A bit of radio silence for a while from me through the Republican convention and attendant noise. I’ve been looking around at the ongoing Palin coverage and a few things occur to me:
Middle East analyst Emanuel A. Winston discusses various sponsors and mentors who seem to have been behind Barack Obama’s meteoric rise to public prominence and who may have influenced his political orientation. Among those mentioned are the anti-American author Khalid al-Mansour, the principle adviser of Saudi billionaire Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal; the notorious Columbia University Professor Edward Said, once a member of the PLO; and Syrian-born Tony Rezko, a Chicago politician who became executive director of the Muhammad Ali Foundation to spread Islam. To the preceding one must add Obama’s mentor the Rev. “God-damn-America” Jeremiah Wright, whose church Obama attended for 20 years. Winston rightly concludes that America is poised to elect a man to the presidency whose known mentors and sponsors put a lie to just about everything Obama has said on the campaign trail. Winston adroitly refers to Senator Obama as a “Mansourian candidate.” Let me offer some other sobriquets that may give the reader a glimpse into Obama’s mysterious character.
“We’re not going to be anybody’s attack dog against Sarah Palin,” Clinton insider said yesterday. Is it possible? Will Hillary finally stop standing by abusive men who repeatedly humiliate her in public? Doubtful. She is on her way to Florida to sell him. Nor is she going to be the only abused Democratic female politician to do so. I am sure other women not considered for the vice presidential slot such as Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano and Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill will be dutifully selling him, too. They will constitute a real “sisterhood.”
If this does not upset you, I do not know what will. In his acceptance speech Obama equated serving in the military with “serving” the country at home by community organizing and such:
Clinton didn’t get Osama bin Laden. Bush didn’t get Osama bin Laden. But if we elect Barack Hussein Obama to the presidency, bin Laden may finally die. From laughing his ass off.
I am literally sick — head-pounding, stomach churning sick – of hearing about regular, law-abiding citizens — normal, everyday people doing normal, everyday things — becoming victims of violence.
I never cease to be amazed and humbled by the number of pundits who, without any classified information, confidently prognosticate on global affairs, especially on the United States and Israel. So what is a political scientist like me to say when asked whether the U.S. or Israel is going to bomb Iran to prevent its development of nuclear weapons? Almost any person who takes 9/11 seriously and has heard about Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s boast of a world without America and Israel, should be able to see that a nuclear-armed Iran would be a mortal threat to Western civilization. It requires no political scientist to see that a nuclear Iran would control the vast oil reserves of the Persian Gulf and cow an already cowed Europe. This, he would see, would be enough to devastate the American economy and bring the last bastion of freedom and human dignity to a miserable end. As for Israel, one nuclear strike would doom it to oblivion. Exit Judaism as well as Christianity.
On the day McCain “blew it” by choosing Sarah, I wrote re McCain’s choice of Sarah that it showed why military service is really important to Presidents: not because it improves their morals or proves their patriotism, but because it teaches them the importance of strategy.
Today the amazing Jennifer Rubin posted in Contentions a long list of the amazing strokes of luck that McCain has enjoyed in the last few weeks.
Which proves my point. As Napoleon is often quoted as having said, good generals are lucky, not just brave.
ST. PAUL– The Dutch graphic artist M.C. Escher is famed for his drawings of impossible things– the hands drawing each other, the stairs that go up infinitely, the bookshelf that turns into a street. I once suggested that if Escher were still alive, he should crank out a lithograph of John McCain accepting the nomination of the Republican party.
That John McCain was on vivid display Thursday night. The fighter. He no longer flies fighter jets, of course, but the man he is today is the man he was then.
One week ago, I heard the crowd filtering out of Invesco Field in Denver, praising the Barack Obama nomination acceptance speech as one of the best they had ever heard.
I should not have been as surprised as I was. Since then, I have realized that, perhaps as easy cover for their anti-Zionism, the mainline Protestant churches make a great noise about their occasional condemnation of “Jews for Jesus” and similar group. But this fastidiousness has simply not trickled down to the parish level.
t seems to me that Sarah Palin is more popular with the delegates (and perhaps the hard core base) than is John McCain. The fact is McCain is minority candidate in the party. If there had been a single right wing stalwart (like George Bush) instead of the four headed doofus of Romney, Huckabee, Thompson and Giuliani, he would have lost. So now he is not even particularly popular with his party. So he needs Palin and the Christian right, who he used to attack.
I have always assumed that Barack Hussein Obama paid for his law school in the manner most students do, by taking out loans. Not so, reports Kenneth R. Timmerman. In his autobiography he describes the qualms he had about leaving “his people” to go to Harvard and better himself. Apparently he did more than that. He used his community organizing ties to raise funds to finance his expensive legal education. His good fairy was a Muslim radical named Dr. Khalid al Mansour. A lawyer with close ties to Saudi princes. As they were not sure Obama can get in on his own merits, Mansour got Percy Sutton to write letters to all his Harvard buddies.
Last night at the Republican Convention, though delivering a speech crafted by someone else, Sarah Palin revealed a quality sorely lacking in American politics - authenticity. She inhabited the speech with a naturalness that is hard to acquire; it’s a quality that people either have or don’t. Think Oprah Winfrey versus Barbara Walters or Clint Eastwood versus Sylvester Stallone. Given that even reality shows on television are scripted, and that most politicians and their families are redone by image consultants, stylists and makeup teams, Sarah Palin personified herself - walking onstage wearing clothes she probably found in her closet, sporting a hairdo that she can fix without a hairdresser and assessing her audience through functional eyeglasses instead of contacts. Her family looked similarly real - fresh-faced children wearing unglamorous clothes and an outdoorsy husband who could hold a baby as readily as a fishing rod. There was a spontaneous moment captured on camera when Piper Palin, cradling her baby brother in her arms, spit into her palm and smoothed the infant’s hair down. This is the type of candid perfection that handlers can’t manufacture. The Palin family offers a folksy balance to McCain’s physical stiffness but more significantly, a stark contrast to the sophisticated image of the Obama family who looked resplendent as they poor-mouthed their humble origins and youthful hardships at their own convention.
Former US ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton recently raised the question of a possible Israeli attack on Iran. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Bolton urged the US to aid Israel before, during, and after such an attack—if it should take place. This may mean that Bolton does not believe a US attack on Iran is in the cards. Indeed, pundits report that Washington is opposed to an Israeli preemptive strike because it would “destabilize” the region. Really!!! And what would a nuclear armed-Iran do to the region—especially now that Vladimir Putin (allied with Iran) is restoring the Cold War, largely by means of Russia’s oil and gas resources on which Europe is dependent?
Last night the Democrats got a preview of the future. It was a 750 mm howitzer leveled at them. They expected a simple-minded, small town rube. Instead, they experienced a blend of Ronald Reagan, Ann Coulter and Rita Rudner. She was charming, tough and graceful. She was also the Democrat’s nightmare…she was down to earth, family-centered, full of heart and for the common man. Translation: She was similar to a Democrat except with brains, common sense, compassion and depth. Like many Republicans I was not sure I would vote this year. But, after hearing Sarah the Hockey Mom, I registered this morning!
Most of the media, including large parts of the progressive one, is dealing with McCain’s irresponsible choice of a running mate with kid gloves. The choice is called “surprising,” “edgy,” “maverick,” and at worst, a “gamble.” Actually, it reveals a dangerous streak of profoundly irresponsible conduct, a character flaw of the new leader of the GOP. The choice of the VP candidate is widely considered the first real test of the leadership capability of those who are aspiring to become President. Obama passed this test with flying colors. Even those who much preferred that he choose someone else agree that Biden is a perfectly reasonable choice. But what about Sarah Palin?
Hispanics now outnumber blacks in the USA, but they were practically invisible during the Democratic Convention in Denver. Only one speaker during the primetime slots was Hispanic, and he did not speak to Hispanic issues. Otherwise, though the convention started slowly, it kept improving and by the end, it soared. The Obama campaign may well have some good explanation for this neglect of Hispanics. Hence, it may not need to say “sorry,” but it had better make amends.
Colleagues of mine have made some discerning comments about Governor Sarah Palin’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. I have added a couple of my own.
Where are the GOP “re-branders” now? Palin brews “GOP Classic” In the spring and summer of 2008, it was popular to talk about the GOP “brand” as damaged goods. Boehner, Schwarzenegger, Tom Davis, even Andrew Sullivan all lamented (or celebrated) the shopworn nature of the Republican brand - and all suggested that the path to re-branding led away from Bush’s White House, to a new formulation - in essence, a kinder, gentler Republicanism of the Bush I or even Rockefeller era. They ignored, of course, Bush the younger’s attempt to provide a compassionate conservatism. Needless to say, none of them had any idea of what branding is all about. As marketers, the GOP rebranders would have had successful careers at the Coca Cola Company in the early 1980s, when New Coke was created. But New Coke was a failure, except by its contrast with Coca Cola Classic. What Sarah Palin delivered last night was GOP Classic - a slap in the face not only to the hapless Obama and Biden pairing, but to those who sought to walk away from the strengths and basic identity of GOPitude and create a New GOP brand. Coca Cola Classic saved Coke. We just saw a master marketer - Sarah Palin - hired by a master CEO - John McCain - do what great marketers have always done.
Sarah Pallin displays what is most lacking in many people in high office: CHARACTER. Character is far more fundamental and important than “experience,” because without good character, experience will not enable office –holders to deal with the tough issues confronting our country.
On Wednesday, something stunning happened–and I’m not talking about anything to do with Sarah Palin or her electrifying speech at the Republican Nation Convention. This is about MSNBC–and their complete abandonment of journalistic standards and integrity.
