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2008 Campaign
Family Security Matters does not stand behind or endorse any candidate for president (or any other public office). However, as the President is also Commander-in-Chief and is responsible for setting national security policy, we will be publishing a variety of articles on both the Republican and Democrat candidates for President during this election year. As always, the opinions of our Contributing Editors are their own, and do not necessarily reflect those of Family Security Matters.
- IN THIS SECTION
May 5, 2008
Exclusive: Tuesday, May 6
Presidential Watch – Daily – Tuesday, May 6
The most influentialTelegraph.co.uk
Telegraph.co.uk unveils the last installment of its list of the 50 most influential political pundits in
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Obama's Well-Aged Beef
Peter J. Wallison, TCS Daily.com
The television images are striking. A handsome young candidate, an adoring audience, a beautifully delivered speech in which he offers to bring us together as a nation, and speaks of his "movement for change:" "I don't want to spend the next year or the next four years" he says, "re-fighting the same fights that we had in the 1990s. I don't want to pit Red America against Blue America, I want to be the President of the
A visit to Barack Obama's website reveals that this is not a candidate who is offering a new left-right synthesis—a new way of looking at our politics and bridging the old Red-Blue divide. Instead, what we see in 60 pages of policy proposals and commitments are the same old ideas of the Democratic Left. Even the rhetoric is old.
In the 60 pages of words, there's hardly a major new idea or an idea that departs significantly from the Democratic Party's agenda since the New Deal. It's all here: the activist government, the ambitious programs without reference to costs, the appeal to some people's sense of victimization. There is also one striking omission—a list of anything that Senator Obama has actually done in the course of his brief career to advance any of these goals. Read article.
Grandma Got Over at the Press Club - Obama surrenders.
Mark Steyn, NRO.com
Four score and seven years ago… No, wait, my mistake. Two score and seven or eight days ago, Barack Obama gave the greatest speech since the Gettysburg Address, or FDR’s First Inaugural, or JFK’s religion speech, or (if like Garry Wills in The New York Review of Books, you find those comparisons drearily obvious) Lincoln’s Cooper Union speech of 1860.
And, of course, the Senator’s speech does share one quality with Cooper Union,
It was never a great speech. It was a simulacrum of a great speech written to flatter gullible pundits into hailing it as the real deal. It should be “required reading in classrooms,” said Bob Herbert in the New York Times; it was “extraordinary” and “rhetorical magic,” said Joe Klein in Time — which gets closer to the truth: As with most “magic,” it was merely a trick of redirection.
Obama appeared to have made Jeremiah Wright vanish into thin air, but it turned out he was just under the heavily draped table waiting to pop up again. The speech was designed to take a very specific problem — the fact that Barack Obama, the Great Uniter, had sat in the pews of a neo-segregationist huckster for 20 years — and generalize it into some grand meditation on race in America. Senator Obama looked
Windfall Profits for Dummies
Online WSJ.com
This is one strange debate the candidates are having on energy policy. With gas prices close to $4 a gallon, Hillary Clinton and John McCain say they'll bring relief with a moratorium on the 18.4-cent federal gas tax. Barack Obama opposes that but prefers a 1970s-style windfall profits tax (as does Mrs. Clinton).
Mr. Obama is right to oppose the gas-tax gimmick, but his idea is even worse. Neither proposal addresses the problem of energy supply, especially the lack of domestic oil and gas thanks to decades of Congressional restrictions on
This tiff over gas and oil taxes only highlights the intellectual policy confusion – or perhaps we should say cynicism – of our politicians. They want lower prices but don't want more production to increase supply. They want oil "independence" but they've declared off limits most of the big sources of domestic oil that could replace foreign imports. They want Americans to use less oil to reduce greenhouse gases but they protest higher oil prices that reduce demand. They want more oil company investment but they want to confiscate the profits from that investment. And these folks want to be President? Read article.
Adam Nagourney & Carl
Have Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s chances of winning the Democratic presidential nomination improved as Senator Barack Obama has struggled through his toughest month of this campaign?
After weeks in which her candidacy was seen by many party leaders as a long shot at best, Mrs. Clinton’s advisers argued strenuously on Thursday that the answer was most assuredly yes, that the outlook was turning in her favor in a way that gave her a real chance.
Still, despite a series of trials that have put Mr. Obama on the defensive and illustrated the burdens he might carry in a fall campaign, the Obama campaign is rolling along, leaving Mrs. Clinton with dwindling options.
Mr. Obama continues to pick up the support of superdelegates — elected Democrats and party leaders — at a quicker pace than Mrs. Clinton. Read article.
The John McCain "natural born citizen" resolution is a Democrat trick
Grand Old Partisan.com
According to the Constitution, the President must be a "natural born citizen." John McCain was born, not in the
Since 1790, federal law has defined "natural born citizen" to include the children born abroad to
Today, the U.S. Senate passed S. Res. 511, asserting the fact that McCain is a "natural born citizen." The resolution was written by a Democrat Senator, Claire McCaskill, and co-sponsored by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Why are Democrats seeming to help a Republican? Because they are thinking several steps ahead, that's why. Are they just being nice? Not at all!
Right before Election Day, the Democrats will likely find a Carter- or Clinton-appointed federal judge to strike down the resolution. Voters will then head to the polls while Democrats and their media allies shout that McCain is not eligible for the presidency. Any appeal to a higher court will decided after the election. Read article.
Wright and the Nixon Effect
Paul Greenberg, JWR.com
At the National Press Club, the reverend said he would "try to respond in a non-bombastic way," but of course he failed. He could no more stop being bombastic than he could stop being the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Faith? Hope? Charity? Love? His bombast obscures them all. But not till his performance at the press club had I realized the extent of his blind rancor, his addiction to empty polemics above all, his spiritual bankruptcy.
Barack Obama was quick to respond this time. He's learning. The senator said he was "outraged" by his former pastor's attempt to blame his own failings on the black church.
For all the stirring sermons and songs I've heard at such churches, at little AME chapels in the heart of Dixie or in the majestic halls where famous gospel singers perform, not once, never, have I ever heard anyone demand that G-d Damn America a la the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Or try to deflect criticism by saying it's really his church that is being attacked.
How brave of the Rev. Wright to hide behind his church. As if it were responsible for his offenses. And what a slander to blame the black church for his own cheap provocations, his base entertainments offered in the guise of spiritual nourishment like stones in place of bread.
When Dr. Johnson famously noted that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel, he may have overlooked the rich possibilities of the church. Read article.
Character(s) Count(s)
If I were a black person of faith, I’d be insulted being lumped together with a preacher who’s decided to take his mixture of bigotry, pseudo-biology and paranoid conspiracy theories “national.” Apparently even Mr. Obama discovered that some “cutting edge” values don’t mix well with political ambition. The Rev. Wright is officially “under the bus.” The bet here is so is Barack Obama.
In one way, it’s a shame. There is no doubt the commodity in steepest decline in
Perhaps I’m not the only American with “old-fashioned” values. And perhaps I’ll live long enough to see a genuine statesman rise above the seemingly endless supply of mediocrities we’re forced to endure right now.
But Barack Obama isn’t it. Not by a long shot. Read article.
Obama's Other Radical Friends
Ellizabeth Wurtzel, Online WSJ.com
Apparently, back when he was running for state senate, Barack Obama had fund-raising events at the home of Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, and there's been some press about the senator's friendship with this controversial Weathercouple. Many reporters are well aware, even though Mr. Obama has described his connection to Ayers and Dohrn as "flimsy," that the senator's relationship with his radical
In her tepid, wobbling way, Hillary Clinton has attempted to use this well-known fact to portray her opponent as a secret subversive. But mostly, the press doesn't want to touch this story – and no one else does either, as if it actually were TNT. Perhaps right-wing evildoers are holding onto this story to exploit in the general election.
There are a few other possibilities. One seems unlikely: That America has forgiven the '60s. It seems we will never quite get over the assorted shocks to the system and cumulative mayhem of an entire generation having a collective tantrum. It's the one decade that keeps coming up in every presidential election. Always, we have to know what the candidates were up to back then – the drafts, the deferments, the dodges, the drugs. Since Mr. Obama is too young to have a '60s story to tell, the Weatherman connection becomes his syndrome by proxy. Read article.
The more you know about Wright, the more you doubt Obama
Michael Goodwin, JWR.com
Is it true, as many suspect, that Obama did see Wright in full, but rationalized his presence in the church and the financial support he gave it as the cost of building a base in Chicago's often-radical black politics?
Either way, the fundamental doubt is not that Obama shares Wright's anti-American views. The doubt is about his judgment in sticking with Wright as the pastor for himself and his young children.
It's a doubt sharpened by the fact that ever since Wright's loopy ideas first became public nearly two months ago, Obama has defended him as a basically good man.
Many of us who saw only the taped excerpts of Wright's sermons, where he damned
Part of Obama's continuing political problem is that he has not been honest about his relationship with Wright. Read article.
The Truth About Black Culture
Mark Alexander, Patriot Post.com
“In disquisitions of every kind there are certain primary truths, or first principles, upon which all subsequent reasoning must depend.” —Alexander Hamilton
Once again this week, there was a black man in the national spotlight using his celebrity status to lecture
Now, you probably think I’m referring to that most notable of radical Afrocentric holy men, Jeremiah Wright, or his slick protégé, Barack Hussein Obama.
Fair enough.
All of those perky sentiments finally prompted Obama to feign disapproval of his long-time friend and spiritual mentor, claiming that Wright had hurt his campaign. (Oh, it’s not that Wright is wrong, just that he hurt the campaign?) Having previously said Wright was “like family to me,” Obama now laments, “I may not know him as well as I thought.” Read article.
Confronting Hillary
Bill O'Reilly, Townhall.com
Well, it took nearly 12 years, but I finally convinced Sen. Hillary Clinton to speak with me on television. Emboldened by Barack Obama's "Rev. Wright" disaster, the senator is aggressively reaching out to independent voters, many of whom watch "The Factor."
After meeting and speaking with her face to face, my assessment is that health care is Clinton's strongest issue and Iran is her weakest. Polls show that most Americans are fed up with exorbitant medical costs and a callous insurance industry. So any presidential candidate who offers relief from this mess will get a hearing. Of course, the cost would be staggering, but she has a well thought out plan. Whether it is possible, I don't know.
However,
That kind of aggression would likely cause world oil prices to double, causing major chaos in the economic marketplace. When I described that likely outcome to
Queen of Darkness: Hillary poised to devastate
World Net Daily.com
Although Hillary Clinton likes to compare herself with the movie character "Rocky" – claiming that, like the underdog prizefighter, "I never quit, I never give up" – many longtime
After all, the "Terminator" also never gave up. But in addition, he (or she in "Terminator 3") was obsessed with attaining a single, urgent, all-important goal, was able to morph into any other form to help reach that goal, and was willing to sacrifice any and all who got in the way.
Now, the dramatic May edition of WND's monthly Whistleblower magazine proves once and for all that the
While conventional wisdom holds that the "mainstream press" favors Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential primary race with Hillary Clinton, WND/Whistleblower Managing Editor David Kupelian takes a contrary view:
"Obama is relatively new and unknown, so his skeletons are just being dragged out of the closet now, one at a time," said Kupelian. "But Hillary Clinton's extraordinarily disturbing and corrupt past is well known to the big media, and yet virtually none of it is being exposed during this year's historic election contest."
Why? Read article.
Manu Raju & Kevin Bogardus, The Hill.com
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has requested nearly $2.3 billion in federal earmarks for 2009, almost three times the largest amount received by a single senator this year.
The Democratic presidential candidate’s staggering request comes at a time when Congress remains engaged in a heated debate over spending federal dollars on parochial projects.
It also has gained traction on the campaign trail. Presumptive GOP nominee Sen. John McCain, a longtime foe of earmarks, has called for eliminating what he dubs “wasteful
Yet
The money is needed for homeland security, emergency response and health projects throughout
The total amount
5 Economic Questions for the Candidates
Tony Blankley, JWR.com
Prince Otto von Bismarck is credited with the sneering remark that "there is a special providence that protects idiots, drunkards, children and the
Every several weeks, I write a column suggesting what this presidential election might look like if we had serious candidates and a press corps that treated the presidency as an important office in which vital decisions would be made by its incumbent. I invariably get flooded with e-mails telling me, basically, "Blankley, don't hold your breath."
Nonetheless, I shall persist — but continue to breathe. Some serious questions should be posed to the candidates at a moment when the world shudders on its economic axis, with inflation showing its ugly head; oil at more than $115 a barrel; grain prices at historic highs; grain shortages leading to riots in Third World cities; the worst (still unresolved) financial crisis since the Great Depression; a dollar crisis; the prospect of an American recession that might pull the world's economies into its vortex; and a dangerous political trend away from healthy international trading practices.
Here are five questions for the three candidates. Read article.
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