From Victor Davis Hanson:

Our 21st-century paralysis is surprising. The United States is not materially exhausted. We sit atop trillions of dollars worth of untapped oil, gas, coal, shale and tar sands.

America could mine more uranium, and reprocess fuels to build hundreds of nuclear plants. American agriculture is blessed with the world’s best soils, most developed irrigation systems, and most productive and astute farmers.

There is as much sun and wind in the western United States as anywhere in the world. We have plenty of natural resources and the know-how to make all the wood, steel and cement products we need.

A new, hungrier generation of Americans will have to want to reclaim our pre-eminence and change the national attitude. It must be ready to pay off generations of debt rather than borrow, build rather than sue, and drill rather than whine.

It’s time to honor rather than avoid and outsource physical labor. Our children are healthy enough to cut our own lawns and pick our fruit. Let’s also hope they want to hear a lot more about Gen. David Petraeus’ success, and a lot less of Madonna’s latest psychodramas.

But just as importantly, what Americans need now is leadership to get moving again — rather than more platitudes about hope, squabbling about race and gender, and endless rhetoric about who is really a maverick or a true conservative or the most liberal. What we need to know from our two presidential candidates are specifics about how to jumpstart America.

So, how many more barrels of oil, refineries and megawatts will America produce –and when and how? How much debt will the next administration retire — and when and how. How and when will our schools return to knowledge-based rather than the present (and failing) therapeutic curriculum?

Americans, in short, should be tired of hearing that we are a post-industrial, postmodern, post-anything society. Instead, we want to be known again as a can-do producer nation that sweats as much as it thinks. And the confident presidential candidate who can best assure us of that will surely win this election.

My answer, naturally, is that McCain is the better man to do these things – and, indeed, McCain has been tacking towards a new understanding of American strength, and the real point of American conservatism (it isn’t just a powerful military and low taxes – those are incidental to conservatism, not central). While there is a rank foolishness in Democratic class war rhetoric (especially when at least a plurality of the rich back the Democrats – and its probably an absolute majority), no conservative can view corporate America with anything other than dismay at the way they’ve made of mess of things in housing, automobiles and finance. We’ve been so busy, on the right, fighting the War on Terrorism and fighting off socialism that we’ve forgot that a two by four needs, at times, to be directed at corporate America, too. All conservatives, schooled as we are in understanding the inherent weakness of large bureaucracies, should understand almost instinctively that a large corporate bureaucracy is only slightly better than a large government bureaucracy.

It is time for us to really get America moving again – a comprehensive insistence that government get out of the way, but corporations be held to the highest possible standards of honesty; an insistence that the lawsuits stop; a demand that NIMBYism on things like oil drilling and refineries be slammed hard; a realistic approach which gathers our immense strength and applies it to our pressing problems. And, most importantly, a rigid defense of the family – against intrusive government bureaucrats and corrupt teacher’s unions, to be sure, but also against corporate greed which views the family 14 year old as a prime target for sex and violence marketing.

Its all of a piece – for many decades we were focused on defeating the USSR. Lately we’ve been concentrating on the War on Terrorism – but its does us no good to win the war abroad only to lose it at home. What America needs, from top to bottom, is conservatism – conservative economics, conservative morals, conservative government. McCain may be the man to do it, but Obama is definitely not the man for the hour. This is no time for intra-movement fights over alleged purity, but it is the time to fight it out on each issue for what is really best for America – conservatism.

George W. Bush and the Republicans in Congress successfully turn around a slumping economy, waged a war on terrorism, and passed all sorts of important legislation on education with bipartisan majorities… Since the Democrats have returned the majority, the economy has slowed down, gas prices have gone up, partisan bickering is at all all time high, and congressional approval ratings are at an all-time low… Yet, Pelosi says Bush is the failure?

Under Pelosi’s “leadership” the country has been headed in the wrong direction. The progress made by Bush and the Republican Majority has been undermined by the Democrats and their incompetence.

John McCain on the deaths of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser:

I wish to extend my deepest condolences to the families of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser. When I met the Regev and Goldwasser families in Israel, I was moved by their profound love for their sons, who were kidnapped by Hezbollah in the summer of 2006. Now we know that Eldad and Ehud made the ultimate sacrifice for the country they served and loved. In spite of this tragic loss, Israel and the United States will remain united in their struggle against terrorism. The continuing attacks on Israel by Hezbollah, Hamas, and other terrorist groups supported by state sponsors of terror like Syria and Iran pose a severe threat to Israel. Our democratic ally is under siege, and these two deaths are just the latest in a long line of brave Israelis who have been killed by vicious terrorists. Though we mourn the loss of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, we are reminded by this that we must never waver in our support for Israel, and we continue to demand the re lease of Gilad Shalit, taken captive by Hamas and held illegally since the summer of 2006.

Israel cares about its sons, and so it paid a high price just to get the bodies of their brave men back…Hamas views its sons as excellent guided bombs and so much cannon fodder. They call this “asymetrical warfare” – where the weaker side will make the stronger pay a higher price than they want to bother with. This is very tough to be, but it is beatable.

We have shown in Iraq that the evil of terrorism can be defeated, even when backed by outside players – the ultimate resolution of the problem of Lebanon will require, I believe, military action. But not another foolhardhy grinding match in the hills of Lebanon…no, when push comes to shove, Israel (with US backing, if need be) must strike at the real heart of Hamas, which is in Damascus…hold Damascus hostage to a complete Syrio-Hamas withdrawal from Lebanon.

Its either act decisively, or Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser will just become two of a long line of Israeli dead.

Nevada Pundit wonders if Obama knows which way he’s going…

Apparently, in order to make up for his inexperience Obama reportedly has 300 advisors helping him with foreign policy.

It’s nice to know he needs so many people to come up with a position.

Last month it was projected that Barack Obama would raise $100 million.

Well, he raised more like half of that

Yet, curiously enough, Obama’s campaign is misleading potential donors by misrepresenting the combined fundraising numbers of McCain and GOP vs. the Obama camp and the DNC.

This morning, the Obama campaign fired off an emotionally-tinged fundraising email to their supporters. The urgent message stated:

“The Obama campaign and the DNC ended June with a combined total of nearly $72 million in the bank. It’s a healthy number. But McCain and the RNC together still have a huge cash advantage, and we need your help to close the gap.

As I mentioned in my video message to you earlier in the week, we’re facing a Republican machine with unprecedented resources at its disposal. The McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee finished June with nearly $100 million in the bank.”

(Emphasis theirs).

… But in an under-stated blog post, Politico’s Ben Smith informs us that the Obama campaign’s math was off by $20 million:

“In total, the Democrats have some $92 million on hand, to the combined Republican total of $95 million.”

(The Obama email said they only had $72 million — now we find out they have $92 million).

First the Obama campaign operates their own Orwellian Ministry of Truth, now they’re trying to tell us that 2 + 2 = 5.

But, why would Obama want to mislead his supporters like that?

Of course, the cynical observation is that Obama’s campaign wanted to fire-up their supporters by pretending as if they were losing the money game to the GOP. Remember, Hillary’s donors didn’t come to her rescue until they knew she really needed it (when she invested $5 million of her own money.) The point is that political donors are more likely to become emotionally involved if they believe they are needed — and that their candidate is in danger of being beaten — so there was an incentive for Obama to play-up the disparity.

But a less sinister — and more charitable — analysis is that their math was off by $20 million. Of couse, this would be a gross error for such a polished political operation to commit.

But, par for the course for someone like Barack Obama.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: And while $52 million might seem a hefty sum, it doesn’t work too well when you burned through $42 million at the same time…and you’ve eschewed public financing, which means that you’re money has to last all the way to November. Obama is said to be getting together 2,000 paid staffers…five times what President Bush had in 2004…the guy must already think that he’s President.

Perhaps the most forlorn of political efforts, but still well worth the attempt – John McCain at the NAACP:

Perhaps with more charity than was always deserved, it was Dr. King who often reminded us that there was moral badness, and there was moral blindness, and they were not the same. It was this spirit that turned hatred into forgiveness, anger into conviction, and a bitter life into a great one. He loved and honored his country even when the feeling was unreturned, and counseled others to do the same. He gave his countrymen the benefit of the doubt — believing, as he wrote, that “returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.”

I remember first learning what had happened in Memphis on the fourth of April, 1968, feeling just as everyone else did back home, only perhaps even more uncertain and alarmed for my country in the darkness that was then enclosed around me and my fellow captives. In our circumstances at the time, good news from America was hard to come by. But the bad news was a different matter, and each new report of violence, rioting, and other tribulations in America was delivered without delay. The enemy had correctly calculated that the news of Dr. King’s death would deeply wound morale, and leave us worried and afraid for our country. Doubtless it boosted our captors’ morale, confirming their belief that America was a lost cause, and that the future belonged to them.

Yet how differently it all turned out. And if they had been the more reflective kind, our enemies would have understood that the cause of Dr. King was bigger than any one man, and could not be stopped by force of violence. Struggle is rewarded in God’s own time. Wrongs are set right and evil is overcome. We know this to be true because it is the story of your cause, and the story of our country.

As much as any other group in America, the NAACP has been at the center of that great and honorable cause. I’m here today as an admirer and a fellow American, an association that means more to me than any other. I am a candidate for president who seeks your vote and hopes to earn it. But whether or not I win your support, I need your goodwill and counsel. And should I succeed, I’ll need it all the more. I have always believed in this country, in a good America, a great America. But I have always known we can build a better America, where no place or person is left without hope or opportunity by the sins of injustice or indifference. It would be among the great privileges of my life to work with you in that cause.

Earlier in the speech, McCain directly challenged Obama on his education and economic policies – pointing out that Obama is wedded to the worn out ideas of the past when the times call for new efforts and new ideas in dealing with our nation’s problems. For the most part, no doubt, this speech fell upon deaf ears – polite ears; ears willing to be respectful of a great American…but ears, none the less, which were not inclined to hear the message. The NAACP does have a long and honorable history but over the past 10-20 years, it has turned itself more and more into a mere adjunct of the Democratic National Committee…devoted to party above country and, indeed, above the real needs of black Americans. If Obama wins in November, this will probably just become more ingrained – but if McCain wins, it will hopefully be a time for black Americans to reconsider their views, and their loyalty to a party which gives much lip-service to the needs of black Americans, but little in the way of actual help.

There is one black lady I know who likens President Bush to the devil – an absurd position to hold, but there was no doubting her sincerity when she was first shocked to discover that I was a Republican and she then blurted out her heartfelt opinion about the man I supported in 2000 and 2004 and still think is one of the best Presidents we’ve ever had. And when I said “shocked”, I meant it – apparently, the concept that a Republican could be on her socio-economic level and, also, clearly non-racist was something outside her common experience. Not that I’m the only middle-aged white guy she knows, but I’m probably one of the few she’s had politics come up with. We’re still friends – and we are, also, brother and sister in Christ…and we share many of the exact same values, especially as regards basic morality. But that this intelligent, kind and knowledgable lady can have such a different view about President Bush – and Republicans – shows the very high mountain we GOPers must climb to gain the trust and support of black Americans.

It is a challenge which John McCain clearly accepts, and one in which I wish him the best of luck – even getting the normal GOP 10% or so of the black vote will count as some sort of triumph in 2008, and I think he might very well be able to do that. The certain thing about this is that for the sake of the United States, black Americans and our Republican party, we’d better do whatever we can to bring black Americans back to their original political home.

Just another sign that the new, free Iraq is taking its just place in the world:

When Benedict XVI returns from Australia, he will be visited in Castel Gandolfo by the prime minister of Iraq.

Nouri al-Maliki will visit the Pope on July 25, the Holy See reported.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Holy Father’s secretary of state, will also meet with the Iraqi leader.

Al-Maliki has been the prime minister in Iraq since 2006. He has repeatedly condemned violence against the Christian minority of his country as an attack on all Iraqis.

I’d say lets start a count down calendar to when the last liberal will finally admit that we’re winning in Iraq…but we might be waiting a long, long time for that…

The MSM sycophants follow Obama overseas, proving they are the most miserable of lap dogs:

Senator John McCain’s trip to Iraq last spring was a low-key affair: With his ordinary retinue of reporters following him abroad, the NBC News anchor Brian Williams reported on his arrival in Baghdad from New York, with just two sentences tacked onto the “in other political news” portion of his newscast.

But when Obama heads for Iraq and other locations overseas this summer, Williams is planning to catch up with him in person, as are the other two evening news anchors, Charles Gibson of ABC and Katie Couric of CBS, who, like Williams, are far along in discussions to interview Obama on successive nights.

And while the anchors are jockeying for interviews with Obama at stops along his route, the regulars on the Obama campaign plane will have new seat mates: star political reporters from the major newspapers and magazines who are flocking to catch Obama’s first overseas trip since becoming the presumptive nominee of his party.

The extraordinary coverage of Obama’s trip reflects how the candidate remains an object of (slavish deovotion) in the news media…(report edited for clarity)

This may backfire – its clear that we’re going to get an “all Obama, all the time” fest in the MSM while he globtrots to places he doesn’t know about to look into issues he’s ignorant of…and that opens up the prospect of both people noticing that Obama was resoundingly wrong about Iraq and, additionally, people getting turned off by fawning media coverage. On the other hand, these MSM heavyweights migth be going so that they can carefully edit Obama on-scene to prevent the gaffe machine from really blowing it overseas…

Rob at Say Anything brought my attention to Michelle Obama’s criticism of the the recent economic stimulus checks that went out, since $600 apparently can only buy you a pair of earrings.

Amanda Carpenter adds to this

She made these remarks at a “working women’s roundtable discussion.”

Although Mrs. Obama has been praised by fashionable outlets like Vogue magazine for her sense of style, her comments about $600 earrings reinforces an unflattering image of the Ivy-league educated Obama lawyers. They’ve both been called “elitist” several times though the course of the presidential campaign season.

Mr. Obama’s former Democratic rival Hillary Clinton called him at “elitist” for telling donors at a private fundraiser in San Francisco that “bitter” Americans in places like Pennsylvania “cling to guns or religion.”

I recently got my stimulus check, and ended up using it very quickly to purchase a number of things. It certainly helped, but more tax cuts would help even more.