Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Wright Is Wrong And So Is Obama

Obama gave a speech today, touted as an effort to bridge the Democrats' widening racial divide, and an obvious attempt to control the damage resulting from the hate-filled speech of Obama's long time spiritual adviser, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
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Gallup finds race is the issue that divides the Democratic electorate more than any other:

In an aggregate of 6,721 interviews Gallup has conducted between March 1 and March 16, 80% of black Democrats support Obama while only 15% support Hillary Clinton. Non-Hispanic whites split 53% for Clinton and 38% for Obama, while white Hispanics are even stronger for Clinton, 59% to 37%.
In his speech, Obama says Reverend Wright’s comments aren’t simply controversial, Wright's preachings are a "profoundly distorted view of this country — a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam."

The following video is a sampling of the "profoundly distorted" preachings of Obama's minister of hate:



Wright's "profoundly distorted" views are reminiscent of the maniacal rants spouted by radical Islam clerics, and just as wrong.

Wright is wrong when he calls on God to "damn America":
"The government gives them [African Americans] the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."
Wright is wrong when he preaches that we support state terrorism against the Palestinians:
After September 11, 2001, he said: "We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back into our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost."
Wright is wrong when he says we invented HIV:
The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. The government lies.
Obama is just as wrong when he refuses to disassociate himself from Wright:
I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community.

[. . .]

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.
Obama's refusal to dissociate himself from this preacher of "profoundly distorted" views is no different than the failure of Muslims to condemn the terrorism used by the Islamic extremists in the war they continue to wage against us.

The "profoundly distorted" views of reverend Wright, like those of the Islamic extremists, will not be overcome until the people of their own community disassociate themselves from the hate mongers.

Obama's speech might have been masterfully delivered by a great orator, but because of Obama's refusal to dissociate himself from the minister of hate, it was a speech that fails to help bridge the Democrat's racial devide.

You can read Obama's speech here or watch it here.

McCain Favorability Surges

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John McCain's 67% favorable rating is the highest of any of the three major candidates running for president.

McCain's favorable rating has surged 26 percent since last summer, and 11percent since he won enough delegates to ensure his nomination.

Hillary's 53% favorable rating, 53%, is significantly lower than those of the other two candidates.

McCain also gets an extraordinary 52% favorable from Democrats and independents who lean Democratic, while Obama gets a 39% favorable rating from Republicans and Republican leaners, and Hillary receives only a 20% favorable rating from Republicans and Republican leaners.

Gallup Poll Editor in Chief, Frank Newport, analyzes the ratings in the following video report:

Sunday, March 16, 2008

McCain In Iraq

Mccaininiraq
Senator McCain, the Republican's presidential candidate to be, is in Iraq meeting with U.S. and Iraqi officials, including Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh and General David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. troops in Iraq.

McCain is also scheduled to visit London, Paris, Jordan, and Israel this week, where he will meet with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicholas Sarkozy, Jordan's King Abdullah and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. In London, McCain also plans to meet with Stavros Dimas, the European Union's commissioner for the environment, a leading advocate of combating global warming.

Visiting Iraq and world leaders allows McCain to highlight his foreign policy credentials while Hillary and Obama continue their nasty battle of political oneupmanship fighting for the Democratic nomination.

"For McCain, the visual of being seen with world leaders, talking about the great issues facing us while Obama and Clinton are pounding each other in Altoona and Wilkes Barre is great," said independent analyst Charlie Cook, publisher of the Cook Political Report, referring to two cities in Pennsylvania, which holds a presidential primary on April 22.
McCain, who is the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, is accompanied on the fact-finding trip by Connecticut's Independent Democrat Joe Lieberman and South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. McCain will reimburse the federal government for the political aspects of the trip, including his airfare back to the U.S.

Photo credit: Master Sgt. Andy Dunaway/U.S. Air Force, via Associated Press.

Obama Wins Iowa Again

Superman_t_2

Obama expanded his delegate lead over Hillary on Saturday, picking up nine delegates as Iowa activists took the next step in picking delegates to the national convention.

With all the Iowa delegates now picked, Democratic Party projections indicate Obama increased his number of Iowa delegates by nine to a total of 25 compared with 14 for Hillary and six for Edwards. More than half the 14 Edwards delegates switched to Obama. Iowa also has 12 superdelegates. Obama has been endorsed by four of those and Hillary three, and the rest remain uncommitted.

Obama also closed the gap in California as that state's Democratic Party finalized the delegate counts from the February 5 primary. Obama gained five more pledged delegates, while Hillary only picked up two.
Senatorclinton_3
According to the Associated Press, counting Saturday's new figures from Iowa and California, Obama now leads the delegate tally 1,617 delegates to 1,498.

Neither Obama nor Clinton can win the 2,025 delegates required for nomination without some combination of elected delegates and superdelegates (party and elected officials who are automatic delegates to the Democrats' Denver convention this summer). About 800 of the approximately 4,000 delegates are superdelegates and several hundred of them remain uncommitted to either candidate.

Given the remaining contests, Obama's existing hundred-plus delegate lead, and the rules by which Democrats apportion delegates, it is a political and practical, if not mathematical, certainty that Obama will have an elected delegate lead at the end of the nomination contests. Hillary's only hope of winning the nomination is to overtake Obama's elected delegate lead by winning the bulk of the remaining superdelegates.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

McCain's Journey to Freedom

On March 15, 1973, John McCain was released as a POW from the "Hanoi Hilton," having survived life-threatening and disabling injuries, along with the brutality of the POW experience. While a prisoner, McCain steadfastly resisted the North Vietnamese efforts to exploit him and his fellow POWs during his more than five years of captivity. The McCain campaign produced the following video to honor the 35-year anniversary his release:



The country is truly blesed to continue to be served by those with the character exhibited by John McCain.

Obama On The Democrats Deam Team

Obama takes apart the Clintons' suggestion he should be Hillary's Vice President.

According to Obama, the Clintons are trying to "hoodwink" and "bamboozle" Democrats into thinking they don't have to make a choice between the two candidate.

Watch the video:



That is a phenomenal rebuttal to Hillary's charge that Obama is not ready to be Commander-In-Chief. It was also very clever to refer back to Hillary's doublespeak.

Wait, We've Changed Our Minds

Saturday Night Live continues its series of opening skits making fun of Obama to Hillary's benefit. This week, the show's skit focused on Hillary's infamous ad featuing the 3:00 a.m. phone call. The skit ends with Hillary impersonator Amy Poehler encouraging voters to call the Democratic National Committee to tell them "Wait, we've changed our minds . . . . It's not too late, we can still turn this around. Yes we can."

Watch the following video:

Voters Want McCain to Answer The Call

Rasmussen Reports finds most voters said John McCain is the person they’d most want to answer the phone in the White House when a foreign policy crisis arrived.

Which candidate would be best President to answer a foreign policy crisis call?
John McCain - 42%
Hillary Clinton - 25%
Barack Obama - 25%

This is why Hillary's "experience" argument makes no sense. Senator McCain is by far the most experienced candidate, and the voters know it:

Among Republicans, 79% named McCain while neither Democrat reached double digits.

Among unaffiliated voters, 39% said McCain would be their top choice to handle such a crisis. Twenty-seven percent (27%) of unaffiliateds said they thought Obama was the best to handle the call while 18% named Clinton.

Among men, 51% preferred McCain, 21% Obama, and 19% Clinton. Women were evenly divided—33% for McCain and 30% for each of the Democrats.


Even Obama's senior foreign policy advisor, Susan Rice, said that neither Democrat was prepared to take that 3:00 a.m. call. Watch the following Video:



Only Democrats prefer that Hillary answer the call - 46% said they’d like Hillary to take that call, while 36% prefer Obama.

Friday, March 7, 2008

McCain's New Ad

Senator McCain's new ad "Man In the Arena" is terrific.