Stories by Dan McLaughlin
Posted at 12:28pm on Jul. 11, 2008 What Does John McCain Believe About Barack Obama?
The Burning Question
By Dan McLaughlin
Here's the thing I keep coming back to about this election and what it will take to win it. It's a point that Hillary Clinton grasped, albeit too late to save her. And it's an open question about our own nominee and how he will approach the next 116 days.
Most people who would consider voting Republican in this (or any) election either like McCain, grudgingly respect him, or are hard-core Republicans/conservatives who ought to be persuadable for any Republican, even McCain. But none of those groups is going to be fired up with positive enthusiasm for the guy or his platform. On the conservative side, he's got folks who need regular reminding why they should vote for a guy who has butted heads with them so many times; on the moderate side, he's got people who are OK with him but are feeling like maybe the new guy from the other party deserves a shot. McCain has the experience and the biography, he is good on some issues (your mileage may vary as to which ones), and has some good ideas (ditto), but very few people are super-enthused about the things he is promising to bring to the Oval Office. Reassured, perhaps, but not enthused.
At the same time, McCain's opponent is not Generic D but rather a left-wing extremist with no experience, horrible, tried-and-proven-failure ideas and terrible judgment in friends, supporters and staff. That ought to frighten moderates and conservatives alike when they contemplate giving him the car keys. McCain's path to victory, then, is in collecting the people who like him, the people who respect him, and the people who can force themselves to tolerate him, and persuading them that an Obama presidency would be a disaster for the nation.
But McCain can only do that consistently and effectively if he, himself, believes that Obama would be a disaster for the nation.
Does he?
Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | John McCain — Comments (31)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 2:31pm on Jul. 10, 2008 Corrupt Democrat Watch, July 10 Edition, Part One
Crooks, Creeps, And Even A "Democrat Of The Year"
By Dan McLaughlin
Time once again for our roundup of corrupt and misbehaving Democrats around Washington and the country at large. Miss a week and they pile up on you. Dan Spencer has already covered Obama's mortgage deal, and you know all about Chris Dodd and Kent Conrad, but as usual, there's so much more. In fact, this installment is so big that we have to break it in two parts; we'll have a second piece later today or tomorrow just to update you on the sagas of the Democratic mayors of Detroit and Baltimore.
Also, I leave it to the reader to count how many of the news reports cited below fail to mention the party affiliations of the miscreants.
Read on...
Posted in Corrupt Democrat Watch | Democrats — Comments (20)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 12:53pm on Jul. 9, 2008 Winning The Battle on Drilling
D Senators Can Read Polls Too
By Dan McLaughlin
"There's clearly a dramatic shift across the ideological divide in America in favor of producing more energy here at home," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters.
"I can't imagine that the majority (Democrats in Congress) is going to ignore that indefinitely," McConnell added.
He cited a poll released on July 1 by the Pew Research Center that found that 45 percent of respondents who identify themselves as "liberals" said they favor expanded energy exploration, mining, drilling, building more power plants. In February, the figure was just 22 percent.
A top U.S. Democratic senator said in a newspaper interview published Wednesday that he would consider supporting opening up new areas for offshore oil and gas drilling.
"I'm open to drilling and responsible production," Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin told The Wall Street Journal, adding that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid could also support the move.
Your move next, Senator Obama.
Posted in Dick Durbin | Domestic Drilling | drill here | Energy | Mitch McConnell | mitchslap — Comments (7)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 12:35pm on Jul. 8, 2008 McCain on Obama on Iraq: "I hope that he will reach a position."
Close Combat
By Dan McLaughlin
John McCain on Obama's recent wobbling on Iraq and Obama's concession that he would go to Iraq after McCain called him out on not visiting or meeting with our commander there:
Well, I think you know that I opposed the failed strategy of the Bush administration. I argued for the strategy that is succeeding. I have been to Iraq 8 times. I know the situation on the ground. I predicted we would succeed and we are succeeding. And, we are winning. That victory is fragile, it can be reversed. Sen. Obama opposed the surge. He said it would fail. He still is saying that it would fail. Now, last Thursday or Friday, it seemed for a while there he was agreeing with the surge, then maybe he's not. So, I'm glad he's going to Iraq for the second time. He hasn’t been there in 900 days. I'm glad, for the first time, he’s going to sit down with General Petraeus -- for the first time, a sit-down briefing, if you can believe that. And, I hope that he will reach a position. I don't know what position, because he's been all over the map, calling for immediate withdrawals, back in the primaries to now saying you know -- so it's hard to know. I hope that he'll go over there and get the kind of information he needs that he hasn't requested in the past...But, have no doubt what my position was when I called for additional troops, it was a very unpopular thing to do and many people said my campaign was dead and I said I'd rather lose a campaign then lose a war. He said it would fail, it has succeeded. [The] American people should take notice of that. So, I'll see what he has to say when he gets back from his visit to Iraq. And, I'm sure he'll be impressed with a sit down with one of the greatest generals that America has ever produced, General David Petraeus.
Of course, Obama has now apparently decided that the perception that he's a flip-flopper with no principles is an even more devastating demonstration of weakness than the perception that he would sell out our allies and abandon the mission in Iraq to pander to the anti-war left - really, it's just a choice of who he surrenders to first - so his surrogates are now claiming that it's a lie that Obama ever wavered in his commitment to abandon Iraq. Oceania was never, we repeat never, at war in Iraq! But in political campaigns, as in war, the enemy gets a say in your game plan, and McCain is unlikely to let Obama simultaneously escape responsibility for being wrong about the surge and for belatedly trying to escape the consequences of being wrong.
Read On...
Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | John McCain — Comments (10)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 8:47pm on Jun. 30, 2008 The McCain September Debate Strategy: A Suggestion
Talk The Talk
By Dan McLaughlin
An idea; a proposal: John McCain should challenge Barack Obama to a week-long set of town-hall debates (say, 4-5 of them) on college campuses when the college kids go back to school in late August/early September. Such debates could be concentrated specifically in the Big Ten schools (Penn State, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio St) and other swing-state universities (U. Missouri) that can produce huge audiences in close proximity to where the candidates will already be campaigning. I'm sure MTV could be lined up to host the debates in as wide-open a format, with no pre-screening of the audience, as possible.
Such a proposal would be a win-win for McCain. College campuses are guaranteed hostile territory for McCain, but he's never feared tough crowds, and it would give him a great chance to break through the groupthink surrounding Obama. And big Midwestern state schools are large and diverse enough that no audience would be without a few College Republicans willing to ask some tough, educated questions to Obama. Obama is likely to try to duck a large number of free-form events, but if he bails, McCain can really go after him for not being willing to wade into the very youth audiences that supposedly form the core of his own support. This won't actually win McCain a ton of young voters, but it might help stem the Obama tide there as well as getting out the general message about Obama being a marketing department creation who's afraid to come out from behind his teleprompter.
And if Obama agrees, all to the good. Especially if a lot of the questioners are snot-nosed pinkos and filthy hippies. McCain's performance at open town hall events over the past year and a half, after all, has done wonders to reassure people nervous about his age and his ability to hold his temper.
As most of us will recall from our college years, owing to their youth and relative insulation from the real world, college students have a different heirarchy of values and priorities than voters who work for a living and have families to raise - in general, there are three things college students respect above all others:
1. Authenticity. John McCain is one of the least canned politicians you are likely to ever see.
2. The willingness and ability to debate just about anything, no matter how obvious or ridiculous. College kids, whether or not they are particularly studious or intellectual, love endless dorm-room bull sessions and hate old people who lack the quickness of mind and mouth (or at least mouth) of the young.
3. People who are interested in the opinions of college students.
A series of campus debates would be a perfect opportunity for McCain to show he can best Obama at all three.
Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | John McCain — Comments (7)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 12:14am on Jun. 28, 2008 Victory for South Dakota In Informing Women About Abortion
Science 1, Planned Parenthood 0
By Dan McLaughlin
The full en banc 8th Circuit Court of Appeals handed a victory Friday to GOP Gov. Mike Rounds and the people of South Dakota, lifting an injunction sought by Planned Parenthood against a South Dakota statute that mandates disclosures to women seeking abortions about the consequences of their decisions, including disclosure of the fact that an "abortion will terminate the life of a whole, separate, unique, living human being." In no other area of the law is the Left so dedicated to preventing the full disclosure of facts to consumers. The 8th Circuit opinion, written by George W. Bush appointee Judge Raymond Gruender and joined by five other of President Bush's appointees to the bench, recognized Planned Parenthood's opposition to the disclosure of scientifically accurate facts for what it was.
Read On...
Posted in Abortion | Law — Comments (1)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 11:47am on Jun. 27, 2008 News Flash: Liberal Judging Not Popular
And Barack Obama Knows It. Shhhhh, Don't Tell The Voters
By Dan McLaughlin
TIME Magazine's Massimo Calabresi thinks that Barack Obama is being savvy in "moving to the center" by announcing that he sides with the conservative bloc of the Supreme Court (and at least to some extent against his own prior positions) in supporting the individual Second Amendment right to own guns and the death penalty for child rapists. Plainly, Obama is hoping for gullible reactions like that of Jay Newton-Small, who tells us:
Of course, there's little Obama would be able to do to about either ruling, even as president. So, his comments come purely as opinions that give voters an idea of where he stands on the political spectrum.
What he's hoping to avoid is the reaction of Andrew Hyman, who notes that Obama voted against Justices Roberts and Alito (who he now supposedly agrees with) and cited Justices Breyer, Ginsburg and Souter as model Justices even though he now disavows their views on these cases. As Hyman observes, don't watch what Obama says but what his preferred judges do. Because Obama sure as heck is not going to put people like John Roberts on the Supreme Court, and as Calabresi admits, Obama won't be eager to talk about that:
Read On...
Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Judicial Activism | Obamabus — Comments (1)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 5:04pm on Jun. 26, 2008 "I didn't go around wielding a bunch of clout."
Not The City of Chicago He Knew
By Dan McLaughlin
...and the entire city of Chicago goes under the bus, along with the whole Illinois Democratic Party. Barack Obama never really knew you:
"You will recall that for my entire political career here, I was not the the endorsed candidate of any political organization here," the Democratic presidential hopeful said at the Westin Hotel downtown. "I didn't go around wielding a bunch of clout. My reputation in Springfield was as an independent. There is no doubt I had friends and continue to have friends who come out of the more traditional school of Chicago politics but that's not what launched my political career and that's not what I've ever depended on to get elected, and I would challenge any Chicago reporter to dispute that basic fact."
Well, so much for Obama touting his experience as a significant player in the state legislature. Of course, Obama's managed to make his records as a State Senator disappear, and aside from his war speech and his first book, it's awfully hard to find any evidence of his public statements before 2004. Presumably, his Illinois record on guns will be next down the memory hole.
Aside from his own record, it's not hard to see why Obama wants nothing to do with his old friends and allies, now that even Illinois Democrats are talking about impeaching their own governor (more here), among the many scandals and fiascoes surrounding the Illinois Democrats. (Maybe the socialist New Party will still have him). Of course, the Chicago Sun-Times isn't fooled enough to avoid mentioning this:
Obama friend Tony Rezko was convicted of corrupting state government, but Obama was never implicated and has returned contributions Rezko made to his Senate campaign. Obama did run as an independent Democrat but worked closely with state Senate President Emil Jones, an old-school organization Democrat. Obama runs for president with the full blessing of Mayor Daley.
"Worked closely" is, I guess, a euphemism for Jones basically creating most of Obama's legislative record by adding Obama's name on other people's bills, and bringing home a whole lot of Obama-directed pork ever since. As Jones once said, I'm gonna make me a U.S. Senator":
Read On...
Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Corrupt Democrat Watch | Obamabus | Obamafiles | The Chicago Way — Comments (6)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 11:31am on Jun. 25, 2008 5-4 Supreme Court Bars Death Penalty For Child Rape
Raping A Child Not Really As Bad As Democracy
By Dan McLaughlin
The Supreme Court today, in Kennedy v. Louisiana, found that the Eighth Amendment bars the death sentence of a man who brutally raped his 8-year-old stepdaughter, causing traumatic physical injury (decency doesn't permit quoting here the Court's discussion of the facts on p. 2 of its opinion), to say nothing of the emotional trauma. The decision was 5-4, with Justice Kennedy writing the opinion joined by the Court's liberal bloc. The decision is significant in three major main ways:
1. It essentially bars the death penalty in all cases that do not result in the death of the victim, with the exception of "offenses against the State."
2. It explicitly confirms that the Court's reliance on an 'evolving national consensus' against the death penalty in specified circumstances is truly a one-way street; the Court frankly admits that unless there is strong evidence of a national consensus favoring the death penalty for a particular crime at a particular time, the Court will permanently bar every state from using the democratic process to impose such a penalty at any time in the future.
3. It rejects the notion that state legislatures are competent to come up with any sort of safeguards, a conclusion much in line with the Court's recent view that Congress is incapable of determining procedures for the handling of alleged enemy combatants. The assertion of judicial supremacy inherent in this conclusion is staggering.
Read On...
Posted in Justice Kennedy | Law — Comments (93)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 2:11pm on Jun. 23, 2008 Obama's Latin Metaphor: "Yes, We Can...What?" [Updated]
Not Exactly Semper Fidelis
By Dan McLaughlin
So, Barack Obama has recently debuted his very own presidential seal, declaring him to be President of Obama for America. There are several obvious problems with the Great Seal of Obamastan:
1. It's exceedingly presumptuous and makes him look like he thinks he's already won the election. What's next, his own "Hail to the Chief"?
2. It reinforces the cult of personality aspects of the Obama campaign.
3. It's possibly illegal, in violation of a federal statute governing the use of facsimiles of the Great Seal (see here and here) (H/T).
4. Its color scheme is unfortunate, given that Obama's trying to get his rhetoric (as opposed to his record and his platform) away from being the blue-states-only candidate.
Anyway, all that being said, let's take a look at the Latin motto that adorns the seal. Presumably, somebody in Obama's crack marketing department decided that a seal needed a Latin motto to replace "E Pluribus Unum" (from many, one) on the real Great Seal, and they appear to have sent somebody off to figure out what "Yes, We Can" translates into in Latin, and they came back with "Vero Possumus."
Unfortunately (but unsurprisingly), it appears that either nobody on the Obama campaign understands Latin, or the marketing genuises on the campaign felt that something that looked like Latin was more important than the real thing. Because what they have instead produced is not just appalling Latin grammar - as RS Director Emeritus Thomas Crown pointed out, in Latin it sounds more like a child saying "I do it!" - but a marvelous metaphor for Obama's entire campaign.
UPDATED: Well, just to prove you can never ask too many educated opinions, Dr. Weevil has weighed in and disagrees with the various sources I consulted, and thinks the Latin works.
Read On...