Blogs For Victory

Which isn’t, strictly speaking, news but it is interesting:

The Democratic Party has been hijacked by elites hostile to religion, said Mark Stricherz, author of the book “Why Democrats are Blue” and a Democrat himself, during the Casey Lecture delivered on Tuesday at the Archdiocese of Denver.

The Casey Series of Lectures was started by the Archdiocese of Denver in 2006 to promote Catholic thinking in political life, inspired by the life and political activism of the late Pennsylvania Governor Robert Casey, a devout Catholic and a Democrat.

Stricherz, who has focused his investigation on the historical transition that turned the Democrats from a Catholic-friendly organization to the pro-abortion rights party it is today, explained the decisive role played in American politics by staunch Catholic Democrats like Gov. Casey, Robert Kennedy and David Lawrence.

“These politicians provided a political leadership and a push for human rights based on religious convictions and personal prayer life, thus becoming promoters of Christian Humanist values,” he said.

Explaining an argument he makes in his book, Stricherz said that the Democratic Party created internal rules that favor Secular elites and limit the participation of common people. He mentioned caucuses in Iowa as an example: they are established to run from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., “preventing the participation of common people like third-shifters, military men and women or young mothers.” As a consequence, “56% of those attending the caucuses are pro- choice folks,” he said.

Thus, Secularism and hostility to religion have become the dividing line between the Democratic Party of the past and today’s Democratic leaders.

Asked about how to change the Democratic Party back to its original connection with average Americans, Stricherz said that is was critical to democratize the internal process, but added that, “I just don’t see the constituency, the drive to bring that change… those with college degrees, who tend to be more secular are in control of the party, whereas more religious, working folks are kept out of the loop.”

Almost hate to say it as, if its done, it will cause my conservatism no end of trouble – what some smart Democrat has to figure out is that if the Democrats would ditch the kook left and allow them to become the Social Democrats (ie, communists) they really are, then the residue of the Democratic party can become the Christian Democrats and make a bid for a socially conservative yet economically liberal political party – and such a party would have a lot of appeal, as a lot of conservative Protestants, and even more conservative Catholics, are ill at ease in the Republican party. Hillary could do this – all she has to do is dump the pro-abortion fanaticism, come out against gay marriage and have at it.

Will anyone do this or will the Democrats continue to slide down into socialism until they are completely rejected? Only time will tell.

With everyone pretty mad at government over this financial mess, might we see a generalized electoral massacre of the incumbents in November?

Discuss.

And a good thing, too:

In May 2006, six months after 24 people were killed in a small Iraqi town, U.S. Rep. John Murtha made a startling accusation.

American soldiers, he contended, had killed innocent civilians “in cold blood.”

Now, less than six weeks before the longtime Johnstown Democrat is up for re-election, a Marine involved in the now-infamous Haditha incident is suing Murtha for slander.

Justin Sharratt of Canonsburg, Washington County, left the Marine Corps last year. But he claims Murtha’s statements have caused “permanent, irreversible damage to his reputation.”

“What Murtha did is outrageous, and I am seeking punitive damages,” said Noah Geary, a Pittsburgh attorney representing Sharratt.

The lawsuit was filed Thursday in federal court in Pittsburgh.

If there was any way to get Murtha to see the inside of a jail over this, I’d advocate it – “treason” is not too strong a word to describe what he did.

Well, we’re having a debate after all – in my view, it would have been better had the Democrats allowed partisan considerations to be set aside for a few days while we work out what is best for the financial crisis…but a party which tries to insert money into the bail out package for the voter-fraud group ACORN is not a party which ever puts country first. So, off we go.

Obama’s people have been busily downplaying expectations – expect them, and the MSM and the “instant polls” to go on and on after the debate about how Obama won the debate and did much better than expected. But as in the first debate of 2004, what is said by the spinmeisters isn’t all that important. I remember going on a radio show broadcast in New York City the day after the first debate in 2004 and I was treated to a few minuets of The Nation’s David Corn going on and on about how Kerry had mopped the floor with President Bush. I stoutly asserted that President Bush had won the debate. Why? Because John Kerry had said we needed to have a foreign policy which passed a “global test”. It was my contention that the phrase would work its way into the national consciousness over the following days and no matter what the spin and instant polls said, it will be shown that Kerry did himself irreparable harm by making that statement. And so it proved.

This sort of thing is more McCain’s venue than Obama’s – though McCain would have preferred a more “give and take” event. If McCain makes a serious mistake tonight it will be a heavy blow against his candidacy – if he appears hesitant, or uses non-answers, or comes across as a grumpy old man, etc., then he will damage himself. Not irretrievably (there’s still a lot of time left), but it won’t help him at this juncture with Obama rising a bit in the polls to have anything other than a good performance, and a stellar performance would be best. On the other hand, if Obama comes across as something other than a calm, cool and collected man in full possession of the facts, then he’ll do himself some really serious damage. Obama can’t win the election tonight, but he can to a long way towards losing it if he flubs answers or appears to be out of his depth next to an experienced McCain. Obama blowing it badly won’t be any more the final answer than McCain blowing it badly, but a bad performance by Obama will be a worse thing than a bad performance by McCain as far more people have doubts about Obama’s leadership credentials already, and Obama daren’t give them any more reason to doubt.

Now, I had promised Matt that I would be live-blogging – unfortunately, I suddenly have some personal business to take care of right about debate time (the perils of living in a Pacific Time zone when the action happens on Eastern Time), though I intend to go through it with care post-debate and have my own comments. We’ll see if I, observing after the fact, come to a better understanding of it than the punditry who watch it live. Meanwhile, you, dear readers, have this fine blog entry to put your comments on as it happens.

UPDATE: Ok, so I managed to listen to some of it on the radio and during that was immediately struck by how much Obama stuttered. Made him seem unsure of himself. Then I got home and watched it on TV, where Obama not only stuttered but kept on finger pointing, blame laying, interrupting and generally making an ass out of himself.

I think McCain won this debate.

Have at it.

Bringing the issue of Life front and center of our national campaign:

The 40 Days for Life Campaign launched its 179-city fall program on Wednesday in South Bend, Indiana. The community-based campaign will last until November 2, focusing upon prayer and fasting, educational outreach, and round-the-clock peaceful vigils outside abortion clinics or Planned Parenthood centers.

Local versions of the campaign are taking place in 47 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, and two Canadian provinces, a campaign press release reports.

“During an election season in which abortion has emerged as a critical – and potentially decisive – issue, people across the nation need to be made aware of the reality of what abortion does to women, men, children, communities and our nation,” said David Bereit, national campaign director of 40 Days for Life.

Bereit said the campaign could have a “profound effect” on the country.

“With abortion in the forefront of the national debate during this heated political season, people of faith and conscience are coming out to 40 Days for Life kick-off events and getting involved in local campaigns in record numbers,” he commented. “I am seeing a greater sense of urgency to end abortion in America right now than I have seen in the last decade.”

This is, of course, all above Obama’s pay grade – and that is a pity, because if he’d think the matter through he might be able to apply some wisdom to our debate rather than just being a shill for the abortion industry. We must have patience with the poor man, though, as we must have patience with all of those on the Culture of Death side of the argument. Much poison has been injected into our society over the past few decades and this has caused a great deal of moral confusion. It will take some time to undo the damage done, but with 40 Days for Life we’re getting closer and closer to that critical mass of people who will, then, rise up and first overturn Roe, and then – eventually – end the hideous practice of elective abortion one and for all.

Well, I’m off for a mini-vacation from today to Sunday night. Me and my better half are taking a short trip to Undisclosed Location, USA.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a vacation. The closet thing I can remember is my two trips out to Las Vegas in 2006, and those were really working vacations with Mark to write our book.

I’ll be back at blogging on Monday. Nice and refreshed.

The Washington Post-ABC poll comes out, liberals go bonkers with joy, MSMers report it as if its news…but those of us who know a bit about polling were expecting just what Steve Gill over at Pajamas Media reports:

But what the news outlets failed to report in their coverage about the Washington Post-ABC poll was the fact that 38% of the individuals who made up the poll identified themselves as Democrats, while only 28% identified themselves as Republicans… Not surprisingly, a poll of mostly Democrats revealed that most of them wanted Democrat Barack Obama to be president rather than Republican John McCain….

The poll tweaked the numbers in Obama’s favor in other ways as well. Even the so-called “independents” that comprised the poll were actually more partisan than independent. When asked towards which political party they “lean,” the independents who replied “Democrat” outnumbered those who responded “Republican” by an 18% margin! (See poll question #904.) That’s not a lean; that’s a landslide — yet it only produced a nine-point lead for Obama.

Also, the poll questioned a lot more women than men. In fact, the gender gap was eight points. Women are expected to vote in slightly larger numbers than men this year, but not by a 54 to 46 margin! Because Democrats have consistently enjoyed a bit of a gender advantage with women voters, this margin gives Obama’s poll numbers a significant boost.

The poll also admits to “over-sampling” the percentage of black voters. With Obama pulling about 95% of the black vote, do you think that might help his numbers a bit? All of these tweaks and subtle nudges of the numbers were intended to produce a desired result, rather than providing voters with an accurate snapshot of public opinion.

I said the poll was designed to boost Democrat morale, and that is what it was – the MSM strikes again. But the real news here is that even with a poll this heavily skewed towards Obama he only comes out with a 9 point lead. This means that an MSM outfit went out and found the most heavily Democratic sample they could gin up and still came across a substantial number of Democrats who are opting for McCain over Obama. Remember, this race could come down to thousands of votes in a few battleground States – if even 5% of regular Democrat voters go for McCain, that could end up crushing Obama’s chances.

All is not well in Obama-land, and Obama’s flubbing of the financial crisis isn’t helping him any…in fact, for the first time I’m starting to hear Joe Average types (those who vote, but don’t pay close attention to politics like us junkies do) speak in terms of contempt about Obama. Things could start to get real interesting, real fast.

A very telling video from FOX that shows that while Republicans have been warning about Fannie and Freddie … and Democrats had been blocking their efforts.

The more I think about McCain’s decision to call on Obama to join him in Washington to play a role in the process of coming up with a bipartisan solution, the more I see it as a good move.

McCain and Obama are U.S. Senators. This is a financial crisis. They each have huge influence on their parties. If there are any two people who can make this process move as fast as possible, it is John McCain and Barack Obama.

According to Barack Obama’s talking points, presidential politics shouldn’t be “injected” into this situation. The problem with that claim is that regardless of the outcome of this debate in Washington, D.C. in simple terms, either John McCain or Barack Obama will have to deal with the situation in a different capacity come January. Should they be a part of the debate? Absolutely.

The fact that Obama plans to stay in D.C. tonight puts him in the tough spot tomorrow. Will he leave with this situation unresolved, or will he stay and be a part of the process?

Barack Obama didn’t want to go on the record on this issue. If he leaves before this situation is resolved, it will be a huge political blunder for him.

UPDATE: Political strategist Margaret Hoover:

This round goes to McCain.

If we are really facing a “once in a century crisis”; if financial institutions will begin to fail at the beginning of next week should Congress not act; if this is the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, a legitimate economic calamity; then McCain’s decision to suspend his Presidential campaign, halt fundraising activities, freeze political advertising, is spot on.

At a moment when Paulson and Washington are asking for carte blanche to spend $700+ billion of our money bailing out Wall Street’s fat cats and bad habits, McCain throws himself in front of the bus.

It’s the economy stupid. At this moment, nothing else is more important.

Unless you’re Obama.

UPDATE: McCain’s gamble pays off.

UPDATE: Dick Morris:

FACING a postconvention fall in the polls, John McCain once again reshaped the dimensions of the race by suspending his campaign and calling for postponement of tomorrow’s debate.

This bold move could have an impact on the race akin to McCain’s choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate. Defensively, McCain had to act to stop the fall in his poll numbers.

Offensively, he has placed himself at the epicenter of the only issue on the national agenda – proactive action to stop a total international financial collapse.

Obama’s response to McCain’s initiative is lame. As with his initial reaction to Sarah Palin, Obama has miscalculated. While he tries to spin McCain’s move as a mere response to his initiative, it was the Republican who first issued the call for a suspension of the campaigns.

Both McCain and Obama will now go to Washington. McCain on his own initiative. Obama as a result of the president’s call for an economic summit.

But it is McCain who will play the proactive role. Obama will come to Washington, but will keep one foot outside the Beltway.

Even though the president has called both candidates to Washington to save the country, Obama continues to campaign. Politics as usual.