Another Positive Note

Check out these African Americans cheering McCain's concesion speech near the end of this video produced by the Flint Journal. Not booing him, but applauding. McCain said,

"A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt's invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage in many quarters.

America today is a world away from the cruel and frightful bigotry of that time. There is no better evidence of this than the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States.

Let there be no reason now ... Let there be no reason now for any American to fail to cherish their citizenship in this, the greatest nation on Earth."

McCain struck the right note. The citizens applauding him showed magnanimity and good faith, and both they and McCain provided a basis for hope of unity for all of us as Americans.

I'm not going to get carried away, because the Obama "toxic rolodex" has me very concerned. But my fingers are crossed.

Voter turnout and reaction to Obama's victory

Sarah: Come to Michigan!

Sarah Palin disagrees with the McCain campain regarding giving up on Michigan, and said she thinks she and Todd should come up here.

She talks not unlike a Yooper, and Michiganders (or Michiganians) would relate to this. What she would have to do is slip in a few references to "Up North." "Up North" is well-nigh sacred to many of us in the southern part of the state. We make our money, such as is still there to be made, here in southern or southeast Michigan. But then we like to spend some of it, when we can, "Up North," in God's Country.

What is Alaska, but "Up North" on steroids?

I think Sarah Palin could resonate in Michigan not only with native northern Michigan people, including "Yoopers," but also with us "trolls" (those who live "under the bridge"), because many of us hold the north country of Michigan to be nearly sacred.

By all means, come, Sarah, Warrior Goddess of the North.

A Democrat-Caused Problem

"[T]he mortgage mess is especially infuriating because some of us saw it coming. Two years ago, I joined with 19 of my colleagues demanding that we crack down on mortgage abuse, particularly by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. A bill doing exactly that, The Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act, was approved by the Senate Banking Committee. But it was killed on the Senate floor by Democrats who favored pushing out mortgages to people with dubious prospects for paying them back. They claimed we were concocting a problem that didn’t exist. We were not, and that makes the resulting mess all the more disgusting."

--Sen John Cornyn (R-TX)


John McCain should be ramming this down Barry's throat. Why isn't he? Why is he allowing his poll numbers to go down over this, when it's crystal clear the Democrats caused this problem?

Bailout Fails

So Nancy Pelosi allows 95 members of her own party to vote no on the bailout, including many members of her own leadership, and then blames Republicans for not averting the "crisis." This was done in order to blame John McCain for any ensuing catastrophe, and to embarass him after he had flown in to try to forge a bipartisan deal on the bailout.

There are people who will do anything to get Obama elected. The Brownshirts are out, They've been trying to create an economy reminiscent of Weimar Germany. Now we have the "Obama Jungend."

If I were the DC Fire Department and the Capital Police, I'd remain on high alert.

A Democrat Scandal

In any kind of a just world, there would be a big fat "D" attached to this financial scandal. Just view this video. I know, I know; Fox News is the propaganda arm of Karl Rove, yadda yadda yadda. But it's pretty clear to me that the people wearing the white hats in this matter have an "R" after their names, and the villians have a "D".




The Democrats were all for "affordable housing" and they cared about the "little guy"; yeah, yeah, yeah; blah, blah, blah. Meanwhile, my great-grandchildren will have to pay for their profligacy, all because the Democrats once again wanted to use other people's money to buy votes.

Steamed? You bet I am.



"The GSEs need to be reformed without delay."

--John McCain 2006

The Coming Palin Volunteer Army

She did well (Ya Think??)

I'll bet even more volunteers will turn out now.

Palin Pregnancy

Let's unpack this Palin pregnancy thing.

Sarah Palin electrified the world when John McCain announced her as his running mate.

This is an impressive woman, but she has her hands full with her family.  She has a new special needs child.  With her affirmation of the child's humanity, she enhanced her moral standing.  I am, and remain, a big fan.

It now comes to light that Bristol Palin, her 17 year old daughter, is pregnant by her boyfriend, and a wedding is planned.

The problem will not be with the Christian base, as the pointy-heads think.  The problem is a perception of disorder, and we want our leaders' lives ordered.

There is no chance the evangelical comminity will condemn her, as the media snobs should know if they knew anything about evangelical Christianity and it's place as a foundation for basic traditional American thinking.  The beautiful people, however, are so ignorant of its nuances that one can only conclude that there are serious deficiencies in their education, even those with Harvard PhDs.

The Maureen Dowds of the world will expect that judgmental churchgoers will look down their noses at a sinner.  Talk about projection.  It's the pointy-heads who will be looking down their noses at these gauche provincials.

I would venture that most Evangelical Christians know someone who has had a child out of wedlock.  Usually it's the young girl who's sitting two pews back with her baby and her parents.  In these congregations, there is no condoning of sex out of wedlock, of course, but there is also no condoning of procrastination, gossiping, sloth, stealing envelopes from work, exagerating income tax deductions, etc.  These people in the pews look up at the cross, and they remember who paid for all these sins.  "There but for the Grace of God go I," many of them think to themselves.

So Bristol Palin will not be condemned by Christians.  But she and her mother will be looked down upon by the pointy-heads.  You'll be able to see it in their eyes: "Our kind of people don't get pregnant at 17.  Our daughters go to college on a glidepath."  A callous but witty Oscar Wilde quote comes to mind: “To lose one parent may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.”  Read that as: "One family experiencing an unusual pregnancy (that the Beautiful People couldn't ever see themselves permitting) might be seen as a misfortune, but two (in one year) make the Palins look careless. 

I regard these beautiful people as moral monsters.  But this is what I'm afraid might do damage:  If the candidate looks "careless" or looks like she lacks the necessary "class" or "polish" required of the job; or lacks the necessary control of her life, then even some normal Americans could say, "I don't condemn her.  She could even be my best friend here in the real world.  But a heartbeat away  .  .  .   ??"

Obama talks like he understands that condemning her is immoral.  He said, in effect, "Lay off this subject.  Families are off limits."  That's to his credit, but for one thing:  Obama's act is beginning to wear a bit thin.  A pattern is emerging:  First, one of his surrogates says something boorish.  Damage is done to the victim.  Obama apologizes for his acolyte's boorishness, so that the boorishness doesn't rub off on him.  Repeat ad nauseam.  This is starting to look so calculated that this observer can only conclude that Obama (or David Axlerod or somebody) is behind the strategy.  Either that, or Obama can't control those under him (not a good quality in a Chief Executive).

This is largely a tempest in a teapot, of course, and people vote for the leader of the ticket and not the running mate (Bush 41 won in 1988).  But I'm wondering if the Average Joe's (or Jane's) enthusiasm for Sarah Palin has been slightly dampened by the amount of seeming disorder in her family, even if they admire her and would not hold anything against her if she were an ordinary mortal; and even if they deeply admire her, as I do, for her affirmation of life.

What will happen now?  This electrifying woman will come out and speak again, and remind everyone why she became a sensation in the first place.  I actually think this will happen.  But in the mean time, all I can say is, "What a wild ride."  Thursday: Obama dazzles everybody.  Friday: Sarah Palin makes everyone forget all about Obama.  Sunday:  What will Gustav do?  Monday:  The Palin daughter is pregnant.

I think I've got a whiplash.

P.S.:  I hate to be one more voice publicly musing about a 17-year old girl's private business.  So let me say this:  I think Bristol's upcoming marriage has a greater chance of lasting 50 years than  most of the beautiful people's marriages have of lasting 5.  What's more, the Maureen Dowds of the world know it, deep down.  Because they're unhappy.

Live from NOLA

You watch.  If the levees break in NOLA due to Gustav, the GOP convention delegates will be watching on the Jumbotron while John McCain gives his acceptance speech from some gymnasium to where people have been evacuated.  I thought of this yesterday, but now I see the McCains and the Palins are planning to go to NOLA on Sunday.  But I see this extending into convention week.  The very savvy McCain has shown every indication that it is able to make such lemons into lemonade.

I can see it now:  Todd Palin driving some boat, carrying hapless victims out of the 9th Ward.  Sarah Palin wading through the water or filling sandbags.  A casually-dressed McCain in the middle of the action.

Of course, the partially-improved levees could hold and this may be mooted.  But I can see NOLA as Minneapolis south. 

"Sarah Palin, Über-Babe," or "Mrs. Smith Goes to Washington"

About a week ago, Jacob Weisberg from Slate wrote an online essay arguing that if Barack Obama loses the general election, America is a racist country.

Let me see him and raise him.

If John McCain loses this election, it is strong evidence that America has lost her character.  This is because Sarah Palin has character, and John McCain has shown character in choosing her as his running mate. 

Make no mistake: I am a conservative Republican of the type who has had reservations about Senator McCain. The Arizona Senator whom many of the press have dubbed a “maverick” has been given that appellation, in the estimation of many people like me, because he has strayed from the reservation of Reagan Conservatism.

Why, for example, did he champion campaign finance reform, which appeared to me to be an infringement of free speech? If rich bastards have a disproportionate impact on the public debate, the cure, it always seemed to me, was to publicize lists of wealthy donors to campaigns, so that the public could readily identify those who were trying to wield the “joystics of power.” (“Joysticks of power” is my trademarked phrase of mine; I can picture nefarious Superman-comic bad guys, wide-eyedly and orgiastically controlling the world with video-game controllers).

Why, for another example, did John McCain have a good relationship with the press? If anyone in the modern age has made a Faustian bargain with Lucifer, it is the MSM, the “drive-bys” (as the Great One puts it); those who buy “ink by the barrel” as Mark Twain put it. It could only be that John McCain had likewise Sold His Soul to the Devil, buying a few accolades at the expense of his Eternal Soul.

Ah, but wait: this is the man who spent five and one-half years in a North Vietnamese prison camp. Who had greater bona fides as a lover of his country that that?

This was the conflict in the minds of people like me: Did the GOP find its soul in nominating this man like this, who suffered so much for his country? Or did the “stupid party” once again nominate “the old guy” whose “turn it was”?

Just what, however, did John McCain actually do with his nomination? He went ahead and chose "Mrs. Smith" to be his running mate. “Mrs. Smith?” you say. Yes; Mrs. Smith. As in “Mrs. Smith Goes to Washington.”

Sarah Palin is the real deal. Oh, I know; “Put not your faith in men,” as the scriptures say, and you could read “men” as “women.” Sarah Palin could let us down, as could anyone.

But this woman came up to the mike and without a trace of nervousness introduced herself to America, and we were collectively mesmerized.

I was donating platelets at the time at the announcement, a process that takes up to two hours. While I had two needles in my arms drawing blood from my body, so that a centrifuge could extract the life-giving platelets, I found myself prostrate. But I did have a remote-control clicker in my right hand (I couldn’t bend my elbow for two hours, even to scratch my nose). I was, therefore, able to click between Fox News and CNN to follow the coverage.

What a beautiful lady Sarah Palin is. She found out her unborn son had Down’s Syndrome; and instead of aborting, she carried her son to term and made public statements about how beautiful he is: “perfect” was her word. WOW. Wow, wow, wow. These’s a holocaust going on, right now, at the expense of the mentally retarded. Thanks to people like the sophisticated and urbane Mr. Obama.

Mr. McCain is known for upholding “honor” and “duty” above all other ideological considerations. He sure showed it in the Hanoi Hilton, when he refused to go home when he had the opportunity, and instead stayed with his men.

He showed it again when he chose a genuine reformer as his running mate. Sarah Palin was on the Wasilla, AK, city council when she railed against waste in the budget. The sitting mayor tried to institute a recall campaign against her. It failed. She got elected herself as mayor. Taxes and waste were drastically reduced. Then she ran for governor of Alaska and won again. She took a jet owned by the state and sold it on eBay for a profit. She said she wasn’t a “mansion kind of person.”

She got herself elected without having to be beholden to the money interests of Alaska’s oil business; in fact, the people of Alaska elected her precisely because she did stand up to the corrupt moneyed interests of Alaska. This, of course, is bad news for the Alaska congressional delegation. Senator Ted Stevens won his primary, but he’s the kind of guy she ran against. As for Don Young, the state’s sole member of congress, ditto. The other US Senator, Lisa Murkowski, is the daughter of the guy she defeated for governor.

So talk about Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” She’s at odds with the ENTIRE CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION OF HER STATE. And yet, John McCain chose her to be his running mate, even though THAT CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION IS OF THE SAME PARTY JOHN McCAIN BELONGS TO. To me, this shows that John McCain, in keeping with his fidelity to Honor and Duty, has decided to Clean Up the Republican Party. God Bless Him.

As you can tell, I’m pretty “gone” on this chick, Sarah Palin. And I’m pretty impressed with John McCain at this point. Even though money is tight, I just made my first campaign contribution in years for this ticket.

God Bless John McCain. God Bless a Real Woman, Sarah Palin. God Bless Todd Palin, who must be a hell of a man to “close the deal” on a woman of character like this. And, as they always say, “God Bless America.”