Conservatism Today

Stanley Kurtz Speaking on Obama/Ayres Files

Stanley Kurtz of National Review has spent all day at Illinois University digging through files relating to Obama's relationship with Bill Ayres. He is speaking on Greta's show on Fox News as we speak. He has a lot more to go through, and I'm sure we'll be seeing a major story in the coming days.

He says Ayres has played a much larger role in Obama's career than Obama has led on, which should be no surprise to anyone. They worked very closely, there are questions about where the money went, and the project was a failure.

I can't wait for the full story. If the MSM doesn't completely ignore it, this could be the clincher.

"What we've seen today seems to reinforce our worst fears."

Republican Platform Committee Adds Internet Gambling Ban

If they want to lose one of their biggest and most vocal supporters, they couldn't pick a better way than adding an Internet Gambling Ban into the party platform. For once, I will be thankful that the Dems control enough power to prevent this.

This is just the sort of nanny-state bullshit, anti-freedom proposal we would expect a liberal to come up with.

For the record, I am a semi-pro online poker player. First off, several courts have decided that poker is a game of skill, and as one who is skilled at i,t I can attest to that fact. Most importantly, this is a free economic choice that causes next to zero direct personal harm to others, employs hundreds of thousands of people, and provides entertainment to millions. Certainly no more than fast food or cigarettes, and we are always on the Dems for trying to ban those things.

The Obama/Ayres Ad

The group that put this up is taking some heat, as Obama's campaign knows it is true and will sway voters, and they have no counter to it. Nothing else so clearly shows the influence the radical left has had on Obama's career.

Here is a portion of American Issues Project response to the Obama campaigns attempts to prevent this ad from being seen:

The Barack Obama campaign has resorted to a campaign of intimidation and legal threats to convince television stations and the federal government to force off the air an ad by the American Issues Project detailing the link between Sen. Obama and remorseless domestic terrorist William Ayers.

The Obama campaign has been contacting stations running American Issues Project’s ad in an unsuccessful attempt to compel them to pull the spot. The Obama campaign also sent a letter yesterday to the Department of Justice asking the government to investigate American Issues Project, its officers, board of directors, and donors. With no success on either front, the campaign has begun running its own ad in response. Notably, this ad fails to dispute a single fact in the American Issues Project’s initial ad.

“The Obama campaign knows it can’t argue the facts of the link between Obama and Ayers, so it is instead resorting to a desperate campaign of intimidation and legal threats,” said Ed Martin, American Issues Project’s president. “The scary question this raises is if Barack Obama demonstrates this little regard for free speech from his opponents during the campaign, what could the American people expect from him as a president?”

“The tremendous amount of time, money and effort the campaign is expending to run its own ads on the Ayers controversy and dispatch its hired guns all over the country – during the Democratic convention – speaks to the fear they must have that this issue is resonating with American voters.”

The Gospel According to Obama

Another good one from The Nose on Your Face:

Pelosi to Drilling Protesters: 'Can we Drill your Brains?'

It's hard to imagine why she has the worst approval rating of any Speaker of the House in American history. On a hat-tip from HotAir.

House Democratic leaders and protesters waving McCain signs had a war of words Tuesday at a press event outside an old train station. The demonstrators interrupted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with chants of “Drill here! Drill now!”

Pelosi paused and asked the group, “Right here?”

Seeming to enjoy the back and forth, she followed with another question: “Can we drill your brains?”

She went on to refer to the protestors, who continued to chant sporadically, as “handmaidens of Big Oil.”

Does this make Pelosi the handmaiden of OPEC?

Live-blogging Tuesday Night's Hillary Clinton DNC Speech

If you aren't able to tune in tonight, or just want to weigh in on what you see, or if you can't stomach watching this garbage yourself, please check back in here (to this thread) tonight for the major speeches, where I will be posting my comments live.

I'm interested in Janet Napolitano's speech. J-No is the Governor of my state, Arizona, and at one time I was hoping Obama would pick her for Veep just so we could get her out of the state. Then we have Her Highness Hillary. Tonight is ladies night, and if it doesn't cause the PUMA gals and other Clinton supporters to get in line this thing may be finished.

Janet Napolitano is up. She is speaking on one of the many things she knows absolutely nothing about; the economy. And yes, that is Janet Napolitano, not Janet Reno. I understand how you could confuse the two. 

Boy is it quiet in there. If the economy is so bad, J-No, Obama's goal would be something other than to "continue America's economic dominance," would it not? Awful speech, Janet. Not surprised.

I can't wait for the Hillary speech. I am hearing rumbles that she may not be all that supportive of Obama tonight, and I'm praying that that is the case.

These people's ideas on the economy are as frightening as they are ignorant.

Dick Morris on Hannity & Colmes put forth the opinion that this would be one of Clinton's finest speeches, and that her goal will be to make everyone leave the room thinking that Obama chose the wrong Veep. I would think if she does that it would be to make everyone think they selected the wrong candidate.

Sorry, I left to get a pizza. Needed a break. Hillary is up in 15 minutes. This is really the only bit of intrigue we'll probably have in either convention. There's definitely more of a buzz than we've seen for anything so far.

Just read at CNN that Bill Clinton will not be attending Obama's speech Thursday night. Hot date?

Speaking of Bill, they just introduced him, and he's kissing lots of women, as usual.

Now they are saying another ten minutes to Hill. I have a question for all the other Democrat speakers tonight?  You are oh for two trying to run against George W. Bush. When are you going to realize that this isn't a great strategy?

Democrat Howard Wolfson on Mark Warner's speech earlier: "The best thing about his speech was that it was brief. It was a tremendous missed opportunity."

More on the Warner speech: By Rachael Maddow on MSNBC: "Mark Warner delivered a speech from the future, and apparently in the future the Democratic Party doesn't exist." Wow. That must have been on while I was getting my pizza. I need to read that speech. It sounds like heaven.

Brian Schweitzer, idiot Governor of Montana, just said, "Barack Obama understands that the most important barrel of oil is the one that you don't use."

From Megan Kelly of Fox News: PUMAs are planning antics for tomorrow night if they do not get role call tomorrow on the floor. I can't wait.

The crowd is eating up this leftist moonbat pap by Schweitzer. Hillary propaganda video underway.

Hillary ambles across the stage, dressed completely in (I'm not making this up) orange. Huge ovation..

Calls herself a "proud supporter of Barack Obama" right off the bat. It is time to get back in power, "Unite as a single party with a single purpose. We are on the same team and none of us can afford to sit on the sidelines."

Good, it sounds like the rumors of her teaming up with John McCain won't be coming to pass.

"No way, no how, no McCain." No wonder these people love her. She is a very deep thinker.

A lot of claptrap about lots of things she doesn't believe in, like people overcoming challenges, obstacles and adversity without her help.

Oh here we go. Now she's talking about despair, lack of hope, downtrodden masses, all due to GWB.

Other than a sentence or two, it's all about her. Now she's hitting all the Dems class warfare talking points, anti-Bush hysteria, etc. Huge cheer at the mention of "gay rights." Sounded mostly female, which is not unexpected when we are talking about Hillary.

She and Barack support those Americans who have been invisible to the Bush Admin for the last 8 years. I have a recurring fantasy... It involves me being invisible to the federal government. Quit crushing my dreams, Hillary.

Big, bad, evil oil companies. Huge class warfare stuff. Now she's giving Obama's credentials as a socialist, which is a pretty easy thing to do.

"Democrats know how to do this. As I recall we did it under President Clinton." Huge applause. Even a blind squirrel can wake up in the middle of the internet boom.

Hillary just threw Michelle Obama a bone, who tried to appear to un-bitterly accept it.

"John McCain is my colleague and my friend, but now I am going to rip his nuts off and shove them down his throat." I'm paraphrasing there.

I keep coming to the same question every time I hear a Dem rip McCain. If Bush is Hitler, and all these Democrats are friends with McCain, but McCain equals Bush, why are all these Democrats admitting to being friends with someone who is just like Hitler? Perhaps it explains why Obama can be friends with Bill Ayres. Is there a flaw in the liberal gene that allows you to be friends with people you hate?

OK - no major news that I see. She credibly (for her party) endorsed Barack Obama, but nothing too amazing. It was a decent speech, those who hope for party unity may even gush over it. I don't think it was anywhere near enough to convince many of her supporters to vote for Obama.

Note: I will not be doing this tomorrow night, as I have my fantasy football draft. I will be live-blogging Thursday night, however.

HotAir has a good headline for Bill Clinton's decision not to attend Obama's speech.

Bill Kristol: "A shockingly minimal endorsement of Barack Obama." Mentions she never talked about him personally, and everything he said could have been said of a generic Democrat. Democrat Mort Kondracke agrees.

Charles Krauthammer calls it her best speech ever and agrees it did very little for Obama. "What do you expect from the Clintons?"

Michelle Obama's Two Americas

Good post here by Byron York on the differences between the Michelle Obama we saw last night and the Michelle Obama we have seen on the campaign trail.

Near the end of Michelle Obama’s speech to the Democratic National Convention Monday night, I got an e-mail from a friend who had been with me at another speech by Mrs. Obama, in Charlotte, North Carolina, last May, on the eve of that state’s primary. “This isn’t the Michelle we know,” my friend said. And indeed, Mrs. Obama’s speech to the delegates here in Denver was worlds away from her address in Charlotte.

In Denver, Michelle Obama described America as a place of hope, a place where people find success during the course of “improbable journeys.” In Charlotte, her America was a dark and ugly place, where people who work hard are knocked down by sinister forces — a place where even young children burst into tears when they realize the deck is stacked against them.

In Charlotte, Mrs. Obama said, “We’re still living in a time and in a nation where the bar is set, right?…You start working hard and sacrificing and you think you’re getting close to that bar, you’re working and you’re struggling, and then what happens? They raise the bar…keep it just out of reach.”

Had something changed in the last few months? In the early primaries, Mrs. Obama often gave complaining speeches. It was in late February that she said the now-famous words, “For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country, because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback.” In other speeches, she grumbled — sometimes at length — about having to pay back her college loans. And she, as much as her husband, was associated with the anti-American rants of Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Last night's speech was see-through as can be. Hopefully, most thinking Americans won't buy into it.

No More Change We Can Believe In

Obama has changed his slogan. The new one: "The Change We Need." I'm hoping beyond hope that this will signal that the Obama campaign is actually going to start focusing on actual policy proposals, which will just show Obama to be the socialist he is.

Is This the Kind of Support Obama Can Expect from the Clintons?

Bill Clinton today posed a "hypothetical" question that it would seem many Hillary supporters are asking themselves right now.

From HotAir:

Bill Clinton appeared to undermine Sen. Barack Obama again Tuesday.

The former president, speaking in Denver, posed a hypothetical question in which he seemed to suggest that that the Democratic Party was making a mistake in choosing Obama as its presidential nominee.

He said: “Suppose you’re a voter, and you’ve got candidate X and candidate Y. Candidate X agrees with you on everything, but you don’t think that candidate can deliver on anything at all. Candidate Y you agree with on about half the issues, but he can deliver. Which candidate are you going to vote for?”

Then, perhaps mindful of how his off-the-cuff remarks might be taken, Clinton added after a pause: “This has nothing to do with what’s going on now.”

Of course it doesn't. This is going to be the key question of this convention. Will the Clinton's fully back Obama and enthusiastically urge her supporters to go with Obama, or will they (looking to her possible 2012 run) continue to do things like this? I expect Bill, eager to rehabilitate his badly wounded image among many Democrats, to deliver one of the best speeches he ever has. But if I'm right on this, then why does he continue to make statements like this. I'm at a loss.

Obama Drops in Polls

Can we just extend the Democrat National Convention through to November? First, McCain takes a 2-point lead in the latest Gallup poll. Then we see that rather than a post-convention bounce, it looks like Obama might wind up with a DNC drop. From Rasmussen:

The Democratic National Convention has begun and the poll numbers are bouncing, but not in the direction that most people anticipated. The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows Barack Obama attracting 44% of the vote while John McCain also earns 44%. When "leaners" are included, it’s still tied with Obama at 46% and McCain at 46%. Yesterday, with leaners, Obama had a three-point advantage over McCain...

Later in the report, it mentioned McCain having a 57% favorable rating with Obama at 53%. This is the first time I've seen McCain ahead in one of those.

If something doesn't happen in the next couple days to convince more Hillary supporters to back Obama, I'm convinced that this thing is finished.

Possible Attempt on Obama's Life

Check out HotAir if you're interested. I hope this isn't true.

Sources told CBS4 police found two high-powered, scoped rifles in the car along with camouflage clothing, walkie-talkies, a bulletproof vest, a spotting scope, licenses in the names of other people and methamphetamine. One of the rifles is listed as stolen from Kansas.

Subsequently authorities went to the Cherry Creek Hotel to contact an associate of Gartrell’s. But that man, who was wanted on numerous warrants, jumped out of a sixth floor hotel window. Law enforcement sources say the man broke an ankle in the fall and was captured moments later. Sources say he was wearing a ring with a swastika, and is thought to have ties to white supremacist organizations.

A third man — an associate of Gartrell and the hotel jumper was also arrested. He told authorities that the two men “planned to kill Barack Obama at his acceptance speech.”

That man, along with a woman, are also under arrest.

Update: The alleged plot never happened.

"They all had meth with them. There is no evidence of a plot other than one guy's word, and meth heads aren't that reliable (with the truth)," the federal agent said.

Live Blogging Michelle Obama's Speech

I will update this thread throughout tonight's convention speeches. I'll be here live for Michelle My Belle's DNC speech, and will try to note if anything interesting happens in the others leading up to it.

I like the theme for tonight, "One Nation." As if everyone didn't already know that Obama thinks he is The Messiah, tonight we get one nation under Obama. 

Michelle is expected to focus on family and family values. I am assuming she will come off OK if she avoids talking about specific political positions. Much like her husband.

Ted Kennedy is about to speak. I try not to have ill will for someone personally, but Ted Kennedy worked with the Soviet Union to do everything in his power to beat Ronald Reagan's agenda. He actually sided with the Soviets over the man who defeated them. Plus, he killed a woman (cough, allegedly). 

I'm going to force myself to watch this without puking. My wife can't handle it, she's going for a walk.

Here's Ted Kennedy being unintelligible - read it, or you can listen to it if you subscribe, which I highly encourage. 

Kennedy promises to be on the floor of the Senate next year. Nuts go crazy.

Hope for a "just and fair" prosperity. Whatever the hell that means, how it would happen, and why we would want it remain questions.

Health care as a right, the old Kennedy mainstay. The idea disgusts me.

Kennedy is talking about how we reached the moon. Too bad most of those in the audience there don't believe we ever landed on the moon.

Despite the predictions of the talking heads, I somehow managed to make it through the speech with both dry eyes intact.

Now for the main event. Michelle Obama is due up next.

I've seen a transcript of Obama's speech to come, and it will come off pretty well to most people. She will explain why she loves this "great country." It will also contradict most of what she says when she isn't on stage. I've read her college thesis, I've heard her speak. The fact is, she boils everything down to race, and she is surprisingly bitter and oblivious to the opportunities her good fortune to live in this country have provided for her. No matter what she says or how she says, I don't buy it because it isn't authentic.

She's a sister, and a mother, and a daughter, and a wife, blah, blah. She is performing pretty well. If you know nothing about who she really is, I think you will like her. If this is you, please read this: Don't be Deceived by Michelle Obama's Image Makeover

She's talking about her husband's work in Chicago in the tough neighborhoods. She does note that he was a complete failure there, and even admitted that he didn't accomplish anything.

"It’s the story of men and women gathered in churches listening to Reverend Wright talk about black supremecy and union halls..."

"People like Hillary Clinton who put those 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling..." Huge cheer, obviously.

And that is why she loves the country. I'm waiting for her to pull up her sleeve and show off her new "I-heart-America" tattoo. She's an all-American girl, apple pie, Chevrolet (union side of course).

Did she just promise education for every American from pre-school through college? Really? These people are loons.

As predicted, she came off well. She's isn't bad when she's not talking about politics. Kinda like most liberals.

Abortion: The Desire to Murder?

Someone showed me an interesting piece on the abortion question by philosopher Olavo de Carvalho. It looks at the issue purely philosophically and comes to the conclusion that somewhere in the abortionists head is an actual desire to commit murder. I'm not sure I would go that far, but the rest of the analysis is excellent.

I have started to develop an acute sense of the distinction between the problems posed by the nature of things and the problems that exist just because some people want it to exist.

Well, the problem of abortion belongs, according to all evidences, to this second type. The dispute about abortion exists because the practice of abortion exists and not the opposite. Someone decides in favor of abortion - that is the premise of the existence of the abortion debate. But the premise of a debate cannot be its own logical conclusion...

As for the content of the debate, the opponents of abortion state that the fetus is a human being, that to kill it is a crime of homicide. The abortionists allege that the fetus is just a piece of tissue, a part of the mother's body, who has to have a right to cut it off at will. In the current score of this dispute, none of the sides managed to convince the other. And it is not even reasonable to expect it, since there is not even a minimal consensus in the current civilization about what belongs and what does not belong to the human nature, there are no common premises that could serve as basis to uneven the score...

Which leads to the following obvious, but brilliant, conclusion.

This equation is formulated as follows: if there are 50% of probability that the fetus is human and 50% of probability that it is not, to bet in the latter hypothesis is, literally, to choose an act that has 50% of chances of being a homicide.

With this perspective, the whole issue becomes clear to even the most obstinate of all minds. Since there is no absolute certainty of the non-humanity of the fetus, to extirpate it is to make a moral (or immoral) decision in the dark. We can preserve the life of this being and discover later that we have wasted our highest ethical feelings in a vain defense of what was, in the bottom line, a mere thing. But we also can decide to destroy it under the risk of discovering too late that it was a human being.

The author goes on from there, destroying a few other arguments of the pro-abortion side. Good stuff. It is one of the few anti-abortion pieces I've read that all reasonable minds should be able to agree with, not that they would.

Speaker Pelosi says We're All Going to Die if Obama Loses

Or something to that effect. She truly is becoming more unhinged with each passing day. From the Washington Times:

DENVER | For those who thought this was just another election, Nancy Pelosi says to wake up: the planet is at stake in the choice between Barack Obama and John McCain.

"We've got a planet to save. Nothing less is at stake other than civilization as we know it today," the California Democrat and speaker of the House told reporters Saturday afternoon in assessing the election and the nominating convention taking place here over the week.

The arrogance of these people is just astounding. On the one hand to think that man is powerful enough to do any serious damage to the Earth, and two, to think that they are powerful enough to stop it. Then again, Obama was able to haphazardly organize a community. So I suppose that's a logical leap.

Worst Speaker of the House ever. And it's not even close.

New McCain Ad Wonders Why Obama's Brother Lives on $1 a Month

I think it's a pretty fair question.

Dana Pico has a good post about it at Commonsense Political Thought.

Those Damn Racists

Sure they are black, but they are Republicans, so they don't count.

A group of black conservatives are welcoming Obama to Denver with 50 billboards pointing out the Martin Luther King Jr. was a Republican and would not have agreed with Obama's secularist agenda.

Forty-five years ago, on August 28, 1963, The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who was a Republican and embraced the traditional values that made this country great delivered his inspirational civil rights "I Have a Dream" speech.

Today, Senator Barack Obama, with the most liberal voting record in the US Senate, is delivering his political acceptance speech, in an apparent attempt to assume for himself the mantle of Dr. Martin Luther King.

Dr. King did not embrace the type of secularist agenda promoted by Obama and the Democratic Party of today, which includes fostering dependency on welfare that breaks up families, supporting same-sex marriage and partial-birth abortion, and banning God from the public square.

Obama is no MLK!

I applaud the group for sticking to its values rather than supporting Obama on the basis of skin color alone, as some supposed black conservatives have done.

Hillary Doesn't Tell Her Delegates to Vote for Obama

From Politico:

Speaking to reporters after her address to the New York delegation, Clinton offered delegates no instruction on how to cast their votes, Amie Parnes reports.

"I will be telling my delegates that I will vote for Barack Obama," she said. "How they vote is a more personal decision. They want to have their chance to vote for me. That is what traditionally happens ... some people are having to make up their minds because there are arguments pulling them both ways."

Many of Clinton's delegates have already made up their minds. Some of her pledged delegates will vote for the one that brung them. Many of her superdelegates — particularly those with substantial African-American constituencies — have already said they'll vote for Obama. Anthony Weiner (who's running for mayor of New York) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz are both in that category.

Some pretty lukewarm support for the soon-to-be party nominee.

Undecideds Leaning to McCain

Byron York of National Review has a good piece on a bit of polling Frank Luntz did of some undecided Colorado voters. The most telling part was where he asked the respondents to offer up a one-word description of the candidates:         

Obama:  

Scary, New, Terrifying, Charismatic, Unknown, Innovative, Inexperienced, Change, Hopeful, Smooth, Unaffordable, Apocalypse.

McCain:
Scary, Dependable, Strong, Patriot, Veteran, Bush Two, Older generation, Experienced, Honest, Older, Integrity, Repeat

Huge advantage to John McCain right there alone. Check out the piece for more. It also notes that people like John McCain's ads more, and find them more effective than Obama's.

The group's number one issue was “ending wasteful Washington spending and balancing the federal government,” another big McCain advantage.

Former Clinton Delegate Makes Ad for McCain

One of the 30% of Clinton supporters who say they will vote for John McCain or stay home on election day.

Hillary Supporters Going Ballistic

Good stuff this morning, as we have all sorts of news on Hillary supporters causing problems for the Dems and Barack Obama. The New York Post reports a petition being passed around to nominate Clinton for Veep instead of Joe Biden.

Enraged by reports that Sen. Clinton was not even vetted to join the Obama ticket, some of her delegates are now circulating a petition to force a floor vote on Clinton for vice president. It's hard for these diehards to understand why Clinton, who garnered 18 million votes, was passed over for Biden, whose standing in the polls was the same as comedian Stephen Colbert's.

The delegate who organized the move, Texas high-school teacher Aaron Paz, says the petition needs at least 300 signatures. So far he has about 500 commitments from national delegates to sign and circulate the petition.

Meanwhile, a political mentor of Barack Obama is accused of calling a Clinton supporter an "Uncle Tom," as Ed Morrissey of HotAir notes.

Cobb said the confrontation started when she and Jones, who is also African-American, were talking about an earlier conversation they had at the Bud Billiken Parade in Chicago. “One day, you’ll be on the right side,” Cobb said Jones told her. She told him she was on the right side. She said Jones pointed at his Obama hat and said, “No, this is the right side,” she said.

“Then he came up behind me. He said ‘Thirty-five thousand people went to Springfield [to support Obama on Saturday],’” she said. “I said, ‘Then 35,000 people drank the Kool-Aid.,’ He said, ‘Barack is a clean-cut guy. He never liked gutter politics, that’s why the Clintons did so-and-so. …’ I said, ‘I don’t want to get into this. So I went over to the elevator, and he said, ‘Uncle Tom!’ Then he grabbed me and hugged me and started laughing. I said, ‘What did you say?’ I turned to Freddrenna Lyle, and I said, ‘What did he say?’ She wouldn’t say anything, That’s when I said some bad things to him.”

Racial slurs toward Clinton supporters?That should win them over.

Last but not least, Bill Clinton is not at all happy with his speaking assignment. 

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.

Let the Convention of Discontent begin.

Dave Barry on The Democrat National Convention

Here's a pretty funny column by Dave Barry. The best parts:

This year there is high drama in the Mile High City as the Democrats gather under their official 2008 convention slogan: ``A Unified Party, United in Unity Together As One, Undivided.''

Already there has been sporadic gunfire between the Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton delegates. Political observers see this as indication that there is still some underlying tension between the two sides. Yes, Clinton has been making speeches urging her supporters to work for Obama; but at the same time she has also been using what one Obama adviser described as ``a lot of air quotes.''

It's hard to blame Sen. Clinton for being bitter. Here she is, the smartest human ever, PLUS she spent all those years standing loyally behind Bill Clinton wearing uncomfortable pantyhose (I mean Hillary was, not Bill) (although there are rumors), PLUS she went to the trouble and expense of acquiring a legal residence in New York State so she could be a senator from there, PLUS she assembled a team of nuclear-physicist-grade genius political advisors, PLUS she spent years going around to every dirtbag community in America explaining in detail her 23-point policy solutions for every single problem facing the nation including soybean blight. And after all that, she loses the nomination to a guy who has roughly the same amount of executive governmental experience as Hannah Montana. Hillary is like: ``Are you KIDDING me?''

Sen. Clinton is scheduled to address the convention Tuesday night, when she will either call on her supporters to unite behind Obama, or attempt to snatch the nomination and escape with it by helicopter to a secret mountain fortress. ''We are fully confident that Sen. Clinton will do the right thing,'' stated a Democratic party official, adding, ``but we have a net.''

The Obama-Clinton tension is only one of the dramatic storylines developing in Denver. Another one is Obama's choice of running mate. Following days of feverish media speculation over a list of names that at one point included the late Hubert Humphrey and a probably fictional congressperson named ''Chet Edwards,'' Obama, in a bold move, went with the one name guaranteed to send an electric shock of electricity through the spinal cord of American politics: Joe Biden.

This choice not only virtually locks up Delaware's electoral vote (which it shares with Wyoming) but it also buttresses the Obama team with one of the Senate's most vocal voices. Sen. Biden is scheduled to address the convention Wednesday night from 8:48 p.m. until dawn.

But in the end, the focus of this convention will be on Barack Obama, who on Thursday night will receive the nomination in long-overdue recognition of a distinguished career of seeking the nomination. His goal, in his acceptance speech, will be to win over the undecided voters -- the people who are unsure of what he really stands for, or who have received emailed rumors that he is a Muslim, or a socialist, or a vampire, or a lesbian. His goal will be to show, with no disrespect to the Muslim socialist vampire lesbian community, that he is a regular person just like you, except he has Vision and Leadership. After that, he will lay out his specific policies for building a brighter future. Then he will turn into a bat.

New Website up for College Football Picks

I have been a winning handicapper in college football and basketball for the last seven years or so. This year, instead of emailing my free picks to subscribers I will be posting them (along with my analysis) at Smartplays. My goal in doing this is to help people who enjoy wagering on sporting events to profit from doing so. My track record is solid, and if you enjoy that sort of thing I'm sure you will enjoy my new site.

I can't wait for college football to kickoff! We have the Democrat convention, college football and Obama's University of Illinois/William Ayres records coming out this week. Should be fun.

Top Referring Sites - Support My Friends

Readership is doubling each month here since I started this site in June. If you like this blog, please support the fine websites that send readers here. Bloggers, it isn't too late to crack the list for August.

Here are the top 10 sites I've received viewers from this month:

1. Conservative Grapevine
2. IMAO
3. The Patriot Room
4. little green footballs
5. Moonbattery
6. The Conspiracy to Keep You Poor and Stupid
7. Five Feet of Fury
8. Commonsense Political Thought
9. Right Wing News
10. Protein Wisdom

Thanks to all.

Biden Called the Iraq War Surge a "Tragic Mistake"

Joe Biden shared Barack Obama's opposition to the hugely-successful Iraq War surge.

From a 2007 Democrat debate:

MR. RUSSERT:  Senator Biden, let me start with you.  If President Bush calls for more American troops to Iraq, the so-called surge, Joe Biden will say...

SEN. BIDEN:  No.  But there’s not much I can do about it.  Not much anybody can do about it.  He’s commander in chief.  If he surges another 20, 30, or whatever number he’s going to, into Baghdad, it’ll be a tragic mistake, in my view, but, as a practical matter, there’s no way to say, “Mr.  President, stop.”

A tragic mistake would be letting either of these two step foot into the Oval Office.

Live-blogging the Obama-Biden Springfield Appearance

I'm doing the work you don't want to do, watching Obama and Biden get together to announce their ticket. Underway as we speak, I will update...

Two minutes underway and Obama utters lie number one, that America is in a recession. By definition it is not even close.

Obama says Biden's core values include the belief that in America you can "make it if you try." Too bad Obama doesn't believe that.

Damn, five minutes in and I'm wondering why Biden isn't at the top of the ticket. His qualifications dwarf Obama's by Obama's own accounting.

"A friend to the underdog." So Obama agrees with me?

He fought for minimum wage increases, family leave. Both horrible ideas. See the right sidebar for why minimum wage laws suck.

"A statesman with sound judgment who doesn't have to hide behind bluster to keep America strong." Great line from Obama, people who already support Obama will love it, because it means nothing, but sounds good. "Real straight talk." Another good line for his supporters.

Biden knows every conductor on the train to Wilmington. "That's the kind of fighter I want by my side." Huh?

Bush-bashing, crowd loved it. Bush wants to keep you down, and if you don't watch out he will poison your kids.

Mr. Hair-Plug himself (that would be Biden) jogs to the stage to the tune of something that sounds country, possibly titled "Come on up."

Quotes Lincoln, something about having his feet stuck in the mud.

"That American dream under 8 years of Bush and McCain is slipping away." McCain was Vice President? I missed that. Thank you Joe Biden for correcting my ignorance.

We can't afford tax cuts. That will play well with the over-taxed people of America.

Rips McCain for having money. Where was this when John Kerry was running for President?

Oil companies are the reason we don't have cheaper gas, not Biden for refusing to support drilling. That'll ring hollow to anyone with a brain.

He likes to yell. Should be a good attack-dog if he can avoid putting his foot in his mouth. Problem is, he can't.

I'm a friend of McCain, but he can't change America when he supports GW Bush. Mocks McCain for saying the truth, that the economy has been very good overall under Bush. 

McCain = Bush. This is an interesting tack. If Bush is Hitler, why does Biden consider himself a friend of someone who is "just like him?"

Did he just call Obama a man who will "be the next President of the United States of Barack America?"

My God I think he did.

No of. "The Next President of the United States, Barack America" was the quote. Foot, meet mouth.

Steel in Obama's spine. That one was funny.

"He is a clear-eyed pragmatist." If that were true, he just lost half his voters.

Biden, "My wife Jill, who is drop-dead gorgeous." I liked that, it was kinda cute.He comes off fairly likable for a guy who screams demagoguery about one-quarter of the time. 

Did I just hear a few boos when he finished up his speech with "God bless America, and may he protect our troops!"?

Team McCain's response:

“Barack Obama sounded as though he turned over the top spot on the ticket today to his new mentor, when he introduced Joe Biden as the next president. The reality is that nothing has changed since Joe Biden first made his assessment that Barack Obama is not ready to lead. He wasn’t ready then and he isn’t ready now.”