What will happen in South Carolina?

First Read:

From NBC's Domenico MontanaroWell, it's all-in for Romney in Michigan. Romney is pulling all advertising in South Carolina and putting all of his efforts into Michigan.

"We feel the best strategy is to focus our paid messaging in Michigan," Romney spokesman Kevin Madden said, per the AP.

After going 0-for-2 in Iowa and New Hampshire, two states Romney poured in millions, Romney can't afford to lose one more.

Evangelicals, surprisingly, were equally divided in New Hampshire between Huckabee, McCain, and Romney. If Romney pulls his ads in South Carolina, will the evangelicals who would have voted for Romney go for McCain or Huckabee? They are a much larger lot in South Carolina, and don't assume they will go for Huckabee. They want a candidate who can win too.

I actually feel nervous for Mitt. He is my second choice and I don't want him out before they hardly get out of the gate. I certainly hope Michigan isn't the be all for him.

Also, I would hope Edwards wins in South Carolina. It would be more fun for it to be a good three way horse race for the Democrats. My feeling is that if Obama doesn't beat Hillary in South Carolina, then it's game over. No "fresh voice" for the Democrats. No "real change." It will be more of the same.

A Study in Lies

Remember in 2006 when the leftwingers shouted with horror (and glee, because it proved how horrid the U.S. was) that a study had found 600,000 Iraqi civilians dead since the war began? I heard this number ad nauseum from my leftwing friends.

The WaPo included the number in this piece. Fox News quoted it with some skepticism. But CNN headlined it.

Turns out, Fox was right to be skeptical because it was a bunch of bull:

It's probably no coincidence that one of the authors — Roberts — just happened to oppose the removal of Saddam Hussein from his dictator's throne and has confessed he tried to influence the 2004 U.S. elections by timing the release of a previous study that made the war look much worse than it was.

Roberts also ran — unsuccessfully — as a Democrat for New York's 24th congressional district in 2006. He told the National Journal that "a combination of Iraq and (Hurricane) Katrina just put me over the top."
Meanwhile, "Burnham admitted that he set the same condition" on the second report.

IBD didn't believe the numbers from the start because they didn't jive with our government's numbers or the Iraqi government's numbers or even another anti-war group with causality numbers, which was 44,000 to 49,000. Higher than the govt's, but a BIT less than over 600,000, If you want to call 550,000 a bit less.

Naturally anti-Bush and anti-war forces have thrown the higher numbers around as if they were indisputable fact, not fraud.
At least one media outlet, though, used its journalistic instincts to take a critical look at the study. The National Journal let Neil Munro and Carl M. Cannon use that publication's Jan. 4 cover story to detail what they discovered after months of scrutiny.
Headlined "Data Bomb," the story identifies three problems:
• "Possible flaws in the design and execution of the study."
• "A lack of transparency in the data, which has raised suspicions of fraud."
The authors have refused to provide the data they used to reach their conclusions. Part of the reason might lie in what should be their professional shame for letting unsupervised Iraqis go into neighborhoods and ask survey questions.
• "Political preferences held by the authors and the funders, which include George Soros's Open Society Institute."
Almost half of the study's $100,000 price tag was paid for by "an outspoken billionaire who has repeatedly criticized the Iraq campaign and who spent $30 million trying to defeat Bush in 2004."
.......

Yet the wildly exaggerated 2006 Lancet study was not just accepted by the media, it was exalted. Why?
Again, the National Journal has the answer: "Probably because its findings fit an emerging narrative: Iraq was a horrific mess."
Of course the National Journal's expose will never get the same media attention that was heaped upon the original Lancet study. Its sober analysis does not fit the narrative.

Of course those false numbers will continue to be bantered about. The media won't correct it. The left will most certainly not. Why be honest when you can make the U.S. look bad?

Even the much lower numbers are a sad fact of war. I don't discount or dismiss them. But to use data and stand behind a false study in order to push a political agenda, using war at the time of war, is unforgivable.

h/t BigDog

Select a Candidate!

This is pretty cool.

You answer a few questions and it tells you which candidates most mirror your beliefs.

Fred Thompson and Duncan Hunter tied for first with me, with McCain coming in 2nd. Heh.

Take it and tell me in the comments who was your candidate.

h/t Bigdog

"Russia to set up missile shield for Iran"

Not good.

Russia to set up missile shield for Iran

Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW: Russia will set up a massive anti-missile shield in Iran that will virtually guarantee the country against military attacks.

Moscow will supply Tehran with the advanced long-range S-300 surface-to-air missile complexes, informed Russian sources said.

“Several dozen S-300PMU-1 complexes will be delivered to Iran under a contract signed several years ago,” the Interfax news agency quoted a defence industry source as saying on Wednesday. He said deliveries could start as early as next year.

Another Russian defence source told the Kommersant daily that Moscow was planning to sell Iran five batteries of S-300 launchers at a price of $800 million. A typical S-300PMU-1 battery contains 48 missiles on 12 mobile launchers.

h/t dave bones

Chris Matthew slams Hillary

"I think the Hillary appeal has always been about the mix of toughness and sympathy. Let's not forget, and I'll be brutal, the reason she's a US Senator, the reason she's a candidate for President, the reason she may be a front runner, is that her husband messed around...That's how she got to be a Senator from New York. We keep forgetting it. She didn't win it on her merit, she won because everybody felt, 'My God, this woman stood up under humiliation,' right? That's what happened. That's how it happened. In 1998, she went to NY and campaigned for Chuck Schumer as almost like the grieving widow of absurdity, and she did it so well and courageously. But it was about the humilation of Bill Clinton."

Between Maureen Dowd and Chris Matthews telling the truth about Hillary, do we on the right even need to add to it? They are doing a pretty good job.

Blogger call with McCain Today

These are always fun because I get to listen to McCain off the cuff, but they are pretty predictable with talking points and such. Details of the call are over at Captain's Quarters.

At one point when McCain is discussing earmarks, he asks us to hold on. Then you hear him say, "Lindsay, I didn't say that" and then argues a bit more. It caught me off guard because I wasn't expecting him to argue with someone off line. But he was laughing at Lindsay Graham misunderstanding and getting all upset. McCain came back to the phone and made fun of Graham, saying he was unstable (jokingly!!!) and that he needed a translator when Graham was with him (southern accent dig!!???)

It was fun to hear McCain just joking around feeling confident.

Girl Gun

Hello Kitty!

Tears of a Clown

I'm not the only one who thought Hillary's tears were calculated. Check Maureen Dowd of the NYT:

Another reporter joked: “That crying really seemed genuine. I’ll bet she spent hours thinking about it beforehand.”

The women over 45 fell for it:

Getting brushed back by Barack Obama in Iowa, her emotional moment here in a cafe and her chagrin at a debate question suggesting she was not likable served the same purpose, making her more appealing, especially to women, particularly to women over 45.

The Obama campaign calculated that they had the women’s vote over the weekend but watched it slip away in the track of her tears.

I knew Hillary was too smart to be bested by a rookie. But some of us, on the right and left, see through her:

....there was a whiff of Nixonian self-pity about her choking up. What was moving her so deeply was her recognition that the country was failing to grasp how much it needs her. In a weirdly narcissistic way, she was crying for us.

I'm sure she was thinking exactly that. "How could the country not understand how important it is for me to be President!" And maybe she got emotional for another reason as well:

She became emotional because she feared that she had reached her political midnight, when she would suddenly revert to the school girl with geeky glasses and frizzy hair, smart but not the favorite. All those years in the shadow of one Natural, only to face the prospect of being eclipsed by another Natural?

Bingo!

*Ironically, the woman who asked the question that brought the tears voted for Obama.

The speech of a leader

Here are some excerpts from John McCain's speech last night. It's quite beautiful. (Emphasis mine)

"I talked about the country we love; the many challenges we face together; and the great promise that is ours to achieve; the work that awaits us in this hour, on our watch: to defend our country from its enemies; to advance the ideals that are our greatest strength; to increase the prosperity and opportunities of all Americans and to make in our time, as each preceding American generation has, another, better world than the one we inherited.
........

The people of New Hampshire have told us again that they do not send us to Washington to serve our self-interest, but to serve theirs. They don’t send us to fight each other for our own political ambitions; but to fight together our real enemies. They don’t send us to Washington to stroke our egos; but to help them keep this beautiful, bountiful, blessed country safe, prosperous and proud. They don’t send us to Washington to take more of their money, and waste it on things that add not an ounce to America’s strength and prosperity; that don’t help a single family realize the dreams we all dream for our children; that don’t help a single displaced worker find a new job, and the security and dignity it assures them; that won’t keep the promise we make to young workers that the retirement they have begun to invest in, will be there for them when they need it. They don’t send us to Washington to do their job, but to do ours.

My friends, I didn’t go to Washington to go along, to get along or to play it safe to serve my own interests. I went there to serve my country. And that, my friends, is just what I intend to do if I am so privileged to be elected your President.

I seek the nomination of a party that believes in the strength, industry, and goodness of the American people. We don’t believe that government has all the answers, but that it should respect the rights, property and opportunities of the people to whom we are accountable. We don’t believe in growing the size of government to make it easier to serve our own ambitions. But what government is expected to do, it must do with competence, resolve and wisdom.

.......

I seek the nomination of our party to restore that trust; to return our party to the principles that have never failed Americans: The party of fiscal discipline, low taxes; enduring values; a strong and capable defense; that encourages the enterprise and ingenuity of individuals, businesses and families, who know best how to advance America’s economy, and secure the dreams that have made us the greatest nation in history.

.....

In a time of war, and the terrible sacrifices it entails, the promise of a better future is not always clear. But I promise you, my friends, we face no enemy, no matter how cruel; and no challenge, no matter how daunting, greater than the courage, patriotism and determination of Americans. We are the makers of history, not its victims. And as we confront this enemy, the people privileged to serve in public office should not evade our mutual responsibility to defeat them because we are more concerned with personal or partisan ambition.

Whatever the differences between us, so much more should unite us. And nothing should unite us more closely than the imperative of defeating an enemy who despises us, our values and modernity itself. We must all pull together in this critical hour and proclaim that the history of the world will not be determined by this unpardonable foe, but by the aspirations, ideals, faith and courage of free people. In this great, historic task, we will never surrender. They will.

.......

I learned long ago that serving only oneself is a petty and unsatisfying ambition. But serve a cause greater than self-interest and you will know a happiness far more sublime than the fleeting pleasure of fame and fortune. For me that greater cause has always been my country, which I have served imperfectly for many years, but have loved without any reservation every day of my life. And however this campaign turns out — and I am more confident tonight that it will turn out much better than once expected — I am grateful beyond expression for the prospect that I might serve her a little while longer.

.......

But let us remember that our purpose is not ours alone; our success is not an end in itself. America is our cause — yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Her greatness is our hope; her strength is our protection; her ideals our greatest treasure; her prosperity the promise we keep to our children; her goodness the hope of mankind. That is the cause of our campaign and the platform of my party, and I will stay true to it so help me God."

The entire speech is here. Video is here.

New Hampshire

It looks like *Obama (Scratch that!) It is Hillary and McCain for New Hampshire. We still have a long way to go, but this race just keeps on getting more interesting.

Make no mistake about it. Obama, if nominated, will be a force to be reckoned with. As I said about his Iowa speech, he is exciting and electric.

I have had friends who are religious, but not political, ask me if he is pro-life, and when I say no, their face falls. They really liked him, but that is a big issue to them.

I knew then, that we had trouble.

But the nice thing about Obama being the nominee instead of Hillary (if that does indeed happen) is that we can focus on the issues instead of the personality or the morality of that person. I think Obama would wrong and even irresponsible of us to elect in this time in our history, but that would be because of his beliefs on the issues, not because of him as a person.

That might be nice to get back to, wouldn't it?

Update: I must admit I am stunned that Obama didn't win N.H. They were lined up to see him like a rock star this week. I really smell a rat here. But I am cynical when it comes to Hillary. Did the tears work? Fox is saying that she got most of the women vote. I am ashamed for my gender.

Do pretty girls poot?

We need to lighten things up a bit, don't ya think?



via Grouchy Old Cripple

Can you blame Obama?

The Guardian goes to Obama's volunteers to see what brought them to him, and it seems the Obama people ARE FREAKING PARANOID. I mean it. Check out the video

But, as Gawker mag points out: (hey, I'm just quoting here)

No one gets too close to Barack Obama. He's nervous--Hillary's killed before, after all.

What the L.A. Associated Press sees as important

Yeah, I know this is crazy California and even crazier L.A., but this is the A.P folks, not "Entertainment Tonight."

Good grief.

via Gawker

You can't ask me that, I'm black

I always hesitate to quote anything from Christopher Hitchens because it doesn't matter if he spouting things that make the right mad or the left mad, he seems to me to be a perfectly horrible human being.

But he is saying some things about this Obamamania that few would dare:

Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois is the current beneficiary of a tsunami of drool. He sometimes claims credit on behalf of all Americans regardless of race, color, creed, blah blah blah, though his recent speeches appear also to claim a victory for blackness while his supporters—most especially the white ones—sob happily that at last we can have an African-American chief executive. Off to the side, snarling with barely concealed rage, are the Clinton machine-minders, who, having failed to ignite the same kind of identity excitement with an aging and resentful female, are perhaps wishing that they had made more of her errant husband having already been "our first black president."

Or perhaps not. Isn't there something pathetic and embarrassing about this emphasis on shade? And why is a man with a white mother considered to be "black," anyway? Is it for this that we fought so hard to get over Plessy v. Ferguson?

I want to inject something here about Obama's mother being white as well. Remember, Obama wasn't raised by his black father. He was raised by his white mother and white grandparents. You may have heard about Obama's controversial church, if not, then check out it's mission statement:

We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian... Our roots in the Black religious experience and tradition are deep, lasting and permanent. We are an African people, and remain "true to our native land," the mother continent, the cradle of civilization. God has superintended our pilgrimage through the days of slavery, the days of segregation, and the long night of racism. It is God who gives us the strength and courage to continuously address injustice as a people, and as a congregation. We constantly affirm our trust in God through cultural expression of a Black worship service and ministries which address the Black Community.

You see, I'm thinking Obama's Mom wouldn't be invited to the Church picnic.

Hitchens mentions this also, and being someone who hasn't found a church, faith, or religion he couldn't bash, he's pretty harsh with this as well:

I have been droning on for months about how Mitt Romney needs to answer questions about the flat-out racist background of his own church, and about how Huckabee has shown in public that he does not even understand the first thing about a theory—the crucial theory of evolution by natural selection—in which he claims not to believe. Many Democrats are with me on this, but they go completely quiet when Sen. Obama chooses to give his allegiance to a crackpot church with a decidedly ethnic character.

I believe it was candidate George Bush who spoke at Bob Jones University, where they had a ban on interracial dating, that caused such an uproar in 2000. Will the media be as offended by this? Imagine if Bush had been a member of a Church that claimed to be "unashamedly white." What a difference a candidate makes. It makes me wonder about the media and their reaction to Obama. Will he be immune to the usual interrogations and questions about his associations because of his blackness?

If so, then I'm afraid we really haven't come as far as we had hoped.

"Obama is a stripper and Hilary is your wife"

The Daily Gut. Pretty funny:

So, while watching the debates over the weekend, I figured out why Obama is rising in popularity, and why Hilary is sinking like something that sinks. Obama doesn't have to do a damn thing but sit there and look pretty, and we love him. And Hilary doesn't have to do a damn thing but sit there and look constipated, and you hate her.

In a nutshell: Obama is a stripper and Hilary is your wife.

Read the rest. via NRO

Hillary gets emotional

Maryann Pernold, a 64-year-old undecided Democrat asked Clinton how she gets up every day on the road:

“It’s not easy, it’s not easy,” Clinton said shaking her head. Her eyes began to get watery as she finished answering the question, “I couldn’t do it if I didn’t passionately believe it was the right thing to do. This is very personal for me. I have so many ideas for this country and I just don’t want to see us fall backwards. It’s about our country, it’s about our kids’ future,” she said softly crying, her voice breaking.

I just saw this video on Fox News. Here it is on ABC News. Click on "teary Hillary." or click on link in this article.

The anchor on Fox News asked the reporter if this was sincere or was it a calculated moment. The reporter said that in all the time he has covered Hillary he has never seen her emotional. He felt it was real.

Yeah, it was real. I mean it. She was truly emotional. Because she sees this moment of her being President as slipping away. She sees all the calculating political moves, the careful Senate career, and staying with that rat of a husband, as being for naught.

I'd cry too.

Illegal Immigration

It's important how we handle it. As usual, Victor Davis Hanson puts it perfectly.

Idiots among us

Take a look at these two clips. The first is McCain at a rally in Salem where so called "activists" start demanding 50 billion dollars for HIV research in Africa.

The second is Ron Paul supporters harassing Sean Hannity.

Who are these people??? I am all for protest, I have been a part of protests, but it is one thing to make your case in a civil manner and quite another to act like a fool. Do these people think they are helping their cause? Do they think the attention they receive is better than no attention? They would be wrong. They make most of us sick and that feeling of disgust makes us dismiss out of hand anything they have to say of value.

What's a Black Person To Do?

The New York Times has an excellent article on the dilemma that Democratic black political leaders find themselves in.

So many, being long time supporters of the Clintons, find themselves wondering which way to go. Should they be loyal to the Clintons or go with what well could be the first black President of the United States (Bill Clinton non withstanding, of course)?

Jesse Jackson has finally come out in support of Obama, but his wife supports Hillary. I suppose Jesse's wife and Hillary do have a few things in common though. Like being married to powerful men who cheated on them and humiliated them. It's a strong bond, I'm sure.

But things aren't looking too good for Hillary right now:

...one prominent black supporter of Mr. Obama, Representative Artur Davis of Alabama, called this moment “a very precarious time for the Clinton campaign.”

“For black elected officials who either stayed out of this race or have supported Senator Clinton, they’re in a very dicey position right now,” Mr. Davis said, “because their black constituents are about to move overwhelmingly toward Barack Obama.”

It seems to me that Obama caught a lot of black leaders by surprise. They didn't believe in his electability, so they placed their bets on what they thought was a sure thing, Hillary Clinton. But now, it must seem to them that there is a chance of history being made here for blacks, and can they really decide not to be a part of it because of political loyalty?

The Deciding Moment For McCain

There is never a sure thing in politics, but New Hampshire seems to be the test for McCain. If he wins there, then the momentum builds and it's a real race. If he loses, it may prove that he couldn't overcome the differences so many Republicans have with him.

WSJ.com says this:

That ingrained pride of his that forbids pandering for political gain--that would be shamed by lying about his deeply held views--is what is old about him. Old in the sense that honor of this kind is sufficiently rare, now, that it's a subject of wonderment to people when they find it in someone, as they have in John McCain.
....

To hear him respond to questions, as he did recently in a visit to The Wall Street Journal's offices, is to grasp his command of events and policies, of security issues, of foreign relations. It is to grasp, also, how nearly heartless seeming are any comparisons between his authority on the issues, and those of his Republican competitors. (That's not counting Democrat Barack Obama, whose stance against terrorism, should he become president, will apparently consist largely of antipoverty programs, reassuring the world of our peaceful intentions, and attending Islamic Conferences.)


That last line truly scares me about Obama, and that is something to take into consideration now that it seems actually possible that he may get the nomination. We think Hillary terrible on this issue, but Obama is even more clueless. Likability isn't going to keep us safe or help us win this war.

Which brings me back to McCain. No one has made the case more than I for this man. I believe he is who we need now in our time of conflict and brutal enemies.

So many of you can continue to hold grudges on issues that, while important, pale in comparison to the big picture of Islamic terrorism. And we all know, that in the big picture, McCain gets it. No one disagrees there.

In the debates with the Democrats, they aren't even mentioning Islamic terrorism. They are hoping that since we have not been attacked again, people will forget, and maybe most Americans have.

History has shown us that the radical Islamist are patient people. They wait in the darkness for the right time to strike. They plan for years. We know this.

But let's not worry about that. Let's forget what we have been through. Let's be like the Democrats and hope for the best and ignore history and growing threats.

Let's forget the attacks we have thwarted. Let's pretend, like the Democrats, that we are no longer in any danger.

Let's elect who we like, instead of who we know will best lead in scary times.

New Hampshire may be the one who decides that.

Let's see.

Fox News Republican Debate

McCain obviously got the "be more happy and likable" memo. He was practically giddy.

The whole crowd needs to stop trying one liners. They don't work in this forum.

Thompson brought up John Wayne in reference to beating up Chuck Norris if he were here, reminding us that Fred seems old and tired. Why is it that McCain has so much more energy given his age and all that his body has been though?

Romney really impressed me tonight. He comes across as confident and knowledgeable.

I think all of them answered the illegal immigration problem better tonight. It's important that our position as Republicans is clear and based on what is best, not only for our country and our laws, but the illegal immigrants who are being taken advantage of and can't fully live free here.

Chris Wallace is an excellent moderator. There really was nothing knew here. McCain is counting on N.H. for a win. We shall see if the independents come out for him once again or instead, get caught up in Obamamania.

"The Clinton Campaign Has No Conscience"

Well, duh. You just now getting that Edwards?

Someone is having fun in the primiaries

And that would be McCain's daughter Meghan.


I like her blog alot. It isn't contrived or rehearsed and she looks like she really is enjoying it all. She always has lots of pictures too.

The Class President

I'm always doing the high school analogy with McCain and Romney. Michael Scherer at Time magazine compared the two in the same fashion. Pretty accurate:

Here's one thing you need to know about John McCain. He's always been the coolest kid in school. He was the brat who racked up demerits at the Naval Academy. He was the hot dog pilot who went back to the skies weeks after almost dying in a fire on the U.S.S. Forrestal.
......

When he sits in the back of his campaign bus, we reporters gather like kids in the cafeteria huddling around the star quarterback. We ask him tough questions, and we try to make him slip up, but almost inevitably we come around to admiring him. He wants the challenge. He likes the give and take. He is, to put it simply, cooler than us.
........

Now here's the thing you need to know about Mitt Romney. He is the overachiever, the do-gooder, the kid in class who always does everything right. All his life he has outperformed, as a Mormon missionary in France, as a corporate takeover consultant, as the guy who saved the Winter Olympics from financial ruin. He works crazy hours and apologizes after he makes a joke, because he is worried you won't understand his meaning. He is the one who takes endless notes in every class and has a little plastic container inside his locker for all of his mechanical pencils. He will probably be the valedictorian, and he will surely disappoint you at graduation by giving a bland speech that all the parents just love. "Isn't that boy so sweet," say all the moms.

So here is the situation that Republicans in New Hampshire face on Tuesday: Do we elect the jock or the overachiever? Do we go with cool and confident, or cautious and competent?

He had to add a post script for Huckabee:

Mike Huckabee also fits in my mythical high school typology. He is the class clown with the weight problem everyone likes, who always seemed to have his heart in the right place. When he runs for class president, you are tempted to vote for him if only because you just know he would make the weekly assemblies more fun.

I might add that no matter how hard you think about it, Fred always comes out as the Principle of the school. And who is high school would have voted for him? Maybe that's the problem.

Rudy is the bad kid who smokes cigarettes before school, wears a black jacket and gets all the girls who want the bad boy.

And we all know Ron Paul is the one who was stuffed in his locker every week. Poor guy.

Sometimes it seems in life, we are always replaying our teenage years.

h/t BigDog

N.H. Debates

The Republican debate was all about ganging up on Romney, who handled it well at times, and not so much at other times. Fred was like the patient father shaking his head at all the nonsense around him. Fred says all the right things. Why can't he gain traction? Huckabee seem to lose some steam and McCain was presidential (but you knew I would say that) Rudy was Rudy.

The Democratic debate was interesting because Hillary did so terrible. Which I find so great. She got ticked at one point, and that mood just doesn't work for her. Since it is difficult for me to be objective about her I wandered over to the left side of the web to see what they were saying. Can you say "harsh?"

From the liberal American Prospect:

R.I.P., THE CLINTON ERA, 9:34 P.M. EST.

Wow.
Get your kids out and put them in front of the TV: The Clinton Era officially ended at 9:34 p.m. EST when Edwards paired with Obama to bury Hillary as a non-agent of change.
Wow, again.
--Tom Schaller

Nice. Even the Kos Kids didn't have nice things to say about her. Could it possibly be true?

I may enjoy this political season more than I ever imagined.

Oh yes, and one more thing. If one was playing a drinking game during the debates and took a drink every time someone said the word "change," one would be drunker than cooter brown right now.

A Leader

A dirty bomb. Millions dead in a U.S. city . Chaos. Panic. Immeasurable grief. The images of destruction and death on TV news replayed over and over.

Tell me this never entered your mind after 9-11. Tell me that somewhere in the back of all our minds we did not wonder if something like that could happen. Tell me you didn't think about it. I won't believe you. We all did.

If, in the 90's, Hollywood had made a movie about planes of people being flown into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, we would have shook our heads at the imagination of the writers. We never imagined it, we never saw it coming.

Now we do imagine it. We think about some thing put in a water system in a big city, poisoning millions. We think about radical Islamists taking over several elementary schools, like they did in Beslan. We shudder at the horror the parents would feel. We wonder what actions we would take. We think about suicide bombers in the subways and in malls. We don't think about those things much. Just in moments. When something on TV reminds us. We push it out of our minds. We can't live in fear.

But we know. We know it could happen.

This isn't about fearmongering. It's about the "what if." If any of those things happened, would you be shocked? Or would we know deep in our hearts that we knew all along it was possible.

Now close your eyes and see those things for a moment. In your mind's eye you see the bombed out buildings of downtown LA. You see the people brought in on stretchers to hospitals from poisoning. You see the military and swat teams as they surround the elementary schools. You see our fighter jets in the sky. Do you see it?

Dramatic? Yes. Impossible? We all know the answer to that.

Now think about who you would want to be President if any of this happened.

Would you want a small time Governor from Arkansas with no experience, but a really great guy?

Would you want a Congressman turned actor?

Would you want a pretty rich boy who knows how to run a business and a state, but not our military?

Would you want a liberal woman with no military experience or an inspiring black man with even less?

No, I'll tell you who you would want. John McCain. A man who knows war. A man who understands a brutal enemy.

Because if any of those things happened, no one would care about McCain/Feingold or granting amnesty to illegal aliens. Those concerns would vanish. All we would focus on is a leader.

A leader.

Obama Wow

I just watched Obama's speech after winning in Iowa.

Wow.

It was one of the best political speeches I have heard In a long long time. It was inspiring and electric. When Obama is fired up, he delivers.

For the first time I felt some hope that Hillary might not win the Democratic nomination.

Obama's speech was excellent. It was all about "uniting" and "hope." That all sounds good, but you can't unite a people who disagree with just about everything you believe in.

Make no mistake about it, Obama is as liberal as Hillary. He is the same big government big spender. He is the same mindset that doesn't understand this war and he doesn't understand the horror that is abortion.

But for now, I pray he stops Hillary. And it looks like he just might.

It's done for Iowa

No surprise that Huckabee won. But get this at First Read (msnbc):

In an unusual expression of faith at a political party headquarters, supporters are standing in circles, holding hands and offering prayers in the middle of the Huckabee ballroom. They appear to be families with adults and children standing together. This is happening amid the piped in rock music, media standups and giant screen coverage.
We are shooting tape. Lots of still cameras buzzing around the group too.
We'll find out who they are when they're finished praying.

"Who are these strange creatures that pray???

This is the kind of thing that is going to keep Huckabee on a roll. The media acting like Christianity and prayer is some sort of bizarre custom from another planet. Give me a break.

Also no surprise, Obama won. But even sweeter is Hillary coming in third. Bill, watch the lamps in the hotel room tonight!

Romney came in 2nd, but it's gotta hurt with all the time and money he put in. Fred coming in third will keep him in the running.

Btw, I copied the pic from Fox News and you know how when you "save picture" it gives you a file name? The file name given on this was "doomsday1." Heh.

Oh dear, oh dear.....

I just watched Huckabee on Leno (2 parts). This guy is good. Likable and down to earth. No wonder he has come from nowhere to lead in Iowa.

As opposed to the more libertarian rightwing bloggers like Ace and Allah, I think Huckabee is sincere. They see something sinister about him, but they are wrong. He really is a nice guy that tries to do the right thing. People are responding to that.

The problem is that he cannot possibly win the general election. He has no foreign policy experience at a time where it is imperative that our leader can lead from a global perspective. We are at war and we need someone who understands that fight.

When it comes to tax hikes and spending and crime Huckabee isn't so conservative, but I don't think that is what the public is focusing on right now. Right now they are looking for someone they can relate to and Huckabee connects with people, there is no doubt.

For a pretty harsh look at his record from what should be an ally, go here.

I may have spoken to soon before. There may yet be more of Huckaboom. But imo, the person who loses the most here is Romney. Those flocking to Huckabee probably would have voted for Romney.

The Leno show was a gambit that paid off for Huckabee.

Oh dear, oh dear.

Sex will get you every time

After the Clinton/Lewinsky affair, nothing surprises me when it comes to politicians and sex. Nothing. Even the most powerful intelligent men on the planet will lose their minds for a little on the side. It's completely crazy that a man will risk his reputation and legacy (as Clinton did) in a haze of lust and desire. But it happens over and over.

We are seeing that here in Texas. District Attorney Charles A. Rosenthal Jr., one of Texas' most powerful prosecutors for 30 years, was forced by leaders in the Republican party in Houston to ditch his re-election plans for a third term as district attorney because of some sexy e-mails he wrote on office computers to his secretary that came to light. (yes, he's married)

People. Please. Use some common sense. E-mail, instant messages, message boards, EVERYTHING you write on the net, whether private or not, can be accessed and read by everyone. It can happen. Even to you.

Here is a man, like Clinton, who had everything going for him and now, like Clinton, he will be remembered with giggles and jokes.

Is it worth it?

via LST

What could have been

Fred Thompson entering the presidential race was like getting a birthday present a month late, and it wasn't what you asked for.

When asked why he didn't do this or that in this race, I've heard Thompson say, "That isn't how we do things in Tennessee."

Well, the way they do things in Tennessee doesn't fly in a Presidential race. We were all disappointed in the way the campaign has been run. Thompson has all the conservative creds, but none of the passion or desire (or money) to be President.

HotAir has linked a Politico article that says if Thompson finishes poorly in Iowa, he will drop out, give his support to McCain and perhaps in exchange for that, McCain will name him Attorney General in his administration.

Not a bad deal.

If all this happens, and that is a big if, could the winds of luck be blowing any harder for McCain these days?

Fred is denying any truth to the Politico article.

I suppose it's all speculation and hearsay. Either way, I think this is the beginning of the end for Fred. It also shows how important it is know what your doing when running for President. Staff, money, and organization all matter a great deal. You can't just mosey into a Presidential race.

We will always wonder what could have been with Fred.

For the far left, Obama is too conservative

Which goes to show you how insane they are. But, thank goodness they spend more time blogging their anger than actually voting.

So while the code pinkers, Kos, and the like continue to spit, rage, and gnash their teeth, the reasonable middle America Democrats in Iowa will vote for who they see as the most honest and refreshing candidate.

Obama will win Iowa, which will be sweet. Not because he isn't as wrong on every issue, he certainly is, but because it would be sweet to see Queen Hillary's crown snatched from her carefully coiffed head. But I fear the political machine that is the Clintons will roll over those good folk in Iowa, and win in the later states.

I could be wrong. I hope I am.

Objective interviewing?

Please!

Take a look at the Today's show this morning as they interview Mitt Romney and Barack Obama.

Mitt gets a grilling and Obama might as well be having coffee with his grandma.

Caucusing for Dummies

Just in case you were wondering about the exciting fun that is Caucus. They actually made something pretty boring into a cute video and got in a few funny lines.

via Slate

Why McCain?

I started to read Victor Davis Hanson's column about McCain this morning hating and worrying about the fact that I would disagree with someone I have so much respect for.

Hanson is probably the most intelligent thoughtful informed writer out there writing about politics today.

He started off his column today describing all the ways McCain has made us angry. He described McCain's setbacks and even his age and looks.

Just as I was really starting to feel uncomfortable, Hanson started describing why McCain is who he is and why is the most qualified to be President.

And I began to smile.

Second, McCain has the most diverse experience of any of the candidates in either party. Sens. Obama and Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., may bicker over whether being first lady or growing up in Indonesia constitutes the better foreign-policy background. But no one would question McCain's far greater breadth of service: carrier aviator, combat pilot, wounded veteran, tortured while a prisoner of war for five and a half years, U.S. congressman and senator for a combined quarter-century, 2000 presidential candidate. And the list only goes on.
..........

In this war, having a veteran fighter and savvy old statesman as commander-in-chief makes a lot of sense.
I don't know whether plain-speaking John McCain will win the presidency. But so far he's proved the most experienced of the candidates, and he's run the most principled and honest of the campaigns. Other candidates may be younger, better financed and more charismatic; none has more earned America's trust.

In the end, this is why we will forgive McCain for the things we disagreed with him. His service, his experience, and his honesty.

Read Hanson's column. It does describe the good, the bad, and the ugly about McCain, and why people are taking a second look.

*note: I promise to try to keep my McCain crush posts to a minimum. I know many of you are like "yeah, we get it, you like McCain."

Iowa college newspapers endorse Obama and McCain

Naturally I'm happy about the McCain endorsements, but Hillary has to be feeling the pain of rejection, not only from the Iowa young, but from her own alma mater.

Who is America's BFF??

If they are fighting over it, maybe our "reputation around the world" isn't as bad as the Democrats want it to be:

After decades of Anglo-French rivalry, in which France has vehemently deplored the global influence America and Britain have attained and what every president of France since Charles de Gaulle has described as "Anglo-Saxon culture," Mr. Sarkozy claimed during his visit to Washington last week that France, not Britain, is now America's best friend and partner.

via Instapundit

New Mitt Romney Ad

Who would have thought that Chuck Norris, of all people, would be front and center in a primary fight?

Crazy.

via Ace

New National Poll

From the Pew Research Center.

Wow, look at Rudy. How the mighty fall. As all of you know, I just couldn't wrap my mind around Republicans nominating a pro-abortion liberal from New York. I mean, that is what the Democrats are going to do. Maybe my instincts were right. The closer the primaries came, the more people thought about it, the more they realized that we need a leader to beat a NY liberal, not nominate one.

Let's get ready for Iowa

Happy New Year to everyone! Let's look at Iowa. It's coming down to the wire.

Political Wire got an advance look at a new Strategic Vision poll in Iowa that shows Sen. Barack Obama leading the Democratic presidential race with 32% support, followed by John Edwards at 29% and Sen. Hillary Clinton at 27%.

On the Republican side, Mitt Romney leads with 30%, followed by Mike Huckabee at 28%; Sen. John McCain at 16% and Fred Thompson at 13%.Like other polls we've seen in the last week, both races are essentially statistical ties.

Interesting:

"What if at the end of Thursday, the three leading Democrats — former Senator John Edwards and Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama — are separated by a percentage point or two, leaving no one with the clear right of delivering a victory speech (or the burden of conceding)? A number of polls going into the final days have suggested that after all of this, the Democratic caucus on Thursday night could end up more or less a tie."

Maybe I'm the only goober who watches C-span when the candidates and their wives go to people's homes in Iowa and speak to small groups. I think it is a wonderful thing. Just normal everyday people. No designer dresses or handmade suits. No catered dinners or arranged place settings. Just finger foods spread out in the kitchen and people bundled up in coats waiting to hear how the candidates will serve their country.

Watching these things makes me appreciate the process a bit more. I think it grounds the candidates to the task before them. I think it makes them see that what they do will affect real people, living and working in America.

I think the people in the early primary states take this very seriously. I don't think anything should change in that regard. These are people like you and me, and maybe they won't vote for the eventual winner, but they do make us think. They do make us consider someone we might not have before.

It looks like Iowa will be pretty exciting for the Democrats. For Romney, it's extremely important. Huckabee may keep Romney from the early roll he counted on, or...maybe not.

Stay tuned.

Here is the early primary timeline:

3 Jan - Iowa caucus
5 Jan - Wyoming caucus (Rep)
8 Jan - New Hampshire
15 Jan - Michigan
19 Jan - Nevada caucus, and South Carolina primary (Rep)
26 Jan - South Carolina primary (Dem)
29 Jan - Florida primary

Update: I thought this an interesting turn of events for the Democrats from the AP:

Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich on Tuesday asked his supporters to make rival Barack Obama their second choice if he doesn't meet a cutoff point for voting in Iowa's caucuses.

Update 2: Huckabee will be on Jay Leno tonight instead of being in Iowa. Good idea? Maybe, maybe not. On the one hand, Huckabee is very good in these venues. He's funny and this is a perfect outlet for him. But on the other hand, will more people in Iowa watch him on Leno than will get out of their cozy homes to vote for him? We shall see. I think Huckabee will win Iowa. But I think that is where the Huckaboom ends.

Hillary mis-steps?

Hillary has spent her whole life preparing for this moment. She didn't take a breath that wasn't calculated in the Senate for the campaign for President. As I have said many times before, I didn't think she could mis-step.

Maybe I was wrong.

In related news, awesome.

Also, good news.

Go Anyone But Hillary!!!

The Million Nerd March

In the kingdom of Azeroth in the World of Warcraft, brave Ron Paul supporters will rally and march from Ironforge to Stormwind on New Years Day.

It's true my friends, you can't make this stuff up.

Some players are not happy:

"We play World of Warcraft to get away from the real world … So whether you're a Republican or Democrat, blue-stater or red-stater, liberal or conservative, let's leave the sloganeering and yelling on Rush Limbaugh's show and in Michael Moore movies where they belong. In World of Warcraft, we should all come together for just one political purpose – beating the snot out of the gnomes,"

Well, in defense of the Ron Paul supporters, they are technically at least, rallying for a gnome.

The Democrats are worried

About what? McCain, of course:

There was a consensus, among the Dems anyway, about the Republican race. Watch out for McCain. He's coming back. And if and when he does, he's the strongest candidate they've got.
Huckabee? We should be so lucky. Romney? A Democratic dream. Rudy? What's happened to him?
No, it's McCain who Democrats are watching and worrying about.

I want to add/remind everyone why the Democrats are worried. So here is my post to all Republican primary voters:

President Hillary.

Tell me that doesn't make you cringe. Just thinking of it and I get this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. But that is where we are heading if we are not careful.

This is the thing. Running for President is an art form. It takes political savvy. It takes will and determination. It's not for the weak. What we have in Mitt, Fred, and even Rudy are novices. They could learn as they go, of course, but we have seen in past elections how any mis-step can be devastating.

Let me tell you the one person who will not be taking any mis-steps whatsoever. Hillary Clinton. We all know that. Name recognition. Fame. Star Power. She has all that as well.

I'll tell you why Hillary would beat Rudy. People have a way of tuning out politics when they think that it is just a partisan crowd going after the politician, be it right or left. The scandals that have followed Hillary have been worked up and down. She has convinced everyone that it was nothing but rightwing attacks. There is nothing in Hillary's past that anyone doesn't know. We heard it all. Even the Hsu fundraising thing will not hurt her. People figure if she hasn't been indicted by now for something, she never will be.

Rudy is another story. I keep hearing people on TV who were involved in New York politics say that things will come out about Rudy that the country hasn't heard and it will be very bad. I believe it. Don't you? When people hear scandal the first time, they listen. But with Rudy they will be listening just as he is trying to convince them to vote for him for President.

The one thing that we love about Rudy, his ruthlessness, is the one thing that will work against him with Hillary. He will look like the bully teasing the class nerd. There isn't any way around it.

Now I will tell you why Hillary would beat Mitt and Fred. They have never attempted to run a campaign as big as this one. They already have made gaffs. No one is watching now. But in the general election, everyone will be watching. This is no time to learn the plays in the game. This is no time for rookies.

Fred has show lackluster performance so far. I just don't see Mitt overcoming his flipflopping on the issues and this whole anti-Morman thing. Have you seen the commercials with his liberal soundbites of the past? He will look like Kerry did in '04.

Yes, this is about McCain. I know you are angry with him for all kinds of reasons. I don't blame you. But I am telling you this again. He is the only one who can beat Hillary.

I have tried to believe that others can beat Hillary. I have tried to get on board with Fred or Mitt. And I do think either one of them would be a fine President. If I thought either one of them could win, I would be looking closer at them and hoping for them. But I don't believe they can. McCain not only has the name recognition, fame, and star power that Hillary has, he has so much more. He is a war hero. He is a leader. He has dedicated his life to public service. His scandals are old and worn out as well. He has a sense of humor and can be charming. And this is key because those are the things Hillary has none of.... humor and charm.

She may not mis-step, but she simply cannot charm. Does no one else see how important this is? We are more visual than we have ever been in this country. This Presidential election will be a YouTube election. Relentless visual focus on our candidates. Rookies will make mistakes and YouTube will be there to remind us of it over and over. Hillary will make no mistakes.Think of this too. We are at war. We will still be at war in '08. McCain not only has the obvious experience with war, but he has a personal stake in it. Both of his sons are serving in the military. This speaks volumes about what he believes.I just want everyone to look at the big picture. Sure we want a conservative like Fred Thompson and a family values candidate like Mitt Romney. But this is not the year to "send a message" to Republicans.

This is the election to make sure that we don't have to sit in front of the evening news every night for years and hear what President Hillary Clinton proposed or vetoed. We won't have to watch her defund the military as her husband did. We won't have to see her add health care to the bloated bureaucracy of government control. We won't have to see her appoint a Ruth Bader Ginsberg clone to the Supreme Court.

The one thing that we all know is that McCain can get the moderate vote. Easy. There is no way we are going to win this election without the moderate vote.

It's more important than our anger at McCain.

It just is.

Just the beginning of Mormon bigotry...

It was just a matter of time. I suppose they figured what better place than South Carolina?

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Many South Carolina Republicans got a bogus holiday greeting card this week, purported to be from White House hopeful Mitt Romney, that cites some controversial passages of the Book of Mormon.

......

The card contains passages that underscore some differences between the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and those of denominations that are prevalent in South Carolina.
"We have now clearly shown that God the Father had a plurality of wives, one or more being in eternity by whom He begat our spirits as well as the spirit of Jesus His first born, and another being upon the earth by whom he begat the tabernacle of Jesus, as his only begotten in this world," reads one passage from Orson Pratt, cited on the card as an "original member of the Quorum of Twelve Apostles."
The card also cites a passage on Mary's virgin birth that underscores her race. "And it came to pass that I looked and beheld the great city of Jerusalem, and also other cities. And I beheld the city of Nazareth; and in the city of Nazareth I beheld a virgin, and she was exceedingly fair and white." On the card, "fair and white" are in a bolder, larger font and on a separate line.

Benazir Bhutto and the fight we fight

It's almost like a TV movie. A beautiful woman, her rise to power in her country at a young age, being brought down, prison, exile, and then redemption and possible victory.

Such is the story of Benazir Bhutto.

Her entire life reads like a novel. The daughter of a powerful political family, encouraged by her father to study the great women of history perhaps gave her illusions of greatness or, some might say, a passion for greatness. Given the recent tribute by Condoleezza Rice, some believed her brave and courageous. But some say she was driven by her own personal demons as well:

During her two terms in office as prime minister, Ms. Bhutto earned a reputation among many as an imperious, venal, and corrupt politician, bringing Pakistan to the brink of financial ruin on more than one occasion.

Did President Pervez Musharraf's intelligence and security services have anything to do with her death? Or was it Al Qaeda, who takes credit? It could be a Ken Follet novel. But it does have Al Qaeda's bloody fingerprints all over it.

Look at her personal past, and it is indeed the stuff of espionage movies:

When her father was lying in prison under sentence of death from Pakistan's military dictatorship in 1979, and other members of her family were trying to escape the country, she boldly flew back in. Her subsequent confrontation with the brutal Gen. Zia-ul-Haq cost her five years of her life, spent in prison. She seemed merely to disdain the experience, as she did the vicious little man who had inflicted it upon her.

Benazir saw one of her brothers, Shahnawaz, die in mysterious circumstances in the south of France in 1985, and the other, Mir Murtaza, shot down outside the family home in Karachi by uniformed police in 1996.

Despite the corruption charges, (which she denied) some see her as the modern force of goodness in the Islamic world:

Benazir Bhutto was a brave woman. She was the face of modernity that Pakistan needed to salvage its descent into a sea of Islamist darkness.

And there is the key. Personally, for myself, I don't see being a political hero worth taking the risk of not seeing my children grow up, marry, and have children. Bhutto gave that up. She knew it was a possibility with all the attempts on her life. She knew. Did she not care? Was her country worth that much to her, or was her celebrity worth that much to her? Is that bravery or foolishness? I can't decide. Can you?

According to Andrew McCarthy at NRO, we have one Pakistan of our fantasy and one of reality:

There is the Pakistan of our fantasy. The burgeoning democracy in whose vanguard are judges and lawyers and human rights activists using the “rule of law” as a cudgel to bring down a military junta. In the fantasy, Bhutto, an attractive, American-educated socialist whose prominent family made common cause with Soviets and whose tenures were rife with corruption, was somehow the second coming of James Madison.

Then there is the real Pakistan: an enemy of the United States and the West. The real Pakistan is a breeding ground of Islamic holy war where, for about half the population, the only thing more intolerable than Western democracy is the prospect of a faux democracy led by a woman — indeed, a product of feudal Pakistani privilege and secular Western breeding whose father, President Zulfiquar Ali Bhutto, had been branded as an enemy of Islam by influential Muslim clerics in the early 1970s.

Bhutto knew this, lived this. I have to wonder if her passion was for Democracy or for herself. Excuse my cynicism. Perhaps she is the brave hero mourned for her great sacrifice for a greater good, a better Pakistan free from extremism and fanaticism, I hope so. A life should be lived for good and for purpose. I hope and pray that her life was.

Andrew warns us that just wishing for Democracy in place like Pakistan will not make it happen:

But we should at least stop fooling ourselves. Jihadists are not going to be wished away, rule-of-lawed into submission, or democratized out of existence. If you really want democracy and the rule of law in places like Pakistan, you need to kill the jihadists first. Or they’ll kill you, just like, today, they killed Benazir Bhutto.

And this is the lesson of Bhutto. A lesson taught with Daniel Pearl, Nick Berg, and all our sacrificed soldiers in Iraq. They will kill us unless we kill them first. And with them, there is no mercy, no prison, no warm meals, no prayer rugs. There is only brutal death. For the innocent as well as the enemy. Do any of us understand this?

President Bush addressed it perfectly in August before the Veterans of Foreign wars, but no one I talk to even heard of this speech. It was a flash in the pan for the msm. Read it and understand that Bush understands our enemy and our history as most of us do not. Think of him what you will, but he gets this.

In this speech he tells us how we are winning:

Our troops have killed or captured an average of more than 1,500 al Qaeda terrorists and other extremists every month since January of this year. (Applause.) We're in the fight. Today our troops are carrying out a surge that is helping bring former Sunni insurgents into the fight against the extremists and radicals, into the fight against al Qaeda, into the fight against the enemy that would do us harm. They're clearing out the terrorists out of population centers, they're giving families in liberated Iraqi cities a look at a decent and hopeful life.

I am not happy with Bush for many reasons, but not understanding this fight is not one of them.

Those who killed Bhutto are the thousands upon thousands that we have killed. They will not kill again the innocent and the brave. They will not breed their hatred.

They are gone.

I wish that we could leave the Middle East to it's own destruction. I wish we could ignore the extremism and the killing. But they have made that impossible. They attacked us on our own soil.

Believe that going into Iraq was right or wrong. Fine. But there is no doubt that we are killing Al Qaeda there now. The brutal enemy of all people of good will.

They killed Bhutto. And they would kill you or me if given the chance. That is a fact no one can argue.

Some tell me that this is a fight we cannot win. They say that nothing we do can change the Middle East.

Bhutto,whether for herself or her country, believed that it could change and she gave her life for it.

I believe that it is a fight, that if we don't win now, our grandchildren and their children will not only fight, but suffer because of it.

I may be wrong. Time will only tell.

Benazir Bhutto RIP

It's a terrible thing in a terrible world. HotAir has all the links you could want to read and keep updated.

I'm posting McCain's response because, as you might imagine, I feel he is the leader we need in a dangerous world. I have always felt that way, and given all that is going on in the world, it's more important than ever to have a brave strong hero at the helm. That's just the way I feel.

I'm busy with family, but I'll try to get back as soon as possible.

An Iraqi Christmas

Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, leader of the ancient Chaldean Catholic Church and Iraq's first cardinal, celebrated Mass before about 2,000 people in the Mar Eliya Church the eastern New Baghdad neighborhood of the capital.

"Iraq is a bouquet of flowers of different colors, each color represents a religion or ethnicity but all of them have the same scent," the 80-year-old Delly told the congregation.

Muslim clerics—both Sunni and Shiite—also attended the service in a sign of unity.

Amazing.

I'll be on the road in the morning. Be back as soon as I can.

Merry Christmas!!

The Church of Bill

Maureen Dowd, I admit, can write as well as Peggy Noonan. It's just what she writes, most of the time, is born out of a narcissistic feminist liberal view that frankly, makes me want to puke.

But I guess it takes one narcissist to know another, because she has Bill Clinton pegged.

She asks:

Inside the Bill gang and the Hillary gang, there is panic and perplexity. Is Bill a loyal spouse or a subconscious saboteur?

......

Is Bill torn between resentment of being second fiddle and gratification that Hillary can be first banana only with his help? Their relationship has always been a co-dependence between his charm and her discipline. But what if, as some of her advisers suggest, she turned out to be a tougher leader, quicker to grasp foreign policy, less skittish about using military power and more inspirational abroad? What if she were to use his mistakes as a reverse blueprint, like W. did with his dad?

When Bill gets slit-eyed, red-faced and finger-wagging in defense of her, is he really defending himself, ego in full bloom, against aspersions that Obama and Edwards cast on Clintonian politics?

Maybe the Boy Who Can’t Help Himself is simply engaging in his usual patterns of humiliating Hillary and lighting an exploding cigar when things are going well.

Because you know, it's all about Bill.

Hillary advisers noted that when Bill was asked by a supporter in South Carolina what his wife’s No. 1 priority would be, he replied: C’est moi! “The first thing she intends to do is to send me ...” he began.

He got so agitated with Charlie Rose — ranting that reporters were “stenographers” for Obama — that his aides tried to stop the interview.

He also got in the way of her message with stretchers about opposing the Iraq war from the start, and — in a slap at Obama — deciding not to run in ’88 because he lacked experience. Truth is, he didn’t run for fear of bimbo eruptions.

While making a speech in Iowa, The Associated Press’s Ron Fournier reported, Bill used the word “I” 94 times in 10 minutes, while mentioning “Hillary” just seven times. At a London fund-raiser, one Hillaryite said, it took him nearly half an hour to mention her.

94 to 7. Good grief.

As the Arkansas journalist Max Brantley told the Billary biographer Sally Bedell Smith, “He’s always evangelizing for the church of Bill.”

Could that describe him any more perfectly?

It’s hard to feel sorry for Hillary because the very logic of her campaign leads right to Bill. When she speaks of her “experience,” she is referring not to the Senate but to the White House, thereby making her campaign a plebiscite on the ’90s.

And that is the thing. Do we want a re-run of the politics of the 90's? Any of us? Left or right? Do we want whatever is hidden in the archives of Hillary's papers to become public after she is elected and start another cycle of the corruption, hatred, and sliminess that was the Clinton Presidency?

More good news for McCain

Iowa Quad City Times Endorses John McCain

John McCain has now secured the endorsements of nine newspapers across the country. The two big Iowa papers (The Des Moines Register and Quad City Times), the Boston Globe and Herald, and five New Hampshire papers (The Union Leader, Portsmouth Herald, Salmon Press, Keene Sentinel and Valley News). The endorsement of McCain by the Quad City Times is a big blow to Mitt Romney who had heavily lobbied the QC editorial board in recent days.

I just want you guys to feel the McLove.

via race2008 (<-click this link for Quad City Times reasoning) via HotAir

Btw, the market finds McCain to be the most electable.

Pretty Funny

via Time.com

The Christmas Season...

It's all about love.

A profound love, that can conquer anything. Even that which seems impossible.

via Dave in Texas

It's coming!!