michelle Obama and her "I've never been proud" of my country, this
"just downright
mean" America, using a black comedienne to mimic and
mock her voice and accent?
"Saturday Night Live" would be facing hate-crime charges.
How do we know? When the New Yorker ran a cartoon of Michelle in an Angela-Davis afro with an AK-47 slung over her shoulder, New Yorker editors had to go on national television to swear they were not mocking Michelle, but the conservatives who have so caricatured Michelle and the Messiah.
Is there a media double standard? You betcha.
As usual, VDH published a superb column. He ends it with the following two paragraphs (but do read the whole thing):
Yet for a self-acclaimed conservative to vote Obama would mean that
higher taxes, larger
government, more entitlements, more of a
UN-centered foreign policy, dialogue with an Iran, less
coal,oil, and
nuclear energy production at home, more "oppression" studies and
"reparations", leftish Supreme Court judges, open borders (I could go
on) were the truly conservative positions, or perhaps suddenly truly
the 'right' positions. And as far as ethics go, in fact, a cursory
review of the past Obama campaigns would reveal a ruthlessness never
seen in any of McCain's efforts. Obama's record is far more left than
McCain's is far right. Obama the healer has proven to be the most
partisan in the Senate, McCain one of the most bipartisan.
Yet to believe that truth would be--if we remember that scene in Tolkien's The Two Towers--to trust the grating harsh voice of Gandalf detailing the dangers of Saruman rather than the mellifluous charm of the latter who in soothing tones outlines his own victimhood.
Hugh Hewitt [pictured at the left], for those who do not know him, is an extraordinary man, a lawyer, author, columnist and talk-show host. Victor Davis Hanson, one of the wisest of men, a historian and classicist, sat down with Hewitt for an extraordinary two hour interview, the transcript of which can be found here. Their discussion covers the state of the world, the elections, the culture, and a whole lot more. Take the time to read it. You will be well rewarded. If you prefer, you can listen to the podcast of hour one, and the podcast of hour two. If I can find the time, I may later come back and provide some excerpts. Again, the transcript of the interview can be found here.
but now, thank goodness, has finally arrived. Here McCain lays out charges against Obama that are perfectly legitimate and completely true. Keep reading...
- Video here.
Continue reading "THE McCAIN SPEECH THAT WAS A LONG TIME COMING . . ." »
From a person's lawn in Indiana (posted at the Corner):
Stanley Kurtz breaks new ground with his stunning analysis of what we now know about Obama's mind in reference to his pastor, to the way it would work in relation to America's enemies. Read the following:
The answer to the persisting question, "Who is Barack Obama?" grows increasingly clear. Barack Obama is the appealing and only slightly more moderate face of American left-radicalism. Edward McClelland’s article, "The crazy uncles in Obama’s attic" is only the latest to confirm the pattern. More dots, more connections...
Obama’s relationship to Wright is paradigmatic. Obama’s own views are not precisely Wright’s, but Obama understands and is attracted to Wright’s radicalism and wants to win at least a gruff sort of understanding and even acceptance of it from Americans at large. What’s scary is that this is all-too-similar to the way Obama thinks about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Bashar Asad. Obama may not agree with them either, but he feels as though he understands their grievances well enough to bridge the gap between these leaders and the American people. That is why Obama is willing to speak to Ahmadinejad and Asad without preconditions.
Can we fairly make analogies between internal American splits and differences between nations? No we cannot. But that is precisely Obama’s error–and it is
Michele Malkin has lots to say and she, in turn, considers Allahpundit's "the best takedown of Obamamessiah of the day." John Derbyshire is developing a growing dislike for Obama. "The speech is slippery, evasive, dishonest, and sometimes insulting." I always find Stanley Kurtz uncommonly thoughtful and his published reactions today continue that tradition. Charles Murray is dazzled by the speech's brilliance. (Update: he expands here.) Victor Davis Hanson calls it "an elegant farce." Rush Limbaugh offered his analysis here
Thomas Sowell wrote before Obama's speech,
The fact that Obama talks differently than Jeremiah Wright does not mean that his track record is different. Barack Obama’s voting record in the Senate is perfectly consistent with the far-left ideology and the grievance culture, just as his wife’s statement that she was never proud of her country before is consistent with that ideology.. .
Shelby Steele published his perspective before the speech.
Update 3/19/08 - Thomas Sowell gives his opinion after hearing the speech. The National Review Editors opine here. (Well worth reading). Michael Gerson calls it "A Speech That Fell Short" (a very probing, insighful review). Michael Graham opines in the Boston Herald. See VDH on next page. Important.
Update 3/17/08 - Spengler on Rev. Wright and black liberation theology. His article appears in the Asian Times Online. (HT: The Corner)
Update 3/16/08 - VDH analyzes the Obama/Democratic spin.
Update 3/15/08: Last night Barack Obama appeared on television to respond to his crisis, and crisis it is. Michelle Malkin comments and links to other evaluations.
**
Victor Davis Hanson explains the utter seriousness of Obama's close association with his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. (Note my previous posts on Rev. Jeremiah Wright here and here.)
Betrayed?
The problems with Rev. Wright and Sen. Obama are fivefold. They won’t go away, but they will raise dilemmas for him that have no analogy, no parallel with other religious leaders of dubious past declamations who have supported the other candidates:
1) The Obamas were not merely endorsed by, or attended the church of, Rev. Wright, but subsidized his hatred with generous donations [in 2006 Obama gave $22,500 to the church], were married by him, and had their children baptized by this venomous preacher; there is nothing quite comparable in the case of Sens. Clinton and McCain.
2) Rev. Wright’s invective is not insensitive or hyperbolic alone, but in the end disgusting. And when listened to rather than read, the level of emotion and fury only compound the racism and hatred, whether in its attack on the Clintons, or profanity-laced slander of the United States and its history, or in gratuitous references to other races. Its reactionary Afrocentrism, conspiracy-theory, and illiberal racial separatism take us back to the 1970s, and compare with the worst of the fossilized Farrakhan—and have no remote parallel in the present campaign.
Continue reading "MORE ON OBAMA'S PASTOR, REV. JEREMIAH WRIGHT " »
Peggy Noonan doesn't think so, or at least she hasn't yet seen any evidence of it. I have to agree. Excerpts:
One always wonders with Mr. McCain: What exactly does he feel
passionately about, what great question? Or rather, what does he stand
for, really? For he often shows passion, but he rarely speaks of
meaning. The issues that summon his full engagement are issues on which
he's been challenged by his party and others. McCain, to McCain, is
defined by his maverickness. That's who he is. . .
He has positions, but a series of separate, discrete and seemingly unconnected stands do not coherence make. Mr. McCain, in public, does not dig down to the meaning of things, to why he stands where he stands, to what understanding of life drives his political decisions. But voters hunger for coherence, for a philosophical thread that holds all the positions together. . .
What overall view of the world, of strategy, of American meaning, is being expressed in Iraq? Who are we in the world? What do we mean to do in the 21st century? And in what way does this connect to a philosophical view of life, of the meaning of being here on earth as Americans? In the most successful political careers there is a purpose, a guiding philosophy. Not an ideology—ideology is something imposed from above, something abstract dreamed up by an intellectual. Philosophy isn't imposed from above, it bubbles up from the ground, from life. And its expression is missing with Mr. McCain.
Note updates at the end of the post
**
From ABC News.com via Kathryn Lopez:
Sen. Barack Obama's pastor says blacks should not sing "God Bless America" but "God damn America."
The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor for the last 20 years at the Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago's south side, has a long history of what even Obama's campaign aides concede is "inflammatory rhetoric," including the assertion that the United States brought on the 9/11 attacks with its own "terrorism."
In
a campaign appearance earlier this month, Sen. Obama said, "I don't
think my church is actually particularly controversial." He said Rev.
Wright "is like an old uncle who says things I don't always agree
with," telling a Jewish group that everyone has someone like that in
their family.
Rev.
Wright married Obama and his wife Michelle, baptized their two
daughters and is credited by Obama for the title of his book, "The
Audacity of Hope."
An
ABC News review of dozens of Rev. Wright's sermons, offered for sale by
the church, found repeated denunciations of the U.S. based on what he
described as his reading of the Gospels and the treatment of black
Americans.
"The
government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a
three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no,
no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people,"
he said in a 2003 sermon. "God damn America for treating our citizens
as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she
is God and she is supreme."
In
addition to damning America, he told his congregation on the Sunday
after Sept. 11, 2001 that the United States had brought on al Qaeda's
attacks because of its own terrorism.
"We
bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the
thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye,"
Rev. Wright said in a sermon on Sept. 16, 2001.
"We
have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South
Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done
overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's
chickens are coming home to roost," he told his congregation.
Sen.
Obama told the New York Times he was not at the church on the day of
Rev. Wright's 9/11 sermon. "The violence of 9/11 was inexcusable and
without justification," Obama said in a recent interview. "It sounds
like he was trying to be provocative," Obama told the paper.
Rev.
Wright, who announced his retirement last month, has built a large and
loyal following at his church with his mesmerizing sermons, mixing
traditional spiritual content and his views on contemporary issues.
"I wouldn't call it radical. I call it being black in America," said one congregation member outside the church last Sunday.
Me: What does it say about a person (Obama) who has willingly sat under a man preaching such views for such a long time? And who has furthermore called him a friend and mentor and guide? To me it says a lot. Spooky. Note: I previously blogged about Obama's pastor here. - For Victor Davis Hanson's comments, keep reading.
Continue reading ""GOD DAMN AMERICA" SAYS OBAMA'S PASTOR, THE REV. JEREMIAH WRIGHT" »
Bozell has written a genuinely useful column, offering an historical review of Republican establishment miscalculations. They are about to do it again unless they change course dramatically.
For 20 years, the moderate establishment of the Republican Party has told conservatives to sit down, shut up and do as we're told. History shows that sometimes we bite the bullet. But not always. I absolutely guarantee that this year we cannot be taken for granted. This is a movement fed up with betrayals, and they've come one after the other.
Bozell points out that through his surrogates, McCain is attacking Republican leaders in talk radio and elsewhere. Bozell says, This is beyond folly. It is political suicide. (more. . .)
Click here for a major New York Times article. (HT: Drudge)
** Update 2/16/08 - Hugh Hewitt plays snippets from a talk Michelle Obama gave at UCLA two weeks ago. He finds her views extravagant and even scary. Click here for my other posts on Obama.
** Update 2/19/08 - Michelle Malkin says: Here’s the video via Hot Air of The Soul-Fixer’s wife admitting that she hasn’t had a real moment of pride in her country for the duration of her adult life
** Update 2/20/08 - Michelle Malkin's column contrasts her own American experience as a woman of color with Michelle Obama's self-absorption.
** Update 2/23/08 - Michelle Obama's senior year thesis at Princeton was on racial divide.
** Update 3/10/08 Don Surber via Mark Steyn:
In 2005, Mrs. O’s salary was $316,962 at the University of Chicago Hospital. She’s a lawyer, not a doctor.
Hubby’s pay as a U.S. senator topped $160 K that year.
If you are struggling to make ends meet on a half-million a year — a 1040 that puts you in the top 2% of Americans — then the problem is you, not the country.
Still this woman, who was never proud of America when her husband was elected to the state legislature or even the United States Senate, whines and whines and whines.
America is, she said, “just downright mean.”
