Downplay this all you want, Democrats, but this looks like it will be a close election, and even 10% of Hillary’s voters switching to McCain could spell the difference between victory and defeat:
Debra Bartoshevich hoped to attend the Democratic National Convention this week as a delegate helping to give the party’s nomination to Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Instead, the Wisconsin nurse crashed the Democrats’ party Monday by starring in a campaign ad for Republican John McCain. The spot targets former Clinton supporters as Democrats try to unite the party behind Barack Obama during the Denver convention.
In the ad, Bartoshevich describes herself as a “proud Hillary Clinton Democrat” who is switching sides to vote for a Republican for the first time in her life.
“She had the experience and judgment to be president,” she says in the ad. Of McCain, she adds: “I respect his maverick and independent streak, and now he’s the one with the experience and judgment. A lot of Democrats will vote McCain. It’s OK, really!”
McCain’s campaign said the ad was running in Wisconsin and other key states.
Bartoshevich was elected as a Clinton delegate to the convention. After Clinton conceded the race, Bartoshevich said she could not support Obama and threw her support to McCain. The state party stripped her of her status as a delegate last month.
McCain seized on her story, meeting with Bartoshevich for coffee when he campaigned in Racine last month.
On Monday, the mother of two joined other McCain supporters in Denver, outside the convention hall where she had hoped to spend the week.
As I’ve said before, McCain is manifestly better qualified than Obama - in cold, hard reality, Obama is entirely out of his depth and its a risk not just to the United States but the entire world to have someone so inexperienced become President. Obama has many gifts and he might make a great leader at some point, that point isn’t now, and anyone who thinks of country before party will have to come down hard on McCain’s side in November.
UPDATE: The American Prospect has an interview with two more Hillary supporters turned McCain voters.
No matter what help Barack Obama might get from Sen. Joseph Biden, his newly named vice presidential running mate won’t give Obama much cover on the Tony Rezko front.
Biden has described himself as a 30-year friend of a key figure in the Rezko trial who’s pleaded guilty to a federal extortion charge in Chicago and is awaiting sentencing.
When the Delaware senator began contemplating his own 2008 presidential run, he initially was helped by Chicago lawyer Joseph Cari Jr., who also served as Biden’s Midwest field director in his failed 1988 bid for president.
In 2005, Cari admitted to taking part in an $850,000 kickback scheme that prosecutors say was part of a larger political fund-raising operation for Gov. Blagojevich overseen by Rezko, who was convicted in June of wide-ranging corruption involving state deals.
On the day Cari’s name first surfaced in the federal probe of the state Teachers Retirement System, the former finance chairman for the Democratic National Committee and for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee was to have hosted a Biden fund-raiser in Chicago. Cari was a no-show at that July 25, 2005, event.
Offering Cari a vote of confidence at the time, Biden said, “All I know is Joe Cari is a friend, and he’s an honorable guy, but I don’t know anything beyond that.”
Did Obama’s VP Vetting Team actually vet Obama’s potential running mates? Biden has also accepted $2,000 in campaign contributions from Cari, according to campaign-finance records.
It’s connections like these, that if it were a Republican ticket, would be mercilessly attacked and exploited. So, the question that has yet to be answered is what kind of coverage this revelation will receive in the MSM for the remainder of this campaign?
It’s a dead heat in the race for the White House. The first national poll conducted entirely after Barack Obama publicly named Joe Biden as his running mate suggests that battle for the presidency between the Illinois senator and Republican rival John McCain is all tied up.
In a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll out Sunday night, 47 percent of those questioned are backing Obama with an equal amount supporting the Arizona senator.
“This looks like a step backward for Obama, who had a 51 to 44 percent advantage last month,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland.
No surprise given that Democrats always put party before country that they would then turn and put personal desires ahead of party:
As Democrats arrived here Sunday for a convention intended to promote party unity, mistrust and resentments continued to boil among top associates of presumptive nominee Barack Obama and his defeated rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
One flashpoint is the assigned speech topic for former president Bill Clinton, who is scheduled to speak Wednesday night, when the convention theme is “Securing America’s Future.” The night’s speakers will argue that Obama would be a more effective commander in chief than his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.).
The former president is disappointed, associates said, because he is eager to speak about the economy and more broadly about Democratic ideas — emphasizing the contrast between the Bush years and his own record in the 1990s.
This is an especially sore point for Bill Clinton, people close to him say, because among many grievances he has about the campaign Obama waged against his wife is a belief that the candidate poor-mouthed the political and policy successes of his two terms.
Some senior Democrats close to Obama, meanwhile, made clear in not-for-attribution comments that they were equally irked at the Clinton operation. Nearly three months after Hillary Clinton conceded defeat in the nomination contest, these Obama partisans complained, her team continues to act like she and Bill Clinton hold leverage.
After a period earlier this month when the two sides were working collegially over strategy, scheduling, and other convention logistics, things turned scratchy again in recent days.
As a practical matter, Obama has to lose for Hillary to have a shot at being President - she can’t run any more in 2008, but if Obama loses she’ll immediately be the overwhelming favorite for 2012. Given the known level of dishonesty, backstabbing and political gamesmanship the Clintons bring to the table, one cannot but feel they are up to something - and McCain isn’t their actual problem at the moment, Obama is. Only if Hillary has resigned herself to being a long-term Senator and then resigning into obscurity can Obama feel other than nervous with Hillary at his back - and I see no signs that Hillary has renounced her Presidential ambitions.
On the other hand, Obama still seems to view himself as some sort of Man of Destiny and it irks him to have to share the stage with anyone (in my viewing of the Obama/Biden get together, Obama didn’t seem to be thrilled to be sitting quiet while Biden spoke). An overweening pride in one’s self is not conducive to those tactical surrenders which a real winner is happy to endure in order to sooth a prickly rival unreconciled to coming in second. Obama has yet to kneel before the shrine of Clinton, Inc. and its causing friction not just with Bill and Hillary, but with their ardent supporters, a large number of whom still believe not only that Hillary is the better candidate, but also won the primaries.
All in all its a poisonous mix and leaves open the prospect of, well, anything - for the world, things might go smooth as silk and Obama gets to make his acceptance speech to a massive crowd of cheering supporters, but behind the lines and outside of camera view, stresses might be building up swiftly to make it so that the Clintonites sit on their hands until November…or even try to embarras Obama during the convention.
Silverio “Silver” Salazar has been an active Democrat for decades, just like his cousins, U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar and U.S. Rep. John Salazar.
But for the 2008 presidential election, Silver Salazar is squarely behind John McCain.
Silver Salazar, who had served as a Pueblo precinct leader for 20 years, was a Hillary Clinton backer. So when Barack Obama clinched the Democratic nomination, he began to research McCain and liked what he read.
He chose McCain because of his experience and readiness to take office.
Now, Silver Salazar is working to convince Democrats and Hispanics to support the GOP nominee.
“I’m making history for myself,” said the 59-year-old retired steel company operations manager. “This is the first I’ll vote for a Republican president - or work for one.”
Silver Salazar has been publicly supporting McCain since early summer. He’s done national media interviews and attended campaign visits across Colorado. On Thursday, he spoke at a news conference in Pueblo with other Hispanics supporting McCain.
About a dozen Hispanic McCain backers also held a press conference in Denver.
Hispanics across Colorado and the U.S. typically vote Democratic. But President Bush took an estimated 40 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004, up from 34 percent in 2000.
As far as qualifications go, its really not debatable: John McCain is vastly more experienced than Barack Obama and thus manifestly more qualified to be President. What Obama brings to the table is mere fairy tale - he’s Prince Charming coming to save the Damsel in Distress (the United States) from the Ogre (President Bush). Obama knows precisely nothing of military affairs (and not just in the sense of not serving - in the sense of clearly never having read a single book about military affairs in his life), nearly nothing about the way things work, on a day to day basis, in Washington DC, he’s never run a business, he’s never had an executive position in his life, he’s never had to make a public policy decision for which he would bear the main or sole responsibility. And on top of all that, there seems to be something just off about Obama - while he clearly wants “to be”, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of willingness “to do” in him. There isn’t in his history and indication that has the desire or the courage to step outside his comfort zone and take on something uncongenial to his nature and desires.
And anyone willing to step outside partisan blinders on and/or leftwing hatred of President Bush can see this. Mr. Salazar did so, and quickly saw the truth of the matter - McCain is the better man, in all respects, to be President of the United States. And this is not to say that Obama is a bad man - its to say he’s not ready to take on the most powerful office in the world. What the United States does in the world is too important to be placed in the hands of someone who’s life experience is as sheltered and narrow as Obama’s. Let Obama become governor of Illinois, or Vice President, and gain some experience, and then he might be ready - but he’s not in 2008, and we’d be a very foolish people, indeed, if we elect Barack Obama President.
UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: Listening to Obama - at least he got the number of States right, for once. ROFL…did he really just say, “for decades he’s brought change to Washington”? For decades!!!! Oh, man…this could become a lot of fun…oh, brother…did he say “white gentleman”?…anyways, hey, Obama, if Biden has been bringing change to Washington for decades, then what the F do we need you for?
UPDATE: For all of you out there saying “Biden who?”, his bio.
UPDATE: Quick commentary by Mark Noonan:
If this is other than the world’s biggest head fake, then I can’t imagine any thing positive Biden brings to the Obama ticket - Biden is more experienced that Obama, but will be on the bottom of the ticket; Biden is Senator from a small, very blue State Obama will win handily; Biden is the archetype of the career politician, having been in the Senate since Nixon was President; Biden is up for re-election to the Senate, thus opening up the possibility of a GOP pick up in the Senate; Biden has said things which make Obama look bad…all in all, I’d say its a hoax, but its being reported by Fox and the Associated Press.
UPDATE: Peter Robinson over at NRO’s The Corner weighs in:
Before winning election to the Senate three-and-a-half decades ago—Biden ranks fourth in seniority among Democrats, sixth overall; how’s that for a fresh face?—Biden practiced law for three years. That’s it. Three years of fresh-out-of-law school practice represents the sum and total of Biden’s profession experience before joining the Senate.
Obama-Biden? A candidate with an astonishingly thin professional background—Community organizer? Desultory lecturer in law school?—has just named as his running mate a man whose principal professional achievement is to have perfected his skills as a gasbag.
Mark Noonan sez: the more I think about it, the more I figure its got to be a bogus story…its like Obama wants to lose. Or perhaps he just still thinks he’s got it in the bag?
UPDATE: Biden on the issues, by Mark Noonan:
A practising Catholic, Biden adheres to Church teaching on when life begins, opposes federal funding for abortion and favors the ban on late term abortions. On the other hand, Biden supports the Roe decision and makes no move towards ending the practice of abortion. All in all, Biden has trimmed himself to the pro-choice side of the aisle as far as he can without risking a breach with the Church. God bless him, he’s one of my brothers - and I’ll pray for him to come back entirely to the pro-life side of the aisle.
Biden is an old-fashioned tax and spend liberal as far as budget matters go - and is still a believer in axing the Defense budget in order to free up funds for social programs. In spite of the clear failure during his life time, Biden still believes that the heavy club of government spending is a magic wand to bring prosperity and happiness to the people.
Biden is pretty convention on the litany of liberal issues - while he technically opposes same-sex marriage, he’s not out there fighting against it; meanwhile, he is in favor of affirmative action, racial set asides, attacks corporations (though this may just be a Catholic thing, as I attack them, too - though probably not for the exact same reasons), supports hate crime laws and has co-sponsored a re-submission of the Equal Rights Amendment for ratification.
Biden raises conservative hackles for a lot of reasons, but conservatives going forward will probably start to concentrate on Biden’s disgraceful behaviour during the Thomas hearings.
There is such a thing as not wanting certain types of suppor, ya know?
A simple sign in the window of the local Barack Obama campaign headquarters has reignited a conversation about convicted felons’ right to vote in this country.
The poster board welcomed all passersby to register to vote and included the statement: “Felons can vote.” The sign, which was visible at the office opening a week ago, has since been removed.
A lifesize cardboard printout of the presumptive Democratic nominee for president has replaced the sign. A spokesman from the Philadelphia campaign office said this decision was made at the local level.
“They just realized maybe it was sending the wrong message and took it down themselves,” Sean Smith said.
Yeah, no kidding. Come on, Obamaniacs, do you really want to troll for votes amongst the jailbirds and ’scapegallows of the United States? I realise that a person can find redemption - in fact, such a thing is central to my worldview - but to actively seek the votes of criminals? For crying out loud, shouldn’t they be working on bettering themselves and shouldn’t the Obama people be working on getting people who aren’t criminals to vote for them? Or is it that Obama’s people realise he’s on a downward slurge and they are just leaving no stone unturned? How long before we see the Kerry ‘04 tactic of bribing homeless people with smokes?
The RNC has launched a new website “Obama-Rezko Shady Deal” which posts videos and all the latest news “pertaining to Barack Obama’s lack of judgment and questionable dealings with campaign fundraiser and convicted felon Tony Rezko.”
Today the Obama Campaign released a new ad chiding Senator McCain for owning seven homes. Is this a sign of desperation or what?
It is true that when asked by Politico how many homes he owned, McCain did not know off the top of his head. That is because many of those homes belong to his wife, who was wealthy long before McCain married her 28 years ago.
I’m not sure if, in 2004, this line of attack was ever used by conservatives against Senator Kerry regarding his wife, Teresa Heinz-Kerry (another wealthy heiress with many homes), but this whole thing smacks of desperation. How so?
In the first place, Senator Obama’s Chicago home was bought in partnership with Tony Rezko who is, basically, the Jack Abramoff of Illinois. The whole purchase, and a subsequent sale of additional land adjacent to the Obama’s property for a price lower than market value, is still under a cloud. Tony Rezko himself was convicted of multiple crimes of corruption with perhaps more charges to come.
