If...

If John McCain had started his career in Timothy McVeigh's living room the media would:
	Give the story wall to wall coverage. Condemn McCain's judgement.
	Make excuses for McCain like they are for Ayres/Obama
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Identity politics and the case for Palin

Palin needs to say one thing at the GOP convention: I expect to be held to the highest standard. I expect to be held to the same standard as Senator Obama. In fact, I welcome it.

During the Democratic primaries Senator Soetoro/Obama played hardball identity politics. Michelle Obama stated simply and directly early on that black voters "would come around." BHO's people then played the race card against the Clintons in one of the more morally depraved moves in recent memory. Insisting the Clinton's are racist is akin to insisting the pope is Jewish. But it worked. Black Democrats voted for BHO at a 90% rate through out the primaries. Obama is "black", after all. This happened despite the fact that both Clintons are better than BHO on issues most Black Americans care about. Obama was able to keep it close because of Black voters - who traditionally have gone with the "blue collar" candidate - this year that candidate was Clinton. His coalition "arugula" voters and Black voters, plus help from the media and cheating in the caucuses - equaled his nomination.

Identity politics got Obama anointed.

Fast forward to Palin. There is no doubt Palin's gender was the deciding factor for McCain.

So what.

The possibility of the first female vice President should excite women. Women should think long and hard about voting for a "sister". Black Americans did exactly that - they voted for a "brother."

The hair pulling and rants on faux liberal blogs is hilarious and pathetic. For over a generation "social justice" liberals have incorporated identity politics into every move they made. "Social justice" - which means nothing in the end - has always been code for "victimhood". True liberals may have used this meme - but the were always out doing the heavy lifting. Cesar Chavez, Dr,. King, and, late in his life, Bobby Kennedy, are examples of liberals who understood that cajoling people to vote solely based on their racial identity was a fools errand. These men were not after "social justice" - they were after justice, period. The pollution of the true American Left by the "social justice" victimhood entrepreneurs has stunted the real progressive agenda for a generation. It is a virus. It has worked against people of color attaining equality. It is anti- progressive. Asians who did not fall victim to identity politics have moved rapidly up the ladder. What White arugula "liberals" can't abide is the fact that racism has lessened. A lot. Without a subculture of victims arugulas have no power.

The "experience" horse crap coming from the arugula left is just hilarious. It will also become clearly sexist in short order. The female Palin is already being held to a different standard than the male Obama. The bigotry against women will be exploited by Kos, Avarosis, and the rest for the next 2 months. Pelosi, who finds any woman with power other than herself, dangerous is no doubt cringing.

In classic Arugula "liberal" form they refuse to accept that both sides can play identity politics.

Well, John McCain just did. Get over it. Live by identity politics, die by identity politics.

The brain dead aspect of the arugulas that I have hammered at here is on full display right now. It goes to a core belief that people like Huffington, Olbermann, and Obama carry just below the surface: "We know better than the unwashed masses." I believe this comes directly from attaining unearned wealth and/or unearned positions. Huffington has forced her opinions on us by virtue of marrying well. Olbermann talks nonsense and makes 6 figures. Obama has risen and risen while accomplishing exactly nothing. Michelle Obama made millions sitting on the board of a Wal Mart supplier. These people jet from Aspen to Brentwood never dirtying their fingers - all the while opining to real workers and dismissing them at the same time.

Mrs. Palin lives in a REAL union household. Damn right, that appeals to this liberal. While Obama caved to Exelon, Mrs. Palin took on her own party's corruption in Alaska. Damn right, that appeals to this liberal. Obama let poor people freeze in his district, while pal Rezko made millions. There is nothing "liberal" about this.

As a feminist, the fact that McCain's campaign has an equal pay for equal work policy and Obama's does not matters to me. And, damn right, as a liberal, shattering the glass ceiling the DNC refused to break appeals to me.

Obama has never appealed based on policy. He appealed to liberal guilt, delusion and based on his self created persona.

If women decide to look past policy differences and vote for a female vice president based solely on her gender - it should not surprise Obama. Arugulas have exploited identity politics for a very long time, after all.

Race Rant - it's a riot!

I have a ranter friend (don't we all) Mike -Since he was always going off about something I set up a "rant" site called Mule Kick to the Crotch for him to unload on topics other than politics. Give LR some variety etc etc. He has not used his space to much but you can check out a few rants here. Last night he sent me a political rant... so I am putting it on L.R. It made me smile. Actually, it is harsh - but not too bad - however if your sensibilities are very delicate - skip it. Mike's homerun moment: The 'old people did this' paragraph.


FROM MIKE:


Dear Mr. Polly Prissy Pretend President,

Listen up Your Highness Obama. I have something to say.

Shut TF up about race. Now. We are sick of it. In fact, this writer is sick to death of it. You keep saying crap like "they" will try to scare you because you don't look like past Presidents or you have a weird last name or whatever. Bullshit. BULL SHIT. This is nonsense. You got millions of votes (less than Hillary but still millions) in the primaries. None of those voters gave a shit you look like the result of Dr. Moreau sending Alfred E Newman, Bob Saget, Dumbo, and Urkle through a wood chipper and fusing their DNA in a wheat grass juicer.

Many still voted for ya, homeboy!

Of course, in your weird world voters in California, West Virginia, Michigan, Florida, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Puerto Rico, Massachusetts, Indiana, American Samoa, New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Arizona, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Arkansas and Rhode Island are all racists.

WRONG! You lost all those contests and you lost the popular vote. And not because your father was African. I am not afraid of you because of your race (es) or your "weird" middle and last names. I am afraid of you because you're a buffoon - an errand boy sent by grocery clerks. You've done nothing in your adult life except promote yourself.

I AM FED UP WITH THE IMPLICATION THAT IF I DON'T VOTE FOR YOU I AM A BIGOT.

F*#k YOU.

You have overplayed the race card. And we are turning on you, dude. BIG TIME! Stop playing the whiny victim. God - I can imagine you being President. It will be all: "Ooooh Putin was so mean to me. He doesn't like me cuz I'm black" Whaaa, whaaaa, whaaa.

As for your middle name - WTF? We can't say it because...why?....I didn't give you that name, dude. A lot of good people have your middle name. Why are you ashamed of it? Why are WE playing dirty for mentioning YOUR middle name?

Grow up, whiner. I can say your middle name if I want. It is not my fault your daddy put that name on some birth certificate no one can come up with.

HusseinHusseinHusseinHusseinHusseinHusseinHusseinHussein
HusseinHusseinHusseinHusseinvHusseinHusseinHusseinHussein
HusseinHusseinHusseinHussein....

Your whole campaign is through the bloody looking glass. YOU can talk about race but WE, who oppose you, can't.

Screw that.

If you talk race. We talk back. Grow up.

Every time you bring up race you smear millions. You smeared the last Democratic President with this race crap. It was unforgivable. YOU ARE UNFORGIVEN. You played dirty, rotten scumbag politics with the most painful issue in American history. This makes you a dirty, rotten scumbag.

Stop whining you whiner.

Not one damn thing in your life indicates you have ever been held back because of your race. The opposite is true. Millions oppose you because they OPPOSE YOU, your policies, your lack of experience, the obnoxious rock concerts you put on, your freakish history populated by Marxists, bomb makers, slumlords, brain dead minsters, effete America bashing limo liberals, and Democratic Socialist pseudo intellectual gas bags. As John forever points out, you remain in this contest only because the deranged media refuses to report on these criminals, killers and imbeciles.

I don't care one damn bit what you look like. Also, Your Highness, it is dumb politics. You think implying that millions of voters who have justified reservations about you want to hear for the next 3 months they are probably racist? Dumb ass. That is gonna make people mad as hell. SHUT UP ABOUT IT.

Stop whining you whiner.

You want to talk about race, Barry? Why don't you cough up whiny Michelle's Princeton thesis? Let's hear Missy "I am finally proud of my country" Michelle defend or refute HERSELF.

Then you attack by implying that McCain has committed the great crime of aging. You are obnoxious. McCain is 71. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin signed a peace accord with the PLO when he was 71. Michelangelo created the architectural plans for the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli when he was 88. Albert Schweitzer ran a hospital in Africa when he was 89. Take your stupid ageism and shove it where the sun don't shine, Barry. In a sane society aging is an asset. You are proof we need some professional help. Only in the sick little American Idol world of the United States of 2008 are you even possible.

Read a blog today that said calling you "arrogant" had racist implications, too. Moron. I say to that blowhard no,no,no,no,no!!!! You will not remove that word too. You are arrogant. The evidence is everywhere. It is not racist to call you arrogant. It is truthful.

I am not a racist. I am not voting for you. Deal with it, Barry.

Very Truly Yours,
Mike

I Am Anti-Obama

Couple of things.

Anti-Obama sites on google have been shut down because of complaints of spamming. Google shuts down the site and then will do a human audit to verify the complaints. That would be guilty until proven innocent.

What would the obvious conclusion be? That Obama supporters are shutting down anti-Obama sites? You are wrong. It's actually a McCain ploy to get a negative story out there about Obama supporters.

PUMA represents a group of individuals who cannot and will not support Obama. Many reasons not to support Obama. Dirty campaign, sexism, lies, pandering, plagiarism, lack of qualifications, lack of experience, dirty slumlord pals, racist pastor, terrorist friends, flat out lazy. BUT, did you know that PUMA is actually a paid arm of the McCain campaign? Really. I didn't know McCain was raising enough money to sponsor so many bloggers, I thought that was Obama's milieu. Have you seen Americablog lately? Just one big Obama ad and very few comments. What's your soul worth? Do you think that people are going to come back after the election and your income stream has dried up?

Wesley Clark. Wow, that was a mistake. Do I believe the theory that General Clark didn't want to be asked to be Vice President so he took himself out of the running with his performance? No. Do I believe he was sending up a test balloon to see if the argument that McCain has no experience would work? Yeah, I do. Do I believe it will back fire? Pretty sure.

Because even people, like Limbaugh, who don't support McCain were pissed off that anyone would disparage McCain's military service. And does Obama really want to get into a pissing contest about experience? You want to compare how they spent their twenties? Obama was trying to find himself and his racial identity, smoking some pot, doing some coke finding friends among the fringe and John McCain was in a POW camp being tortured after flying 23 missions in Vietnam. That will help push people in the center right over to McCain.

Finally, John had an email conversation with an Obama supporter. You will love this argument for Obama. His Wikipedia page is almost as long as Senator Clinton's and McCain's. Well, if that won't convince you to vote Obama what will?

How McCain is losing the November election in June.

With each passing day I feel more and more detached from my Democratic roots. This is good. I can watch a bit more comfortably from the side lines. Obviously, I think Obama is a snake. But getting worked up for McCain is no small task.

Let me give my two cents about the general election so far. McCain is losing the election - right now. He is making one catastrophic misjudgement. The timing of the misjudgement is earlier in McCain's case (then again, everything happens earlier now). It is the same misjudgement that Kerry made in 04 and Dukakis made in 1988. And it is equally foolish.

Obama is quickly taking over the Democratic Party and quickly defining himself to the general electorate. Politics 101: You have to define your opponent before he A. Defines himself. and B. He defines you.

Kerry allowed the swift boat ads to sit in the water (as it were) for 3 weeks before he responded.
Dukakis toddled around for a month while Bush 1 hammered him with Willie Horton.
Both men were then embedded in the minds of many Americans as distrustful and weak and never recovered.

Obama is not going all out negative on McCain. He is going all out to project himself as a man of action. Meanwhile McCain, like Clinton before him, is holding fire, presumably waiting until after the Democratic convention to unload - under the misguided assumption that people do not pay attention until Labor Day. This is WRONG. People are paying attention now.

The desire to be done with the Bush years is so strong that people are already engaged. Maybe not deeply but enough to make some basic judgements and tell pollsters. The pollsters then cue the media, which gets all frothy, - and what a candidate has is called momentum.

The McCain campaign must realize that the next six weeks are as important as the last 2 this year. Unless McCain lands hard on all of Obama's soft spots now and throws him off his game it will be almost impossible to stop him come November.

The Wright tapes had a muted effect on Obama because they appeared in April after many victories and many months of media adulation. Had they appeared in January Clinton would have won.

If McCain believes holding back now and unloading in October is the right strategy he is mistaken. The risk is that he so sullies BHO before the actual nomination that delegates dash back to Clinton at the convention- an unbeatable candidate at this point. But the greater risk is that Obama has solidified a positive image in the public mind that will be hard, if not impossible, to shake.

Pundits claim that negative campaigns turn people off. They are correct. The game is to turn them off the other guy. Well, timed, negative campaigns work. Badly timed negative campaigns backfire.

McCain's main strength against Obama is his experience. Hillary talked about it a lot, but rarely hammered him with it. (the 3 AM ads being one exception). Unless McCain and the RNC define Obama now as too inexperienced and untrustworthy to be President - then it will be too late come the Fall. If Obama makes his acceptance speech unsullied he will be the President. He is too damn good at those events. His machine is too strong to overcome with "whitey tapes" and commercials about Wright. The tapes (if they exist) and ads need to be in circulation now.

Five dollar gas will make bozo the clown a strong candidate against anyone who is associated with Bush.

Having said all that, after watching the Democratic primaries I am not sure the whole thing is not just a scripted show. The winner being chosen a long time ago - in a smoke filled room faraway.

But onward we must push. If we do just have a faux democracy at this point - the only way to get a real one back is to act as if we are empowered.

The Huffington Whorehouse

If you had any questions about whether the Obama blogosphere would engage in "new politics" come the general election - put them to rest. THe spirit of Rove lives with the Arugula Left. Today they attack McCain's military record.
Jeffery Klein blogs today:
McCain apparently was not surprised when his Vietnamese captors went relatively easy on him compared to his fellow POWs.

Imagine that. An effete prick, sipping a latte, is implying that the Viet Cong were not so bad to McCain.

Arianna Huffington has always been a loud snake oil saleswoman demanding attention and using her ex - husband's money to get it. She deserves our contempt.

And yes, I already know that since I posted this piece attacking an Obama Pod for being an obnoxious thug - that I am a racist! Blah, blah, blah...

Text vs. Subtext. - the WHW (what Hillary wants) edition.

What does Senator Clinton really want you to do? Vote for her pal John McCain - that's what. Check it out.

Also - Yes we Can!
Be hypocrites!
Countrywide BAD! Unless Countrywide give Obama Pod sweet deal. Then Countrywide GOOD!

Dead Enders

Checking out the internets this morning on on my first day off in two weeks and I find that we (non Obama supporters) are now called Dead Enders.

Can I tell you how much I enjoy the irony of someone using Donald Rumsfeld's words to describe me? Golly gee willackers what's next? We're going to greet Senator Obama with flowers?

Let's go with Dead Enders but separate the groups.

Dead Enders who are passionately committed to Senator Clinton. We are the Democrats who voted for Mondale, Dukakis, Gore and Kerry. We are part of the Democratic party who in the past have come around. But this primary has changed us, or at least me, in that I am no longer willing to vote for someone just because he has a "D" at the end of his name. Dr. Dean has done damage that cannot be repaired. He has split the Democratic party.

Dead Enders who are Reagan Democrats. You would think the name would be a tip off that these people do not vote according to party affiliation but let me explain it clearly: They didn't like Mondale or Dukakis and didn't care about party unity. These people are not going to vote for Obama. Without them, the Democrats lose. Oh, and by the way, calling them uneducated racists really doesn't help pull them over to your side.

Maybe there is so new Coalition of the Willing who are going to unite to put Senator Obama in the White House. I can't see it because it seems that as more comes out about Senator Obama it will be a Coalition of the Wilting. Wright has not gone away. Just because Senator Clinton isn't using God Damn America don't think for a moment that Republicans won't. The disparity between a man who spent five years in a POW camp and wouldn't leave until his men could leave to with a man who spent twenty years in a pew listening to a preacher rail against white America and wouldn't condemn him until it was politically expedient is stark.

And it makes for an easy choice in November.

Profiles in Courage?

Back in the day, when we used to watch Countdown, Mr. Olbermann had a running story about how Bush played the terror card to stop the momentum of Senator Kerry during his presidential bid.

Does this sound familiar?

Senator Clinton soundly defeats Senator Obama in West Virginia. The following day Edwards and NARAL announce their endorsement for Senator Obama.

Senator Clinton wins Ohio. Two or three superdelegates come out for Obama.

Senator Clinton wins Pennsylvania. Two or three superdelegates announce their support for Obama.

David Broder had an interesting piece in the Washington Post about Jack Kennedy's 1960 campaign. Jack Kennedy went to West Virginia and campaigned hard even though he was projected to lose. He convinced anti-Catholics that he was the better choice. He compared Kennedy's campaign to Obama's. Obama decided not to talk to the people of West Virginia. What happened to his promise to unite and talk to everyone?

One commenter pointed out the Senator McCain went to Selma (the first Republican Presidential candidate to do so.)

I read about McCain's visit to Selma and also his visit to Memphis. Regarding his visit to Memphis, I thought, McCain is a lunatic, he's gonna get chewed up and spit out. I read how the crowd of several hundred African Americans in Memphis that day yelled at him, taunted him, called him a liar. When McCain talked about how he was sorry for not voting for the MLK holiday, one black man toward the front said, "It's okay, we all need some forgiveness every now and then." That's what I will remember about his Memphis visit, a white man standing near the balcony where MLK was shot dead and a black man acknowledging McCain's mistake and forgiving him.

Lest we forget, Senator Obama took his name of the ballot in Michigan because he thought he was going to lose. He didn't bother campaigning in person (except for one visit) in West Virginia because he was going to lose. (He actually outspent Senator Clinton in the state 2-1.)

How can we support someone for President who doesn't bother showing up unless he's guaranteed a win? How does that translate into someone willing to go to the mat for us with all the problems coming down the pike? Where's the courage in that?

In The Tank

We've been saying all along that Senator Obama's record has not been examined. We've been pooh-poohed.

We've been saying that Senator Clinton has not run a vicious campaign. We've run up against the "conventional wisdom" and the talking points of everyone from Maureen Dowd to Keith Olbmermann.

Who was right?

If Senator Obama's record had been even slightly looked at by a not completely in love with him press this story of the Church of our Lady of Perpetual Resentment (come for the pancake breakfast, stay for the rage) would have come out months ago.

If Clinton had been running a vicious campaign this story would have come out months ago.

When I talk to regular people, either pro Hillary, undecided or right they all say the same thing - the press is in the tank for Obama. They haven't bothered to get past his soaring renditions of Duval Patrick's greatest hits (he's our own Celene Dion) to look at what he's done.

They are too busy buying into his line that Senator Clinton needs to disclose her tax returns to ask him, hey if you said you made a bone headed decision to allow Resko to help you buy your house will you give it back and how can we trust you to make good decisions once elected? They believe him when he says her back hurt his knife and she should apologize.

John brought up a great point this evening that Senator Obama has not made a case for why he should be Commander in Chief. He campaigns on amorphous promises of change without offering us any concrete evidence that he can handle the job.

If he gets the nomination John McCain will be our next president. I think it was Molly who commented that you can't run a man who went to a church who's preacher said God Damn American from the pulpit against a man who fought in a war and was a POW for five years.

Super Delegates unite - we have nothing to lose but the Presidency.

Here to hoping we have a rough and tumble, argumentative and VERY SAFE campaign.

Part of the fantasy being weaved about Obama is that he is in some way heir to JFK or RFK's legacy. This is ridiculous and I've said so. It is a misreading of history egged on by bird brains like Chris Matthews and encouraged by the Obama campaign. JFK was a war hero, 2 term Senator, and Pulitzer prize winner from a political family that has among other things contributed the Special Olympics to the American scene. RFK was in the fields with Caesar Chavez in 1967 and had a long and arduous political transformation into one of America's great progressives before he was murdered. Nothing in Obama's life comes close to either of these men. He is a one term Senator of no note, an alleged community organizer, and a decades long member of a disgusting pastor's church. As a life long Democrat and unreconstructed FDR liberal I find these comparisons repellant.

I fiercely go after Obama on Liberal Rapture. I will continue to.
I am appalled by his campaign, by the media's adoration of him, and by the seduction of the masses by him. I lay out my case. Sometimes with intelligence, sometimes with anger, sometimes with sarcasm. My motivation is 2 fold:

1. I don't like him. I use to. Then I looked closer. Then I watched him oversee a classically negative campaign while the media did his dirty work and ignored the dirty work he had to do himself. I don't like what he stands for - which is the opposite of the packaging. (Rev Wright is simply the clearest example yet of this) He is a fraud. A snake-oil salesman. His wife is more honest by half. Her stump speech is - at least - truthful in its contempt for the nation.

2. I don't like what he represents in our current media culture and what is says about us - merit and hard work and history are being gleefully debased by Move On, Olbermann, Huffington, Axlerod, and many more. In spiritual terms it is called "selling your soul." A large swatch of the Left, rightfully angry as hell about the last 7 years has checked their brains at the door. Clinton is not the politician to seize this group and forge them into her campaign - even if she did want to - which i doubt. Obama/Axlerod saw the opening and took it. But it is based in a grand lie: Obama represents change, a clean break. This is patently false.

His political stances are either run of the mill corporate nonsense or simply not there to be vetted. He skips out when the going gets tough. His recycled words are nice. But they have already worn thin. Actions speak louder than words. Axlerod is desperate to avoid an examination of his actions. This is why after 20 years in that church Obama kicked the minister in a balls and ran for the hills of MSNBC yesterday. They dutifully gave him the megaphone to tell more lies and to weasel his way out of two decades of his life.

Those 2 decades are not going away. Those 20 years speak directly to his judgment as a man.

The Obama Left is driven, I believe, by resentment - not hope - in the end. Resentment of women, Bush, and a society that has become vapid and empty of everything valuable. This is the place where the fad of Obama has entered our lives. He is not responsible for the state of the nation. He is taking advantage of it while at the same time offering nothing tangible, or helpful - other than words.

If for a moment in the last 4 months Obama had presented himself as a man of depth I would, I hope, have taken different attitude. I've been for Clinton all along but had resigned myself to Obama after Iowa. I have looked for a reason to support him. At every turn what I've seen does not deserve support.

But back to the JFK/Obama connection and the delusion it represents.

Part of the Obamite fantasy about JFK goes to martyrdom. John Avarosis, no fan of Clinton, on his site Americablog - told his much larger audience that he "wished people would stop saying JFK and Obama in the same breath". His concern was practical and not philosophical - but his point was salient and I agree with it. The story does not end well.

I will continue to blog about Clinton and Obama. I will continue to root for Hillary because she is clearly the only person left in the race who can make the brutal choices we now face. I will continue to write about Obama's hypocrisy.
I will continue to hope we get through this scary part of our history without violence on the home front.
I want the wars to end now. I also know why we are fighting. I know, that after all is said and done, Bush started a resource war in Iraq. To believe we fight for anything other than oil is to take part in yet another delusion. To deny the war is about oil is like saying the civil war was not about slavery. Extracting our nation from this war will take more than a speech from a state senator and a Prius. It will take leadership and hard work and sacrifice from all of us. We are in Iraq one way or another, in one form or another, for years to come. The sooner the Left grapples with this, the sooner they will return to sanity. As a start, I'd like to see David Geffen give up a Lear Jet - or two. Maybe he can take a train.

Things are closer than they appear in the rear view mirror and they are gaining on us. The dollar is fading, the Carlyle Group and Bear Stearns collapsed this week. There is every reason to believe one or two large banks will fail soon. Prices are rising fast. Bush will hand off a nation greatly diminished by his malfeasance. A seasoned adult will need to take the reigns. Clinton is the best choice given the ones we have. McCain makes me cringe but he will not have the neo-con bullshit to contend with. His foreign policy will be unfortunately conservative, but at least realistic. Obama has yet to show the country anything but smoke and mirrors.

Having said that: Here to hoping we have a rough and tumble, argumentative and VERY SAFE campaign. Onward!