Redstate

Posted at 7:07am on Jul. 3, 2008 MI Morning Update: L Brooks Patterson new accomplishments video, Have a Happy 4th of July

By saul anuzis

124 Days until Election Day

July 3, 2008

MORNING UPDATE:

REMINDER...no commentary for the 4th of July weekend...enjoy!

HAVE A GREAT 4th OF JULY WEEKEND...as this will be the last commentary before the weekend.  Take a minute to reflect on the freedoms we have...and why.

Posted in John McCain | L Brooks Patterson | Michigan Republicans | Republicans | Saul Anuzis — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:48pm on Jul. 2, 2008 This Is Going To Be A Close Election, Part 47,926

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

To wit:

With the dust having finally settled after the prolonged Democratic presidential primary, a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll shows Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama locked in a statistical dead heat in the race for the White House.

With just over four months remaining until voters weigh in at the polls, the new survey out Tuesday indicates Obama holds a narrow 5-point advantage among registered voters nationwide over the Arizona senator, 50 percent to 45 percent. That represents little change from a similar poll one month ago, when the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee held a 46-43 percent edge over McCain.

CNN Polling Director Keating Holland notes Tuesday's survey confirms what a string of national polls released this month have shown: Obama holds a slight advantage over McCain, though not a big enough one to constitute a statistical lead.

Just a little reminder that every vote counts.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | John McCain — Comments (7)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 3:51pm on Jul. 2, 2008 Another Day, Another Smear

...this man is reliably reported to practice nepotism with his sister-in-law...

By streiff

There is a full-fledged assault underway on John McCain's reputation and it is more than a little uncertain that the McCain campaign has the ability to either recognize the assault or, if they do recognize it, respond to it in a timely and aggressive manner.

We're all familiar with the recent attack on John McCain's military record. We learn from Wesley Clark than all he did was ride airplanes and retired admiral egregious asshat Professor Mark Kleiman informs us that the Navy had found McCain's leadership wanting and declined to promote him to admiral, contra the statements of the Secretary of the Navy at the time.

Why the attack on McCain's years as a fighter pilot is anyone's guess. From the outside this certainly looks like a high-risk, low payoff strategy from Obama. There is another attack brewing that really matters. It is the attack on McCain's deserved reputation as a good government advocate.

Read on.

Posted in 2008 | John McCain | smears — Comments (33)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:15am on Jul. 2, 2008 Question and answer time: the Wes Clark thing.

Some Snide that Got Fed Ex'ed?

By Moe Lane

Q. OK, so what's going on?
A. Senator Obama has lost control over how his campaign will reference Senator McCain's military service.

Q. Lost control, or gave it up?
A. Hah! I have a cynical questioner this time. No, this was taken away from him; he didn't and doesn't want to go there.

Q. Why?
A. Because Senator Obama doesn't make a habit of urinating on electric fences.

Read on.

Posted in Anti-war liberals | Barack Obama | Elections | John McCain | Wes Clark — Comments (50)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 7:39am on Jul. 2, 2008 MI Morning Update: Congressman Walberg meeting with constituents alongside NRCC Chair Cole, McCain MI Operations Up & Running

By saul anuzis

125 Days until Election Day

July 2, 2008

MORNING UPDATE:

CONGRESSMAN WALBERG...held a series of events in his congressional district with the Chairman of the House Republican Campaign Committee, Congressman Tom Cole (OK).   Walberg continues to draw national attention for his leadership and service.

Posted in John McCain | Michigan Republicans | Republicans | Saul Anuzis | Tim Walberg — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 3:30pm on Jul. 1, 2008 A New Kind of Sleaze

Clark was Put up to it

By Mark I

The Obama campaign officially says that Gen. Wesley Clark was not officially speaking for Obama when on CBS's Face the Nation this past Sunday, he denigrated Sen. John McCain's military experience. "I don't think that riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president, " Clark sniffed. Besides hinting that McCain was a substandard pilot-good ones do not get shot down-that remark necessarily discounts everything that came afterwards, McCain's five and a half years of voluntary confinement. Voluntary because the North Vietnamese, after learning that McCain was the son of a top U.S. Admiral, offered him early release, ahead of others who had been captured before McCain. McCain refused, not wanting to hand his captors a propaganda victory and undermine the morale of his co-prisoners. McCain never had to endure the debilitating torture, the beatings, the psychological torment, and the spirit-breaking confinement. He did it out of love of country and dedication to duty.

This is not to try and make McCain into a Christ-like figure, willingly suffering for the nation's sins. But it does illuminate just how egregious and despicable Clark's comments were. To boil McCain's entire military record down to the singular event of the loss of his plane while flying bombing missions over Hanoi, the most dangerous duty for an aviator in the Vietnam War, is so callous and dismissive that it had to have been intentional.

Read on...

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | John McCain | Liberals | military service | Obamafiles | Same as the Old Politics — Comments (32)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 9:47am on Jul. 1, 2008 If Democrats Weren't So Pathetic, This Would Be Funny

By haystack

Please tell me you haven't forgotten the '04 election when we were told to decide who was better suited for the Presidency; a "rape, torture, and burn" John Kerry or a "missed a few days of service in the Reserves" George Bush. That somehow, with all the horrible things John Kerry says he saw or did himself, ol' Johnny boy should be President because he came home from 'Nam to tell the world we were doing bad things in the war.

Posted in 2008 | John McCain | Missing the Point | Pathetic Democrats — Comments (6) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 7:36am on Jul. 1, 2008 MI Morning Update: Obama a disaster for America & Michigan, more on the Reform MI Govt Now Scam

By saul anuzis

126 Days until Election Day

July 1, 2008

MORNING UPDATE:

OBAMA WILL BE A DISASTER FOR AMERICA AND MICHIGAN...I'm worried about the economy, jobs, my savings, my house...Obama's "old new-deal" policies are nothing less than a disaster waiting to happen.  If you like what Jennifer Granholm has done to Michigan you'll love what Obama will do to America.

Posted in Barack Obama | John McCain | liberal hypocrisy | Michigan Republican Party | Republicans — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:15pm on Jun. 30, 2008 Guilt by Association only applies if you're John McCain, and your "associate" is the Most Highly Decorated Living Veteran

By Jeff Emanuel

According to Huffington Post writer Sam Stein:

Sen. John McCain's campaign on Monday launched the McCain "Truth Squad" - a group of political and Vietnam contemporaries who would counter attacks on the Senator's military record.

In hopes of nipping any criticism in the bud, the campaign brought on board a man quite familiar with how these types of attacks gain legs: Bud Day, a fellow POW who was part of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that worked so hard to defame Sen. John Kerry's own Vietnam record.

Day has been targeted by the Left as a "right-wing extremist" ever since he spoke against John Kerry in the 2004 campaign (remember 2004? That was the year that service in Vietnam was supposed to make you qualified to be President -- as opposed to 2008, when the opposite is now supposed to be true).

The pundits and bloggers who attack Day for speaking out about Vietnam service, the effect of virulent protests like those engaged in by John Kerry after his return from combat, always seem to leave out any biographical information about the retired Colonel, except, occasionally, for the fact that he served in Vietnam, and that he was a POW for a period of time.

Given the dearth of information provided by media members bent on marginalizing the man and his opinions, you may be asking a very important question right about now: Just who is this Bud Day character, and why in the world does he matter?

I'll tell you why.

Posted in 2008 | Bud Day | John Kerry | John McCain | SBVT | the pot calling the stainless steel black — Comments (27)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:47pm on Jun. 30, 2008 The McCain September Debate Strategy: A Suggestion

Talk The Talk

By Dan McLaughlin

An idea; a proposal: John McCain should challenge Barack Obama to a week-long set of town-hall debates (say, 4-5 of them) on college campuses when the college kids go back to school in late August/early September. Such debates could be concentrated specifically in the Big Ten schools (Penn State, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio St) and other swing-state universities (U. Missouri) that can produce huge audiences in close proximity to where the candidates will already be campaigning. I'm sure MTV could be lined up to host the debates in as wide-open a format, with no pre-screening of the audience, as possible.

Such a proposal would be a win-win for McCain. College campuses are guaranteed hostile territory for McCain, but he's never feared tough crowds, and it would give him a great chance to break through the groupthink surrounding Obama. And big Midwestern state schools are large and diverse enough that no audience would be without a few College Republicans willing to ask some tough, educated questions to Obama. Obama is likely to try to duck a large number of free-form events, but if he bails, McCain can really go after him for not being willing to wade into the very youth audiences that supposedly form the core of his own support. This won't actually win McCain a ton of young voters, but it might help stem the Obama tide there as well as getting out the general message about Obama being a marketing department creation who's afraid to come out from behind his teleprompter.

And if Obama agrees, all to the good. Especially if a lot of the questioners are snot-nosed pinkos and filthy hippies. McCain's performance at open town hall events over the past year and a half, after all, has done wonders to reassure people nervous about his age and his ability to hold his temper.

As most of us will recall from our college years, owing to their youth and relative insulation from the real world, college students have a different heirarchy of values and priorities than voters who work for a living and have families to raise - in general, there are three things college students respect above all others:

1. Authenticity. John McCain is one of the least canned politicians you are likely to ever see.

2. The willingness and ability to debate just about anything, no matter how obvious or ridiculous. College kids, whether or not they are particularly studious or intellectual, love endless dorm-room bull sessions and hate old people who lack the quickness of mind and mouth (or at least mouth) of the young.

3. People who are interested in the opinions of college students.

A series of campus debates would be a perfect opportunity for McCain to show he can best Obama at all three.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | John McCain — Comments (7)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:57pm on Jun. 30, 2008 Barack Obama, Male Chauvinist Pig.

Do as he says, not as he does.

By Moe Lane

Hey, Senator: if the oink fits, squeal it.

On average, women working in Obama's Senate office were paid at least $6,000 below the average man working for the Illinois senator. That's according to data calculated from the Report of the Secretary of the Senate, which covered the six-month period ending Sept. 30, 2007. Of the five people in Obama's Senate office who were paid $100,000 or more on an annual basis, only one -- Obama's administrative manager -- was a woman.

On average, women working in Obama's Senate office were paid at least $6,000 below the average man working for the Illinois senator. That's according to data calculated from the Report of the Secretary of the Senate, which covered the six-month period ending Sept. 30, 2007. Of the five people in Obama's Senate office who were paid $100,000 or more on an annual basis, only one -- Obama's administrative manager -- was a woman.

The average pay for the 33 men on Obama's staff (who earned more than $23,000, the lowest annual salary paid for non-intern employees) was $59,207. The average pay for the 31 women on Obama's staff who earned more than $23,000 per year was $48,729.91. (The average pay for all 36 male employees on Obama's staff was $55,962; and the average pay for all 31 female employees was $48,729. The report indicated that Obama had only one paid intern during the period, who was a male.)

Read on.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | feminism | John McCain | Obamafiles | sexism — Comments (47)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:25pm on Jun. 30, 2008 Politician Wes Clark attacks John McCain's service

Is he the Wes Clark whom Obama knew?

By Mark Kilmer

UPDATE: Barack Obama's peeps have tossed Wes Clark under the Scoop. (The candidate himself has thus far said NOTHING.)

"As he's said many times before, Senator Obama honors and respects Senator McCain's service, and of course he rejects yesterday's statement by General Clark."

and:

Obama Communications Director Robert Gibbs did not reject Clark’s comments.

“Those are the comments of Gen. Clark and they are not the comments of Barack Obama. We certainly honor the service and sacrifice and heroism of John McCain.”

Will Wes Clark now be publicly bounced from Barry's campaign? The rebukes of Clark are very, very mild.

= = = = = =

This bears repeating: Wes Clark, former general in the United States Army, is now a politician whose mental functions seem to have dissipated, turning him into a nasty, bitter man. I quoted him yesterday in RedState's The Sunday Morning Talk Shows: The Review, but it was spelled out in a greater detail over Politico.com.

On CBS' Fact the Nation Sunday:

After saying, "I certainly honor his service as a prisoner of war. He was a hero to me and to hundreds of thousands and millions of others in the armed forces, as a prisoner of war," he added that these experiences in no way qualify McCain to be president in his view:

“He has been a voice on the Senate Armed Services Committee. And he has traveled all over the world. But he hasn't held executive responsibility. That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded — that wasn't a wartime squadron,” Clark said.

"I don’t think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to become president." [emphasis my own]

We can ask what then were Clark's qualifications eight-years ago. More immediate: What qualifies Obama right now?

Read On…

Posted in 2008 | Face the Nation | Hanoi Hilton | John McCain | Wesley Clark — Comments (33)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:59am on Jun. 30, 2008 Tea Leaf Watch: Bolton and Gates.

Or, as some would put it: the 'Stache, and the Shmoo.

By Moe Lane

As we gear up for the start of the 2008 Presidential election season some time in the next few days (I'll explain what I mean by that tomorrow), the traditional "Who gets what in a X Administration?" game has started up. While the VP speculation is probably most prominent, the final assignment of Cabinet posts is also of note. Indeed, given the weakness of a hypothetical Obama Presidency at national security issues, his choices for SecDef or SecState are probably more important than his Vice Presidential pick. To put it bluntly, Obama needs to have people in both positions whose presence will reassure the American voting public that actual grownups are in charge of our foreign policy*.

Which makes this Times Online piece on Robert Gates, and this WSJ piece by John Bolton, of interest.

Read on.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | John Bolton | John Bolton's 'Stache | John McCain | Robert Gates — Comments (4)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 9:19am on Jun. 28, 2008 Dueling Party philosophies on display.

Well, you can't say that it's not iconic this go-round.

By Moe Lane

It's my personal opinion that the two Hot Air pieces linked below do a very good job of backing up an aphorism about the two parties that I've been working on for a while now:

The difference between the Republicans and Democrats can be summed up neatly:

When a Republican says, "This is what I believe in," the subtext is "Don't like that? Deal."*

When a Democrat says "This is what I believe in," the subtext is "Don't like that? We can make you a better deal."**

Well, H.L. Mencken Mark Twain*** it isn't, but you get the point.

Moe Lane

PS: And no, there are no alternatives: this isn't Italy, or even the United Kingdom. For that matter, judging from the failure of third parties to get any kind of meaningful foothold in the American political system the majority of the population is apparently perfectly fine with watching the base of both parties suffer.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | John McCain | Ripping off band-aids quickly — Comments (1)/ Email this page » / Read More »