With Senator John McCain admitting that he isn’t entirely comfortable navigating around the Internet, I was happy to see the Republican National Committee openly mock Obama’s use of FaceBook. The RNC has released a website named BarackBook.com, and it’s well done.
Archive for July, 2008
- Obama has angered his financial base over FISA. [Source: Little Green Footballs]
- Victor Davis Hanson takes a look at Barack W. Bush? [Source: Townhall]
- Jesse Jackson has some issues with Barack Obama. Unfortunately, that may be a positive for Obama with many voters. Ebony takes a look at why Obama may have more critics than just Jackson on his speeches given at churches. [Source: ABC News, Washington Post, and EbonyJet]
- It’s really hard to believe that Obama is committed to unity with Clinton after this. Not extremely convincing for the rookie senator and accomplished flip-flopper. [Source: Redstate and The Washington Post]
- Is Barack, “The Rudderless”, taking a nosedive on fund raising? [Source: Protein Wisdom]
- The Weekly Standard takes a look at Obama’s abortion record. [Source: Weekly Standard]
- The American Spectator analyzes Barack’s flip-flops of late. [Source: American Spectator]
Leon Wolf over at RedState provides excellent commentary in his posting “I’m Having a Hard Time Selecting my Favorite Part of this Video” on the video below of Senator Barack Obama. The presumptive Democratic Presidential candidate is filmed calling Americans “embarrassing” when comparing Americans’ foreign language skills to those of Europeans, and the crowd (and Obama himself) seems to enjoy the rookie senator’s humor at the expense of other Americans. Wolf has a hard time picking out his favorite part — watch it and see why:
I’m in agreement with Wolf (and Obama) that it’s an excellent benefit to know another foreign language (or two). Both of my young daughters are in fact learning Spanish, but unlike Obama, I’m hardly embarrassed by Americans who speak only English. You add this video to the audio of Brack Obama calling gun and religion clinging Americans “bitter” and I personally believe you have a pretty condemning look at Obama’s worldview and his opinions of Americans. Let’s just call him George Soros Jr. 
Sadly, Obama and his supporters seem to get a good chuckle out of Obama’s slam, but forgive me if I fail to laugh along considering this man wants to be President for all of America including those who only speak English. No wonder he has to spend so much time defending his patriotism with speeches and his new fond fondness for flag pins on his lapel.
On Friday, July 4th, 2008, Republican Jesse Helms passed away at the age of 86. Below is a comparison of how FOX and CNN covered his death.
FOXNews: Former North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms Dies at 86
CNN: Ex-Sen. Jesse Helms dies at 86
Lede Paragraph Comparison:
FOXNews: “Former Sen. Jesse Helms, a Capitol Hill icon who devoted 30 years in the Senate to championing conservative causes, died Friday morning. He was 86.”
CNN: “Former U.S. Sen. Jesse Helms, a North Carolina Republican who became an icon to conservatives, died Friday at age 86, the Jesse Helms Center said.”
Comment: Nothing malicious here, which is unusual.
Summary & snippets:
FOXNews: The five-term Republican senator from North Carolina formerly chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and used his clout to rail against Communism, liberalism and big government.
CNN: Helms once said his job was to derail the freight train of liberalism.
Comment: Note how CNN conveniently omits the feared “Communism” tag that fits their audience oh so well, but they all deny it claiming it is really “Progressivism”. Also notice how CNN does not want to alert their audience that big government can be avoided. Kudos to FOX for elaborating Helms’ goals; demerits to CNN for a hit-and-run statement.
FOXNews: Helms had a habit of blocking nominations and frequently clashed with former President Bill Clinton. In the ’90s he blocked all of Clinton’s judicial nominations from North Carolina for eight years.
CNN: He also helped prevent the Senate from ratifying the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty despite appeals from President Clinton.
Comment: Note how CNN does not explain what exactly the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which essentially takes nuclear weapon development off the table leaving America less able to defend herself.
FOXNews: Known by some as “Senator No” for his opposition to Democratic measures, Helms was a polarizing figure for his positions on social issues.
CNN: Helms was known as “Senator No” for his staunch opposition to an array of liberal causes, including affirmative action, arts funding and gay rights.
Comment: Note how CNN conveniently leaves out the Senator’s reasons for his opposition.
FOXNews: He was a proponent of school prayer and an opponent of abortion rights and gay rights groups. In the Senate, he forced roll-call votes that required Democrats to take sensitive positions on topics such as flag burning and school busing. His opposition to Communism defined his foreign policy views. He took a dim view of many arms control treaties, opposed Fidel Castro at every turn and supported the contras in Nicaragua as well as the right-wing government of El Salvador. He opposed the Panama Canal treaties that President Jimmy Carter pushed through a reluctant Senate in 1977.
CNN: Conservatives admired him for his opposition to abortion and what he called “indecent art,” while liberals accused him of using race as a wedge issue to defeat black opponents. Helms opposed civil rights and a holiday honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. He was one of a small number of senators who opposed extending the Voting Rights Act in 1982, eventually giving up a filibuster when then-Majority Leader Sen. Howard Baker, a Tennessee Republican, said the Senate would not take up any other business until it acted on the extension.
Comment: Again notice how CNN leaves out the logic for the Senator’s opposition; also notice how CNN presents him in such a light that only Conservatives could admire (i.e., liberals therefore despise this monster), whereas FOX states it in a declarative manner.
FOXNews: No matter his positions, colleagues said he always was a gentleman. … But he also worked with some Democratic leaders, including former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Albright once said of Helms, he “was the kindest, most infuriating, politest, most aggravating and nicest politician I had to deal with in the United States Senate.”
CNN: “The business of political causes and issues is a lot like professional wrestling — there is good and there is evil. And Jesse Helms, to those of us on the left, is evil,” Roger Craver, a leading direct-mail fund-raiser for the left, told CNN in 2001 when Helms announced his retirement.
Comment: CNN makes no mention of his likability on both sides of the isle; for that matter, CNN gives the Senator no personality at all. Dehumanize the man and no one will dispute how evil he must have been!
FOX: He won the 1972 election after switching parties and defeated then-Gov. Jim Hunt in an epic battle in 1984 in what was then the costliest Senate race on record.
CNN: Helms was accused of race-baiting throughout his career. “To rob the Negro of his reputation of thinking through a problem in his own fashion is about the same as trying to pretend that he doesn’t have a natural instinct for rhythm and for singing and dancing,” he wrote in 1956, according to the AP.
Comment: Never once did CNN even hint that the Senator wisely jumped ship on the Dems. Say it ain’t so, CNN, say it ain’t so!
I have found the perfect adjective to describe the darling golden child of the Marxist net-roots movement groups like MoveOn.org and the Americans for Democratic Action. That adjective is rudderless and it perfectly describes Barack Obama. The Free Dictionary gives the following definition for rudderless:
- Lacking in direction, control, or coherence: the confused and rudderless financial markets; characterized the administration’s Central American policy as rudderless.
Obama’s anti-war posturing, youthful exuberance, gifted oratory skills, and promises to be a new kind of politician, one we could believe in, seemed to over the past year captivate the members of the leftist net-roots community. But, did they ever consider what would happen once Obama clinched the Democratic party’s nomination over the more battle ready but less trendy Hillary Clinton? Did they believe that after largely financing the meteoric rise of the rookie senator on the national scene, that he would remain true to their socialist agenda and reward their backing? If they did, they must be greatly disappointed in the chosen one after the past week.
Over the past week he has shifted to the political right on gun control (Heller), Iraq (shifting time lines), abortion (mental health exceptions), and free trade (he’s for it now I believe).
On gun rights, despite helping past excessive gun control laws in the Chicago area, Barack Obama now would like to fashion himself as a proponent of the 2nd Amendment and the right of Americans to use deadly force to protect themselves. Could it be that he is now trying to make himself more appealing to those citizens in the heartland and rust belt of America that he called “bitter” and who according to him “cling” to their guns and religion? Let’s not forget that when he made those comments he had every reason to believe that they would NOT be leaked to the press because his campaign was holding a closed event with millionaires in San Francisco. It’s reasonable that of all his comments these were the least choreographed and likely the most relective of his true opinions.
So it certainly is audacious that he could believe that he can pass himself of today as a gun rights proponent, and quite frankly it’s insulting to those he is attempting to woo with his rhetoric. The National Review succinctly proves that this is contradictory to Obama’s previous statements made earlier in the campaign in a blog posting titled “Obama Heller Reaction Completely Contradicts Previous Stands, Actions”:
I’m sorry, how can you claim “I have always believed that the Second Amendment protects the right of individuals to bear arms” when you steered $15 million to the self-described “most aggressive group in the gun control movement” that published a book entitled, Every Handgun is Aimed at You: The Case for Banning Handguns ?
The RNC is calling attention to this comment from before the Potomac Primary, when moderator Leon Harris said, “you support the D.C. handgun ban, and you’ve said that it’s constitutional,” and Obama didn’t dispute the characterization that he believes the ban is constitutional. If he really disagreed, you figure “I don’t think it is constitutional” would have appeared somewhere in his 204-word answer.
Obama - rudderless on gun rights!
Today we find that after securing the endorsement of the pro-abortion group NARAL Obama is moving slightly to the right stating that he believes that severe mental distress does constitute a health wish to the mother where he would support a late term abortion. This is in direct opposition to the position held by NARAL. The Gateway Pundit adds this over Obama’s move:
This “refined” position goes against his 100% rating from NARAL in 2005, 2006 and 2007.
Last year Obama said he would trust women to make the right decision on partial birth abortion.
That was when Obama trusted women, before he didn’t trust them.
Whew!… This guy is getting hard to keep up with.
Obama - rudderless on abortion!
And of course, the biggest insult to the MoveOn.org followers, Daily Kosians, and Huffington Posters (who have supported Obama with large sums of money and enthusiasm that helped the rookie senator get elected) is that Obama is changing is tune on Iraq and his immediate withdrawal. I have liberal friends that have sited that this is the primary reason that they chose Obama over Clinton and this was the most crucial reason they donated money to Obama’s campaign. Now virtually guaranteed the nomination, the young senator has turned his back on them and the leftist net-roots fanatics are clearly pissed.
ABC’s Political Punch adds the following:
There’s been lots of speculation this week about whether Sen. Barack Obama has an Iraq problem. He does now.
His comments Thursday, saying that he will “continue to refine” his plan to withdraw combat troops from Iraq inside of 16 months, seems likely to leave the campaign on the defensive on this issue for days or weeks.
And it increases the likelihood that his trip to Iraq later this month will not turn out like Obama wants it to.
There will be only one relevant question now out of Obama’s trip now: Do you stand by your plan? Obama is unlikely to give a direct, yes-or-no answer — and that’s where Sen. John McCain and his allies can and will pounce.
Obama - rudderless on Iraq.
So it turns out that Obama is hardly a new kind of politician. He played to the passionite left-wing components of the Democratic power base, he used their money to run an effective primary campaign, and now that he has secured the nomination, he has tossed the leftist net-roots to the curb along with Jeremiah Wright and Michael Pfleger. As he used Jeremiah Wright to gain entrance into the Chicago world of politics, Obama has used the passionate members of MoveOn.org and others to gain entrance into the General Election.
The Marxist net-roots have learned the hard way Caveat Emptor!
[Note: This doesn’t even cover Obama’s flip-flops on campaign finance reform, welfare reform, and FISA. Obama is flip-flopping out of control — he needs to pace himself. ;-)]
Apparently, Obama has felt the pressure and is now trying to comfort his more liberal supporters by indicating that his 16-month withdrawal plan is still a go as reported in the New York Times:
“Let me be as clear as I can be,” he said. “I intend to end this war. My first day in office I will bring the Joint Chiefs of Staff in, and I will give them a new mission, and that is to end this war — responsibly, deliberately, but decisively.
“And I have seen no information that contradicts the notion that we can bring our troops out safely at a pace of one to two brigades a month, and, again, that pace translates into having our combat troops out in 16 months’ time.”
Mr. Obama added that when he had spoken earlier about possibly refining his policies, he was referring to questions about how big a residual force should be left to train Iraqi forces and conduct counterterrorism operations, not the overall timeline for withdrawal.
Mr. Obama’s positioning on this issue has been a critical component of his candidacy from the beginning. He, almost alone among the major candidates, opposed the war from the start, and that helped him beat a crowded Democratic field. And while he has long said he would consult commanders in the field when withdrawing troops, that point might have been lost on many Democratic primary voters who supported his call to end the war.
What a bunch of nonsense. He will rely on the commanders but he has “seen no information” that indicates that he can’t do it along the 16-month without TALKING TO THE COMMANDERS. Does that seem like a rather empty statement. He’s hedging and he’s stuck in a pickle. He will rely on the commanders assessments so why exactly should we believe his proposed time table? Or is he lying about consulting the commanders? Utterly rudderless and empty!!!!
- John McCain has retooled his campaign to prepare for the battle ahead in the general election. [Source: Political Punch]
- Ralph Nader is polling at 6 percent — will he be blamed again by the liberals if John McCain wins. Of course, it wouldn’t have anything to do with the lack of experience that the rookie senator from Illinois brings to the table. [Source: Newsmax]
- Tom Maguire takes a look at an interesting proposal that would allow McCain to take Obama “back to school”! [Source: Just One Minute]
- Barack Obama is NOT a friend of gun owners. [Source: Redstate]
- Hugh Hewitt has published his “A Letter to a Young Obama Supporter”. [Source: Pajamas Media]
- A clever post at Power Line points out that Obama has associated himself with one who has ordered bombs to fly and they are not talking about Wesley Clark. [Source: Power Line]
- It looks like Obama has himself in quite a pickle with the net-roots movement. [Source: Townhall]
- Conservative Evangelicals are coming to their senses and it looks like they will be supporting John McCain. [Source: Newsmax]
