Monthly Archives: August 2008

“Hype”

A documentary on Barack Obama titled “Hype” will debut next week. Here is an excerpt, via Breitbart TV, that addresses Obama’s political alliance with terrorist Bill Ayers: To comment on this post, go here. »

Bill Clinton goes to bat for Obama

As I noted last night, the one gap in Hillary Clinton’s speech from the perspective of the Obama campaign was strong praise for her adversary. Tonight, Bill Clinton filled that gap. The former president praised Obama frequently. At the outset, he said that the Democratic race came down to two great Americans. A few minutes later he pronounced Obama “the man for the job.” Clinton cited Obama’s ability to rally »

Joel Mowbray reports: A well-executed moment

Joel Mowbray continues his coverage from Pepsi Center: Just before Bill Clinton took the stage, convention-goers started waving American flags. The visual of thousands of American flags is one of the first really well-executed pieces of stagecraft thus far. It’s much better than last night when white Hillary signs were all viewers at home could see — complete with her web site address. The spectacle was so strange at what »

Joel Mowbray reports: What’s in a song?

Our occasional contributor Joel Mowbray ([email protected]) is on the scene of the Democratic Convention at the Pepsi Center. Joel has just filed this report: Moments ago, in the early primetime portion of the convention, the Democrats offered up Melissa Etheridge. No problems so far. In her 4-song medley, she performed “Born in the U.S.A.” and “God Bless America.” Good stuff. But just preceding those all-Americana songs, the famous singer belted »

Toga! Toga! Toga!

We’ve written about Barack Obama’s Greek Temple here and here. Now, the McCain campaign has joined in the ridicule: Today, workers at Invesco Field are putting the final touches on the newest wonder of the modern political world — The Temple of Obama (“The Barackopolis”). It is upon this pulpit that Barack Obama will tomorrow night address thousands of screaming, adoring fans. There may be some confusion among the press »

Catholics Against Joe Biden

I imagine that when Barack Obama considered whether to select Joe Biden as his running mate, the fact that Biden is a Catholic entered the analysis. In fact, Obama twice referred to Biden as a “committed Catholic” when he introduced Talkin’ Joe as his running mate. I certainly don’t blame Obama for taking Biden’s Catholicism into consideration. I note, however, that the Democrats seem a bit naive when it comes »

Obama’s Greek Temple, Up Close

This YouTube video is pretty entertaining. It’s by a guy who has a backstage pass at Invesco Field, and includes a walk on and around Obama’s set for Thursday night, the infamous Greek temple. The narrator puzzles, by the way, over whether it’s Greek or Roman; we’ve been calling it Greek, but readers more knowledgeable about ancient architecture than we are may be able to answer the question definitively: Via »

Childish

Last night, Hillary Clinton made a compelling case for why her supporters should support Barack Obama — as president he’ll do lots of things they like and John McCain won’t. Clinton was in a great position because her case for Obama, though powerful, did not require her to praise him. Thus, I imagine, the speech wrote itself. As soon as it was over, though, we began to hear from core »

“Dangerously Unprepared to be President”

John McCain’s new ad, called “Tiny,” is about Barack Obama’s failure to understand the threat posed by Iran: I might be mistaken, but I believe the tag line, “dangerously unprepared to be President,” represents a ramping up of McCain’s criticism of Obama’s lack of qualifications for the office. To comment on this post, go here. »

The Temple of Obama

Reuters reports that “Barack Obama’s big speech on Thursday night will be delivered from an elaborate columned stage resembling a miniature Greek temple.” John McCormack posts a photograph of the stage under construction here. The Political Inquirer visualizes the scene below. JOHN adds: A McCain staffer asked, upon seeing a news report about Obama’s temple, “Is this from the Onion?” To comment on this post, go here. »

Working in a word mine

Joe Biden addresses the Democratic convention tonight as Barack Obama’s running mate. Senator Biden’s 1988 candidacy for the Democratic nomination collapsed as the result of a plagiarism scandal on which few observers have reflected since his selection. Rutgers history professor David Greenberg was the villain of my Standard column “Wielding the hatchet” as well as my subsequent post “Professor Greenberg regrets,” but he does a good job recounting Biden’s plagiarism »

Hillary scores for Obama

Here’s my (faux) live-blog of Hillary Clinton’s speech to the convention: 10:30 I turn on the television expecting to see HRC being introduced. Instead, some beefy, clownish governor is speaking. 10:33 The beefy, clownish governor (Brian Schweitzer of Montana) is talking about energy. He’s for alternative sources like wind. He’s preaching that we can’t drill our way out of the current crisis, and that “the most important barrel of oil »

About Hillary

Hillary Clinton’s speech tonight prompted just two thoughts. First, her ignorance of economics is cosmic. Thank God this woman will never be President. Second, her speech was a vivid reminder of why she lost. She was intensely annoying. You could just about hear the sound of television sets clicking off all across America. Good night, Hillary. To comment on this post, go here. »

Peddling Ignorance

The Democratic Convention is waiting for Hillary Clinton to appear, so I’m not sure whether anyone is listening to the Governor of Montana, Brian Schweizer, who is warming up the crowd. Schweizer just retailed one of the Dems’ favorite anti-energy myths: the U.S. uses 25% of the world’s energy, but has only 3% of the world’s energy reserves. This statement is true only insofar as the U.S. (but not other »

Then again, maybe not

John McCain will be announcing his running mate soon. Even if he’s made a final decision, I assume McCain will be classy enough to wait until the Democrats have finished their convention to make his announcement. The two names we hear the most these days (and for some time) are Tim Pawlenty and Mitt Romney. Pawlenty is the safe pick; Romney the higher risk, higher reward one. I admire Romney »

Would An Obama Justice Department Be Used to Prosecute Conservatives?

We noted here efforts by Barack Obama’s campaign to shut down his critics’ free speech. In particular, Obama obviously doesn’t want the public to know about his long-term, cozy relationship with proud-to-be-a-terrorist Bill Ayers. Now, Obama himself has upped the ante by demanding that the conservative who funded the Ayers ad be criminally prosecuted: Obama general counsel Bob Bauer today sent a second, sharper letter to the Justice Department, directly »

What’s Happening In Georgia

Michael Totten is in Georgia, and he has filed a long, excellent dispatch from Tbilisi that puts the present conflict into the context of Georgian history going back to the breakup of the Soviet Union, and of the ethnic conflicts in the Caucasus. There is lots of information I haven’t seen anywhere else; the bottom line, to oversimplify greatly, is that the Russians started it. Russia, of course, has now »