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May 12, 2008

Exclusive: Monday, May 12

Presidential Watch

Barack Hussein Obama - Arab-American

Kenneth Lamb, Astute Bloggers.com

Mr. Obama is 50% Caucasian from his mother's side. He is 43.75% Arabic, and 6.25% African Negro from his father's side....

The question no one wants to answer - particularly Mr. Obama and his supporters, is, "Why do you think he has an Arabic name? Why does his father have an Arabic name? Why does every ancestor on his father's side have an Arabic name?"

The answer is obvious: They have Arabic names because his father's side of the family tree is Arabic.

Need proof?

Research the Kenyan records for yourself. Read article.

Where was Obama born?

Monkey In The Middle Blogspot.com

His biography and web page says he was born on 4 August 1961 in Honolulu, Hawaii. But there is a problem here. NOBODY CAN FIND HIS BIRTH CERTIFICATE!!!! I have looked for it. Others have looked for it. Hawaii has temporarily closed their site on Birth records, the State Department will not do a search of their database, and the Kenyans have removed the pages from their records for that day.

So where was he born? If he was born in Hawaii, he is eligible to become President. But if he was born in Kenya, then he is ineligible to become President. Read article. (Scroll down.)

Obama Embraces New Caustic Pastor

Ronald Kessler, NewsMax.com

Can you imagine the president of the United States attending a church where the pastor says everyone has a bit of "thug" in him and praises a rapper with a criminal record as a prophet?

How about a pastor who calls the biblical patriarch Abraham a "pimp" and says Noah and Moses were thugs, Jesus has a "soft spot for thugs," and everyone has some "thug proclivities."

If Barack Obama is elected president, that is exactly what will happen. Now that the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. is retiring from Trinity United Church of Christ, Obama has said he will continue to attend the church.

Explaining his decision, Sen. Obama said that the "new pastor, the young pastor, Reverend Otis Moss, is a wonderful young pastor." He said he also still values the Trinity community.

Known as the "hip-hop pastor," Otis Moss III has served as assistant pastor of the church for two years. Moss officially takes over in June. Instead of condemning those who break the law, Moss says to exuberant applause, "Our society creates thugs. Children are not born thugs. Thugs are made and not born." He adds, "This is good news for somebody who has a proclivity for 'ghettoistic' conduct."

Indeed, it is good news for those who do not want to be held accountable for their own conduct. In making that statement, Moss endorses the message of many black leaders who encourage blacks to see themselves as helpless victims of a bigoted society. Read article.

Obama's Revealing 'Distractions'

Charles Krauthammer, RCP.com

Real change has never been easy. ... The status quo in Washington will fight. They will fight harder than ever to divide us and distract us with ads and attacks from now until November. -- Barack Obama, Pennsylvania primary night speech

With that, Obama identified the new public enemy: the "distractions" foisted upon a pliable electorate by the malevolent forces of the status quo, i.e., those who might wish to see someone else become president next January. "It's easy to get caught up in the distractions and the silliness and the tit for tat that consumes our politics" and "trivializes the profound issues" that face our country, he warned sternly. These must be resisted.

Why? Because Obama understands that the real threat to his candidacy is less Hillary Clinton and John McCain than his own character and cultural attitudes. He came out of nowhere with his autobiography already written, then saw it embellished daily by the hagiographic coverage and kid-gloves questioning of a supine press. (Which is why those "Saturday Night Live" parodies were so devastatingly effective.)

Then came the three amigos: Tony Rezko, the indicted fixer; Jeremiah Wright, the racist reverend; William Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist. And then Obama's own anthropological observation that "bitter" working-class whites cling to guns and religion because they misapprehend their real class interests. What is Obama to do? Dismiss all such questions about his associations and attitudes as "distractions." And then count on his acolytes in the media to wage jihad against those who have the temerity to raise these questions. Read article.

The Other Obama

Michael Reagan, GOP USA.com

Here we go again. After being subjected to eight years of the collegial presidency of Bill and Hillary, when we were told that when we got Bill we got Hillary as a bonus, it looks as if we are facing another twofer: Barack and Michelle.

Effete liberal Democrats are all but canonizing Barack Obama, who they see as one of their own -- cool, detached, impressively intellectual -- all in all what Pat Buchanan described as something fresh out of the faculty lounge, where lofty thoughts abound and contempt for the great unwashed is hardly concealed.

That may be an apt description, implying that the Barack Obama who scorned ordinary folks in small towns who, he sneered, cling to such lower-class crutches as religion and guns, is above the distractions of the madding crowd.

It does not, however, fit the other half of the new twofer, Michelle Obama, who far from being above it all is down there in the trenches acting like the flame-throwing liberal activist she is. To know her is to know what her husband really believes. Read article.

West Virginia could spell trouble for Obama

Stephen Braun, LA Times.com

Scant support among white working-class Democrats, especially men, could dog him into November.

In Hardy County, Democrats outnumber Republicans more than 2 to 1. But there is little enthusiasm for Barack Obama in this mountainside enclave, a portent of trouble for the Illinois senator in next week's West Virginia primary and the general election beyond.

Nearly 97% white, the county is as conflicted as any rural and working-class Democratic bastion as it struggles to adjust to the likely prospect of the party nominating its first African American presidential candidate.

Obama may have emerged from his double-digit victory over Hillary Rodham Clinton in North Carolina and his razor-thin loss in Indiana on Tuesday with a virtual lock on the Democratic nomination. But his performance did little to reassure political leaders here concerned by his sagging numbers among once-loyal white Democrats, who have steadily abandoned their party over the last several presidential elections.

"I'm not yet convinced that Barack Obama is more substance than fluff," said Clyde M. See Jr., a former Democratic speaker of the West Virginia House of Delegates and two-time gubernatorial candidate. Read article.

Bill Clinton's Message to Rural America

Jake Tapper, ABC News.com

As Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., avoids any real campaigning in West Virginia, the former president of the United States is out there ginning up resentments.

Bill Clinton has the right to say whatever he wants, of course. But he's a smart man. Brilliant, even.

He can do the math. He must know that it's quite improbable that his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., will be the Democratic presidential nominee.

So what purpose does it serve for him to barnstorm a state like West Virginia and tell rural voters that Obama and his elitist political/media cabal allies are mocking Appalachia?

He's using the kind of language Democrats typically use against Republicans -- as in, stuff you say when you don't want voters to vote for the other guy under any circumstance.

This is tough stuff to walk back from. Read article.

The Michelle Factor: Forget Jeremiah Wright. What Does Michelle Obama Think About America?

Hugh Hewitt, Townhall.com

Whether or not the issue of Barack Obama's two decades under the spiritual direction of Jeremiah Wright remains an issue through the next six months, the views of the possible First Lady at his side will be part of this half-year's discussion.

Which is why we have transcribed a major speech she made in North Carolina on the Friday before that state's primary vote, and why we have posted the audio of the speech here.

Read it. Listen to it. This is not a speech from the mainstream of American politics. It is a radical critique of the country, and it is not the sort of assessment widely shared beyond the far precincts of the left.

Here are just a few of the key assertions Michelle Obama makes: Read article.

Sing, o muse, the wrath of Michelle

Spengler, Asia Times.com

The wrath of swift-footed Achilles, of which Homer called his muse to sing, nearly lost the Trojan War for the Greeks. The wrath of swift-tongued Michelle Obama well might lose the White House for her husband. We had a peek into her diary last week when the Obama campaign finally made public her undergraduate thesis, titled "Princeton-Educated Blacks and the Black Community". The contents of this remarkable document sharpen the profile of Obama's women that I offered last week (Obama's women reveal his secret Asia Times Online, February 26.)

Barack Obama, I argued, evinces a preternatural sangfroid, for he is in America but not of it, a Third World anthropologist profiling Americans. But his wife's anger at America will out, for it is a profound rage amplified by guilt.

Mrs Obama averred that she could not recall the contents of the thesis she composed in 1985, but that cannot be quite true, for it is a poignant cry from the heart. It explains her controversial outburst during the campaign to the effect that she felt proud of her country for the first time in her adult life in 2008, after "feeling so alone" in her "frustration" and "disappointment" at America. Read article.

What-ifs begin for Clinton

Ann McFeatters, Scripps News.com

And so, the what-if season begins.

It's hard to believe that it's over, but for Hillary Rodham Clinton, it is. She will not be president in 2009.

How did a "sure thing" a year ago turn into a what-might-have-been today?

The 2008 election season will be studied for years, but it is already clear what major mistakes by the Clinton forces helped sink the White House hopes of one of the smartest, shrewdest women of our time.

The basic problem is that long ago Hillary Clinton positioned herself as an establishment candidate. She went to all the traditional moneybags and locked in a stupendous amount of money and support. But she could not have foreseen that the voters would be desperate for change and for something new.

She probably never even thought when she started her campaign that millions would conclude that after 20 years of having a Bush or a Clinton in the White House, the prospect of four or eight years more of another Clinton was just too much. Americans liked the TV show but tire of dynasties in general. Read article.

Too Late to the Duck Hunt: A Farewell to Hillary

Charles Krauthammer, JWR.com

By the time Hillary Clinton figured out how to beat Barack Obama, it was too late. When she began the race in 2007 thinking she was in for a coronation, she claimed the center in order to position herself for the real fight, the general election. She simply assumed the party activists and loony left would fall in behind her.

However, as Obama began to rise, powered by the party's Net-roots activists, she scurried left, particularly with her progressively more explicit renunciation of the Iraq war. It was a fool's errand.

The lightness in Hillary's step in the days before Indiana and North Carolina reflected the relief of the veteran politician who, after months of treading water, finally finds the right campaign strategy. But it was far too late. And the gas tax overkill, one final error of modulation, sealed the deal - for Obama.

There's only one remaining chapter in this fascinating spectacle. Negotiating the terms of Hillary's surrender. After which we will have six months of watching her enthusiastically stumping the country for Obama, denying with utter conviction Republican charges that he is the out of touch, latte-sipping elitist she warned Democrats against so urgently in the last, late leg of her doomed campaign. Read article.

Michael Moore, Frank Rich, Jeremiah Wright and John Hagee

Dennis Prager, JWR.com

While Frank Rich and others could have honestly, if mistakenly, believed that Hagee was referring to the Catholic Church in that video, it borders on slander to compare John Hagee with Jeremiah Wright. Hagee has been preoccupied with the suffering of the Jews at the hands of Christians.

One would think that the preoccupation of a major Christian leader with Jewish suffering at the hands of Catholics and Protestants - Hagee has been just as critical of Martin Luther's anti-Semitism as with that of the Church - would be welcomed by a liberal Jew such as Frank Rich.

After all, liberal Jews and liberal non-Jews have been unsparing in their criticism of Christian, especially the European Catholic Church's, oppression of Jews. But for Rich, pointing out historical anti-Semitism is apparently less important than exaggerating contemporary American racism.

The sad irony of all the liberal attacks on white racism and subsequent justification of black rage against America is that it only increases black rage and and sometimes even black racism. But it does keep 'em voting Democrat. Read article.

Pastors and Politics

David Reinhard, Oregon Live.com

T he requests, demands and suggestions started coming in after my first column on the relationship between the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. and Barack Obama. They multiplied after the cool, collected candidate broke with his red-hot crackpot pastor, and I asked what took so long. Why did it take 20 years for him to denounce Wright's hate-filled, anti-American ravings?

"I'd really like to read your take on the relationship between John McCain and Rev. John Hagee," read one of the more civil ones. This one is from the snarky variety: "So here's your big chance! I look forward to your next column, which will naturally" analyze "McCain's own embarrassingly hate-filled pastor." Happy to oblige.

Let's start with an indisputable fact. Hagee is not McCain's pastor and never has been. Nor has the pastor of San Antonio's Cornerstone Church been McCain's mentor or spiritual adviser. Not for 20 years. Not for two seconds. Hagee's Texas address should be the giveaway here. It's tough to have a pastor-mentor-spiritual adviser who lives in Texas when you live in Washington, D.C., or Arizona. Except in the imaginings of folks who need McCain to have his very own Reverend Wright. Read article.

Indiana to Beijing

Review & Outlook, Online WSJ.com

As part of her populist reinvention, Hillary Clinton last week criticized a Chinese business deal in Indiana that her husband's administration had supported. Perhaps she should have consulted the U.S.-China Business Council's study on U.S. exports to China before arguing that ties with China are hurting Americans.

That's right, exports.

Take Indiana's first district, home of the Magnaquench factory in Valparaiso, whose 2005 closing has Senator Clinton so ruffled. Between 2000 and 2007, the first district's exports to China increased 307%, compared with a 65% increase for exports to the rest of the world. That amounted to $74 million last year.

Trade with China, like trade with any country, will at times lead to closed factories and displaced workers. But these latest data are a reminder that trade creates new opportunities, too. Rather than ratcheting up the antitrade and anti-China rhetoric, the presidential candidates would do better focusing on helping Americans seize the opportunities of trade. Pro-growth tax and regulatory policies would make a good start. Read article.

Replacement Obama Pastor Just As Controversial As Wright

NewsMax.com

Barack Obama has finally distanced himself from Rev. Jeremiah Wright after a 20-year relationship, but the pastor who is replacing Wright at Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ is likely to be just as controversial.

New Trinity pastor Otis Moss has called Biblical patriarch Abraham a "pimp" and made other statements many would consider offensive.

After Obama called Wright's comments "divisive and destructive," a questioner noted that Rev. Moss has defended Wright and asked if Obama would continue attending the church.

"Well, the new pastor, the young pastor, Reverend Otis Moss, is a wonderful young pastor," Obama responded. "And as I said, I still very much value the Trinity community." Read article.

See Pastor Moss making these remarks - Click Here Now.

Random Events

Thomas Sowell, Townhall.com

Like everyone else, I have also been hearing a lot lately about Jeremiah Wright, former pastor of the church that Barack Obama has belonged to for 20 years.

Both men, in their different ways, have for decades been promoting the far left vision of victimization and grievances-- Wright from his pulpit and Obama in roles ranging from community organizer to the United States Senate, where he has had the farthest left voting record.

Later, when the ultimate political prize-- the White House-- loomed on the horizon, Obama did a complete makeover, now portraying himself as a healer of divisions.

The difference between Barack Obama and Jeremiah Wright is that they are addressing different audiences, using different styles adapted to those audiences.

It is a difference between upscale demagoguery and ghetto demagoguery, playing the audience for suckers in both cases. The time is long overdue to stop gullibly accepting the left's vision of itself as idealistic, rather than self-aggrandizing. Read article.