Subversives for Obama

jose garcia

can you imagine the mainstream media's comments if this was Mcain instead of saint Obama?

the filth they are trying to dig about Sara Palin surprisingly uneventful political/personal life compared to Obama, who seems to have a background fit for a third world leader.

Roslyn Pine

It is excellent to see that you, at least, are keeping up the pressure.
I am sure that when it comes to the actual election, the great American public will not entertain the idea of Obama in The White House, and McCain will be the next President.
The alternative is too awful to contemplate.

John Birch

"Barack Obama appears to sit on a nexus between Marxist revolutionary activists, unreprentant former terrorists, Black Power racists, Chicago mobsters – oh, and a Saudi who is trying to buy up America."-- You forgot radical Muslims as well, Melanie. What would a conspiracy theory be without them? It's a shame that voters actually care about petty things like health care, the price of fuel, the crash of housing prices, and the collapse of banks. Lucky for us you are capturing the important issues!

Fabio P.Barbieri

That Obama had unpleasant associates in Chicago is not even news any more. Even if we did not have such names as Tony Rezko to play with, the mere fact that he met his wife in Mayor Richard Daley's office, where both were legal official for that most notorious of machine politicians, would be more than enough. But I would watch out for any "revelations" from WorldNetDaily, a notoriously tinfoil-hatted outfit who are responsible for one of the most hilarious bits of superstition around in the internet - the idea that eating soya feminizes boys. The idea of a "nexus" of extremists intending from the first to place Obama in the White House is too like your average conspiracy theory to be trusted, especially if it comes from such a group.

Ronnie

'Barack Obama appears to sit on a nexus between Marxist revolutionary activists, unreprentant former terrorists, Black Power racists, Chicago mobsters, a Saudi who is trying to buy up America, the James gang, the Viet Cong, the Borg, the Medellin Cartel, SMERSH, ICE, THRUSH, the Klingon empire and HE who must not be named.' To name but a few.

He's been a very busy boy. No wonder his looks are fading.

Bob Latchford

Does anybody care to comment that Palin was 'protected against witchcraft' by an anti semite in front of cameras? This is not a smear, its a fact

Does anybody not want to comment on the fact that Palin and her husband worked closely with Joe Lieberman on his campaign in the mid 90's, a man who claims that Jews brought the Holocaust upon themselves. Again, this is no smear, its a fact.

Why are these things not important on these pages?

Is it possible for anybody to answer these questions without resorting to smear me?

Nick Kaplan

This all amazes me. There is so many issues with the Obama camp it is quite incredible. It seems quite clear to me that if a white man with Obama’s record had stood against Clinton he would have been destroyed in a second (and rightly so). But still the left have the audacity to accuse, in advance, the entire American electorate of deep seated racism, just in case he loses. For an example read this pathetic excuse of an article:

http://www.suntimes.com/news/douglas/1186919,CST-EDT-douglas26.article

Fabio P.Barbieri

Bob Latchford: your notion of what is a fact is clearly defined by your acceptance of the smear against Liebermann. Not that you have anything against the idea of destroying Jews, of course, but when a lie against a moderate politician can be upheld as "fact", you embrace the said lie even though it depends on an idea (that murdering Jews is bad) which you reject the other 364 days of your year. (Mind you, I don't suppose a year has 365 days on the planet you come from.)

Ronnie

Nick, why would a white Democrat stand against Clinton in a presidential election?

It must be Friday, this always seems to happen on Friday

Nick Kaplan

I don’t recall saying anything about a white Democrat standing against Clinton in a Presidential election. I was talking about standing against her for the Democratic nomination, I assumed that bloggers here would be intelligent enough to realise that, apparently not all of them are...

Mladen Andrijasevic

I do not know what is more scary. Obama winning in the US or we here in Israel dragging on for months with people who are repeating the same mistakes all over again, for the fifteenth time, despite the fact that there is someone like Moshe Ya’alon who has a clear understanding of what is going on. Fortunately, as a citizen of both countries, I will vote and have more impact than most posters on this site.

Conservative Cabbie

Bob Latchford
I have no intention of trying to smear you Bob, but you're bringing up witchcraft in a Presidential debate, I mean come on, the discussion gets a bit silly if we start talking supernatural. FWIW, the Boston Globe dismisses it as a non story.
http://news.bostonherald.com/news/national/politics/2008/view.bg?articleid=1121557&srvc=home&position=emailed

Do you really believe Joe Lieberman would be anti-semitic with a name like that? Perhaps you meant Pat Buchanan. Sarah Palin hardly "worked closely" with him; she went to one of his events and wore a badge of his because it is rare for Presidential campaigners to visit Alaska, and as Mayor of Wasilla she felt it her duty to honour the visit.
You need to find a better source for your 'scandals' than the Daily Kos. Try a recognized media outlet.

pcnav

I see there are a few Obama apologists posting here. Stupid people who couldn't forsee danger if someone was pointing a gun in their face. They are the ones that will have the morning after sickness when they realize what it is Obama plans to implement in America. They are the ones too stupid to know that when Obama says he will let Bush's tax cuts expire then raise taxes on everyone making $250,000 a year that they will be affected by this. Expired tax cuts are tax hikes. Taxing the people who supply you food, clothes and other necessities will eventually bring the money from the end consumer (simple economics).

My problem with all this is that while Americans are normally generous and will chose a good foundation to donate to if they have their own tax money Obama will pull all this tax money to him. He would then be the one that gets to pick where your generous cash will go. With his unscrupulous buddies you can just imagine where your cash with go. It will be the same as the funds we spend on oil sponsoring dictatorship regimes around the world. This is outright scary.

Howard

Dig the dirt Melanie and then watch Sarah Palin's interview with Katie Couric on CBS.

I would not want that women anywhere near the White House.

You keep digging while the McCain/Palin team make mis judgement after misjudgement

Huw Thornton

The latest that I've heard is that the presidential debate is going ahead tonight. If only a fraction of these allegations is true, McCain can raise one or two of the choicer items in the debate. The mainstream media won't be able to ignore them. But I suspect that he won't - they'll probably debate more boring issues like the financial crisis, defence, healthcare etc etc. A clear opportunity missed for McCain to score at an open goal.

Bob Latchford

Yes, I did mean Pat Buchanan, my mistake....and there is little doubt that both Palins worked with him in the mid 90's. And the Boston Globe may dismiss it as a non story, but I find someone who sits through an anti-semitic surmon, and then goes on stage to be 'protected from witchcraft' from the same preacher, to be somewhat questionable.

It also looks like the Conservative Right are turning on Palin, acknowledging what most people do, that she is a gimmick. This is from Kathleen Parker in the National Review

…Palin’s narrative is fun, inspiring and all-American in that frontier way we seem to admire. When Palin first emerged as John McCain’s running mate, I confess I was delighted. She was the antithesis and nemesis of the hirsute, Birkenstock-wearing sisterhood — a refreshing feminist of a different order who personified the modern successful working mother.

Palin didn’t make a mess cracking the glass ceiling. She simply glided through it.

It was fun while it lasted.

Palin’s recent interviews with Charles Gibson, Sean Hannity, and now Katie Couric have all revealed an attractive, earnest, confident candidate. Who Is Clearly Out Of Her League.

No one hates saying that more than I do. Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.

Oh dear.......

Steve, New York, NY

Its patently absurd that people here (of all places) are defending Sarah Palin.

There's no need to dig up dirt on her, she just needs to answer a few questions and its perfectly clear she's in way above her head. Americans already know what happens when they elect inept and ignorant people to high office ... our cities drown, our markets crash, and we invade the wrong countries.
And no matter how many dirty tricks are played or how many smears and lies are spread about Obama, McCain/Palin will lose in a landslide.

Huw Thornton

@Howard

I don't agree, I thought the Katie Couric interview showed Sarah Palin in an endearing light.

She's criticised for saying that she'd get back to Couric when she had something useful to say. I think that a statement like that is refreshing. Let's face it, very few people can give any kind of sensible answer to what McCain has done or not done in the past - it seems from events over the last few days that McCain himself doesn't know what he is doing in the present.

Rather than play the game and give a glib/political interview response, Sarah Palin gave the kind of response that you or I would have done. After all, if she is prized for coming from Main Street America, why should she be pilloried for giving a Main Street response?

Nick Kaplan

Bob Latchford exposes what a lying troll he is by making out that Joe Lieberman is anti-Semitic. Lieberman is a practicing orthodox Jew... enough said.

Lynne T

Bob Latchford
September 26th, 2008 5:27pm
Does anybody care to comment that Palin was 'protected against witchcraft' by an anti semite in front of cameras? This is not a smear, its a fact

Does anybody not want to comment on the fact that Palin and her husband worked closely with Joe Lieberman on his campaign in the mid 90's, a man who claims that Jews brought the Holocaust upon themselves. Again, this is no smear, its a fact.

Why are these things not important on these pages?

Is it possible for anybody to answer these

Answer to question #1: no. there are a lot of nutty clerics and this one wasn't Palin's regular minister.

Answer to #2: Sure doesn't sound like anything Joe Lieberman would say so please provide us with the quote, the date and the occasion so we can verify.

#3: see answers to #1 and #2.

#4: see answers to #1, #2 and #3. How can any rational person respond rationally to an hysteric.

dka

Nobama should not even be Senator! I would like to know how he got into Harvard, considering he 'graduated' at the bottom of his CU class. What does he and his terrorist chum Ayres have to show for with all the monies that they got!?
Ooops, I forgot, he is travelling through 57 States and has a few mor to go! This guy could not get a security clearance in a navy ship yard and the MSM and the average American does not ask a question! They deserve this POS, and their grandchildren will still curse them!

Conservative Cabbie

Bob

There is a great deal of doubt that Palin worked with Pat Buchanan because it isn't true.
She was co-chair for Steve Forbes in the 2000 GOP primary.

Nancy Baumgartner, USA

Many Americans have lost their ability to critically think and recognize what they are seeing. What Obama thinks will usher in "hope" and "change" is nothing more than the policies that have destroyed our inner cities and created communities of infantilized government dependents who vote democratic. The mainstream media, gas bags in Hollywood, and our brown shirt college students look at the tragic results of Obama style "hope" and "change"-promptly blame George Bush- and howl for more of it on a grand scale. You bet thinking Americans are nervous.

Jack Smith

melanie

no-one gives a damn. FOX has been banging on about this stuff for weeks - even as the economy fell around everyone's ears. Leavin aside the evidence-less accusation about Obama's Harvard fees, the Bill Ayers things is simply an old bomb-thrower gone mainstream, who Obama had connections with, as part of being around the Chicago community. Most people recognise that people change. If you don't think that former terrorists can be rehabilitated, you're going to have a bit of a problem with Menachim Begin aren't you

Verity

dka - He got into Harvard by positive discrimination. He fit the bill.

There is a lot coming out now about his long term association with Bill Ayers, who appears to have got him onto some influential committee in Chicago. It seems to be how Obama was suddenly right there on the scene in Chicago. Bill Ayers was much more than a casual acquaintance in Obama's life - just as Jeremiah Wright was. As Melanie quite rightly points out, the bloggers in the United States have been doing the digging the MSM ought to have been doing.

dixiemink

I just sent this to the McCain Campaign - now about to send it to my editor friend at the Daily News with the note that they should leap on it before the NY Post or Sun reprints it. There is some stuff in here I have never heard before. Wow.

Frank Pulley

Yet another little masterpiece of collection, collation, evaluation, analysis, explication and dissemination, Melanie. One wonders what the Intelligence services themselves currently have on file on both sides of the Atlantic. The You Tube clips on Trevor Loudon's latest post are riveting. I still cannot believe that the American public will fall for this. But the current upheaval has certainly opened a window of opportunity that the leftist rats will exploit.

Perhaps a Marxist front for four years will bring the American electorate to its senses.

It has taken 10 years for the electorate here to 'get it', though; but I somehow think that the American public will not be so supine, once they realise what's happening.

Verity

Dixie Mink - You just sent what to the McCain campaign?

EUSSR GO HOME

Why are there so many Conspiracy Theories, if Conspiracy Theory is such a nonsense?
Why does what has happened to Britain provide evidence of nothing but Conspiracy? Why is this evidence completely ignored by anti-Cospiracy Theorists? Indeed, why do the US Media ignore what has happened to Britain, let alone the evidence of how it was accomplished ......?

Cloudberry

I am so frightened by a biased and corrupt media leading unthinking people who refuse to research the candidates.

It feels like we are in the desert and dying of thirst for honesty, integrity, and honor. Thank God for the internet to suss out the con artists for us. And thank you Melanie Phillips for this sip of cool water.

Ronnie

I apologise Nick, I thought we had moved on from the primaries it now being the end of September. Obviously I can't keep up with you.

Ronnie

The Baader-Meinhof Gang! Melanie forgot to mention them... Obama may have read an article in a newspaper about them at some point.

Scarier and Scarier.

Huw Thornton

Ah well. I was right - McCain bottled it in the debate. No mention from him of any of the conspiracy uncovered by Melanie.

This worries me. Is McCain a wimp? Or even worse, is he maybe a participant in the conspiracy? A conspiracy powerful enough to take in all revolutionary forces of the US left, as well as scarcely-hidden islamism (see previous threads) would have no difficulty in arranging for a straw man to pretend to fight an election. I bet if we were to inspect McCain's bookcase, we would find one or two Gramsci volumes.

John Birch

dixiemink: I think the story originally appeared in the NY Post so it is hardly news. It's funny that during last night's debate, when Iraq was widely discussed, McCain did not raise this matter. Instead, he criticized Obama for favouring a precipitous withdrawal. If there was any truth to this latest conspiracy that Melanie is pushing the Republicans would have been all over it. Obama is certainly open to being criticized for his stance on Iraq and McCain did a good job of doing just that. But how about critizing him on his actual position instead of a made-up one?

steve bourg

Melanie: Thank you. As usual, you're a voice of reason from the U.K. to the world via the internet. One more point.....Wm Ayers hand-picked Obama for the CAC Board, and did so, clearly, because he was comfortable with Obama's track record and opinions. THEREFORE, it's unbelievable to hear Ayers speak about CAPITALISM.....he ABHORS it. Go to youtube and search william ayers......you can hear him answer students' questions with his wife, not long ago, and he is a disgusting human being. No exaggeration ! Watch the clips! Frightening. You're right, Melanie, he is a Marxist.

Ronnie

EUSSR go home, are you saying that the anti-conspiracy theorists are conspiring to ignore the conspiracy theories?

Nick Kaplan

Ronnie, I am aware the primaries are over. What I said was; had Obama been a white candidate, with the same background, associates, lack of achievements and views, he would have been rightly slaughtered by the giant that is Hillary Clinton. Racism will not be the cause of Obama’s loss (if he does loose), if anything it’s affirmative action that’s got him where he is!

Lilaccruiser

How unanalytical, how lacking in distance and good sense is Melanie Philips' article. She piles wild rumour on hyperbole and ends up at, or past, the edge of sane discourse.

First, there are lots of things about Sarah Palin that are worrying, which is many of us are asking questions. The fact that she quoted nazi sympathiser Westbrook Pegler with approval might, one would have thought, legitimately have raised an eyebrow or two. Add the way she and her husband seemed to have abused her power in Alaska, the way that since her nomination she seems to have told a number of obvious and blatant untruths about her record and then add that strange fifth pregnancy with its weird end. She also seems, not to put too fine a point on it, as thick as a plank.

Second, as for the "nexus" stuff - this is whacky as hell. It seems to me that Obama's principal character positives are his clear organisational skills, his intellect and his cool judgement in sticking to his strategy over such a long period. Contrast the emotional, erratic, gunslinging McCain.

Obama's hanging out with the likes of Ayers, Tony Rezko and Jeremiah Wright clearly raises questions about his character. But to say that these have not been raised by the US press is just not true. The only proper US domestic channel we can get in this house is Fox News (OK so its extreme right bias is a joke) but on that channel you just can't avoid endless discussion of Obama's apparently dodgy past.

Further, to extrapolate this so that we have Obama as a front for the strange bedfellows of Marxist terror, the mob and sinister Saudi islamism is immoderate to say the least.

Lets see what happens when Obama is elected. Maybe Phillips is right and he will deliver America into the hands of black power, communist revival and wahabi extremism. But somehow I doubt it.

Barbara

I fear Obama will win, as he also has associations with the group,ACORN, that is signing up voters, many of whom are either felons or illegal aliens..this is why Obama promised LaRaza money and amnesty for illegals!
I fear for the future of my country, he will certainly turn over our sovereignty to the U.N.

Ronnie

So Nick, Hilary Clinton is a 'giant' now?

I suppose its safe for you to say so now as she lost the nomination Obama. Had she won I have no doubt that she, and us, would have had to endure all of the vile smears and utter nonesense peddled by some of the simple-minded contributors to this blog, and others.

Barbara, I think the UN is the least of your worries. I am absolutely certain that within 6 weeks of swearing the oath Obama will be making you all speak Chinese and Russian and force you to eat Sushi.

philly

Thank you for writing the truth about issues the mainstream media will not even touch. Two points you may not know:

1. Rezko has Syrian citizenship as well as American.

2. Obama legally does not qualify as "African-American". If you look at his family tree, he is an Arab-American.

lilaccruiser

Philly, you forgot:

"3. I and my friends are all paranoid loonies who should get a life"!

Travis

There is one online venue where the truth about Obama is being made known to the common people.

"TOPIX" It is really nothing but an Internet back fence gossip place, for almost every city, town and locale in America. On Topix, locals engage most often in heated and vicious exchanges about their local citizens and issues, but it is also a place where national election politics run rife.

I and many others use it constantly to disseminate information about Obama. Online I find all the pertinent information from videos and legitimate print articles I can find. I then post a thread on Topix with subject line reflecting the gist of it, and in post body an excerpt with link to source for provenance. I seldom, if ever engage in exchanges with replies to the post, for they can often degenerate into screaming matches and name calling. But, these posts certainly garner attention and debate, which is a very good thing, for it gets people to talking about things they would never see, read or hear from the liberal media.

"RACIST, The democrat's favorite weapon of mass destruction against anyone they disagree with."

Ronnie

Travis, "ANTI-AMERICAN SELF-LOATHERS, The Republicans' favorite weapon of mass destruction against anyone they disagree with."

Jim McMullen

This is another reason why Obama is incapable as a leader. He is a front man for the communist party and we can see what's happening in Georgia and probably, next, the Ukraine.

With his minions in Missouri wanting to use law enforcement to go after any one who speaks against Obama proves that his backers or no more that Nazis.

Bobby

It is true, though I never believed it before. America has a controled Media, that puts illegl alens over Americans and puts Americans last. All Americans could stop this crap cold. Stop going to Hollywood movies, they are the enemy,(left wing kooks, on one of the left coasts), vote out any politician, police chief,judge, coucilman/women/governor/SenatorCongressman,etc. anyone that puts illegal alien foreign nationals over U.S. citizens and legal residents. No Amnesty, down with McCain and Obama, for supporting one.

Zordana

Why do politicians go in to politics thinking that anything they said or did years ago won't come back to haunt them?
Most people don't because they don't want their lives being dissected by all and sundry, as we've all said and done things we'd rather forget. If we've made big mistakes hopefully we've learnt from them but we must never deny them, it's what's made us stronger over the years, hopefully.

Obama seems to spend most of his time denying everyone, everything he ever said or did. He must know that decent journalists, (not the left wing biased rabble we have to sit through say after day) will delve deeper and find the truh.

Why doesn't he just come out and admit things, then get on with it, but then, this comment in his book doesn't help: "Audacity of Hope" 'I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction'...
What's an ugly direction - can anyone tell me?

What better place for the Muslims to control their country, than in the office of the President of USA.
Anon comment

Olly

Amazing that anyone would still be defending Palin after an excruciating interview the other night with Anne Couric. Utterly cringe-worthy.

Of course we all know, without any other evidence or analysis, that Obama only got into Harvard/graduated with a first/became senior lecturer at Chicago/Illinois Senator/presidential nominee because he is black, because....he is black. Of course...Nick Kaplan, Verity - your racism is pretty unpleasant. Can you take it somewhere else please?

Tom

Well now that the Congress is going to pass a 700 billion dollar bail out of Wall Street it will mean that Obama cannot have a socialist give away. So his policies are empty promises. Only one man in the campaign can save America by cutting govt spending, cutting govt waste, cutting govt earmarks, stopping abuse and downsizing govt to save taxpayer money that man is John McCain.

Verity

Ollie writes, from the Marxist template: "Verity - your racism is pretty unpleasant. Can you take it somewhere else please?"

Explain, in detail, how my intense loathing of Obama is "racist" in your context. I await your "thoughts".

Obama's a nasty, greedy piece of work, but their are even nastier, greedier people behind him, promoting him - and they're white ... There are people who spotted Obama a long time ago and have brought him along because actually, he is malleable.

May I suggest that if you are going to quote TV anchorwomen that you admire and trust, you get their names right? Is there a CBS anchorwoman called Anne Couric? Does she have a sister called Katie?

You're not American, are you, darling?

Utterly cringeworthy.

EUSSR GO HOME

Actually, Ronnie - I was asking questions.

I think I think the anti-conspiracy theorists conspire to hide evidence of conspiracy [what's actually happened in the UK]. The sneering and fleering seem fairly uniform MOs if not WMDs!

Fabio P.Barbieri

Tom: if you are stupid enough to believe that the Couric so-called interview bore any resemblance to anything that had actually taken place, you really are too stupid to have the vote. Did you not notice the signs of brutal editing all over the place? A skilled editor can make Einstein sound like the village idiot, as many public persons have learned to their cost. And if you ask why the McCain camp haven't complained about this sort of tactic, the answer is simple: they cannot complain about the media's constant distortion and poisoning, because if they did, the media would make use of that. As long as the media are as corrupt and mendacious as they are now, the only thing conservatives of any stripe can hope for is that enough of the public should see through their tricks without being told. Which, apart from your likes, is actually happening.

Ronnie

Jim McMullen, so Barak is a communist and his supporters are nazis?

Why did you write this crap?

Dave

Verity: Well you called her "Katy" the other day.

Verity

Dave - Why would I know how to spell the name of a slimy, rat-faced American TV anchorwoman? Her name is Katie or Katy. I'm supposed to be familiar with her favoured spelling?

She was christened, or dipped in a basin of toxic waste, and given the name Kathleen, which she shortened to a word that is pronounced as Katy. She personally spells it Katie. I had her name right. Ollie, making his idiot point in all his ill-informed glory, referred to this nationally-known known viper as "Anne". Why? Go figure, but that is the issue with the moron Olly.

To all the fascists infesting this thread, scroll back up a couple of posts for Fabio Barbieri's post and reread it.

Were you savvy enough to notice the photograph of Governor Palin hanging on the wall of the studio (why, in God's name, given that she is hardly a mascot of theirs?) in which she looked cross-eyed and very unhealthily pale. This was to subliminally counter the acceptance of the Governor as an outdoors person bursting with health and energy - hunting, flying her own seaplane over vast remote areas, alone, riding snowmobiles, etc. They made her look sick deliberately, or are y'all so naive that you missed that? Right there, the agenda was emblazoned on the wall.

Nancy Baumgartner - Spot on.

Alex Bensky

And I assume, Melanie, that you aren't holding your breath until the mainstream media does look into this. The New York Times, for example, has had only a few articles on these questions, they are not generally ont he front page, and the reporters clearly seek every exculpatory source they can find.

Meanwhile, last week's Sunday paper (nationally distributed and the highest circulation of the week) had a front page story that took up two full pages inside on Sarah Palin as governor. Despite her 80% approval rating they couldn't seem to find anyone who unqualifiedly liked her. Among the revelations of the story was that she--I an aghast even to think of it--is a politician who when she gets into office rewards her supporters and excludes her opponents.

Similarly, today's paper had a story on McCain's ties to Nevada and the gambling industry. Again, the paper apparently couldn't find anyone to present much of another side of the story. And...it may be due to my rudimentary computer skills...I couldn't find much on the internet about the ties that Harry Reid, the Democratic senate majority leader, has with the gambling industry.

To the extent that honesty is a virtue, we can at least grant that the media have abandoned any pretense towards fairness, much less objectivity.

Alex Bensky

And I assume, Melanie, that you aren't holding your breath until the mainstream media does look into this. The New York Times, for example, has had only a few articles on these questions, they are not generally ont he front page, and the reporters clearly seek every exculpatory source they can find.

Meanwhile, last week's Sunday paper (nationally distributed and the highest circulation of the week) had a front page story that took up two full pages inside on Sarah Palin as governor. Despite her 80% approval rating they couldn't seem to find anyone who unqualifiedly liked her. Among the revelations of the story was that she--I an aghast even to think of it--is a politician who when she gets into office rewards her supporters and excludes her opponents.

Similarly, today's paper had a story on McCain's ties to Nevada and the gambling industry. Again, the paper apparently couldn't find anyone to present much of another side of the story. And...it may be due to my rudimentary computer skills...I couldn't find much on the internet about the ties that Harry Reid, the Democratic senate majority leader, has with the gambling industry.

To the extent that honesty is a virtue, we can at least grant that the media have abandoned any pretense towards fairness, much less objectivity.

Caliphate Blues

Excellent post from James Forsyth on the Americano section here about how the draw in the debate gave Obama a slight edge: ‘A Draw Was A Good Result For The Front-runner’

But let’s look at the bigger picture here as well. There are serious lessons in this campaign for the Republicans and the British Conservatives.

The Obama camp should by now have John McCain sunk. Their objective was simple: treat this election campaign like a trial. They only needed to get the jury to convict on the first count on the indictment - that John McCain is but an extension of the Bush administration - and they’ve won. If he goes down on that charge, they know the jury won’t listen to him on anything else. He’d be a goner from the off.

If that charge was to work for Camp Obama, though, it should have been proven by now. The Democrats have thought for a long time that they had an open and shut case.

So rewind the tapes. CBS ran the first debate with a graph on the screen attached to viewer dials and when Obama tried to link McCain to Bush, his approval on the screen graph went down. That is an astonishing strategic and tactical victory for McCain’s team given the onslaught he has faced on that point.

We’re now so far into this campaign, that we’re past hearing the evidence and we’re pretty much into the closing speeches stage. That means there is still much to play for - all completely against the odds for McCain because of that one argument.

This is where the Conservatives need to learn. The Republican Party knows it has some bad eggs and so from the very off with this campaign has sought to cleanse itself. That’s why it went for two complete outsiders. Yes, the economy - an unforeseen element for all parties in this campaign - might well blow McCain off course, who knows? But the basic understanding of what the electorate wants is right.

How does this translate for the Conservatives? There is still enormous danger to David Cameron from the association of people such as the Wintertons and that appalling man who employed his family and has a wannabe fashionista son. He is so dreadful I cannot bring myself to Google him.

The electorate will not stand for sleaze - even if it’s just a whiff - of any sort. That is why the Americans have stayed tuned in to Team McCain. His ticket represents social conservatism free of the freeloaders and elites that too often get a seat on the bus and ruin it for everyone else.

For all it’s progress, the Conservative Party still hasn’t understood that it should never have sold its stock in social conservatism - that was never its real failing. It was sleaze, more than anything else, that stopped people listening to the Conservatives. Far too much bedrock policy was abandoned.

For example, having sold its faith it tax cuts, it is now having to buy them back at the highest price possible: and pay with the humiliation of a U turn.

Melanie Phillips, as is her wont, keeps warning of the dangers of this and earlier this year, picking up on another policy shift, spoke of the charge being put to the Conservatives that they were lurching to the right.

And what did she say was the damaging part of that accusation: not the word ‘right’, but the word ‘lurch’ - it implies ‘we don’t know what we’re doing’.

Misunderstanding the point about sleazy people, the Conservatives started attacking solid performers on their policy views. Remember the Conservatives who stabbed Ann Widdecombe in the back when they decided her firmness of opinion was one of the things holding them back? Yet who now has a career commenting on serious social affairs on prime time telly and in the newspapers?

There are still many in the Conservative Party who don’t get why the public listen to Ann Widdecombe or understand why she hasn’t ended up as one half of a pantomime horse like some Conservative donkeys we could mention. The public may not agree with her on everything, but they respect her - that is a huge asset in politics. A poll today says a lot of the Conservative front bench aren’t recognisable to the public. I bet they’d know who Ann Widdecombe is, though.

There is still massive confusion in the Conservative ranks about abandoning good policy ideas (yes, they were often articulated badly, but Cameron has cured that) and yet buying in to terrible PR. Witness the Tatler magazine photoshoot. I nearly threw up.

That is Conservatism at its worst. That is not social conservatism, it is upmyownfundamentism. If any of that lot end up being a candidate in my constituency, I just won’t bother voting at all.

Finally, after over a decade in opposition, some Conservatives still haven’t learnt about how to hold rank in the run-up to an election - witness the foolish David Davis. Contrast this with the Republicans.

The economic upheaval adds a huge unknown quantity to the outcome of the US election, but the moment when the voters got really interested in McCain - as Ms Phillips said in her column on Palin’s arrival - was when it became clear the Washington elites were going to get a kick up the butt that would hurt them for at least four years. It wasn’t voters who turned their backs on social conservatism - it was the politicians.

They don't care if it's from a greengrocer's daughter or a moose hunter from Alaska - that is what they want, and stuff the metropolitan elites that think otherwise.

Ronnie

Verity, I think you are a Marxist plant.

Dave

Oh come on. "It was the editors what made her look stupid" is pathetic.
You can do anything with text, almost anything with audio... but TV is much, much harder to shape to an agenda.
And here there's no jump cutting in the interview. The shots are long. She simply didn't do very well.
Are you going to claim Palin was badly edited after she goes into meltdown during the upcoming vp debate?

dp damato

Why this British need to endlessly parse and analyze? So much intelligence and so little ability to do something meaningful with that gift. tory conservatives should have a moratorium over the constant debate with each other. Ms. Phillips is painting a portrait of the cultural left that has been waging war on conservative Britain, Europe (such as it is) and the US. It is revealing that the committed left (ayers, obama, etc.) do not focus on tax policy. That is small potatoes. They focus their energies on education. We now have a generation of kids in their 20's that are incapable of making a value judgment, and are ignorant of the accomplishments of western civilization. That is the issue with Palin. She represents an unembarrased muscular conservatism. All people like her have to demonized with the goal to make her an unperson. The best way to do this is to relentlessly insist that she is unserious, unintelligent, and medieval. Thus anyone who supports her is the same. The media and cultural elites in the US and Europe cannot stop drooling over Obama because he is erudite, sophisticated, black, and most importantly a man who is culturally "clean". He is a committed man of the left - thus there must be a cult of infallibility. He is the dear leader and anyone who tries to block his path to power is medieval, backward, etc. Ms. Phillips is on the offensive - she is not afraid to expose the agenda, and her intelligence and ability cannot be questioned. We on the right in the US do not play defense anymore. Conservative Britain is still on defense, not quite confident enough to take the fight to the left. There are encouraging signs - Grieve? attacking multiculturalism is a significant development - he should be praised to high heaven.

Frank Pulley

Oh Gawd!

Dave is back! Troll alert!

Nick Kaplan

Ronnie; I dislike Hillary Clinton’s politics, however there is no doubt that she is a giant of the Democrat party and has a great intellect to boot. In addition she has not (unsurprisingly) been a member of a black power church for the last 20 years, nor (as far as I’m aware) has she any links to former terrorists or members of the communist party. So no, she would not be subject to what you call the ‘smears’ that Obama has for the simple reason that Melanie and most of her commentators are interested in the truth... which is more than I can say for you.

Olly; I am by no means racist. I have argued against racism for as long as I can remember. However my anti-racism also extends to ‘positive discrimination’ (a newspeak term if ever I heard one) which portrays all black people as inferior. I would be more than happy for there to be a black president, I just think it would be a terrible travesty if the first Black President was Obama who would be a disaster!

Not that I need to justify myself to the likes of you, but I supported the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, he is perhaps the most capable justice presently in the court. I am also a big fan of the Conservative party candidate Shaun Bailey, and argued that he should have been a candidate long before he was made one.

My worries about Obama are most certainly not based on his skin colour, an issue I could not care any less about. However it is not racist to say that any other candidate with the same issues hanging over him would not have gone as far as Obama against someone as capable as Hillary. The only reason the media have been so lenient with him is because they are afraid that morons like you will accuse them of racism for criticising the first black Candidate.

The real racists I’m afraid are people such as yourself who sneeringly and condescendingly believe that black people are so inferior that they need support from privileged folks such as yourself through positive discrimination. In addition it is horrible leftists such as yourself who criticize any black person such as Thomas Sowell or Clarence Thomas for being ‘Uncle Toms’ just because they disagree with your pernicious analysis of Western society.

Ronnie

dp damato, now that's what I call a good post.

I should explain that the Conservatives are just coming out of defense in the UK because they have been utterly reviled by the electorate since before 1997. In the way that everything Gordon Brown now says is ignored or ridiculed, so it was with the Conservatives.

You must be a little patient but their time is now. There is not as much wasteful debate as you think.

Dave

dp damato: What's fascinating to us "Brits" is that in many ways supporters of both sides of this election have basically fallen not for politics but for a Hollywood movie.
The idea of a sucessful black president like Obama is a key point of all sorts of Hollywood product, even arch right-wing series 24.
And the concept of the normal American who can go to Washington and sort things out with a bit "common sense" is another classic Hollywood idea (from Dave to Homer). That's the appeal of Palin.
The big questions are... is there more to Obama than being slick? Yes, it would seem so. And can an ordinary person really get to grips with the realities of running the World's last superpower and contribute something useful? Well looking at Palin's performance so far... apparently not.
Still we'll wait for the debate with Biden and see!

Verity

Caliphate Blues:

BRAVISSIMO!!!

Stephen Fox

John Birch tells us that 'voters actually care about petty things like ... the crash of housing prices, and the collapse of banks'

So they will be interested that in his work for ACORN, a radical group inspired by the writings of Saul Alinsky, mentioned above, he was its representing attorney in cases pressurising banks to extend sub prime mortgages won't they?

It is legitimate to have radical views about extending home ownership. It is not legitimate to associate with people whose avowed aim was to overload the banking system to cause its collapse, to play an active role in that project, and then to run for president without either acknowledging or denying that involvement. The Community Reinvestment Act, passed under Carter and strengthened by Clinton might have passed for a well intentioned but seriously foolish 'rectification' of the housing market that has led to disaster. Undoubtedly though, some of those behind the activism aimed at causing the collapse of the banking system. They have declared as much.

In a way, it doesn’t really matter whether Obama shared that aim, or just didn’t realise that would be the consequence of forcing banks to lend money to people who wouldn’t be able to keep up the repayments. Either way, he should not be president. However, the list of all his dubious associations in Melanie’s post suggests that his inability to avoid being the dupe of seriously nasty people does make him either systematically nasty himself, or systematically stupid.

Richard

Melanie, you might want to look at this link about Obama's "police state" tactics in Missouri.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives2/2008/09/021628.php
Seems he's issuing legal threats against attack ads...First Amendment? Only applies to Democrats, apparently.

FRS

Add to all of this the corruption of elections by ACORN and we are watching the destruction of America from within.

John Trujillo

Good points. I have been after the media for months to point out the fact that if Obama were trying to obtain a military secret clearance that he would be denied. However those associations will not prevent him from becoming the Commander in Chief. Maybe we should submit his name for a secret clearance so that these associations are truly investigated and made public?

Bumr50

The difference between the smears coming from the left and the facts about Obama are simply that Obama can't refute ANY of these ties. It's obvious that he is at the very least an admitted Alinsky disciple and therefore a Marxist at heart.

Our "meltdown" here was caused by the government forcing banks to dole out loans to lazy and lacking members of society who could never afford to repay them.
It was all destined to break from the get go.
And now here comes the savior on his white horse to save the day with the rotting corpse of socialism, all dolled up to look like the five dollar whore that public schooled Americans fawn over.
This is all very obvious to anyone but a Democrat, or those who were told to be Democrats by their mob of organized labor ("union" in polite circles).
It's enough to make a capitalist want to go vomit on a lazy person's LCD television.

Fabio P.Barbieri

Dave: your only excuse is that you are a doctrinaire who believes what he wants to believe. If you really believed, as a matter of fact, that a half-competent video editor cannot make you look like a fool or a villain (assuming that the effort were needed) at will, you must have been living in a cave for the last sixty years, since you evidently have not the slightest idea of what the media can do. As for your assessment of the Couric "interview" - what, with all the sentences cut half-way through, the bad lighting, the seemingly aimless move to unrelated issues showing that whole questions and answers have been cut? As I said, if we did not all know that you are a doctrinaire troll, one would have to pity your lack of perception. But it is not lack of perception, it is lack of will.

That being said, I want to repeat my original warning to Melanie and all Obama's opponents: beware of bad sources. WorldNetDaily is a bunch of lunatics, some of them very scary - Hal Lyndsey is one - and addicted to unproven conspiracy theories. Remember that in opposing Obama, it is necessary to be purer than pure, because any mistake will be used by his supporters as evidence of moral evil. Much less should we take any stock in groups that are really morally dubious or crazed.

Ronnie

Caliphate Blues, excellent!

And what they did to Ann Widdecombe was very disappointing. Now she is someone out there fighting the cultural war.

Ronnie

Nick, you cannot expect me to believe what you say about Hillary. The attack dogs were ready for her but when she lost the nomination they had to recalibrate.

All the old stories about the Clintons were going to be rehashed and I was looking forward to hearing the new dirt from her time in the Senate.

I'm afraid your assertion is just not credible.

Tweety Bird

Nick Caplan -- A simple Google search reveals these interesting Hillary Clinton connections to communist/marxist individuals and/or organizations:

http://www.aim.org/publications/aim_report/2003/15.html

Teri Foss

What a bunch of propaganda!! Those of you who spread it are fowl and those of you who buy into it are out-right fools, but all of you who perpetuate the evil being done under your very nose by the neoconservative hawks bring ruin to us all. You're a pathetic journalist Ms. Phillips. Your investigative journalism skills are laughable. Are you one of the neocon hawk badboys, or are you just too stupid to care about the real truth? We've got a hurting world out there that needs our real attention and the kind of lies you report on and exxagerate adds mountains of hurdles to those of us--the REAL women--from being able to take care of it. I can deal somewhat with a man reporting this kind of crap, but when a woman like you does it--you just become an outright disgrace to us all!!! I guess you like to associate yourself with only one side of the blogosphere, obviously the conjured-up lies there have been about the extent of your research fodder. If you've got the guts, why don't you try rusing around in the other side and realize that's the only place you'll find real ethics and human decency, those that base their opinions on well thought-out principles and agendas for the general welfare of the whole, instead of the pathetically self-indulgent right-wing who love nothing more than to mire themselves in believing that the distorted lies are justification to their rationale of selfish living and ongoing exploitation of those that they consider lesser than themselves. That includes the bulk of your audience here. Grow up and quit playing around with life, it's too precious!

N

Bob latchford, the reason that the withcraft thing and the Liberman thing aren't, as you say, "important" is because Palin is running for vice president, whereas Obama is running for president.

John Birch, i agree with you that the who-is-who in Obama's "gang" isn't very important when the country is imploding. However, being associated with less-then-reputable people, then trying to hide it, then lying about it, isn't really a good thing. Clearly Obama knows that these people aren't reputable because he's hiding the fact that he knows them instead of openly admitting that they are homies. Having said that, i think it's just the nature of the game. If people did as hardcore research about evey president of the US i'm sure they'd find lots of skeletons.

ccbl

After the bailout, there will be nothing left for lefties to subvert. The capitalists beat them to the punch!

Fabio P.Barbieri

Teri Foss: so only you and those like you have any idea of true morality. Everyone else is a villain. After those sadly clear statements, why should anyone who disagrees with you bother to say anything to you? If you call for silence, you will find that it comes; and you can go on screaming alone in a huge empty echoing chamber full of nothing but your sound and fury.

Sir Michael L. Foley

Hilarious, especially the ludicrous dig at Alinsky!

A request though: next week, can you trace all of these theories to how Obama was involved in the cult killings of Manson, Zodiac and Son of Sam, a la Maury Terry's Ultimate Evil? I'd love that.

Thanks for the entertainment.

Bob Smythe

But he's black, so guilty white leftist HAVE to vote for him.

America deserves better than an affirmative action product and a Senate squatter with bad hairplugs.

Right Brain

As a New Yorker living among the MSM its surprising to watch their insolent shrug of the shoulders if anyone should confront them with their bias for Obama. Theirs is an argument as old as the hills "The end justifies the means."

Mostly no one is asking, now that we are in a financial crisis, where is Obama? He is no where to be found, offers no solutions, no ideas, nothing. The One doesn't have one idea. Does the MSM care? Not one wit. This entirely fits with his Marxist roots, he wants it all to fall down.

Ed

The Minorities of the U.S. have had to put up with Racists, Biggots, the KKK, white judges who claim to KNOW, and ruled in a court of law, that blacks are not people. We have been scorned, beaten, starved, raped and murdered. Most at the hands of white's who have a habit of turning a blind-eye to the indiscretions of their faviorites (Reagan @ KKK rallies).
Now you get upset at even inuendos of a black man being even close to people who are not up to, how do you say "standards".
Well...who do you think comes to the worse parts of our cities? Who is there to give us hope? OHhhh! You must be that TV generation, that wasted everything and believes that a pill will fix it all.
well I have some advice...since you so kindly slept through the last Forty years, while everything was getting ruined, please, go back to sleep while we fix it.

Michael Hartmann

all out there and all not reported. this guy is as hard left and as dirty as they come but you will not hear about it on the MSM. The MSM is providing cover for this guy and will not investigate this, preferring to chase Palin's babies and cry we're on the brink of depression nonsense. Anyone bringing up Obama's very shady past right now is immediately branded a racist. Only hope that an onslaught of 527 ads can force the topic in the weeks to come....but even if it forced to cover, the MSM will surely try to paint this as "swiftboating" (aka-telling the truth about leftists) and "smears"

P. Aaron

Quote: Has there ever been a more staggering, surreal and scary race to the White House?

No there hasn't. The media want to be of the first to report of a black man being elected president. The media would rather be part of that 'history' than be factually correct. Besides, the media like Obama's views, and they think America sucks.

Verity

I must confess, one small entertainment deriving from blogging is looking at the nommes de guerre. Those pretending to post under legitimate names are the worst, because they always ring false with a dull clang.

For example, "Sir Michael L. Foley". American, I presume? Who else would employ such ridiculous usage? You've raced on since Melanie's piece was quoted on LGF, I assume?

But my favourite, since our transAtlantic cousins joined us on this site this evening, is Teri Foss, who thinks we're all "fowl" (cluck, cluck to you too, Teri, dear), and launches into a stream of blanket invective that delivers no coherence except, "You disagree with me and that absolutely infuriates me".

Keep on cluckin' Teri. (What's 'Teri' short for, anyway? Terrible?)

Obama's a gangster and a thug and since the tide began to turn against him, he has looked more thuggish by the day.

I can't wait for the next debate!

Michael Asher

Also, blogger Jack Cashill makes an amazingly insightful case that Wiliam Ayres acually ghostwrote Dreams From My Father for Obama:
http://www.cashill.com/natl_general/mansourian_candidate.htm
http://www.cashill.com/natl_general/did_bill_ayers_write_1.htm
http://www.cashill.com/natl_general/did_bill_ayers_write_2.htm
http://www.cashill.com/natl_general/did_bill_ayers_write_3.htm
http://www.cashill.com/natl_general/more_proof_ayers_ghosted.htm

Voton

A great article, Ms. Phillips. Unfortunately, I think Obama is inevitable. Better to get him over with as soon as possible. The country will survive, and be wiser for the experience.

armaros

What is happening is a replay of Bill Clinton.
The media covered for him and his womanizing during the campaign only to come after him once he was president. Then he was impeached and almost removed from office. All his shananigans were later revealed, his rapes, his molesting behaviour giving the media another bunch of sweet carrots to chew on.
Their interest is a greater story.
Unfortunately if this occurs to a President Obama, the racial implications would be terrible.
Impeaching the first black president over his lies and radical past, ACORN voter fraud and CRA/ACORN mortgage fraud.
That scenario scares me but will serve the media well despite costing society a lot more than the ratings the media is after.

Klyde

How's that campaign suspension wrongfooting Obama working out for McCain?

H Tuttle

>>What a bunch of propaganda!! Those of you who spread it are fowl and those of you who buy into it are out-right fools<<

Sure, according to your all-knowing, all-seeing version of the one and only truth. Do yourself a favor: buy a dictionary. You meant foul; not fowl - unless you meant to call us members of the bird family. But I guess in Marxist land spelling is more a matter of empathy and self-esteem than actual knowledge.

Terry Johnson

"Well...who do you think comes to the worse parts of our cities? Who is there to give us hope?"

Yeah, those Democrats have really done a lot for minorities in cities like Chicago and New Orleans, haven't they ?Decades of Democratic rule and what have you got ? Corruption, violence, unemployment and a generation completely addicted to hand-outs and unable to stand up for themselves. How long can you keep crying "We're victims, we're victims ! Nothing is our fault!" before you wake up and see what you've become. People aren't against Obama because he's half-black, they're against Obama because he consorted with terrorists, he has no experience, he's a liar, he has no knowledge of history, he's gutless, he went to a racist church for 20 years, he thinks the US has 57 states and he wants America to lose in Iraq. The man is a creep who uses his thuggish supporters to spread poison while he acts like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth..

Ben Dover

Verity,

re 'nommes de guerre' - didn't you post as 'Caroline' when Melanie Phillips first set up her blog?

Rajiv

Brilliant much needed piece of factual writing as only Ms Philips can do. The reason we don't hear is simply that most key media, and power centers around the world are controlled by Saudis due to their monetary investments. I am sure they don't want to piss the House of Saud.

I will include in this CNN/Fox(Bin Talal owns 5% each). Ivy League Campuses(Harvard, Georgetown, Colombia......). most of the State Department & Ambassadors, most of the Right & Left institutions in DC, most of the law firms particularly the one's active on Gutnamo, and off course the ACLU, HRW, and AI.....

Verity

Ben Dover - Been Verity since Day One. Why? Someone else couldn't quite get a handle on the plural of nom de guerre? Quelle surprise!

Tony Allwright

"No-one in the mainstream media is asking any questions"? Not quite.

See my column in Ireland's broadsheet paper of record the Irish Times, "Obama is a triumph of style over substance",
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2008/0910/1220919677197.html

VibrioCocci

The Obama truth squad lives for you, Melanie. You can see their posts here (John Birch, Ronnie, Bob Latchford, Howard, Steve New York NY, et al)

There are too many Obama apologists here to name.

But my favorite poster of all is "Jack Smith" (close family member of "Bob Smith" I bet):

*****begin "Jack Smith" quote*****
no-one gives a damn. FOX has been banging on about this stuff for weeks - even as the economy fell around everyone's ears. Leavin aside the evidence-less accusation about Obama's Harvard fees, the Bill Ayers things is simply an old bomb-thrower gone mainstream, who Obama had connections with, as part of being around the Chicago community. Most people recognise that people change. If you don't think that former terrorists can be rehabilitated
*****end quote*****

Jack, you are the biggest Obamabot I have seen in a long time, or you just haven't taken off your MSM blinders.

Steeevyo

Get over it Melanie.
You and your paranoid cronies will lose this year.

Julie

As one commentator suggested, Obama wouldn't be able to get a security clearance for a low level government job.

Jeff Tyler

Makes you wonder if there's still time for some people to wake up. KoolAid '08 has been so strong.
http://drslogan.wordpress.com/2008/09/26/kool-aid-08-drink-responsibly/

The Right Rev. Sir Michael L. Foley

Actually, Verity - if that IS your real name - Michael Lee Foley is in fact my name. The 'Sir' is added as a bit of fun, an in-joke and a small homage to great Lords like Screaming Lord Sutch and Lord Buckley.

Titles are absurd and I for one enjoy employing them for entertainment purposes whenever I can.

Of course, I am also a Reverend in the ULC, so I have changed my name accordingly.

Thank you for caring!

BenM

The mask slipped ages ago. The Right is never interested in substantive issues. It simply doesn't understand them. So we get the spectacle of a rightwing journalist making a complete - ahem - spectacle of herself in her sheer desperation to see her mad conspiracies through. Fear is the only workable prod the Right has left in its armoury. "K-G-B!" How we all laughed at that one last week. What an outdated loser McCain is.

Melanie, the only individual struggling to cope with reality is your good self. And perhaps the 50 million or so US voters who will still vote Republican in spite of the utter disaster of the last eight years.

GA4OBAMA

what about mccain? he was a part of and reprimanded for his involvment with the keating 5 scandal.

GA4OBAMA

isn't palin being investigated right now in alaska? interestingly enough it's an invesigation that she wanted but then decided to not cooperate. go report that.

The Right Rev. Sir Michael L. Foley

The Right isn't concerned about issues. Oliver North sold weapons to Iran and allegedly trafficked in all sorts of drugs to fund the contras, then shredded papers to destroy evidence.

Of course, he's considered a hero on the right.

Both sides are loaded with all manner of crazies and criminals. That's what the US government is about anymore, supporting the crazies and criminals, not supporting the American citizen.

Verity

Michael L Foley - You still don't get it. How deeply embarrassing for everyone on board. It's not an "in" joke. It's an "out" joke. Screaming Lord Sutch was a knowing joke because he knew the parameters and was 'aving a bit of a larff. You are not "in" because you are neither British nor an American who knows Britain and your explanation has made you look like even more of a pretentious prat. No one gives a crap what your name "really" is, by the way. That's not it.

Please, please, run into the arms of UCL, whatever the hell that is, and save us further cringes.

Nick Kaplan

Re Re nommes de guerre; surely Ben Dover (bend over) is a prime example??

Baxter Greene

An absolutely dead on article.
You echo a lot of the frustration,contempt,and anxiety at watching the MSM spin,cut and paste information,create bogus scandals,and do pretty much anything short of actually walking around with their lips firmly placed to Obama's rear end to push him straight into the White House.
At what lengths will they go to cover up for Obama if he gets into the White House?
democrats have cried about the Constitution being ripped to shreds,oppressing free speech,slandering and demonizing your opponents, being to secretive,and controlling the press.
Their has been no better example of
these actions than watching the press
and their relationship with the Obama
campaign.
Well Cuba,Russia,and Venezuela are
good examples of this also.

TM

The entire reason why these allegations are not in the main-stream media is because THEY USE VALID/CREDIBLE SOURCES - be wary of where you get your information Melanie - it's sad to see someone risk their own reputation on the smears that have been around for a long time and don't hold water......

bluetop

"amused bystander who doesn't understand the point of capital letters for proper nouns: What an exclusive, off centre belief you have in science. Clue: If the traffic lights aren't working, I don't have to understand why. I just know they're not working.

There is absolutely no evidence on the ground of "global warming" - and so fast! It used to take two million years, but, hey! in today's fast paced society, itonly takes two! You've got to agree that our efficiency's gone up.

Posted by: Caroline at January 12, 2004 07:45 PM"

Clearly you have a twin sister, Verity

Frank P

Nick Kaplan

"Ben Dover? A prime example of a nomme de guerre?"

Well ... at least an urgent imperative; one that has been demanded of our nation by various inimical groups, external and internal, for about half a century now. An order to which our national 'leaders' have yielded until we are now arthritized in the touch-toes position, revealing the national rectum as funnel-shaped and spongy (not my words - I once read it on the medical diagnosis of a 15 year old rent boy from the Piccadilly Circus meat rack - regularly buggered by a BBC celebrity according to him). Plus ca change ... but now we are all a kind of collective rent-boy for the BBC.

Bend over indeed!

Hansen

Bob Latchford:

I believe you misrepresented Sen. Joe Lieberman. He has never blamed the Jews for the holocaust. You didn't back up your assertion with any data, either. I'm afraid that your style reminds me of internet trolls who deliberatly leave misrepresentations or lies on reputable blogs to advance a particularly ideology. It's those with the left-leaning politics who have a monopoly on this.

Shannon W.

Bill Clinton couldn't pass a high level security clearance either. As Americans, we're very protective of our U.S. Constitution, but we may need to add an Amendment protecting the country from presidential hopefuls who can't pass requisite security tests.

Kendall

Liberal Hollywood is acting true to form by exalting Obama in every way possible, even designing and supplying the Greek columns used as a backdrop during his Democratic National Convention speech.

Hollywood industry professionals just created a video of children singing about Obama--filmed at an elite performing arts school in L.A. that just built a $120 million 12-story addition--that's being called a "grass roots" effort.

Disingenuousness at its worst. The video was posted on drudgreport.com today as well as other news-type blogs but it's no longer available on Youtube. "Sorry, this is a private video." It sounds like the Obama camp was experiencing a considerable amount of negative feedback; the concert was being compared to kids in totalitarian countries singing to their "dear leader."

Since Obama spent 20 years in a church that taught Marxism, many of us are not surprised.

Frank Pulley

TM

"it's sad to see someone risk their own reputation on the smears that have been around for a long time and don't hold water......"

Sure they hold water; the case is as tight as a duck's fundament; quite a lot of it (to mix metaphors) from the horses mouth (read his early scribblings and his book). If you think he'll be able to shake off his dodgy backers once he's in power, or indeed already has, you really are suffering from Obamania.

JFK and RFK thought they could shake off their Cosa Nostra 'friends' and their father's old associates. Ha!

Tony Blair also felt he could shake off his hard left mentors. Ha!

They will demand their tribute. The markers are already being called in, hence the haunted look in Obama's eye. I recognize the eye-glint as that of debtors and defectors pulling against the strings of their rutless puppeteers. The smell of his fear travels across the Atlatic on the prevailing winds.

The sad thing about the mass of the American electorate is that it comprises good people with generous natures. They want to think the best of their leaders, They have been let down badly, so the words 'change and hope' are seductive. The fact that they are key words in the Marxist lexicon of propaganda seems to be not generally understood.

If you think the neo-cons are hard task-masters, wait until Obama's soviet sidekicks slip from the trap door in the belly of this Trojan Horse and infest the corridors of power (the way the Left has done in the 'UK').

Obama is a shill, pay attention to Melanie. And get over it!

Deborah S.

To Ed:

You, of all people, should know your history. The KKK was comprised of all Democrats. It was a type of "military" arm for the Democratic party.

The 1856 Democratic Party Platform was against abolitionists, against discussing the issue of slavery, and against the Fugitive Slave Law which gave permission to shelter and feed run-away slaves.

The 1856 Republican Party Platform stated that "all men are endowed with the inalienable right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness." It was against slavery in any Territory of the United States.

The Democrats opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and 1875. They also opposed the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution.

The Republicans were responsible for passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The majority of Democrats were against it.

These are all facts that are well-documented but are brushed under the carpet by the MSM and by the Democratic party.

Google "The Democrats' Missing History," Wall Street Journal, August 13, 2008, written by Jeffrey Lord.

Verity

Thanks, Deborah S.

For anyone who doesn't think the American left broadcasters are beyond arrogant, clock who is going to be the moderator on the Sarah Palin/Joe Biden debate.

A lefty black woman PBS journalist who has written a book called "Breakthrough: Politics And Race in The Age of Obama". So, completely neutral.

Oh, and its publication date happens to be - isn't life just full of crazy coincidences? - Inauguration Day! Why, if it just happened that Obama got sworn in that day, her book might sail up the NY Times bestseller list!

There are Americans already calling the Commission of Presidential Debates, and sending emails to the Executive Director. My money's on them all going into the dead-letter drop.

Fellow traveller

Frank says:

They have been let down badly, so the words 'change and hope' are seductive. The fact that they are key words in the Marxist lexicon of propaganda seems to be not generally understood.

All those people advocating change and hope to poor people are marxists? The conspiracy's bigger than I thought. It seems to have taken in my local church too.

Priceless. Keep it up Melanie. More people should be made aware that a conspiracy of the Weather Underground, Obama's church and George Galloway is on the verge of seizing power in Missouri.

Frank Pulley

Deborah S

Thank you for that tip. Very interesting reading and I daresy the facts therein are largely not known over here. To make it easier for the curious, heres the actual link:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121856786326834083.html

R. Place

I have read all of the posts here, and there are quite a few good points made.
I am a die hard republican from Alaska, so you can all assume where I stand in this election.
I tend to judge people on charactor and substance, and so far Senator Obama has failed this test in my opinion.
I notice that he has a hard time looking someone in the eye. He has gotten better at it lately, but I still have a problem believing anything that the man says.
I have also noticed that he has a problem answering a direct question with a direct answer.
He likes to waffle around the subject long enough that you think that he answered but really he hasn't.
Just these things alone make me believe that this is a man who cannot be trusted to lead our country.
Good article Melanie, I wish that more people on this side of the pond could read it.
I could go on and on like some of the other posters, but really that is all that I have to say about the subject.
Keep up the good work.

Ronnie

'Hope' and 'change' are key words in the Marxist lexicon'. You learn something every day, I thought Marx was on about class war and revolution. Very far removed from hope and change. I never heard of Lenin's 'The State and Hoped-for Change'.

Never again will we be able to express the innocent hope that things may change for the better without being branded Islamo-fasci-marxists...

How bad can this get? How can a group of people care so much about what is going on and yet end up writing such a lot of utter nonsense. And still they wonder why it never gets to the MSM.

My God, they should be grateful their dire scribblings are kept under wraps. How embarrasing for them if this drivel ever came out, accurately sourced.

In their world McCain has supporters while Obama has 'apologists'. Can't we postpone the election just a few months, its a pity all this has to end...?

'Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! Our two key weapons are surprise, ruthlessness and...'

Frank P

R Place

"Good article Melanie, I wish that more people on this side of the pond could read it."

Can you make sure they do by posting the link on as many US blogs as you can reach. The meme is the message these days. Obama and his henchman have used it to their advantage, lets turn the tables on him.

txtransplant

Something that has been puzzling me for quite awhile and to which I have seen no reference is how Obama got into Harvard. By all indications he did not have the background academically to really prepare him for Harvard. I also have not heard that he was particularly brilliant (intelligent---yes)and would have gotten there on academic scholarship. By his own indication he was into partying and drugs---hardly what I would consider qualifying him for Harvard law school. There have been some allegations that a Dr. Monsoor (sp?) helped pay for this, but did he also "pull strings" to get him admitted?

Margie

Shouldn't this be investigated by the State Dept. or FBI. All of this is very frightening. Mind boggling actually. It keeps me awake at night. Thanks for the excellent artical.

Bob

The worst part to me is that when he worked for the CAC, Obama gave funds to radical left-wing educational organizations. I think this says a lot about what he would do as President with education and his mandatory service for college students.

Michele

I feel like we who question "The Great Obama" are characters in Orwell's "1984". A plumber who dares to question Obama is skewered by the press, while Obama's list of terrorist, radical, jew-hating, race-bating, vile-spewing mentors and associates get a pass... all thanks to the media. I wished they'd all stop calling themselves journalists and realize they're simply propagandist tools.

If Obama wins this election we will no longer be the United States of America but the "Manipulated States of the Media".

I am sad that my fellow citizens are so easily duped. Yet it is me, you, and anyone else who dares to question the lack of experience and associates of the great messiah. If we do, we're called "Sheep" and "Kool-Aid" drinkers.

Yet these Obama fans are completely clueless about Obama's scary bills - again, I refer to Orwell: The "Free" Choice Act, which is anything but free, and so radical even George McGovern is begging voters to pay attention to this creepy step to authoritarian oppression.

Orwell couldn't have written this chapter in our history any scarier.

Jon Richt

"the mainstream media, accepts Barack Obama at face value, no questions asked"

Are you kidding me?

First time reader, first time commenter - and from the first few sentences, you're not making a particularly glowing impression on me.

I see Obama's claims challenged just as much as McCains in the "mainstream media" - CNN good enough for you?

I'm sorry, but this neat little catchphrase is simply code for "media that isn't biased toward conservatism".

You might have had some traction if you simply talked about the unbalanced coverage. Having piled fallacy and political bias on top of it, however, smears your journalistic integrity.

Mo

I wish I had come across this article months ago.

Although the sad truth is that it would have made no difference to the people who chose to vote for Obama.

It is truly terrifying that this man will be sitting in the White House come January.