Blogs For Victory

Geesh:

WASHINGTON—The Obama campaign is putting a hefty price tag on the best camera and reporting positions for news organizations covering Barack Obama’s outdoor election night activities in downtown Chicago. If a reporter wants access to the file center–which will be the best place to find Obama officials and spokesmen–be prepared to write a check for $935. The cheapest place a reporter could stand on a riser with a view is $880.

That $935 covers one reporter in a heated file tent, power, cable tv, internet and food. I am told by an Obama spokesman who did not want his name used that this just covers costs and they are not turning a profit on this. The planners could have built in more al a carte options for Grant Park coverage.

This is an outrageous pay to play plan that caters to national elite outlets with deep pockets.

I am not asking for a free ride–news outlets pay for plane seats, other transportation organized by the campaign, hotel rooms, plus associated costs for filing centers.

But this Election Night list is pricey and does not take into account some reporters won’t need power, cable, internet or food but will crave the access more than the food.

This does give us another very strong reason for fighting for McCain’s victory – just imagine how ticked off these MSMers who shelled out will be when they are reporting from the loser’s headquarters. That aside, this is just a preview of how everything in DC will be for sale if Obama wins – he’s a Chicago politician, boys and girls, and it is entirely “pay for play” in that Democrat-run political cesspool. Obama and his people, having risen up through Chicago, simply don’t know any other way of doing business. Policy will go to the highest bidder – and if you liberals out there think you can out bid the trial lawyers, big corporations and well-heeled special interests, then you are the biggest fools, ever.

From Mark Levin over at NRO’s The Corner:

I want to introduce Colin Powell to Nyack police Sgt. Edward O’Grady, Officer Waverly “Chipper” Brown, and Brinks security guard Peter Paige. Powell may want to downplay Bill Ayers’s relationship with Barack Obama, but he does so out of ignorance and expediency. Obama knew about Ayers when he befriended him and throughout their relationship right up until the time it became an issue a few months ago. And keep in mind, Ayers wishes he and his fellow Weather Underground terrorists could have done more damage than murdering these three men. I have no respect left for Powell. None.

There is something very defective in American politics where anyone who comes within a country mile of someone like Ayers could be elected dog catcher, let alone be a step away from President of the United States of America. But this is, also, the fruit of poisoned tree of liberalism – poisoned by the New Left back in the 1960’s.

We’ve allowed a lot of nonsense to seep into our political life – and given the amount of tax dollars we spend on colleges, universities and various public groups, the really sad thing is that we “Joe the Plumber” sorts of Americans have heavily subsidized the “Bill the Terrorist” sort of Americans. They are rich, entrenched in the heights of American culture and twisting our laws and customs into unrecognizable shape on our dime. And the final insult to this self-inflicted injury is that by allowing them to rise in our institutions, we have given them a patina of respectability. I won’t go as far as Levin on Obama – my view is that Obama simply didn’t know any better and was unequipped by training to even get curious about who was advising and supporting him in his rise to power – after all, people like Ayers, like all leftists throughout history, talk a great game of liberty and justice, and only someone well versed in leftwing thinking understands that they leave off the “for all” part of that.

For people like Ayers – and their pupils, like Obama – liberty means the freedom to be a leftists. Justice means leftists win, all the time. To accord liberty and justice to non-leftists is to give them something they don’t deserve, as they are the roadblocks on the path to utopia. This is why we’re seeing a renewed demand for the so-called “fairness doctrine”, which will be a tool to force conservatives off the radio; this is why we see attempts at using the courts to censor conservative criticism of Obama, because to criticize Obama is to be evil, because Obama is a good leftist; this is why we see stories about holding war crimes tribunals for President Bush and his Administration, because they are non-leftist, and are thus evil and must be punished. For Obama and his like, freedom means the freedom to praise Obama and his like in any manner we choose, and that’s all.

For Colin Powell to not recognize who Obama is or who those around him are is to reveal a stunning level of political blindness – Powell is essentially throwing his support to those who called him and his like “baby killers” in Vietnam. And before you think, “well, that was a long time ago”, remember that Obama, himself, opined that all we were doing in the war is bombing villages and killing civilians. Obama is the good student of his New Left teachers – he’s bought it all; and Powell – out of who knows what motivation – has decided to endorse the folly of Obama and the wickedness of Ayers.

And on John McCain’s mind, too:

McCain/Palin have continued to pour money time and resources into PA despite a three week period where it looked like he was losing it by double digits, leaving everyone scratching their heads. But morning call has shown some movement to McCain by 3 points, and Susquehanna had a single digit loss for him, which pulls PA into where VA is now.

And then there was this today:

Steve Corbett, a radio talk show host in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, accidentally received a copy of an internal email sent by Grant Olin who heads the Wilkes-Barre headquarters of the Obama campaign. The email went to 627 Obama campaign volunteers in the Wilkes-Barre Scranton region, saying that Obama Headquarters reported an internal poll which shows that Obama is only 2 points up in Pennsylvania.

Sean Smith, who is heading Obama’s Pennsylvania campaign, was interviewed by Steve Corbett via phone at 5:35 today to discuss this. He said that Grant “went rogue”, and aknowledged that Grant was “reprimanded” for this.

McCain has his own internals too. And if they are telling him the same thing, well that would go a long way to explaining why McCain was in PA today and why both he and Sarah Palin have spent a lot of time this week. Basically if McCain can get the states that are within the MOE, plus steal PA, then he doesn’t need CO or VA…

It must be kept in mind that when the pollsters set their demographic models for 2008 the story line was “almost certain Democrat victory”, and thus the number of Democrats polled is probably pushed up much higher than it normally would be, and GOPers in the polls are lower than they normally would be. Had this election shaped up as everyone expected, this probably would not have been a problem, but the race has not wound up where everyone thought it would be. At best, Obama has a small lead nationally while the battle for 270 electoral votes is even closer than the national polling – and that is only if the demographic model still works out for very much higher Democrat, lower GOP turnout…with Palin energizing the GOP base and McCain doing very well among Independents – and, also, getting them energized to vote – the demographic models for 2008 could be very much off…and the actual state of the race entirely unknown at this point.

To us, that is.

For McCain and Obama, its a bit different – they do their own polling and that polling might be better geared to the eventual turnout, and thus far more accurate than the polling we see in the MSM. What this means is that McCain is either the biggest fool ever for spending time in PA, or he just knows some things we don’t and is capitalizing on the big chance. Adding to this supposition is, of course, the “Bitter Effect” joined to the “Murtha Effect” in western PA – Obama and then Murtha gave Hillary Democrats all the excuse they need to turn out for McCain…we’ll see how that comes out, but I say to McCain, “pour it on in PA” and “have another look at Michigan”.

http://www.liveleak.com/e/75f_1224612320

After last week’s post-debate on-air commentary, Ali, Pat, and I decided to start our own show on BlogTalkRadio. It is called The American Resolve and it debuts tonight at 6PM EDT. Click here for more info on how to listen and call in.

I heard that Biden is not on the stump today… I think we all know why:

“Mark my words,” Biden told donors at a Seattle fund-raiser Sunday night.

“It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We’re about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America.

“Watch. We’re going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.

“And he’s going to need help . . . to stand with him. Because it’s not going to be apparent initially; it’s not going to be apparent that we’re right.”

McCain treated Biden’s comments as a gift while stumping across Missouri yesterday.

“The next president won’t have time to get used to the office. We face many challenges here at home and many enemies abroad in this dangerous world,” McCain said. “We don’t want a president who invites ‘testing’ from the world at a time when our economy is in crisis and Americans are already fighting two wars.”

McCain said it was even “more troubling” that Biden suggested supporters stick by Obama if the actions he takes are wrong or unpopular.

“Senator Obama won’t have the right response, and we know that because we’ve seen the wrong response from him over and over during this campaign,” he said.

The idea that Obama would be tested is what scares me… and many others… including Joe Biden during the primaries, when he said of Obamaw “the presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training.”

Nothing like Democrats acting like Democrats to help the GOP to victory.

Because he was just a guy in the neighborhood…

Barack Obama, who has consistently downplayed his relationship with William Ayers during his presidential campaign, once gave a glowing endorsement of a book by the former domestic terrorist and was mentioned by name in the book itself.

A blogger unearthed the Dec. 21, 1997, endorsement in the Chicago Tribune and posted photographs of the praise for Ayers’ book on Zombietime.com Saturday.

Featured next to a smiling photograph of himself, then-State Senator Obama called Ayers’ book, “A Kind and Just Parent: Children of the Juvenile Court,” a “searing and timely account of the juvenile court system, and the courageous individuals who rescue hope from despair.”

The book, which details life at the Chicago Juvenile Court prison school, mentions Obama by name on page 82 when it describes Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood:

“Our neighbors include Muhammad Ali, former mayor Eugene Sawyer, poets Gwendolyn Brooks and Elizabeth Alexander, and writer Barack Obama. Minister Louis Farrakhan lives a block from our home and adds, we think, a unique dimension to the idea of ‘safe neighborhood watch’: the Fruit of Islam, his security force, has an eye on things twenty-four-hours a day.”

And I get the feeling we’re going to find out more things about their relationship i the cowing days…

Can’t get more serious about it than this:

Bishop Robert J. Herman, the administrator of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, has written a column reminding Catholics that their vote will be a decision weighed on the Day of Judgment. He urged Catholics not to treat the unborn as the neglectful rich man treated Lazarus in the biblical parable.

“Judgment Day is on its way,” the bishop wrote in the St. Louis Review. “We cannot stop it. We don’t know when it will come, but just as surely as the sun rises daily, the Son of Man will come when we least expect.”

“For many, this coming election may very well be judgment day, for this election will measure us,” he continued, referencing Christ’s words of judgment in Matthew 10:32-33:

“Everyone who acknowledges Me before others, I will acknowledge before My heavenly Father. But whoever denies Me before others, I will deny before my heavenly Father.”

Bishop Herman asked the faithful to consider what kind of witness they give to God when they enter the voting booth on Election Day.

“The decision I make in the voting booth will reflect my value system. If I value the good of the economy and my current lifestyle more than I do the right to life itself, then I am in trouble,” the bishop wrote.

He cited Pope John Paul II’s apostolic exhortation Christifideles laici, which said outcry on human rights is “false and illusory” if the right to life is not defended to the maximum.

“The right of our children to be protected from destruction is greater than my right to a thriving economy,” Bishop Herman continued.

“My desire for a good economy cannot justify my voting to remove all current restrictions on abortion. My desire to end the war in Iraq cannot justify my voting to remove all current restrictions on abortion.”

For some time now, I’ve noted the repeated exhortations from the Church to the faithful to both vote and to take care to vote in accordance with Truth – the Church, of course, cannot endorse a candidate or party, but I think the message is being transmitted loud and clear that the most important thing for Catholics – and, indeed, all Christians – to take into consideration on November 4th is the most fundamental of all things, the right to life. If you’re not alive on November 5th, then all the other rights in the world are completely meaningless.

What is at stake in 2008 could not be more stark – vote one way, and we advance the Culture of Life; vote the other, and the culture of death takes a giant step forward with the inhuman “Freedom of Choice Act”. Choose wisely, fellow Christians and fellow Americans – think about what you are doing in that voting booth.