Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Five Reasons to Gear Up for A Long Fght

From American Thinker:

The energy and enthusiastic support behind the newly-elected Obama will be used by the media to claim a mandate and intimidate or discourage opposition. Here are five reasons to ignore that story line and gear up for a long fight:

Slow him down

It's critically important to slow the we-are-the-change-we-need momentum - the worst ensues when politicians act with haste. Much of Obama's support isn't serious, and derives from his cult celebrity status, making it unsustainable for more than a few more months. The O-logo on t-shirts and baseball caps (has a President ever had his own logo before?), the chanting youth, and the Che Guevara-like images of Obama staring off in the distance, as if at a Jumbotron image of himself, are downright creepy. ...(more)

Prevent damaging no-growth economic policies

Obama pushed economic policies throughout his campaign that are little more than fuzzy concepts and obviously unaffordable. Most of the details provided by the campaign, like his soak-the-rich tax plan, are little more than recycled Democrat policy platforms from the 70s....

Avoid weakness in foreign policy

Obama supporters like to paint him as a cerebral policy wonk except that he isn't, at least not in the Clinton (Bill and Hillary both) model. Obama has no foreign policy background at all and almost no exposure to ideas outside the left-liberal echo chamber where he has lived his entire adult life. There's almost no paper trail of original thoughts and ideas. Bill Clinton at least recognized that an Arkansas governor needs brushing up on foreign policy but Obama clearly doesn't know what he doesn't know and hasn't shown the intellectual curiosity of a Clinton....

Capitalize on his inexperienced leadership and poor judgment

It's very possible some bad policies will gain traction in the Democrat-controlled Congress and Obama will be their chief salesperson. The only option will be to assail his leadership. Despite the oratory, it isn't clear Obama has natural leadership abilities - it especially shows when he's off script. Despite the press treatment of his manufactured calm and cool persona, Obama tends to take himself too seriously and react with adolescent frustration. Those moments are easily ridiculed and parodied. He is likely to stumble early by forgetting the campaign is over. ...

Counteract the Biden Effect

Vice President Joe Biden claims loudly that he's a key policy adviser to Obama, which seems somewhat doubtful, but is reason enough to worry. Here's a man a heartbeat away from the Presidency who actually ran for President and was rejected as unfit by the voters more than once, never receiving more than 1% of the vote. Biden received fewer votes for President nationally than Obama received running unopposed in his Illinois state senate race....

Read the whole article here.

The End of the Bell Curve Theory of Politics

From AmSpec:
Back when I was a student of political science, we spent a lot of time discussing the bell curve theory of American politics. The idea was simple. Americans are supposedly arrayed along an ideological spectrum. The vast majority of voters are in the center, while small numbers lurk out at the edges. So, the theory goes, the winning party will be the one that finds a candidate to plausibly occupy the center position.
I think that theory is out the window.
There is no way rational voters could have looked at the choice offered by John McCain and Barack Obama and concluded that Barack was closer to the ideological center than McCa
in. ...(more)

Iran warns U.S. military after Obama win

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran warned U.S. forces in Iraq on Wednesday that it would respond to any violation of Iranian airspace, a message analysts said seemed directed at the new U.S. president-elect more than neighboring American troops.
The Iranian army statement, reported by state radio, came after a cross-border raid last month by U.S. forces into Syria, a move that was condemned by Damascus and Tehran.
But an Iranian politician said the timing suggested it was directed at Barack Obama, who won Tuesday’s U.S. vote, more than the U.S. military, and might reflect concern by hardliners in Iran who thrived on confrontation with Washington
... (more)

The So-Called Catholic Vote

From And Sometimes Tea:

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby Poll: Is McCain Making a Move?

Pollster John Zogby: "Is McCain making a move? The three-day average holds steady, but McCain outpolled Obama today, 48% to 47%. He is beginning to cut into Obama's lead among independents, is now leading among blue collar voters, has strengthened his lead among investors and among men, and is walloping Obama among NASCAR voters. Joe the Plumber may get his license after all. "Obama's lead among women declined, and it looks like it is occurring because McCain is solidifying the support of conservative women, which is something we saw last time McCain picked up in the polls. If McCain has a good day tomorrow, we will eliminate Obama's good day three days ago, and we could really see some tightening in this rolling average. But for now, hold on." (more here)

Weather map crashes on forecaster Francis Wilson during live broadcast

As a weather forecaster and one who lived for two years in East Anglia, I can kind of relate...
No doubt someone will try to blame this on Global Warming...
From the Telegraph:
...Francis Wilson, the head of weather at Sky News, was pointing to a map of Great Britain and Europe when a piece of East Anglia crashed down and landed on top of him.
But Wilson, once described as the "coolest man in the world" by singer Rod Stewart, was unperturbed and continued to present the bulletin on Thursday evening.
His only comment was: "Oh, that was interesting. That was part of East Anglia and the South East."...
(More)

Post November 4th-Significant Questions of Freedom of Religion

Thanks to Steve for bringing this article to my attention. From First Things:

...The great problem today is not the threat that religion poses to public life, but the threat that the state, presuming to embody public life in its entirety, poses to religion. The entire order of freedom, including all the other freedoms specified in the Bill of Rights, is premised upon what Madison calls the precedent duty that is signaled and sustained by religion. When the American people can no longer publicly express and give public effect to their obligations to the Creator, it is to be feared that they will no longer acknowledge their obligations to one another—nor to the Constitution in which the obligations of freedom are enshrined. The word enshrined is used advisedly.... (more)

The True Meaning of 'Historic Vote' - "A Philosophical Tipping Point"

As brought to my attention by a friend and from the WSJ on the danger before us in this coming election:
...The goal of Sen. Obama and the modern, "progressive" Democratic Party is to move the U.S. in the direction of Western Europe, the so-called German model and its "social market economy." Under this notion, business is highly regulated, as it would be in the next Congress under Democratic House committee chairmen Markey, Frank and Waxman. Business is allowed to create "wealth" so long as its utility is not primarily to create new jobs or economic growth but to support a deep welfare system.
The political planets are aligned to make this achievable. In the aftermath of the financial crisis, prominent Democrats, European leaders in France and Germany and more U.S. newspaper articles than one can count have said that the crisis proves the need to permanently tame the American "free-market" model. P.O.W. Alan Greenspan is broadcasting confessions. The question is: Are the American people of a mind to throw in the towel on the system that got them here?
This would be a historic shift, one post-Vietnam Democrats have been trying to achieve since their failed fight with Ronald Reagan's "Cowboy Capitalism."...(
more)
Of course Cowboy Capitalism built the country.