While he didn’t use those exact words that’s pretty much what he means.

“When applying the law, the role of judges is not to impose their own view as to the best policy choices for society but to faithfully and accurately determine the policy choices already made by the people and embodied in the law,” McCain said. “The judicial role is necessarily limited and one that requires restraint and humility.”

The McCain Web site offers the promise that his “judicial appointees will understand that the federal government was intended to have limited scope, and that federal courts must respect the proper role of local and state governments.”

Obama, meanwhile, has said he wants to appoint judges who have “empathy.”

“We need somebody who’s got the heart, the empathy, to recognize what it’s like to be a young teenage mom,” Obama told a Planned Parenthood conference in Washington, D.C., in 2007 “The empathy to understand what it’s like to be poor, or African-American, or gay, or disabled, or old. And that’s the criteria by which I’m going to be selecting my judges.”

Which is just his way of saying he’ll appoint judges who support welfare, abortion, affirmative action quotas and gay marriage.

What’s really sad is that Obama’s desire for judges who follow the Constitution is non existent.

After Al Gore’s embarrassing endorsement of failed Democrat presidential candidate Howard Dean, this year, he took the safe route and endorsed Obama only after he clinched the nomination.

Al Gore announced his endorsement of Barack Obama Monday and promised to help the Democrat achieve what eluded him — the presidency.

“I present to you the next president of the United States junior senator from Illinois, Barack Obama!” Gore said in a brief introduction of Obama at a Detroit fundraiser. He planned a later appearance with Obama at a 20,000-person rally at the Joe Louis Arena.
[…]
“Over the past 18 months, Barack Obama has united a movement. He knows change does not come from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue or Capitol Hill. It begins when people stand up and take action,” Gore wrote. “With the help of millions of supporters like you, Barack Obama will bring the change we so desperately need in order to solve our country’s most pressing problems.”

Yeah, Barack united a big movement all the while dividing the Democratic Party. D’oh!

But really, Al Gore thinks global warming is a more serious threat than terrorism… If Barack wants that endorsement he can have it.

From USA Today last week:

Note the inset photograph.

No photoshopping was required. Click here if you don’t believe me.

Once again the Democrats back down…

Democrats in the Congress, who came to power last year on a call to end the combat in Iraq, will soon give President George W. Bush the last war-funding bill of his presidency without any of the conditions they sought for withdrawing U.S. troops, congressional aides said on Monday.

Lawmakers are arranging to send Bush $165 billion in new money for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, enough to last for about a year and well beyond when Bush leaves office on January 20.

“It’ll be the lump sum of money, veterans (funding) and that’s it,” said one House aide familiar with the negotiations on the legislation.

Sorry Democrats, looks like the troops will get funded.

The Jerusalem Post reported last week that Barack Obama’s half-brother Malik let something very interesting slip while talking to Army Radio.

Barack Obama’s half brother Malik said Thursday that if elected his brother will be a good president for the Jewish people, despite his Muslim background.

In an interview with Army Radio he expressed a special salutation from the Obamas of Kenya.

Israel Insider has more.

In a remarkable denial issued last November that still stands on the official campaign website, Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs issued a statement explaining that “Senator Obama has never been a Muslim, was not raised as a Muslim, and is a committed Christian.”

Apparently Malik Obama, himself a Muslim, had not read the press release.

Melanie Phillips is the most recent commentator to draw attention to the massive body of evidence that leaves no doubt that Barak Hussein Obama was born a Muslim (Islam is patrilineal) and raised a Muslim (so registered in school, acknowledging attending Islamic classes, reported accompanying his step-father to the mosque, and able to recite the Koran in the original Arabic).

Reuven Koret, Aaron Klein and Daniel Pipes have previously pointed to the attempts by Obama and his campaign to conceal the candidate’s Muslim background. The well documented evidence draws upon the on-the-ground interviews by researchers in Indonesia and Kenya, published quotations of Obama’s childhood friends and his school records, as well as the candidate’s own autobiography.

Will Barack Obama disown his half-brother now? Or can Barack Obama no more disown him than he can disown the black community? If that be the case, i may just take Obama a month or so to throw his half-brother under the bus.

ALSO BLOGGING: Gateway Pundit, Little Green Footballs…

…but the hypocrisy has already been exposed.

Former Fannie Mae Chairman James Johnson said he has quit Senator Barack Obama’s vice presidential search committee after the Wall Street Journal reported he may have received preferential mortgage terms from Countrywide Financial Corp.

Johnson said that while he has done nothing wrong, he left to avoid being a hindrance to Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee.

“I would not dream of being a party to distracting attention from that historic effort,” he said in a statement. “I believe Barack Obama’s candidacy for president of the United States is the most exciting and important of my lifetime.”

Johnson’s ties to Countrywide became a campaign issue after Republicans pointed out that Obama had been critical of the mortgage lender in campaign speeches. Johnson’s role as a political insider also contrasted with Obama’s pledge to bring change to Washington.

I don’t think this puts this issue to rest. As Dan Balz of the Washington Post notes, Obama’s defense of Johnson raises questions…

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: Team McCain comments, from NRO’s The Corner:

Jim Johnson’s resignation raises serious questions about Barack Obama’s judgment. Selecting the vice presidential nominee is the most important decision a presidential candidate can make and one even Barack Obama has said will ‘signal how I want to operate my presidency.’ By entrusting this process to a man who has now been forced to step down because of questionable loans, the American people have reason to question the judgment of a candidate who has shown he will only make the right call when under pressure from the news media. America can’t afford a president who flip-flops on key questions in the course of 24 hours. That’s not change we can believe in.

Yep.

Take from it what you want, but I thought this chart, showing gas prices over the years… both nominal gas prices and inflation adjusted prices in 2008 dollars) … and then there’s this graph, showing the spike in gas prices that occurred since the Democrats took control of congress.

So says our sister blog, Blogs For John McCain’s Victory…

Wouldn’t that be fantastic. Since Reid became the Democrat leader in the Senate, his approval ratings in Nevada have plummeted.

But, I think such a pick is highly unlikely. Besides Harry Reid does nothing to help Obama’s image as a far left partisan, I don’t see the Democrats being open to giving a Mormon their nomination for vice president.

Barack Obama is getting flak for tapping Jim Johnson as part of his running mate search team. Johnson, you may have heard, has ties to a subprime lender.

James Johnson, one of three people tapped by Mr. Obama recently to oversee the search for his running mate, took at least five real estate loans totaling more than $7 million from Countrywide Financial Corp. through an informal program for friends of the company’s CEO, Angelo Mozilo, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. The Journal said at least two of the mortgages, among a series of loans made available to people Countrywide officials called “friends of Angelo,” were at rates below market averages, though it is difficult to predict a market rate without access to nonpublic information about a borrower’s credit history and other factors that can reduce interest charges on a loan.

Among the loans to Mr. Johnson, according to the Journal, were a $5 million home equity line of credit against a house in Ketchum, Idaho, a 5.25% loan of $1.3 million for a home in Palm Desert, Calif., and a 3.875% loan of $971,650 for a home in Washington, D.C. The interest rates applied for the first five years of the loans.

“That reeks most high,” a public relations specialist and vocal critic of Mr. Mozilo, Bonnie Russell of Del Mar, Calif., said. “Where’s the ‘change to believe in’ if they’re playing the same old game using the same old players?”

On the campaign trail, Mr. Obama has criticized Countrywide’s executives. “These are the people who are responsible for infecting the economy and helping to create a home foreclosure crisis. Two million people may end up losing their homes,” Mr. Obama said in March at a town hall meeting in Lancaster, Pa.

The Chicago Tribune reported that the senator from Illinois “fumed” over a total of $19 million in bonuses set to be paid to Mr. Mozilo and the president of Countrywide, David Sambol. “They get a $19 million bonus while people are at risk of losing their home. What’s wrong with this picture?” Mr. Obama asked.

In a written statement issued in March, the senator called the payments “an outrage” and suggested Mr. Mozilo and others had “tricked” homeowners into unaffordable loans. “These executives crossed the line to boost their bottom line,” Mr. Obama declared.

A spokesman for the Republican National Committee, Danny Diaz, yesterday called the loans to Mr. Johnson “highly questionable” and said they conflicted with Mr. Obama’s public comments. “Barack Obama needs to immediately address this matter; otherwise, his rhetoric will continue to prove to be nothing more than complete hypocrisy,” Mr. Diaz said.

In response, Camp Obama has release talking points, charging that the story is “overblown.”

I’m sure if Barack Obama was caught on video tape accepting a bribe, that would be “overblown,” “irrelevent,” and/or a “distraction.” too.

RNC spokeswoman Liz Mair released the following statement in response to Obama pathetic talking points.

In view of both his own rhetoric and his own personal history with regard to housing deals, Barack Obama should know better than to try to dampen down discussion of Jim Johnson and his dealings with Countrywide with claims of this story being ‘overblown.’ If Obama wanted to demonstrate the kind of forthright leadership Americans expect to see in their would-be Commander in Chief, he would answer voters’ questions rather than attempting to duck or dismiss them.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: Just an observation…Hillary “suspended” her campaign, right? Well, I think that she knew about this sort of thing via oppo research. Could it be that she’s just waiting for Obama to implode over the next six weeks and then organise a floor fight (without her fingerprints, of course) at the convention to dump Obama and pick her? Time will tell…

Rep. Bill Foster, D-IL. put out a press release blasting the Democratic leadership and their proposed budget.

“I can’t support a budget, from either party, that raises taxes on the middle class. This bill hurts families all across the 14th District by eliminating the 10-percent bracket for lower-income taxpayers, reinstating the marriage penalty and increasing taxes on small businesses and investments.

Foster’s admission contradicts Nancy Pelosi, who recently said on the House floor that “this year’s budget plan does not include a tax increase.”

At least someone on the Democrat side of the aisle will admit it. Congratulations, Rep. Foster.