Monthly Archives: August 2008

Obama’s speech — all of the above

The Democrats pulled out all the theatrical stops tonight. They filled a football stadium, built part of a Greek temple, and put on a fireworks show worthy of the 4th of July. Barack Obama, for his part, pulled out all the rhetorical stops. His speech was a patchwork of homey sentimentality, Clintonesque laundry lists, and Obama’s version of Jesse Jackson’s preacher man. If a particular riff that has worked somewhere »

Was It Effective Demagoguery, Or Ineffective?

Fireworks! The perfect end to an evening of BS slinging of historic proportions. Barack Obama is a demagogue who will stoop to any lie or distortion; the question is how many people he can fool. On that, the jury is out. The answer will emerge between now and November. It will take some time to dissect all of the foolishness we heard tonight, but here are a few observations: Obama »

V.P. Buzz

Rumors swirling around John McCain’s Vice-Presidential choice are now focusing mainly on Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported on the buzz surrounding Pawlenty a little while ago. I’ve thought for a while that Tim is the most likely–and best–choice, but that’s not based on any inside knowledge. To an impressive degree, a cone of silence has descended around McCain’s decision. People whom you’d expect to know, if »

Joel Mowbray reports: Democrats have a good night

Joel Mowbray ([email protected]) reports from Denver: Yesterday was the kind of day Democrats were hoping for. What started withHillary asking the delegates to nominate Obama by acclamation ended with the nominee embracing his running mate on stage after Biden’s very solid speech. To no one’s surprise, Obama’s unannouced visit a day before his nomination address sent the audience into a tizzy. (Interestingly, Bill Clinton had a longer ovation, though he »

Jimmy Carter strikes again

The ever-gracious Jimmy Carter has accused John McCain of “milking every possible drop of advantage” from his time served as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. Carter was referring to McCain’s references to that time in the Saddleback event. But that event called on McCain and Obama to talk about personal matters, not just policy, and Carter didn’t cite any specific instance where he thought McCain’s reference to his POW »

What Should McCain Say?

On Tuesday morning, I’ll be doing a breakfast program for the Center of the American Experiment along with David Frum. We’ll do a panel moderated by the Center’s founder, Mitch Pearlstein, on what John McCain should say in his acceptance speech, or what Barack Obama should have said in his. If you live in the Twin Cities or will be here for the Convention and are interested in attending, you »

Pajamas TV Launches

Pajamas Media has launched the first-ever internet “television” news network. It’s an exciting project, and we at Power Line will be participating. The current plan is that we’ll have a weekly show. The Pajamas TV site is here. The network will debut with nightly coverage of the Republican convention, from Monday through Thursday of next week. PJTV will be a subscription service–there are three price levels, all pretty cheap–but a »

Obama Doesn’t Think He’s Ready, Either

Check out this devastating new ad by the McCain campaign. It combines footage of various Democrats–including Barack Obama!–talking about his lack of preparation to be President with footage from Russia’s invasion of Georgia: Also, watch for another new McCain ad that apparently will air tonight. From today’s “Morning Joe” show: MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Apparently the McCain campaign has an ad rolling out tonight. What’s it about? JILL HAZELBAKER: Well, Mika, this »

Too Good, But True

About Barack Obama’s Greek Temple, from the New York Post: As if a Rocky Mountain coronation were not lofty enough, Barack Obama will aim for Mount Olympus when he accepts his party’s nomination atop an enormous, Greek-columned stage – built by the same cheesy set team that put together Britney Spears’ last tour. … But the set is designed to evoke the White House and the Lincoln Memorial, not the »

So Much For the Recession

The economy grew at a robust 3.3% rate in the second quarter, putting to rest any suggestion that we are, or soon will be, in a recession. It’s worth noting that the growth was fueled largely by exports, which will be curtailed if Obama is elected and the Democrats adopt protectionist policies. In politics, though, it’s perception that counts, not reality, and it appears that workers’ job market confidence may »

A Mini-Bounce, Perhaps

Consistent with Paul’s evaluation of how the Dems are doing immediately below, Scott Rasmussen sees signs of at least a small bounce, as Barack Obama gained one point in Rasmussen’s rolling survey today and now leads John McCain 45% to 44%: Obama’s poll numbers have improved over the past couple of nights and today’s update shows a tie race because it includes a mix of both recent trends. But it »

So, how are they doing so far?

The Demcrats came to the convention with two imperatives: win over Hillary Clinton’s feminist supporters who are angry with Barack Obama and win over independent voters who are fearful of him. As I wrote here, “there is an obvious tension between these two vital objectives; Clinton’s core supporters are liberal feminists, while independent voters tend toward political moderation.” The Democrats have tackled these two challenges one night at a time. »

Listen while you can

Stanley Kurtz is the academically minded senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center who has doggedly investigated the Chicago years of Barack Obama. Most recently, Kurtz has been seeking to reconstruct the relationship of BarackObama and Bill Ayers via the papers of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge held by the University of Illinois at Chicago. Kurtz has painstakingly documented the obstacles thrown up to his review of the documents. »

A house divided at MSNBC

MSNBC long ago became a joke, but just now it seems to have become entertaining. Politico reports on the internal divisions that have produced some on-air comedy: In addition to Olbermann, MSNBC personalities Chris Matthews, Joe Scarborough and David Shuster were involved in Denver controversies. On Monday evening, Olbermann interrupted Scarborough while he was talking about McCain being competitive in the polls. “Jesus, Joe, why don’t you get a shovel?” »

A plagiarist and his imaginary world

The traditional role of a candidate for vice president is to attack to other side’s presidential candidate. Joe Biden did this effectively tonight. In the process, though, he gave one of the most intellectually dishonest speeches in recent memory. Here are the highlights and the low lights: 10:24 They are playing the intro tape. Biden says the folks with whom he grew up didn’t like being called working class; they »

Democrats vs. the First Amendment

We noted here Barack Obama’s effort to drum up a criminal prosecution of those who disagree with him politically. The prospect of such a man in control of the Department of Justice is sobering, to say the least. Another instance of the Democrats’ effort to suppress inconvenient First Amendment rights occurred in Denver today, when policemen arrested an ABC newsman, Asa Eslocker, whose camera crew, on a public sidewalk, was »

Joel Mowbray reports: The superior Clinton sequel

Joel Mowbray reports from Pepsi Center: Bill Clinton finally did what no one else has done effectively in the first two and a half days of the convention: He articulated a clear rationale for supporting Barack Obama, while also pointedly attacking McCain. In short, Bill tonight did everything Hillary didn’t do last night. It could be that Bill was responding to criticism that his wife’s talk was most effective in »