Geoffrey P.Hunt
My sin of driving a high performance car has been absolved by Barack Obama. For two years I’ve been driving a 350 horse Road and Track package Dodge Charger R/T that gets only 15 miles per gallon around town. At first I had trouble finding a parking spot next to a Toyota Prius . But today, my Charger and I stick out like a sea lion amidst penguins where Prius’s outnumber gas guzzlers ten to one. I have endured the ugly stares and audible murmurings from the enviro watchdogs who believe my Charger commits crimes against humanity every time those dual Magnaflow pipes roar. But I have been saved.
Danny Huddleston
Rasmussen reports that McCain is pulling even with Obama, apparently Obama’s excellent adventure in Europe didn’t have much effect on American voters:
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows the race for the White House is tied with Barack Obama and John McCain each attracting 44% of the vote. However, when “leaners” are included, it’s McCain 47% and Obama 46%.
This is the first time McCain has enjoyed even a statistically insignificant advantage of any sort since Obama clinched the Democratic nomination on June 3.
That’s good news for McCain, but this election is not really about McCain is it? This election is about Obama and I think this excerpt here is even more eye-opening:
Forty-six percent (46%) of voters nationwide now say that Obama views U.S. society as unfair and discriminatory. That’s up from 43% in July and 39% in June. By a three-to-one margin, American voters hold the opposite view and believe that our society is generally fair and decent.
In June 39% of voters said that Obama views U.S. society as unfair and discriminatory. In July it was 43%, now it’s 46%. That looks like a trend doesn’t it? The more voters learn about Obama the more they realize the “Change” he’s talking about is a radical change of American society.
If the trend continues it won’t be long before a majority of voters realize that Obama sees America as “unfair and discriminatory”. Three out of four voters disagree with that statement.
And of course that’s the way he views America, it’s the central theme of his candidacy. In Obama’s opinion our society is unfair because we use 25% of the worlds petroleum supplies while we make up only 4% of the worlds population. He said the only problem with the high price of gas is it happened too quickly. And we can’t drive our SUVs anymore, or set our thermostats at 72 degrees.
It’s well known that Obama wants to redistribute wealth in America from the wealthy to the poor, what’s less understood is that he also wants to do this on a worldwide scale. He wants to redistribute America’s wealth to the rest of the world. World Net Daily has that story:
Sen. Barack Obama, perhaps giving America a preview of priorities he would pursue if elected president, is rejoicing over the Senate committee passage of a plan that could end up costing taxpayers billions of dollars in an attempt to reduce poverty in other nations.
The bill, called the Global Poverty Act, is the type of legislation, “We can – and must – make … a priority,” said Obama, a co-sponsor.
It would demand that the president develop “and implement” a policy to “cut extreme global poverty in half by 2015 through aid, trade, debt relief” and other programs.
More troubling is his plan to scale back our military and create a civilian security force “just as as powerful”. From Investors Business Daily we have his words on the subject:
“I’m the only major candidate who opposed this war from the beginning; and as president, I will end it.
“Second, I will cut tens of billions of dollars in wasteful spending. I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems. I will not weaponize space. I will slow our development of future combat systems.
“I will institute an independent defense priorities board to ensure that the Quadrennial Review is not used to justify unnecessary defense spending.
“Third, I will set a goal for a world without nuclear weapons. To seek that goal, I will not develop nuclear weapons; I will seek a global ban on the production of fissile material; and I will negotiate with Russia to take our ICBMs off hair-trigger alert, and to achieve deep cuts in our nuclear arsenal.”
Obama wants to disarm our missile defense just as Iran is starting to build nuclear missiles. And he wants to “slow our development of future combat systems”. In Obama’s world we would be forced to negotiate from a position of weakness, there would be no more American exceptionalism, we would be just like every other country in the world.
I hope the more voters learn of Obama’s plans for America the more they will disagree.
Rick Moran
First, Castellano wrestles with the question of the moment; why isn’t Obama farther ahead?
To earn the Democratic nomination, as Fred Thompson points out, Obama ran as George McGovern without the experience, a left-of-center politician who would meet unconditionally with Iran, pull us precipitously out of Iraq, prohibit new drilling for oil, and grow big government in Washington by all but a trillion dollars. In his general election TV ad debut, however, Obama pirouetted like Baryshnikov. With a commercial Mike Huckabee could have run in a Republican primary, Obama now emphasizes his commitment to strong families and heartland values, “Accountability and self-reliance. Love of country. Working hard without making excuses.” In this yet unwritten chapter of his next autobiography, Obama tells us he is the candidate of “welfare to work” who supports our troops and “cut taxes for working families.” The shift in his political personae has been startling. Obama has moved right so far and so fast, he could end up McCain’s Vice-Presidential pick.
General-election Obama now billboards his doubts about affirmative action. He has embraced the Bush Doctrine of pre-emption saying, “I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon…everything.” He tells his party “Democrats are not for a bigger government.” Oil drilling is a consideration. His FISA vote and abandonment of public campaign finance introduce us to an Obama of recent invention. And as he abandons his old identity for the new, breeding disenchantment among his formerly passionate left-of-center supporters and, equally, doubts among the center he courts, he risks becoming nothing at all, a candidate who is everything and nothing in the same moment.
In past campaigns, there have been extremely artful pivots to the center among candidates of both parties. Obama’s turn to the right was an unmitigated disaster. Placing himself above other politicians meant that Obama – to maintain his “authenticity” – needed to stick to his leftist principles and positions in order not to ruin his brand.
Alas, Obama could never come close to winning running on the same platform he ran on in the primaries. McGovern tried it and got slaughtered. Hence, the wild lurch to the center that confused even his most rabid acolytes, angered the left, and put off the great center of American politics who recent polls have shown moving toward McCain.
And what of McCain? The contrast is startling:
In the defining moment of his life, McCain was willing to give everything for one thing, and that one thing was his country. Contrast that with Obama, who has told America that he is “a proud citizen of the United States and a fellow citizen of the world.” Obama is the talented salesman who seduced one state after another saying “Iowa, this is our moment,” “Virginia, this is our moment,” “Texas, this is our moment,” and then tells Europe, “people of Berlin, people of the world, this is our moment.” How many times can Barack Obama sell the same moment to everyone, before he becomes Mel Brooks in “The Producers”? Who is Barack Obama? His campaign, as it reupholsters him before our eyes, says we can never know — perhaps because Barack Obama does not know himself.
On the other hand, McCain’s attacks against Obama are biting, caustic, sarcastic, and ringing true which is why he is staying close to Obama and why, in the end, all the re-invention Obama can muster isn’t going to matter:
John McCain is a complete and well-formed man. Barack Obama is completing himself. As he moves to fit what he perceives to be a right-of-center country, he distances himself from the simple and authentic passion of a young candidate who once pledged “Change We Can Believe In.”
The major differernce between them is in the core of the two candidates; one, rock solid while the other is molten – still forming under pressure and not yet completed.
McCain could still lose badly. People are not paying much attention to the race at this point and it very well may be that when the final determination is made by the voter, they will put aside any concerns about Obama and elect him president. The GOP brand has been damaged so badly and generated so much disgust and anger that in the end, it may be too much for McCain – despite his heroic life story and the heroic effort he is making in the campaign – to overcome.
But Obama will have hurdles to overcome as well. And whether he can define himself sufficiently in the voter’s minds will go a long way toward determining his fate.
