Thursday, July 03, 2008 |
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Pretty Shameless |
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Posted by:
Carol Platt Liebau at
5:28 PM |
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If I had been a Clinton supporter -- or just a leftist committed to defeat in Iraq -- I'd be pretty bitter about this one. Remember Barack's promises of immediate withdrawal from Iraq -- the ones that distinguished him from Hillary's more "nuanced" position? Apparently, as Politico's Mike Allen reports, those Obama pledges are no longer operative:
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) promised primary voters a swift withdrawal from Iraq, in clear language still on his website: “Obama will immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months.”
Not anymore. Heading into the holiday weekend, Obama and his advisers repudiated that pledge, saying he is reevaluating his plan and will incorporate advice from commanders on the ground when he visits Iraq later this month.
Anyone who's observed politics for any period of time is used to some finessing of positions between the primary and general elections. But the scope and the boldness of Barack's flip-flopping is really breathtaking.
This should be a warning to any conservative or Republican who, in a moment of madness, might even contemplate voting for Barack (or not voting for John McCain). Barack said what the left-wing constituency in the Democrat primaries wanted to hear -- and now he hasn't hesitated to crumple them up and throw them away like a dirty Kleenex.
Does anyone think he'd have the slightest hesitation about treating the moderates and independents he's courting now any differently, should he win the presidency?
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Thursday, July 03, 2008 |
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America Is Not An Accident |
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Posted by:
Tom DeLay at
4:04 PM |
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This is the text of a speech I have delivered on many occasions to many groups, usually around Independence Day. I know this is a bit long for a blog post, but I hope you will enjoy it and pass the message along.
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“For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill, the eyes of all people are upon us, so that if we shall deal falsely with our God in this work we have undertaken and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us, we shall be made a story and a byword through the world… We shall shame the faces of many… and cause their prayers to be turned into curses upon us till we be consumed out of the good land whither we are going.” The words of the Pilgrim John Winthrop. The image of the “city on a hill,” of course, comes from the Gospel of Matthew — the words of Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount. The “work [the Pilgrims] had undertaken” was a new life in a new world, free from persecution. And the “present help” he referred to was the chance to reach the destination toward which his people were sailing when he delivered that sermon aboard the ship Arbella in the Spring of 1630, somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean en route to the New World. This is not Christian revisionism — this is American history. From the earliest days of American civilization, the inhabitants of this continent have understood that the abundant wealth of resources and opportunity found in the New World is not man-made nor an accident of nature — but the generosity of our Heavenly Father. In other words, not only was America a shining city on a hill, but Americans knew from the first that they were not the ones who screwed in the light bulb. America is not an accident.
Read More... |
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Thursday, July 03, 2008 |
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A Worrisome Sign for Obama? |
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Posted by:
Carol Platt Liebau at
3:33 PM |
Check out this very unscientific, but perhaps revealing, poll from AOL.
Question is: "Is Obama politically ruthless?" 72% say "yes," 22% say "no" and 6% aren't sure.
The fact that this sort of question is even being asked seems to me to signal a grave danger for Barack Obama. Part of what sparked the groundswell of support and excitement that catapaulted him past Hillary Clinton was the fact that he cast himself as the practicioner of a "new kind of politics."
Of course, it's hard to quibble with a strategy that's carried someone just four years out of the Illinois state senate (and just 17 years out of law school) to the nomination of a major political party.
But promising a "new kind of politics" does carry a danger when it means that a candidate faces a choice: Either he can do what he thinks it takes to get elected (i.e. flip-flopping left and right to jettison politically disadvantageous promises and positions) at the risk of tarnishing his brand and undermining the entire rationale for his candidacy -- or he can accept the almost insurmountable political handicaps that come with remaining true to the kumbayah style of politics that he extolled in his meteoric rise.
The problem at this point for Barack is that there's nothing he's done since clinching the nomination sends anything like a message that he's different from any other ambitious Democratic politician of the past. And some of what he's done -- from playing the race card to allowing surrogates like Wesley Clark trash John McCain's military service to rejecting public financing -- actually smacks of a surprisingly hardened cynical opportunism. It strikes me that if a large segment of the voters catch on to that, the entire rationale for his candidacy is in big trouble.
Once the veneer of the "new kind of politician" has been disproved by Barack's deeds, what's left? A young man with a thin political resume and a lot of rhetoric that's been pretty effectively discredited by his own actions.
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Thursday, July 03, 2008 |
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Some Pics From This Morning ... |
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Posted by:
Matt Lewis at
1:52 PM |
Fred Thompson speaks to the National Right to Life.
 President Bush addresses the audience via video:
 Our intern Meg Henry with Fred signing autographs in the background:
 Townhall's Gary Coby poses with Fred ...
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Thursday, July 03, 2008 |
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Some More "Inartful" Obama Representations |
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Posted by:
Carol Platt Liebau at
12:09 PM |
FactCheck over at Newsweek magazine (which has served consistently as a devoted Obama cheerleader) looks into some of the assertions Barack has made in his campaign ads, and finds little substantiation for two claims in his ad "Dignity."
First, he didn't "work his way through college and Harvard Law" -- he had loans, as many other students do (and frankly, at law school, there wouldn't have been time to hold an outside job while working on the Review). The campaign justifies the claim by mentioning that Barack had two summer jobs. Well, if that's the basis -- I "worked my way" through college and Harvard Law, too.
Second, it's "going too far," as Newsweek puts it, for him to claim that he created a law that moved people from welfare to work. Rather, he was one of five sponsors of a follow-up law to the federal welfare reform legislation that the Republican Congress created and Bill Clinton signed (urged by Dick Morris).
Interestingly, the piece gives him a pass for having asserted that he passed "tax cuts for workers" even though he wasn't even an original sponsor of the legislation. That's because, according to the piece, he "let Republicans . . . take the lead on it." Hm -- and they wouldn't even let him come on board as a sponsor? Sounds strange to me. Let's hope Newsweek corrects the broken link to the AP account that's the basis for that conclusion.
These kinds of misrepresentations don't seem to smack much of the "new kind of politics," do they?
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Thursday, July 03, 2008 |
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Bill "Super Stretch" Sammon Talks to Townhall |
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Posted by:
Townhall.com Staff at
11:55 AM |
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Picture this: Brian Wilson, Fox News vice president and Washington, D.C. bureau chief, versus Bill Sammon, White House correspondent for The Washington Examiner, in a one-on-one basketball game. Who would you put your money on? According to Sammon, you should be on the side-lines rooting for him!
In the July issue of Townhall Magazine, Sammon talks to Mary Katharine Ham about everything from blocking shots on the court to the craziest thing he’s ever heard in a White House press conference to his nickname from President Bush. Read more about Sammon’s experiences in D.C. in the July issue of Townhall.
Click here to receive a free copy of Townhall. If you're already convinced, subscribe today and look for more fun facts about your favorite journalists and personalities in our “5 Questions” department every month. You'll receive a free copy of Willful Blindness: Memoir of the Jihad by Andrew McCarthy with your one-year subscription.
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Thursday, July 03, 2008 |
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USA Today’s Susan Page on Barack Obama’s Recent Reversals |
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Posted by:
Matt Lewis at
11:47 AM |
“I think there has been some erosion of the aura of excitement about a different kind of politician that Barack -- they really fueled Barack Obama’s rise. It’s helped him with fundraising, given him these huge crowds at events. I’ve been talking to voters this past week for a story I’m working on, and I’ve had some people, young people who felt that Obama was the candidate of a generation, saying they’re distressed by some of the standard political moves that they’re seeing now.” – USA Today’s Susan Page on MSNBC’s Hardball, 6/2/08
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Thursday, July 03, 2008 |
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Special Thanks ... |
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Posted by:
Matt Lewis at
11:38 AM |
I wanted to thank everyone on the Townhall team who got up early today and helped put together the live stream for Fred Thompson's excellent speech at the National Right to Life.
In addition, special thanks are in order for UStream who made the technology possible.
And I also wanted to thank Jacki Ragan of the National Right to Life. She did a tremendous job -- and was delightful to work with. Thanks for all you do -- and keep up the good work!
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Thursday, July 03, 2008 |
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A Very Good Speech ... |
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Posted by:
Matt Lewis at
11:02 AM |
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I think Fred just gave a terrific speech at the National Right to Life Convention (video to come).
One line -- which I don't believe were in his prepared remarks -- drew quite a bit of laughter: "I'm getting pretty good media coverage now that I've gotten out of the race," he said.
During his official remarks, his critique of Obama's "change" message was spot-on:
On a more serious note, we have long recognized the role change plays in lives. Edmund Burke wrote extensively about it in the 18th century. He said that change was inevitable and when properly guided, change was a process of renewal. But it was his opinion that the man who loves change is disqualified from being a reformer because of his lust … to be the agent of change.
Remind you of anybody you know?
He also had some very kind words for McCain:
He is strongly supportive of sound constitutionalists on the bench. And he has been consistently pro-life throughout his career. His life experience has prepared him to lead this country in the troubled times we live in today. His life has been one of sacrifice, and he has exhibited the courage to place the interest of his country and his fellow citizens above his own during both times of war and peace.
Recently, Democratic minions, including former General Wesley Clark, have been sent out to denigrate the importance of Senator McCain’s honor and courage during times of war. Apparently Team Obama believes that just like timeless principles, character you can depend on is not a particularly important qualification to be President of the United States. They are dead wrong.
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Thursday, July 03, 2008 |
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Campaign Shake-Ups Can Work |
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Posted by:
Matt Lewis at
9:10 AM |
Regarding John McCain's campaign move yesterday, I noted that campaign shake-ups have recently helped John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, and McCain (in the primary) -- turn things around.
Later, on MSNBC, I noticed that Joe Scarborough mentioned it was, perhaps, a bad sign that McCain was shaking up his campaign. He noted that Reagan, Clinton, and both Bush presidents never did this ...
In truth, Ronald Reagan fired his campaign manager John Sears in 1980, the day after winning New Hampshire. Granted, it wasn't a General Election move ...
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Thursday, July 03, 2008 |
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On The Air |
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Posted by:
Matt Lewis at
8:46 AM |
I'll be on the Mike Gallagher show this morning at around 9:05 (ET), with guest host Jerry Overton. You can listen here.
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