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June 9, 2008

Exclusive: Monday, June 9

Presidential Watch

Some say that Manning Johnson's book - Color, Communism & Common Sense - explains Barack Obama's supportive network. See it HERE.

Obama Video: "I Will Slow Development of Future Combat Systems" GO HERE.

Painfully Inadequate - Election 2008.

Thomas Sowell, NRO.com

Now that the two parties have finally selected their presidential candidates, it is time for a sober - if not grim - assessment of where we are.

Not since 1972 have we been presented with two such painfully inadequate candidates. When Election Day came that year, I could not bring myself to vote for either George McGovern or Richard Nixon. I stayed home.

This year, none of us has that luxury. While all sorts of gushing is going on in the media, and posturing is going on in politics, the biggest national sponsor of terrorism in the world - Iran - is moving step by step toward building a nuclear bomb.

The terrorists have given us as clear a picture of what they are all about as Adolf Hitler and the Nazis did during the 1930s - and our "leaders" and intelligentsia have ignored the warning signs as resolutely as the "leaders" and intelligentsia of the 1930s downplayed the dangers of Hitler.

We are much like people drifting down the Niagara River, oblivious to the waterfalls up ahead. Once we go over those falls, we cannot come back up again.

What does this have to do with today's presidential candidates? It has everything to do with them.

Our one window of opportunity to prevent this will occur within the term of whoever becomes president of the United States next January.

At a time like this, we do not have the luxury of waiting for our ideal candidate or of indulging our emotions by voting for some third party candidate to show our displeasure - at the cost of putting someone in the White House who is not up to the job.

Senator John McCain has been criticized in this column many times. But, when all is said and done, Senator McCain has not spent decades aiding and abetting people who hate America.

On the contrary, he has paid a huge price for resisting our enemies, even when they held him prisoner and tortured him. The choice between him and Barack Obama should be a no-brainer. Read article.

Obama's Mythical Intelligence

Pamela Geller, Atlas Shrugs.com

Much has been written about Obama's "mythical intelligence" by a media completely in the tank for the boy blunder. His intelligence is , in fact, a myth. Atlas reader Carolyn wrote an excellent piece peeling back the layers of the mendacious narrative to uncover what a lightweight the Soros stooge really is.

She describes the unmeritorious means Obama used to achieve his goals - particularly President of the Law Review. When I was in Washington yesterday we were discussing this little mentioned truth - Obama's year as President produced little worthwhile or significant. Obama's year is the least cited review. He produced nothing of import.

Obama's much vaunted intelligence is in reality nothing but smoke and mirrors.

Constant references have been given as to Obama's near-mythical intelligence - and over and over again, every one claims that the 'proof' of that intelligence is the fact that Obama was President of the Harvard Law Review. Therefore, it is understandable that all doubts of Obama's intelligence are instantly assuaged by revealing he was President of the Harvard Law Review.

Assuaged, that is, until one looks a bit closer. Read article.

Obama at AIPAC: Words, Just Words

Heather Robinson, Political Mavens.com

Barack Obama just delivered his requisite pro-Israel speech to delegates of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) at the annual policy conference, an important moment on the cusp of his ascension as the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.

Senator Obama certainly cleaned up his act since last year, when he displayed extreme insensitivity to the horrors of terrorism faced by generations of Israelis, comparing the dangers of terrorism to the dangers of "cynicism."

Today he made a series of statements to the effect that Israel's security is "sacrosanct." He also made the surprising statement (coming from him) that "Jerusalem should be the undivided capital" of Israel.

But his perspective that Israel is less safe than it was seven years ago is problematic, to say the least. The simple fact is, far fewer Israelis are dying in the past several years than were dying in the midst, and in the wake, of Bill Clinton's efforts at "peacemaking."

Credit should go to Ariel Sharon and to some extent, George Bush, who had the wisdom to cease pressuring Israel to endlessly concede in the face of terror and rather, supported Israel's right to deal with its own enemies in its own way.

What concerns me in the prospect of an Obama presidency is the likelihood of more of this doubletalk: the idea that it is "pro-Israel" to pressure Israel to make concessions to unreasonable, brutal enemies. That Mr. Obama would be likely to do so strikes me as a strong possibility, especially given his comments about cynicism/terrorism. He just doesn't seem to grasp the extent of the evil here. Read article.

Losing Freedom

Dick McDonald, DickMcDonald.Blogspot.com

Hugo Chavez is enacting that old communist standby "rat on your neighbor" and Vlad Putin is making dissidents magically disappear from TV never to appear anywhere again. Not to be outdone by foreigners our own "tyrant" - an elite in populist clothing - BH Obama is seeking to consolidate his early primary victories over the late-charging Hillary of Clinton who has benefited by the recent vetting of Obama's beliefs.

For those of you who believe Obama is a savior and not a tyrant I recommend a tour through his campaign website. He is nothing more than a socialist intent on making government bigger and the individual less powerful and poorer. His programs and proposals are all funded by taxing the individual - and that by definition means taxing ordinary Americans. Sure he can tell you the rich are going to pay and ordinary Americans are going to get a tax cut but if you believe that from a socialist, you were born yesterday.

Obama's website proves the man is a committed leftist who will solve all issues by raising taxes - the modern socialist's method of leveling the playing field. Obama knows his proposals rather than making the individual richer will relegate them to the status of permanent slave to the elites running the state and deciding who gets what. We suffered through 70 years of that type of government in the USSR and it appears that we learned nothing from history and therefore are bound to repeat it. Read article.

Mash of Mediocrities: The primary cycle ends.

John Hood, NRO.com

With the supercharged 24-hour news cycle, the burgeoning blogosphere, and the legions of journalists furiously scribbling as much as they can before craigslist.com kills off their employers, it's seems like the 2008 presidential contest has already been analyzed from every possible angle, by everyone with an angle. In fact, it feels as though we've already had several national elections since last summer. And yet we've only just begun the general-election campaign Tuesday night with Barack Obama weakly clinching the Democratic nomination while losing one of the final two primaries and John McCain blandly promising a respectful contest with his fresh-faced Senate colleague.

We're stuck with these two mediocrities for the rest of the year. What's more, we're also going to be subjected to hundreds of mainstream-media mediocrities endlessly recycling the same trite observations, then revising the observations, then rediscovering the original observations, ad nauseatium.

The 2008 primaries offer many interesting twists and turns, but it's not hard in retrospect to boil the outcome down to several key points:

The candidate field was weak. The Democrats ending up barely picking a freshman senator over a former first lady with just over seven years in elected office. The Republicans picked a longtime politician, yes, but someone with virtually no executive experience and tepid support among key constituencies in his party. John Edwards, Bill Richardson, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Fred Thompson, and other experienced politicians washed out. They all talked like hotshots, but they couldn't even defeat a paper-thin Obama and an aged, underfinanced McCain. Read article.

3 surprises awaiting Obama in Iraq

Chuck Norris, WND.com

Sen. John McCain played advanced political chess back and forth this past week with Sen. Barack Obama over the war in Iraq. Because the Democratic presidential hopeful had been to Iraq only once more than two years ago, McCain said he had a "profound misunderstanding" about the present status of Iraqi war progress.

Obama lashed back saying that he didn't understand how McCain could be so naïve to back a war based upon "failed" strategies and policies. McCain fired back again, "To say that we failed in Iraq and we're not succeeding does not comport with the facts on the ground, so we've got to show him the facts on the ground." So McCain invited Obama to visit Iraq with him. Obama refused, saying he would plan his own trip.

The fact is, John McCain is absolutely right. Barack doesn't have a clue what is really going on in Iraq. And he's about to eat some humble military pie, if and when he goes there. I have been to Iraq twice to visit the troops since Obama's single visit. And I personally can assure him that he is in for a rude awakening when he goes. The way I see it, he's going to face at least three major surprises. Read article.

Obama Vs McCain's Pro-Economic Growth Ratings

Bruce Kesler, Democracy-Project.com

Carter Wood at the National Association of Manufacturer's blog ShopFloor provides us with the comparative ratings of business and union related organizations for Obama and McCain's votes during the 2005-6 Congress. A simple way to approach these ratings is whether you want to be enriched by productive jobs or penurized by more taxes and regulations that restrict your freedoms. Read these convincing statistics!

Drudge Report keeps campaigns guessing

Jonathan Martin & Ben Smith, Politico.com

May 19 was a fairly typical day in the recent life of the Drudge Report.

There was a breathtaking picture of Sen. Barack Obama's rally in Portland, Ore., framed by the words "AS FAR AS CAMERA'S EYE CAN SEE ... THE OBAMA MASS."

And there was thinly veiled mockery of two other candidates: "Clinton Sits Through Sermon About Adultery," was one headline. "State GOP chair: McCain ‘kind of like Jesus,'" was another, closely followed by "McCain's national finance co-chair exits over lobbyist ties ..."

The day, and the weeks before and since, capture what may be the most striking new feature of the 2008 media landscape. Matt Drudge has upended the conventional wisdom that he and his powerful online vehicle are stalwarts of the conservative message machine.

After skewering Al Gore and lampooning John Kerry, he's emerged as an unreliable ally for the GOP, while trumpeting Obama's victories and shrugging at his scandals.

"It's clear to us that Barack Obama has won the Drudge Primary, and it's one of the most important primaries in this process," conceded a senior aide to Hillary Rodham Clinton, who also acknowledged that Drudge's treatment of Obama could make the Illinois senator more electable in November. Read article.

Obama's Iraq Achilles Heel

Morris & McGann, Vote.com

John McCain needs to go on the offensive against Barack Obama over the Iraq war.

Polls tell us that his support for the Iraq invasion is one of voters' chief problems with McCain. Obama's chief credential, on the other hand, is his early, consistent opposition to the war.

Even with recent successes in Iraq, the war remains a heavy negative for McCain. But he can turn that around; here's how.

When it comes to Iraq, Obama is most comfortable living in the past. He wants to endlessly replay the day when he castigated the war as unnecessary and cooked up by White House political types and ideologues. He's far less comfortable talking about Iraq now, and downright antsy when it comes to discussing the future.

It's a lot easier to oppose a policy than to figure out how to replace it.

Countless Americans remain deeply pessimistic about Iraq; recent successes get judged in the light of past, false optimism.

But that also means voters have no problem envisioning disaster should we pull out our troops too soon - the possible slaughter of pro-American Iraqis, plus police and government officials; perhaps a takeover by Iran; a comeback by al Qaeda and other terrorist operatives.

The key is to force Obama to face these dangers - and explain what he'd do. Read article.

Obama's VP Search Mistake

Morris & McGann, NY Post.com

On his first day as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama made his first clear, serious mistake: He named Eric Holder as one of three people charged with vice-presidential vetting.

As deputy attorney general, Holder was the key person who made the pardon of Marc Rich possible in the final hours of the Clinton presidency. Now, Obama will be stuck in the Marc Rich mess.

If ever there was a person who did not deserve a presidential pardon, it's Marc Rich, the fugitive billionaire who renounced his US citizenship and moved to Switzerland to avoid prosecution for racketeering, wire fraud, 51 counts of tax fraud, evading $48 million in taxes, and engaging in illegal trades with Iran in violation of the US embargo following the 1979-80 hostage crisis.

Seventeen years later, Rich wanted a pardon, and he retained Jack Quinn, former counsel to the president, to lobby his old boss.

It was Holder who had originally recommended Quinn to one of Rich's advisers, although he claims that he did not know the identity of the client. Read article.

Barack's Throwback - 'Guns v.Butter' Isolationism

Eric Trager, NY Post.com

Barack Obama is peddling a brand of isolationism that Americans haven't heard from a major presidential contender in nearly a century - one that uses the daily struggles of hard-working Americans to generate a fear of international involvement.

The belief that the United States can catalyze positive change in the world has long motivated US foreign policy.

With this hopeful determination, America and its allies defeated Nazism, overcame Communism and now have undertaken the battle against global terrorism. Along the way, we've engaged in numerous humanitarian relief efforts, and promoted democracy and human rights worldwide.

Yet this policy of principled global citizenship is under attack - by a man who could well be our next president. Read article.

Bill Clinton faces benching in fall presidential campaign

Thomas M. DeFrank, NY Daily News.com

The Obama camp is preparing to embrace Hillary Clinton enthusiastically - but they're reaching for the 10-foot pole to keep her rabid husband at bay.

Bill Clinton's erratic and increasingly sulfuric behavior on the campaign trail has perplexed senior Barack Obama campaign officials trying to figure out how to deploy him in the fall campaign.

While the former President's political skills are extraordinary, some senior Democratic and Obama officials - and Hillary Clinton aides - believe he is now simply too toxic to be a high-profile surrogate.

"Before all the controversy there were plenty of things he could have done, but he's definitely a liability now," a Democratic operative with close ties to Obama Nation told the Daily News. Read article.

Don't Count Hillary Out Yet

John LeBoutillier, NewsMax.com

Hillary's campaign is almost toast - or so the media says.

But, for the sake of argument, let us assume that sometime in the next few days or weeks Hillary concedes and then suspends her campaign. And then she announces her "unqualified" support for Obama. And then she publicly campaigns for Obama.

Here is what will be said: "Hillary is taking the high road. She is helping unite the Democratic Party in opposition to McCain and the GOP. She is also preserving her right to run again in 2012 if Obama should lose this year. She is trying to be seen as a ‘team player' and a good loser."

But here is what the truth will be: Yes, she will look as though she is taking the high road; in reality, she will also be taking the lowest road imaginable.

Her low road goal? Have Obama lose in November - whereupon she will immediately begin her "I told you so" campaign. She will remind every Democratic Party official and leader that she and Bill had told them all along that she could and would have won in the general election and that Obama would not win. This is the beginning of Hillary 2012. Read article.

Hill's Best Hope for a New Career

Robert Novak, NY Post.com

If Barack Obama is elected president, mutual friends say the best course for Hillary Clinton might be nomination to the US Supreme Court rather than staying in the Senate.

Clinton is also talked about as suitable for secretary of state. The consensus among her friends is that she wouldn't be content forging a lifetime career in the Senate, as Sen. Edward Kennedy did after he lost the 1980 presidential nomination.

A footnote: The last confirmed Supreme Court nominee without prior judicial experience was Lewis Powell, a prestigious attorney from Richmond, Va., named by President Richard Nixon in 1971. No high court selection has had so modest a legal background as Clinton since President John Kennedy named football star Byron (Whizzer) White in 1962. Read article.

The agony of Bill Clinton

Rich Lowry, JWR.com

Few things are sadder than former greats past their prime. A bloated Elvis Presley in a sequined suit; a diminished Michael Jordan making one last comeback with the Washington Wizards; and, we can add, a gaunt Bill Clinton desperately plugging his wife's doomed presidential campaign - the Big Dog in winter.

With his media enablers gone, with his most faithful constituency (African-Americans) lured away by another, with the prospect of again attaining the commanding heights of American politics lost, with his magic touch in abeyance, Bill Clinton has been whittled down to a long, self-pitying plaint.

For a man blessed with so much talent, fame and riches, Clinton has always had an unparalleled ability to see himself as beset by cosmic unfairness. In his telling, the 2008 Democratic primaries are the fruit of another vast conspiracy against the Clintons, who have struggled against a biased media, cheating unions, unfair rules and malevolent left-wing pressure groups.

There's some truth in this. But, given all the advantages the Clinton machine brought into the primary season against the tyro senator from Illinois, Bill Clinton is in a poor position to whine, except he doesn't have the willpower or grace to resist it. Read article.

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