Redstate

Posted at 12:37pm on Jul. 4, 2008 Will Obama win a war in order to win an election?

By Soren Dayton

John McCain has famously said that he would rather lose an election than lose a war. He seemingly sacrificed his Presidential ambitions in favor of our national interest.

In Barack Obama, it seems that we have the converse. He had declared the war lost and withdrawal an imperative when it was politically expedient. Now it seems that the reality on the ground (both polling in the US and the security in Iraq, in that order) has shifted, and Barack Obama is about to change his position.

Where John McCain put the war above his election, Barack Obama puts the election above the war, and everything else.

The lesson here is that Barack Obama is willing to sacrifice anything and everything for his political ambitions. No friend is too close, no promise so (seemingly) heartfelt, no principle so great will get in the way of his election.

Now there is a contrast with John McCain.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Iraq — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:10am on Jul. 3, 2008 New game: Try to figure out what the Obama campaign thinks about Iraq

By Soren Dayton

Over the last 48 hours, senior advisers in Barack Obama's campaign have articulated (at least) 3 separate positions on Iraq. Chief campaign strategist David Axelrod, campaign co-chair Senator McCaskill, and foreign policy advisor Susan Rice all expressed different positions. Watch them:

Today, all those advisors--and more--are trying to explain Obama's policies on the morning shows. Perhaps someone will be able to coordinate these chuckleheads, but it probably won't be the Obama campaign.

Perhaps you can try to figure out what their policy will be. They certainly don't seem to know.

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

Posted at 5:02pm on Jul. 2, 2008 Manufacturing Obama: He "worked his way through college" with two summer jobs

By Soren Dayton

Barack Obama is a liar. We know this by now. He lies about what he used to say or think. And he lies about his personal background. For example, he said that he compared his upbringing to Hillary Clinton's elite upbringing. Never mind that he went to the most prestigious prep school in Hawaii, paid for by his grandma, who was VP of a bank.

This time he is saying in his most recent ad that he "worked his way through college and Harvard Law". FactCheck.org fact-checked and it turns out that it isn't true. He had two (2!) jobs during college and graduate school. From Fact Check:

But "worked his way" through college and law school? The only back-up the campaign provided for this claim was a quote from Obama's book "Dreams from My Father" having to do with a construction job he had one summer while he was in college, and an article mentioning his job as a summer associate one year at a big Chicago law firm. We asked campaign spokesman Tommy Vietor if Obama held jobs during the school year, or other summer jobs, but he said only, "He had the two jobs I told you about." Unless Obama had a good bit more employment than his spokesman was able to describe for us, it's a real stretch to claim he "worked his way" through school.

Now I wouldn't argue that I "worked by way though college" but I did work a 20+ hour/week job during the school year and full time during the summer and all vacations.

Sees like the only change he is going to bring to Washington is that of better acting.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama — Comments (21) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:27pm on Jun. 24, 2008 Eric Holder: "Not ethically qualified", and Obama once thought something was wrong

By Soren Dayton

The National Legal and Policy Center has called for Eric Holder to be fired by the Obama campaign. Holder is the co-chair of Obama's campaign and the co-chair of his VP selection committee. According to NLPC:

According to NLPC President Peter Flaherty, Holder is not ethically qualified to serve on the Vice-Presidential selection committee. His track record is not one of independence or objectivity. Instead, he has been guided by politics and self-interest.

That Holder is ethically unfit is not news to Redstate readers. I have written on Holder before. Read on for a recap of old stories, and some shocking new ones.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Corrupt Democrat Watch | Culture of Corruption | Eric Holder — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 9:52am on Jun. 22, 2008 When you make foreign policy in Hyde Park salons

By Soren Dayton

When you make foreign policy in Hyde Park salons you make it in a vacuum of ignorance. Take, for example, Barack Obama's Iran policy. Today, European leaders savage it Obama's Iran policy in the Washington Post. The problem is simple: Obama's promises to meet with Iran's leaders are at odds with a well-coordinated strategy with our European allies and the United Nations. And, yet again, our allies object. Read on after the jump.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Europe | Iran | United Nations — Comments (8) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:11am on Jun. 21, 2008 Eric Holder: The Vetter who tries to get terrorists out of prison

By Soren Dayton

Earlier, I wrote about Eric Holder, Barack Obama's Veep Vetter. That is after the previous Veep Vetter, Jim Johnson, resigned under shame and later was found to be at the center of a corruption scandal involving the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee who got under-market loans from Countrywide, which the Senate is voting to give several billion dollars.

At the time, I noted that Holder, who some think would be Obama's Attorney General and is one of Obama's national security advisors -- even though he doesn't attend meetings in public --, argued for clemency for members of a Puerto Rican terrorist organization.

Well, while Holder was getting a pardon for the husband of a big donor to Bill Clinton (we are talking about Marc Rich), he missed that another set of terrorists, two convicted members of the domestic terror group, the Weather Underground, Susan Rosenberg and Linda Sue Evans, were getting commuted sentences. Now, Obama doesn't think that the commutations of these guys were acceptable. When his connection to Bill Ayers was raised by Hillary Clinton, he said:

"By Senator Clinton's own vetting standards, I don't think she'd make it since President Clinton pardoned or commuted the sentences of two members of the Weather Underground, which I think is a slightly more significant act than me serving on a board with someone for actions that he did 40 years ago."

So this future AG and current national security advisor sherpaed the pardon of the husband of a big donor, argued for clemency for terrorists, and overlooked the commutation of other terrorists.

And this guy is supposed to vet Obama's VP choices? Are you kidding me? Is this a circus? Are these guys the freak show?

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Clinton Pardons | Eric Holder — Comments (6) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 3:50pm on Jun. 20, 2008 Thad McCotter on "speaking Democrat"

By Soren Dayton

This is hysterical. Go Thad McCotter

Transcript below the fold

Posted in Congress | Funny | Thad McCotter — Comments (18) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 6:19pm on Jun. 19, 2008 Did Rezko's Iraq investments drive Obama's Iraq policy?

By Soren Dayton

Michael Barone notes an NRO piece about Barack Obama's shifting position on Iraq:

It has been documented in National Review Online by Peter Wehner that Barack Obama, far from always taking the same position on the war in Iraq, has in fact taken different positions at different times—don't go in, stay in, get out, roughly in order.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Culture of Corruption | Iraq | Tony Rezko — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 4:44pm on Jun. 18, 2008 Shouldn't the Senate Banking Chair know interest rates?

By Soren Dayton

Where do the Democrats find people like this? The Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee doesn't know the interest rates:

Roll Call thought this was mock worthy:

Briefly Quoted. “I don’t know what the rates are today.”

— Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), surprising reporters on Tuesday with his unfamiliarity with current mortgage rates. Dodd, who was explaining why he planned to keep his scandal-tarred Countrywide Financial home mortgages, is the chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.

It sounds like Dodd is either a criminal or criminally ignorant of the area he regulates. Will we ever find out which?

Crossposted from The Next Right.

Posted in Chris Dodd | Congress | Crooked Democrats | Housing Hypocrisy | The Housing Crisis — Comments (11) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 2:11pm on Jun. 18, 2008 Who is politicizing the war now?

By Soren Dayton

Over the weekend, I wrote about a Washington Post forum piece by American Security Project Senior Fellow Bernard Finel, comparing it to an Economist piece on a similar subject.

Finel, who I respect deeply, responded yesterday at the Huffington Post. He called my post "bizarre". I feel like I have to respond, but it is long. If you are interested, the rest is below the fold.

Posted in Iraq | National Security — Comments (7) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 9:40am on Jun. 18, 2008 Did Barack Obama not understand Zebari or is he just lying?

By Soren Dayton

Reporters are beginning to notice something quite disturbing. Either Barack Obama didn't understand what Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari was saying, Obama is lying about the meeting, or Zebari is lying. However, we have no reason to think that Zebari would be lying, while there is a pattern of Obama at least obscuring the truth about his Iraq position (again, think Samantha Powers), just as he is doing on trade (think Austen Goolsbee). Or he could just be ignorant about what he is talking about, which has become the Obama's campaign's defense about his Jerusalem "undivided" flip-flop under Palestinian pressure.

So which is it?

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Hoshyar Zebari | Iraq — Comments (16) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:47am on Jun. 17, 2008 Rezko lied to help Obama

By Soren Dayton

Soon after Tony Rezko's conviction on 16 of 24 charges, Rezko claimed that federal prosecutors (translation: George Bush stooges and GOP operatives) pressured him to tell them things about Barack Obama:

Two months before he was convicted of federal corruption charges, political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko told his trial judge that "overzealous" prosecutors were pressuring him to tell them about any wrongdoing involving Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama or Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

But in a two-page typed letter, Rezko said he was never involved in any wrongdoing with either of the Democrats and wouldn't make up stories about them in an attempt to benefit himself.

But there's a catch. Now his lawyer says that no meeting with prosecutors ever happened. Rezko said that he wouldn't make up stories about Obama to help himself. It does seem that he would make up stories about himself to help Obama, though.

Obama's friends really care for him. Too bad they are so scary.

Posted in Archived | Barack Obama | Corrupt Democrat Watch | Obamafiles | Tony Rezko — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:09pm on Jun. 16, 2008 Democrats for Gas Tax Repeal

By Soren Dayton

This primary is so awesome. Today at a Barack Obama rally in Michigan, a group of Democrats who disagree with Obama on gas taxes circulated a petition urging him to support the repeal of the gas tax. They got some signatures.

And then some more.

And more.

Recall that Obama supports "gradually" higher gas prices:

Posted in 2008 | Democrats Against Obama | Gas Prices | Michigan — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:57pm on Jun. 15, 2008 Iraq is getting better, but we are not done

By Soren Dayton

Earlier in the week, I read this piece by Bernard Finel of the bipartisan but John Kerry led American Security Project. I have been struggling with how to respond to it. Final first argues that we are hitting metrics of improvement in Iraq. The Economist makes a very similar point. It seems clear that they are correct. Unfortunately, Finel, a man of the left and the Huffington Post, Finel goes too far and declares the progress illusory. The Economist, on the other hand, finds room for tentative optimism, or, quoting Petraeus, finds that progress is “fragile and reversible”.

Finel's broader point is legitimate though. We must not let our domestic politics which will get very nasty over the next 5 months, get in the way of our assessment of what is happening on the ground. Read on.

Posted in Foreign Affairs | Iraq — Comments (8) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:05pm on Jun. 15, 2008 Sister Souljah moments don't get standing ovations

By Soren Dayton

Earth to Jonathan Martin (and the rest of the press corps): Bill Clinton's Sister Souljah moment was telling truth to people who didn't believe it. Not to a standing ovation:

Obama's Father's Day speech includes some remarkable language about absentee dads that only he could deliver. More than that, though, it's something of a Sister Souljah — yet one delivered from a member of the black community. ...

This passage, which prompted a standing ovation, really stood out as a cut-to-the-bone, almost shaming challenge to African-Americans:

Where is the shocked silence? Who is going to attack Obama like Jesse Jackson attacked Clinton.

Give me a break, and stop giving Obama a free-ride.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Jonathan Martin — Comments (23) / Email this page » / Read More »