I saw The Dark Knight earlier this evening… it’s breaking all sorts of records… I thought it was really good. Very dark and intense… and I can’t not mention Heath Ledger’s performance as The Joker… he brought a whole new element of creepiness to the character..

Anyone else see it this weekend? Feel free to discuss.

The news story:

The presidential campaigns seemed like they were everywhere but Michigan a few months ago.

Democrats were avoiding the state, and the Republicans had come and gone. An early primary strategy adopted by leaders of both parties had backfired.

What a difference the passing of time makes.

Michigan television stations have aired at least $5.6 million in dueling TV ads in the last 2 1/2 months; the candidates, their wives and surrogates have the state on their itinerary for rallies, town halls and fund-raisers on an almost weekly basis; and the presumptive nominees are firing off waves of e-mail reactions every time Detroit’s automakers hiccup.

Michigan has morphed from political wilderness to campaign battleground central.

Need more proof? While Republican Sen. John McCain headed to Warren on Friday to talk to GM employees, the Democrats responded with no fewer than three countermoves: a letter from Sen. Barack Obama to UAW members, a news conference attacking McCain’s plan and an e-mail questioning the Republican’s record on incentives that might aid the industry.

“Michigan is going to be in play all the way, I think,” said Evan Tracey, the founder of Campaign Media Analysis Group, an Arlington, Va.-based company that tracks political advertising.

Charlie Cook, one of the most respected political analysts in Washington, has Michigan as a toss-up on his latest electoral college map; so does the University of Virginia’s Larry Sabato and others.

Rasmussen shows Obama with a good lead in Michigan, but I’m with those who say that Michigan is a swing State…and, I’ll add, it is a State Obama cannot afford to lose. Without those 17 electoral votes, I believe that Obama’s challenge to getting 270 electoral votes becomes – not impossible – but very, very hard. There just aren’t that many Bush 2004 States which Obama really has a shot in…Colorado? Sure, it has 9 electoral votes. New Mexico? Yeah, Obama could win that, it has five electoral votes. See where I’m heading? Kerry got 252 electoral votes in 2004, 18 short of what he needed…Obama already has to take away Bush States in order to win. Lose Michigan and the need to increase by 18 becomes a need to increase by 35…even if McCain were to lose Ohio, Colorado and New Mexico, he’d still win it with an electoral vote to spare if he wins Michigan.

Will McCain win Michigan? I don’t know – we have to rate it a “leans Democrat” based on the fact that it hasn’t gone GOP at the Presidential level in 20 years…but the political gurus rate it a toss up, and that tells us something: forget any talk you might have heard of a coming Democratic blow out. If the GOP were about to get scorched, then McCain would be trying desperately to hold on to places like Georgia and Florida, not making a serious play for Michigan. Obama still has to be rated the favorite to win, but only because the GOP is still unpopular amongst the general voting population. If the GOP brand were just doing as usual in 2008, we’d probably have this thing close to sewed up. But, we’re not – so its off to the battle we go.

Since the start of this campaign season (ie, the day after the 2006 midterms) Democrats have consistently done everything they can to lose in 2008 – from refusing to end the corruption they allegedly ran against to being a defeatist on the war to being unable to pass any meaningful bills since they took over Congress, the Democrats have damaged their own brand…and then they went and nominated a good looking non-entity for President, who turns out to have a lot of skeletons in his closet. If we win this year, we GOPers will have to give a vote of thanks to the Democrats for helping us out along the way.

Just remembered that it is July 20th, and that means its the anniversary of the attempt to overthrow Hilter in 1944. That it failed was a shame, but that it was attempted covered those who tried in glory, including their leader Claus von Stauffenberg.

Many things happen and memories get lost, but I think it worthwhile to remember that even in the darkest times under the worst evil, the light of God and the courage of mankind can shine through.

Sorry boys and girls, too tired to write anything worthwhile tonight. Have at it on your own.

UPDATE, by Matt Margolis: I have a question for everyone to answer… Does anyone here who did watch Meet The Press before Tim Russert passed away still watch it? If so, what do you think of the direction the show is headed with Tom Brokaw at the helm?

Looks like the Obama campaign will have to trash the latest draft of Obama’s foreign policy talking points.

A German magazine quoted Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki as saying that he backed a proposal by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq within 16 months.

“U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months,” he said in an interview with Der Spiegel that was released Saturday.

“That, we think, would be the right time frame for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes,” he said.

But a spokesman for al-Maliki said his remarks “were misunderstood, mistranslated and not conveyed accurately.”

al-Maliki’s actual meaning more closely resembles the position of John McCain… so one has to wonder if the bungled translation was inf act bungled, or deliberately misquoted to try to give Obama a foreign policy credentials boost.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: And John McCain pretty much says it all about Obama’s ludicrous junket (H/T NRO’s The Corner):

My opponent, Senator Obama, announced his strategy for Afghanistan and Iraq before departing on a fact-finding mission that will include visits to both those countries. Apparently, he’s confident enough that he won’t find any facts that might change his opinion or alter his strategy. Remarkable.

Courtesy of the Democrats:

Congress has relaxed rules that would have required public disclosure of contributions and parties paid for by lobbyists, narrowing the scope of new ethics rules intended to draw back the veil on Washington’s influence game.

New guidance released by Congress late Wednesday exempts lobbyists from reporting their financing of an array of political and charitable contributions, events and parties at political conventions.

What? You expected something different? If you did, its because you still haven’t purchased Caucus of Corruption.

I know, I know – you liberals out there think Matt and I just wrote a book blaming corruption on Democrats, but that isn’t what we wrote at all. What we wrote is a book detailing how the Democrats are locked into corruption because no one ever holds them accountable – not the MSM, not rank-and-file Democrats and most certainly not other elected Democrats. People are people, and that means that a certain percentage of them will sin – and for a politician, the sin usually revolves around abuse of power by various means. We can’t get all corruption out of politics because we can’t get all people out of it. But we can lessen it greatly if we hold everyone accountable for their actions. By one means or another, Republicans are held accountable…so Cunningham goes to jail, while Jefferson is set to be re-elected, again. So Foley resigns, while Frank is a powerful member of the Democratic caucus. So Rowland is threatened with impeachment by his fellow GOPers to force him out, while Blagojevich is still in office even though he figures prominently in myriad corruption scandals. On and on it goes like that.

Look, Democrats, its not for us to tell you what you must do, but we will tell you what you should do – and what you should do is start to understand that good intentions don’t excuse crimes. It doesn’t matter that these are all good liberals who are reliably on your side on the issues – they are poisoning our politics and contributing to the contempt government is held in. They have to go – but only you, on your side, can actually make them go. Do you really want to be a party which is ok with corruption? Don’t you want to be honest as you can be?

Neatly encapsulates the total difference between himself and his opponent:

Progress between the United States and Iraq on a time horizon for American troop presence is further evidence that the surge has succeeded. Most of the U.S. forces used in the surge have already been withdrawn. When a further conditions-based withdrawal of U.S. forces is possible, it will be because we and our Iraqi partners built on the successes of the surge strategy, which Senator Obama opposed, predicted would fail, voted against and campaigned against in the primary. When we withdraw, we will withdraw with honor and victory. An honorable and victorious withdrawal would not be possible if Senator Obama’s views had prevailed. An artificial timetable based on political expediency would have led to disaster and could still turn success into defeat. If we had followed Senator Obama’s policy, Iraq would have descended into chaos, American casualties would be far higher, and the region would be destabilized.

Once again – wars don’t “end”. Wars are won, wars are lost – but wars don’t just “end”. The fact that Obama said he wanted to end the war shows his complete lack of understanding of war. He doesn’t know what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, or how its done…and yet he wants to be placed in charge of it, because he believes that it can just be ended. We’ve won in Iraq – a lot of the troops have already come home, more will probably follow in short order…but we will only draw down as we and our Iraqi allies determine it is time to bring more US troops home. The enemy is still there and may have many nasty surpises in store for us in Iraq – so we stay until we’re sure we’re done, and we only draw down when we’re certain that less US troops won’t adversely affect the overall situation. As McCain correctly points out, had we follow Obama’s advice in 2007, we would have lost the war.

Your choice, Americans – the man who figured out what needed to be done for victory, or the man who demanded we suffer defeat.

I mean, for crying out loud, these people are just nuts:

During Jane Mayer’s event today at New America promoting her penetrating new book, The Dark Side, a topic came up during the Q & A that I’d like to expand on–the possibility of establishing a truth commission for the Bush administration’s transgressions. The idea has been getting some play recently, both from Nick Kristof in the NYT and scattered across some lefty blogs (a funny parody here, another suggestion here). The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission is generally held up as the model for such bodies, which don’t have formal judicial power but instead serve primarily as instruments for the discovery of past wrongdoings by governments.

So far, when each instance of misconduct has been revealed — from the destruction of CIA interrogation tapes and waterboarding to extraordinary renditions and habeas-corpus-free detention of prisoners at Guantanamo — individual solutions have been sought and some individual actors have been put forth to be held accountable. But this approach is piecemeal at best and does not get at the connective tissue and the systematization of abuses.

A truth commission, however, would provide a more holistic approach to the violations that have been committed or ordered by individuals and agencies within the government. A commission would serve as an opportunity to look back and expose where the administration started to go wrong in its decision-making process; allow those whose rights have been violated to be heard; and give Americans on the whole a chance to cleanse our national conscience–and our image abroad.

I guess they really believe their own press releases – these people haven’t entirely been playing a political game (though there’s a huge amount of that in this); they seem to actually believe that we’re out there violating the constitution, torturing prisoners, randomly wiretapping innocent Americans, and generally acting like the worst people, ever. This is what they think about a center/right GOP President who regularly ticked off his own conservative base by reaching across the aisle to work with Democrats. Can you imagine what they’d feel like with a completely conservative President who was determined to fight it out tooth and nail on each issue?

This insanity on the left really has got to stop – this is the stuff with which civil wars are made. You keep talking yourself into thinking that you’re boxed in with no way out, and you’ll then start thinking of turning to violence. I think the only thing keeping the lid on these kooks is the fact they are convinced that Obama will win…but what if Obama loses? People who think we need a Truth and Reconciliation Commission simply will not accept an Obama defeat…they will very swiftly convince themselves that they have been robbed…and thus be convinced that there is no way to work within the normal political framework.

Look, lefties, President Bush really isn’t evil…and he really isn’t dumb…and he really didn’t deceive us into liberating Iraq. All of that BS was cooked up by the leftwing ANSWER right after 9/11…the typical lies communists put together about anything America does. Think about it – President Bush is being accused of the very same crimes as Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Reagan were accused of. Unless you want to believe that all of these men were criminals, you should grow a little suspicious that every time since WWII (ie, since we stopped being allied with communism) that we’ve engaged in any sort of warfare, the US President is accused of using chemical warfare, torturing prisoners, fighting for money, spying on Americans…its all a bunch of nonsense, people. The most transparant and stupid anti-American propganda…garbage even Goebbles would be embarrassed to use. Stop buying it – understand that the people we elevate to the White House are generally decent human beings who sincerely want to do whats best…and the servants of your goverment, especially those in the military, are so honor-bound and professional that they just wouldn’t do the sort of acts they are accused of doing.

Wake up. Stop being kooks. Get a grip on reality.

Lou Aguilar gives ten reasons why over at NRO – but just part of number 10 is good enough for me:

Susan Sarandon has vowed to leave the country if McCain gets elected. Case closed.

From NRO’s The Campaign Spot:

From the Chicago Sun-Times article on grants distributed by then-state-legislator Barack Obama.

(Records from 1997 to 2000 weren’t available.)

There’s a shock.

His state legislative office records may have been thrown out, he told us.

He’s never released a specific list of law clients, instead giving a list of all of his firm’s clients, numbering several hundred each year. His campaign will only confirm representation when the media comes to them with a specific case.

He won’t release his application to the state bar. He’s never released any legal or billing records to verify that he only did a few hours of work for a nonprofit tied to Tony Rezko.

He’s never released any medical records, just a one-page letter from his doctor.

Does it bother anyone that a guy with political ambitions for his entire adult life has not left a paper trail?

It does bother me…what is Obama hiding? The “Un-Named Democrat” made flesh, that is what he is – the problem is that we don’t need an International Man of Mystery as President of the United States…especially one connected with racists, anti-Americans, corrupt wheeler-dealers and the odd terrorist or two.