Stasi tactics from Camp Obama

Anne de Brux

Madam,

You are out of your depth!

Brita

Spot on, Melanie.

They've been operating on this level for years in less public places-including businesses, schools and universities. However stealthy they are, it eventually becomes obvious when they target individuals in this way, and I thank God that the process is not translating so well for the larger audience. Perhaps many of them have already experienced, participated in, or been disgusted by the business on its smaller scale. That's why I think you're perceptive in suggesting that people are beginning to look 'above the sandbags' etc!

BTW, in the US media, I'm not witnessing so much awareness of this or of the Obama decline as you report, though I would like to! Maybe the BBC World Service and NPR are the wrong places to tune into - but some regular and influential commentators may be getting ready to negate accusations of bias. I keep listening...

Meanwhile, people say: "We don't hear anything about that here." Tell them the euSSR is fascist and they 'know' - but don't think it matters.....

Cheeser

Yes, it is becoming increasingly obvious that Obama is rattled !I am even starting to feel sorry for him! I obviously lack that ruthless streak. I pray that John McCain does not lack it too, for Sarah Palin has expertly presented him with the opening advantage in this campaign which he now needs to capitalise on by exposing every little last chink in the no longer so impregnable Obarmour ! Rely on the good-hearted American public to do the rest!

Norm

It's the American version of NuLabour. Same tactics that TBlair and his cohorts used against the Conservatives. I hope Americans look carefully at how the lives of ordinary people in the UK are now manipulated at every opportunity by such a Government.

Augustus

A brilliant piece by Melanie. what can one say? it's just brilliant!

ndm

Melanie Phillips writes:

That is why her interview is at this very moment being misreported and distorted even though millions of people watched and heard it.

The Sarah Palin interview is widely viewed as a disaster. It showed Palin to be wholly unprepared for serious national office. Melanie Phillips should be embarrassed to claim otherwise.

Straydingo

Anne de Brux,

I think you have just proved Melanie's point :)

FinanceDoc

Is Obama a man or a moose?

Thanks Melanie; I needed a good laugh!

Andrew

Anne de Brux: I'm guessing you're a supporter of Barack Hussein Obama. Kindly explain how you view the following Statement:

"The Vision Statement of Trinity United Church of Christ is based upon the systematized Black Liberation Theology that started in 1969 with the publication of Dr James H Cone's book, Black Theology and Black Power." In his book, Cone states:-

"Black Theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the gods of the Black Community. If God is not for us and against White people, then he is a murderer and we had better kill him. The task of Black Theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the Black Community...What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of Black People to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must rject his love...Black Theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the White Enemy."

I call that racism. What do you call it, Anne? Barack Hussein Obama attended that 'church' for 20 years; he received monthly church newsletters praising racist and Jew-hater Louis Farrakhan; he listened to the 'sermons' of the Reverend Wright, full of hatred for America and its people and available on video for sale to all congregants; he and his wife took their two children there. Obama never expected to be 'outed' by his good friends, the colluding 'mainstream media': it was the blogosphere that checked out his church and its "commitment to Africa" with nary a mention of Jesus Christ. Old media delights in attacking Christianity, accusing it of endless atrocities and will investigate the religious affiliations of every conservative candidate, yet has attempted to spin Obama's presence in this disgusting entity into nothing more than a problem with a 'preacher man," nothing to do with Obama himself. I've yet to note one single supporter of Obama who will even acknowledge this. No person who attended such a place for 20 years can be taken seriously when he speaks of his wish to be a 'uniter'. Like so much else about Obama, it cannot be justified. You, and all who attempt to ignore this, are the ones who are "out of your depth."

FinanceDoc

The MSM and democrats don’t get it yet. The reason why Palin is proving to be such a popular choice for VP and why she may be the deciding factor in the election comes down to four words:

She’s one of us.

In a nation of the people, by the people, and for the people, Palin is being embraced as a true peoples’ candidate, perhaps even more so than Clinton or Reagan were embraced in their time. She is rightly viewed as the antithesis of Obama — anti-elite, a leader who lives, works, and thinks outside the Beltway, and someone who is not a product of political machinery. A woman who gets the kids ready for school in the morning and signs legislative bills in the afternoon.

The war hero and the hockey mom: a formidable combination.

lipstick

Melanie writes that "(leftwingers) characteristically flinch from engaging in proper argument with their political opponents by debating the issues. No, what they invariably do instead is to reach for the insult and the smear".

Well, never an insult from Melanie of course. Still less a smear. And of course the only memorable story from the US this week was around Obama allegedly calling Palin a pig - an entirely got up smear that had nothing to do with debating any issue.

Anglica

de Brux couldn't be some supporter of Brussells and its shenanikins, could she? Obviously, they want a fellow socialist in the White House....

And yes, Straydingo - Brux's supercilious sneer is part and parcel of Melanie's argument!

Bill M

Unfortunately, at the same time McCain can take advantage of this nonsense, he has also just said that Obama's record of community service was outstanding and that he would be willing to have him as a cabinet member. Brilliant.

N

Melanie,
I always love your comments but i have one question. You say that the left doesn't want an argument. Obama has challenged McCain to several debates which McCain has always backed out of. Maybe the right don't want an argument. So far, the right and McCain have only focused on the smear attacks instead of the real issues. When Obama said his "pig" comment the right blew up all over him, an extremely low thing to do and his comment wasn't even at Palin! I think you are correct about the left, but don't forget the right.

Verity

It's fun watching Obama being picked apart. Oh, the Schadenfreude! Like Hitler, he's a hard, egomaniacal leftist. How long before he'd have been holding youth rallies?

Oh! - wait a minute! It never gets mentioned in the British press, but what is Obama's brave new world "civilian militia" all about? This "civilian militia" that is going to be "as well funded as our military"?

What?

Why? What's wrong with the police? With tanks and planes and thousands of armed people patrolling the streets? What on earth was its purpose?

Obama, who is melting satisfactorily, like the Wicked Witch of the West, was perfect, because if you didn't like him, you were a racist. If you didn't want to vote for him, you were a racist. He was the ne plus ultra for a fascist leader. Untouchable because of his colour. Harvard. Never mind his dodgy background. Never mind that he didn't know how many states there are in the United States in an interview.

I've said from the first that his childhood and background seemed curiously, eerily, contrived.

Now the left media in the US - and in Britain, although why the hell they think they have a dog in this hunt is a mystery -is spitting and hissing venomously.

I've watched interviews with Governor Palin and this gal is an ace. She's a professional politician and she thinks on her feet. Fast. And she shows no signs of being perturbed. She stays courteous. But she gets her points through. She also employs an old leftie trick of answering a question that the interviewer didn't ask, which must drive them nuts.

But this woman has nerves of steel. The left's having a collective nervous breakdown. It's fun to read the British lefty media, who write as though they sincerely believe that someone in the United States is going to read their words.

(They read Melanie's words, though. LGF always picks her pieces up.)

Verity

N - do you understand that Senator McCain has declined to participate in informal debates, but will, of course, be paricipating in the presidential debates?

He's an ex-military man. Why would he give away his ammunition before the battle was engaged?

Richard

Melanie, incisive as usuala and I could not agree more.
The exception here is that would disagree with your use of the terms "left" and "right" because I agree with Nick Cohen that these terms are being drained of meaning in this new political age. However, I cannot find words to replace them... So they will have to do for now!

Joe Camel

Something just found on the Corner, the National Review blog. Abridgment of posts by Jonah Goldberg and Mark Steyn:

Quote of the day: “It’s extraordinary that someone who wants to be our president and our commander in chief doesn’t know how to send an e-mail.” (Obama spokesman Dan Pfeiffer, about the Democrats’ new “computer illiterate” ad.)

It’s even more extraordinary that Dan Pfeiffer, like the rest of the Obama team – evidently including the great Barry himself – knows how to send an e-mail but not how to do a Google search. If they did, they would have found this from the Boston Globe, March 4, 2000:

“McCain’s severe war injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes.”

The reason McCain doesn’t send e-mail is that he can’t use a keyboard because of the severe beatings he received in his long years of imprisonment in Vietnam.

Verity

Sorry for two posts in a row, but over here in N America, Whoopi Goldberg, who has always been as "funny" as a stun gun, asked John McCain whether, if he is elected President, Sarah Palin will return her to slavery.

Joe Camel

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/378772_murdockonline12.html

More on the Obama campaign: How important it really is for Barry to close the wage gap between women and men.

Answer: Not very.

John

NDM,

What is the evidence for your gratuitous statement that the interview:

"...showed Palin to be wholly unprepared for serious national office..."

I watched the interview and saw no such thing. What I did see was a blatant low blow played by Gibson from the jump when he asked her about her views on the "Bush doctrine". Gibson should have known full well that there is no such thing as a formal "Bush doctrine" - so how on earth could such a question be answered? In such circumstances, I thought she was the model of diplomacy. If I had been answering, I would have asked Gibson to first define it, otherwise ask another question.

Gibson's interview was just another another example of left wing media bias - they just cannot steer the middle ground and remain objective. It's completely beyond them.

Catherine

Brava, Ms. Phillips!

The media is taking heat from the public for their lies and calumny.

At several McCain-Palin rallies, the crowds booed and hissed at journalists attending, calling them, "Liars!", and other names.

The most egregious smearers, like US Weekly magazine, and MSNBC are suffering losses in readership and viewership.

US journalists are headed towards a backlash.

And it's about time.

Catherine

Re: Bill - "Unfortunately, at the same time McCain can take advantage of this nonsense, he has also just said that Obama's record of community service was outstanding and that he would be willing to have him as a cabinet member. Brilliant."

Pure rhetoric. Obama recently spoke of pigs and lipstick. McCain speaks generously and inclusively.

One is a cad. One is a gentleman.

It's all about public perception now.

John de Arme

Hahahahahaha - sorry, only got as far as the first comment.

Irony? Or incomprehension?

GeoffM

Melanie, is it possible to provide a central point at which you can list Obama's dodgy connections and views?

I would be immensely valuable AND a fantastic link to send to any deluded leftists we come across!

Ann

"Obama has challenged McCain to several debates which McCain has always backed out of"

And vice versa, mate.

"When Obama said his "pig" comment the right blew up all over him, an extremely low thing to do"

Low thing, eh? Objecting to a sicko comment from a sicko?

JJS

Melanie says: "This is fast becoming an election about the gross abuse of power."

Indeed, so was Bush's first "election" 2000. In fact, gross abuse of power is now endemic -- from Mugabe to Brown to Putin....

Pip

Well said Melanie.

G_d help America and the World if this 'Trojan Horse' gets given the keys to the Whitehouse.

Fgs, wake up people!

JimBob

Melanie is absolutely spot on. Obama is a fake and a weasel just like Blair and I hope Americans see through him

Conservative Cabbie

ndm said: "The Sarah Palin interview is widely viewed as a disaster. It showed Palin to be wholly unprepared for serious national office. Melanie Phillips should be embarrassed to claim otherwise."

Where did you get that idea? Wait, let me guess, Daily Kos and Andrew Sullivan. How does 1 interview show someone to be wholly unqualified for office?

Let me tell you about being wholly unqualified.
1. A person who says "that's above my paygrade" when asked when human rights starts.
2. A person who thinks a problem with Russia can be solved through the UN security council.
3. A person who associates with unrepentant terrorists.
4. A person who would rather preach to 200,000 reverant germans than visit wounded American soldiers because there were no cameras present.
5. A person who votes to kill babies. (See Born Alive Act).
6. A person who votes to cut off funding to soldiers while they're fighting abroad.

That's a person who is wholly unsuitable for high office, and that man is Barack Obama.

Joe Camel

John, how right you are about the Bush doctrine. And how right (up to a point) Sarah Palin was. Her interrogator, Charles Gibson, got it wrong.

That’s the verdict of Charles Krauthammer. He ought to know, if anybody does: he’s the one who originally coined the expression “the Bush doctrine.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/12/AR2008091202457.html

Verity

John de Arme - "Irony or incomprehension?" Neither. Slithering leftie viciousness.

Geoff M - "Melanie, is it possible to provide a central point at which you can list Obama's dodgy connections and views?"

Hello? Did Melanie put in a job application to be an internet researcher? I must have missed that bit. That is what God gave us Google for.

N writes that Obamaroo has "challenged McCain to a series of debates which McCain always backed out of".

Incorrect. As he never backed in to - as he he didn't accept - the emotive term "backed out of" is manipulative and is, in fact, a lie. He declined.

The formal debates are known as "the Presidential Debates". Why would President-in-Waiting John McCain wish to give away his debating points in a high school auditorium? Obama is a sly, self-regarding little lefty, but he does not get to set the agenda for the American election. This is another example of his raw aggression.

BTW, how is the hard-faced, vicious Mrs Obama faring these days? We haven't seen her hard, angry face on TV recently.

JimBob - Absolutely. Like Blair, he may be able to use his malice and incompetence as a springboard to non-appointments, like 'Middle Eastern Envoy" or maybe "Southeast Asian Envoy" as he went to school Jakarta for while. Either way, after this, he won't lack for money and private planes.

Augustine

Thank God for Melanie Phillips!

N - you said McCain backed out of debates with Obama. Your facts are wrong - it was the other way around. McCain has been trying to convince Obama to do a town-hall style head-to-head for months. But Obama flinched. Sure, he's good on the podium, but as we saw at Saddleback, he can't give unscripted answers to questions.

Watch him burn at the presidential debates coming up...

Conservative Cabbie

Clever line this week was "Charles Gibson called Sarah Palin's confidence in running for office hubris, however, when it's Barack Obama, it's audacity".

logdon

'Is Obama a man or a moose?' For that little bon mot alone, this piece is worth it's weight in gold. Tried with Gordon, the Mouse that Whored (our Britain) it achieves double Scottish accented resonance. As for the pretentious (Madam, indeed!) Anne de Brux she'd be better off scuttling back to the ignoramuses (or is that ignoramooses?) of her equally pretentious nom de plume in Brussels. Or is it her real name? If she's reading this we may well soon know!

logdon

Geoff M,

There is a site, Pajamas Media in the US which is an excellent source for all things Obamified in words and truth. They, unlike the fawning US MSM at least present the story with a less gasping with puerile, lickspittle adulation this charlaton has garnered.

Verity

Conservative Cabbie refers to Obama preaching before a few hundred "reverent Germans". It's my understanding that the crowd understood they had to stand pretending to listen to the speech (through earphones and an instant translator well out of sight), in return for free beer and a free concert afterwards.

Young people in Germany don't give a stuff about Obama. Listening with reverence and enthusiasm to an Americn politician (especially one who isn't even the President) finished when the Berlin Wall came down decades ago, before these kids were born.

Simon

You couldn't make it up, as Uncle Rich would say.

McCain can't use a computer. Is that it?

She's got a Down's Syndrome baby. So what?

Who do they think they're kidding with this nonsense?

What are these to do with politics and political judgement? They are as nothing compared to Obama's consorting - not just on a friendly basis but on an ideological basis - with Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers. This isn't trivia. This man sought these people out to absorb their worldviews - and the only time he disowned them was when the connections were exposed.

What has not operating a computer got to do with anything? I know plenty of people who can operate computers with barely a brain cell to show for it. It's just meaningless drivel to refer to such things. It certainly doesn't compare with spending 20 years in the presence of Jeremiah Wright, one of whose sermons inspired the title for one of Obama's tedious books.

What a farce.

AF - Austin

Brilliant. Spot on on dissecting a liberal's argument. It comes with sharp perspective when it comes from a use-to-be liberal,like yourself and, as I was. That is 'exactly' the argument I am now given. I can't even suggest that they can't be right about everything. But, their blindness is so secure they can't really agree to that. This is very scary.

Ann

"through earphones and an instant translator well out of sight"

They are called simultaneous interpreters.

AF: these people are not liberals. They are using false plumage. They are crypto-fascists.

I don't know about you, but I am a real liberal, in the true meaning of the word, and proud of it. That's why I detest the 'Democratic' party and its lying bully-boys and the corrupt media who worship the mega-charlatan Obama.

Bill M

N, You are wrong. Obama has never challenged McCain to a debate that McCain has refused. Rather, McCain offered Obama the opportunity to meet him for 10 townhall meetings in multiple locations (unmoderated by typical network hacks) with only an audience of American citizens. Obama declined all 10. Check the facts next time.

ndm

Sarah Palin's performance in the interviews was disastrous and has given pause to quite a few hard-core right wingers. Here are some representative quotes [via Ross Douthat]:

Ross Douthat - she seemed about an inch deep on every issue outside her comfort zone

Rod Dreher - Depressing. Programmed, just like last night. ... I completely dig her, and wish she were my governor. But my vice president? Hmm.

Rich Lowry - I understand how we all want to be protective of her - I feel the same impulse - but let's not be patronizing. I believe the truly pro-Palin position is to think she can, should, and will do better than this.

One commenter described the Bush Doctrine question as a "low blow." Frankly, the interview was soft and Sarah Palin would have been eaten alive by any respectable interviewer willing to demonstrate the poverty of her knowledge. As Rich Lowery said: "[s]he barely got through it and showed no knowledge more than an inch deep." If Sarah Palin is not capable of dealing with a "low blow" in her own living room she is certainly not capable of dealing with a "low blow" at 3AM either in Number One Observatory Circle or the White House.

Steve Sage

Melanie:
Two great laughs in your as always brilliant analysis...Man or Moose? and growing a tail and horns! You are exactly right with every word.

To fellow poster "N"...What universe are you living in where you reverse the truth, or are you maybe kidding and I missed the joke? The reality is that McCain has repeatedly challenged Obama to a series open town hall debates with no moderator. Obama refuses every time. He knows he can't get three words together in a sentence without uttering "umm...uh...umm...uh" five times before he can put a thought together. Obama sounds somewhat coherent when he's communing with his beloved teleprompter. Otherwise, he's an empty socialist suit.

steve

Hi Melanie. Instead of offering generalities and overheated rhetoric, why not provide the real debate that you advocate? How about a discussion that compares the merits of the campaign platforms of Obama and McCain when it comes to foreign or domestic policy? I'd be interested in hearing your take on their policies and less about these repeated discussion of individuals.

ndm

Times columnist Andrew Sullivan, who is certainly not of the left, writes:

I watched [the third intereview] slack-jawed online this morning. In my judgment, she is close to a parody of a politician who cannot tell the truth and has nothing substantive to offer on policy whatsoever. When she isn't lying, she is bullshitting.

David

Melanie,

You just don't get it, do you?
In your article you mentioned the word "left" 11 times and the word "right" 11 times and the word "wrong" three times. The "debate" (as socialists are wont to put it) is not so much a question of "the Right" versus "the Left" but rather "the Right" versus "the Wrong".

(Socialist definition of the word "debate": Indoctrination, Indoctrination, Indoctrination, or as Comrade Lenin put it: Education, Education, Education. A "debate" is what socialists do when they are losing (or have totally lost) the argument. Again.)

Robin

Crumbs, I find myself beginning to look forward to Verity's comments.

Must happen when you're a GOM. :-)

RobG

So many things to say.

"all they see is a handicapped thing" - not true, Andrew Sullivan has made several laudatory comments on the Palins' decision to have Trig; they *have* criticised the McCain campaign's decision to stress this aspect of Mrs Palin's life-story as a key qualification for his selection of her.

"Apparently Camp Obama has parachuted dozens of operatives into Alaska"
The Obama campaign has explicitly denied this. But then, Melanie isn't asserting it, just passing on others' gossip ("Apparently..." )

"the nastiness and sheer malevolence of the Democratic party and its bullying cheerleaders in the media"
But no mention of the nastiness, sheer malevolence and bullying of the Republican Party and its cheerleaders - like those who refer to Barack Hussein Obama, but not John Sydney McCain - because they want to suggest the Democrat's "alienness" without being quite that explicit...

Verity

Ann, the academic, corrects me: "They are called simultaneous interpreters."

I know that, thanks, having worked with them. I chose to write instant because it suited my purpose.

ndm - There are now several links available on the internet that include the excised Palin answers in two or three MSM. She was anything but "disastrous" which is why they had to cut out large chunks. Go to Little Green Footballs for links to the full, unedited interviews. She was way too articulate, cool and powerful to be broadcast by the MSM.

Andrew Sullivan, a formerly lucid and incisive writer of the right, has been completely off his chump for around two years now. This has been well-noted and commented on on both sides of the Atlantic.

Rob G writes, about the right, "...because they want to suggest the Democrat's "alienness" without being quite that explicit...". They do? I must be reading the wrong blogs and publications because everyone refers to something eerie about Obama's background. They are quite explicit. Obama is scary. There! I think I was the first to refer to him as the Manchurian Candidate.

john doe

Who is this Andrew Sullivan character? God? Puhleeeeze!

Tiberius

I'm not sure how many of the voters will be able to discern the difference between the McCain and Obama campaigns in such clinical terms, but once again Mel's characterization of the Left is definitive.

Conservative Cabbie

I can't believe ndm and RobG are quoting Andrew Sullivan as an authority. This is a man who wets his bed for Obama, he is completely blind to any criticism and with that Daily Kos bunch of retards has been mostly responsible for the Palin smears. As for laudatory comments about Trig, who do you think spread all the rumours about him being the daughters child. Andrew Sullivan is a disgrace to reporting.

Michelle

Absolutely brilliant article and completely correct.

SethK

'Times columnist Andrew Sullivan, who is certainly not of the left...'

Indeed. Mr Sullivan comes from a planet where there is no left, and no right, but only Gay Marriage.

Conservative Cabbie

I see Obama is going after McCain and his link to lobbyists with a new ad and website. Good, maybe finally McCain will take the gloves off and go after Obama's friends; William Ayers, Rezko, Rev Wright and his corrupt chums in the Chicago Democratic Party. As soon as the country hears in detail Obama's links to someone who planted a bomb in the Capitol, planned to murder American soldiers and is unrepentant, Obama's campaign is over.

Nick Kaplan

Ann; I also consider myself a Liberal which is why I too despise the Democrats, Obama and the rest of the left who are really just socialists. Isn’t it a shame that us true Liberals who believe in small government, private property, individual rights, free markets and such like now have to go by the name ‘Libertarian’, ‘neoliberal’, or ‘classical liberal’, all to accommodate the feelings of a bunch of tax and spend, big government, semi-fascists leftists who won’t admit what they really are!

KansasGirl

This article gets to the guts of this matter. These libs need to be defeated. I want nothing less.

KansasGirl

Verity, I beg to differ. Hussein is the one who won't debate. Your lies are no longer relevant. Don't you hate that?

steve

Verity: Whoopi Goldberg in the context of John McCain saying he wanted to appoint judges who would interpret the U.S. Constitution based on the intentions of the Founding Fathers asked him if she should worry about being returned to slavery. She did not mention Sarah Palin and McCain said it was a legitimate point she raised.

Verity

Kansas Girl - are you out of your raving mind?

"Hussein is the one who won't debate." Yes. We know that, thanks. But, but like it or not, he'll be debating on national TV on 2 October.

You blunder on: "Your lies are no longer relevant. Don't you hate that?"

Care to elaborate, before you board the flight for Jakarta?

Yesterday, I sent off for a new pair of Sarah Palin glasses.

You've got the completely wrong commenter. Don't you hate that?

Verity

My nomination for quote of the day comes from a poster on LGF by the name of Intrepid, on Obama's claim that McCain doesn't know how to send emails -

John McCain: In a battle of wits against an unarmed opponent.

Joe Camel

First Sarah Palin interview with Charles Gibson, the full text, with the bits that ABC edited out clearly indicated.

http://marklevinshow.com/gibson-interview/

Barbara

Conservative Cabbie,

Your use of the word "retards" is exceedingly offensive to those of us who have family members who are cognitively impaired. Our children and loved ones' conditions are not a byword for stupidity or bullheadedness. Our family members are gifts from God the same as everyone else, and deserve to be spoken of, and treated with, respect and dignity.

I admire Sarah Palin for her devotion to her family, for giving birth to Trig even though she knew that he had Down's Syndrome, and for her obvious love for him - she is still nursing, I believe. As for the pregnant daughter, there are many worse things in the world. As a mother, I would rather have my children dealing with a pregnancy than dead in a car wreck, on on drugs, or having cancer. So a baby comes at a bad time, so what? It happens, and has happened, and will happen again.

That said, I am voting Democratic this election. I just DESPISE Obama and I really cannot abide his dreadful wife, but unfortunately I do not feel that I have a choice.

And kindly lay off the ad hominem attacks. It just makes you look small and ugly. I am an American citizen, a free woman, and I am entitled to vote my beliefs and my conscience. You can quarrel with my choice, but attacking me personally for it is repulsive.

Verity

Barbara - You say you despise Obama but will be voting for him. So that's how much respect you have for your fellow Americans? You will help vote an individual whose character you despise into the White House?

"You can quarrel with my choice, but attacking me personally for it is repulsive." Why? You made the choice personally.

Jen M

Madam, I respect your opinion as just that, but please be aware that you are factually incorrect in several of your statements. In the U.S., we use FactCheck.org and Snopes.com to make sure that we understand the truth rather than regurgitating the talking points give to us by campaign workers, misleading and outright untruthful campaign ads, and far right-wing fanatics.

I find it more than mildly ironic that you would go on about smears from the Obama campaign while you yourself regurgitate falsified smears from the McCain campaign while at the same time presuming to clump an entire group of people into a single stereotype that benefits you only so that you can look down your nose at them.

Neither of these two candidates will receive my vote, but I'd prefer that those who support McCain do not sully the name of one of our war heroes by further linking him to this garbage.

Haywrd Maberley

Ethically speaking?
Sarah Palin the Theocon proclaims that the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq is “a task from God”. So are we to understand that just like The Faux Texan and The Poodle consulting the Lord before unleashing shock and awe on the land of Iraq, Sarah Palin has consulted the Lord concerning the Iraq Fiasco. Oh so Old Testament. Theocon Palin is also anti-choice, pro Creationism, now rebadged as “Intelligent Design” and appears to be keen on book banning!
Do Conservatives now find common cause with the Theocons ? Is it that old saw “the enemy of my enemy...” Well be careful what you wish for, as set out in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood ! There has already been "Blowback!"
Fiscally speaking?
When Palin became Mayor of Wasilla, then with a population c.5,000, the town was debt free. When she left it had a debt of US$22 million, corporate property taxes had been cut but sales tax on food and essentials had risen.
For depite Palin's "speech" , that populist pap read from the TelePrompter, far from being barium in Washington she will join the gravy train, for to do otherwise will upset those big Republican backers, the Military Industrial Mafia, Big OIl, Big Pharma...
The McCain/Palin duo has said nothing about what The Faux Texan & current encumbrance in the White House has really managed to accomplish.
That is to beat "The Gipper" in “growing” the deficit and the National Debt. For until now, Reagan in terms 1&2 followed by Bush with 1 term, comfortably held the record for the largest deficits
In 1981, shortly after taking office, Reagan lamented "runaway deficits" that were then approaching $80 billion, or about 2.5 percent of gross domestic product. Within only two years, however, his policies had succeeded in enlarging the deficit to more than $200 billion, or 6 percent of GDP.
Under the "fiscally responsible" Republicans, from when Reagan took office, the National Debt standing at $995 billion from the Carter era, by the end of Bush1’s presidency, had exploded to $4 trillion. Clinton managed hold/wind them both back and the budget was in surplus some US$237 billion, in 2000.
Now thanks to the Faux Texan and Friends the deficit will be $482 billion, moving from black to red ink in the amount of US$700 billion in the 2009 budget year and the National Debt stands at nearly US$9 trillion. Helping this along is the US$3 trillion and climbing cost of the Iraq Fiasco and the Afghan Imbroglio. The first conflict to be done on credit since the War of Independence.
Republicans talk of a "fiscally responsible" Administration I think of the term a "fiscally risible" malAdministration.
Now with the “state support” of the two FMs,saving the bacon of all those greedy and fiscally irresponsible mortgage providers and Republican backers, it is a rerun of the S&L affair from a previous “fiscally risible “ Republican malAdministration.
If the US citizens vote for Botox Man and Calamity Jane they are in for more of the same. That is just on the domestic front!

Tas Walker

A great post. And the ABC interview was skillfully edited to make Palin appear more hawkish and less knowledgeable.
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/31245_ABC_News_Hid_Important_Parts_of_Palin_Interview

The Moonbat Monitor

Jen M - Madam, Melanie Phillips is a journalist who is published all over the Anglosphere and probably doesn't need your counsel on how to check facts.

Madam (same madam), you write: "Neither of these two candidates will receive my vote, but I'd prefer that those who support McCain blah blah blah ...". Where did you get the notion that anyone here is interested in what you would prefer? You seem to have a painful inferiority complex. I can't think why.

Haywrd Maberley - If you think anyone in a foreign country is going to plough through your densely argued stream of moonbat consciousness, this would be a gross mistake.

Gilbert Belwether

I'm curious why the comment I submitted yesterday was not published. There was nothing offensive in it, only the degree of disagreement that is often expressed by commenters here.

Barbara

Verity,

A fair question. I was going to leave the presidential line blank and just vote for the other offices, but my husband reminded me that the Supreme Court appointments, other federal judicial appointments, Cabinet appointments, etc, ride on who is elected president. I am sick to death of conservative judges making partisan, overreaching, and unconstitutional rulings according to their religious beliefs instead of the law, and for the advancement of their political party.

So, I am voting for the Democratic candidate for the sake of greater things.

As for your second question, you need only look up "ad hominem" in the dictionary.

Spencer de Vere

Splendidly said, Melanie.

Hayward Maberley

Moonbat,
Thank you for your comment.
You at least must have "ploughed through" or made a start. No attempt to be Kerouac-like, I can assure you. Just the facts sir or ma'am. Perchance some others may "plough through" Even those in a "foreign country," whatever that means. This is the WWW, who knows where contributors and readers are? They, wherever they are, might also possibly make a more constructive comment.
Apologies as no spell check my first name is Hayward.

Phillip Reece

Haywrd Maberley

Anyone who doesent like the Military Industrial Complex, 'Big Oil' and 'Big Pharma' is a bit of an idiot in my book, They are the best friend's the ordinary Man and Woman has ever had.
They have kept us Free, Prosperous and Healthy for the last Sixty Year's.

stupid

You couldn't make it up.

Melanie complaining about smears and insults. Completely bonkers in itself.

And then a whole bunch of people weighing in in support calling all sort of names - cad, sicko, weasel, ignoramus, lickspittle, charlaton, mega-charlaton, empty socialist suit, retards...

Conservative Cabbie

Barbara, I had no intention of insulting cognitively impaired people, I am very respectful of them and their dedicated families and carers.

That word was targeted at those ignorant liberals who believe the countless smears against Sarah Palin without checking any facts.
I also respect your choice to vote Obama but at no stage did I attack you personally for that, in fact I'd never heard of you until you attacked me.

I meant no offence to you, your family, your country which I respect greatly or your voting intentions. However I'm not going to apologise for something I didn't do.

I do agree that in my anger at liberal smears I chose a very poor word, for that I do apologise.

P.s. You are right on one thing, I am ugly though not so small.

Pete Hoskin

Gilbert Belwether: it didn't get through to us. Maybe try reposting? Or you can send it to me on phoskin @ spectator.co.uk, and I'll post it manually.

Marian C

Melanie – Yet another brilliant article.

Great comments as always from Verity & Conservative Cabbie always a pleasure to read

Barbara -
September 13th, 2008 11:28pm

“That said, I am voting Democratic this election. I just DESPISE Obama and I really cannot abide his dreadful wife, but unfortunately I do not feel that I have a choice.”

Of course you have a choice, don’t be ridiculous, if you “despise Obama” as you say you do, and you feel that you really cannot or do not want to vote for McCain, then fair enough, just don’t bother voting at all; there’s your choice

You then go on to further state that:-

Barbara
September 14th, 2008 6:53am

“but my husband reminded me that the Supreme Court appointments, other federal judicial appointments, Cabinet appointments, etc, ride on who is elected president”

So are you saying that your husband has to do your thinking for you? If so,then you really are a pathetic excuse for a woman. Are we to also assume that your husband also tells you what clothes and shoes you should and how to style your hair. Get a grip

Conservative Cabbie -
September 14th, 2008 9:40am

You owe no apology whatsoever from what I have read to ‘Barbara’. All this pull on your heartstring and woe is me nonsense is nothing more than leftie crap trying to be morally superior and trying to make you feel bad for expressing an opinion. CC, Don't forget with lefties, unless you are prepared to spout the same bilge, then you must be demonised. The points you raised are valid and were in no way aimed at Barbara’s own personal predicaments in life.

Ian C

Melanie onnce again hits the nail on th ehead.

As does FinaceDoc at 9.27 on 12th Sept. "She's one of us" is exactly why Palin was such a clever choice.

If the Dems. can't work out how to counterthis effect by 1st October they are dead in the water. I see that many Congressmen elected in 2006 or are taking a first crack at a seat are distancing themselves from Obama to re/elected.

Smells like fear to me!

Pip

Am clinging on for dear life here! Bubbling over to the extent, am about to implode!

Await your opinion Melanie, in great anticipation:

Revealed: UK’s first official sharia courts
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article4749183.ece

Hayward Maberley

Mr Reece,
I suppose it depends on how those best friends of the ordinary Man and Woman are judged. From where I see it it is not the ordinary Man and Woman in the USA, but the mostly privileged and certainly not the ordinary Man and Women in many countries around the world.
A quote from a Major General in the U.S. Marine Corps, Smedley Butler aka Old Gimlet Eye, following his retirement in the 1930s,
"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continent. "
Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

Verity

Don't need to look it up in the dictionary, Barb. Ad hominem is a well known phrase in Britain, although you seem to accord some elevated novelty value to it. It's just an ordinary phrase.

At the same time as in recommending other people to look up what she imagines to be a little-known phrase, Barbara is all over Conservative Cabbie because he styled someone a retard.

Barbara is, in other words, a Thought Fascist. A member of the SS of other people's vocabularies. Barbara is the arbiter of what other people - 3,000 miles away - may say.

Barbara, stand up straight while I'm talking to you: Other than inciting sedition or murder, other people are free to say whatever the hell comes into their heads to say. As with all our actions in a free country governed only by those elected to govern and not strangers legislating on blogs, one must take the consequences of one's words. If one compares someone to a retard, one would expect a frisson of displeasure from others, but it is still one's right to say it.

May I recommend that you get your barely thumbed dictionary down and look up "Bugger off"?

Joe Camel

This settles it. Peggy Noonan writes in the Wall Street Journal:

‘A certain normal-versus-sissy template was captured in a deadly email that is making the rounds. It offers two pictures. One is of a young Mrs. Palin in a short skirt, smiling at the camera as she leans against a big ol' motorcycle. The other is of a thin and careful Obama on a bicycle, in a plastic safety helmet, looking like a tony suburban professional trying to lower his carbon footprint. The headline on the email: "This settles it." ‘
Noonan might have added that the photos with the “This Settles It” caption are now available as a button:

http://www.zazzle.com/obama_bicycle_palin_motorcyle_button-145729806687551350

stupid

Wow, I thought it couldn't get more ridiculous, but you've really surpassed yourselves.

Melanie complains about insults and all her supporters cheer. Insults follow (naturally). Then amazingly one of her supporters withdraws an insult.

And gets harrangued for doing so!

Absolutely marvelous. Quite beyond insult or parody.

Nick Kaplan

Barbara; If you are fed up of Justices making partisan decisions that are unconstitutional then the last thing you want to do is elect Barack Obama, he is on record as favouring the kinds of justices who make policy, not just carry out laws. No matter how he may "refine" his position on this issue, he voted against the confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts for ideological reasons, when Roberts was easily confirmed by more than three-quarters of the Senators. It seems to me to be far more sensible to elect a moderate like John McCain who is likely to nominate similarly moderate Justices.

Also it is worth bearing in mind that the Senate is going to be Democrat controlled. If this is combined with a Democratic Presidency then it is a recipe for greater partisanship not less. The best chance for moderate Justices is a moderate Republic whose nominations must be approved by a Democratic Senate.

So if it is the Supreme Court that worries you I would urge you to vote McCain, and beg you not to vote Obama for President.

Verity

Joe Camel - Yo!

Who would you trust to take initiatives, make bold decisions for your country and hang strong in the face of aggression? A little self-congratulary wimp in his little safety cycling helmet (Hi, Dave! We're looking at you, too!) or someone who looks at home around a Harley and looks as though she can handle power?

Thanks, Joe Camel!

Verity

Stupid writes: "Melanie complains about insults..."

She does?

Where?

As far as I can see, Melanie never responds to posts on her blog.

stupid

Verity with reference to your question about Melanie complaining of insults, see paragraph 7 of her piece above - the paragraph beginning "But hey..." Also paragraph 3.

In paragraph 6 she also complains of "nastiness and sheer malevolence". Plenty of that in her own parish imho.

DRLJR

A few people need some corrections.

The activist judges are from the “left” not the “right”. When the “left” can not get what they want from the legislative process the go to judges and try to get them to create law. That is how “Roe v Wade” become a bogus right. The US Supreme Court twisted the words of the US Constitution to create a “right”. I have read that opinion. It was and is an issue of behavior for the States. The ruling on the US 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution partially restored a right that has been interfered with for 80 years. And those of you in UK can trace your lose of “2nd Amendment” rights to the restoration of the monarchy when the Crown started confiscation of weapon caches held by the towns. The more the left disarms a population the more that population becomes a victim of crime. Just look at what has happened in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., London? and other cities. Then look at places where “gun confiscation/ban” laws do not exist.

And neither Reagan, Bush Sr, or Bush Jr could get the liberals and leftist in Congress to control spending. Newt Gingrich dragged Clinton “kicking and screaming” to budget reform but the media presented it as being Clinton. And the deficit in the US is directly related to domestic socialist based programs that have built in spending increases, not military spending. Republican Presidents have tried to reduce socialist spending but have not been successful. The left wants their welfare give-away programs.

Gov Palin made Charles Gibson define what he meant by “Bush Doctrine” so the answer could not distorted by opponents. It was a trick question and she knew it.

The politically correct create bogus issues to distort words and meanings. Some one is “mentally retarded” or “retarded” by definition if their IQ is below 70. Using euphemism such as “mentally disabled” or “mentally impaired” is pure political correctness. The word carries a negative connotation because people give it one. The “left” works hard to distort words for the purpose of “feel good” politics which just results in problems getting worse. Trig Palin has Downs-Syndrome”. It just means he is going to have to work harder at some things. We have at least one actor in the US who has been successful as an actor despite having Downs-Syndrome. I don't call myself “physically-impaired” or use some other “feel-good” euphemism. I am disabled since my injuries occurred after I was born (18 years). If I was born with the injuries I would be handicapped. Beware political correctness. It is intended to deceive from what I can tell. And don't blame society for your own faults and actions. Only children blame others for what they do.

The “left” regularly lies about their intent. The “right” does not need to. Even Adolf Hitler told people exactly what he was going to do. He even published his intentions in a book From listening to Obama he stammers when trying to answer unscripted answers because he is trying to answer the question based upon his audience. This can be seen by contrasting what he said and did during the primary campaign and now the general election.

The Iraq War started in 1990 and ended in 2003/2004 when Saddam Hussein was removed from power and the interim government elected. What is happening now is the result of Iran, Syria, Al-Quada, Al-Sadr, and other folks not wanting another real democracy in the area. By way of reference do some research on the NAZI's Werewolves and Saddam's Fedayheen. Iraq is in post-war reconstruction and fighting a war against forces that wish to destroy the new government and establish another Islamic dictatorship or Ba'thist government. The Ba'thist party is modeled after the NAZI system. So the world is still dealing with the consequences of WWII.

That my rant from across the Atlantic.

Raven on the Wing

ndm
some good offering up Sullivan on the strength of his 'not being of the left'.
With friends like him who needs an enema?

Louise

There's panic in the Obama camp and evidently panic at the Beeb! Justin Webb, the BBC's North America correspondent, shows exactly where his bias lies by putting his boot into Sarah Palin in an article in the Times on line wherein he crows that despite the Palin factor, despite a McCain win. the forces of social conservatism will be routed as the tide of "progress" marches inexorably on!

Verity

DRL JR - Bravissimo! I'm going to read your post again later, because it encapsulates all that is wrong with Britain and Europe. I just hope McCain and Palin can put the brakes on in the US.

Bob Latchford

"all they see is a handicapped thing that should never have been allowed to live."

What utter rot

Verity

Justin Webb and "progress". Progess is another word for "change", meaning destruction of the established order and the imposition of a new world order by the masters.

Justin Webb, last week, came in for a lot of personal trashing over on biased-bbc.blogspot.co.uk BTW, the BBC is going to give him Alastair Cook's old 'Letter from America'. Should be almost as funny as Matt Frei reporting on Katrina.

Adam B.

Hey Bob Latchford, why did you run away after your 50-1 "utter rot"?

Gilbert Belwether

Stasi tactics, eh? You'd think Obama had tried to have Palin assassinated, or was torturing denunciations out of the Wasilla City Council. How utterly paranoid do you have to be to refer to making inquiries into the questionable past of a political unknown who is suddenly set to become President of the United States as "Stasi tactics"?

Verity

Gilbert Belwether, the latest in a list of fanciful and patently fake names suddenly appearing on this blog - Palin is "a political unknown"???

I don't live in your neck of the woods, but Sarah Palin has been known to me for around eight or nine months. Where have you been, Gilbert?

Terry

Oh how I love to see the left cringe at its own intellectual, moral and ethical vacuousness!! Obama is change!! Vote for change!!

But when true change confronts the vacuous left, they go to water.

The west would be so much richer if politics was still about competing arguments. But the left won't argue bcause it is intellectually bankrupt.

It prefers slogans and name calling, smears and innuendo to open and honest debate. The left hates democracy because its arguments are so patently stupid that it can't afford to run them past electorates for fear that electorates are sane and objective.

Without the western left, there would be no islamic terror as it would have been defeated years ago.

Gilbert Belwether

Verity - I suppose "Verity" is your real name? Also, I challenge you to make your first appearance on a blog other than sudden.

I think it's safe to say most Americans had never heard of Palin before McCain picked her for VP; in fact, this is one of the main reasons for all the hullabaloo surrounding the pick. She is certainly not well-known enough to render inquiries into her past anything other than legitimate investigative journalism - something Ms. Phillips considers to be "Stasi tactics" when it is directed at politicians she favors.

stupid

Verity, you asked me a question, but seem to have ignored my answer.

Melanie (who has a nice line draw-dropping hypocrisy) complained about smears and insults. She also complained about “nastiness and sheer malevolence”. You on the other hand seems to regard these things as positive obligations. Why is that?

David McAdam

Ronald Reagan's definition of liberals was accurate and succinct: 'They tell you things that just aren't so.'
Fits in neatly with their present pathetic, futile AND purile attempts to destroy Sarah Palin through their stock in trade fiction, deceit and lies.

Frank Pulley

DRL JR

Excellent summary of recent history. You are certainly posting on the right blog. Melanie has said, over a period of time, exactly what you have summarised today. The Special Relationship is still alive, albeit under attack. Keep on truckin'.

Stu

Unusually you're way off beam here, Melanie.

Insults and smears are usually the preserve of the Republican attack machine. How do you explain the slurs about Obama being a Muslim? And, the constant labelling of Obama as an 'elitist'. The temerity of the Republicans know no bounds...

Joe Camel

More on what it means to be a “community organizer”. Obama was once a “leadership trainer” for ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, an organization now being accused of filing fraudulent and duplicate voter applications in Detroit.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008809140383

steve

Gilbert Belwether: Well put re: the use of "Stasi." To use the term as Melanie Phillips does, which is to disparage those she disagrees with, is to trivialize what the Stasi was and the damage it did the lives of millions of Germans. I suggest again that if Melanie wants a real debate that she offer some of her analysis about the campaign promises of McCain and Obama instead of this perpetual fixation on personality, something that is a prime example of the celebrity culture she so readily decries.

stupid

Checking a previous post. It should be "jaw-dropping", not "draw dropping", of course.

Augustus

Some people say that Sarah Palin underlines McCain's strengths without compensating for his weaknesses. This is bullshit, she underlies his strengths and then brings some.
Like him, she took on the corrupt establishment in her own state. She's also pretty good at tackling government waste. In fact, she's a natural. She doesn't come over as a mean attacker of her opponents, she does it with likeability and humour. but most of all, like Reagan, she doesn't let scorn bother her, she simply speaks over its head directly to the American people.

Verity

Stupid writes, in reference to Melanie: "She also complained about -nastiness and sheer malevolence. You on the other hand seems to regard these things as positive obligations. Why is that?"

Why not? Malice works. I want to see the left shot with a silver bullet at the crossroads and a stake driven through its heart. Malicious? Perhaps. But the corpse is a permanent goner.

Stu asks of Melanie: "How do you explain the slurs about Obama being a Muslim?"

As facts?

Also, oh, boo hoo! Why is being described as a muslim a "slur"? Oh, dear! Back to Thought Fascism 101 for you!

Steve - I thought the Stazi was in Poland? I could be wrong.

stupid

David McAdam

Re Reagan's alleged definition of liberals - as people who “tell you things that just aren't so”.

On this basis Mr Bush and Mr Cheney would have to be counted among the liberals I guess – remember WMDs, eh?

You and Melanie might indeed think them so, but my guess is most people would think it was stretching things. Somewhat.

So nonsense.

Verity

Augustus - Bullseye! She's not a clone, but she is cut from the same cloth as Ronald Reagan. What a very interesting observation.

And she does indeed have the ability to let insults run off her without legitimising them by answering them.

I think your analogy is very apt.

Nick Kaplan

Talking or Reagan quotes I think his best quote is when he summarised the typical liberal mindset regarding business “If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." It’s fantastic because it is so true.

Ronnie

Yes Verity, you are wrong.

Verity

Ronnie. OK. It was E German. What ever happened to those people running it? Did they have some puzzling accidents?

McPope

LOL!

Marian C

Stu
September 15th, 2008 10:52am
“How do you explain the slurs about Obama being a Muslim?”

Are they slurs Stu? After all didn’t BO stated on a televised interview, not sure whether it was CNN or NBC, but it is definitely on You tube “my Muslim faith” only to be corrected by interviewer who said “you mean your Christian faith”. Now tell me if you would, why anyone would say that? After all, if you’ve always been a Christian then why would anyone say my Muslim faith? Admittedly, people can get confused with say, meeting times, lunch appointments, appointments with the vets etc, but your own faith? I don’t think so.

Ronnie

Verity, I don't think many people were puzzled :-).

Verity

Marian C - you only saw the short, as in 5 seconds or so, outtake from the clip.

I stand second to no one in my loathing for Obama, but I saw the whole clip - about 30 seconds long - and that 5 seconds is totally misleading.

He said people refer to "my Muslim faith" and lefty Stephanopoulis quickly jumped in to save him with "my Christian faith" and Obama - for a second, disconcerted - stood corrected and said "my Christian faith" - but what you didn't see after that was that Obama then recovered what he had been going to say and he corrected Stephanolopoulis and said (approximately; can't remember verbatim)- "No, no! They're referring to my 'Muslim faith' as though it were a fact, despite that I am a Christian and always have been."

I would be furious if they had used such a trick on Governor Palin. There are plenty legitimate grounds to attack Obama - and I personally do suspect that he has some sort of connection with Islam - but not with contrived outtakes which subsequently get discredited and serve to damage the argument against him.

Captain Mannering

What I find interesting is the trivial level of debate, from both sides. The US Presidency is being decided on image rather than issues which I imagine are of greater importance to US citizens.
Which candidate would be best for (in no particular order importance): health & social care; American farmers; how many and how long US troops will be serving in Iraq/Afghanistan; pensions; rising prison population; developing non-oil based energy systems; . And in foreign policy (which seems to interest few Americans) what realistic plans do they have regarding their backyard, which is heading left, Pakistan; and a nuclear Iran.
As an Englishman I could not care whether Americans elect a moose killing creationist or a latte sipping crypto-Muslim, but one would have thought US voters would show some self-interest.
Also my only contact with US elections is what I read here and on the Guardian’s comment is free, maybe these points are covered elsewhere.

Ronnie

Well done Verity, I'm proud of you. X

Verity

One of those deeply satisfying 'bingo!' moments:

Via Little Green Footballs (on a tip from Karmic_Inquisitor), "Obama is the second-biggest recipient of political money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the last 10 years. And he's only been in Washington for four."

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/09/update-fannie-mae-and-freddie.html

Look at the list. He's right up there in No 2 spot on a list of what looks to be around 350 legislators. Just four years in DC and crawled right up there to the No 2 spot.

More than Hillary Clinton - $76,050 - and Nancy Pelosi - $56,250. Obama weighed in at $126,349. And only four years in Washington!

Go to the link. It's quite interesting. Thanks to LGF's Charles Johnson.

Conservative Cabbie

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20080914_Intolerance_thrives_in_Palin_s_Pacific_Northwest.html

Of all the attacks on Palin, the one above from the Philadelphia Inqirer is one of the most laughable. Basically it says that the Northwest is an area of the U.S. that breeds intolerance and white supremacist terrorists and Sarah Palin comes from there so, you know, make up your own mind. It even says "There is no evidence that Palin was ever affiliated with white-supremacist groups during her years in Idaho". I should hope not, she left Idaho when an infant.

Max Kaye

When lefties smell defeat they become quite vicious.

Amusing how powerless they really are when confronted by truth and resolve.

Verity

Jill Greenberg's not being paid for her vile photogaph of Senator McCain for Atlantic Monthly. (Hat tip: Little Green Footballs.) They are looking into legal action against her.

Verity

How could she be a white supremacist when her husband is one-eighth Eskimo? (Can't remember the tribe, but not Inuit. It was his grandmother.) That makes her children part Eskimo.

WhoCares

ndm writes :

Times columnist Andrew Sullivan, who is certainly not of the left, writes:

I watched [the third intereview] slack-jawed online this morning. In my judgment, she is close to a parody of a politician who cannot tell the truth and has nothing substantive to offer on policy whatsoever. When she isn't lying, she is bullshitting.

Ehm,... would that be Andrew Sullivan, the gay marriage apostle ?

ahad ha'amoratsim

H Maybrly - You claim to present the FACTS and yet you lead with a gross distortion that has been debunked for days. Even accepting your mischaracterization of the Iraq war, it is an out and out lie to say that Palin called the war a task from G-d. Anyone who has seen the full transcript of the interview knows this. And you preface your post with "Ethically speaking"? For shame, sir.

Ahad Ha'amoratsim

Captain Mannering, though I agree that the election is being decided on image and not issues, many of the items on your list are outside the powers and duties of the US President as delineated in Article II of the US Constitution. Our president has no consitutional authority to deal with health & social care (and it is questionable whether the Congress does beyond such basic matters as sanitation and immunization), American farmers; pensions; rising prison population (by the way, statistics suggest that when prison rates rise, crime rates fall, and that the cost of incarcerating a convicted criminal is less than the cost of letting him remain free to commit more crimes); or developing non-oil based energy systems.

Verity

Ronnie - This is a political blog; not a message board. You cannot be "proud" of me because you don't know me, and that situation will obtain for the rest of your life. Capisca?

Verity

Who cares - Andrew Sullivan, the gay marriage apostle? Hmmmm ... you mean just because he spent two years writing articles and posting intensively about gay marriage, that he may have a personal, not to say obsessive, interest in the subject?

I have never seen anyone turn 180 degrees - from being on the right to being on the left. Some lefties may see the light, but Andrew Sullivan is the only one I've ever seen going the other way.

Hayward Maberley

ahad ha'amoratsim,
No shame on my part and no need to apologise, sir, on yours.
It happens to me as well when I try and get off a snappy reply.
But only in the grammar and spelling, very rarely in the fact department.

Below is the AP web page I found my reference on, there are plenty of others.I picked AP as they cannot be regarded as biased
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jNulPSqaP1eyysv8ENJWhk0ZSrPgD92VJPL00
Extract....
Palin: Iraq war 'a task that is from God'By GENE JOHNSON – Sep 3, 2008
"Our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God," she said. "That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that plan is God's plan."
….A video of the speech was posted at the Wasilla Assembly of God's Web site before finding its way on to other sites on the Internet….

Joe Camel

Quote of the day: “As an Iraqi, I prefer to have a security agreement that regulates the activities of foreign troops, rather than keeping the matter open.” Hoshyar Zebari, foreign minister of Iraq, explaining why he rejected Barack Obama’s proposal to cut a secret deal behind the U.S. government’s back, which reportedly would have kept U.S. troops in Iraq for longer than Bush and Petraeus were planning to keep them there.

The Obama campaign says Zebari is misrepresenting what was said at their meeting in July. But will the voters believe there’s smoke without fire? Obama is going to have some serious explaining to do.

American Voter

"I picked AP because they cannot be regarded as biased."

Hayward Maberley: No future pronouncement from you will on this blogsite will impress me more than this statement. Congratulations!

Ronnie

Verity, I am destroyed.

Verity

Ronnie - Your penultimate post read: "Well done Verity, I'm proud of you. X".

Your last post read: "Verity, I am destroyed."

This is a political blog, not a message board.

D Gray

Chill out Verity.....he's complementing you not asking you to marry him.

Hayward Maberley

Ahad Ha'amoratsim,
Now who would you like to shame here, with these interesting facts @ Telegraph.co.uk
from Philip Sherwell
Is Sarah Palin embellishing...again?
...Citing McCain campaign sources, the word doing the rounds was that after Rudy Giuliani overran his alloted time, the teleprompter was thrown out of synch and Gov Palin had to "wing" it, relying on memory to deliver parts of her pitch-perfect speech.
Senior Republicans were soon making the claim, sotto voce, that this made her debut on the national stage all the more remarkable.
The only trouble with the story, as Jonathan Martin detailed on politico the very next day,is that it apparently wasn't the case. For he and many others in the hall were able to see the teleprompter and were impressed by Gov Palin's faithful recitation of the words. He checked in with a convention organiser who confirmed there were no serious glitches, although the screen may occasionally have scrolled too far.
Well, 12 days later and back on the campaign trail, Mrs Palin has now for the first time made the same crowd-pleasing claim to a convenient geographic audience.
At a fundraiser in Canton, Ohio, on Monday night, she recalled: "There Ohio [the delegation] was right out in front, right in front of me. The teleprompter got messed up, I couldn't follow it, and I just decided I'd just talk to the people in front of me. It was Ohio." .....@
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/philip_sherwell/blog/2008/09/16 is_sarah_palin_embellishingagain

Verity

D Gray - Bug out. The post I directed at Ronnie stands.

timewilltell

A perfect example of the kind of left sneering, character-assassinating and vacuous journalism is found in Melbourne's The Age today in yet another obnoxious, self-righteous and spiteful article by Catherine Deveny at http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/welcome-to-this-years-blockbuster-20080916-4hui.html

Ronnie

Dear timewilltell, we don't have to go all the way to Australia for sneering, character-assassinating, vacuous, obnoxiuos, self-righteous and spiteful journalism.

Linda C

There seems to be a belief on this board that Obama has challenged McCain to debates that McCain has declined. That is the opposite of the truth. The fact is there have been ten "Town Hall" debates that McCain has challenged Obama to and he has not accepted a one. The reason may be that a Teleprompter with pre-written statements is not allowed at the Town Hall meetings - and Obama is unable to present a coherent thought without one. True Obama did SAY he challenged McCain "any time, any where" - but that was just for show. Once they do have an honest debate with no teleprompters -IF they do - McCain will make mincemeat out of Obama.

john

its crazy why americans including big mouth Osama ....ouch Obama.... keep on criticising president Bush. has any president in your history face similar situation as 9/11. i know americans are some of the most selfish people on earth but atleast have some respect for your fellow people. i have a lot of respect for president Bush - the way he lead america out of the ashes. btw, vote for McCain if you want to see/earn some respect for your country in the 21st century global economic war. chinese and indians are coming.

Ronnie

John, have you ever heard of Pearl Harbour?

If the US government had reacted then as George W. Bush did after 9/11 then America would have been at war with New Zealand.

He should be under arrest.

Robert

Thank you, Ms. Phillips. Your article is very profound and many people should read it.

Val

Go Obama!
McCain's campaign was typical right-wing mudslinging, of the type you're accusing Obama and his team of. The best party and best candidate won!