Secretary of Mate

More silliness about Hillary:

Imagine someone so inexperienced as Secretary of State?

Barack Lennon

I've been pondering which way Barack goes if he gets power. Is he a committed leftist who will seek to realize John Lennon's "Imagine" vision, or will he abandon his friends as soon as they've gone home from the inaugural galas?

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

Barack's story is one of a lust for power. Was his purpose the radical agenda, or was the radical infrastructure just the railroad track he chose to put his private car on? I'm inclined to assume the latter.

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

If you believe anything Barack says, then the above video is very scary. History, though, shows that he says whatever works.

Does he really love ACORN, or are they his food of necessity? Since there's no way to find out but to elect him, we must hope that we never learn the answer.

Debate is On!

McCain has decided to take part in tonight's debate. Why would he not?

McCain has transformed a minority in both houses of Congress and a losing position in the polls into the key role in the bailout package, the main man around whom the final package will take shape.

Dick Morris explains that the Democrats had crafted a bill with the President that is unpopular with the American people. McCain now gets to design, with Republicans in congress, the revised measure.

Instead of signing on with the Democratic/Bush package, the House Republicans are insisting on replacing the purchase of corporate debt with loans to companies and insurance paid for by the companies, not by the taxpayers. That, of course, is a popular position. McCain would be comfortable to debate this issue division all day.

Will Democrats fight over the new provision?

...the Democrats are not about to be stubborn. They know their package is a lemon and need the political cover of Republican support. So the Republicans can write their own ticket…and they will. John McCain will be at the center of the emerging compromise while Obama is out on the campaign trail kissing babies.

Isn't McCain taking a big risk? What if he can't pull the legislation together?

By Monday, at the latest, the Democrats have to cave in and pass the Republican version. They don’t dare pass their own without GOP support, so they will have to cave in to the Republican version.

Then McCain comes out of the process as the hero who made it happen when the president couldn’t and Obama wouldn’t. He becomes the bailout expert.

No wonder Democrats are acting so snarly.

Near or Not?

Ready to go into a 4pm White House meeting, it's unclear whether congress has hammered out acceptable terms for an agreement.

Key Republicans and Democrats reported agreement Thursday on an outline for a historic $700 billion bailout of the financial industry, but there was still resistance from rank-and-file House Republicans despite warnings of an impending panic.

"I now expect we will, indeed, have a plan that can pass the House, pass the Senate, be signed by the president and bring a sense of certainty to this crisis that is sill roiling in the market," Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, said as members of both parties emerged from a two-hour negotiating session.

"We're very confident that we can act expeditiously," said Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., the Banking Committee chairman.

Some are being much more reserved in their analysis. Are they delaying the celebration on behalf of John McCain? No reason to think that Republicans won't be as willing to politicize this as Democrats have been.

Not everyone in the closed-door talks was as optimistic. Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama, the only House Republican in the bargaining meeting, stopped short of saying he agreed with the other lawmakers on an imminent deal.

"There was progress today," said Bachus, the senior Republican on the House Financial Services panel.

Later, he issued a statement saying he was not empowered to strike any deals and there was "no agreement other than to continue discussions."

Both houses' Republican leaders, Rep. John Boehner and Sen. Mitch McConnell, also issued statements saying there was no agreement.

Good old Bill Clinton comes through again, reminding people that Democrats share some of the blame for the current situation.

Thanks, Bill

Bill Clinton comes through for McCain.

Former President Bill Clinton defended Sen. John McCain's request to delay the first presidential debate, saying McCain did it in "good faith" and pushed organizers to reserve time for economy talk during the debate if the Friday plans move forward.

It's good of Bill to choose now to be above the fray.

Appearing on Good Morning America Thursday, Clinton told ABC News' Chris Cuomo that McCain's push to postpone the debate would only be a good political move if both candidates agreed. McCain announced on Wednesday that he would "suspend" his presidential campaign to come to Washington to help negotiate a financial bailout bill

"We know he didn't do it because he's afraid because Sen. McCain wanted more debates," Clinton said, adding that he was "encouraged" by the joint statement from McCain and Sen. Barack Obama.

"You can put it off a few days the problem is it's hard to reschedule those things," Clinton said, "I presume he did that in good faith since I know he wanted -- I remember he asked for more debates to go all around the country and so I don't think we ought to overly parse that."

If the debate moves forward as planned for Friday night, Clinton says "they should be able to talk about this some of the debate because it is a security issue."

And, by the way, you don't have to tell Bill why voters have gone crazy for Palin!

Bill Clinton praised Sarah Palin Wednesday, saying he found the Alaska governor an “appealing person” and her and her family “gutsy, spirited and real.”

“I think that she and her husband and their kids come across gutsy, spirited and real,” he said in an interview to be broadcast Wednesday night. “I have significant disagreements with her about any number of social and economic issues but I find her an appealing person and I think that it’s best to say that Senator McCain looks like he knew what he was doing. He picked somebody who gave him a lot of energy, a lot of support.”

Bill Says....

Bill Clinton on the presidential race. He articulates that the reason Obama is in the running for the presidency is because of GOP fatigue.

The knee-jerk desire for change, Bill says, will decide things for Barack. But he thinks it will be a tight race until the last week.

Also - he's a Sarah Palin fan. Might it be that he sees a bit of himself in her?

It's 3AM

Yup - 3AM and I'm watching DVR'd coverage from the 10pm hour Wednesday night on ABC. Stephanopoulos is going on and on how Bill Clinton gave so much to Barack in his speech. Maybe I'm over-analyzing, but it seemed to me that there was a great deal of parsing.

Watching it live last night, my wife and I were startled at this section.

Everything I learned in my eight years as President and in the work I’ve done
since, in America and across the globe, has convinced me that Barack Obama is
the man for this job.

He has a remarkable ability to inspire people, to raise our hopes and rally us
to high purpose. He has the intelligence and curiosity every successful
President needs. His policies on the economy, taxes, health care and energy are
far superior to the Republican alternatives. He has shown a clear grasp of our
foreign policy and national security challenges, and a firm commitment to repair
our badly strained military. His family heritage and life experiences have given
him a unique capacity to lead our increasingly diverse nation and to restore our
leadership in an ever more interdependent world. The long, hard primary tested
and strengthened him. And in his first presidential decision, the selection of a
running mate, he hit it out of the park.

Now, on the surface, that's very nice and positive. But Bill is dancing around the question in America's mind, leaving it unanswered. Does Barack have the experience for the job? It seems to me that he went out of his way not to provide the answer from his unique perspective - that of a former President. Then, he says the words that everyone's been waiting to hear - but about Joe Biden.

With Joe Biden’s experience and wisdom, supporting Barack Obama’s proven
understanding, insight, and good instincts, America will have the national
security leadership we need.

Barack has the ability to inspire folks to higher purpose, Joe Biden has the experience and wisdom. Together, they make a single entity with the qualifications to be president.

The next paragraph seemed to dance more tantalizingly around the words that Clinton wouldn't speak.

Barack Obama is ready to lead America and restore American leadership in the
world. Ready to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United
States. Barack Obama is ready to be President of the United States.

Ready? In what sense? He's impatient with the process, and wants to get started? Ready is different than qualified, and that's what Bill wouldn't say.

Together, we prevailed in a campaign in which the Republicans said I was too
young and too inexperienced to be Commander-in-Chief. Sound familiar? It didn’t
work in 1992, because we were on the right side of history. And it won’t work
in 2008, because Barack Obama is on the right side of history.

Ooooo, he's getting close, but he's not saying that he and Obama are equal in their qualifications, he's just saying they're getting the same reaction.

Maybe I'm nitpicking, but what I hear is that Bill Clinton agrees that Barack's not qualified, but that he's still better than those evil Republicans.

I'm watching Joe Biden speak now - 3:19am. He seems more than ready to be president - he seems experienced enough to be president.

Family Feud

One of the more remarkable polling details this summer is the fact that Clinton supporters are growing more resistant to the idea of voting for Barack. It was supposed to be going in the other direction. But the growing gap seems to be mirroring the attitude of the Clintons and Obamas themselves.

Politico reports that Bill Clinton is miffed at his assigned topic for his Wednesday night speech - he's supposed to talk about why Barack would be a better president than John McCain.

The former president is disappointed, associates said, because he is eager to speak about the economy and more broadly about Democratic ideas -- emphasizing the contrast between the Bush years and his own record in the 1990s.

Meanwhile, the number of Hillary supporters who say they'll vote for McCain has gone up 11% according to the latest CNN poll.

This is an especially sore point for Bill Clinton, people close to him say, because among many grievances he has about the campaign Obama waged against his wife is a belief that the candidate poor-mouthed the political and policy successes of his two terms.

In June, 75% of Clinton Democrats said they'd vote for Barack. That number has dropped to 66%.

Some senior Democrats close to Obama, meanwhile, made clear in not-for-attribution comments that they were equally irked at the Clinton operation. Nearly three months after Hillary Clinton conceded defeat in the nomination contest, these Obama partisans complained, her team continues to act like she and Bill Clinton hold leverage.

What an incredible failure of leadership, on the part of Barack, not to have gotten this rift settled. Bad news for Barack, good news for America.

Hillary in Charge?

Has Barack's convention been kidnapped by the Clintons? CNN's Jack Cafferty says yes.

The Democratic National Convention is shaping into quite some party for Hillary Clinton.

Her name will be placed into nomination. She'll give a prime-time address, introduced by her daughter Chelsea. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, will get his own plum speaking slot on a separate night. She will also have her own production team to create the introductory video that precedes her speech – the same people who produced Bill Clinton's biography video "The Man from Hope" in 1992.

Dick Morris can't understand why Barack has allowed this to happen.

And what leverage did the Clintons have to achieve all of this? None! Hillary could not have taken the convention by storm and any show of party disunity would marginalize her forever in the Democratic Party. Had she or her supporters tried to pull off distracting demonstrations or to recreate Lafayette Park in Chicago in 1968, she would have paid a permanent price among the party faithful for sabotaging Obama's candidacy.

Michael Barone disagrees.

Here's the problem the Obama campaign faces: Nearly half the delegates on the floor were picked by Hillary Clinton. There's a lot of anecdotal evidence that many of these Clinton supporters are unreconciled to the Obama candidacy. As are many Clinton voters: The recent Pew poll showed only 72 percent of them are supporting Obama against John McCain. A large mass of unreconciled delegates can be a problem for a presidential nominee.

Either way, Tony Harnden says this spells trouble for Barack.

Even the plan for the former First Lady to cast her own vote for her erstwhile rival and direct her delegates to swing behind the Illinois senator - being spun as a magnanimous gesture of unity - risks undermining Obama. Despite the closeness of the primary battle, he won the nomination; the image of Mrs. Clinton graciously anointing him is exactly what he does not need.

Michael Goodwin writes:

The substantive problem for Obama is that he is already underperforming against John McCain. He limped across the finish line in the primaries and, since Clinton conceded in June, his poll numbers have flat-lined.

In the face of that lackluster showing, his choices have been curious.

Virtually everyone writing on this subject concludes in a manner similar to Morris.

If he does so poorly in negotiating with the Clintons, how will he do with the Russians?