Blogs For Victory

Gay Patriot points it out:

I suppose as the weekend passes, I may have more to say about presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama’s choice of Delaware’s senior Senator as his running mate. For the moment, I will echo Bruce’s point that it does seem a lot like George W. Bush’s choice of Dick Cheney in 2000, an older political veteran with foreign policy experience from a small state that was already a lock for their party.

But, Cheney, unlike Biden, actually had some executive experience, having served as White House Chief of Staff under President Gerald R. Ford and as Defense Secretary under President George H.W. Bush. Joe Biden has spent well over half his life the Senate, having served there since Barack Obama was eleven years old. (emphasis added)

On the day Joe Biden was first elected to the United States Senate, I was a couple weeks shy of my 8th birthday. This isn’t as bad as Ted Kennedy (who became a Senator before I was born), but it does show the vast gulf of time and experience between Biden and real life. While Biden talks a great game of being one of us, the fact that he’s lived in the Senatorial coocoon since I was a regular viewer of Bugs Bunny indicates that he just might not be aware of what day to day life for Joe Average is like. Obama said in his intro for Biden that the good Senator has been bringing change to DC “for decades”. Lets have a look at that, shall we?

In 1972 gasoline was 36 cents a gallon. We were about quarter century away from the first major school shooting incident. The median price for a house was about $65,000.00. The de-facto legalisation of pornography under Miller vs California was a year away. The Roe decision legalising abortion nationwide was also a year in the future. Everyone who was paying attention learned just how big a threat terrorism was during the 1972 Olympics. We were still some years away from HBO first putting obscene language on television – and cable television at that, and plenty of warnings from the network prior to broadcast. “Rap” was a hip phrase meaning “talk”. Gangsters were terrible criminals no one would want to emulate. A majority of African-American babies were born to married couples. Illegal immigration wasn’t a problem, yet.

Thank goodness we had Biden in the Senate, so that he could make certain that things changed, huh?

No surprise given that Democrats always put party before country that they would then turn and put personal desires ahead of party:

As Democrats arrived here Sunday for a convention intended to promote party unity, mistrust and resentments continued to boil among top associates of presumptive nominee Barack Obama and his defeated rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

One flashpoint is the assigned speech topic for former president Bill Clinton, who is scheduled to speak Wednesday night, when the convention theme is “Securing America’s Future.” The night’s speakers will argue that Obama would be a more effective commander in chief than his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.).

The former president is disappointed, associates said, because he is eager to speak about the economy and more broadly about Democratic ideas — emphasizing the contrast between the Bush years and his own record in the 1990s.

This is an especially sore point for Bill Clinton, people close to him say, because among many grievances he has about the campaign Obama waged against his wife is a belief that the candidate poor-mouthed the political and policy successes of his two terms.

Some senior Democrats close to Obama, meanwhile, made clear in not-for-attribution comments that they were equally irked at the Clinton operation. Nearly three months after Hillary Clinton conceded defeat in the nomination contest, these Obama partisans complained, her team continues to act like she and Bill Clinton hold leverage.

After a period earlier this month when the two sides were working collegially over strategy, scheduling, and other convention logistics, things turned scratchy again in recent days.

As a practical matter, Obama has to lose for Hillary to have a shot at being President – she can’t run any more in 2008, but if Obama loses she’ll immediately be the overwhelming favorite for 2012. Given the known level of dishonesty, backstabbing and political gamesmanship the Clintons bring to the table, one cannot but feel they are up to something – and McCain isn’t their actual problem at the moment, Obama is. Only if Hillary has resigned herself to being a long-term Senator and then resigning into obscurity can Obama feel other than nervous with Hillary at his back – and I see no signs that Hillary has renounced her Presidential ambitions.

On the other hand, Obama still seems to view himself as some sort of Man of Destiny and it irks him to have to share the stage with anyone (in my viewing of the Obama/Biden get together, Obama didn’t seem to be thrilled to be sitting quiet while Biden spoke). An overweening pride in one’s self is not conducive to those tactical surrenders which a real winner is happy to endure in order to sooth a prickly rival unreconciled to coming in second. Obama has yet to kneel before the shrine of Clinton, Inc. and its causing friction not just with Bill and Hillary, but with their ardent supporters, a large number of whom still believe not only that Hillary is the better candidate, but also won the primaries.

All in all its a poisonous mix and leaves open the prospect of, well, anything – for the world, things might go smooth as silk and Obama gets to make his acceptance speech to a massive crowd of cheering supporters, but behind the lines and outside of camera view, stresses might be building up swiftly to make it so that the Clintonites sit on their hands until November…or even try to embarras Obama during the convention.

In 2004, I was one of a dozen bloggers given credentials to the Republican National Convention in New York City. It was an incredible experience… being a part of George W. Bush’s reelection… bumping shoulders with members of Congress, the media… and of course, it was great to meet all the other bloggers. In short, it was a great time and I’ll never forget it.

Four years later, I have once again been given credentials for the Republican National Convention. I’ve been asked many times if I was going… So, now is the time to reveal my intentions…

After careful thought and consideration I have decided not to attend this year’s Convention in Minnesota.

As you may remember, I recently moved to New York from Massachusetts, and various factors resulting from that move have contributed to my decision, particularly the time I’d need to take off from my new job.

It was not an easy decision… in fact, it was one I avoided making. But, the decision had to be made. And while I may always regret not going to the convention, today, it is the right choice.

I am pleased to report, however, that Blogs For Victory will have a blogger at the convention. Katherine Morrison, who blogs at our McCain blog, will be there, covering the convention on the scene. During the convention, we’ll be keeping an eye on her blogging, as well as the blogging of the other convention bloggers. I know many of the bloggers who will be there, and I’m sorry I won’t get to be there with them.

Anyway, that’s pretty much all there is to say about this.

And, no surprise, its Nancy Pelosi:

Meet the Press this morning:

Brokaw: …“I if [Obama] were to come to you and say ‘help me out here, Madam Speaker, when does life begin,’ what would you tell him?

Pelosi: “I would say that as an ardent practicing Catholic this is an issue that I have studied for a long time, and what I know is over the centuries the doctors of the Church have not been able to make that definition. And St. Augustine said three months. We don’t know. The point is it that it shouldn’t have an impact on a woman’s right to chose.”

It shouldn’t have an impact? Tell that to parents looking at sonograms. Look, it’s obviously alive. Nevermind. “Shouldn’t have an impact.”

Err, no…Nancy, you might want to check things out a bit more given that since the 1st century (and that, for you lefties out there, is from the year 1 to the year 100…which means this goes back to before the year 100, and thus very swiftly upon Christ’s ministry on earth) the Church has forbidden absolutely the intentional taking of an innocent human life from conception to natural death. Basing itself upon Scripture and the teachings of the Church Fathers, the pro-life opinion is well known, easily ascertained and absolutely obligatory on Catholics, and trumps the absurd notion that there is a right to an abortion. Next time you decide to study something about our mutual faith you might want to shy away what pro-abortion fanatics say about Catholic teaching and actually, ya know?, check with what the Church has to say…

The sad thing about this is that Pelosi is putting herself at horrific risk just to provide a dodge for Barack Obama’s cowardly answer on the question of when life begins. Sad, too, is how Obama is essentially setting it up so that confused Catholic women like Pelosi are forced to go out and defend him…

There might be far more of these out there than anyone suspects:

Silverio “Silver” Salazar has been an active Democrat for decades, just like his cousins, U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar and U.S. Rep. John Salazar.

But for the 2008 presidential election, Silver Salazar is squarely behind John McCain.

Silver Salazar, who had served as a Pueblo precinct leader for 20 years, was a Hillary Clinton backer. So when Barack Obama clinched the Democratic nomination, he began to research McCain and liked what he read.

He chose McCain because of his experience and readiness to take office.

Now, Silver Salazar is working to convince Democrats and Hispanics to support the GOP nominee.

“I’m making history for myself,” said the 59-year-old retired steel company operations manager. “This is the first I’ll vote for a Republican president – or work for one.”

Silver Salazar has been publicly supporting McCain since early summer. He’s done national media interviews and attended campaign visits across Colorado. On Thursday, he spoke at a news conference in Pueblo with other Hispanics supporting McCain.

About a dozen Hispanic McCain backers also held a press conference in Denver.

Hispanics across Colorado and the U.S. typically vote Democratic. But President Bush took an estimated 40 percent of the Hispanic vote in 2004, up from 34 percent in 2000.

As far as qualifications go, its really not debatable: John McCain is vastly more experienced than Barack Obama and thus manifestly more qualified to be President. What Obama brings to the table is mere fairy tale – he’s Prince Charming coming to save the Damsel in Distress (the United States) from the Ogre (President Bush). Obama knows precisely nothing of military affairs (and not just in the sense of not serving – in the sense of clearly never having read a single book about military affairs in his life), nearly nothing about the way things work, on a day to day basis, in Washington DC, he’s never run a business, he’s never had an executive position in his life, he’s never had to make a public policy decision for which he would bear the main or sole responsibility. And on top of all that, there seems to be something just off about Obama – while he clearly wants “to be”, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of willingness “to do” in him. There isn’t in his history and indication that has the desire or the courage to step outside his comfort zone and take on something uncongenial to his nature and desires.

And anyone willing to step outside partisan blinders on and/or leftwing hatred of President Bush can see this. Mr. Salazar did so, and quickly saw the truth of the matter – McCain is the better man, in all respects, to be President of the United States. And this is not to say that Obama is a bad man – its to say he’s not ready to take on the most powerful office in the world. What the United States does in the world is too important to be placed in the hands of someone who’s life experience is as sheltered and narrow as Obama’s. Let Obama become governor of Illinois, or Vice President, and gain some experience, and then he might be ready – but he’s not in 2008, and we’d be a very foolish people, indeed, if we elect Barack Obama President.

Food for thought as Christians and Moslems start a series of meetings to discuss the shared beliefs of the two faiths:

Christian and Muslim leaders from around the world met this summer at Yale University for the first of four conferences to discuss “the foundational principles” of the two faiths…

…Last fall, 138 Islamic leaders from forty nations sent a letter, “A Common Word between Us and You,” addressed to the pope and other Christian leaders worldwide. The twenty-nine-page letter invited Christians to meet with Muslims on the basis of “what is common to us and most essential to our faith and practice: the Two Commandments,” i.e., love of God and love of neighbor…

…Many are ready to dismiss this … as mere piety or naivete. They should reconsider: The history of democracy in the West owes a great debt to these two commandments. Secular-minded historians and political scientists would like us to believe that democratic ideals emerged from the triumph of Enlightenment thought—in opposition to Christian doctrine. In fact, the Biblical concepts of human dignity and equality supplied the philosophical pillars of liberal democracy, especially in the Anglo-American tradition. Ministers on both sides of the Atlantic, for example, regularly cited the golden rule—what they called “the great rule of equity”—to argue for religious toleration and equal justice under the law.

Are the Christian leaders who gathered at Yale familiar with this history, and are they willing to press its lessons upon their Muslim guests? Participating groups such as the liberal National Council of Churches have shown scant interest in defending the persecuted church, the principle of religious freedom, or the democratic institutions that sustain it. Yet if Muslims are serious about the golden rule, they must explain why the governments of most Islamic states represent such a brutal contradiction to its democratic expression.

Another potential problem with “The Common Word” dialogue is its implication that the Christian Church must reform itself no less so than the Islamic community. There’s no doubt that reform is needed. Whether the issue is materialism, hypocrisy, or the politicization of the gospel, there are real problems in the Church. Yet the danger here is the trap of moral equivalency—the assumption that modern Christianity is as prone to terrorist violence as Islam. As the Muslim letter put the matter: “The future of the world depends on peace between Muslims and Christians.”

The future of the world depends on no such thing. The existential threat to international peace and security is not a religious war between Islam and Christianity. The global threat today is a faith-based version of European fascism—a re-emergence of the totalitarian impulse, animated by the theology of radical, Islamist jihad. This ideology of bloodlust and martyrdom claims millions of adherents worldwide, inspires terrorist cells across entire continents, and is obsessed with acquiring the world’s most destructive weapons to unleash against civilian populations. “Why were millions of people astounded by what happened to America on September 11?” writes Ayman al-Zawahiri, al Qaeda’s second in command. “We have the right to kill four million Americans—two million of them children—and to exile twice as many and wound and cripple hundreds of thousands.”

There is simply no equivalent to this perverted religion anywhere in the Christian world—it is a crisis within Islam, a moral and spiritual malaise that has grown unchecked for decades. It is incumbent upon the Christian leaders engaged in this dialogue to ask why this is the case, and what their Islamic interlocutors intend to do about it.

They might take a cue from a Muslim reformer, Abd Al-Hamid Al-Ansari, the former dean of the law faculty at Qatar University. He argues that terrorism is the result of a “culture of hatred” in Arab countries and “a discourse of denial” about its homegrown sources. “How can this miserable creature called the Arab and Muslim individual not turn to extremism, when he is surrounded by an overall atmosphere of extremism, bound by the shackles of repression and prohibitions, and girded by the ideas of intimidation and terrorization, and of almost endless torment?” he writes. “Go to hear a Friday sermon, and you will find a preacher who is enraged at the world, angry at civilization, spreading the poison of hatred and enmity.”

And yet there is that – love of God and love of neighbor, which is the foundation of the West and, as noted, the foundation of our modern liberties. Moslems do profess this love, and thus there is grounds for hope. Of course, for this hope to be realised it will require not just Moslems willing to reform, but Christians willing to stand foursquare for Christian beliefs – the liberties built upon love of God and neighbor are being erroded in the West by consumerism and despair, two sins the Moslems radicals use to great effect, telling their followers that failure to fight for Islamism will result in the same moral disintegration in the Moslem world. The other problem on the Christian end, as noted by the author of the piece, is all too many Christians willing to ignore Christian belief…when the Archbishop of Canterbury starts saying that sharia law is ok by him, you know you’ve got a terrible problem in Christianity.

For Moslems to listen to us they first have to respect us – as it is, Moslems in Iraq respect our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines. Why is this? Because they are strong men and women who act upon their convictions with no thought to personal risks. But looking past the Marine on patrol, the Moslem world can still see an America slouching ever further into a sewer of moral decay. It is a fair question for any Moslem to ask – if we are to become democratic, does this mean we have to suffer the social breakdown the West has undergone? If the answer to that question is “yes”, then it is easy to see why a lot of Moslems would be wary of democracy and willing to lend an ear to Islamist propaganda. We must show the Moslem world that freedom means the freedom to do the right thing, not an excuse to do whatever depraved thing you want.

Victory in the war, peace with the Moslem world and repairing our badly damaged society go hand in hand – and just so long as we listen to those who offer us the easy way out, so will this war go on, and our society continue to decay. On the other hand, if we arrest our rot and start back on a path to social sanity – and no better place to start than in the matter of abortion – we will show that freedom is a boon, not a bane, and the Moslem world will follow suit.

Barack Obama plagiarized Deval Patrick speech… Biden plagiarized Neil Kinnock speech…

Talk Straight has the Biden Breakdown…

UPDATE: Ron Fournier: Biden pick shows lack of confidence

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: Listening to Obama – at least he got the number of States right, for once. ROFL…did he really just say, “for decades he’s brought change to Washington”? For decades!!!! Oh, man…this could become a lot of fun…oh, brother…did he say “white gentleman”?…anyways, hey, Obama, if Biden has been bringing change to Washington for decades, then what the F do we need you for?

UPDATE: Gaffes, gaffes, gaffes…

(ED NOTE: As this will be the talk of the day, we’ll keep this thread on top of the blog at least through noon on Saturday)

Drudge Report says a Kansas company that specializes in political literature has been printing Obama-Bayh material…

Keep your eyes and ears open.

Fox News is reporting that Biden is Obama’s VP selection.

UPDATE: the Fox News story.

UPDATE: Secret Service on the way to Biden’s house.

UPDATE: For all of you out there saying “Biden who?”, his bio.

UPDATE: Quick commentary by Mark Noonan:

If this is other than the world’s biggest head fake, then I can’t imagine any thing positive Biden brings to the Obama ticket – Biden is more experienced that Obama, but will be on the bottom of the ticket; Biden is Senator from a small, very blue State Obama will win handily; Biden is the archetype of the career politician, having been in the Senate since Nixon was President; Biden is up for re-election to the Senate, thus opening up the possibility of a GOP pick up in the Senate; Biden has said things which make Obama look bad…all in all, I’d say its a hoax, but its being reported by Fox and the Associated Press.

UPDATE: Peter Robinson over at NRO’s The Corner weighs in:

Before winning election to the Senate three-and-a-half decades ago—Biden ranks fourth in seniority among Democrats, sixth overall; how’s that for a fresh face?—Biden practiced law for three years. That’s it. Three years of fresh-out-of-law school practice represents the sum and total of Biden’s profession experience before joining the Senate.

Obama-Biden? A candidate with an astonishingly thin professional background—Community organizer? Desultory lecturer in law school?—has just named as his running mate a man whose principal professional achievement is to have perfected his skills as a gasbag.

Mark Noonan sez: the more I think about it, the more I figure its got to be a bogus story…its like Obama wants to lose. Or perhaps he just still thinks he’s got it in the bag?

UPDATE: Biden on the issues, by Mark Noonan:

A practising Catholic, Biden adheres to Church teaching on when life begins, opposes federal funding for abortion and favors the ban on late term abortions. On the other hand, Biden supports the Roe decision and makes no move towards ending the practice of abortion. All in all, Biden has trimmed himself to the pro-choice side of the aisle as far as he can without risking a breach with the Church. God bless him, he’s one of my brothers – and I’ll pray for him to come back entirely to the pro-life side of the aisle.

Biden is an old-fashioned tax and spend liberal as far as budget matters go – and is still a believer in axing the Defense budget in order to free up funds for social programs. In spite of the clear failure during his life time, Biden still believes that the heavy club of government spending is a magic wand to bring prosperity and happiness to the people.

Biden is pretty convention on the litany of liberal issues – while he technically opposes same-sex marriage, he’s not out there fighting against it; meanwhile, he is in favor of affirmative action, racial set asides, attacks corporations (though this may just be a Catholic thing, as I attack them, too – though probably not for the exact same reasons), supports hate crime laws and has co-sponsored a re-submission of the Equal Rights Amendment for ratification.

Biden raises conservative hackles for a lot of reasons, but conservatives going forward will probably start to concentrate on Biden’s disgraceful behaviour during the Thomas hearings.

UPDATE: Maybe this is why Obama picked Biden?

Obama’s lead in New York has dropped 10 points since June…

There is such a thing as not wanting certain types of suppor, ya know?

A simple sign in the window of the local Barack Obama campaign headquarters has reignited a conversation about convicted felons’ right to vote in this country.

The poster board welcomed all passersby to register to vote and included the statement: “Felons can vote.” The sign, which was visible at the office opening a week ago, has since been removed.

A lifesize cardboard printout of the presumptive Democratic nominee for president has replaced the sign. A spokesman from the Philadelphia campaign office said this decision was made at the local level.

“They just realized maybe it was sending the wrong message and took it down themselves,” Sean Smith said.

Yeah, no kidding. Come on, Obamaniacs, do you really want to troll for votes amongst the jailbirds and ‘scapegallows of the United States? I realise that a person can find redemption – in fact, such a thing is central to my worldview – but to actively seek the votes of criminals? For crying out loud, shouldn’t they be working on bettering themselves and shouldn’t the Obama people be working on getting people who aren’t criminals to vote for them? Or is it that Obama’s people realise he’s on a downward slurge and they are just leaving no stone unturned? How long before we see the Kerry ’04 tactic of bribing homeless people with smokes?