AP Poll Shows Race Dead Even...And Pennsylvania Is Definitely In Play

Yep, dead even:

The presidential race tightened after the final debate, with John McCain gaining among whites and people earning less than $50,000, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll that shows McCain and Barack Obama essentially running even among likely voters in the election homestretch.

The poll, which found Obama at 44 percent and McCain at 43 percent, supports what some Republicans and Democrats privately have said in recent days: that the race narrowed after the third debate as GOP-leaning voters drifted home to their party and McCain's "Joe the plumber" analogy struck a chord.

Three weeks ago, an AP-GfK survey found that Obama had surged to a seven-point lead over McCain, lifted by voters who thought the Democrat was better suited to lead the nation through its sudden economic crisis.

The contest is still volatile, and the split among voters is apparent less than two weeks before Election Day.

McCain is also leading in Ohio and Florida. Mason-Dixon had McCain down in Florida, he's now up by two.

But the big story is Pennsylvania. As you'll remember, I had a story yesterday about how Obama's internal polls for the Keystone State were accidentally leaked to a local talk show host and showed the One only up by two, well within the margin of error. As I speculated yesterday, McCain's campaign must know that Pennsylvania is doable because of the amount of their very limited resources they're spending there.

Apparently, they're not the only ones. Democrat Governer Ed Rendell has sent two separate memos to the Obama campaign in the past five days telling the One that he's 'nervous about Pennsylvania' and requesting that he return to in Pennsylvania.

Apparently those bitter rednecks clinging to their guns and religion have the Dems worried. There's a lot of them out there. Keep in mind that if McCain takes Pennsylvania and holds the rest of the Red states, it's all over..even if the Dems flip New Mexico, Iowa, Colorado and Virginia.

Remember...it's not over till it's over. Keep your nerve up,make sure you vote and help work the phone banks and get people to the polls.

Sharing The Wealth....

A hilarious way of practicing Obamanomics and `spreading the wealth around.....':

Today on my way to lunch I passed a homeless guy with a sign the read "Vote Obama, I need the money." I laughed.

Once in the restaurant my server had on a "Obama 08" tie, again I laughed--just imagine the coincidence.

When the bill came I decided not to tip the server and explained to him that I was exploring the Obama redistribution of wealth concept. He stood there in disbelief while I told him that I was going to redistribute his tip to someone who I deemed more in need--the homeless guy outside. The server angrily stormed from my sight.

I went outside, gave the homeless guy $10 and told him to thank the server inside as I decided he could use the money more. The homeless guy was grateful.

At the end of my rather unscientific redistribution experiment I realized the homeless guy was grateful for the money he did not earn, but the waiter was pretty angry that I gave away the money he did earn even though the actual recipient deserved money more.

I guess redistribution of wealth is an easier thing to swallow in concept than in practical application.

May have to try this next time I'm out on the town. And be packing I might add.

Cheerfully swiped from Doug Ross

Watcher's Council Nominations, 10/22/08

The Watcher's Council is a group of some of the most incisive blogs in the`sphere. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one of their own and one from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council.

A full list of entries, including some excellent non-Council ones can be found here.

So, let's see what we have this week:

Joshuapundit - Kicking The Rats Off The Ship - Certain self-styled 'Conservative' intellectual pundits these days (David Brooks, Chris Buckley, Kathleen Parker and especially Peggy Noonan come to mind) are quite willing to suspend their critical faculties and tacitly or openly endorse the least qualified and most radically Left candidate for the presidency we've ever seen, primarily because they consider Sarah Palin an idiot and she embarrasses them in the sort of circles they move in. I have a few remarks to make on the subject.


Soccer Dad - The Washington Post chooses hope ahead of substance - Proof that great minds think alike, Soccer Dad also notes that the WAPO's endorsement of the One is based on their faith that his well documented habit of lyin' through his teeth extends to his socialist economics and class warfare rhetoric.

The Colossus of Rhodey - Don’t know much about history? The media sure doesn’t - Hube wryly gives us an example of the truth in that old computer programmer's motto, GIGO - garbage in, garbage out. As an aside, I would note that in my experience it is a very rare Leftist who's actually read the Constitution, let alone understood it.

The Razor - If Obama Wins… Part 2 - Scott Kirwin continues his analysis of what an Obama presidency would be like and what it would attempt to accomplish. Based on the sort of people who would be in control of Congress and what Obama has had to say during the campaign, I have to say I think the effects would be much more pronounced.

Cheat-Seeking Missiles - Media Bias #89 - The Audacity Of Inexperience - Laer shows some luv n' understanding for WAPO reporter Eli Saslow, who was given the task of putting some meat on a flattering profile of Barack Obama's legislative accomplishments during his senate term. Sort of like making one of those Hollywood faux facades used on movie sets look like a real building...

The Glittering Eye - Unforeseen Secondary Effects - The Glittering Eye's Dave Schuler takes a moment off from cruelly overseeing the sweating minions laboring to put the finishing touches to his Chicago palace to give us an interesting piece on the abject failure and subsequent termination of the only government-run universal health care program in America. Food for thought, definitely... especially considering how people supporting a certain presidential candidate are caterwauling for it.

Hillbilly White Trash - Biden screws up and tells the truth - Ah, what would we do without Joe Biden, G-d love him? Lemuel writes this week on Biden's remarks on how America could expect the new president to be tested by a foreign policy crisis `within the next six months.' I have a piece in the works examining this in some detail that will be up shortly and may prove interesting.

Bookworm Room - Why Obama’s “share the wealth” argument should hurt him - Ms. Bookworm does a fine job in zeroing in on the basic truth of the 'Joe The Plumber' story - that in Obama's America, the idea of upward mobility and striving for success, the cornerstone of the American Dream is going to be discouraged and penalized.

Rhymes With Right - Some Sense From The Pentagon - The common sense Greg talks about is a Pentagon intel team's resistance to what shrinks call category error - the inability to solve a problem due to not being able to label it correctly. What we're referring to here is the Bush Administration's push (under CAIR's influence) to get government agencies to avoid terms like 'Islamist' and 'jihad' in talking about our enemies. As you know, I've had a few things to say about this sort of thing before...

A Trailer For "O" A Movie By Oliver Stone...

Sure wish I'd thought of this..!

Obama On Tape Arguing against Medical Aid for Abortion Surviving Babies

As regular members of Joshua's Army know, to my mind one of the most despicable actions of Barack Obama's career is his championship of infanticide. And I wouldn't characterize myself as an anti-abortion hardliner.

It simply stuns me how someone who has two little children of his own and constantly characterizes himself as a Christian could have advocated denying babies who survive abortion attempts medical treatment and leaving them to die of neglect. Even the harridans at NARAL aren't quite that heartless.

During the third debate, Obama out and out lied about his stance on this issue.

Aside from his legislative record on the matter, which you can find out about at the above link, here are audio clips of the Chosen One advocating leaving these babies to die of neglect:

Obama advocating infanticide audio mp3

Obama advocating infanticide audio wav

And here is the Illinois State Senate Transcript, to provide context.

This goes beyond 'Liberal' versus 'Conservative'. This is a basic lack of human feeling and compassion.

Obama has been packaged as just a nice, normal family man by the dinosaur media. He isn't...and it's time the American people realized that.





Hat tip to the amazing Jill Stanek.

Barney Frank: " Raise Them Taxes!"

Still believe Obama's bolshoi about 95% of Americans getting a tax break?

Obama's Lead In PA Within The Margin OF Error?

Ace picked up an interesting story on Pennsylvania today. It looks like Obama's internal poll numbers were accidentally leaked to a radio talk show host in Scranton,PA and they showed Obama up by a mere two points statewide...well within the margin of error

The material was received by Steve Corbett, a radio talk show host in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, and came from Grant Olin who heads the Wilkes-Barre headquarters of the Obama campaign. The email was addressed to 627 Obama campaign volunteers in the Wilkes-Barre Scranton region, saying that Obama Headquarters reported an internal poll which shows that Obama is only 2 points up in Pennsylvania.

Corbett interviewed Sean Smith, the communications director of Obama’s Pennsylvania campaign, via phone. He admitted that Grant "went rogue", and acknowledged that Grant was "reprimanded" for this... and, by the way, notice he refused to deny whether the figures were accurate.

I have a feeling they just might be...since McCain is fighting hard for Pennsylvania despite all polls showing him losing there, and not only is he not an idiot, but he couldn't afford to waste his limited resources in Pennsylvania unless his own polling showed him within striking distance.

Of course, not only is Pennsylvania filled with bitter people clinging to their guns and religion, but they're a bunch of redneck racists in Western PA to boot. Just ask John Murtha...

A McCain-Palin pick up of Pennsylvania could change the whole ball game, and it's not impossible, considering how the state rejected Obama in the primaries, Joe Biden's reamrks on hoiw the Obama administration was going to shun clean coal ( a big deal there) and how they keep getting insulted by the Obama campaign..remember, it's not over until it's over.

Scenes From The Campaign Trail....

A few little items...

First, Team Obama has come up with a new wrinkle.. pay-to-play.The campaign is selling Chicago election night coverage space to news outlets. Want to put a reporter in a prime spot on election night? Shell out suckah. And no checks, please.

And about that half hour infomercial Obama has planned for prime time on October 29? Oprah has offered her production team to help the One produce it...for free. Considering what this would cost, can you spell 'illegal campaign contribution'? Sure you can.

In Florida, they've already had a malfunction of the voting machines...

While in Illinois, dead goldfish are being offered the vote ...

John Kerry showed once again why, politics aside, he's simply a despicable human being, using his appearance at an Obama event to make a nasty crack about McCain supposedly wearing adult diapers...

You might recall that when the Swiftboat veterans stepped forward in 2004 to ask pefectly legitimate questions about some of John Kerry's claims about his military service and his activities afterwards, it was John McCain who came forward to defend him and say that Kerry served honorably an dthat we should put this stuff behind us and campaign on the issues.

I guess you could call this one more instance of Senator Mccain's mistaken impulse towards 'bi-partisanship.'

Or maybe it's just that, whatever his failings, John McCain is simply more of a man than John Kerry could ever hope to be on his best day. As I've said before, McCain was brutally tortured because he refused to give our enemies what John Kerry cheerfully gave them for free.

I've Had Enough Defeatism....

I refuse to hear any more whining, defeatism or pessimism in this election cycle.

Nada.

None.

Nichevo.

We are faced here with a clash of ideas, and fighting the worst sort of thuggish politics.We may be outgunned and outspent, but we are not defeated, not yet anyway.

Not only hasn't the fat lady sung yet, she hasn't even finished warming up for her big aria.

Most of us had a pretty good idea going in that John McCain was not going to be the greatest candidate to advance our ideas, although even I didn't realize exactly how lousy a campaign he was going to run. Face it..the man, whatever virtues he possesses has been swimming in the swamp of 'bi-partisanship' for so long he might as well have fins, and he's never evidenced any particular love for the Conservative base of the GOP.If he hadn't picked Sarah Palin for his running mate and energized that base, the race wouldn't even be as close as it is, something idiots like Chris Buckley and Peggy Noonan haven't a clue about because they simply are out of touch with heartland American.

John McCain is so invested in his image as a 'maverick' that he flat out refused to go after the obvious targets in this election - the most dysfunctional Congress in recent history and the appalling leadership coming from the current occupant of the White House.It's taken McCain, what, three or four months to make the point in a clear way that he's not George Bush?

With all the shenanigans going on with ACORN registering every corpse, felon, illegal alien and transient, with the huge amount of money Obama has to spend, with the dinosaur media not merely biased but actually campaigning for the one, things look grim - but this is no time to bend over and quit.

For all McCain's faults,comparing him with a freshman senator with Obama's kind of radical allies, lack of resume and socialist views makes it a no brainer.

It amazes me to see people who I normally consider to have good common sense willing to vote for Obama because they're willing to gamble that he doesn’t mean what he says and will end up governing as some kind of pragmatic centerist.Just the thought of the Supreme Court judges the One and Biden would put on the bench is enough to show what a sucker bet that is.

It's a gamble I don't think we can afford...so we had better be prepared to man up unless we want our chips riding on a number somebody else picked for us.

The election is still close,once you examine the internals of the various polls.Rasmussen, the most reliable makes it pretty obvious that Obama's lead is shrinking as election day approaches and people begin to think about what they're doing.

At this point, it's all about the game on the ground, also known as turnout. So, instead of bitching about how hopeless it all is,do something positive. Go to your local McCain office and work the phone banks and do the canvassing, even if you live somewhere like Massachusetts or California. It will help, and divert money and attention Obama could spend in Colorado or Florida.

Volunteer to help get people to the polls, and make sure you vote yourself.

If you can, donate your time and a few bucks to help decent congressmen get elected...here's a link to some worthy ones.

If you can do so without going insane, talk to your friends, your neighbors and your family. Remind them that a tax cut on 95% of Americans is nothing more than a con and a welfare scam when 40% of Americans don't pay taxes, and that Obama's policies to raise payroll taxes, capital gains taxes and corporate taxes are just a transfer of wealth guaranteed to cut jobs and investments while raising prices on all Americans at a time we can ill afford it.

Help them recall that the reason prices are out of sight at the pump is because Obama and the Democrats have opposed any domestic energy creation or even building a refineries in this country.

Help them see that an Obama administration would be Jimmy Carter's second term.

Bring to their attention the connection between Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the subprime mess and the campaign cash Obama and his pals got to look the other way.

And most importantly, don't give up. We can still win this one.

Fight on.

Obama Supporters Do Rational Discourse

Hope N' Change..a video interview with some Obama supporters heckling a McCain rally...

Short Takes: Worth Reading, 10/19/08

Short takes is my semi-daily way of cramming a lot into a small space ..kind of like the young gentleman above is doing! Here's a rundown of some of today's items of interest for Joshua's Army:

*America Should Follow Little Red Hen - Nolan Finley, Detroit News - This is an absolutely superb piece I commend to your attention, that clearly shows why Obama's plan for America is not such a great idea.

*Plumber Joe Didn't Go With The Flow - Mark Steyn, OC Register- In the same vein, a piece by the master...

* 84% SAY THEY'D NEVER LIE TO A POLLSTER... A nifty bit of sarcasm and common sense from Ann Coulter, as always..

*A couple of good bits on the fate of those who annoy or embarrass The One, Catching Obama on Tape Was Joe's 3rd Strike by John Kass, Chicago Tribune and The Democratic Party's Drubbing of Plumber Joe by Ruben Navarrette, at Pajamas Media.

*Soccer Dad has a nice piece fisking the hypocrisy of the WAPO's endorsement of, as he puts it hope over substance.

*Meanwhile, in Iraq, the Iraqi government has won the right to prosecute crimes by US troops... but only those committed outside their bases and or when off duty. This is part of the latest draft of the security pact ( you know, the one Obama illegally tried to sabotage) between the US and Iraq that will lay out conditions for their deployment in country beyond the end of this year, when the UN mandate runs out. This was pretty much a deal breaker for Maliki, but it amounts to American personnel being tried under sharia based law in a foreign country.

*Iran is blaming ' intolerance' for losing the U.N. vote for a revolving seat on the Security council...what amazing gall. The winners were Austria, Turkey, Mexico, Uganda and Japan.Meanwhile, Iran announced that Russia is going to ship over 1,000 tons of supplies,including nuclear fuel to the Iranian reactor the Russians are building for the mullahs at Bushehr...

*In Pakistan, the Government has signed a new peace agreement with Taliban leaders in North & South Waziristan. Pakistan has little choice as the whole country is on the brink of insolvency and may have to resort to IMF aid to avoid bankruptcy.

Enjoy...

It's Official...Barak And Livni Are Israeli Quislings

Ehud Barak just told Army Radio that he and prospective PM Tzipi Livni are all ready to bend over for the Saudi genocide 'peace' ultimatum:

Israeli leaders are seriously considering a dormant Saudi plan offering a comprehensive peace between Israel and the Arab world in exchange for lands captured during the 1967 war, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Sunday.

Barak said it may be time to pursue an overall peace deal for the region since individual negotiations with Syria and the Palestinians have made little progress.

Barak said he has discussed the Saudi plan with Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni, who is in the process of forming a new Israeli government, and that Israel is considering a response. {..}

"There is definitely room to introduce a comprehensive Israeli plan to counter the Saudi plan that would be the basis for a discussion on overall regional peace," Barak told Israel's Army Radio.

He noted the "deep, joint interest" with moderate Arab leaders in containing Iran's nuclear ambitions and limiting the influence of Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.

This news should put an end to the stereotype that all Jews are overly intelligent.

The Saudi plan is the one proposed by the Saudis in Beirut in 2002, adopted by the Arab League and tacitly endorsed by Condi Rice and the Bush Administration at Annapolis.

Here it is in a nutshell: the Israelis retreat to the indefensible pre- 1967 borders Abba Eban famously called the 'Auchswitz Lines', give up the strategic Golan Heights and the Jordan Valley, redivide Jerusalem and cut Jews off from their holiest places and throw something like 400,000 Jews out of their homes to creat refugees that Israel will deal with at its own expense.

And that's not all. Not only will Israel not be able to get rid of any of its Arab population in return, but Israel will be required to accept 3 million or so genocidal Palestinian `refugees' in its territory under a so-called right of return and compensate these 'refugees' and their alleged decendents for any losses they claim to have incurred. Th ealmost one million Jewish refugees ethnically cleansed from the Arab world and settled in Israel will have no such recompense.

In exchange for all that, the Arabs promise ill defined 'normal relations' with Israel..at least for as long as it still exists.

Such a deal.

And if Barak and Livni have any ideas that any of this is negotiable, they're kidding themselves, as the Saudis and the Palestinians have pointed out repeatedly.

And the idea that the Saudis care more about limiting the influence of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran than they do about jihad against Israel is fairly ludicrous as well.

After all, the chief counterweight in the region right now to these forces is Israel. And the last thing anyone truly concerned about Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran would want to do is to weaken Israel fatally.

For these people, it's about the Jews. It always has been.

The proof of that will come if the Israelis actually are silly enough to propose an alternate plan that only gives the Arabs a mere 90% of what they want and then get turned down.

Meanwhile, the Israelis had better get their act together and force these two out of office before they no longer have a government to worry about..or a country.

Colin Powell's New Best Friend

Gee, a black political figure endorsing Obama..there's something unique for you!

As predicted, Colin Powell pulled the trigger for the Chosen One. This has probably been in the works for quite some time, but Powell obviously co-ordinated his announcement with the campaign for maximum impact.

Or maybe the negotiations just needed to be finalized, if you know what I mean. Let's see what kind of position Powell ends up with if Obama gets in.

While endorsing his new best friend on 'Meet The Press', Obama took shots at the 'negative tone' of the McCain campaign:

Powell also said he was “troubled” by Republican personal attacks on Obama, especially false intimations that Obama was Muslim and Republicans’ recent focus on Obama’s alleged connections to William Ayers, the founder of the radical ’60 Weather Underground.

('alleged'???)

Stressing that Obama was a lifelong Christian, Powell denounced Republican tactics that he said were insulting not only to to Obama but also to Muslims.

“The really right answer is what if he is?” Powell said, praising the contributions of millions of Muslim citizens to American society.

“I look at these kind of approaches to the campaign, and they trouble me,” Powell said. “Over the last seven weeks, the approach of the Republican Party has become narrower and narrower.”

Now, far be it from me to question Powell's integrity, but when has the McCain campaign ever insinuated that Obama is a Muslim? Lots of Americans rightfully question why Obama, who obviously once was a Muslim in his early years would lie about it, and his intimate connections to Islamists, the Saudis and the Nation of Islam are certainly fair game, but he's obviously not a practicing Muslim now. The McCain Campaign never intimated that he was,although I would argue that no one who sat in Trinity United for two decades and listened to the racist spew of Jeremiah Wright could be characterized as a 'Christian'.

Powell pulled off another funny by lashing out at Sarah Palin, saying “I don’t believe [Palin] is ready to be president of the United States” and telling the talking heads at 'Meet The Press' that McCain's pick of Palin caused him to question McCain's judgment.

Like Obama has the resume and experience to be president, General? Whom do you think you're zoomin'?

Powell also had a couple of nasty remarks to make about those nasty conservative appointments to the Supreme Court....he'd prefer Obama's ultra-Left appointments.

Of course, as Powell went out of his way to point out, this isn't about race...nuh-uh, no way! Even if that's not quite what he was saying before.

Rush Limbaugh, as usual, has the right of it "OK, fine. I am now researching his past endorsements to see if I can find all the inexperienced, very liberal, white candidates he has endorsed. I'll let you know what I come up with."

Actually, this is only a little bit about race, but it is more about Colin Powell wanting to do what advances Colin Powell.

He's always been like that.

When the GOP controlled Washington, he sucked up to them and the Republicans stoo-pidly rewarded him as the poster boy proof of See-We're-Not-All-Racists even though his military career was at best indifferent and well, political. So Powell and the GOP used each other.

Powell's stint on MTP was a bunch of unchallenged Obama talking points, and as I said the timing was obviously coordinated with the Obama campaign. Watch and see if he doesn't become a special envoy or ambassador of some sort.

This is a particularly spiteful little betrayal coming from Powell, who's been close to McCain for years and who has personally benefited from his associations with all those nasty conservatives. But not... unexpected.

After all, this is the man who allowed Don Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney to take the flak for the failed Iraq occupation and nation building strategy Powell and Clinton holdover George Tenet came up with, even though Powell and Tenet's plan won out over Cheney and Rumsfeld, who were pushing for the exact opposite..and Powell never said a word.

UPDATE: McCain admitted today to being surprised that Colin Powell didn't even bother calling him first to let him know Powell was jumping on board the Obama express. He shouldn't have been.

How The Dinosaur Media is Covering Up The ACORN Voter Fraud Story

With Barack Obama's pals at ACORN getting busted across the country for fraudulent registrations, the dino media can't exactly ignore the story..but as Terry Trippany at Newsbusters reveals in his piece showing that ABC News Used Obama Contributor as ‘Expert’ in Defense of ACORN, how they cover it is something else:

"Justin Rood of ABC news came out with a tortured defense of ACORN today with the help of “experts” that claim there is no connection between invalid voter registrations and voter fraud. In order for Rood to make this claim he relies on the testimony of two “experts”, namely Civil Rights attorney David Becker and Lorraine Minnite, a political science professor at Barnard College in New York.

A further examination of these two experts however shows that Rood is downright deceitful in presenting this argument. Lorraine Minnite actually donated $250 to the Obama campaign in March of this year while David Becker is anything but the Republican that he is portrayed as in the article. In fact Mr. Becker is a former director at People for the American Way, a liberal activist group that monitors “right wing organizations” and is currently launching a campaign aimed at Fighting Back Against Right-Wing Smears of ACORN.

Just in case you were unconvinced of the objectivity of Becker’s former group note that they will be launching a full page ad in the the New York Times in defense of ACORN.

We can hardly call these experts objective yet they are the people that ABC News is relying on to gloss over the multi-state voter fraud activities of a group that is intricately tied to Barack Obama.

Read the whole thing...

Levi Stubbs, 1936-2008

Sad news tonight..Levi Stubbs, the legendary lead singer of the Four Tops died tonight. He was only 72. Levi had been battling cancer for awhile, and then had a stroke that took him away from us.

Out of all the Motown voices, he was my favorite..except for maybe David Briggs or Marvin Gaye on a good night. That sweet husky baritone and his exquisite phrasing could almost always move me on songs like 'Reach out , I'll be there', 'Keeper of the Castle' or 'Standing in the Shadows of Love' no matter how often I heard them.

Levi was the third of the original group to make the passage...Lawrence Payton died in 1997 and Renaldo Benson died in 2005. Maybe they've reunited wherever they are and are launching into a tune.

Sadly, they don't make 'em like these guys any more, and every time one of the old masters passes away it makes me reflect on how little there is in the way of raw talent to replace them..I mean, Brittney Spears has the number 1 album right now...

Selah...

Barack The Plumber...

Enough said...

Kicking The Rats Off The Ship

There's something very interesting happening with certain self-styled 'Conservative' intellectual pundits these days..David Brooks, Chris Buckley, Kathleen Parker and especially Peggy Noonan come to mind.

They're all willing to tacitly or openly endorse an avowed socialist for the presidency, primarily because they consider Sarah Palin an idiot and she embarrasses them at the smart, sophisticated parties they attend in Manhattan or Georgetown with their Liberal buddies. They've been living among these people so long that they've simply lost touch.

Here's Noonan in full bloom with her latest opus 'Pailin's Failin' ( no link..you can find this crap on your own if you're so inclined):

There has never been a second's debate among liberals, to use an old-fashioned word that may yet return to vogue, over Mrs. Palin: She was a dope and unqualified from the start. Conservatives and Republicans, on the other hand, continue to battle it out: Was her choice a success or a disaster? And if one holds negative views, should one say so?

...we have seen Mrs. Palin on the national stage for seven weeks now, and there is little sign that she has the tools, the equipment, the knowledge or the philosophical grounding one hopes for, and expects, in a holder of high office. She is a person of great ambition, but the question remains: What is the purpose of the ambition? She wants to rise, but what for?

She doesn't think aloud. She just . . . says things.

This is not a leader, this is a follower, and she follows what she imagines is the base, which is in fact a vast and broken-hearted thing whose pain she cannot, actually, imagine. She could reinspire and reinspirit; she chooses merely to excite. She doesn't seem to understand the implications of her own thoughts.

Lessee...Governor Palin is pro energy independence, pro life, pro small government, supports drilling in ANWR and off shore, unapologetically working class, in favor of a vigorous and pro-active foreign policy, pro Second Amendment, supports lower taxes, the death penalty, and has a record of taking on entrenched special interests and cleaning up corruption in government.

Nah...she's just a pillowcase with no concrete positions or original thoughts of her own, right Peg? Can't figure out whom she is or what she stands for...not like Barack Obama.

One thing she hasn't done...been caught lying to her own audience about some embarrassing comments that got picked up when she thought the microphone was off, like a certain columnist and self-styled pundit I could name.Right Peg?

These people despise Sarah Palin, not because she doesn't think but because she's honest, unreconstructed and says what she thinks, and it doesn't quite fit the 'nuanced' world view they'd like to present in the circles they move in. So they'll torpedo her and gravitate to Barack Obama, a real intellectual they can understand. And they'll suspend disbelief and just hope he doesn't mean all that class war rhetoric and far Left posturing.

The quaint idea that people like Noonan are trying to peddle is that by doing their best to destroy the McCain-Palin ticket they're being True Conservatives and setting the stage for a reconstruction after the One marches into the White House.

They're lying through their teeth.

What they're really doing is setting themselves up in position to be employed as token 'conservatives' in the dinosaur media after the Left comes to power.

That's a despicable act of cowardice but they're welcome to it. I just wish people like Peggy Noonan would stop pretending.

When the rats are leaving the premises, I have no problem with helping them to their new home with a good swift kick in the right direction, and welcome to it.

Their kind we can do without.

Watcher's Council Results, 10/17/08

The Council has spoken! A complete rundown of the voting tallies is here.


Among the Council members, the winner this week was Joshuapundit for my piece The Jewish Stockholm Syndrome ..thanks gang.

Coming in second was The Colossus of Rhodey for Why “hazard pay” for tough schools won’t work - a fine piece on the subject from an educator on the front lines.

Also getting votes was The Glittering Eye for his fine forum, Issues 2008: Reforming Government


Among the non-Council entries, the winner was my nominee, Jim Hoft/Pajamas Media - The Complete Guide To ACORN Voter Fraud

In second place was Michael Totten - Resisting the United Nations

As usual, congratulations not only to the winners, but to the participants.

Proof Russians Do Have A Sense Of Humor..

"None of modern problems can be resolved by use of force..."


Said by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at an international conference today..and with a straight face.

Supreme Court Rules Against Ohio GOP

It's open season in the Buckeye State when it comes to voter fraud:

The Supreme Court is siding with Ohio's top elections official in a dispute with the state Republican Party over voter registrations.
The justices on Friday overruled a federal appeals court that had ordered Ohio's top elections official to do more to help counties verify voter eligibility.

Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, faced a deadline of Friday to set up a system to provide local officials with names of newly registered voters whose driver's license numbers or Social Security numbers on voter registration forms don't match records in other government databases.

Ohio Republicans contended the information for counties would help prevent fraud. Brunner said the GOP is trying to disenfranchise voters.

Stevens was smart and presented this to the full court rather than trying to runwith the ball himself. Essentially, their decision did not rule on merits but was based on the legal technicality that the Ohio GOP lacks standing (the right to sue)in this particular instance and so was not likely to prevail in a suit to enforce the temporary restraining order given to Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals:

The state GOP had complained that the Ohio Secretary of State had violated her duty, under federal election procedures law, to share with county election boards the lists of voters whose names in a voter registration database do not match data in the state’s drivers’ license files. The GOP argued that the secretary of state had put a stop to required efforts to pass along the non-matching data so that local election officials could deal with it. Lack of matches could be the basis for challenges.

The Supreme Court said it was not expressing any opinion on whether the state official had violated any duty under federal law. But, it said, it was not persuaded that the federal law gives a private party — like the state GOP — a right to go to court to enforce those provisions in the Help America Vote Act. (...)

The Supreme Court, acting on the case after the Circuit Justice, Justice John Paul Stevens referred the matter to the full bench, not only granted the secretary of state’s plea to stay the federal judge’s temporary restraining order, but actually vacated it, thus removing any legal obligation spelled out in that order.

Which means Brunner and ACORN have essentially gotten away with this one, and she has no obligation to inform the County voting boards of `discrepancies' in the bogus registrations. As I said before, the Justice department could investigate this after the fact,but the odds on that if Obama wins and appoints his choice for Attorney General are nonexistant.