7:04 PM Bill is up.

Please stop.
Thank you.
Sit down please.
Thank you.
Please stop.
I love this, but we have important work to do here tonight.

The first thing I note is that for all the plaudits Obama received for being a great speaker, he can't hold a candle to Bill.

Bill mentions Jimmy Carter. Where is Carter?

Its a strange speech, because Bill is telling us what Obama will do---and its always going to be the right thing. Bill is John the Baptist and the Messiah comes tomorrow.

It was a blustering, dishonest speech, expertly delivered. Basically it went like this--the country is ruined, Americans are demoralized, everyone hates us. We need to go back to things the way there were when I was president, and Barack Obama agrees with me, so you should vote for him.. You could spend a week picking this speech apart, but what would be the point--this was red meat for the Pepsi center audience.

Therein lies, what I think is the subterfuge. No one knows better than Bill Clinton that when you address a convention, you are talking to thousands of people in front of you, as well as two people sitting on a couch in their living room. If you focus your speech on the crowd, it seems like yelling in the living room, and that is precisely what Bill Clinton did--almost as if he wanted to mitigate the effectiveness of his message without making it obvious.

Like yesterday, it was all about the Clintons tonight.

Like yesterday, it was an endorsement of policy, an endorsement of the party, but not a personal endorsement of Barack Obama. Obama remains candidate X, the generic Democrat candidate.

Ironically, Bill alluded to this--dishonestly of course, but he nevertheless alluded to it by pointing out that in 1992, he was declared as too inexperienced to be president. What he didn't say is that he won the election with less than 40% of the popular vote--the Democrat base that any generic Democrat candidate would have received.

If Obama can't convince Americans that he is ready to be president, that's about the kind of popular vote total he can expect too.

You have to see it to believe it, so here it is. (courtesy Breitbart TV)

And they said Bush presided over an Imperial Presidency.

Ya gotta love this guy--he's the gift that keeps on giving. Republicans can make hay from now until November, and at this point, this is their election to screw up.

They can screw it up of course--I'm a little nervous about McCain's announcement of his running mate. The GOTV program is going to be extremely important since it looks like there will be many states with razor thin margins. McCain needs lot of lawyers to preclude the inevitable Democrat ballot box shenanigans, and an army of extremely well-organized volunteers to execute. This is where the trial balloons about a pro-choice pick are demonstrably media schtick, because Republicans rely heavily on Evangelicals and Mormons for their informal networks and volunteer force. If he loses that, he might still do well in the polls, but he crashes and burns on election day when the Democrats loose the hounds.

McCain has been, if not unfailing smart, humble enough to ditch the losers and change his approach. Its a good sign. I hope it lasts.

UPDATE: In spite of the fact that he doesn't post very often, Varifrank remains among my very favorite bloggers and stuff like this is why.

Apollo: I would have cherished you, cared for you. I would have loved you as a father loves his children. Did I ask so much?
Kirk: We've outgrown you. You asked for something we can no longer give.

The left, panicked by the laughter, are pointing out that Bush had a temple too.

Yeah, well that looks like a representation of the White House and a reminder that we were reelecting a sitting President--and it worked. Perhaps this is what Obama was going for, a faux White House setting, like the faux presidential seal.

Its even more ridiculous.

A mind is a terrible thing to waste...part 2. Or should I say Part II. (Don't know the Greek letters.) Charles Krauthammer--has Obama lost his mind?"

UPDATE: As Mick has noted, lost control too. Jay Cost, RCP:

This is Obama's doing. He is the nominee. He could have given Hillary the vice-presidential nomination. Choosing her would have totally changed the convention for the better. But Obama didn't choose her. He tapped Joe Biden instead. As a consequence, he's lost control of his own convention.

At a time when the name of Barack's bomber buddy Bill Ayers is staining the airwaves and the Obama campaign is attempting damage control by attempting to quash the free speech of an independent group, what in God's name possessed Michelle Obama to invoke the sentiments of radical Saul Alinsky--unless it is ingrained. HT Gateway Pundit. Gee, how come the Tribune didn't mention this--their headline isolated the quote in question.

So there you have it--Michelle Obama is a radical sympathizer too. Not a surprise. Not a surprise at all. I guess Barack wasn't kidding when he said she was a fellow traveler. He meant to suggest ordinary women would identify with her. I don't think so.

As National Review puts it, this time about Ayers, how many domestic terrorists do you know?

UPDATE: Rush is all over the Obama-Alinsky connection. Washington Post describes Barack's counterattack on the Ayers connection:

Obama campaign lawyer Robert F. Bauer replied: "If someone rides up to a convenience store with a sawed-off shotgun and a prior record, I'm not intimidating anybody by calling the cops. . . . If this [Republican] campaign is going to be run in McCarthyite fashion by lawbreakers in an illegal way, they are going to pay a price.

--crossposted at BackyardConservative

"Obama does not like Clinton, and Clinton knows it," asserted one longtime Clinton adviser, a refrain that several compatriots repeated almost word for word, though occasionally in stronger terms.

Whether the reverse is true, and whether it matters as much, are less clear. Clinton associates say he was embittered earlier this summer but appears to have moved past that. They noticed a change at a dinner in Las Vegas on Aug. 19 celebrating his 62nd birthday, where, as one friend put it, "he was very matter-of-fact about it all." It appears obvious to people on both sides that Obama and Clinton are acute political animals who could bridge the divide if it became mutually beneficial for their long-term prospects. But Clinton and his friends are uncertain that Obama sees the necessity yet.

You gotta love the fact that its a convention to nominate Obama, and yet all anyone can talk about is the Clintons. Even more humorous is the idea that the Clintons are holding out the hand of fellowship, but that Obama remains suspicious, distrustful and ambivalent.

Do the Clintons really support Barack Obama (peace be upon him)?

Let's stop parsing what he said, she said, he done, she done and look at the big picture.

Politics is the Clinton family business in a way you couldn't say about the Bush or Kennedy families. Those families are involved in politics, but for the most part they have other interests. Not true for the Clintons. Bill Clinton has been running for something since he was in his twenties. Hillary has been obsessively dedicated to his political career beyond all reason, enduring serial humiliations of the most public kind.

Bill wins the big one, and gets elected President. Its the top right? You can't get any better than that. Does he bask in the Elder Statesman role? Play golf? Well yes, but this is possibly the most ambitious, self-centered man in the world and there is one thing he doesn't have, one thing left to do.

Build a dynasty.

Continue reading "Dancing with Wolves" »

Maureen Dowd captures the "submerged hate" haunting the Dems in Denver. And I haunt 'em over at BlogHer, with the post they requested I write entitled, A Conservative View of the DNC.

From Powerline:

As soon as it was over, though, we began to hear from core Clinton supporters at the convention that they are "still bitter." Many seem reluctant to devote much energy to the Obama campaign, but that won't worry Obama since he's hardly short of foot soldiers. But some of Clinton's supporters are still being coy about how they will vote in November.

Given the virtual absence of substantive differences between the two Democratic rivals, it's difficult to imagine these core supporters not voting for Obama when push comes to shove. If it turns out that more than a handful of them don't, Clinton-style feminism will be exposed as an absurdity, as opposed to something that's badly out-of-date.

I was surprised at this, because if anything should be clear at this point, its that Clinton's feminist core isn't particular rational--after all, they supported Clinton largely on the basis that she is a woman.

Paul Mirengoff make need to expand his social circle a little. Does he forget that Ross Perot attracted 18.9% of the popular vote in 1992, thus electing Bill Clinton? How rational was that?

Politics, for the vast majority of voters, isn't a rational process--listen to the rhetoric at the DDNC and it becomes obvious.

I've been renewing my acquaintance with Joe Biden and I was struck at how perfectly he matches Barack Obama--both have built careers based on illusions with varying success.

I wasn't so much offended by Barack Obama's (peace be upon him) hopey-changey schtick, as astonished at how well in played within a certain demographic. It shook my faith in democracy, in the wisdom of the masses. It dawned on me that I was watching propaganda at work, and that like all propaganda, its effects were temporary. True ignorance, on display at the DNC, is willful.

The country has caught on to Obama far more quickly than I expected, especially considering the collusion of the mainstream media.

Joe Biden's history is nothing if not a series of attempts to create a compelling, if fake narrative for public consumption, and like Obama, he saw it dissipate like the morning dew when the truth came out.

Continue reading "Soulmate" »

Ironically Obama did better in the primaries when people got to see each other vote:

The Denver Post reports that convention organizers have hit upon a scheme to head off trouble by making delegates vote from their hotel rooms, thereby preventing dangerous concentrations of Clinton delegates from forming on the floor. “The move being worked out between the Obama campaign and officials behind Clinton’s suspended bid, would work in two parts: Delegates would cast votes at their hotels Wednesday morning; that night, at the Pepsi Center convention site, the roll-call process would rely on the votes cast that morning, the delegates said.

What constitutes a "dangerous concentration of Clinton delegates"?

Does that mean we can count on Obama to support secret ballots for union elections too.

Is he practicing?

Romney waded into the housing kerfuffle in Denver.

Speaking to reporters at a lunch sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, Romney said that while McCain deserved his houses because of the "hard work" of himself and his family, "Barack Obama got a special deal from a convicted felon."

All in good fun, but a more serious question is if Romney is tagged as the running mate, are his criticism of McCain on par with Hillary Clinton's and Joe Biden's?

He also said he isn't worried about his criticisms of McCain during the primaries being replayed because he never said he wasn't qualified. The McCain ads showing Biden criticizing Obama are "more powerful," Romney said, because Biden did question his new running mate's readiness to be president.

Good point, as usual for the wicked smart one.

If this is a taste of what Bill is going to say tomorrow, its going to be a long night.

"Suppose for example 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 person can deliver on anything. Candidate Y disagrees with you on half the issues, but you believe that on the other half, the candidate will be able to deliver. For whom would you vote?"

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."

Yeah, yeah, OK (wink, nudge, nudge...)

The guy just can't help himself, and no one can rein him in.

The polls are in--Biden brought zero to the ticket.

Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Aug. 23-25, the first three-day period falling entirely after Obama's Saturday morning vice presidential announcement, shows 46% of national registered voters backing John McCain and 44% supporting Obama, not appreciably different from the previous week's standing for both candidates. This is the first time since Obama clinched the nomination in early June, though, that McCain has held any kind of advantage over Obama in Gallup Poll Daily tracking.

Biden couldn't get elected the vice-president of the Hair Club for Men.

At this point, I'd say Obama gets no bounce from the convention either. There's been excitement, but none directed at his campaign.

Democrats once again show a Where's Waldo approach to history. Via The Campaign Spot:

CQ notes that the video tribute to deceased Democrats ran Republican Sen. Joseph McCarthy's name under a picture of Democratic Sen. Eugene McCarthy.

Finally, the Democrats acknowledge the presence of Communists in the American government.

Ramesh: "They're stopping at nothing to claim the patriotism card this year."

Live-blogging tonight's rah-rah in Denver.

Gov. Mark Warner is up.

This is the race for the future. What the hell does that mean? This entire campaign has been about building a bridge back to 1968. The guy is dreadful. The DNC appears to be trying to boost his Senate run. (Howard Wolfson called the speech a "missed opportunity" and "a disappointment")

There is a lot of anticipation of the Hillary speech, but its all just too silly. Hillary can't make people take Obama seriously--only Obama can do that. She's going to get up there, say the words, smile and wave at the crowd--see you in four years. Democrats are used to ignoring what their politicians say. Consider this enlightening comment from Page Six.

Genre editor Neal Boulton told us. "I openly - no, flamingly - endorse Obama, whether he says he's for gay marriage or not. . . . I know under Obama, it will only be a matter of time until the country sees the legalization of gay marriage."

Wait--I just saw Bill Clinton grab a woman's ass...

Continue reading "Hillary" »

Apparently the DOJ is not moving fast enough for the Obama campaign--throw the conservatives in jail right now!

Obama general counsel Bob Bauer today sent a second, sharper letter to the Justice Department, directly attacking the Dallas billionaire funding a harsh attack ad, Harold Simmons.

"We reiterate our request that the Department of Justice fulfill its commitment to take prompt action to investigate and to prosecute the American issues Project, and we further request that the Department of Justice investigate and prosecute Howard (sic) Simmons for a knowing and willful violation of the individual aggregate contribution limits," he wrote.

The American Issues Project called it what it is--fascism.

"Having failed in its attempts to get our legal, factual and fully-supported ad off the air, Barack Obama's campaign now wants to put our donors in prison for exercising their right to free speech," said Ed Martin, the group's president. "These over-the-top bullying tactics are reminiscent of the kind of censorship one would see in a Stalinist dictatorship, with the only difference being that those guys generally had to wait until they were in power to throw people who disagreed with them into jail."

Nobody is going to jail. They may pay a fine--in 2009.

The two things that bother me about this are that you have to go through a bunch of legal hoops to exercise your first amendment right. Simmons can give as much money as he likes to the 501c, but it must perform some function other than criticizing or promoting a candidate.

The second of course is that this is a really bad signal for what we can expect from an Obama presidency--using the federal bureaucracy to punish his political opponents--IRS audits, DOJ investigations and actual political prisoners. You can see Barack Obama in the Oval Office, crouched over his yellow legal pad, writing down the names of his enemies...

Last night, DDay asked a very reasonable question: "If a 30-year Democrat spoke at the RNC, excoriated his former party, and endorsed the Presidential candidate of the opposite party, would the media cover it?"

DDay was referring, of course, to former Rep. Jim Leach of Iowa, a respected, long-time Republican lawmaker who not only endorsed Barack Obama, but appeared at the Democratic convention last night to urge others to follow his lead.

Steve Benen's problem is his premise--Jim Leach is not respected, he's former.

Zell Miller was a mover and shaker in the Democrat party and represented an important demographic--the last hold out white Democrats south of the Mason-Dixon line. Joe Lieberman is a former Vice-Presidential nominee and once again, representing an alienated constituency--sane Democrats on the issue of national security. That's why we pay attention to them, that's why the media pays attention.

What constituency does Jim Leach represent? RINOs? His defeat was a long-time coming and virtually inevitably in heavily Democrat tri-cities area of Iowa.

The guy just doesn't matter, and in fact has long been part of the problem in the Republican party. His humiliation is now complete--he betrayed his party and no one noticed.

I stayed up to watch it and from my perspective, McCain did more to humanize himself in five minutes that the entire first day of the Democrat National Convention did for Barack Obama.

Continue reading "McCain on Leno" »

Obama is going to lose. There I said it.

The reasons are obvious:

He doesn't have the experience to run a McDonalds, let alone the country.

He's liberal to the point of absurdity, voting against post-abortion care for infants that survive the process.

He's dishonest. Obama has just flat out lied to the country almost too many times to count. His flexibility on principle is alienating Democrats almost to the same degree its turned off independents and conservatives.

Its looking more and more like he's also corrupt

Its not surprising really, since the Democratic party is at its foundation, a corrupt enterprise. Bush has been pilloried for much, much less, all in the name of the pursuit of power. We should overlook Obama's failings for no more reason that the Democrats want, need, deserve to be in power.

Unable to convince Americans of the merits of this the suit that reads teleprompters, the left-wing media and political hacks are darkly and broadly hinting that if Obama fails to get elected its for one reason only: racism.

Things are supposed to be looking rosy for Democrats this November. But in case Barack Obama loses the Presidency, an excuse is all ready to go: America's too racist to elect a black man. Not even, in his Vice Presidential pick Joe Biden's inimitable description, one so "articulate and bright and clean."

This narrative has gained traction with the Democratic Presidential candidate's recent setbacks in the polls. We hear it from the convention crowd in Denver and liberals in the press. The older, poorer, white, often Hillary voter who sounds ambivalent about the Obama coronation is an enticing scapegoat.

"Call me crazy, but isn't it possible, just possible, that Obama's lead is being inhibited by the fact that he is, you know, black?" wrote John Heilemann in New York magazine earlier this month. "What makes Obama's task of scoring white votes at Kerry-Gore levels so formidable is, to put it bluntly, racial prejudice."

In this week's Newsweek (and on Slate), Jacob Weisberg reasoned that only some "crazy irrationality over race" could prevent Mr. Obama from winning the White House. If he does win, America will have reached post-prejudice Nirvana. "If Obama loses, our children will grow up thinking of equal opportunity as a myth," Mr. Weisberg continued. "To the rest of the world, a rejection of the promise he represents wouldn't just be an odd choice by the United States. It would be taken for what it would be: sign and symptom of a nation's historical decline." Wow. Vote for Barack, or America is as irredeemable as many foreigners believe.

Stupid is as stupid does.

I saw a number of interviews with former Hillary supporters that now support McCain. Predictably, they've gotten high-school quality abuse from their erstwhile political fellow-travelers, and just as predictably, their reaction has been to dig in their heels and flip the bird. The conservative estimate is that 15% of Hillary voters are lost to Obama--that's a game changer. Now imagine calling the entire country a bunch of chicken-plucking, cousin-marrying racists?

Yeah, that'll work.

People make their own hell, usually as a result of their irrational attachment to their denial. Next time, nominate a honest, likeable guy with moderate views, a whole lot of experience who isn't schtupping the interns...

The Obama campaign is worried, very worried about Barack Obama's (peace be upon him) relationship with mad bomber Bill Ayers.

The blogosphere has been buzzing with conjecture over why records for a non-profit are suddenly unavailable. Preliminary study indicates that the relationship between Ayer and Obama was a lot more involved than the candidate has admitted to.

In other words, he's being caught in another lie.

Yet just as interesting is how the campaign is reacting to the prospective scandal--preemption and intimidation.

Unexpectantly, the Obama campaign has put up a TV ad asking why John McCain is so interested in William Ayers.

Only one problem--John McCain hasn't asked the question.

Continue reading "I didn't do it. Nobody saw me do it. You can't prove anything" »

It appears that no matter how many people a Muslim kills in this country, or no matter how much cyanide one finds in their possession, its not a terrorist attack.

On the other hand, if someone has a shaved head and tattoo, they're obviously involved with an assassination plot against Barack Obama.

Police have arrested three people they believe are linked to a white supremacy group in connection with a threat to possibly assassinate Sen. Barack Obama during the Democratic National Convention.

NBC News has learned that federal officials are downplaying the arrests, saying when one of the men was arrested, he made a threat against Obama, but they do not believe it was based on any kind of plan or actually intent.

"It looks like one guy just made a remark trying to act important," one federal official told NBC News.

However, other sources have told 9NEWS the three men may be connected to skinheads and that it appears they were involved in an assassination plot.

Aurora Police arrested the first man, 28-year-old Tharin Gartrell of Centennial, early Sunday morning after a routine traffic stop. During the traffic stop, officers found two rifles, boxes of ammunition, one rifle scope, a bullet proof vest, walkie-talkies and methamphetamines. Gartrell is being held in the Arapahoe County jail in lieu of $50,000 bond and has a felony criminal record.

Note to readers--its hunting season in Colorado.