All he had to say was...

Barack says his beliefs were being misrepresented when his campaign manager filled out a position questionnaire for an activist group that provided critical support for his first run for the state senate in Illinois in 1996. On that questionnaire, Barack was a clear cut liberal. Over the years, his positions have been more difficult to discern - hidden behind a cloud of sophisticated articulation.

All Barack would have had to say to avoid being held responsible for saying what he probably in his heart believes is, "that years ago and my positions have naturally evolved." Instead, he made what could turn out to be a substantial blunder when he faces the scrutiny of a general election in the fall - he passed the buck, saying that his campaign manager had misrepresented his views. That comes across as being weak and disingenuous, and questionable considering his own handwriting appears on one of the forms. Besides, it was his campaign, and it probably had no more than a couple of staffers. If he couldn't keep them in line, what's he going to do with the free world?

Read about Barack's Questionnaires Disease in the investigation conducted by Politico.

Barack's Storyline

Do you remember in the fall when there was a vote in the Senate for a resolution encouraging President Bush to label the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization? Hillary took some heat for voting in favor, as there was concern at the time that the Bush administration was trying to get us into a war with Iran and that this was another example of Hillary being duped by the devious Bushies.

Anyway, Senator Joe Lieberman yesterday put the shoe on the other foot, criticizing Barack for his vote against the provision. He is right to do so.

One of the difficult things in having something on Barack is the luxury he has of having no experience. No experience sounds bad, but having no track record also means having no track record to attack. This presents some level of advantage for Obama.

But Lieberman has reminded us of another bit of evidence that there's something potentially ominous, hidden just below the surface, in the philosophy of Barack Obama. You combine the refusal to wear an American flag pin with the video of him not saluting the flag while the other dems were with Reverand Wright's "God Damn America" with Michelle Obama's never having been proud of America before, with little tidbits like refusing to call the terrorists in Iran terrorists, and I think Barack's got a problem. Its like a knife to the heart of what Barack conjures when you think, "wow. Maybe this guy is much more of a wacko then anyone understands."

This is where the big Barack fantasy could really come apart. The foundation of lusting after a perfect ten (remember the movie?) is that you're chasing an illusion based on how that illusion makes you feel. The crash is pretty hard when you realize that the beauty that swept you off your feet is only skin deep, because you feel very, very foolish.

I imagine alot of Barack's support evaporating - poof! - on the spot when that balloon gets popped.

About Campaign Lies

Hillary takes heat for false claims of danger on her Bosnia trip, and rightly so. Let's have similar coverage for Barack's attempt to create a false sense of destiny and linkage to the legacy of Camelot with his story about his dad being brought to the U.S. to study due to the generosity of the Kennedy's. Turns out the Kennedy Foundation's involvement in the program came after Barack Senior came to the U.S.

Barack, Jr.

Not many people outside of Massachusetts know the story about a relatively young Harvard educated black guy with little experience in politics but a compelling personal story who rides a theme of hope and "Together We Can" to the chief executive's seat. It is the story of Deval Patrick, elected Governor of Massachusetts last year, who has failed to live up to even the lowest of the high hopes that put him into power.

The story became better known to many yesterday, as his rocky first 14 months in office were profiled on the front page of the New York Times.

Deval has accomplished nothing thus far with regard to his legislative agenda, and that's good news for the people of Massachusetts, of course, as he's an elitist suburbanite by nature who thinks that activist, expensive government is the cure to all ills. Even in the face of a $1.3 billion deficit when he came into office, Deval went about trying to figure out ways to grow the budget, going so far as to pursue an aggressive casino gambling package for the state, not exactly a popular idea with his base, in order to help fund his legacy. How can a governor, after all, leave office a success if he has not created new programs to break the backs of taxpayers and created more state jobs? It apparently never occurred to him that in bad times some belt tightening and shrinking of expectations would be appropriate. Heavens no! Leaving office without having added new entitlements and thousands more dependent on the state would be as sad as Bill Clinton leaving the presidency without having fought a good war! No greatness without great achievements!

The Man From Hope (not Bill Clinton, not Barack Obama, but Deval Patrick) has been a failure because he doesn't know how to get along with folks - whether it be the media, the people, or with the legislature. Like the GOP governors who preceded him, Deval just can't seem to get along with the Democrats who have total control over the legislature. Unlike the GOP governors who preceded him, Deval badmouths them and expects them to do what he wants because he is Deval. That's how it worked at Justice, after all.

After the Speaker of the House blocked Deval's attempt to bring casinos to the state last week, Deval shrewdly tried to alienate Sal DiMasi further by challenging his right to interfere with the machinations of the legislative process:

“It’s part of what we ran against, and it needs to be called out,” Mr. Patrick said in an interview last week on the day before the House overwhelmingly killed the (casino gambling) bill. “We’re going to keep working on it until we get a Democratic process that’s functioning.”

A functioning democratic process apparently means one with Deval Patrick as King.

And on the day that his proposal was going down to overwhelming defeat at the hands of DiMasi, Deval had skipped out to New York City on what his staff would only describe as "personal business."

Days later the truth is revealed - Deval was in New York City visiting publishers with his agent, looking for a big payday for his memoirs. After all, if Barack can do it, why not Deval?

The lesson is obvious - judging a candidate based on his smooth speaking skills does not in any way reflect what kind of chief executive they'll be. Putting someone without appropriate experience into a job of big responsibility is a set up for disaster.

I'm not saying that Barack's poor judgement is a match for Deval's. Barack's liabilities are likely as unique as Deval's. But Presidents are best well-known to voters in advance of elections so that the liabilities can be judged along with the potential upside. And in the big decisions we've seen from Barack, he's made some bad ones; a close, longterm association with an indicted political fundraiser, a shady house purchase including shenanigans with the same alleged briber (described as a boneheaded move by the always honest Barack), a close personal and political relationship with a divisive, race baiting pastor, and a wife who, sadly, has never been impressed with America.

Obama-mania - Certifiable?

the following blurb in a trade journal made me wonder about how long it will be before people start getting diagnosed with some sort of Obama Obsession Disorder. I think it can already be described as "a common compulsive-impulsive disorder" Do you know any sufferers?

An editorial in this month's issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry says Internet addiction, including "excessive gaming, sexual pre-occupations and e-mail/text messaging," is a common compulsive-impulsive disorder that should be added to the 2012 edition of psychiatry's official dictionary of mental illnesses.

The Gore Fantasy

Joe Klein lays out an (unlikely) argument for how a Gore/Obama ticket might come to pass. If all other pieces fell into place, its hard to imagine Obama going along with the scenario, but it is possible to imagine democrats being utterly exhausted by the time of the convention, with a desperate need to head Hillary off at the pass.

Hillary's Scorched Earth Policy

This video from Greta's show the other night on Fox is pretty startling, because Hillary is pretty clear that she will do whatever possible to stop Barack.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7554736154178310023&pr=goog-sl

Is Safety the Real Issue?

Reverend Wright is bowing out of commitments to preach around the country. The excuse given is safety - “the safety of the institution to which he has been invited; the safety of his family, which has been placed in harm’s way; and for his own safety.” In the world of spin, this is certainly a more sympathetic explanation than saying something like, "Barack begged me - please lay low until further notice, you're killing my chances to be President with this hateful crap that you spew!"

Back From Vacay, Barack talks Wright

Why would Barack defend Pastor Wright today, saying that he was a victim of the TV telescope? It seems odd, especially since some polls now indicate that Obama is weathering the storm just fine. I would think that most would interpret his portrayal of Wright as a victim as inappropriate.

A Typical Wright

Pastor Wright is at it again, spreading the love. You have to respect the fact that the good reverend doesn't use cliche slurs in his attempts to diminish his fellow man based on their most superficial characteristics. Nope - he creates new slurs, uniquely his own. But here's the good news, Italians - it appears that Pastor Wright doesn't consider you to be typical white people. Here are some of his writings from the Trumpet Magazine:

(Jesus') enemies had their opinion about Him," Wright wrote in a eulogy of the late scholar Asa Hilliard in the November/December 2007 issue. "The Italians for the most part looked down their garlic noses at the Galileans."

Wright continued, "From the circumstances surrounding Jesus' birth (in a barn in a township that was under the Apartheid Roman government that said his daddy had to be in), up to and including the circumstances surrounding Jesus' death on a cross, a Roman cross, public lynching Italian style. ...

"He refused to be defined by others and Dr. Asa Hilliard also refused to be defined by others. The government runs everything from the White House to the schoolhouse, from the Capitol to the Klan, white supremacy is clearly in charge, but Asa, like Jesus, refused to be defined by an oppressive government because Asa got his identity from an Omnipotent God."

I'll ask you again - how is it possible for Barack to be elected President considering his close, continued alliance with this man? It doesn't seem to me that his fancy footwork on his speech last week, as clever as it was, saves him from the reality that there is no excuse for their close, longterm relationship.

Like a Ruthless Gambler...

Hillary raises the stakes, and loses the hand, on her Bosnia "misremember."

Obama Girl

Thanks to Candace for sharing a wonderful Obama-Girl attack on Hillary. This demonstrates well the level of thoughtfulness of those who support Barack. Do you think this is intended as a slap at his supporters?

Wounded

After 11 days, the numbers indicate the damage to Barack from Pastorgate is sticking, but surprisingly moderate. Barack was beating Hillary in national polls by 7 points a couple of weeks ago, now she has a two point lead. His positives have gone from 51-46% - all according to Rasmussen.

Like an Hispanic Woman

Okay, this takes us back a few days, so it may be hard for you to relate to, but I just discovered this column by Linda Chavez. She very nicely sums up what Barack did wrong a week ago in the greatest speech of all time. Since her arguments reflect many I've been making, I wanted you to have a chance to hear her way of thinking.

Like a Black Candidate

In his new column, Robert Novak explains what we talked about on my radio show yesterday, that Barack made himself into a black candidate with his speech on Tuesday. Novak reports that the Democratic masterminds are now feeling trapped - if they need to abandon Obama and go with Hillary, how can they, given that he is the black candidate and they are dependent on the black vote? So, Dems lose if they nominate Obama because he's made himself into someone who makes white voters uncomfortable and they lose if Hillary is selected because they are abandoned by blacks and new voters who stay home.

Here's Novak.

Like a White Clinton

Interesting little observations in the Washington Post today about Barack's willingness to take credit for things he had nothing to do with in the U.S. Senate. Its not a surprise, I suppose, given that he's spent two out of his three years in office running for president. What could he have actually been involved in? But it does say something about character when a man is willing to take credit for the labor of others, doesn't it.

I remember as a kid how impacted I was when Bobby Orr would correct the judges when he felt they were being too generous in awarding him an assist. These anecdotes about Barack suggest he takes the opposite approach.

Here's the story.

Like a White Party

One of the important thing that's been displayed by the Pastor Wright controversy is just how blinded by lust the beautiful people are in their love affair with Barack.

All gagga you silly people are over an ordinary speech that pretended to be about race.

Listen wackos, you want to fix the race problems in this country, here's what you have to do.

1) Never vote for another democrat
Democrats control the schools and the cities, and this is where black anger is nurtured. Democrats get everything they want for the schools, which happens not to include good results, but does include the agenda handed them by their partners in crime, the teachers' unions.

2) Get poor people an education.
The schools which are owned and operated by democrats celebrate diversity, inclusion, mainstreaming, sustainability, secularism, self-esteem, and a plethora of wonderful, good things. They just don't think its very important to educate people. The biggest scandal in modern America is that democrats give high school diplomas to people who can't read and write and speak english. What could be more racist than that?

Educate blacks for a generation or two, and they'll be too busy, too successful, and too savvy to be sitting in church listening to clever entertainers like Jeremiah Wright.

Why was Barack sitting there with all his education? How else does a Harvard educated light skinned black guy raised by two white women gain acceptance in the black community? He obviously doesn't buy into Wright's nonsense - no one believes that.

Acting Like a White Politician

Yes, Barack's speech was brilliant. But not for the reason you think.

He cleverly made it seem that there was a larger concept at issue in the controversy over Pastor Wright, that of race, instead of having us stay on topic. The real topic is what in the world was Barack doing hanging around with this guy for 20 years. That's the discussion that should take place, but Barack seems to have succeeded in throwing the hounds off the scent.

However, he has been damaged, losing 15 points or so in people's minds when the pollsters ask if Barack has what it takes to unite the country. That's a body blow. But one Barack figures he can sustain. Let's be realistic - no one in the Obama camp thought he was going to get away with being an angel descended from above forever.

And they knew this blow was coming.... going back at least a year, when Barack started visibly distancing himself from Wright.

Acting Like a White Clinton

There goes Bill again, trying to turn Hillary's run for president into a mess not just for her, but for his legacy as well. Never missing a chance to inject race into the campaign, you have to figure he's a bit overexcited to find out that Barack is thinking the same way! Here's what the former Prez had to say:

"I think it would be a great thing if we had an election year where you had two people who loved this country and were devoted to the interest of this country," Clinton said, "and people could actually ask themselves who is right on these issues, instead of all this other stuff that always seems to intrude itself on our politics.

"So that's my argument for her."

OUCH!

Just Like the Liberal White Media!

Lead stories on the ABC news tonight.

1) Barack et al have their passport records broken into. This is a ho hummer if there ever was one, right up there with the hospital workers who were having a chuckle looking at Brittany's medical records. The big news would be if this didn't happen. What I'd really like to know, however, is how the story came to be broken as a Barack only story (black man as victim), with Hillary and McCain only being added today.

2) The big news that Bill Richardson, who is now going thru his Al Gore beard-after-the-loss phase, and who garnered the support of a dozen or so voters during his presidential bid, endorsed Barack today. Another ho hummer that somehow deserved top billing.

3) News that just days after Barack gave the greatest speech in human history, Hillary was now trying to use race against him!!! Poor Barack. Shameful Hillary. I say she's just acting like a white person who used to be first lady, but ABC News is not going as easy on her.

Oh, ya. While I was probably the only American to watch the interview in its entirety, Larry King seemed oddly self-conscious and uncomfortable hitting his usual gentle serves to Barack for a full hour last night. It was like he'd agreed to a list of questions submitted by the Obama campaign and was suffering a flicker of nostalgia for his long lost journalistic integrity. At the end, after a disengaged and awkward hour, Larry tried to close:

We've been talking with, ah (he pauses and looks down at his notes) Barack Obama!

The best moment of the night was when King read a particularly generous quote from the New York Times "analysis" of the greatest political speech ever given and asked Barack what he made of it.

Like a Woman Who Once Ran For VP!

Oh, those white women who once were token Democratic nominees for Vice President. You've got to love their spirit! In an age in which most Americans are cowed by the liberal insistence that any statement from a white person that acknowledges a truth about race in this country is racist, how is it possible that Geraldine Ferraro is so vehemently asserting her right to free speech? Doesn't she know she gave it up when she joined the party?

Check out Ferraro's response to Barack's completely inappropriate attempt to equate her statement that Barack is a man of the moment, and part of that moment includes his being black, with the mean spirited sermons of Rev Wright.

Like A White Woman

Barack continued his "Race in America" media tour yesterday, committing a blunder that, as usual, would have caused a new firestorm if circumstances were reversed. As it is, the casualness with which he throws language around that whites are called racist for using is enlightening. You'll recall that on Tuesday, one of Barack's White Lies in response to the Preacher Wright controversy was this:

"I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe."

Since when did throwing your grandmother under the bus become appropriate? And whose grandmother doesn't possess an ear that belongs to another time? Barack's attempt to equate this sort of private comment with the outrageousness of the Preacher's many public proclamations promoting hatred toward country and cultural divide represents the politics of old that Barack is supposed to be the antidote to.

Seeking to clarify, Barack had this to say on a radio talk show yesterday:

"The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity, but that she is a typical white person. If she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know (pause) there's a reaction in her that doesn't go away and it comes out in the wrong way."

A typical white person? But wait a sec. Remember in the mid-nineties when Jesse Jackson admitted to the same transgression?

"There is nothing more painful to me ... than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery, then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved."

Maybe this isn't a race issue at all, but a class issue, and a crime issue, and a survival issue. Maybe Barack's grandmother, along with Jesse Jackson, was just acting like a typical human being!

Like a White Liberal

Interesting analysis on Barack Obama from a man known as the Relentless Liberal. Here's what Jerry Grossman says is troubling about Barack's willingness to sit and listen to Jeremiah Wright disparage America and its white majority for 20 years:

"Obama has proven repeatedly by his actions and his rhetoric that he is a natural conciliator so his failure to try to modify the explosive situation in his church is unsettling. There is a parallel in the way he acted out his undiluted opposition to the Iraq war. Once elected to the U.S. Senate, one would have expected that he would have used his position to advance his deeply held views on this matter of life and death for so many Americans and Iraqis, the way freshman Senator James Webb of Virginia did, as Senator Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and African-American Congressman John Conyers of Michigan do, day by day, bill by bill. Obama did nothing wrong. His votes on Iraq were fine, no complaints there, but he did not seize the initiative, there for the asking, to insist, to dramatize, to demand, to be a center of dissent on Iraq."

Jerome Grossman is a former democratic national committeeman whose devotion to left wing politics includes working closely on anti-war activities with Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden and running the anti-nuclear proliferation agency Council for a Livable World. A real life, certified liberal, who worries about having a nominee who talks a good game but apparently doesn't stand up and fight when his political future is part of the equation. Jerry's nephew is Steve Grossman, who is a major fundraiser and former national party chair for the dems. Jerry is also my uncle.

Like a White Talking Head

Is Barack prepared to be the President of all the people? Apparently not.

Chris Wallace, unable to get Barack to live up to what Chris says was a face to face commitment to appear on Fox News Sunday, has started a new feature to highlight the deception. Its called Obama Watch, and it tracks the number of days its been that Barack has failed to accept his constant invitations, a period now totaling about 2 years.

The Morning After

The big question on political events isn't really how thing went. The question is how will it play in the media.

Goodmorning America went particularly easy on Barack this morning, skipping right over the issue of his close association with the Racial Nerve Stomper Jeremiah Wright and going directly to a conversation about race. The Today Show did a better job of making it clear that this was a speech that Barack was forced to make to put out a fire.

Last week, Barack Obama went on a media tour and tried to put the issue of Pastor Wright to rest with some Clinton style parsing.

He hadn’t been in church for the specific remarks that had been collected on Pastor Wright he said, but he did find them appalling.

He claimed ignorance.

In his big speech yesterday, the story had changed. Yesterday, he said:

Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes.

So now he fesses up.

But he argues he can’t step away from the man who has played such a big role in Barack’s life that he has become like family:

He contains within him the contradictions – the good and the bad – of the community that he has served diligently for so many years. I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community.

Funny. Last week, the Obama campaign was all for the idea of disowning people when the shoe was on the other foot. Consider his campaign’s reaction last week when Clinton adviser Geraldine Ferraro talked about how Barack got where he is because he’s black (oh, don’t you just love those color blind democrats?) Here’s what Obama Adviser David Axelrod told reporters:

“Ferraro should be denounced and censured by the (Clinton) campaign. Samantha [Power] resigned (from the Obama campaign), because it was not consistent with the kind of campaign we want to run. We want a candidate and president who will live by their words.”

Barack wants Hillary to disown Ferraro for making an arguably inappropriate comment which happened to be factually accurate while Barack's still trying to claim that Reverand Wright is his own version of Billy Beer, just the byproduct of the black sheep of the family, and we all know about those, don’t we?

It really irked me yesterday when Barack argued that you don't disown someone you're close to just because they say something you don't agree with.

Unfortunately, that mis-characterises the situation. This is a political adviser, and close personal friend, who regularly rants in a manner that the race baiters call racist if a white person dares to talk this way.

Again, you don’t choose your family, you choose your Pastor. Barack could have walked away from Jeremiah Wright at whatever point he wanted to. But he never did want to. He preferred keeping his head in the sand, or holding our heads there, as late as last weekend. Was this because Rev Wright was critical to Barack’s political goals?

This is what political analyst Dick Morris had to say in his most recent column:

Wright's rantings are not reflective of Obama's views on anything. Why did he stay in the church? Because he's a black Chicago politician who comes from a mixed marriage and went to Columbia and Harvard. Suspected of not being black enough or sufficiently tied to the minority community, he needed the networking opportunities Wright afforded him in his church to get elected.

All this adds up to a different perspective on Barack. He’s not the angel his supporters believe him to be. He’s made of flesh and bone, he’s ambitious, and he’s willing to do the wrong thing to get ahead. Just another human being. Just another politician.

Now we can judge him by the usual criteria.

What is his experience? Virtually non-existent.

What has he accomplished? Very little.

What qualifies him to be president? Nothing other than being black at a time when the country is ready to be done with race as an issue, despite the attempts of liberals to keep it alive.

Barack's Speech - Just All Wright

Barack made himself one of the Founding Father's today.

"Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered... and launched America’s improbable experiment in democracy... This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign – to continue the long march of those who came before us."

He elevates himself so that he can promise to elevate us. And in elevating himself he steps away from the mud.

In this case, it will be fun to watch if Barack's re-positioning trick works. Because this is different than saying "politics is dirty, let's you and I go do it a better way and the world will follow."

In this case, the mess is Barack's. In this case, we're getting an insight into the man with no experience, who we know precious little about, but who wants to be President of the United States. He says I Will Lift You, he says Together We Can, he says Trust My Judgment.

How do we trust the judgment of the man who hasn't been asked to make any decisions?

We look to what meager track record he has to offer. The people around him.

Certainly it caused some concern when his wife expressed her anger at America, saying she'd never been proud of this country before. The country that gave her an education, that gave her affluence, that gave her a safe community to raise her children in, that gave her a U.S. Senator as a husband. She's never felt proud before. Odd.

Now we have context. We see a pattern to these opinions. We know where she got this dark view of our land.

"This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story... it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts – that out of many, we are truly one."

Barack's wife doesn't like her country, his preacher and political adviser says, "God Damn America," and his closest political supporter from day one of his career, dating all the way back to the 1990's, is on trial for corruption. Barack believes we are truly one, but his close friend/ally/aide/preacher calls this nation the KKKA.

We see Barack's judgement.

Now we have context. Barack has kept race out of the campaign, and that has been nice. We thought it was because, as George Will puts it, Barack is post-racial. Now we know that he is steeped in an environment of race and class based division, but not because he shares the belief systems around him, just because he loves the haters.

He loves the Preacher, we are told, like an uncle. In fact, he compares the Preacher to his grandmother, who sometimes spoke in off-color ways that Barack found uncomfortable.

But a Preacher is not family. A Preacher is chosen. If the chosen Preacher is appalling, then you go find another one. You can't do this with a grandmother. With a grandmother, one is stuck cringing.

But even if your grandmother was your Preacher, you would stop going to church if she talked like Preacher Wright.