Redstate

Posted at 8:04pm on May 13, 2008 Hillary meets Barry on the Senate floor

Ice, ice, baby.

By Mark Kilmer

Dem Presidential nominee, presumptive, Barack Obama and Hillary met on the Senate floor today, and CG Beyond the Dome blogger David Nather tells us about it.

Les us see, Ken Salazar moderated a "half hug" between the two. Each of them met separately with Michigan Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow regarding what the DNC is gonna do with all that junk, all that junk inside their trunk. (Michigan Dems want give Hillary 69 delegates and Barry 59, just to get the delegation seated, but Hillary evidently said nyet last week. She wants the world and she wants it now!) They each met with Florida's lone Dem Senator, Bill Nelson, about the junk down there.

Don't ask me what the Dems are going to do. My analysis stops when the other side goes FUBAR.

As for the Massachusetts delegation, each candidate chatted with a different member thereof. Obama talked to JF Kerry, and Nather observes that Barry got a lecture from the Zen Master:

Obama also had a lengthy conversation with Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee and now one of Obama's supporters, in a scene that looked like a tutorial from a veteran presidential candidate to a student who is probably about to go through a general election himself.

Considering that Kerry was the worst major party Presidential candidate of any of our lifetimes, this must have been an hilarious site to see.

But below the fold, the word for which we've all been waiting. What happened when Hillary spoke to Obama supporter Senator Ted Kennedy? (Hint: He didn't buy her a drink.)

Read On…

Posted in 2008 | Clinton | Obama | unity — Comments (9)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:25pm on May 11, 2008 More Lies And Distortion From The Obama Campaign

Chapter 4

By California Yankee

In yet another New York Times advocacy "article" for Obama, this one trying to explain away the fact that the terrorist group Hamas prefers Obama for president, Susan E. Rice, an Obama foreign policy adviser tells a whopper.

Incredibly, Rice had the audacity to claim that Obama isn't "willing to meet “unconditionally” with Mr. Ahmadinejad:

Mr. McCain and his surrogates have repeatedly stated that Mr. Obama would be willing to meet “unconditionally” with Mr. Ahmadinejad. But Dr. Rice said that this was not the case for Iran or any other so-called “rogue” state.

This is simply a bald face lie.

At the CNN/YouTube Democrat debate last July, Obama was asked if he would be willing to meet, without precondition, during the first year of his administration with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea. Obama's answer was simple and direct, "I would." That's much different from the fabrication put forth by Rice.

Read on.

Posted in 2008 | McCain | Obama — Comments (8)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 9:52pm on May 10, 2008 The McCain Campaign & Media Bias: A Hopeful Sign.

By Martin A. Knight

Mark Salter's double barrel response to Senator Obama's oh-so-subtle shot at John McCain's age (very nicely brought to our attention by Soren here) is interesting for another thing - it brought up the behavior of Barack Obama's most important supporting demographic.

Senator Obama is hopeful that the media will continue to form a protective barrier around him, declaring serious limits to the questions, discussion and debate in this race.

Senator Obama has good reason to think this plan will succeed, as serious journalists have written of the need for 'de-tox' to cure 'swooning' over Senator Obama, and others have admitted to losing their objectivity while with him on the campaign trail ...

Maybe I'm reading too much into this and this would be the last time and therefore insignificant - but if I'm not mistaken, I believe this is the first time any Republican Presidential candidate in recent history has even just made mention of the Press clearly favoring one (the Democrat) candidate and slanting the coverage just so to get him over the finish line.

The media's infatuation with Obama is remarkably blatant - in many cases, e.g. Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews, it's practically R-rated - and it's just about noticeable by the mushy middle both teams need to win.

If Salter's press release can be taken as indicative of a future course of action, the McCain campaign may just have found a way to solidify his standing with the conservative base and also make it more likely that he will get elected this fall.

If McCain, until recently liberal journalism's favorite Republican, decides to, and then successfully makes the conduct of the media an issue in this election, the potential fallout of it could be very ... interesting. In a good way.

Posted in Archived | McCain | Media Bias | Obama | swooning press — Comments (5) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:12pm on May 8, 2008 Hillary: Vote for me! Whites hate Barry!

Both Dems are playing with race. This is not a good thing.

By Mark Kilmer

Only Hillary can beat John McCain this November, she tells us. Why? 'Cos the downscale white guys support her, while they hate Barry.

Says Hillary to USA Today:

"I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on," she said in an interview with USA TODAY. As evidence, Clinton cited an Associated Press article "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."

"There's a pattern emerging here," she said.

Hmmmmm. This could be considered race-baiting. It is not something one would associate with the usually careful – contrasted with her hubby – Hillary, so it seems to be a part of her ongoing scorched earth set of tactics to somehow pull the Dem nomination out of a hat.

Dr. Larry Sabato spins it for Hillary. Read On…

Posted in 2008 | Hillary | Obama | race — Comments (36)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:20am on May 8, 2008 How McCain Can Win

Win The Argument

By Martin A. Knight

Victor David Hanson makes a good point here about the upcoming Presidential election; John McCain cannot beat Barack Obama by trying to blur the differences between himself and the likely Democratic nominee in a bid to win over the mushy middle.

... conservatives should reach out with conservative principles better framed and presented, rather than change the message for the perceived advantage of the hour.

What the Republicans need is not an abandonment of conservative principles, but a smarter, more articulate defense of even more conservativism, not less.

My shorter interpretation of what VDH is saying we need is this; BETTER MARKETING.

The fact is Conservative turnout in 2006 was virtually unchanged from 2004 in 2006 so blaming our booting from majority status on the 1-2% of the base that sat on their hands ON 11/7/2006 is being willfully blind. We lost because we lost swing voters (the "center") in massive numbers (70D-30R, if I recall correctly) from an essentially even 50D-50R split in the two years from 2004 to 2006. And from all indications, we still have a long way to go before we can claw our way back to narrowing it to 60D-40R later this fall.

The first step to doing that, over the long and short term, is recognizing the fact that swing voters are primarily won through the marketing, rhetoric, stagecraft, image management, Press coverage, etc. The presentation and the public persona of the candidate (including the baggage of the popular perception of the candidate's party) matters a lot more with the average "middle" voter than his/her policy positions.

It's not exactly the most flattering picture of the part of the electorate that generally gets to decide who ends up giving the concession (or in the case of Democrats - filing suit in the nearest friendly Court) or victory speech on Election Day, but there it is.

The thing to remember though, is that this is no sign of stupidity, it's a sign of disinterest.

Amongst these people are numbered some of America's smartest men and women in every field of endeavor. They are registered as Republicans, Democrats as well as Independents - what they generally have in common is that they just do not actively think of or pay anything beyond passive attention to politics until maybe a week or two before Election Day. Then everything they've absorbed over the whole cycle combines with what they're hearing at the moment - from their own subjective gut reactions to poll reports telling them who their neighbors are voting for to the disbelieving arch of the reporter's eyebrow to October Surprises - and then they go out and vote.

Posted in 2008 | 2008 | how to win | McCain | Obama — Comments (84)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 2:28pm on May 7, 2008 Winning Isn't Losing

And Politics Ain't Bean Bag

By krempasky

Early in my career, I had the opportunity to work for giants of the conservative movement. First Morton Blackwell, then Richard Viguerie. Both, in their own way, have been absolutely instrumental to the successes conservatives have seen over the past 40 years.

I'm not giving away any state secrets in pointing out that Richard and Morton have very different styles. They're both builders, but when it comes to the art of coalition politics - there's no question in my mind that the advice Morton gives to conservatives (and Republicans) ought to plastered on a lot of walls here at RedState.

15. Don't treat good guys like you treat bad guys.

We get the joke: center-right moderates and conservatives have used each other as punching bags for a long, long time - and we don't presume to settle that particular rift here at RedState. To try would be laughable.

But we DO expect folks to keep your eyes on the prize: stopping the most liberal candidate we've seen in a generation from winning the White House. Make no mistake, Obama isn't "new" or "revolutionary." He's a talented speaker, but he's not a serious leader prepared for dangerous times. This is a guy who called for a worldwide ban on fissile materials, for crying out loud.

More important, when you find yourself getting torqued at the squish who doesn't think campaign finance reform is near-treason or the neanderthal conservative that would rather focus on Terry Schiavo than fixing the immigration problem...take a deep breath. Put down the keyboard. Go get a drink.

So two final requests: stop throwing rocks at folks who ought to be your friends at least some of the time, and if someone calls you a name or beats you up a bit - good grief, grow a thicker skin. Politics ain't beanbag.

Posted in McCain | Miscellanea | Obama | redstate — Comments (60)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 6:39am on May 7, 2008 MI MORNING UPDATE: Sen. McCain completes first of two stops in Mich this week, Dems split Indiana and North Carolina wins

By saul anuzis

181 Days until Election Day

MORNING UPDATE:

CLINTON WINS INDIANA…OBAMA WINS NORTH CAROLINA…the race is on and the Democrats don’t have a nominee. It looks like they are heading towards their convention in Denver. We’ll be ready for either or…a clear choice…McCain v some liberal, out of touch, big spending, higher taxing, cut and run Democrat!

McCAIN PROMISED CONSERVATIVE JUDGES…addressing the center-right coalition in America, John McCain committed to appoint mainstream conservative judges.

Posted in Andy Dillon | Hillary | Michigan Republican Party | Obama | Republicans | Saul Anuzis | Senator McCain — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:18pm on May 4, 2008 The Sunday Morning Talk Shows: The Review

Obama, Hillary, and Dean, oh my

By Mark Kilmer

Sunday, May 4, 2008

Preface:

On FOX News Sunday Howard Dean compared the Reverend Jeremiah Wright to Willie Horton, and accused the Republicans of race-baiting, hatred, and divisiveness for mentioning him. Host Chris Wallace countered that Obama had said that Wright was a legitimate issue, and Dean distanced himself from his future-nominee: "He can say what he wants; I'm going to say what I want."

Next on FNS, former DNC bosses Joe Andrew and Terence McAuliffe argued on the margins but agreed that they would have a great candidate this fall. Andrew predicted Obama victories in both North Carolina and Indiana, while Terence refused to forecast.

On TW, Hillary again made her case to her former employee, George Stephanopoulos.

Obama went on NBC's Meet the Press, where host Tim Russert spent 14-minutes gently questioning him about Jeremiah Wright. He said that Wright is retiring and just likes the spotlight.

On FTN, House Dem Whip James Clyburn told host Bob Schieffer that there will not be the riots in Denver which Doug Wilder had predicted; Clyburn, who has backed no one, said that the superdelegates should not overturn the will of the voters.

Next on FTN, Doug Wilder said that he had not predicted a riot in Denver if the nomination were stolen from Obama; rather, he said he had predicted a "riotous convention." Evan Bayh asserted that Hillary and Obama would work together this fall.

On LE, host Wolf Blitzer talked to Governors Bill Richardson of New Mexico (Obama surrogate) and Mike Easley of North Carolina (Hillary surrogate). Easley thinks the Dem race could run through the convention in Denver, while Richardson thinks such an outcome would be bad for the Democratic Party.

In a very short interview, Ron Paul told Blitzer that he's still in the GOP race because he is still generating enthusiasm and money, and he wants to get out of Iraq now.

The show-by-show review is beneath the fold. …

Posted in and Dean | Hillary | Obama | oh my | Special Features — Comments (23)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:09am on May 3, 2008 The Sunday Morning Talk Shows - a preview

By Mark Kilmer

For Sunday, June 5, 2008

FOX News Sunday (FNS): Host Chris Wallace talks to the increasingly lost and incoherent Howard Dean, still boss of the DNC but not of me. Then he'll have neo-Obama acolyte Joe Andrews, the one-time DNC boss; Hillary's campaign chairperson Terence McAuliffe, also a former DNC boss; and McCain campaign advisor Carly Fiorina.

This Week (ABC): Host George Stephanopoulos acts as a campaign commercial for Hillary live from Indianapolis, with questions also from the audience. No YouTube. [The little frownie emoticon would go here.]

Meet the Press (NBC): Host Tim Russert is doing his program live from Indianapolis, spending his hour speaking with Obama.

Face the Nation (CBS): Host Bob Schieffer has Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, still a Hillary groupie; South Carolina Representative Jim Clyburn, who's into Obama; and Obama supporter Douglas "Riots in Denver" Wilder.

Late Edition (CNN): Host Wolf Blitzer talks to Lindsey Graham; Governors. Mike Easley of North Carolina (Hillary sycomphant) and Bill Richardson of New Mexico (Barry's fool); former Clinton (Bill) labor secretary Robert Reich, an supporter of Barry; and his usual cast of thousands.

= = = = =

I bet, but I do not know for certain, that Hillary acts as if she were born in Greensboro (or at least Winston-Salem). Barry might just suggest that Reverend Wright is getting a little older, hanging out with a young and clever crowd, and probably needs a lobotomy.

Nevertheless, I wish Steph and Russert would open their interviews to YouTube.

We could do without the DNC piling on FNS, but at least Carly Fiorina will return things to perspective.

Schieffer and Blitzer are sticking with the surrogates.

This Dem race will be over eventually, though it might be a while. I expect Hillary will lay down her arms within a month after the Denver nominating convention goes for Obama.

I'll watch this and write it down for you tomorrow.

Posted in Hillary | Obama | Special Features | Talk Shows — Comments (0)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:34pm on Apr. 30, 2008 Obama and Clinton turn their noses (and middle fingers) up at Michigan (again)

By RightMichigan.com

Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

You've read about the latest scheme from four Michigan Democrats to try to get the Wolverine State's delegates seated at their national convention in Denver, right?  Word started breaking yesterday afternoon and was all over the wires this morning that Carl Levin, Ron Gettelfinger and a couple other lefty big-shots sent a letter urging the Clinton and Obama camps to come to a new sort of compromise that would avoid that nasty disenfranchisement thing.

Posted in Breaking News | Clinton | Michigan | Obama — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 3:53pm on Apr. 29, 2008 Hillary Leads McCain by Nine! (She won't be the nominee, though.)

Barry writes off wright, just like a politician being a politician.

By Mark Kilmer

There have been some great posts here at RedState this week, but I have to interrupt with a simple, glaring fact. An AP-IPSOS poll released today has Hillary leading John McCain by nine-points amongst those surveyed.

Helped by independents, young people and seniors, Clinton gained ground this month in a hypothetical match with Sen. McCain, the GOP nominee-in-waiting. She now leads McCain, 50 percent to 41 percent, while Obama remains virtually tied with McCain, 46 percent to 44 percent.

Granted, it is an almost-meaningless post-Pennsylvania snapshot of a moment-in-time, but it gives Hillary and Mark Penn/Geoff Garin and Terence McAuliffe another excuse to keep bleeding on the Obama campaign. She is probably the Democrat with the best chance to defeat the war hero during wartime, but she is not going to be the nominee. Period. The superdelegates won't be seen to "steal the election from Obama," as that will bring us riots in Denver amongst the delegates, not just the lefty protesters outside.

Obama has his own problems.

There's a little more below the fold.

Posted in 2008 | Dem self-destruction | Hillary | Obama — Comments (27)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 2:24pm on Apr. 24, 2008 America is not ready to elect a black President!

A Brit gives Barry an excuse for a November loss.

By Mark Kilmer

America is not ready to elect a black President, or so a major daily tells us. Could this be the New York Times making a last-minute push for Hillary? Maybe the Philadelphia Inquirer making early excuses for Barry?

Nah. That sentiment comes to us from those who'd know: the venerable Times of London. In the UK, no less.

The outcome [in Pennsylvania] seemed to be precisely calibrated by the gods to maximise the agony of the Democrats. It gave Hillary Clinton just the support she needed to stay firmly in contention, but not quite enough to turn the tide in her favour.

Worse still, this result underlined the fear that senior Democrats have long been aware of, but have never dared to express in public: America may not yet be ready to elect a black President.

That's from Anatole Kaletsky, described by the broadsheet as "[o]ne of the country's leading commentators on economics." Not on America. Not on sociology. Not on political science. Nope, he's a Brit who writes about the economy.

Please Read on....

Posted in Archived | Obama | Times of London — Comments (32)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 6:19pm on Apr. 21, 2008 Obama With Iran

"Realistic Idealism" Vs. "Aggressive Personal Diplomacy."

By California Yankee

I have a slightly different take on the Iranians preference for Obama than does my esteemed colleague Dan McLaughlin.

Time magazine's Scott MacLeod reports that Sergei Barseghian, a columnist for the Iranian reformist newspaper Etemad Meli (National Confidence), notes that in Farsi, the words Oo ba ma would translate as "He's with us."

Iranians are following the American presidential race. In part, because they wish to be rid of President Bush, who branded Iran part of an "Axis of Evil," and because they are taken in by Obama's false hope. According to MacLeod, Iranians favor Obama's hope rhetoric and see a President Obama repairing the U.S.-Iranian relationship:

It's not only the policy expectations that account for Obama's popularity: his Third World ethnic background and the Muslim faith of his father's Kenyan family — even his middle name, Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad and a revered figure in the Shi'ite Islam practiced in Iran — offer points of affinity that some analysts believe could give Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the political cover to make a gesture of reconciliation to the country long decried in Tehran as "the Great Satan."

But it's Obama's declared willingness to engage in "aggressive personal diplomacy" with the Iranian leadership that has generated the most interest among senior officials in Tehran, since this would mark a sea-change in Washington's approach. "Obama is a man of engagement, a man of negotiations," one Iranian official told TIME. Amir Mohebbian, an analyst close to Iranian conservative politicians, argues that "the mentality of Iranian decision makers is ready for that." He adds: "I think that the coming of Obama — maybe, maybe — helps to solve this problem, but it needs bravery, from both sides."

MacLeod, fails to mention that the U.S./Iran "30-year Cold War" is the result of Iran's seizure of the U.S. embassy and the subsequent holding of 52 U.S. diplomats hostage for 444 days -- the remainder of Jimmy Carter's presidency. Like Carter's failure to free the hostages, Obama's proposed "aggressive personal diplomacy" will also be seen as a sign of weakness that will only encourage this state sponsor of terrorism.

Read on there is more.

Posted in 2008 | 2008 Presidential Campaign | Iran | McCain | Obama — Comments (20)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:52am on Apr. 17, 2008 The Daily Pinocchiobama Lie: Obama lies about the flag

By Erick

My God in Heaven, this guy is just blogger gold! Seriously folks, for all the talk that lefties have about Bush lying, what they actually usually mean is that Bush does what he says and they can't believe he'd actually do that!

Obama, on the other hand, is rapidly earning the label Pinocchiobama. Hat tip to Jim Gergahty for this one. I missed the torture exercise debate.

Last night, Obama said, "I have never said that I don't wear flag pins or refuse to wear flag pins."

As we chronicled the other day, in October 2007, Obama said:

Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we're talking about the Iraq War, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security, I decided I won't wear that pin on my chest.

Oh, I get it. This is just lawyering out of it again (he's good at lawyering out since, as his wife said, she's a lawyer, he's a lawyer, and "everybody [they] know are lawyers.").

He said he wouldn't wear one on his "chest" not that he wouldn't wear one. No doubt he had a little flag lapel pin on his underwear.

Posted in 2008 | Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them | Obama | Obamafiles | Pinocchiobama — Comments (20)/ Email this page » / Read More »