It may be getting to be time for a C.S.Lewis style “Lord, Liar or Lunatic” type of argument. I’m trying to decide between the last two.
Jul 25 2008
Obama can run from the facts: McCain won’t let him hide
Before a military audience in Denver today, John McCain launched his strongest attack yet against Barack Obama. The attack was devastating because it is true. Here are some excerpts; McCain began by recalling the beginning of the surge:
Senator Obama and I also faced a decision, which amounted to a real-time test for a future commander-in-chief. America passed that test. I believe my judgment passed that test. And I believe Senator Obama’s failed.
We both knew the politically safe choice was to support some form of retreat. All the polls said the “surge” was unpopular. Many pundits, experts and policymakers opposed it and advocated withdrawing our troops and accepting the consequences. I chose to support the new counterinsurgency strategy backed by additional troops — which I had advocated since 2003, after my first trip to Iraq. Many observers said my position would end my hopes of becoming president. I said I would rather lose a campaign than see America lose a war. My choice was not smart politics. It didn’t test well in focus groups. It ignored all the polls. It also didn’t matter. The country I love had one final chance to succeed in Iraq. The new strategy was it. So I supported it. Today, the effects of the new strategy are obvious. The surge has succeeded, and we are, at long last, finally winning this war.
Continue reading “Obama can run from the facts: McCain won’t let him hide”
Jul 22 2008
Jesus and Obama, Robbin’ in da ‘Hood
A fine bit of satire at A Vote for Barack Obama is a Vote for Jesus : Jesus Manifesto. It’s all pretty funny; here’s a sample.
…………..
A vote for Barack Obama is a vote for Jesus…not that I agree with everything he stands for. I mean, I am an independent sort of thinker. I am firmly convinced that God is neither a republican or a democrat. But Barack Obama transcends such distinctions. He flies high over such petty concerns on shimmering gossamer wings. Golden light emanates from his perfect form. His smiling eyes looking down upon me with a look that pierces my soul! I get lost in his smile, and long for one of his chiseled arms to hold me close while the other smites a damning blow to poverty and oppression.
……………
I encourage you to vote for Obama too. I’m not saying that voting for McCain would be a sin. Nor am I saying that it would be a horrible, disgusting sin for you to not vote at all. But I am saying that to vote for Obama is to vote for Jesus. And to NOT vote for Obama would mean that you don’t love Jesus, the poor, or your own mother. To NOT vote for Jesus would be to render Jesus’ life and message meaningless. That’s all I’m saying.
Jesus… and Robin Hood ethics. I like it. It reminds me of all those scriptures of Jesus and his posse holding up rich people on the road and taking their money at sword point and giving it to poor people. Robbin’ in da ‘hood, but all for a good cause. Of course, later on in, oh, the 32nd chapter of Matthew, we read about Jesus getting the ear of King Herod, and getting him to have the soldiers take the money from the rich and give it to the poor. All perfectly legal. Same difference, and saves Jesus and his posse from having to do it themselves.
Personally, I’m encouraging all twenty and thirty somethings to vote for Obama, since that will selfishly be best for me… he’ll make sure they pay for my retirement and medical care, even though I’ll have more money than them at the time.
The way I see it, I win either way. McCain gets elected, in which case things are better for my children, and their children… or Obama gets elected, and things are better for me. Who knows: maybe I”ll decide to pass along some of the largesse from you and your kiddies to MY kiddies, if I’m feeling extra generous at the time.
Can’t beat that.
hat tip: Aly at Addison Road
Jul 22 2008
Obama wants to follow in Reagan’s footsteps?
Charles Krauthammer skillfully deconstructs Obama’s desire to give a speech at an historic site.
Barack Obama wants to speak at the Brandenburg Gate.
He figures it would be a nice backdrop. The supporting cast — a cheering audience and a few fainting frauleins — would be a picturesque way to bolster his foreign policy credentials.
Maybe if Obama wrote a nice concerto or something. Until then, I suggest he schedule his next speech at a Bridge to Nowhere(there are several), a more fitting analogy to his current resume. Read the whole article.
UPDATE: Reader email..
Reagan appeared at the Brandenburg Gate because it was symbolic of the challenge he was issuing to the leaders of the opposition to freedom. Since the major leaders of the most vociferous opposition to freedom in the modern world are Islamic, maybe he needs to deliver a speech in Mecca or Medina… Oh, wait, he can’t go there without becoming a Muslim (unclean infidel that he is). Maybe he could stand outside the city gates and say, “Prince Faisal, tear down this wall!”
Jul 20 2008
McCain, School Choice, the NAACP and the Feds
John McCain to NAACP: It’s Time for School Choice
John McCain told the NAACP this morning that after decades of broken promises by the nation’s public school systems it is time to give all parents an easy choice of public and private schools. He is right, so long as he doesn’t propose a private school choice program at the national level.
At the link are some excellent comments about proper limits for federal involvement in a school choice program.
Nationally, blacks want school choice. Obama, as usual, is trying to have it both ways. Don’t expect a clear statement on the issue from him, given that his primary constituency, blacks, wants school choice, but his primary enabling constituency, the teachers union, does not. Actually, expect several clear statements from him, just don’t expect them to agree, and expect his campaign surrogates to spin in various directions, depending on who they’re talking to.
Jul 13 2008
There’s no speculative bubble in water
It’s popular to blame oil speculators for the high price of gasoline. These are the people who buy the right to purchase a future amount of oil product at a given price. So when there is a “bubble”, they are betting the price will be higher in the future, and so they’ll pay for that bet, and the price of oil goes up.
Factors the speculators consider include the political situation in the Middle East, rising demand in Asia, the likelihood that new supplies won’t be developed elsewhere anytime soon, etc. It’s important to realize that ALL of these reasons boil down to guessing if there will be enough supply for the demand. Everytime Iran makes a threat, the price goes up, because no one knows what Iran will do in the future, if military action against Iran or by Iran will reduce supply then, etc.
Remember, if the speculators bet wrong, they lose money.
Jul 09 2008
Obama is just a better person than the rest of us
Power Line: Obama Snickers At His Countrymen — Video here, too— read it all, and watch the video
Barack Obama made a fool of himself again yesterday. At a campaign event in Georgia, he mocked Americans as ignoramuses who go abroad and can’t say anything in French except “merci beaucoup.” (Obama doesn’t speak French.) He said that rather than worrying about immigrants learning English, we must all teach our children to speak Spanish. (Obama doesn’t speak Spanish, either.)
Jul 08 2008
Why the Twenty-Somethings Should Vote For Obama #1
Because he’ll make sure the twenty-somethings pay for my retirement and medical care, even though I’ll have more money than them. Why should those lazy millenial types get to put aside any more of their own money than I did mine at their age? They OWE me.
Big Time.
Jul 03 2008
For the politically less interested, who still plan to vote
If You Are Just Starting To Think About This Election… Clear thinking from John Mark Reynolds
Normal people, those with actual lives, do not follow every poll on Real Clear Politics. If you have a good life, then it is likely that you are only vaguely aware that soon you will have to TIVO past even more political ads. You know there is an election this year, but like a trip to the dentist, you have put off the unpleasant task of deciding on a candidate. Fortunately for you, there are now only two candidates left with any chance of actually being the president.
Many (if not most) American voters only know three things about the two guys running for President:
1. Neither of them is named Clinton or Bush.
(A pause to thank God for His mercies.)
2. One is young and cool.
3. The other is old and a war hero.
Blessed is the man who does not check Rasmussen Report three times a day. If you are this person, congratulations on living a peaceful life. The genius of the republic is that it allows a man to be a patriot without being a politico.
There is more, and if you’re not really up to speed on the candidates, you really need to read all of this.
Jun 28 2008
Throwing away victory: giving up too soon is the way
Just to begin with the usual disclaimer in this discussion: even if you think the war in Iraq was an error from the beginning, you still must deal with the reality we face now. We’re there. After very hard times, some of which could certainly have been avoided, things are looking up.
Grown-ups don’t make policy based on woulda/coulda/shoulda and “let’s pull out and show those darn neo-cons what a disaster they’ve created”. Grown-ups look with clear eyes at the situation as it is and say, “What do we do now?”
Maybe we shouldn’t have bought this particular property on an adjustable rate mortgage, and the monthly bill has been higher than we hoped, but do we declare bankruptcy? Or do some creative financing and restructuring? Or just stick with it, since the worst times seem to be over, and rates are coming down?
Max Boot, writing in Commentary on the complaints of Andrew Sullivan, Josh Marshall and others about Boot’s comparison of Germany, Japan, etc., to Iraq, with regard to how long we’ll have to keep troops there after major fighting is done:
Lots of people couldn’t imagine when we first intervened in the former Yugoslavia that our troops would stay there for years and that they would not be violently contested. But that is, in fact, what’s happened. Obviously there are major differences between the Balkans and Iraq, which Sullivan and Marshall can no doubt cite ad nauseam. But those deployments also show the kind of long-term role that U.S. troops can play.
The broader point is that the success of American military interventions has usually been closely related to their length. The longer we stay, the more successful we are. When we get out too quickly–as we did in Haiti in the 1990’s–the situation often goes to hell. So if we want to secure a lasting victory in Iraq we need to stay around for a good long while.
But I get the sense that Marshall and Sullivan, like many of their antiwar compatriots, don’t really care about whether we win or lose in Iraq. They simply want to get out, and damn the consequences. That brings up another historical analogy that I’m sure they would rather forget: the way we pulled out of South Vietnam after the defeat of the North’s Tet and Easter Offensives when a decent outcome (namely the long-term preservation of South Vietnam’s independence) was within our grasp. A lot of antiwar voices back then said it would actually be good for the locals if we left, just as they now say it would be good for Iraq if we skedaddled. Tell it to the Vietnamese boat people or the victims of the Cambodian killing fields.
It’s worth reading all of it, and reading Boot’s original thoughts as well.
Obama can claim his righteous foresight and ideological purity about the Iraq war all he wants, but that still doesn’t make him the person to manage our current situation. He seems more interested in acting out on his righteous indignation than making sound policy based on the realities we face. We can only hope that, if he wins, his advisers will gradually move him away from extreme, preemptive withdrawal that will throw away everything the surge has gained.
I hope his policy, if elected, will be something more than a childish, “I TOLD you so, and now I’m going to show YOU!”
President TrainingWheels, indeed, if that is the case.
I hope he reads Michael Yon’s book.
hat tip: Powerline
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