A website dedicated to the man so uniquely unqualified to be President. This blog by by radio talk host Todd Feinburg has been replaced by RealClearThinker.com.
The Obama girls won't get everything they want now that they're presidential kids.
It looks like U.S. President-elect Barack Obama’s daughter won’t be starring in Miley Cyrus' hit TV show ‘Hannah Montana’.
An Obama aide has told the ‘New York Daily News’, ‘It's a generous invitation, but they simply aren’t going to be making decisions of that kind right now.’
Inviting Malia and Sasha Obama, to make a cameo, Miley’s father Billy Ray Cyrus told Access Hollywood, ‘They probably will. The invitation is there’, reports ‘Contactmusic’.
Barack will never allow such a thing. By all accounts, he's a responsible dad, Michelle's a devoted mom, and no one in their right minds would jump head first into adding to their children's corruption by giving Hollywood a piece of them.
’The Hannah Montana film comes out in April. Maybe something might happen around then,’ he added.
Obama is determined to keep his daughters away from the limelight, and while explaining his decision, he told U.S. TV show Good Morning America, ‘Generally, what makes them so charming is the fact that they're not spending a lot of time worrying about TV cameras or politics, and we want to keep it that way.’
Just chalk it up to clever promotion on the part of the Montana clan.
This is the end. But also the beginning. Barack's White Lies is moving, and evolving. Think of it as Change You Can Believe In. The new blog will be called, eventually, Real Clear Thinker. All future posts can be found at realclearthinker.com.
I took it in stride when Barack won, and decided that this is a time to adjust - we must accept his victory and learn the lessons that come with it. America has changed, and in order to be effective in doing political analysis, as well as affecting the course that the nation is following, it seems to me that you have to be here, in the moment - not stuck in some dream of the past.
If you'll permit me an analogy, think of those of us who enjoy the political process, study it, and try to move people's thinking to a better place, as singer/songwriters. We perform songs about the world we live in. While singing songs from the sixties might draw an audience - heck, it would even be fun - I don't want to be an oldies act. Singing nostalgia is valid because it offers escape, but I don't want to engage in escapism, I want to be relevant to now. I want to grab hold of the moment and say, "it's moving in the wrong direction, help me get it back on course."
In order to do that, I decided it is necessary to let go of some things. I'm not going to worry about Barack being too young and inexperienced, I'm going to try to trust that he is a gifted enough person that maybe he can rise to the occasion. I'm not going to wallow in the cruel hoax of turning to the people who are dismantling the American experiment and asking them to save it - I want to accept that Democrats have won because Republicans screwed up, and that's how it goes in the toggle mentality of a two party system.
Their worst goals must be resisted, yes, but as an optimist, I will trust that the flaws of liberalism, when seen up close, will reaffirm in America it's basic conservatism. We must help them be the tools of their own demise.
I also think we must accept that America has been altered inexorably - this is not the European culture we grew up in, the forces that sought to minimize it's whiteness and make it a multi-cultural place have succeeded. That's not a bad thing, per se, it's just a different thing. It only hurts when you fight it. At the same time, we must make sure that the new America loves and respects that which is America, that it isn't here just to enjoy the benefits without respecting the underpinnings that made the spoils possible.
In other words, if new people are going to be in charge, I can live with that. I don't care who is in charge, I care what is in charge. What philosophies are going to guide us, what are our values going to be? Bad values can be pushed by people of any culture or race, as can good ones.
So I decided that I had to accept the tipping point that Barack's election represents. Power has shifted to the new guys. Fighting that would be like trying to fight the British invasion of the 1960's. The Beatles were not the revolution - the forces of change were unstoppable - they simply rode the wave created by the enormous demand for change. Television, and access to money, gave kids a new voice in the marketplace, and we used those tools to, for better and for worse, adjust the world to meet our tastes.
The same has happened now - we have raised a couple of generations of suburban kids whose lives haven't known the struggles of necessity. It is foolhardy to expect, for a moment, that they would view life the way we do. How could a twenty-something professional of today, earning a comfortable upper middle class living while sitting at his computer in Starbucks, have even the vaguest notion of the life that formed the Greatest Generation? We must stop expecting the impossible.
I'm not arguing that the fight is over - the struggle between conservative and liberal values is a permanent one, as is the political fight between the groups aligned, however loosely, behind those banners. I'm just saying that we have to realize that some things have already been decided - that liberalism has, to a large extent, already won, and we must map carefully the piece of land we're standing on so that we can best defend, and perhaps extend, our ground.
It is in this spirit that I begin a gradual relaunch of Barack's White Lies. A new look, a new location, a new name. While I liked the edginess of the name for the election - I enjoyed that it made liberals uncomfortable - my old fashioned conservative sensibilities lead me to feel uncomfortable calling my blog Barack's White Lies.
I don't wish to be disrespectful to the office of the President of the United States, which, hopefully, will always be occupied by a person who loves the ideals and the brilliance of the men, and the document, that created it.
The blog will live on under the name of Real Clear Thinker. It's an amalgam of the names of a couple of my favorite places to read - Real Clear Politics and The American Thinker - not so much inspired by them as absorbed and reconstructed.
When shocked liberals ask how I have come to a particular conclusion, I just tell them that I thought about it. And that's the truth. I like thinking clearly, and I believe that if others engage in a similar enterprise, they'll come to conclusions that are pretty close to mine.
This is the end. But also the beginning. Barack's White Lies is moving, and evolving. Think of it as Change You Can Believe In. The new blog will be called, eventually, Real Clear Thinker. All future posts can be found at realclearthinker.com.
I took it in stride when Barack won, and decided that this is a time to adjust - we must accept his victory and learn the lessons that come with it. America has changed, and in order to be effective in doing political analysis, as well as affecting the course that the nation is following, it seems to me that you have to be here, in the moment - not stuck in some dream of the past.
If you'll permit me an analogy, think of those of us who enjoy the political process, study it, and try to move people's thinking to a better place, as singer/songwriters. We perform songs about the world we live in. While singing songs from the sixties might draw an audience - heck, it would even be fun - I don't want to be an oldies act. Singing nostalgia is valid because it offers escape, but I don't want to engage in escapism, I want to be relevant to now. I want to grab hold of the moment and say, "it's moving in the wrong direction, help me get it back on course."
In order to do that, I decided it is necessary to let go of some things. I'm not going to worry about Barack being too young and inexperienced, I'm going to try to trust that he is a gifted enough person that maybe he can rise to the occasion. I'm not going to wallow in the cruel hoax of turning to the people who are dismantling the American experiment and asking them to save it - I want to accept that Democrats have won because Republicans screwed up, and that's how it goes in the toggle mentality of a two party system.
Their worst goals must be resisted, yes, but as an optimist, I will trust that the flaws of liberalism, when seen up close, will reaffirm in America it's basic conservatism. We must help them be the tools of their own demise.
I also think we must accept that America has been altered inexorably - this is not the European culture we grew up in, the forces that sought to minimize it's whiteness and make it a multi-cultural place have succeeded. That's not a bad thing, per se, it's just a different thing. It only hurts when you fight it. At the same time, we must make sure that the new America loves and respects that which is America, that it isn't here just to enjoy the benefits without respecting the underpinnings that made the spoils possible.
In other words, if new people are going to be in charge, I can live with that. I don't care who is in charge, I care what is in charge. What philosophies are going to guide us, what are our values going to be? Bad values can be pushed by people of any culture or race, as can good ones.
So I decided that I had to accept the tipping point that Barack's election represents. Power has shifted to the new guys. Fighting that would be like trying to fight the British invasion of the 1960's. The Beatles were not the revolution - the forces of change were unstoppable - they simply rode the wave created by the enormous demand for change. Television, and access to money, gave kids a new voice in the marketplace, and we used those tools to, for better and for worse, adjust the world to meet our tastes.
The same has happened now - we have raised a couple of generations of suburban kids whose lives haven't known the struggles of necessity. It is foolhardy to expect, for a moment, that they would view life the way we do. How could a twenty-something professional of today, earning a comfortable upper middle class living while sitting at his computer in Starbucks, have even the vaguest notion of the life that formed the Greatest Generation? We must stop expecting the impossible.
I'm not arguing that the fight is over - the struggle between conservative and liberal values is a permanent one, as is the political fight between the groups aligned, however loosely, behind those banners. I'm just saying that we have to realize that some things have already been decided - that liberalism has, to a large extent, already won, and we must map carefully the piece of land we're standing on so that we can best defend, and perhaps extend, our ground.
It is in this spirit that I begin a gradual relaunch of Barack's White Lies. A new look, a new location, a new name. While I liked the edginess of the name for the election - I enjoyed that it made liberals uncomfortable - my old fashioned conservative sensibilities lead me to feel uncomfortable calling my blog Barack's White Lies.
I don't wish to be disrespectful to the office of the President of the United States, which, hopefully, will always be occupied by a person who loves the ideals and the brilliance of the men, and the document, that created it.
The blog will live on under the name of Real Clear Thinker. It's an amalgam of the names of a couple of my favorite places to read - Real Clear Politics and The American Thinker - not so much inspired by them as absorbed and reconstructed.
When shocked liberals ask how I have come to a particular conclusion, I just tell them that I thought about it. And that's the truth. I like thinking clearly, and I believe that if others engage in a similar enterprise, they'll come to conclusions that are pretty close to mine.
It's always the same question with liberal politicians - why don't their kids attend public schools?
Where will the Obama girls go to school? Will Michelle and Barack Obama choose private or public? What statement will their choice make? These are some of the questions on the minds of many Washington observers after the news that Michelle Obama visited a private school in D.C this week.
The unspoken reality is that people with the money to send their kids to private schools keep them out of urban public schools, owned and operated by Democrats and crippled by liberal ideology and the Democrats partnership with the teachers unions, and send them where they'll get a good education.
The Post's education columnist, Jay Mathews, is betting on Georgetown Day School as the Obamas' likely choice. Mathews says this is fitting on two fronts: Georgetown Day School was the first racially integrated school in D.C., and it is similar to the academically rigorous University of Chicago Laboratory Schools that Malia, a fifth grader, and Sasha, a second grader, currently attend. Several key Obama advisers send their children there.
Democrats should get called on it whenever they opt out of public schools - over time, perhaps voters would start to realize that Democrats operate on an educational double standard - they refuse to allow school choice, except for the affluent.
There is also the well-known fact that, despite some progress, D.C. schools are among the most dysfunctional, academically underachieving schools in the country. If Obama decides to send his daughters to a public school in the city, he would be the first president to do so since Jimmy Carter.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, under fire at home for describing U.S. President-electBarack Obama as "suntanned," said on Friday he saw no need to apologize.
At a news conference, Berlusconi was brusque with an American journalist who suggested he should say sorry for the remark on Thursday. Visiting Moscow, he described the man elected to be the first black U.S. president as "handsome, young and also suntanned."
Berlusconi was ignoring demands for an apology just as Barack pre-empted them here by calling Nancy Reagan to apologize.
His center-left opponents called the comment racist; Berlusconi responded by saying they were "imbeciles without any sense of humor."
Berlusconi's latest gaffe was on the front pages of most Italian newspapers on Friday.
"Berlusconi never fails to live up to our worst expectations," said an editorial in the Rome daily La Repubblica.
An emotional moment on ABC News, as Georgie Congressman and Civil Rights leader John Lewis told Charlie Gibson that today's election was "a nonviolent revolution" and an "unbelievable, and unreal transformation of American politics."
This is electoral politics catching up with reality. There is no need for any revolutions - Barack's election proves the country was ready to elect Barack.
Asked about his emotions if there's an Obama victory, Lewis continued.
"Well, I tell you, I cried a little today when I cast my vote, and I've been crying for the past few days. I don't know if I have any tears left.... I think I'm going to shed some more tears before the night is over."
I understand the emotion. But it is emotion rooted in the past, isn't it?
A good analysis in the Telegraph of London on just how screwy it is to vote for Barack.
The choice faced by the electorate is clear. It can either vote for reality or for escapism: and John McCain has the greater appreciation of what reality might entail. I have been struck on several visits here this year just how much Americans, worn down by the failures and embarrassments of the Bush years, want something other than reality. That, though, is simply storing up troubles. The landscape of uncertainty requires someone tested in fire to lead people through it: not just for America's sake but for the sake of that portion of the world that looks to America for leadership.
Oh, how prepared we seem to be to do exactly the wrong thing!
Mr Obama is a confection; he is an image, a brand, a lifestyle. He has the talents of the thespian, less obviously those of the executive. He has been branded a socialist by Sarah Palin and, because it was Sarah Palin doing the branding, the term was ridiculed by media here who are almost clinically biased against the Republicans. However, when one examines Mr Obama's rhetoric about "spreading the wealth", and looks at spending promises made in the past 21 months, socialism is a fair term. He plans, or at least has promised, expensive projects - such as healthcare reforms. Inflicting tax rises on a country where people are losing their jobs, having their homes foreclosed upon and having their businesses driven into bankruptcy is something whose consequences Mr Obama has yet to outline.
After showing the candidates just three points apart yesterday, the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll on Thursday returns to the range that has defined the race for over a month. It’s Obama by five, 51% to 46%.
This is the 35th straight day that Obama’s support has been between 50% and 52%. With the exception of yesterday, McCain’s support has stayed between 44% and 46% during that stretch (see trends).
Within their own party, both candidates lead by identical 86% to 12% margins while Obama has a six-point advantage among unaffiliated voters.
Barack family members have been found living in public housing in Boston. George must be jealous.
Barack Obama has lived one version of the American Dream that has taken him to the steps of the White House. But a few miles from where the Democratic presidential candidate studied at Harvard, his Kenyan aunt and uncle, immigrants living in modest circumstances in Boston, have a contrasting American story.
Those that's got shall get Those that's not shall lose So the bible said and it still is true Mama may have Papa may have But God bless the child that's got his own That's got his own
Zeituni Onyango, the aunt so affectionately described in Mr Obama’s best-selling memoir Dreams from My Father, lives in a disabled-access flat on a rundown public housing estate in South Boston.
Well the strong seem to get more While the weak ones fade Empty pockets don't ever make the grade Mama may have Papa may have But God bless the child that's got his own That's got his own
A second relative believed to be the long-lost “Uncle Omar” described in the book was beaten by armed robbers with a “sawed-off rifle” while working in a corner shop in the Dorchester area of the city. He was later evicted from his one-bedroom flat for failing to pay $2,324.20 (£1,488) arrears, according to the Boston Housing Court.
Rich relations may give you A crust of bread and such You can help yourself but don't take too much 'Cos Mama may have Papa may have But God bless the child that's got his own That's got his own
The US press has repeatedly rehearsed Mr Obama’s extraordinary odyssey, but the other side of the family’s American experience has only been revealed in parts. Just across town from where Mr Obama made history as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, some of his closest blood relatives have confronted the harshness of immigrant life in America.
When you got money You got lots of friends Crawling round your door When the money's gone And all your spending ends They won't be around no more
Speaking outside her home in Flaherty Way, South Boston, on Tuesday, Ms Onyango, 56, confirmed she was the “Auntie Zeituni” in Mr Obama’s memoir. She declined to answer most other questions about her relationship with the presidential contender until after the November 4 election. “I can’t talk about it, I just pray for him, that’s all,” she said, adding: “After the 4th, I can talk to anyone.”
This is a good thing for McCain to be doing - demanding of the LA Times that they release the video tape of the going away party for Rashid Khalidi.
John McCain's campaign is demanding that the Los Angeles Times release a video of a party for a prominent Palestinian activist that Barack Obama attended in 2003.
The Times described the going-away party for former University of Chicago professor, and Obama friend, Rashid Khalidi, in a story in April. The story reported that Palestinians thought they might have a friend in Obama because of his friendships in that community, despite the fact that his positions have never been particularly pro-Palestinian.
The cover-up is a more sparkling image of trouble than making specific accusations against Khalidi. The desire to hide the truth - such a frequent activity of the Obama campaign - is telling.
"A major news organization is intentionally suppressing information that could provide a clearer link between Barack Obama and Rashid Khalidi," said McCain spokesman Michael Goldfarb, citing Obama's friendship with Khalidi, who is now a professor at Columbia University.
He said the video could, among other things, show how Obama responded to a poem recited at the party accusing Israel of "terrorism" and warning of consequences for U.S. support for Israel, which Goldfarb described as "hate speech."
"The election is one week away, and it's unfortunate that the press so obviously favors Barack Obama that this campaign must publicly request that the Los Angeles Times do its job — make information public," he said.
The campaign hadn't previously demanded the video, though conservative bloggers have, and neither other reporters nor McCain's researchers have been able to dig up a copy.
Attempts by local media outlets to ask appropriate questions of the Obama campaign are meeting with resistance. As we learned last week, when Orlando anchor Barbara West went after Biden, those who misbehave will be punished. It's happened again in Philly.
Despite attempts by the media to convince voters that the election is over, we should see things get closer over the last week. Starting from a very close 5 point difference.
The economy needs to be grabbed as an issue by one of the candidates - and it should be John McCain. The void in leadership that it highlights presents an incredible opportunity to play president.
It is Obama, though, who is seizing the moment.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama plans to give a speech on the financial crisis and issue a ``rescue plan'' for the middle class, his campaign said.
``Our economy is facing its greatest uncertainty in over 70 years,'' the Illinois senator's campaign said in an e-mail to reporters this morning. ``Families who saw their incomes decline by $2,000 in the economic `expansion' from 2000 to 2007 now risk seeing deeper income losses.''
His campaign didn't release details about the new proposals. Obama, 47, is due to speak at 1:30 p.m. local time today in Toledo, Ohio. It's the only public event he has scheduled in the next few days as he prepares for his final debate with Republican nominee John McCain on Oct. 15.
Read down one or two posts to see what McCain should say.
Polls indicate that the McCain campaign's attacks on Barack's character - mostly accurate and justified explorations of his shady, and radical, past - may be starting to have some effect. If McCain can find a way to seize the energy of the bad economy, I think he's still got a good chance to pull this out.
Yesterday, Rasmussen continued an incremental daily move toward McCain, now showing Obama's lead at 6%.
Obama leads by fourteen percentage points among women while McCain leads by two among men. Both men lead by an 86% to 12% margin among members of their own party while Obama holds an eight point advantage among unaffiliated voters.
Zogby has the race at 4%, and the new Gallup poll shows the Obama lead at 5% (it ran 11% on consecutive days last week), with new likely voter numbers pulling it to 4%.
Obama's current advantage is slightly less when estimating the preferences of likely voters, which Gallup will begin reporting on a regular basis between now and the election. Gallup is providing two likely voter estimates to take into account different turnout scenarios.
The first likely voter model is based on Gallup's traditional likely voter assumptions, which determine respondents' likelihood to vote based on how they answer questions about their current voting intention and past voting behavior. According to this model, Obama's advantage over McCain is 50% to 46% in Oct. 9-11 tracking data.
The second likely voter estimate is a variation on the traditional model, but is only based on respondents' current voting intention. This model would take into account increased voter registration this year and possibly higher turnout among groups that are traditionally less likely to vote, such as young adults and racial minorities (Gallup will continue to monitor and report on turnout indicators by subgroup between now and the election). According to this second likely voter model, Obama has a 51% to 45% lead over McCain.
McCain is in the unique position of having to calm down his crowds, protecting Barack from folks angry over the possibility of Obama winning the election.
In Lakeville, Minn., this evening, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., found himself confronting some of the anger at and fear of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., that has reared its head at his campaign rallies just as his campaign and the RNC have begun waging a character assault on Obama, painting him as connected to terrorists foreign and domestic, a "liar" who is hiding his true self.
"Frankly we're, we're scared," one voter told McCain. "We're scared of an Obama presidency. And I'll tell you why. I don't want to bring a child up in a country uh where -- I love this country, we'll bring our child up no matter what -- but I'm concerned about someone that cohorts with domestic terrorists such as Ayers."
Said McCain, "I want to be president of the United States and I obviously I do not want Senator Obama to be. But I have to tell you, I have to tell you, he is a decent person. And a person that you do not have to be scared as president of the United States."
The crowd booed.
Turning the focus of the election back to Barack is the purpose of the Ayers comments and ads. While Democrats will call this smears, the focus is a legitimate one. Without a track record of leadership, the questions asked about Barack's judgment are important ones.
All week, supporters of the GOP ticket have yelled ugly accusations about Obama as McCain and running mate Gov. Sarah Palin proceeded down a path where Obama was painted as someone sinister.
"Treason!" "Terrorist!" "Kill him!" audience members yelled when McCain or Palin invoked Obama's name.
The McCain-Palin campaign today defended these comments as those of "real Americans."
Tonight McCain tried to defuse the volatility.
Voters, as they become more savvy about Barack's connection to radical individuals (Wright, Pfleger, Ayers, Alinsky, Farrakhan, etc) and groups (Acorn, CAC, etc), will naturally grow more concerned about his own radicalism.
Said another voter, "The people here in Minnesota want to see a real fight this next time in your debate."
McCain said, "we want a fight and I will fight. But we will be respectful. I admire Senator Obama and his accomplishments. I will respect him."
Again, the crowd booed.
"I want everyone to be respectful," McCain said. "And let's make sure we are. Because that's the way politics should be conducted in America. So lets -- make sure -- you're all respectful. I don't meant that has to reduce your ferocity. I just mean it's gotta be respectful. OK? And I would say that 99 and forty-four one-hundredths of every person who's come to my town hall meeting has been respectful. I am proud you're here and I'm grateful for it and I appreciate your enthusiasm."
Barack is a radical - that is clear. The unknown is whether his ideology will remain relevant if he assumes the presidency, or if he will leave his radicalism, and his radical friends, behind in order to be a successful president.
Another woman stood and said, "I got to ask you a question. I don't believe in -- I can't trust Obama. I have read about him. And he's not, he's not – he's an Arab. He's not."
Shaking his head no, McCain grabbed the microphone away from her.
"No ma'am," McCain said. "No ma'am. No ma'am. He's a, he's a, he's a decent family man, citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues. And that's what this campaign is all about, he is not. Thank you."
At the convention a month ago, Republicans made a joke of Barack's number 1 presidential credential - "Community Organizer." Through ACORN, Americans can now see that community organizers are dangerous - a force to be reckoned with.
To know Barack, and to understand ACORN, start with Saul - the original community organizer.
Who gains access to the power of the presidency if Barack claims power?
