A great man:

Jaime Escalante, the math teacher who transformed a tough East Los Angeles high school and inspired the movie “Stand and Deliver,” died Tuesday. He was 79.

Escalante died at his son’s home near Sacramento, after battling bladder cancer for several years, family friend Keith Miller said.

An immigrant from Bolivia, he transformed Garfield High School by motivating struggling students to excel at advanced math and science. The school had more advanced placement calculus students than all but four other public high schools in the country.

God bless you, Mr. Escalante.

Michael Barone notes:

When Republican Senator Christopher Bond of Missouri announced that he would not run for reelection, his seat seemed ripe for a Democratic pickup. Barack Obama had just narrowly missed carrying Missouri by 3,903 votes, Democrat Jay Nixon had just been elected governor, Democrat Clair McCaskill had defeated incumbent Republican Senator Jim Talent in 2006 and Democrats had a ready-made candidate in Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, daughter of the late Governor Mel Carnahan and of former Senator Jean Carnahan…

In addition, the lead Republican candidate, 7th district Congressman Roy Blunt, at first seemed to be burdened with disadvantages: he spent 14 years in Washington as a congressman, much of it as part of the Republican leadership, he is married to a Washington lobbyist and his son Matt Blunt left the governorship in 2008 after one term with a low job rating. But in the four public polls conducted this year, Blunt has led Carnahan by a 47%-41% margin. In the most recent, conducted by the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling, he leads 45%-41%–despite the fact that his favorables/unfavorables are perfectly dreadful (25%-41%) and much lower than Carnahan’s (38%-43%). So what’s going on? Reaction to “President Obama’s health care plan” is hugely negative: only 37% support it and 54% oppose it…

That is just astounding. The Democrat talking point remains “now that its passed, Republicans will be toast if they run against it”. Perhaps something like that would have worked 20 or 25 years ago – when the Democrats could rely upon the MSM to hammer home the message. And when people weren’t quite as disgusted with government as they are, today.

Now, however, things have changed. All a Republican has to do to get thunderous applause is announce he will work to repeal ObamaCare – not “healthcare” and not “healthcare reform” – ObamaCare. That is the key – the people don’t want this bill passed by this Congress and signed by this President. Democrats can yammer on endlessly about how wonderful the bill is but the fact remains that the way in which it was done has assured its unpopularity no matter what is in it.

And as we learn what is in it, it seems like its full of holes, doesn’t even cover the basic Democrat promises about and appears to have been written by insurance company lobbyists. Its a toxic stew, and Democrats may very much rue it by November.

Dropping like a rock – and taking Obama with it:

The One’s bounce has already started to fade but the numbers for the bill itself were an open question since Gallup’s shocker last week showing a surge of support to 49/40. Momentary spike due to glowing media coverage of the historic historicness of passage? Or a sustained rise as Americans reconcile themselves psychologically to their horrific new boondoggle?

An answer, perhaps:

In the poll, 50% call passage of the bill “a bad thing” and 47% say it was “a good thing.” That’s at odds with the findings of a one-day USA TODAY Poll taken a week ago — a day after the U.S. House approved the legislation — in which a 49%-40% plurality called the bill “a good thing.”…

The failure of the new law to get even plurality support is especially sobering for House Democrats from competitive congressional districts who heeded pleas from the White House and congressional leaders to vote “yes.” The legislation passed 219-212, with just three votes to spare…

Further in to the article is Gallup’s latest on the “generic ballot” question. To nutshell it – if the election were held today, Democrats would lose about 60 seats. It looks like all ObamaCare has done is give a temporary boost to Democrats among Democrats while also lighting a massive fire under GOPers and Independents to oppose not just ObamaCare, but the entire Democrat agenda.

Meanwhile, Rasmussen has Obama back on a -14 in the strongly approve/strongly disapprove metric.

Now, don’t cocky, Republicans – its a looong way to November and the Democrats will pull out all the stops. Get ready for the political battle of a life time.

Frank Rich decides that we really don’t mind ObamaCare – but we don’t like the fact that Obama is black:

If Obama’s first legislative priority had been immigration or financial reform or climate change, we would have seen the same trajectory. The conjunction of a black president and a female speaker of the House — topped off by a wise Latina on the Supreme Court and a powerful gay Congressional committee chairman — would sow fears of disenfranchisement among a dwindling and threatened minority in the country no matter what policies were in play.

One does begin to wonder: are they really that stupid, or is it that they money-bags writing the checks are just insisting upon such hackneyed, party-line views? I mean, come on.

Meanwhile, out in the real world, two of the people causing the most excitement in grass-roots conservatism are the hispanic Marco Rubio and the black Allen West. And, as we reported, there are a very large number of black Americans seeking GOP office here in 2010.

Some of my neighbors are black. My department manager is black. My boss is a woman (and she voted for Obama!). I have gay friends. My parish priest is from south Asia. If I’m out to save White America, then I’m a bit late. And yet a pinhead like Rich is telling his readers that I’m motivated by fear of “the other”.

Stupid. They’ll never learn. We’ll just have to beat them, very badly, and then reform the country so they don’t matter, at all.

The news:

I BLAME THE DEMOCRATS’ INFLAMMATORY EXTREMIST RHETORIC: Man Arrested For Eric Cantor Death Threat. With an anti-semitic angle: “Leboon’s video also makes reference to Cantor’s Judaism – Cantor last week said he has received anti-Semitic threats in the past.”…

…I should also mention that he was a Democratic Party donor. “Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings show that Leboon had made two, separate donations to then-Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) presidential campaign.” Fair’s, fair, right? But I’ll bet this won’t get headlined on CNN.

Given liberal rhetoric, Obama should be forced to apologize for this. I mean, if we conservatives are going to be held responsible for all actions of anyone who can even in the remotest degree be connected to us, then it is logical that the liberal’s leader should bear responsibility for kook actions of his own donors.

Demonstrated over at Pajamas Media where they link to photo essays of both the TEA Party in Searchlight, and an anti-war rally a week earlier in Los Angeles.

In one – pictures of happy, patriotic Americans – in the other, nasty, bigoted leftists. And I mean, those leftists are nasty – imagine, for a moment, if someone in Searchlight had carried a sign urging, say, that black Americans being sterilized. Can you just envision the firestorm? Well, over in lefty land, that is what one sign urged to be done to Jews. Things which are just beyond the pale for conservatives are par for the course on the left.

Which side do you want to be on?

This is getting to be obscenely anti-American:

…Commerce Secretary Gary Locke took to the White House blog to write that while ObamaCare is great for business, “In the last few days, though, we have seen a couple of companies imply that reform will raise costs for them.” In a Thursday interview on CNBC, Mr. Locke said “for them to come out, I think is premature and irresponsible.”

Meanwhile, Henry Waxman and House Democrats announced yesterday that they will haul these companies in for an April 21 hearing because their judgment “appears to conflict with independent analyses, which show that the new law will expand coverage and bring down costs.”

In other words, shoot the messenger…

Waxman, a hidebound pinko, is incensed that anyone dare say that ObamaCare – all 2,700 pages of which, I’ll bet, Waxman has read little or none – won’t do what Obama/DNC talking points say it will do. These businesses are, you see?, straying from the party line and no “progressive” can ever tolerate such things.

Why is there a TEA Party movement? Because of things like this. Our liberals don’t get it – they have talked themselves in to believing that it is health care, in itself, that we are opposed to. Not like that at all – what has got people so incensed that tens of thousands of them will show up in the middle of nowhere for a rally is the arrogance and corruption of government.

Waxman, in a normal, decent Congress, would be expelled for daring to issue such a threat. How dare this little fascist threaten to haul people before committees as if they are criminals because they say things Waxman disagrees with! This is an outrage – and our liberals won’t even see what is upsetting about it.

November is coming – and that is when we start to clear out these cretins who disgrace our government and nation.

Quite a large number of black Americans running for office as Republicans in 2010. Allen West, of course, has stolen the show – but he’s not even remotely alone.

The Frederick Douglass Foundation is maintaining a list – and if you know any black Republican candidates not on the list, please let them know.

It is way past time that we started to get black Americans to come back home to the Republican party. Just what do Democrats offer outside of corruption, government dependency and contempt?

I love the way she has utter contempt for her asinine critics – someone got upset at Governor Palin for saying that we conservatives should get “reloaded” for our battle. Supposedly, this is racist-knuckledragger code for “shoot liberals”, I guess. Palin hits back, gently but firmly:

March Madness battles rage! My family and I join millions of Americans enjoying college basketball’s finest through March Madness. Underdogs always get my vote as we watch intense competition bring out the best in these accomplished teams.

The Final Four is an intense, contested series (kind of like a heated, competitive primary election), so best of luck to all teams, and watch for this principle lived out: the team that wins is the team that wants it more.

To the teams that desire making it this far next year: Gear up! In the battle, set your sights on next season’s targets! From the shot across the bow – the first second’s tip-off – your leaders will be in the enemy’s cross hairs, so you must execute strong defensive tactics. You won’t win only playing defense, so get on offense! The crossfire is intense, so penetrate through enemy territory by bombing through the press, and use your strong weapons – your Big Guns – to drive to the hole. Shoot with accuracy; aim high and remember it takes blood, sweat and tears to win.

Focus on the goal and fight for it. If the gate is closed, go over the fence. If the fence is too high, pole vault in. If that doesn’t work, parachute in. If the other side tries to push back, your attitude should be “go for it.” Get in their faces and argue with them. (Sound familiar?!) Every possession is a battle; you’ll only win the war if you’ve picked your battles wisely. No matter how tough it gets, never retreat, instead RELOAD!

Point blank: if she decides to run in 2012, she’s going to run rings around the left. She’s simply smarter than them – wiser, and more centered as a person. Unlike the average liberal – who is always looking over his should to be sure he’s not offending against the latest intellectual fashions – Sarah Palin knows that as long as she’s conscious of God and has the good report of her family, nothing else matters. It gives her a strength liberals both won’t understand, and won’t be able to contend with.

Talk about trying to pretend something isn’t happening:

If the media outlets are going to report on tea party events, they’re not likely to get any benefit of the doubt much of the time.

Case in point – at the Tea Party Express event on March 27 in Searchlight, Nev., which former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin spoke, CNN’s Fredericka Whitfield wasn’t quite prepared to give the rally credit it was due as far as participation…

…”Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin there in Searchlight, Nev., was the backyard of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, but today it’s the backdrop of this Tea Party Express – making a stop here,” Whitfield said. “Hundreds of people, at least dozens of people – we haven’t gotten a count of how many people turned out there. We heard Sarah Palin talk about everything about the campaign, to unseat Sen. Reid to what she calls ObamaCare, on the heels of that health care vote and even talking about her definition of her love of America.”

I’m trying to remember if I actually saw CNN out there. I distinctly remember seeing MSNBC and FOX, along with a bunch or local stations, but I don’t recall seeing CNN. Be that as it may, there were dozens of reporters, alone, so either Whitfield wasn’t there, or she can’t count.

Gateway Pundit has an excellent aerial photo of the event. If you check out my video of the event, the part where the national anthem was sung was about when half the people had arrived. We’ll probably never get a number everyone can agree on. I’m an eye witness. For three and a half hour I saw people pouring in to the place – and not in driblets. It was a steady stream, rising at times to a flood. By the time Palin arrived, we were packed in shoulder to shoulder.

Ah, well, it doesn’t really matter – and it’ll be more fun to have the MSM and liberals surprised on November 2nd.