Stories by Ben Domenech
Posted at 10:51pm on Jul. 9, 2008 Redstate Roundtable: Obama's Unending Psychology of Change
That's a lotta flipflop
By Ben Domenech
Let's sit down next to the couch for a moment to discuss this. Five questions for Contributors (and you!) are at the end.
Over the past few months, a strong meme has developed regarding Barack Obama: that his loyalties to a position are only as strong as they 
need to be given the demands of the moment. His eagerness to throw close associates or even mentors like Jeremiah Wright under the bus if the press or the political right demands it is second to none in the history of presidential politics. He has no qualms about shifting positions - such as on meeting without preconditions with the leaders of enemy nations - if it will squelch a media storm or make it easier to win a state. He has not a stubborn bone in his body, it appears - and is, to put it simply, not a fan of inconvenient truths.
But in the month since Obama cinched the Democratic nomination, this stream of flipflops has become a torrent. A brief summary:
-Obama said the D.C. handgun ban and the almost as restrictive Chicago ban were constitutional and supported handgun restrictions, but now he says definitively that it was unconstitutional.
-Obama promised he would accept public financing when he thought he'd need it, but then decided he'd rather not.
-Obama opposed welfare reform while in Illinois, but now says he supports it.
-Obama opposed the death penalty on principle and supported a moratorium on capital punishment - even implying that Osama Bin Laden should not be "martyred" by it - and now he believes it is justified not just in the case of homicide and terrorism, but also of child rape and other circumstances.
-Obama opposed legal immunity for telecom companies for cooperating with government security surveillance, but now he claims to support it.
And just this past week came two of the largest flipflops - certainly the greatest ones I have ever witnessed DURING THE COURSE of a presidential campaign:
-Obama supported immediate day one withdrawal of troops from Iraq, but now says he'll "refine" his position and listen to the commanders on the ground if they tell him to phase out the troops slowly, while still claiming to support an impossible mark of 16 months to a total withdrawal. You can read the three different versions of this new Obama position on Iraq here.
-Obama supported unlimited access to abortion, including taxpayer funding and opposing born alive infant protection, but now he says he supports states rights to restrict and even prohibit all late-term abortions, and have now requirement to have a health exception that allows for the (overwhelmingly used) basis of "mental health."
The story is here, and his inevitable attempt to refine further is here. As for the original interview, the full text is here, and below the fold.
Read on for the questions and responses...
Posted in 2008 | Abortion | ANWR | Barack Obama | Redstate Roundtable — Comments (12)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 5:44pm on Jun. 25, 2008 Gov. Bobby Jindal Signs Bill to Chemically Castrate Sex Offenders
Not Even Slightly Veiled Translation: Hey SCOTUS, Suck It
By Ben Domenech
On the heels of today's SCOTUS decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana barring the death penalty for sex offenders, Gov. Bobby Jindal released a statement calling the ruling an "affront to the people of Louisiana" - and what's more, vowing to do whatever possible to amend the state’s laws in order to maintain the death penalty for child rape.
But that's not all he did.
Today, Gov. Jindal signed the "Sex Offender Chemical Castration Bill," authorizing the castration of convicted sex offenders. They get a choice: physical or chemical. Oh, and they don't just get castrated and leave - they still have to serve out their sentence.
More below the fold:
Posted in Bobby Jindal | Breaking News | Crime | Death Penalty | Louisiana | scotus — Comments (51)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 5:05pm on Jun. 17, 2008 Do You Support Habeas Corpus Rights for Osama bin Laden?
John Kerry and Barack Obama Do
By Ben Domenech
From Michael Goldfarb, we learn an astounding fact: John Kerry supports granting Habeas Corpus rights to Osama bin Laden. From the NY Observer:
When asked by a reporter about the McCain campaign's assertion that Obama would want to give Osama Bin Laden habeas corpus rights, Kerry answered angrily.
"The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that they have those rights -- this is not Barack Obama, this is the Supreme Court of the United States. If John McCain were president he'd have to give them those rights. This is a phony argument. And it is typical of what the Republican playbook is, which is, say anything, no matter what the other side has said, just say it, people may believe it, unless you folks write the truth and write it boldly and clearly. The truth is that this is exactly what they tried to say back in 2004 and the record absolutely contradicts it."
Obama himself, of course, already made the mistake of suggesting that granting habeas rights are just following the example of Nuremberg, where no such rights existed.
Conservatives would emphatically support Obama's position if it means as POTUS he would hold to the Nuremberg standard for international tribunals, since this measure would grant far fewer allowances for terrorists on trial than any court arranged by the current Administration. And it's not like Nuremberg was just a slaughterhouse - they acquitted more than one individual - they just weren't as interested in giving a whole slew of known killers and villains undeserved rights. Imagine if Nuremberg had the kind of allowances and presumptions of today's American courts? We'd have been arguing about these Nazis til the Reagan presidency.
It is a simple, straightforward, and reasonable position: Known terrorists, who have done nothing to earn the rights of American citizens but prove that they have varying degrees of skill in killing American citizens, should not have the same court experience as American citizens. The American people agree, emphatically rejecting the Obama-Kerry position in the ABC News/WaPo poll released today:
13. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that non-citizens suspected of terrorism who are being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should be allowed to challenge their detentions in the U.S. civilian court system. (Supporters of this ruling say it provides detainees with basic constitutional rights.) (Critics of the ruling say only special military tribunals should be allowed, because hearings in open court could compromise terrorism investigations.) What's your view - do you think these detainees should or should not be able to challenge their detentions in the civilian court system?
Should 34%
Should not 61%
No Opinion 6%
Even on a question that convoluted, people have no qualms: access to the civilian court system is not a universal right, but a right that terrorists do not deserve. If caught alive, Osama bin Laden should be tried and executed. He should not be granted rights he has no claim to, by birthright or service or any other measure.
Barack Obama must answer this question: why does Osama bin Laden deserve these rights?
Posted in Barack Obama | Gitmo | John Kerry | John Kerry good John McCain bad | scotus | War — Comments (123)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 3:51pm on Jun. 13, 2008 Tim Russert: RIP
A Giant Passes
By Ben Domenech
One of the most capable, influential and powerful figures in the history of political television left us today. I grew up watching him, and I will miss him the way you miss an old friend - he had the ability to put anyone, no matter how much they would squirm on the MTP set, on the spot. Whatever you thought of Tim Russert's personal politics, he leaves a giant hole behind.
RIP. Go Bills.
Posted in Breaking News | Tim Russert — Comments (30)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 3:00pm on Jun. 11, 2008 BREAKING: Johnson Steps Down from Obama VP Committee
Another Scalp for the Online Right
By Ben Domenech
Jim Johnson is stepping down from Barack Obama's VP Search Committee.
WASHINGTON (AP) - A leader of Democrat Barack Obama's vice presidential research team has resigned amid criticism over his personal loan deals.
Obama announced in a statement Wednesday that Jim Johnson was stepping aside to avoid distracting from the vetting process.
Johnson served on the vetting team with former first daughter Caroline Kennedy and former Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder.
I'm beginning to like Barack Obama. He's so wonderfully predictable. Each time there's a blowup - a friend of his who highlights the hypocrisy of his HopeChange message, a connection to the corruption of Chicago politics, an adviser or spiritual mentor saying offensively wacky things - Obama responds with the same round of obfuscations:
1. Obama denies there is a problem.
2. Obama insists he was misunderstood.
4. Obama caves.
This is awesome.
Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Obamafiles — Comments (65)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 5:41pm on Jun. 2, 2008 McCain's One-Term Pledge
The Promise that almost was and should come back
By Ben Domenech
Marc Ambinder reports something that had been a rumor for a while as actual, real-live fact: last year, the McCain campaign seriously considered a pledge that if elected, McCain would only serve one term.
McCain himself considered it all the way until the morning of the speech, then decided against it. But from Ambinder's telling, it doesn't sound like a firm smackdown to the idea.
Personally, I'm in favor of it. It's a suggestion Ramesh made forcefully last October, and I believe it would be a powerful moment of contrast between Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama. The negatives, as I see it, are as follows:
1. It reminds everyone that McCain is old, and Obama is young. Guess what: Everyone knows this already. Your HDTV will remind you again in the fall, trust me.
2. It's risky. Well, McCain thrives on risk. In fact, when he's not taking a risk, running an insurgent campaign, shifting paradigms, or running with scissors, he doesn't know what to do with himself, and we get that horrid immigration bill and a load of campaign debt.
3. If he's not running again, McCain will ignore the base. Look, this is going to happen anyway, on a lot of issues. It's been happening for years! All that will change is that McCain and the base can be more honest about disagreements, and fight things out old style, in the streets with knives.
4. It has some similarities to the negatives of resigning from the Senate to run for the Presidency. But unlike a Senate resignation, there's no farewell-tour quality to this announcement: instead, it's McCain putting all his chips on the table (insert other appropriate and terrible sports metaphor here). Why? Because he doesn't want to win to advance his power, he wants to win because America needs him. Etc., etc.
The benefits are many: it shows McCain as accepting his Churchill-like status on the right (we need you for this war, and when that's done, you can retire), it earns him respect once again as a politician unlike any other (imagine the interviews - the MSM gags on their spoons), it makes it more likely that angry pro-Hillary Democrats would consider voting for him (four years of McCain or eight of Barack? They can take four years of McCain), and it cements the idea that McCain views this as service, not personal advancement. It also has the added benefit, for conservatives, of setting up a far more clearcut primary battle for 2012.
I have no idea of any response that Obama can make that would seem good in response to an announcement like this from McCain. Suggestions are welcome in comments.
Posted in 2008 | John McCain — Comments (61)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 7:31pm on Jun. 1, 2008 A few words on Puerto Rico
It matters
By Ben Domenech
First off, a confession: yes, that was my cousin Hillary just thanked from the podium. I trust he is as ashamed of my political preferences as I of him, but we're nice about it and can drink together anyway. This is family, people.
Second off: who were all these self-styled experts about Puerto Rican politics who emerged over the past few weeks? I can't tell you how many glaring factually vacant idiocies I saw in ink form and online over the past few weeks, all because someone has a Puerto Rican friend or vacationed on the island a few times. Look: just because you've been to a place doesn't mean you understand its politics.
The rest of the RS editors always dog on me for linking to this publication, but I still persist in reading it, because I like it (and I like NPR - sue me), which led me to ask: Who the heck is Michael Sean Winters, and why is he so wrong about Puerto Rico? I'd assume a Jesuit to at least know enough to realize that the selection of Presidente over Medalla is not going to decide an election (look, I love PR, but Medalla tastes like it's aged in sweaty socks). But then, he got the King Canute reference wrong too, so whaddaya expect.
In any case, the third and most important point is this: Puerto Rico may not matter at the moment, or in the big scheme of things, but it should to any Democrat. It should because it shows once again that, given the opportunity to ice this nomination for good, Barack Obama cannot deliver. His ground efforts are simply not up to snuff for a general election, and it will need a vast overhaul to compete with a Republican machine that, for all its faults, still is at the top of the game when it comes to microtargeting voters and moving people on election day.
Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Hillary Clinton | Puerto Rico | The Best Democratic Primary EVER — Comments (23)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 6:59pm on May 28, 2008 The Audacious Hypocrite
Barack Obama’s Enduring Lobbyist Ties
By Ben Domenech
Trying to lock up the 2008 nomination, Barack Obama sent one of his most prominent lobbyist allies to help convince Puerto Ricans to vote for him.
If you believed that whole shtick about this fellow as the bearer of a new kind of politics – one that rejected the typical Washington-centric choices of the past – well, good for you. You’re an optimist. Rock on. Invest in pork bellies. And yeah, I’m sure HD-DVD and Betamax will make a comeback.
Obama likes lobbyists. They’re likable people. They're paid to be likable, in fact.
Obama has tons of lobbyists hanging around his campaign, giving him money, whispering in his ears. We all knew that. But this is something more.
Obama’s co-director for his entire campaign in Puerto Rico, it turns out, is a Beltway-based federal lobbyist. Not just a little lobbying, no - someone who's made millions doing nothing but lobbying for the past seven years. And what's more, he hasn't even bothered to take a leave of absence from his firm to organize Obama's campaign effort in Puerto Rico.
Jeffrey Birnbaum at that biased neoconservative source, the Washington Post, reports below the fold:
Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | lobbyists | Obamafiles — Comments (17)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 10:45pm on May 6, 2008 Michael Yon's Moment of Truth
By Ben Domenech
Michael Yon does not have time to talk to you. There are things going on. The front is ablaze with fire. The sound of gunfire is not distant, but down the block. And yet here he is, sitting down across from you, setting a bottle of scotch on the table, taking off his sunglasses to see straight into your eyes. He is tired, yes, tired of it all – but he has a story to tell you, a story you must hear, and you are damn well going to listen.
"There is a clear battlefield conversion from ink to blood, from blood to ink," he says. And you understand.
Yon's new book, Moment of Truth in Iraq, reads as this conversation would: the unflinching staccato of a man who has seen more than almost anyone else of this war, this absolutely necessary but unquestionably mismanaged war, and the men and women who fought and died to win it.
It is the story of Fallujah and Anbar. Deuce Four. The Welsh Warriors, Rorke's Drift Company. The Holy Hand Grenade. How to Get Killed. Petraeus. The Surge. The Sons of Iraq. The Seven Rules. Farah.
Do not say another word about these things – do not write about them as if you know what you are talking about – until you read this book. Until you set yourself down and talk over scotch and sand as the explosions echo.
You will listen. Again and again, unwise policies devised by diplomats throw new perils upon them. Again and again, Yon heads out with groups of young men, soldiers who do know what awaits them, and yet conquer their fear, set it aside to do what must be done.
He checks the windows first.
If you are going on a combat mission and soldiers have not cleaned all their windows to a sparkle, do not go with them. Soldiers with dirty windows are not watching for tiny wires in the road, nor are they scanning rooftops. They are talking about women, football, and the cars they will buy when they get home. I will not go into combat with soldiers with dirty windows.
Clean windows, so they will see what's coming. Sometimes they will stop it before it comes. Sometimes they will not. Yon is there for it all. He is determined that these stories – the stories the media at home will not tell you, the stories you must dig to find amidst the latest celebrity marriages, hot new gadget, and Hollywood gossip – will not go unwritten. He will write them himself, in the back of a Humvee, and send them back across the globe. And you will listen.
You cannot read Yon's book in bed. I found it hard enough to read it sitting down – it rips out tales that will make you frustrated, then angry, then grateful, and then you weep. But clear your reading list. You must read it, because it is the most truth about this war that you will ever read, a tale of blood and sand and heroes and villains – and hidden underneath it all, hope.
The military is at war. America is at the mall…American combat soldiers don't want pity. They're ready to fight to the end; they just don't want it to be for naught. They have been fighting for two nations, one of which didn't seem to notice. The Iraqis noticed.
Posted in Book Reviews | Michael Yon | War — Comments (10)/ Email this page » / Read More »
Posted at 8:59am on May 1, 2008 The Theology of Barack Obama
By Ben Domenech
RS's own Dan Spencer (California Yankee), who now blogs over at the Examiner, was kind enough to host a piece I wrote on what the Rev. Wright debacle tells us about the theology of Barack Obama. An excerpt:
Barack Obama is the evangelist of the betterment of man. His religion is one of an almost overriding humanism, to the exclusion of the divine: hope is his signet, change his golden cross. He brings salvation to the masses via the empowerment of government, government under his leadership. His followers are not the Southern pro-American Carter voters, and they may carry iPhones instead of the hoes of the agrarian south, but the message is striking for its similarities. Where Carter constantly used Protestant religious terminology to describe the healing that needed to take place in the wake of Watergate, Obama's solution for the Iraq war and the other sins (as he sees them) of the George W. Bush administration is to say: trust in me – untested, inexperienced, poll-driven me – as you trust in yourself.
Yet there are small differences as well, and those are key to understanding the Senator. The language Obama uses may still be that of prayer, but it is prayer not directed toward a creator, but to his audience itself. Faith turns inward, and becomes an infinite loop. So Carter's "We can neither answer all questions nor solve all problems" becomes "Yes we can." And so the old sung tones of "Wait upon the Lord" morphs into "We are the ones we've been waiting for." From Obama's perspective, as opposed to Carter's, it is only the bitter, the nervous, the threatened, or the uneducated who cling to religion.
We know how this ended the first time: the infamous malaise speech of 1979. As the eloquent Steve Hayward put it in his biography of President Carter, the man ran for office promising "a government as good as the people" ultimately ended his term in office by saying that the people were no good. If they took such bets in Vegas, one could get a fine margin on picking the month of his term where President Obama would announce the same realization.
Read it all over at Right Side Politics.