Palin's Choice Seems to Have Caught Team Obama off Guard

Looks like team Obama was caught off guard with the announcement of Sarah Palin as McCain's VP choice.

The fact that post convention coverage was almost null except and all the news has been about Palin is a reflection of the unpreparedness of team Obama.

You don't get the feel that they gamed this scenario! Which means they are retooling the post convention agenda. Which means the expected bounce for Obama will be muted.

Team McCain seems to have played the right hand again.

So the economy is not as bad, the war in Iraq is not a big issue as it was and now the Republican ticket has a high probability to peel off the sliver of independents and women voters for a McCain win.

Palin seems to have all the positives for right segments of the electorate for her to win.

With the Economy Stabilizing - Obama is running out of bullets

The Iraq issue has been contained and is helping McCain.
Foreign policy issues are helping McCain.
The economy is stabilizing and helping McCain.

Now Obama has to resort to traditional government interventionist issues like Healthcare, Social Security, etc. It is going to make him look like a tax and spend liberal.

Exactly what the Republicans want and they will hit him hard to get that sliver of Democrats and Independents.

Obama's Diss Toward Clinton Will Cost Him

I love that the press wants to rain on the DNC's party by reporting all the rift between Hillary supporters and Obama.

This story about a meeting between the two will surely stoke the flames higher. I'll bet that more female democrats are going to vote for the Green Party than ever before!

Here is the excerpt from the Washington Post:

As Clinton prepares for her address to the Democratic convention Tuesday night, Obama's decision to pass her over remains central to the ongoing story of their strained relationship. It has also contributed to what associates say has been a difficult emotional period for the former first lady in the two months since ending her bid. One adviser described her as outright "depressed" in July, while another said she was "moving forward" and a third said she has simply been trying to get through November before making decisions about where next to take her life.

The Economy Is Not Tanking - Stupid

More news that the economy is doing better than anticipated.

The timing could not be better for McCain. It should seriously blunt what Obama is going to say tonight!!!

I am betting that team McCain is getting the word out to every news org covering tonight's event.

From the WSJ:

Economy Grew 3.3% in 2nd Quarter, Much Higher Than Initial Reading

Gross domestic product rose at a seasonally adjusted 3.3% annual rate April through June, the Commerce Department said Thursday in a new, revised estimate of second-quarter GDP.

Originally, the government had estimated second-quarter 2008 GDP climbed 1.9%. First-quarter GDP increased 0.9%.

Net exports in the second quarter were stronger than first believed, Thursday's data showed -- another reason for the large upward revision to GDP. Exports rose 13.2% instead of 9.2% as reported originally. Imports fell 7.6% instead of 6.6% as first reported. So, trade contributed 3.10 percentage points to second-quarter GDP. Originally, trade was seen adding 2.42 percentage points. Surging exports have served as a lifeline to the soft U.S. economy

Obama's Liberal Socialist Economic Policies

There is, however, a more philosophical critique of Obama’s tax policies. It’s one that Douthat and Salam make in “Grand New Party.” The book doesn’t mention Obama by name, but it contains one of the best summaries of his economic policy that I have read. The authors describe a new-model liberal consensus that weds “the free-market centrism of the Clinton years to a revived push for European-style social democracy.” This neoliberalism, as they call it, wouldn’t involve the big-government programs of the postwar years, but the government would come to play a larger role in the economy and would redistribute much more income from the rich to everyone else. “This is, in many respects, a deeply un-American solution to the problems facing our country,” the authors write, “one that would emphasize dependence over self-sufficiency and bureaucratic condescension over self-help.”

Barak Can Articulate But He Won't Be Able to Accomplish Jack

From the AP:

Obama's spending plans and middle-class tax relief will collide with the hard reality of exploding budget deficits.

Obama's tax proposals come with a hefty price tag. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, a joint effort of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, estimates that Obama's tax proposals would reduce projected tax revenue by $2.95 trillion over the next decade.

His longer-term solution, encouraging alternative energy by creating a $150 billion clean energy fund, relies for financing on a program of selling pollution allowances to combat global warming that is even more uncertain..

While the plan would help millions of people obtain health insurance, some health analysts say it falls short of universal coverage. The Tax Policy Center says the Obama plan would reduce the number of uninsured by 18 million in 2009, from the current figure of 45 million. That still would leave millions uninsured.

The United States has already reversed many policies other nations saw as isolationist or bullying — for example, by joining international diplomatic efforts with "axis of evil" nations Iran and North Korea. Obama would continue those efforts and others without any greater guarantee of success.

A troop pullout is feasible and conforms roughly to a withdrawal timetable advocated by the Iraqi government. But a 16-month timetable risks shifting responsibility to Iraq's security forces before they are ready, and it gives the insurgents an explicit target date for waiting out the Americans.

With the budget stretched thin, a huge infusion of cash for early childhood education or college costs seems unlikely. Federal spending on education has already been rising for more than a decade.

Biden's Working Class Roots leads to big PAC Money!

From the LA Times

Federal Election Commission records show that firms whose PACs have donated to Biden include Rupert Murdoch’s News America, Microsoft and Safeway. He took the PAC donations from 2005 through mid-2008, with $141,800 coming this year.

Most of the money--$279,000--came from organized labor, including $11,000 from postal workers and $25,000 from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which has a stake in congressional decisions.

Additionally, Biden has taken at least $44,750 from political action committees funded by plaintiffs’ attorneys, including $10,890 from the Assn. of Trial Lawyers of America.

Some law firms whose PACs have donated to Biden’s leadership committee have....

...lobbyist operations. Obama rejects money given by Washington lobbyists, contending that like PACs, they are emblematic of the Beltway culture.

Biden has taken at least $25,000 from PACs that represent banks, most of which backed legislation to limit consumers’ ability to declare bankruptcy. Biden supported their bill.

Biden took $24,225 from telecommunications PACs, including ones fund

Barak's Friends Should be Blamed for the Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae

From 2003 NYT article:

Among the groups denouncing the proposal today were the National Association of Home Builders and Congressional Democrats who fear that tighter regulation of the companies could sharply reduce their commitment to financing low-income and affordable housing.

''These two entities -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- are not facing any kind of financial crisis,'' said Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee. ''The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing.''

Representative Melvin L. Watt, Democrat of North Carolina, agreed.

''I don't see much other than a shell game going on here, moving something from one agency to another and in the process weakening the bargaining power of poorer families and their ability to get affordable housing,'' Mr. Watt said.

Obama Can't Claim MLK's Mantel

Today, Senator Barack Obama, with the most liberal voting record in the US Senate, is delivering his political acceptance speech, in an apparent attempt to assume for himself the mantle of Dr. Martin Luther King.

Dr. King did not embrace the type of secularist agenda promoted by Obama and the Democratic Party of today, which includes fostering dependency on welfare that breaks up families, supporting same-sex marriage and partial-birth abortion, and banning God from the public square.

Repbulicans Were Responsible for Providing African Americans the Opportunity

How soon we forget!!!

Tt was the Republicans who fought to free blacks from slavery and amended the Constitution to grant blacks freedom (13th Amendment), citizenship (14th Amendment) and the right to vote (15th Amendment). Republicans passed the civil rights laws of the 1860s, including the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and the Reconstruction Act of 1867 that was designed to establish a new government system in the Democrat-controlled South, one that was fair to blacks.

Republicans also started the NAACP and affirmative action with Republican President Richard Nixon's 1969 Philadelphia Plan (crafted by black Republican Art Fletcher) that set the nation's fist goals and timetables. Although affirmative action now has been turned by the Democrats into an unfair quota system, affirmative action was begun by Nixon to counter the harm caused to blacks when Democrat President Woodrow Wilson in 1912 kicked all of the blacks out of federal government jobs.

JFK Voted aganist the civil rights act of 1957

Obama has a knack for choosing his past idols!!

From Human Events

Democrat President John F. Kennedy is lauded as a proponent of civil rights. However, Kennedy voted against the 1957 Civil Rights Act while he was a senator, as did Democrat Sen. Al Gore Sr. And after he became President, Kennedy was opposed to the 1963 March on Washington by Dr. King that was organized by A. Phillip Randolph, who was a black Republican. President Kennedy, through his brother Atty. Gen. Robert Kennedy, had Dr. King wiretapped and investigated by the FBI on suspicion of being a Communist in order to undermine Dr. King.

Marting Luther King was a Republican!!

He joined the Republican party because it was the party because the party stood for freedom and supported civil rights for African Americans.

The Democrats on the other hand were for segregation and Jim Crow laws.

From Human Events

And as one pundit so succinctly stated, the Democrat Party is as it always has been, the party of the four S's: slavery, secession, segregation and now socialism.

It was the Democrats who fought to keep blacks in slavery and passed the discriminatory Black Codes and Jim Crow laws. The Democrats started the Ku Klux Klan to lynch and terrorize blacks. The Democrats fought to prevent the passage of every civil rights law beginning with the civil rights laws of the 1860s, and continuing with the civil rights laws of the 1950s and 1960s.

During the civil rights era of the 1960s, Dr. King was fighting the Democrats who stood in the school house doors, turned skin-burning fire hoses on blacks and let loose vicious dogs. It was Republican President Dwight Eisenhower who pushed to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and sent troops to Arkansas to desegregate schools. President Eisenhower also appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren to the U.S. Supreme Court, which resulted in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision ending school segregation.

Bill Clinton Lambasted Obama For Lack Of Experience

Bill Clinton couple of months ago said that Obama was inexperienced. He was right.

He said that the Republicans attacked him for lack of experience but he forgot to mention that he had 12 years of experience as a governor.

How can you fool people now by telling them that Obama is ready now?

It is going to be hard to swallow!!! Those blue collar workers in the swing states are going to be skeptical!

Clinton Releases Delegates but does not tell them to vote for Obmama

WTF?

If the Democrats as so united why all this at the convention? From Fox News

“As part of that tradition, I’m here today to release you as my delegates,” she continued, prompting shouts of “no!” from die-hard Clinton backers in the room.

But while Clinton said some of her delegates will choose to vote their hearts, or to vote for Senator Obama to demonstrate their commitment to party unity, she isn’t directing them to do either.

John McCain just needs a sliver of democrats and independents to vote for him to tip the scales.

I am sure the Republican National Committee is ramping up their media blitz to do this. Between Biden and the other Democrats talking trash about Obama they have ample material.

Also sometime in October the press is going to rehash all the other stuff written about Obama as the country gets serious about who they are going to vote.

It is actually nice that the press fell in love with Obama early. With a tight race they are going to dig hard to find the real Obama as competition for coverage heats up.

Racist Biden Comments

Where are the Obamanuts calling Biden a racist?

They must be hiding because he is a VP candidate!!

From the AP

He did not elaborate, but aides said it was mostly a reference to Biden's reputation for long-windedness and off-the-cuff remarks that sometimes backfired. He ended his 1988 presidential run amid allegations of plagiarism. As he began a 2007 run, he called Obama "articulate" and "clean." He also drew criticism for saying "you cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent."

If it was an off the cuff remarks why would he say it when he knew he was being recorded! I don't buy it.

Monied Clinton Supports Switch to McCain

It was inevitable that of the 18 million folks who bought into the message that Obama is unqualified, not ready to be President etc to vote with their feet and wallet and switch sides.

Here are a few of them and expect more to follow as momentum switches from Obama to McCain. Smart money knows that you need to back the winner regardless of what your emotion tells you.

From ABC News:

More than 85 of Clinton's fundraisers, including Donald Trump, Univision chief executive Joseph Uva, cable mogul Charles Dolan, philanthropist Norma Hess and one of Florida's biggest lobbyists appear to be skipping Barack Obama when it comes to writing checks for the general election, according to an ABCNews.com review of campaign finance records. These Clinton donors have contributed at least $200,000 to McCain's campaign in the last few months, an amount which doesn't include larger contributions to the Republican joint fundraising committees.

But the defecting donors, along with a significant segment (20 percent) of Clinton fans who have expressed support for McCain in recent polls, could present a problem for Obama in the general election.

"That speech was amazing, but it's not going to change my mind," one Texas donor, who gave $2,300 to Clinton earlier this year and contributed $2,300 to McCain last month, told ABCNews.com. "I talk to plenty of people like me who just won't accept an unqualified president."

House of Blues at Temple Obama Tonight

Most working class voters are not going be more accepting of Obama when they see folks unlike them worship Obama at the altar of celebrity.

He is no JFK or MLK. Just antoher liberal pandering politician, palcating the masses with a vile version of his vision.

The Republicans are going to follow up quickly with attack ads. From the Politico

The McCain campaign Wednesday released a memo mockingly titled, "Proper Attire for the Temple of Obama (The Barackopolis)," a reference to the classical stage design in place for his speech. The campaign is already prepared to pull the trigger on ads spun out of the Invesco Field event.

Great Strategic Move by Team McCain Aganist Team Obama

Give it up for Team McCain for taking a page from jujitsu, a martial art that employs the illusion of yielding to an attack to overcome it, and using Obama's celebrity status aganist him.

The celebrity attack was timed after the irreversible desision by team Obama to hold the acceptance speech at Invesco stadium. Now it looks like that decision is going to haunt Team Obama as they try to appeal to the blue collar swing voters.

I have blogged about the classic branding mistake that team Obama has made. That is you cannot position a brand from one segment to another when the vectors of differntation are orthogonal.

How do you fool people into beliving that you are for the common man when you have images of 80,000 liberal, self selected nuts fauing over you! YOU CAN'T.

John McCain's team is going to hit hard with these images and team Obama is to blame!!

Here are some excerpts regardign this from Politico:

Senior Democratic officials are expressing serious concerns about the political risks posed by Barack Obama's acceptance speech at Invesco Field at Mile High tonight.

From the elaborate stagecraft to the teeming crowd of 80,000 cheering partisans, from the vagaries of the weather to the unpredictable audience reaction, the optics surrounding the stadium event have heightened worries that the Obama campaign is engaging in a high-risk endeavor in an uncontrollable environment.

A common concern: that the stadium appearance plays against Obama's convention goal of lowering his star wattage and connecting with average Americans and gives Republicans a chance to drive home their message that the Democratic nominee is a narcissistic celebrity candidate

"We already know he is a rock star; we already know he can bring 85,000 people together in a stadium. He has done it multiple times. He needs to talk to people who haven't made up their minds yet," said Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen.

"It's likely that the campaign would do it differently if it had to do it again because the decision was made before the European trip," said a senior Democratic elected officeholder who has worked closely with the Obama campaign.

Obama is Interested In Wealth ReDistribution

The NYTimes Magazine article is a very slanted piece with quotes and figures from organizations supporting Obama.

There are a few nuggets that the editors threw in to show some balance to the story. Here is one.

These tax cuts are really the essence of his market-oriented redistributionist philosophy (though he made it clear that he doesn’t like the word “redistributionist”). They are an attempt to address the middle-class squeeze by giving people a chunk of money to spend as they see fit. He would then pay for the cuts, at least in part, by raising taxes on the affluent to a point where they would eventually be slightly higher than they were under Clinton.

All Talk And No Action From Obama makes Clinton supports think twice

Here is a summary of Clinton supports who want to vote for McCain.

"Obama has said a lot of stuff, but nothing with a concrete vision," says Book. "I have heard at least some sensible things from Senator McCain. He's a comeback kind of guy and I've heard from many other people who are clearly leaning in his direction.

In any bitterly-fought contest like this year's Democratic primary, there are bound to be disaffected voters on the losing side, says Costas Panagopoulos, professor of political science at Fordham University.

But he predicts that party defections will be much more common this year, especially to the detriment of Democrats and Obama due to McCain's moderate reputation.

Into Thin Air - Obamanuts Dazed in Denver

Democrats seem nervous and apprehensive in Denver! Yea baby.

Some excerpts from NYT:

I guess when you lose two elections in a row, people learn from that.” Blame nervous Democrats who are remembering their brash optimism in 2000 and 2004.

“The one thing that Democrats have learned is that if anyone can lose an election, it’s the Democrats,” said Kevin Bondelli, the owner of a design and consulting firm in Arizona. “In the last eight years, we’ve become a lot more respectful of the Republican political machine.”

Still, there was a distinctly subdued mood at parties like the “Red Hot Affair,” sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus Institute. There, as almost everywhere, Democrats acted as if it was too soon to celebrate. “There’s still a lot of apprehension and maybe nervousness about what actually may happen on Election Day,” said Malcolm Grace, a former Democratic staff member in the House of Representatives; he now working as a lobbyist.

Romney Is Right - Obama is not ready to be Pres

From the Christian Science Monitor

“I don’t think he has the judgment which is developed through years of experience in life that prepares him for assuming the title of president of the United States and commanding the most powerful military and guiding the most powerful economy,” he said.

Left leaning economic policies of Obama

NYTimes Sunday Magazine has a lengthy piece on Obama's economic views.

Here is an excerpt

For all his skills as a storyteller and a speaker, he has not settled on a compelling message about how to put the economy on the right path.

The lack of such a message has contributed to several of his worst moments over the last year. Most recently, the campaign has come out with a series of small-bore, populist energy plans — a windfall-profits tax on oil companies, a crackdown on speculators, a partial opening of the strategic oil reserve — that seem more political than economic. The most glaring misstep on this score was his comment this spring about bitter rural voters clinging to guns and religion. It was, in effect, an admission that his own message about the economy hadn’t yet broken through.

Hillary Clinton Supporters Are Loyal

From NYDaily News

But Monday, Team Obama had to spend much of the time fighting for supporters in its own tent, battling back against reports that deep bitterness remains among Hillary Clinton's legions of backers.

A CNN poll Sunday found 27% of Clinton voters like McCain better than they do Obama. A Gallup/USA Today survey found only 47% of Clinton's backers were sure they would back Obama.

Durbin, along with longtime Obama confidant and adviser Valerie Jarrett, praised the New York senator's efforts to heal the divide, but they still sounded like they thought she had a big hand in creating it.

"Hillary Clinton was doggedly determined to see this through to the end," Durbin said, referring to the later days of the primaries when many observers thought Clinton should have dropped out to heal the party

Democrats are anxious about Obama

After all the blind faith and hoopla they are still anxious about Obama?

I can't wait for the McCain campaign to take advantage of this.

From NYT:

Democrats gathering here for their nominating convention are significantly more nervous about Senator Barack Obama’s prospects this fall than they were a month ago, and are urging him to use the next four days to address weaknesses in his candidacy and lingering party divisions from the primary fight.

“Back in June and July, I truly thought he was going to blow McCain out of the water and carry 30 or 40 states,” said Donald Fowler, a former national Democratic chairman who supported Mrs. Clinton in the primary. “What has happened is that Republicans — McCain specifically — have really twisted his great charisma, this electric personality, to discredit his ability, his experience, his capacity, his judgment. I fear they are about to do to him what they did to Gore.”

John McCain is right: We are not in a recession

Via Greg Mankiw

According to a National Economic Research Board paper:

Monthly US data on payroll employment, civilian employment, industrial production and the unemployment rate are used to define a recession-dating algorithm that nearly perfectly reproduces the NBER official peak and trough dates. The only substantial point of disagreement is with respect to the NBER November 1973 peak. The algorithm prefers September 1974. In addition, this algorithm indicates that the data through June 2008 do not yet exceed the recession threshold, and will do so only if things get much worse.

Hollywood for McCain - Nice to see these stars support McCain

Give it up for these celebs who publicly support John McCain:

Stephen Baldwin
Pat Boone
Wilford Brimley
Dean Cain
Jon Cryer
Robert Duvall
Angie Harmon
Patricia Heaton
Lorenzo Lamas
Craig T. Nelson
Gail O’Grady
Jason Sehorn
Gary Sinise
Jon Voight

Obama's Economic Advisors Flip Flop

Austan Goolsbee and Jason Furman wrote an oped piece in the WSJ.

It is interesting that they as advisers to Obama are back tracking on at least two issues that they previously favored.

Greg Mankiw points this out.

That is, Senator Obama appears to embrace the principle that dividends should be taxed at a much lower rate than ordinary income. (Recall that this income has already been taxed at the corporate level.) This principle was a fundamental premise behind the 2003 tax bill, signed by President Bush and opposed at the time by a vast majority of Democrats in Congress. If we can now achieve bipartisan consensus to limit the tax burden on corporate capital, that would be a significant step in the right direction.

On an unrelated issue, however, the Furman-Goolsbee piece seems to take a surprising step away from bipartisanship. They take a swipe at Senator McCain's proposal to replace the tax exclusion for employer-provided health insurance with a more flexible health insurance credit. When President Bush suggested a similar idea last year, Furman and coauthors called it "a step in the right direction," and many other commentators agreed. It is too bad that Team Obama is now dissing the proposal.

Obama Fans' Predictions for the Convention

From the Washington Post:

But given the obvious weakness he displayed in the primaries and because the economy now is the dominant issue in the minds of voters, there's a sense among strategists outside Obama's campaign that he needs to focus like a laser on the insecurities and anxieties of the working class and middle class.

Judging by the immediate reaction, Biden's addition will be a significant plus for Obama at the convention.

There were predictions that Obama would get a healthy bounce once he wrapped up the nomination in June. That didn't happen. There were similar predictions when he set out on his tour of the Middle East and Europe in July. Once again, the predictions proved faulty.

Obama's team sees opening up the acceptance speech to tens of thousands of ordinary people as a symbol of the grass-roots energy and volunteer spirit that helped power Obama to the nomination.

Many agree with Republicans about the need for Obama to use the week to fill out his personal story. "Obama is in a similar position to Bill Clinton in '92," Democratic strategist Tad Devine said in a message. "People need to get a handle on him. In the end, this election is about him. He needs to let people know as much about his values and priorities as he can in four days."

Obama's Policies will Raise the Effective Tax rates to 50%

From economists calculations, Obama's policies will increase effective tax rates.

In a slowing economy you want the consumers to have more money not less money.

Greg Mankiw writes about the calculations.

McCain Will Pick a Governor to Counter Biden

It is obvious that McCain will chose a current or former governor to attack Biden's inexperience of running any sort of organization.

Will it be Tom Ridge, Mitt Romney, Mark Sanford or Bobby Jindal?

My pick - Mitt Romney or Bobby Jindal

Why Middle America Will Swing Away from Obama

Hillary Clinton tapped into the discontent with Obama in the non urban parts of the big swing states.

If the Republicans can hammer away at Obama's elitist views and actions they can sway just enough voters toward McCain.

Here is a story from the NYTimes that hints at this.

But Mr. Obama does not sound like a sure bet.

“Obama’s very charismatic but if you listen closely, he hasn’t said a whole lot,” Mr. Sylvester said.

In Raccoon, Kelly Dobbins, a middle-aged factory worker, offered the same. “I’m like a duck in the water — I float there but underneath I’m paddling hard as I can go,” Mr. Dobbins said. “What’s pushing me toward McCain is Obama. Who is he? Where does he stand?”

Such questions hint at a cultural disconnect.

After Hillary, Biden was probably on the Republican's Short List

It was obvious from the immediate response from the McCain camp that Biden's selection was planned for.

The Biden choice by Obama seems to have been a result of the recent foreign policy developments and the poll numbers indicating that most Americans do not trust Obama.

With all the talk of hope and change it is ironic that a 30+ year veteran of the Senate, a Washington insider was picked.

Biden has no leadership experience and like Obama has no experience running any government sized organization.

With Biden's moderate voting history, I think the McCain campaign will use every bit of sound and video bites to get that sliver of the population that mistrusts Obama!

Obama's Favors Central Planning For Healthcare

If your health or the health of a loved one is important why would you want to trust a system run by the government?

Government healthcare is inefficient and Obama favors this approach.

From the WSJ:

'If I were designing a system from scratch, I would probably go ahead with a single-payer system," Barack Obama told an audience in Albuquerque on Monday. He was lauding the idea of a health-care market -- or nonmarket -- entirely run by the government.

The goal, like HillaryCare in the 1990s, is to displace current private coverage and switch people to the default government option. What's new is Mr. Obama's smoother political packaging.

With good reason, critics often call this a back-door route to a centrally planned health-care bureaucracy. For all his lawyerly qualifications, Mr. Obama has essentially admitted that his proposal is really the front door.

Obama has no interest in educating the young

In a previous post I commented that Obama has flip flopped on school vouchers. If he is elected then you can guarantee that he will go with the status quo and do nothing about giving parent the choice to pick their schools.

He will have the backing of the teachers union and other regulators who have no intention of trying new and innovative means to educate our young.

Vouchers help parents choose school that implement no brainer innovative methods. Most public schools change at a glacial pace because of the vested interests of the parties involved.

Schools free to innovate, free from unions, free from regulators succeed more often than not. That is because like other markets, the best solution rises to the top because those that demand the service or good are free to choose the best.

John Kao in his book Innovation Nation, goes into detail how our schools are not innovative. He gives ample examples of how different ideas are tried at private and charter schools.

Barak Obama has no interest giving parents the choice or voice in picking the best schools for their children

Blast from the Past - Peek into The Real Obama

From WSJ:

But Mr. Obama claims to represent something different from old-style politics -- especially old-style Chicago politics. And the senator is embarrassed enough by what he did that he misrepresents it in the prologue of his political memoir, "The Audacity of Hope."

He attributes his 1996 victory to his message of hope, and his exhortations that Chicagoans drop their justifiable cynicism about politics.

The act of throwing an incumbent off the ballot in such a fashion does not fit neatly into the narrative of a public-spirited reformer who seeks to make people less cynical about politics.

It is telling that, when asked at the Saddleback Forum last weekend to name an instance in which he had worked against his own party or his own political interests, he didn't have a good answer.

The most dramatic examples of Mr. Obama's commitment to old-style politics are his repeated endorsements of Chicago's machine politicians, which came in opposition to what people of all ideological stripes viewed as the common good.

In the 2006 election, reformers from both parties attempted to end the corruption in Chicago's Cook County government. They probably would have succeeded, too, had Mr. Obama taken their side. Liberals and conservatives came together and nearly ousted Cook County Board President John Stroger, the machine boss whom court papers credibly accuse of illegally using the county payroll to maintain his own standing army of political cronies, contributors and campaigners.

Obama has no clothes - So much for running on hope

It was inevitable that Obama would cast his old poltical clothes that duped the democratic left and put on his real slick political clothes.

In the weeks leading up the election you will see Obama punched to a corner where he will reveal more and more of his true colors.

Here it a story from the NYTimes.

Mr. Obama, whose candidacy has been built in part on a promise to transcend traditional politics, is running the negative commercials on local stations even as he runs generally positive spots nationally, during prime-time coverage of the Olympics.

“If you can go quietly negative, that’s what he’s done; I think the perception is that he’s still running the positive campaign,” said Evan Tracey, president of the Campaign Media Analysis Group of TNS Media Intelligence, which monitors political advertising.

But Mr. Obama’s advertising has increasingly included spots that, like those from Mr. McCain, have been called negative and misleading by independent media analysts like FactCheck.org, part of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

Obama is a Tax Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

A recent analysis from The American (American Enterprise Institute):

Senator Barack Obama declared recently that he wants to “reform our tax code so that it rewards work and not just wealth.” We think that is a great goal if it means a simple tax system with low marginal tax rates. Unfortunately, a close inspection of Obama’s proposals reveals something disquieting: he would raise marginal tax rates for many middle-income taxpayers, a bad move for anyone seeking to promote economic growth.

While both candidates will reduce their tax plans to clever sound bites, voters should consider how those plans would affect incentives to earn income. Unfortunately, Senator Obama’s proposed “tax cuts for the middle class” are actually marginal rate hikes in disguise.

Anti Obama Book to Appear on NYTimes #1 Bestseller

From the Boston Globe:

In 2004 the conservative gadfly Jerome R. Corsi shot to the top of the best-seller lists as co-author of "Unfit for Command," the book attacking Senator John Kerry's record on a Vietnam War Swift boat that began the larger, damaging campaign against Kerry's war credentials as he sought the presidency.

But the book is to make its first appearance on The New York Times best-seller list for nonfiction hardcovers this Sunday - at number one.

Senator Finegold Loves McCain - If only he would vote for him

From the LA Times:

In a recent interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that gained attention, he did not hesitate to veer from his party's line on the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, scoffing at the contention that a McCain White House would simply represent a third term of the Bush administration.

Said Feingold: "The notion that somehow [McCain] is going to get in there and be some kind of ideological Newt Gingrich right-winger is a joke. There's no way that he would do that."

Feingold differs with McCain on an array of issues, most obviously the Iraq war. But he praised McCain as someone who "calls 'em as he sees 'em, and as president would call 'em as he sees 'em, and would make people mad all over the place because it wouldn't fit anybody's playbook. He would be very original."

As the Journal Sentinel's Craig Gilbert aptly put it in his story, "Those are not exactly Democratic talking points."

It Economics Stupid - Obama Shows his socialist stripe

From Greg Mankiw

Obama is right about the amorality (not immorality) of oil companies. But he seems to suggest that oil markets are fundamentally different than others. In fact, in all markets, reduced production capacity would increase prices and, sometimes, would increase profits as well. That is why farmers can benefit from policies that induce them to leave land fallow. (I can't say about widgets--empirical studies of that market are hard to come by.)

Maybe Obama is saying that the forces of competition are absent in the oil market and that the deliberate decision by oil companies to keep capacity below competitive levels is the reason for today's high prices. That would be a logically coherent story, but not an empirically plausible one. It is not lack of competition that is keeping oil prices high but, rather, the basic forces of supply and demand. Even if you blame OPEC for noncompetitive behavior, that fact would hardly provide a rationale for taxing domestic oil producers, as Senator Obama is proposing.

Obama the demagogue

From FoxNews:

In an interview last week on National Public Radio, Barack Obama was asked about his proposal for a "windfall profits" profits tax on oil companies. To her credit, the interviewer prefaced her question by noting that nearly all economists from across the political spectrum oppose the idea. Taxing oil company profits won't make gas any cheaper — it'll likely make it more expensive in the long run by discouraging exploration — and it won't speed the development of alternative energy sources. Obama's answer was pure demagoguery, pitting senior citizens and working class families against oil companies, who he says are reaping profits "hand over fist."

A Reasoned Attack on Obama's Character

Looks like Hillary Clinton did not pull the trigger on an attack strategy aganist Obama. Mark Penn seemed to have the right instinct to attack Obama's character.

The Republicans or some 527 group won't hesitate.

From the AP

""I cannot imagine America electing a president during a time of war who is not at his center fundamentally American in his thinking and in his values," Mark Penn wrote in a March 2007 memo to Clinton.

Obama's background — he grew up in Indonesia and Hawaii — was a "lack of American roots," Penn wrote. Also a weakness, he added, was the divisive rhetoric of Obama's controversial pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who cursed America during a sermon.

"Won't a single tape of Wright going off on America with Obama sitting there be a game-ender?" Penn wrote in a March 30 memo.

Penn's memos also contained prescient advice. The memo from March 2007 talked about the importance of a key voting bloc he called "the invisible Americans" — women and lower- and middle-class voters.

Obama is wrong on school vouchers

He panders to the teachers Union for the votes. Vouchers help low income families the most because it allows them to send their kids to better schools. They don't have to put up with the inequality of most urban school systems.

From CBS News:

In an address to the National Urban League, John McCain employed the same line of attack on Barack Obama that he used when he spoke to the NAACP a couple of weeks ago, saying of the Democrat's education policies, "his ideas are not as impressive as his rhetoric."

“In remarks to the American Federation of Teachers last month, Sen. Obama dismissed public support for private school vouchers for low-income Americans as ‘tired rhetoric about vouchers and school choice.’ All of that went over well with the teachers union, but where does it leave families and their children who are stuck in failing schools?” McCain asked. “If Sen. Obama continues to defer to the teachers unions, instead of committing to real reform, then he should start looking for new slogans.”

Obama takes African American votes for granted

Ralph Nader was right about Obama

He now has young folks thinking twice. From CNN:

Three young African-American protesters, and two white women, interrupted Barack Obama at an economic town hall in Florida Friday, accusing the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee of neglecting the black community.

Obama Loves Ludacris

Obama loves Ludacris and it is going to give the National Republican Party fuel for those quasi negative ads.

Or I can see this as the swift boat issue sponsored by some shrewd McCain backer.

From the AP

Ludacris' "Politics as Usual" alludes to an imminent victory for Obama by handing out major put-downs to his rivals. It dismisses Hillary Rodham Clinton as a vice presidential candidate — "that (expletive) is irrelevant"_ and says presumed Republican nominee John McCain doesn't belong in "any chair unless he's paralyzed."

Obama's Health Care Policy Is Clinton Part Deux

From WSJ:

For the first time, low- and moderate-income families would get just as much tax relief as the very rich when they purchase health insurance. People who must purchase their own insurance would get just as much tax relief as those who obtain it through an employer. Whereas Mr. Obama would continue the current practice of giving the vast bulk of federal help to the rich (through tax subsidies) and the poor (through spending programs), the McCain tax credit would give the most new tax relief to the middle class.

Obama is Misguided on Domestic Oil exploration

If we open up domestic oil exploration and development it can fund the next wave of clean technology development.

From WSJ:

Congressional Research Service estimates that at $100 per barrel (far below today's price), producing the estimated 10 billion barrels of oil in Alaska's remote Arctic National Wildlife Refuge would generate $153 billion in new federal revenues. Consider the sums we could generate if we produced new American energy in the Outer Continental Shelf far off our nation's shores, where an estimated 86 billion barrels are locked away, and in the Inter-Mountain West, where some 800 billion barrels of oil is trapped in shale deposits.

By freeing those domestic resources and increasing the supply of American energy, we can fund development of better solar, wind, biomass and other breakthrough technologies.

Reliable energy is among the most liberating forces in the world -- socially, economically and intellectually. In those parts of the world where energy is scarce or too expensive for citizens, daily life is consumed with the drudgery that the absence of energy causes.

Obamanomics Is a Recipe for Recession

Great Op-Ed from WSJ by Michael Boskin of Stanford

Yet despite his obvious general intelligence, and uplifting and motivational eloquence, Sen. Obama reveals this startling economic illiteracy in his policy proposals and economic pronouncements. From the property rights and rule of (contract) law foundations of a successful market economy to the specifics of tax, spending, energy, regulatory and trade policy, if the proposals espoused by candidate Obama ever became law, the American economy would suffer a serious setback.

To be sure, Mr. Obama has been clouding these positions as he heads into the general election and, once elected, presidents sometimes see the world differently than when they are running. Some cite Bill Clinton's move to the economic policy center following his Hillary health-care and 1994 Congressional election debacles as a possible Obama model. But candidate Obama starts much further left on spending, taxes, trade and regulation than candidate Clinton. A move as large as Mr. Clinton's toward the center would still leave Mr. Obama on the economic left.

Democrats Forced Unity

From NYTimes:

“Contentious politics is not losing politics,” said Marc Rubin, a television and movie writer. He and the co-founder of the Denver Group, Heidi Li Feldman of the Georgetown Law Center, say that a perceived forced unity imposed by party leadership is likely to alienate Clinton supporters and ultimately cost the eventual nominee the election.

What is clear is that some of Mrs. Clinton’s supporters are not ready to give up the fight. The Denver Group, established in late June, has already collected approximately $30,000, and hopes to at least double that and buy time on CNN. Its success reflects a lingering sense among some Democrats that party leaders are trying to block Mrs. Clinton from the nomination.

No Clue on Obama

From David Brooks of the NYT:

But then there is his ruthless political side, which I’m seeing more and more of. His Iraq statements are a sign of his thoroughly political nature. When the surge was being considered, he went on TV again and again and said the additional troops would not reduce violence. Today, he could just admit he was wrong. But, of course, it is an iron rule of politics that no politician — not Bush, not Obama — can ever admit a mistake. So Obama goes on TV and says he always predicted that the surge would reduce violence. In America it’s better to be seen as a confident liar than as someone who once got something wrong. And he rewrites his position with such confidence and bald-facedness it’s sort of scary.

I have to admit I used to have a sense of what kind of president Obama would make.

Winning At All Costs - Obama's Political Past

From the New Yorker.

“I am not thrilled with Barack, simply because we elected him as an Independent, and he switched over to Daley,” Alan Dobry said. Ivory Mitchell, speaking of Obama’s Senate race, said, “When he won the primary out here and he went downtown, it appears as though Daley took over the campaign for him. . . . We were excluded.”

Obama's Ultal Liberal Idealogy

From NYT:

“I’m not sure he was close to anyone,” Mr. Hutchinson said, except for a few liberal constitutional law professors, like Cass Sunstein, now an occasional adviser to his campaign. Mr. Obama was working two other jobs, after all, in the State Senate and at a civil rights law firm.

Because he never fully engaged, Mr. Obama “doesn’t have the slightest sense of where folks like me are coming from,” Mr. Epstein said. “He was a successful teacher and an absentee tenant on the other issues.”

So even some former students who are thrilled at Mr. Obama’s success wince when they hear him speaking like the politician he has so fully become.

“When you hear him talking about issues, it’s at a level so much simpler than the one he’s capable of,” Mr. Rodriguez said. “He was a lot more fun to listen to back then.”

Obama Teaching Over rated

From NYT:

Liberals flocked to his classes, seeking refuge. After all, the professor was a progressive politician who backed child care subsidies and laws against racial profiling, and in a 1996 interview with the school newspaper sounded skeptical of President Bill Clinton’s efforts to reach across the aisle.

“On the national level, bipartisanship usually means Democrats ignore the needs of the poor and abandon the idea that government can play a role in issues of poverty, race discrimination, sex discrimination or environmental protection,” Mr. Obama said.

But the liberal students did not necessarily find reassurance. “For people who thought they were getting a doctrinal, rah-rah experience, it wasn’t that kind of class,” said D. Daniel Sokol, a former student who now teaches law at the University of Florida at Gainesville.

Obama The Chicago Chimera

From the New Yorker:

Perhaps the greatest misconception about Barack Obama is that he is some sort of anti-establishment revolutionary. Rather, every stage of his political career has been marked by an eagerness to accommodate himself to existing institutions rather than tear them down or replace them. When he was a community organizer, he channelled his work through Chicago’s churches, because they were the main bases of power on the South Side. He was an agnostic when he started, and the work led him to become a practicing Christian. At Harvard, he won the presidency of the Law Review by appealing to the conservatives on the selection panel. In Springfield, rather than challenge the Old Guard Democratic leaders, Obama built a mutually beneficial relationship with them. “You have the power to make a United States senator,” he told Emil Jones in 2003. In his downtime, he played poker with lobbyists and Republican lawmakers. In Washington, he has been a cautious senator and, when he arrived, made a point of not defining himself as an opponent of the Iraq war.

Obama's Pal Rod Blagojevich

Obama's lack of political scruples was evident in his support for corrupt politicians like Blagojevich and Stroger.

From the New Yorker

That year, he gained his first high-level experience in a statewide campaign when he advised the victorious gubernatorial candidate Rod Blagojevich, another politician with a funny name and a message of reform. Rahm Emanuel, a congressman from Chicago and a friend of Obama’s, told me that he, Obama, David Wilhelm, who was Blagojevich’s campaign co-chair, and another Blagojevich aide were the top strategists of Blagojevich’s victory. He and Obama “participated in a small group that met weekly when Rod was running for governor,” Emanuel said. “We basically laid out the general election, Barack and I and these two.”

“He had been my client and I had a very good relationship with him, but I didn’t sign on to the governor’s race,” Axelrod said. “Obviously he won, but I had concerns about it. . . . I was concerned about whether he was ready for that. Not so much for the race but for governing. I was concerned about some of the folks—I was concerned about how the race was being approached.” Axelrod’s unease was warranted. Blagojevich and people close to him have been tied to a seemingly endless series of scandals.

Obama's Attack on Big Oil is Idiotic

Big Oil is Owned by America's Retirement Funds! Most of the share price increase benefits the millions of Americans who are saving for retirement!

Oil sector accounts for about 20% of S&P 500 Index and the largest portion of retirement savings is invested in index funds that mimic the S&P. Why would want to tax these companies so that the government can spend more?

The Republicans are hitting back on Obama's attack on big energy.

"Barack Obama's latest attack ads shows his celebrity is matched only by his hypocrisy," said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds. "After all it was Senator Obama, not John McCain, who voted for the Bush-Cheney energy bill that was a sweetheart deal for oil companies. Also not mentioned is the $400,000 from big oil contributors that Barack Obama has already pocketed in this election."

Obama Draws the Money Line

Obama rise in Illinois state politics was immensely helped by his redistricting efforts. A process that he had criticized but disregarded when it was for his convenience.

From the New Yorker.

In the end, Obama’s North Side fund-raising base and his South Side political base were united in one district. He now represented Hyde Park operators like Lois Friedberg-Dobry as well as Gold Coast doyennes like Bettylu Saltzman, and his old South Side street operative Al Kindle as well as his future consultant David Axelrod. In an article in the Hyde Park Herald about how “partisan” and “undemocratic” Illinois redistricting had become, Obama was asked for his views. As usual, he was candid. “There is a conflict of interest built into the process,” he said. “Incumbents drawing their own maps will inevitably try to advantage themselves.”

The partisan redistricting of Illinois may have been the most important event in Obama’s early political life.

Obama's Past is A Clue To His Mindset

From NYT:

“I don’t think anything that went on in these chambers affected him,” said Richard Epstein, a libertarian colleague who says he longed for Mr. Obama to venture beyond his ideological and topical comfort zones. “His entire life, as best I can tell, is one in which he’s always been a thoughtful listener and questioner, but he’s never stepped up to the plate and taken full swings.”

Redistricting Gets Obama His Groove Back

From The New Yorker:

Only about ten Democratic staffers had access; entry required an elaborate ritual—fingerprint scanners and codes punched into a keypad. The room was large, and unremarkable except for an enormous printer and an array of computers with big double monitors. On the screens that spring day were detailed maps of Chicago, and Obama and a Democratic consultant named John Corrigan sat in front of a terminal to draw Obama a new district. Corrigan was the Democrat in charge of drawing all Chicago districts, and he also happened to have volunteered for Obama in the campaign against Rush.

Like every other Democratic legislator who entered the inner sanctum, Obama began working on his “ideal map.” Corrigan remembers two things about the district that he and Obama drew. First, it retained Obama’s Hyde Park base—he had managed to beat Rush in Hyde Park—then swooped upward along the lakefront and toward downtown. By the end of the final redistricting process, his new district bore little resemblance to his old one.

Rather than jutting far to the west, like a long thin dagger, into a swath of poor black neighborhoods of bungalow homes, Obama’s map now shot north, encompassing about half of the Loop, whose southern portion was beginning to be transformed by developers like Tony Rezko, and stretched far up Michigan Avenue and into the Gold Coast, covering much of the city’s economic heart, its main retail thoroughfares, and its finest museums, parks, skyscrapers, and lakefront apartment buildings.

African-Americans still were a majority, and the map contained some of the poorest sections of Chicago, but Obama’s new district was wealthier, whiter, more Jewish, less blue-collar, and better educated. It also included one of the highest concentrations of Republicans in Chicago.

Obama still a question mark after all the fawning

Interesting that Obama is still in a tight race after all the scrutiny and celebrity level exposure!

From the NYT:

Although Mr. Obama has been under an intense public spotlight for the last year, he is still relatively new on the national scene, and polls indicate that for all the enthusiasm he has generated among his supporters, many voters still have questions about him, providing Republicans an opening to shape his image in critical groups like white working-class voters between now and Election Day.

We Should Be Scared of Obama

After all he is a half term Senator who began his Presidential campaign before he even got to the Senate!

He wants the US Voters to trust him at a highly uncertain econcomic time with higher taxes especially on small business owners who employ the majority of American workers.

He wants to alter trade agreements when exports are add more jobs.

He wants to jepordize the united stand aganist Iran.

He refuses to provide clear plans to shore of social security.

He wants to spend more tax dollars on subzisizing middle class healthcare instead of allowing the market provide healthcare for all.

He wants to implement his pandering plans to pull out the troops from Iraq.

John McCain is justified in letting the star struck public about the real Obama!

The Rezko Connection Runs Deep for Obama

From the New Yorker.

Rezko was one of the people Obama consulted when he considered running to replace Palmer, and Rezko eventually raised about ten per cent of Obama’s funds for that first campaign. As a state senator, Obama became an advocate of the tax-credit program. “That’s an example of a smart policy,” he told the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin in 1997. “The developers were thinking in market terms and operating under the rules of the marketplace; but at the same time, we had government supporting and subsidizing those efforts.” Obama and Rezko’s friendship grew stronger. They dined together regularly and even, on at least one occasion, retreated to Rezko’s vacation home, in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.

Obama - I am The World

This made me laugh!!

Obama uses religion for PR purposes!

Wow! Talk about doing what it takes!!

From Powerline

When the prayer that Barack Obama inserted into the Western Wall was made public, I had an unworthy thought: the prayer sounded suspiciously as though it had been written for public consumption. For Obama, embarrassed by his association with Jeremiah Wright and increasingly tagged as arrogant, the prayer seemed to touch all the right bases, including a plea to "help me guard against pride." But any suggestion that Obama had planted the prayer with a view toward having it published seemed churlish.

Now, though, it is being alleged that this was just what happened. Ma'ariv, the paper that published the prayer, says that "Barack Obama's note was approved for publication in the international media even before he put in the Kotel, a short time after he wrote it at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem." Ma'ariv's claim may have been backed up by Israel's most popular daily paper, Yediot Aharonot, which says that it too had a copy of the note but decided not to print it. It isn't clear, though, whether Yediot Aharonot got the note from the Obama campaign or after the fact, from the student who apparently removed it from the Wall.

It isn't yet clear what happened here, but it is fair to say that if anyone would leak a prayer, it is the all-politics-all-the-time Barack Obama.

It is going to be a tigh race

Interesting poll data from USA Today:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain moved from being behind by 6 points among "likely" voters a month ago to a 4-point lead over Democrat Barack Obama among that group in the latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll. McCain still trails slightly among the broader universe of "registered" voters. By both measures, the race is tight.

The Friday-Sunday poll, mostly conducted as Obama was returning from his much-publicized overseas trip and released just this hour, shows McCain now ahead 49%-45% among voters that Gallup believes are most likely to go to the polls in November. In late June, he was behind among likely voters, 50%-44%.

Among registered voters, McCain still trails Obama, but by less. He is behind by 3 percentage points in the new poll (47%-44%) vs. a 6-point disadvantage (48%-42%) in late June.

What's wrong with Democrats - Obama & Pelosi!

You can't write this kind of stuff!!

From ScrappleFace:

(2008-07-02) — Democrats in Congress today plan to introduce a bill to halt the recently-announced closing of some 600 Starbucks coffee stores, noting that the displacement of 12,000 Starbucks baristas would overwhelm government aid offices not prepared to handle so many clients for whom English is a second language.

Baristas, those who serve Starbucks beverages, speak a peculiar dialect that combines pseudo-Italian and American slang with inflections borrowed from ancient hemp-smoking cultures.

“These people can’t just walk out of Starbucks and get a job at a grocery store or a factory,” said House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-CA. “They would need ESL classes and cultural training to learn how to relate to ordinary Americans and function in society.”

Rep. Pelosi’s bill would subsidize the 600 money-losing Starbucks locations by giving away millions of taxpayer dollars in so-called ‘Venti Vouchers’ to residents of these hard-hit neighborhoods. If the effort fails to revive the flagging stores, Rep. Pelosi said Democrats would “seriously consider nationalizing the coffee industry to ensure the free flow of java at fair prices.”

“This is just another one of our heroic Democrat efforts to protect Americans from the impact of the Bush economic policies,” said Rep. Pelosi. “Under this president, America has become a cold and desolate place where corporations cut unprofitable activities to focus on increasing the bottom line, and returning value to shareholders. When Democrats retake the White House next year, we will reverse that trend.”

Obama's Acid Laced Berlin Speech

I love the way David Brooks rips Obama's Berlin speech to shreds!

But now it is more than half a year on, and the post-partisanship of Iowa has given way to the post-nationalism of Berlin, and it turns out that the vague overture is the entire symphony. The golden rhetoric impresses less, the evasion of hard choices strikes one more.

Much of the rest of the speech fed the illusion that we could solve our problems if only people mystically come together.

The great illusion of the 1990s was that we were entering an era of global convergence in which politics and power didn’t matter. What Obama offered in Berlin flowed right out of this mind-set. This was the end of history on acid.

It will take politics and power to address these challenges, the two factors that dare not speak their name in Obama’s lofty peroration.

But he has grown accustomed to putting on this sort of saccharine show for the rock concert masses, and in Berlin his act jumped the shark. His words drift far from reality, and not only when talking about the Senate Banking Committee. His Berlin Victory Column treacle would have made Niebuhr sick to his stomach.

Obama has benefited from a week of good images. But substantively, optimism without reality isn’t eloquence. It’s just Disney.

Obama's Audacious Healthcare Promises

If voters believe this (perhaps the under 30 crowd) then they should also believe in the tooth fairy!

From the NYTimes:
In speech after speech, Senator Barack Obama has vowed that he will lower the country’s health care costs enough to “bring down premiums by $2,500 for the typical family.” Moreover, Mr. Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has promised that his health plan will be in place “by the end of my first term as president of the United States.”

Whether Mr. Obama can deliver is a matter of considerable dispute among health analysts and economists. While there is consensus that the American health care system is bloated with waste, eliminating enough to save $2,500 per family would require simultaneous and synergistic solutions to a host of problems that have proved intractable for decades.

The Commonwealth Fund, a health research group in New York, published a study in December projecting that a robust overhaul consisting of 15 broad initiatives would generate savings of only 6 percent after 10 years. “Doing it by the end of a first term is ambitious and would require tough policies,” said Karen Davis, the group’s president.

Jonathan B. Oberlander, who teaches health policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, called it wishful thinking. “Do they have the potential to generate significant savings in the long run?” Dr. Oberlander asked. “Yes. Do I believe they will produce substantial savings in the short run that can be used to finance Obama’s plan? No.”

Obama's Trip to Afghanistan A Sham

From FactCheck.org

As subcommittee chairman, Obama could have held hearings pertaining to the role of NATO in the war in Afghanistan, but he has not. At a Democratic debate in February, he said he "became chairman of this committee at the beginning of this campaign," so the committee hadn't held such hearings. But Obama has presided over subcommittee hearings to consider the nominations of ambassadors to several nations and the U.S. permanent representative to the NATO council. He also has previously spoken out about the role of NATO in Afghanistan, saying that he supports a greater presence of troops in the country

Obama Perceived As Weak On Foreign Policy

Looks like Obama foreign trips, is tripping him up.

From Washington Post / ABC News Poll

"..the poll also shows that McCain holds substantial advantages on key foreign policy readiness questions, suggesting that the stakes of today's Iraq speech, and Obama's pending trip abroad, are extremely high for his presidential hopes.

For instance, the poll finds that McCain has a huge lead (63%-26%) on the question of who has a better knowledge of world affairs.

And McCain also holds a sizable lead (50%-41%) on who is more trusted to handle a major crisis.

Under 30 support for Obama is slipping

Interesting poll numbers from ABC News:

Barack Obama's most committed partisans, beyond African American voters, are young voters, voters under 30. In March, 66 percent of them said they would vote, no matter what -- that is down to 46 percent right now. Their enthusiasm has been dampened a bit over the course of this campaign.

The under 30 crowd seems to be thinking hard about Obama especially after increasingly critical analysis of his past.

Obama's Lack of Integrity

From the New Yorker

E. J. Dionne, Jr., of the Washington Post, wrote about this transition in a 1999 column after Daley was reëlected. Dionne wrote about a young Barack Obama, who artfully explained how the new pinstripe patronage worked: a politician rewards the law firms, developers, and brokerage houses with contracts, and in return they pay for the new ad campaigns necessary for relection.

“They do well, and you get a $5 million to $10 million war chest,” Obama told Dionne. It was a classic Obamaism: superficially critical of some unseemly aspect of the political process without necessarily forswearing the practice itself. Obama was learning that one of the greatest skills a politician can possess is candor about the dirty work it takes to get and stay elected.

Obama is No Change Agent of Change

Great New Yorker article on Obama's Chicago roots.
Here is an excerpt:

As Saul Bellow once remarked, “Politics are politics, crime is crime, but in Chicago they occasionally overlap. The line between virtue and vice meanders madly—effective government on one side, connections on the other.”There were further changes under way in Chicago. Obama had won his first campaign by using old-fashioned Chicago machine tactics at a time when the notion of machine politics was increasingly anachronistic.

Seeing Through Obama's Pandering

From Time.com

The passion Obama inspired earlier this year was critical to his victory in the primaries. But it isn't what he needs now. The public is not looking for a political messiah. Indeed, the over-the-top adulation of Obama's most fervent admirers probably strikes some swing voters as creepy and cultish. What people want is a steady leader who looks out for their interests: safety, secure health care, higher wages, cheaper food and gas.

All year, polls have shown that the public would strongly prefer to elect a Democratic President in November. But Obama has been running only slightly ahead of McCain. Being a typical Democratic politician would not be a step down for Obama it would be a step up for him. The public knows that politicians are what they are, and that their rhetoric will not fill their bank accounts. They will see through Obama, and they will see through McCain, and in a Democratic year that will leave Obama ahead.

Sen Joe Lieberman Takes Obama To Task on Iraq - Pt 2

Senator Obama also said this morning that he wants a foreign policy that recognizes that we have interests “not just in Baghdad, but in Kandahar and Karachi and Tokyo and London.” But what Senator Obama does not seem to recognize is that—in an interdependent world—what happens in Baghdad affects our interests in Kandahar and Karachi and Tokyo and London. What Senator Obama does not seem to understand is that—had we taken the course he had counseled and retreated from Iraq—the United States would have suffered a catastrophic defeat that would have left America and our allies less safe not just in Baghdad, but in Kandahar and Karachi and Tokyo and London.

Sen Joe Lieberman Takes Obama To Task on Iraq - Pt1

Via Weekly Standard:

Senator Obama this morning said that he wants a foreign policy that is “tough, smart, and principled.” This afternoon, I ask: was it tough when Senator Obama voted to order U.S. forces to retreat from Iraq on a fixed timeline—regardless of the recommendations of our military commanders, regardless of conditions on the ground? Was it smart when Senator Obama opposed the surge and predicted that it would fail to improve security? Was it principled when Senator Obama said that he would order U.S. troops to retreat from Iraq, regardless of the humanitarian consequences for millions of innocent Iraqis—even genocide? Was it tough and principled when Senator Obama said he would be open to changing his plan for Iraq after going there and talking to General Petraeus—only to change that position a few hours later after being heatedly criticized by organizations like Moveon.org? I say respectfully, the answer to all of those questions is no.

Is Obama another Zima

Remember Zima? It had meteoric rise as curiously new alcoholic drink but then crashed as the novelty wore off. The trial phase was great but the repeat phase was a disaster.

Seems like the curiosity with Obama is something along that vein.

Here is an excerpt from The Weekly Standard:

I’m convinced much of Obama’s support to date is more a function of the public’s curiosity with his narrative than support for his policies. Americans seem highly interested in this campaign but still uninformed about the candidates’ positions on many issues. The Washington Post’s Jon Cohen underscores this point in his “Behind the Numbers” piece analyzing recent polling data.

Greg Mankiw's Blog: On Fannie and Freddie

Liberals on Capital hill had a hand in the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debacle.
Politicians like Barney Frank helped line the pockets of Fannie Mae executives instead of questioning their practices.

From:

Greg Mankiw's Blog: On Fannie and Freddie

Wonder where Obama stands on this? Hmm...

Obama Shifts and Shafts His Liberal Base

Looks like the Obama's flip flop on Iraq will cost him some of the independent votes.

From the Washington Times:

As Mr. Obama repositions himself for the general election after exclusively targeting the Democratic base of committed liberals, it leaves some voters on the left feeling he is abandoning them on their top issue - Iraq - and has independents questioning his veracity.

"If a perception takes hold that a candidate is flip-flopping on core convictions, that will hurt," pollster Scott Rasmussen said, noting that nearly a third of voters are "up for grabs" this fall.

A Newsweek poll found similar dissatisfaction among voters over Mr. Obama's shifts in policy positions. In the survey, 53 percent of voters said he recalibrated his stances on key issues such as the war and President Bush's new electronic surveillance law in order to gain political advantage.

Can't Touch This - Political Correctness on Late Night TV

It was the liberal press who was pro Obama and now Late Night TV writers are joining the fray.

From NYT:

But there has been little humor about Mr. Obama: about his age, his speaking ability, his intelligence, his family, his physique. And within a late-night landscape dominated by white hosts, white writers, and overwhelmingly white audiences, there has been almost none about his race.

There is no doubt, several representatives of the late-night shows said, that so far their audiences (and at least some of the shows’ writers) seem to be favorably disposed toward Mr. Obama, to a degree that perhaps leaves them more resistant to jokes about him than those about most previous candidates.

“A lot of people are excited about his candidacy,” Mr. Sweeney said. “It’s almost like: ‘Hey, don’t go after this guy. He’s a fresh face; cut him some slack.’ ”

One issue that clearly has some impact on writing jokes about Mr. Obama is a consistency among the big late-night shows. Not only are all the hosts white, the vast majority of their audiences are white. “I think white audiences get a little self-conscious if race comes up,” Mr. Sweeney of Mr. O’Brien’s show said.

Obama's Political Police showing their colors

Looks like the Obama campaign is gearing to slap anyone in the Democratic party who does not follow the party line.

First it was a line of Democrats who supported Hillary Clinton now others like Sen. Joe Liberman.

From the NYT:

It has grown increasingly so for Mr. Lieberman, once his party’s vice-presidential candidate and now a self-styled “independent Democrat.” He has zigzagged the country on behalf of Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, and, in recent weeks, amplified his criticism of Senator Barack Obama to a point that has infuriated many of his Democratic colleagues.

Clearly, Mr. Lieberman’s already precarious marriage with the Democrats has reached a new level of discord and could be approaching divorce, if not necessarily a remarriage into the Republican Party.

The New Yorker Cover about Obama is SATIRE

Interesting how Obama is still being treated with kid gloves by the liberal media.

The New Yorker's cover is just another cover in the history of the magazine!

Barak And His Bundlers

Yet another example of change fools can believe in!

From the Kansas City Star:

“Obama was saying he was the most transparent, but it wasn’t even on par with Bush and Cheney.” -- Alexander Cohen, senior researcher at Public Citizen.

Barack Obama has long been among the most outspoken critics of the influence of money in politics.

Yet records show that in his presidential campaign, he has not lived up to his promise to fully disclose the identities of his top money-collectors who bundle millions of dollars in campaign contributions.

Since November, Obama had added just two new names to a list of more than 326 fundraisers who have bundled contributions of $50,000 or more for him, despite the campaign’s taking in more than $180 million during that time.

After receiving an inquiry from The New York Times, the campaign scrambled Thursday evening to update its list of bundlers, adding 185 names to it — a more than 50 percent jump — and increasing the amounts some were credited with raising.

Performing testicular decapitation on Obama

I am sure Jesse Jackson is not the only person who wants to perform some sort of testicular decapitation on Barak Obama!

Regretful Obama - Another sign of inexperience

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

So what jumped out at me was how quickly Obama regretted his decision. And that, in turn, made me wonder how often the senator has regretted other choices. Answer: pretty often. (Googling "Obama" and "regrets" yields more than a million hits.)

But I'm not so sure. After all, a lot of Americans understand that you don't get a bunch of easy do-overs in the Oval Office. You have to make tough calls, even when they may be politically costly.

I can't help wondering what Obama might regret in four years as president. What might he regret doing —- or not doing —- on the world stage? What might he regret saying —- or not saying —- to Putin or Kim Jong-il or Ahmadinejad?

Only time will tell. Depending on what happens in November, we may begin to find out next January. When we do, some voters may well have regrets of their own.

Obama's First Negative Ad

From NYT:

The Obama advertisement, his first negative one of the general campaign, calls Mr. McCain “part of the problem” of high gasoline prices. It likens the energy policies of Mr. McCain to those of President Bush, noting that both support easing restrictions on offshore oil drilling and linking the two to support for tax breaks for oil companies.

Obama Voted to Give Tax Breaks to Oil and Gas companies

Obama's voting record will be used against him especially when he flip flops, like providing tax breaks to oil and gas companies.

Vote 213: H R 6: Offered tax breaks and incentives in what supporters said was an effort to spur oil and gas companies to provide innovative wasy to reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil, conserve resources and reduce pollution.

Obama Votes Aganist Hispanic Free Trade Zone

Freer trade between our North American Hispanic nations is an effective way to increase the wealth of nations. Obama voted no to this bill.

Vote 170: S 1307: Established a free trade zone between the United States, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua; a separate agreement with the Dominican Republican was also included in the measure.

Current Stability in Iraq will Hurt Obama in Nov

The current US military plan (the surge) is working and Obama will have a hard time winning on Iraq.

The case becomes an easier sale thanks to the crippling of al Qaeda, the defanging of Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, the growing confidence and capabilities of Iraq's central government, and the end to sectarian killing. (The number of "ethno-sectarian" deaths in Iraq, which peaked at over 2,000 in December 2006, were at zero in May 2008.) There is no civil war here to police.

Obama's Bait and Switch On Iraq

In keeping with moving to the center, Obama seems to be changing his stance pre primary Iraq stance. That is good news for John McCain. It makes the Obama brand less differentiated!

From WSJ:

The presumptive Democratic nominee set off media firecrackers last week by hinting at further refinements to his strategy for withdrawal. Previous strategies include his January 2007 call for a complete withdrawal by March 2008, followed by his March 2008 call for a complete withdrawal by July 2010, or 16 months after he takes office.

Now Mr. Obama tells us that the 16-month timeline is contingent on (1) "[making] sure that our troops are safe and that Iraq is stable" (my emphasis), and (2) the opinion of "the commanders on the ground." Also in question is the size of the "residual force" that the Illinois senator envisions for Iraq after the bulk of U.S. forces is withdrawn. Will it be an embassy guard, plus some military advisers and special-ops forces?

Hillraisers Raising Hell for Obama

It seems that some of the 18 million voters who supported Hillary Clinton are rocking the Obama boat.

From the WSJ:

One new Web site challenging Sen. Obama, Together4us.com, declares on its home page: "We are being asked to embrace Party Unity without the fair representation of Hillary Clinton" and the roughly 18 million people who voted for her during the primaries.

The site was organized by Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a businesswoman and Hillraiser who says: "There are thousands, probably millions, of women and men who aren't happy with the way the Democratic Party conducted the primaries, or with the result." Ms. de Rothschild says some 60 other Democratic activists, many of them Hillraisers, are providing advice or other help to the new Web site. Some 3,000 people have already signed up, she says.

Even so, it is threatening his support among liberal Democrats, many of whom make up his small-donor base. The independent activist group Democrats.com has established an escrow fund to encourage Sen. Obama to rethink his position on warrantless-wiretapping legislation, which is supported by the Bush administration but opposed by liberal Democrats.

Cracks in Obama's.....Support

Interesting stats on Hillary Clinton supporters.

From the WSJ:

'An analysis of campaign-finance records conducted for The Wall Street Journal by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics shows that in May, when Sen. Obama was widely believed to have clinched the Democratic nomination, only one Hillraiser had switched allegiance to the Obama campaign. And while 115 individuals who had donated at least $1,000 to Sen. Clinton made their first donations to Sen. Obama, another 115 former Clinton backers made their first big donations to Sen. McCain.

A poll released Friday by CNN and Opinion Research Corp. found that nearly a third of those who voted for Sen. Clinton in the primaries said they would stay home in November rather than vote for Sen. Obama. A similar poll taken by the two organizations in early June found only 22% expressing that sentiment. In the latest poll, only 54% of Clinton voters said they were planning to back Sen. Obama.

Inexperience - Obama's Dearth of Senatorial accomplishments

Since taking the oath of office in January 2005 Obama has missed 43% of the votes in the Senate! A startling number for a first term junior US Senator. It shows a lack of commitment to the office he campaigned for and the oath he had taken for that office.

His meager achievements in the Senate and lack of any meaningful experience being an executive or legislator is appalling. He has no legitimate claim for change, having no experience in changing anything for this country from a legislative perspective!

Obama's Path of Change is paved with green dollars

Buying the Presidency!

Mr. Obama has raised a staggering $295-plus million thus far and after declining public financing for the upcoming general election will probably raise close to half a billion!!!

That is not counting the pledged dollars from labor unions, issue groups like moveon.org, DNC and the monied gentry like George Soros.

There are many paths to victory but taking the path paved with dollars while spouting claims of change is a path that lacks integrity.

That is road well traveled by classic politicians not agents of change.

Favors for Obama - Some kinda change!

From the Washington Post:

Shortly after joining the U.S. Senate and while enjoying a surge in income, Barack Obama bought a $1.65 million restored Georgian mansion in an upscale Chicago neighborhood. To finance the purchase, he secured a $1.32 million loan from Northern Trust in Illinois.

Compared with the average terms offered at the time in Chicago, Obama's rate could have saved him more than $300 per month.

"The real question is: Were congressmen getting unique treatment that others weren't getting?" associate law professor Adam J. Levitin, a credit specialist at Georgetown University Law Center, said about the Countrywide loans. "Do they do business like that for people who are not congressmen? If they don't, that's a problem."

But amid a national housing crisis, news of discounts offered to Sens. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), chairman of the banking committee, and Kent Conrad (D-N.D) by another lender, Countrywide Financial, has brought new scrutiny to the practice and has resulted in a preliminary Senate ethics committee inquiry into the Dodd and Conrad loans.

n Obama's case, he received a lower rate than the average offered at the time in Chicago for similarly structured jumbo loans. He secured his final mortgage commitment on June 8, 2005, and during that week, rates on similar loans for which information is available averaged 5.93 percent, according to HSH Associates, which surveys lenders.

Two faces of Barak Obama on Same Sex Marriage

From NYT:

“I oppose the divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the California Constitution, and similar efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution or those of other states,” wrote Mr. Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

But his campaign said that Mr. Obama’s opposition to the initiative, which will appear on the state’s November ballot, did not signal a change in position. He remains opposed to same-sex marriage, but supports civil unions and domestic partnerships.

What the..

Dear BH Obama - Father of Socialized Medicine says it doesn't work!

From IBD:

Claude Castonguay's evolving view of Canadian health care, however, should weigh heavily on how the candidates think about the issue in this country.

Back in the 1960s, Castonguay chaired a Canadian government committee studying health reform and recommended that his home province of Quebec then the largest and most affluent in the country adopt government-administered health care, covering all citizens through tax levies.

Four decades later, as the chairman of a government committee reviewing Quebec health care this year, Castonguay concluded that the system is in "crisis."
"We thought we could resolve the system's problems by rationing services or injecting massive amounts of new money into it," says Castonguay. But now he prescribes a radical overhaul: "We are proposing to give a greater role to the private sector so that people can exercise freedom of choice."

Years ago, Canadians touted their health care system as the best in the world; today, Canadian health care stands in ruinous shape.

The problem is that government bureaucrats simply can't centrally plan their way to better health care.

"I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer health care program," Obama said back in the 1990s. Last year, Obama told the New Yorker that "if you're starting from scratch, then a single-payer system probably makes sense."

Slouching to the left - Brand Obama's first dilema

You can't be all things to all people. Obama got his primary boost from the left wing of the party filled with liberal, tech savy folks. They are relatively small in number compared to the rest of the US voting population.

Now as Obama moves to the center he needs to appease a large number of people who care about different issues that their liberal brethern. But he is going to have to deal with the wrath of the liberals on certain issues.

Here is the first from WSJ:

'The group sprang up last week, amid criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union, MoveOn.org and others on the left that Sen. Obama was sliding to the center after originally opposing immunity for the telecommunications companies.

Membership in the online group grew tenfold over the weekend and boasted more than 9,000 members by Tuesday. The group's sudden popularity suggests the vocalness of the grass-roots Internet community and raises questions about how Sen. Obama will handle dissenting voices from within the online movement he has harnessed to great success.

"It would be a public-relations nightmare for him to shut us down," said Mike Stark, the group's moderator. "It's totally in keeping with his vision. I think he's proud of what we're doing." '

Will Obama shut the group down? Let's see

Would Martin Luther King Jr vote for Obama?

Perhaps not. After all he was a Republican! Little known fact.