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May 21, 2008

Exclusive: Wednesday, May 21

Presidential Watch

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The Obama Gamble

Kenneth Blackwell, NY Sun.com

Even with Hillary Clinton's wide margin win in the West Virginia primary, Barack Obama will be the Democratic standard bearer in November. The Democrats's rush to nominate Mr. Obama, the least vetted presidential candidate in memory, likely will cost them the fall election.

Many believe that the voters Mr. Obama needs for victory in November are trending to John McCain. Obviously, Team Obama is looking at a different trail to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency.

West Virginia is thought of as a reliably Democratic state. The governor of that state, Joe Manchin, a Democrat, won office in a massive landslide. Both the senators of West Virginia - Robert Byrd and Jay Rockefeller - are completely safe as Democrat incumbents.

Historically, West Virginia's politics have turned on two things: unions and culture. While the former usually controls electoral outcomes there, the later will likely deliver the state's Electoral College votes to John McCain as it did for President Bush in 2000 and 2004. Read article.

Obama, Farrakhan share cover of Wright's monthly - Magazine's reinforcement of anti-American rhetoric casts doubt on senator's insistence he was not aware

Aaron Klein, WND.com

Sen. Barack Obama's face several times graced the cover of an anti-American magazine run by his longtime pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., appearing on one issue alongside Nation of Islam chief Louis Farrakhan.

Issues of Wright's Trumpet magazine reportedly have suggested America was guilty of genocide in Africa, decried the Fourth of July as the "national holiday of the dominant culture," referred to America as a "diaspora" for blacks, repudiated American patriotism and entertained suggestions the Bush administration knew about the 9-11 attacks before they were carried out.

"It seems inconceivable that, in 20 years, Obama would never have picked up a copy of Trumpet," writes Stanley Kurtz in a lengthy Weekly Standard expose of Wright's magazine.

"Glance through even a single issue of Trumpet, and Wright's radical politics are everywhere - in the pictures, the headlines, the highlighted quotations and above all in the articles themselves," writes Kurtz, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

Kurtz went through a year's worth of Trumpet issues and said he found in the 2006 archives that controversial views expressed by Wright in sound bites from his sermons were reinforced in detail throughout the magazine. Read article.

Obamastan

IBD Editorials.com

After criticizing McCain for mentioning that Hamas endorses him, Obama says it's understandable that Hamas would do so. Just how anti-Hamas and pro-Israel is the Democratic front-runner? And just why did he fire an adviser who talked with the group?

Barack Obama would like us to believe that the Rev. Jeremiah Wright who ranted anti-American profanities at the National Press Club was not the man he saw from the pews of his church for two decades.

He'd also have us believe that Weatherman terrorist bomber William Ayers, who played host to his first fundraiser and with whom he would later serve on a board, is just a "guy in the neighborhood."

Similarly, Obama would have us believe he doesn't accept the recent endorsement of his candidacy by Ahmed Yousef of the terrorist organization Hamas. John McCain, he said, had "lost his bearings" for asserting, "If Sen. Obama is favored by Hamas, I think people can make judgments accordingly."

We have, and we hope the American people will as well. Read article.

Obama Ran Before He Crawled

Burt Prelutsky, Townhall.com

Barack Obama insisted that he was going to be the post-racial presidential candidate, the man who was going to bring us all together and make us forget our racial differences. It's funny how that worked out. I guess he forgot to mention his master plan to his nearest and dearest.

First, let us consider his wife, Michelle. If she is, as they say, his better half, I'd sure hate to see his other half. What's with the Democrats, anyway? It's bad enough that they keep coming up with creepy candidates for president, but look at their idea of a first lady. Hillary Clinton, Teresa Heinz-Kerry and Michelle Obama, remind me of the three witches in "Macbeth," but without their cooking skills. As awful as the other two ladies were, when it comes to sheer nastiness and bitterness, they couldn't hold a candle to Mrs. Obama, although one would be sorely tempted to try.

First, we had to listen to Michelle admit that she's never been proud to be an American until her hubby deigned to throw his hat in the ring. Then, recently, I heard this beneficiary of affirmative action give a speech in which she was griping that she and Barack had to pay back their college loans. Seven years at Ivy League schools and this woman still doesn't know how to spell gratitude. A guilt-stricken white society paved the way for her to go to Princeton and Harvard Law, which inevitably led to her getting a job that paid her several hundred thousand dollars a year, and this ingrate is bitching about having to pay back a loan. Read article.

Obama: Wrong on Iran

Morris & McGann, Vote.com

President Bush is absolutely right to criticize sharply direct negotiations with Iranian President Ahmadinejad. Barack Obama's embrace of the idea of direct negotiations is both naïve and dangerous and should be a big issue in the campaign.

The reason not to negotiate with Ahmadinejad is not simply to stand on ceremony or some kind of policy of non-recognition. It is based on the fundamental need to topple his regime by increasing the sense the Iranian people have - that he has isolated Iran from the rest of the world, to its severe and ongoing detriment.

The Iranian regime is almost entirely dependent on oil and gas revenues to pay for the vast program of social subsidies with which the government buys domestic support. Gasoline costs 35 cents a gallon in Teheran. Bread and all other staples are subsidized from public funds. But 85 percent of all government revenues come from oil and gas exports. There lies the regime's vulnerability.

Iran is sitting atop the second largest oil reserves in the world. Only Saudi Arabia has more. But it can't get at them. It lacks the foreign investment and technology necessary to increase, or even to sustain, its petroleum output. Under the Shah, Iran pumped upwards of six million barrels of oil a day. Now, Iran generates fewer than four million daily barrels. With domestic consumption of energy increasing at 10 percent a year - due in part to the massive subsidies which hold the price down - Iran is expected to see its oil exports cut in half by 2011 and entirely eliminated by 2014. If Iran cannot export oil, it cannot pay for social peace and the regime could be in dire trouble.

Without subsidies, the Iranian people, half of whom are under 30 and only 40 percent of whom are ethnically Farsi, will become restive and resentful. Read article.

Do the Wright Thing

RiShawn Biddle, Spectator.org

As an up-and-coming Chicago lawyer and politician during the 1990s, Barack Obama courted key players in the city's black community -- including his longtime pastor Jeremiah Wright -- to bolster his aspirations for higher office. But after being beaten by Congressman and former Black Panther Bobby Rush in a 2000 congressional primary, Obama realized he that still wasn't widely recognized among black voters. So he sought the support of other black clergymen such as James Meeks, a protege of the Rev. Jesse Jackson who later became a state senator.

Such ties have now proved to be a drag on Obama's effort to win the Democratic presidential nomination, especially after Wright's fiery, sometimes cartoonish, criticism of American foreign policy and support for Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, came to light.

Obama's ties to gay-bashing clergymen, including gospel singer Donnie McClurkin (who claimed he cured himself of homosexuality) and Meeks -- whose church once burned in effigy two gay men adorned in body glitter -- have also forced Obama to reconcile these relationships with his vision of a post-racial, post-ethnic, tolerant America.

The Illinois senator has so far managed to overcome these ties. But his struggles also show one of the biggest difficulties faced by black politicians aspiring for higher political office. The very churches and mosques that have helped them gain power in their gerrymandered, mostly-black wards can hinder them among a more diverse collection of voters less knowledgeable of -- and less tolerant of -- their rhetoric. Read article.

Local Muslim leader met privately with Obama

Niraj Warikoo, Freep.com

A Muslim leader from Dearborn met privately with Sen. Barack Obama during his Wednesday visit to Michigan.

Imam Hassan Qazwini, head of the Islamic Center of America, said in an email that he met with Obama at Macomb Community College. A mosque spokesman, Eide Alawan, confirmed that the meeting took place. During the meeting, the two discussed the Presidential election, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the Iraq war, according to Qazwini.

At the end of the meeting, Qazwini said he gave Obama a copy of new book, "American Crescent," and invited Obama to visit his center.

The meeting with Obama came about after Qazwini had asked David Bonior, the former U.S. Rep. from Michigan, if he could meet with Obama during his visit. Qazwini was not selected to be part of a group of 20 people who met with Obama, but Qazwini later got a private meeting with Obama, Alawan said. Read article.

Obama: Stealth Socialist?

IBD Editorials.com

After his blowout win in North Carolina, Barack Obama crowed that it's time "to perfect this nation." What does that mean? He won't say - perhaps for good reason.

As this long primary season drags on, the presumed Democratic nominee for president still won't bring his vision for "change" into focus. He continues to speak in glittering generalities, providing few details.

The reticence, combined with Obama's radical ties, begs the question: Is he hiding an un-American agenda?

We know his longtime mentor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, detests America and its capitalist system, viewing it as unjust, oppressive and enslaving to minorities. He and his fellow travelers think they have in Obama the perfect candidate to remake America into a self-loathing dispenser of apologetic largesse to victim groups at home and Marxist regimes abroad.

Key among these is reverend-turned-professor James Cone, who believes merging Marxism with the Gospel will liberate African-Americans from the supposed economic slavery of "white" capitalism. "Together," he says, "black religion and Marxist philosophy may show us the way to build a completely new society." Read article.

The Elusive White-Male Vote

Can Edwards help Obama connect with a crucial demographic?

Eleanor Clift, Newsweek.com

Whether the term is Reagan Democrats or NASCAR dads, they're euphemisms for the white men who deserted a party they thought focused too much on the rights of blacks and women. No Democratic candidate for president has won a majority of the white vote since Lyndon Johnson in 1964. Bill Clinton came close, but with Ross Perot in the race siphoning off votes, even Clinton with his natural affinity for lower-income working-class folks, people he grew up with and understood, fell short when the votes were counted. In an election season focused on race and gender, it's ironic that white male workers have emerged as the most prized cohort.

Politics is all about timing, and Edwards's endorsement couldn't have come at a more opportune moment. He is the embodiment of the working-class message that has eluded Obama and that has become the core of Hillary Clinton's campaign. As he said repeatedly during his own campaign, he is the son of a mill worker, the first in his family to attend college. It wasn't that long ago that the pundits were asking why Edwards was staying so long in a race where most election nights he was finishing a distant third. Now he's been out long enough to seem like a fresh face, and it's not too big a stretch to imagine him as Obama's running mate. Why would Edwards want to run for vice president twice? Read article.

What Obama Owes the Clintons

Peter Beinart, Time.com

Someday soon, when Hillary Clinton exits the Democratic presidential race, Barack Obama will walk onstage and praise her and her husband to the heavens. Publicly, Obama can afford to be magnanimous. But it's a good bet the private Obama feels the way a lot of his supporters do: like sending Ken Starr a fan note.

For many Obama activists, Clinton's brass-knuckles campaign confirmed everything they had always suspected about Hillary and her husband: that they're cynical and ruthless, the detritus of an era in which Democrats sold out their ideals to get elected. Obama's backers generally feel about the Clintons the way Reaganites felt about Gerald Ford and the way beer aficionados feel about Bud Light: that by compromising core principles, they watered down the brand.

As it shows Clintonism the door, however, Obama Nation should remember something: without that pair from Arkansas, it wouldn't be here. Read article.

Cool Looks at Global Warming: ...And For America

Daniel Johnson, NY Sun.com

Watching the U.S. election from afar, it has been instructive to see how the issue of global warming has collided with the economic crisis. Crudely, the question of Hillary Clinton versus Barack Obama could come down to whether you care more about gas prices than you do about the green agenda.

It is not clear that the Gores and Schwarzeneggers are winning the argument, now that tough choices must be made. But whoever becomes president, environmental sceptics will have a tougher time even getting a hearing to make their case than under the Bush administration.

The politics of climate change, then, are as finely balanced in America as they have been one-sided in Europe for many years. Yet help is at hand from across the Atlantic for those who doubt the "scientific consensus" enshrined by the true believers of the International Panel on Climate Change.

Nigel Lawson is, by any standards, a political and intellectual heavyweight. Now he has written a book, "An Appeal to Reason," which appears in America later this month. The witty subtitle - "A Cool Look at Global Warming" - belies the fact that Lord Lawson is furious about what he sees as the shoddy, intellectually dishonest way in which the Western world has been persuaded to believe not only that man-made carbon emissions are causing global warming, but that the threat is so great that drastic measures must be taken to mitigate such emissions. Read article.

I'm Not a President, But I Play One on TV

Brian Cherry, NMJ.us

For the past several months Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have been locked in a death struggle that involves trying to convince the American people which one of them is qualified to be the President when some anonymous phone rings at 3 AM. While I will happily concede that both of these politicians are perfectly qualified to answer a phone, neither has the background, experience, or cognitive abilities to be the President for the other 23 hours and 59 minutes of the day.

After doing some checking on a number of job sites to see what corporate America is looking for when they hire an executive, oddly enough the words "looking for the spouse of a CEO to lead our company into the future" or "experience as a community organizer desired" did not appear in any of the calls for an executive or even middle management.

For jobs that compare in scope to the Presidency of the United States about as well as Gary Coleman stacks up to Andre the Giant, most people want someone with actual experience. Imagine that. Either corporate America knows something that the Democrats don't about who should be running large organizations or the corporate sector isn't being diverse enough in their search for a leader.

Neither of the two top Democrats has ever run anything. Hillary's only experience with grasping hold of the helm of power resulted in Chelsea. Barack's background as a "community organizer" combined with his inner circle of anti-white racists and former, unapologetic terrorists like William Ayers may qualify him to put out the punch and cookies at the next Black Panther meeting, or to sit on his church board, but not run the United States of America. Read article.

The Problem is not conservatism, but conservatives who aren't conservative

Victor Davis Hanson, Pajamas Media.com

There is a lot of anguish among Republicans as they look at the dismal polls and the even more depressing performance of their candidates in various preliminary House races. New books and prophets forecast an end to conservatism, and a need to formulate a new sort of muscular liberalism to meet new challenges. Expect more such nostrums if Barack Obama wins in the fall.

What mystifies is the paralysis of Republicans and their impotent protestations that "Bush did it". The truth is that Congressional Republicans, responsible for turning principles into governance, deserve to lose-unless they craft clear positions that won't be compromised and then offer them as alternative choices to the voters this fall. Here are some examples: Read article.

The More Federal Government Expands, the Greater the Stakes in Every Election

Arnold Ahlert, Political Mavens.com

Most Americans believe the 2008 election is one of the most important in history. The question is why. The answer is not pretty.

For most of America's history, our interactions with government were "state-rights" orientated. Logically speaking, this made eminent sense: it was far easier to deal with bureaucracy where you live than the one operating "far away" in Washington D.C. Furthermore, each state had a distinct "personality" that far better reflected the sentiments of those who populated it than the one-size-fits-all mentality that has always informed federalism.

It is hard to pinpoint exactly when it happened, but everything changed. In the minds of most Americans today, the federal government has become the true locus of power, and individual states' rights have shriveled commensurately.

To put it mildly, this change has been an unmitigated disaster.

According to the Constitution, the "Powers of Congress" are limited to exactly eighteen items. The fact that Congress has taken it upon itself to expand that number by an incalculably exponential factor has turned the federal government into a power-grabbing monster. The choices we make for president, the Senate and the House of Representatives, while always important, have assumed critical proportions far beyond what the Founding Fathers had in mind. These folks now have the power to make or break the entire country-at the precise moment when we have elevated self-indulgence absent personal responsibility to an all time high. Read article.

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