It's been a pleasure everyone...

Thanks everyone for reading... this past year has been one of the best of my life, and I've enjoyed meeting a number of great friends.  I leave you with the statesman and American hero:

Remarks from Senator John McCain
November 4, 2008

Thank you. Thank you, my friends. Thank you for coming here on this beautiful Arizona evening.

My friends, we have -- we have come to the end of a long journey. The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly. A little while ago, I had the honor of calling Senator Barack Obama to congratulate him on being elected the next president of the country that we both love.

In a contest as long and difficult as this campaign has been, his success alone commands my respect for his ability and perseverance. But that he managed to do so by inspiring the hopes of so many millions of Americans who had once wrongly believed that they had little at stake or little influence in the election of an American president is something I deeply admire and commend him for achieving.

This is an historic election, and I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans and for the special pride that must be theirs tonight.

I've always believed that America offers opportunities to all who have the industry and will to seize it. Senator Obama believes that, too. But we both recognize that though we have come a long way from the old injustices that once stained our nation's reputation and denied some Americans the full blessings of American citizenship, the memory of them still had the power to wound.

A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt's invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage in many quarters. America today is a world away from the cruel and prideful bigotry of that time. There is no better evidence of this than the election of an African American to the presidency of the United States. Let there be no reason now for any American to fail to cherish their citizenship in this, the greatest nation on Earth.

Senator Obama has achieved a great thing for himself and for his country. I applaud him for it, and offer in my sincere sympathy that his beloved grandmother did not live to see this day, though our faith assures us she is at rest in the presence of her creator and so very proud of the good man she helped raise.

Senator Obama and I have had and argued our differences, and he has prevailed. No doubt many of those differences remain. These are difficult times for our country, and I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face.

I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together, to find the necessary compromises, to bridge our differences, and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited.

Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans. And please believe me when I say no association has ever meant more to me than that.

It is natural tonight to feel some disappointment, but tomorrow we must move beyond it and work together to get our country moving again. We fought as hard as we could.

And though we fell short, the failure is mine, not yours.

I am so deeply grateful to all of you for the great honor of your support and for all you have done for me. I wish the outcome had been different, my friends. The road was a difficult one from the outset. But your support and friendship never wavered. I cannot adequately express how deeply indebted I am to you.

I am especially grateful to my wife, Cindy, my children, my dear mother and all my family and to the many old and dear friends who have stood by my side through the many ups and downs of this long campaign. I have always been a fortunate man, and never more so for the love and encouragement you have given me.

You know, campaigns are often harder on a candidate's family than on the candidate, and that's been true in this campaign. All I can offer in compensation is my love and gratitude, and the promise of more peaceful years ahead.

I am also, of course, very thankful to Governor Sarah Palin, one of the best campaigners I have ever seen and an impressive new voice in our party for reform and the principles that have always been our greatest strength. Her husband Todd and their five beautiful children with their tireless dedication to our cause, and the courage and grace they showed in the rough-and-tumble of a presidential campaign. We can all look forward with great interest to her future service to Alaska, the Republican Party and our country.

To all my campaign comrades, from Rick Davis and Steve Schmidt and Mark Salter, to every last volunteer who fought so hard and valiantly month after month in what at times seemed to be the most challenged campaign in modern times, thank you so much. A lost election will never mean more to me than the privilege of your faith and friendship.

I don't know what more we could have done to try to win this election. I'll leave that to others to determine. Every candidate makes mistakes, and I'm sure I made my share of them. But I won't spend a moment of the future regretting what might have been.

This campaign was and will remain the great honor of my life. And my heart is filled with nothing but gratitude for the experience and to the American people for giving me a fair hearing before deciding that Senator Obama and my old friend Senator Joe Biden should have the honor of leading us for the next four years.

I would not be an American worthy of the name, should I regret a fate that has allowed me the extraordinary privilege of serving this country for a half a century. Today, I was a candidate for the highest office in the country I love so much. And tonight, I remain her servant. That is blessing enough for anyone and I thank the people of Arizona for it.

Tonight, more than any night, I hold in my heart nothing but love for this country and for all its citizens, whether they supported me or Senator Obama, I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president.

And I call on all Americans, as I have often in this campaign, to not despair of our present difficulties but to believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here.

Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history, we make history.

Thank you, and God bless you, and God bless America. Thank you all very much.

Meghan says it better than I ever could...

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2008 AT 12:31 PM
"Musings on Politics from a Pop Culture Girl"
POSTED BY MEGHAN

When I started the Blogette last year, I wanted to show people what happens behind the scenes in a national campaign. I did this because I love my family and I knew that it might surprise people to see how normal this experience can be. I know this has been a difficult campaign for a lot of people. I know there are many who just want to get past the last eight years. And I know there are people who are so desperate for change they will do anything to get what they think is a better deal.

I make no excuses for the state of politics today. But I want everyone to know that my dad is more than ready to be the President this country needs right now. Everyone always assumed Iraq would be this campaign's number one hurdle. The only thing I respect more than people's opinions about how to proceed in Iraq are the men and women who are bravely serving our country in harm's way every single day. My Dad is the only candidate with real military experience who has the support of an overwhelming majority of current service members. And if you really want to know how much I trust him, remember that I have two brothers who are serving, one of whom is about to redeploy. Of course, all of this is easy to miss, because this election is clearly about moving past the current administration and fixing the economy.

If you honestly think someone with extremely limited experience will solve the severe problems we have in this country then, by all means, vote for Senator Obama. If you want to give complete control of our government to the Democrats who have made a real mess of things over the last two years they've controlled Congress, then go ahead and vote for Senator Obama. And, if you really believe that our taxes should be higher and that government should have a bigger role in our lives, vote for Senator Obama.

Some of you have asked me how I can support my Dad or call myself a Republican when times are so tough, especially since my own personal beliefs don't always sync with the GOP. Well, I have asked myself that same question a lot. But I support my Dad through it all because I know this: my Dad will be unlike ANY other Republican president. My father has the experience, leadership skills, and proven dedication to serve. I only wish people could understand that Dad will bring about the change everyone is so hungry for in a much more real way than Senator Obama could ever possibly hope to do at this stage in his political career.

So, forget everything you've heard or seen. Just know this: everyone wants change. And while some people can only talk about it, my dad will bring it. Don't give up on him. He is never going to give up on you. And by you, I mean every American. Regardless of age, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation or political ideology; a vote for John McCain is a vote to change our country for the better. Don't hope for a better future. Vote for one.

What Obama thinks about refurbishing our nuclear stockpile...

He's going to be on a collision course with our military...

This, along with a threat of a 25% cut of defense spending will directly effect our national security...

Remarks by McCain After Economic Roundtable

ARLINGTON, VA -- U.S. Senator John McCain today delivered the following remarks as prepared for delivery after meeting with economic and business leaders in Cleveland, OH:

I just finished meeting with my team of economic and business advisors. We have been meeting throughout this campaign, discussing the state of our economy and what we need to do to get this country back on track. This is a team of extraordinary leaders in business and government, with great insight into what we need to do to rebuild confidence, restore economic growth and create millions of new jobs. They, and many others, have helped me develop dynamic new economic policies, and in a McCain Administration they will continue to advise me and help enact these important actions to get our economy moving again.

I have been through tough times like this before and the American people can trust me -- based on my record and results -- to take strong action to end this crisis, restore jobs and bring security to Americans. I will never be the one who sits on the sidelines waiting for things to get better. I believe that to lead, you must put forward your vision of our future, and that is what I have done.

With one week left in this campaign, the choice facing Americans is stark. My economic goals and policies are very clear -- One, I will protect your savings and retirement accounts and get this stock market rising again. Two, I will keep people in their homes and fix our housing market. Three, I will create millions of high-paying jobs through tax cuts that spur economic growth -- particularly for the small businesses which create 70 percent of all new jobs in this country.

The first thing we must do is protect peoples' savings, investments and retirement accounts by stopping the declines in the stock market, and by getting the credit markets moving again so people can get home, car and business loans. To do this, we need pro-growth and pro-jobs economic policies, not pro-government spending programs paid for with higher taxes.

This is the fundamental difference between Senator Obama and me. We both disagree with President Bush on economic policy. The difference is that he thinks taxes have been too low, and I think that spending has been too high.

My approach is to get spending under control and cut taxes to encourage individuals to invest in our markets or buy a home, and to encourage businesses to hire more workers. Senator Obama's approach is to radically increase spending, and then raise taxes to pay for it. Today he claims that he will only tax the rich, but we have seen in the past that he is willing to support taxes that hit people squarely in the middle class, and with a trillion dollars in new spending, the most likely outcome is that everyone who pays taxes will be paying for his spending.

My approach will lead to rising stock market prices, a stabilized housing market, economic growth and millions of new jobs. Senator Obama's plan will destroy business growth, kill jobs, and lead to continued declines in the stock market and make a recession even deeper and more painful.

We need action today, even as we lay the foundation for growth tomorrow. To help put a floor on the stock market, we need people and institutions to start buying and holding their investments again. To incentivize investments, I have proposed that if you buy stock and hold it for a minimum of a year, your tax on that investment will be cut in half.

To help retirees, I will eliminate a rule that forces people to take money out of their accounts when the markets are at these low levels. Also when retirees do sell, they will be taxed at a low 10 percent rate versus a much higher personal income tax rate. These vital measures will promote buying, help companies raise capital and create jobs, shore up investment and retirement plans and get stock prices stabilized and rising again.

But we also need to do more to build confidence that American investments and retirement accounts are safe, so I will reform the markets and Wall Street. I will make sure that the SEC enacts and enforces rules that keep our markets safe and competitive. I will demand complete transparency into the accounts and activities at all banks and insurance companies so they cannot take on the kind of risk that brought down the financial system. We will have strict rules of conduct on Wall Street and if they are broken executives will be severely punished. I know -- and the smartest people in business and industry agree -- that these actions will restore confidence, get stock prices moving up again and increase the value of your hard earned savings and investments.

We also need to build confidence in our workers. Through my middle class tax cuts, I will let you keep much more of what you earn so you can save and invest it. A typical middle-class family of four making $42,000 a year with health insurance will get $4,350 more dollars under my plan than under the Obama plan.

We cannot fix the economy until we fix the housing and mortgage markets and I have a plan for that as well. When I am President, the government will get out of the banking business fast. My highest priority for the $700 billion rescue plan will be to protect the value of your home, which is where most American savings are invested. I have announced a plan to replace bad mortgages for deserving people with more affordable new ones guaranteed by the government. This will stem the tide of foreclosures that are hurting families, shore up banks with troubled loans, and set a floor under the housing market and get home prices stabilized and rising again.

I have said throughout this campaign that the best economic recovery plan is a secure well paying job. This morning we talked a lot about creating jobs. David Farr who runs Emerson Electric has told me how pro-growth tax cuts like those I have proposed will incentivize him and hundreds of businesses that have sent jobs overseas to expand their businesses and hire people right here in America.

Lou Anne Reger who founded and runs a steel company in Minnesota and Massey Villareal who employs 160 people in a computer services company in Texas echoed David's comments and also add that Obama's health mandate to require companies to provide the equivalent of a Congressman's insurance plan, or get fined, will force them to cut jobs and would cripple their businesses in the worst economy in generations. Let's make this very clear because Senator Obama has distorted my health care plan throughout this election. His plan will fine bus inesses and individuals so he can finance his version of government run healthcare. I will give every American a $5,000 health care credit, lower healthcare costs and let you take your insurance with you when you leave a job. That's the difference.

This election comes down to how you want your hard earned money spent. Do you want to keep it and invest it in your future, or have it taken by the most liberal person to ever run for the Presidency and the Democratic leaders who have been running congress for the past two years -- Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid? This is a dangerous threesome. They believe that $1 trillion of rescue financing is not enough and have already proposed another $300 billion spending spree they are calling a stimulus plan. I would rather give the great American middle class additional tax cuts and let you keep that money and invest it in your future.

As President, I will bring enormous talent -- like these great leaders here -- from outside of Washington to shake up the government and get it working to promote economic growth and jobs for the American people. My team and I will take action to put an end to this economic crisis, restore confidence in our markets, get stock and home prices moving up again, grow businesses, create jobs and restore the great American dream.

Know Hope...

OCTOBER 24, 2008
43% Isn't Nothing
Obama looks like a winner, but it's not over yet.
By PEGGY NOONAN


It's all going fast, the whirl of images on the screen, words on the page, data flashing by. Barack Obama's up here, his lead now in the double digits there. In green rooms on book interviews, I see quietly angry former Reagan staffers, defensive former Bush aides, harried McCain spokesmen, and almost-jaunty Democrats. A network correspondent with a reputation for fairness—no one knows how this reporter votes—came by one day and shrugged with frustration. Everyone asks me about media bias. Of course the media loves Obama, but I can't say it. I didn't take notes, but I think that's word for word. Soon after, I received an email from a different journalist who referred, in passing, to where many journalists stand.


Neither of these people is conservative. When nonconservatives see the Obama love, and refer to it without prompting, the Obama love is deep. Remember how John McCain used to refer jokingly to the press as "my base"? Now it's part of Mr. Obama's. But if Mr. McCain loses, the reason will not be press bias.

The press knows who the press is for, and it isn't generally the one to the right. This has been true all my life. What has also been true is that the Republican had to get around it with the truth of his stands, the force of his arguments, the un-ignorability of his words, the power of his presence. You have to go over the head of the interpreters and gently seize the country by its lapels. Mr. McCain never got much over their heads. This is not because they're so tall. His campaign was not so much about meaning as it was, in the end, a series of moments—a good interview with Rick Warren, a good convention, Joe the Plumber . . .

And yet: It's not over. For one thing, Mr. McCain has got to be reading Steven Stark's piece in the Boston Phoenix, which imagines the forces that could produce a McCain upset. What if Mr. Obama underperforms on Election Day, just as he did in the final primaries with Hillary Clinton? What if senior citizens turn out in record numbers and vote for the older guy, and the financial crisis seems to fade, and Mr. McCain finds new grounding on the issue of taxes, and the Obama campaign undermines itself with premature triumphalism . . .

Mr. McCain has endless faith in his ability to come back. He's been doing it for 40 years, from Vietnam, where, with the injuries he'd sustained and the torture he experienced, he might have died, was likely to die, and yet survived, to exactly a year ago, when he was out of money and out of luck. And then he won New Hampshire. When he says, "We got 'em where we want 'em" he must mean: They think they are looking at a corpse. No one in politics has so repeatedly relished coming back from the dead.

Not a single poll has Mr. McCain ahead. The RealClearPolitics average of national polls as I write, rounded off, is Obama 50%, McCain 43%. Actually Mr. Obama has 50.1%, and if that is true and holds, it would make him the first Democratic presidential nominee since Jimmy Carter to break 50%. But I find myself thinking of what that 43% means. It's a big number, considering that this is the worst Republican year in generations. Amid two wars, a deep economic crisis, a fractured base, too much cynicism, and a campaign with the wind not at its back but head on in its face—with all of that working against Mr. McCain, 43% of the American people say, right now, in these polls, they are for him. And there are a significant number of undecideds. Four years ago about 122 million people voted. Forty-three percent of 122 million is 52 million people, more or less. A huge group, one too varied to generalize about because it includes flinty elderly Republicans from New England, home-schooling mothers in Ohio, libertarianish Republicans in Colorado, suburban patriots outside the big cities, and many others.

They are the beating heart of conservatism, and to watch most television is to forget they exist, for they are not shown much, except at rallies. But they are there, and this is a center-right nation, and many of them have been pushing hard against the age for 40 years now, and more. For some time they have sensed that something large and stable is being swept away, maybe has been swept away, and yet you still have to fight for it. They will not give up without a fight, and they will make their way to the polls.

And they will be a rock-hard challenge to Mr. Obama if he wins.

This is the thing: If Mr. Obama wins, and governs as a moderate liberal, not veering left, not seeming to be the cap that pops off a kettle that's been boiling for eight years, but governs to a degree, at least in general approach, as Bill Clinton did—as a moderate Democrat well aware of the terrain—he may know some success. And he may be able to tamp down the insistence of the long-simmering left by the force of his own popularity, which will grow once he is president among grateful Democrats, and others. But if he goes left—if it comes to seem as if the attractive, dark-haired man has torn open his shirt to reveal a huge S, not for Superman but for Socialist, if he jumps toward reforms such as a speech-limiting new Fairness Doctrine, that won't yield success. It will yield trouble, and unneeded domestic arguments. We have enough needed ones.

In a way, Mr. Obama can more easily go left in foreign relations for the precise reason no one knows what going left is, because no one knows what going right in foreign relations is, at least if "right" means "conservative." Mr. Obama has a great chance, in this area, to confuse the world. And a confused world is not all a bad thing. His persona, name, color, youth and approach will, at least initially, jumble up long-settled categories. Radicals enjoy hating America, but a particular picture of America. He is not that picture. He will give calculating Western European leaders an opening to be friendly to America again; they will feel that Mr. Obama's victory constitutes the rebuke of the Bushism they desire. They will befriend the rebuker.

People wonder if he is decisive. It is clear he is decisive in terms of his own career: He decides to go for president of the law review, to move to Chicago, to roll the dice for a U.S. Senate seat, to hire David Axelrod, to take on Hillary, to campaign with discipline and even elegance. When it comes to his career, his decisions are thought through and his judgments sound. But when it comes to decisions that have to do with larger issues, with great questions and not with him, things get murkier. There is the long trail of the missed and "present" votes, the hesitance on big questions. One wonders if in the presidency he'll be like the dog that chased the car and caught it:

What's he supposed to do now?

It is mean out there, and in the next week it will get darker still, perhaps spectacularly so. To me, the biggest nightmare would be a tie. The worst resolution would be no resolution. And the quarrel would not, for even a moment, abate.

Was Biden talking about bringing back the draft??

Until he tells us definitively -- before the election would be imperative -- rumors will fly...

Big Donors are the Key to Obama's massive fundraising...

When donors are responsible for raising over $500K for your campaign, what do they want?

Not Ready to be Commander in Chief...

Just ask his running mate... Sen. Biden, please explain your sincere doubts...

Pennsylvania is the Keystone...

This is how we pull this thing out...

Where the hell is the Department of Justice??

Can someone tell me why massive voter fraud is taking place in Ohio, while the Justice Department fiddles??

More, on the potential RICO angle...

Biden: International Crisis to come if Obama is elected...

Really?? Then why the heck would we want to elect him? For the excitement of it all??

McCain speech from Florida today...

MCCAIN DEFENDS THE PLUMBER
REMARKS IN MIAMI, FL
Fri Oct 17 2008 13:45:02 ET

It's great to be here in Miami. Florida is a must-win state on November 4th, and with your help, we're going to win Florida, and bring change to Washington, DC. We had a good debate this week. You may have noticed-- there was a lot of talk about Senator Obama's tax increases and Joe the Plumber. Last weekend, Senator Obama showed up in Joe's driveway to ask for his vote, and Joe asked Senator Obama a tough question. I'm glad he did; I think Senator Obama could use a few more tough questions.

The response from Senator Obama and his campaign yesterday was to attack Joe. People are digging through his personal life and he has TV crews camped out in front of his house. He didn't ask for Senator Obama to come to his house. He wasn't recruited or prompted by our campaign. He just asked a question. And Americans ought to be able to ask Senator Obama tough questions without being smeared and targeted with political attacks.

The question Joe asked about our economy is important, because Senator Obama's plan would raise taxes on small businesses that employ 16 million Americans. Senator Obama's plan will kill those jobs at just the time when we need to be creating more jobs. My plan will create jobs, and that's what America needs.

Senator Obama says that he wanted to spread your wealth around. When politicians talk about taking your money and spreading it around, you'd better hold onto your wallet. Senator Obama claims that wants to give a tax break to the middle class, but not only did he vote for higher taxes on the middle class in the Senate, his plan gives away your tax dollars to those who don't pay taxes.

That's not a tax cut, that's welfare. America didn't become the greatest nation on earth by redistributing wealth; we became the greatest nation by creating new wealth.

This is the choice that we face. These are hard times. Our economy is in crisis. Americans are fighting in two wars. We face many enemies in this dangerous world, and many challenges here at home.

The next President won't have time to get used to the office. He won't have the luxury of studying up on the issues before he acts. He will have to act immediately. And to do that, he will need experience, courage, judgment and a bold plan of action to take this country in a new direction. We cannot spend the next four years as we have spent much of the last eight: waiting for our luck to change. We have to act immediately. I said it at the last debate: I'm not George Bush; if Senator Obama wants to run against George Bush, he should have run for President 4 years ago. We need a new direction now. We have to fight for it. I've been fighting for this country since I was seventeen years old, and I have the scars to prove it. If I'm elected President, I will fight to take America in a new direction from my first day in office until my last. I'm not afraid of the fight, I'm ready for it.

I'm not going to spend $700 billion dollars of your money just bailing out the Wall Street bankers and brokers who got us into this mess. I'm going to make sure we take care of the people who were devastated by the excesses of Wall Street and Washington. I'm going to spend a lot of that money to bring relief to you, and I'm not going to wait sixty days to start doing it.

I have a plan to protect the value of your home and get it rising again by buying up bad mortgages and refinancing them so if your neighbor defaults he doesn't bring down the value of your house with him.

I have a plan to let retirees and people nearing retirement keep their money in their retirement accounts longer so they can rebuild their savings. I will protect Social Security so that retirees get the benefits they have earned, and I will bring both parties together to fix Social Security so that it is there for future generations.

I have a plan to hold the line on taxes and cut them to make America more competitive and create jobs here at home.

Raising taxes makes a bad economy much worse. Keeping taxes low creates jobs, keeps money in your hands and strengthens our economy.

The explosion of government spending over the last eight years has put us deeper in debt to foreign countries that don't have our best interests at heart. It weakened the dollar and made everything you buy more expensive.

If I'm elected President, I won't spend nearly a trillion dollars more of your money, on top of the $700 billion we just gave the Treasury Secretary, as Senator Obama proposes. Because he can't do that without raising your taxes or digging us further into debt. I'm going to make government live on a budget just like you do.

I will freeze government spending on all but the most important programs like defense, veterans care, Social Security and health care until we scrub every single government program and get rid of the ones that aren't working for the American people. And I will veto every single pork barrel bill Congresses passes.

If I'm elected President, I won't fine small businesses and families with children, as Senator Obama proposes, to force them into a new huge government run health care program, while he keeps the cost of the fine a secret until he hits you with it. I will bring down the skyrocketing cost of health care with competition and choice to lower your premiums, and make it more available to more Americans. I'll make sure you can keep the same health plan if you change jobs or leave a job to stay home.

I will provide every single American family with a $5000 refundable tax credit to help them purchase insurance. Workers who already have health care insurance from their employers will keep it and have more money to cover costs. Workers who don't have health insurance can use it to find a policy anywhere in this country to meet their basic needs.

If I'm elected President, I won't raise taxes on small businesses, as Senator Obama proposes, and force them to cut jobs. I will keep small business taxes where they are, help them keep their costs low, and let them spend their earnings to create more jobs.

If I'm elected President, I won't meet unconditionally with the Castro brothers, while they keep political prisoners in jail, stifle free media and block free elections in Cuba. When I am President, we are going to pressure the Cuban government to free their people. The day is coming when Cuba will be free. I will open new markets to goods made in America and make sure our trade is free and fair. And I'll make sure we help workers who've lost a job that won't come back find a new one that won't go away.

If I'm elected President, I won't make it harder to sell our goods overseas and kill more jobs as Senator Obama proposes. I will open new markets to goods made in America and make sure our trade is free and fair. And I'll make sure we help workers who've lost a job that won't come back find a new one that won't go away.

The last President to raise taxes and restrict trade in a bad economy as Senator Obama proposes was Herbert Hoover. That turned a recession into a depression. They say those who don't learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. Well, my friends, I know my history lessons, and I sure won't make the mistakes Senator Obama will.

If I'm elected President, we're going to stop sending $700 billion to countries that don't like us very much. I won't argue to delay drilling for more oil and gas and building new nuclear power plants in America, as Senator Obama does. We will start new drilling now. We will invest in all energy alternativesÊ-- nuclear, wind, solar, and tide. We will encourage the manufacture of hybrid, flex fuel and electric automobiles. We will invest in clean coal technology. We will lower the cost of energy within months, and we will create millions of new jobs.

Let me give you the state of the race today. We have 18 days to go. We're 6 points down. The national media has written us off. Senator Obama is measuring the drapes, and planning with Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid to raise taxes, increase spending, take away your right to vote by secret ballot in labor elections, and concede defeat in Iraq. But they forgot to let you decide. My friends, we've got them just where we want them.

What America needs in this hour is a fighter; someone who puts all his cards on the table and trusts the judgment of the American people. I come from a long line of McCains who believed that to love America is to fight for her. I have fought for you most of my life. There are other ways to love this country, but I've never been the kind to do it from the sidelines.

I know you're worried. America is a great country, but we are at a moment of national crisis that will determine our future. Will we continue to lead the world's economies or will we be overtaken? Will the world become safer or more dangerous? Will our military remain the strongest in the world? Will our children and grandchildren's future be brighter than ours?

My answer to you is yes. Yes, we will lead. Yes, we will prosper. Yes, we will be safer. Yes, we will pass on to our children a stronger, better country. But we must be prepared to act swiftly, boldly, with courage and wisdom.

I know what fear feels like. It's a thief in the night who robs your strength. I know what hopelessness feels like. It's an enemy who defeats your will. I felt those things once before. I will never let them in again. I'm an American. And I choose to fight.

Don't give up hope. Be strong. Have courage. And fight.

Fight for a new direction for our country. Fight for what's right for America. Fight to clean up the mess of corruption, infighting and selfishness in Washington.

Fight to get our economy out of the ditch and back in the lead.

Fight for the ideals and character of a free people.

Fight for our children's future.

Fight for justice and opportunity for all.

Stand up to defend our country from its enemies.

Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight. America is worth fighting for. Nothing is inevitable here. We never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history.

Now, let's go win this election and get this country moving again.

Joe tells it like it is...

no... not Biden (his lies are exposed in an earlier post). Joe the Plumber! Please watch the whole thing... the last minute about freedom and Iraq is more patriotic than I've ever seen Obama:

Halperin: McCain wins...

He's won the final round in all respects. It's time for his supporters to come out and rally. We need all the help we can get in the final 19 days!

Let's go McCain supporters!! Talk to your friends...

We need all Joe the Plumbers to endorse and work hard. Let Americans know what happens when you make small business owners hurt...

Tucker Carlson on pulling your punches...

How does one get to the threshold of the White House without being forced to answer basic questions about his background and policy positions?

The Obama campaign has:

1. Put 95% of the media in the tank (including the "humor"/youth media of Bill Maher, SNL (and SNL) and Jon Stewart (although Stewart has been the most fair of the three));
2. Used race as a sword repeatedly when questioned on everything from policy issues to his extremist friends (how -- as John Lewis just claimed this weekend -- is running an ad about Sen. Obama befriending Bill Ayers, a terrorist and radical revolutionary equivalent to George Wallace? Remember Rep. Lewis... we're talking about John McCain here); and
3. Played on the most honorable politician of my lifetime's honor and respect for history.

Seems to have worked so far... I think it may change tomorrow night. If not, it's going to be a long 4 years for those of us who work hard and follow the rules...

LA Times: Does urging political restraint apply to McCain and Obama or just the Republican?

Over the top ugliness against Sarah Palin in Philadelphia this weekend.

Where are the mainstream media reports??

Hundreds of Economists Sign Letter Opposing Obama's Tax Plan

From TaxProfBlog: Hundreds of economists (including Nobel Prize winners Gary Becker, James Buchanan, Robert Mundell, Edward Prescott, and Vernon Smith) have signed letters opposing Barack Obama's economic and tax plans:

We are equally concerned with his proposals to increase tax rates on labor income and investment. His dividend and capital gains tax increases would reduce investment and cut into the savings of millions of Americans. His proposals to increase income and payroll tax rates would discourage the formation and expansion of small businesses and reduce employment and take-home pay, as would his mandates on firms to provide expensive health insurance.

After hearing such economic criticism of his proposals, Barack Obama has apparently suggested to some people that he might postpone his tax increases, perhaps to 2010. But it is a mistake to think that postponing such tax increases would prevent their harmful effect on the economy today. The prospect of such tax rate increases in 2010 is already a drag on the economy. Businesses considering whether to hire workers today and expand their operations have time horizons longer than a year or two, so the prospect of higher taxes starting in 2009 or 2010 reduces hiring and investment in 2008.

McCain Manhattan is on DRUDGE!!!

Wow... (as of Monday morning, we're on the left side two down)...

Here's the full video to which the link refers. From a march our group organized about 3 weeks ago on the Upper West Side. Apparently, vulgar language and middle fingers are par for the course if you support an American war hero. I think Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was more warmly welcomed in the UWS.

Faith of My Fathers...

The Times gets the story mostly right...

The headline is fundamentally misleading, as all are in the Times concerning McCain (believe me, McCain did not "find a narrative for life" in writing his memoirs, you idiots... he found that in service to his country... you guys in the editing room wouldn't understand).

If you get into the guts of the reporting, however, this is McCain at his best.

How one idiot at a Palin rally became a lynch mob...

City Journal continues to do solid reporting and analysis... something most of the media has not done during this general election campaign.

Why the bombing isn't the most important thing...

National Review's Andy McCarthy on why, while Ayers hasn't been a terrorist for a long while, more importantly, he's a radical leftist revolutionary TODAY.

When Obama is consorting with leftist revolutionaries regularly in his church, in his social activities and in his community activities it tells you more about what he believes and where he's comfortable that what he tells you publicly. McCain, on the other hand, regularly hangs out with Joe Lieberman, Lindsey Graham, and a number of Navy Veterans.

As my Mom always told me when I was growing up: "Your friends make your reputation"...

The ACORN doesn't fall far from the tree...

Is ACORN trying to steal this election?

Obama: For higher taxes, against helping Americans stay in their homes...

This is the McCain campaign's response to Sen. Obama's rejection of a plan to keep more Americans in their homes:

McCain Response to Obama’s Dayton EventPlease see our campaign’s response to Barack Obama’s event in Dayton, Ohio. During the event, Barack Obama attacked John McCain’s proposal to use a greater proportion of the funds authorized by the legislative rescue plan to secure fixed-rate, affordable mortgages for American homeowners who are in danger of losing their homes.

“Barack Obama has voted in favor of for higher taxes 94 times and is promising over $900 billion in new government spending, but apparently he won’t spend a dime to help hardworking Americans stay in their homes. In addition to explaining his friendship with unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers, Barack Obama should tell voters why he supports the $700 billion legislative rescue plan but now opposes using that money to help homeowners get the relief they need and strengthen our economy.

“John McCain’s homeownership resurgence plan represents absolutely no new expense to the taxpayer, but simply refocuses priorities to more directly assist the homeowners who are hurting instead of greed on Wall Street.

“This is just the latest example of Barack Obama putting politics above the national interest, and his utter inability to be straight with the American people. The only thing the American people can trust about Barack Obama is that he’s too big a risk in a time of crisis.” —Tucker Bounds, spokesman McCain-Palin 2008

McCain looks to rise again...

Time is running short. The American Hero is down. Time to Rally!!

For all of you traveling with us to Pennsylvania this weekend, I look forward to it. I did this in January in New Hampshire, and it is some of the best work you will ever do...

McCain talks about mortgage plan in Pennsylvania...

For stabilizing the housing market, go to the source of the problem...

The bomber as school reformer

City Journal (the Manhattan Institute) reports

Talk Tuesday...let the world know what you think

What will the Obama campaign have to say about this?

How fundamental is his belief in free speech and press?

If it's truly a commitment, a statement soon on this detention would be appropriate.

The one big issue tonight...

David Brooks on the current financial upheaval. The global economy is looking for a leader... someone in the debate must step up, or America will become less relevant as a global financial leader.

He's Lying...

The Wonders of Youtube on Politicians like Joe Biden...

Even the New York Times has to report on this one...

Obama and 60s Bomber: A Look Into Crossed Paths

Is Palin Back? You betcha!!

ABC News on the roundup of the Palin comeback ride...

David Brooks...

On the Palin Rebound...

Interesting Moderator...

Gwen Ifill is writing a book on Obama due to come out on inauguration day 2009. Which winner of the Presidential Election would help her sell more books??

Mr. Gregory: You planning on reporting on your conflict of interest??

I think everyone who watches NBC News or MSNBC should know this...

Sing for Change...

On indoctrinating children into the cause...

We must out our Dear Leader, before it becomes officially "unpatriotic" to do so...

More on the corporate/partisan sponsors (including media executives) that put together Indoctrination Camp

Boston Globe...

Iraqis stand up...

I appreciate that the Globe (the little brother of the NY Times) notices the war is on the verge of victory. It pains me, however, to read a column like this with no recognition of Gen. Petraeus, the American soldier or the strategy that made this possible. It is a rewriting of history that should be offensive to patriotic Americans.

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on the first debate...

Ouch...

Obama's National Security Policies Threaten America's Safety

Stephanie Hessler, former Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee has the details.

Another brilliant video from This Week with George Stephanopoulos...

Newt Gingrich, Steven Pearlstein and George Will tell Robert Reich where to go... after he lies and distorts and plays politics with the economic crisis.

Bill Clinton: John McCain "has served his country" more and Barack Obama has "not achieved greatness"

The last Democratic President makes clear that Barack Obama is Not Ready...

David Broder... the "dean of the Washington Press Corps" says John McCain won the debate...

upon further reflection, John McCain rolled on Friday. Key graph:

---------------------
There were no knockout blows in the first presidential debate of the fall, but John McCain out-pointed Barack Obama often enough to encourage his followers that he can somehow overcome the odds and deny the Democrats the victory that has seemed to be in store for them.

It was a small thing, but I counted six times that Obama began a sentence with the words that McCain was "absolutely right" about a point he had made. No McCain sentences began with a similar acknowledgement of his opponent's wisdom, even though the two did, in fact, agree on Iran, Russia and the U.S. financial crisis far more than they disagreed.

That suggests an imbalance in the deference quotient between the younger man and the veteran senator -- an impression reinforced by Obama's frequent glances in McCain's direction and McCain's studied indifference to his rival.

Whether viewers caught the verbal and body-language signs that Obama seemed to accept McCain as the alpha male on the stage in Mississippi, I do not know.
----------------------

Byron York on the debate...

The most fair analysis I've seen...

-----------------------
The debate was scheduled to focus entirely on foreign policy and national security, but for obvious reasons moderator Jim Lehrer devoted the first half-hour to the current financial crisis. Polls show Obama with a pretty big lead on economic issues, and yet McCain was able to turn the discussion — ostensibly about the $700 billion bailout proposal — into an extended examination of federal spending and earmarks, two issues about which McCain has strong feelings and a good record. When McCain pointed out that Obama had asked for $932 million in earmarks — “nearly a million dollars a day for every day that he’s been in the United States Senate” — Obama answered weakly that yes, the process has been abused, “which is why I suspended any requests for my home state, whether it was for senior centers or what have you, until we cleaned it up.” Not his best moment.

When the debate came around to the topic of the evening, McCain outshone Obama on topics like Russia and Pakistan while hitting him over and over for his comments, made in earlier Democratic debates, that he would meet Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “without precondition.”

* * * * *

The bottom line was that Obama did well enough, but McCain did better. A number of post-debate observers suggested that Obama might emerge the winner on these topics because he was able to stand alongside McCain and argue as an equal despite McCain’s greater experience. Maybe viewers will handicap the contest that way, but if they judge it straight, McCain will come out on top.
----------------------

Barack Obama: John McCain is right...

then maybe he should be the President.

The Kansas City Star...

Ross Balano of Midwest Voices...

David Yepsen at the Des Moines Register...

Clear McCain win:

------------------------
It was one of the most substantive debates in recent presidential campaign history and John McCain won it.

The Arizona senator was cool, informed and forceful in Friday’s first presidential debate of the general election campaign.

He repeatedly put Barack Obama on the defensive throughout the 90 minutes session. Obama did little to ease voter concerns that he’s experienced enough to handle foreign and defense policy. That was his number one task Friday night and he failed.
------------------------

Mac has clear win...

Tom Bevan at RealClearPolitics...

New Republic on Obama's Emotional Deficit...

Noam Scheiber, no shrinking violet or cheerleader for the McCain campaign, on how Sen. McCain spanked Obama on defending America and her allies.

Supporters of Israel should shudder at this point:

--------------------
My biggest problem with Obama is that he cedes almost all the emotional ground to McCain. For my money, the exchange that defined the debate was McCain sarcastically suggesting Obama would just tell Ahmadinejad "no" when he threatens to annihilate Israel. Obama tried to interrupt McCain several times during this mini-rant, then just kind of let the matter drop when he had a chance to respond. What he needed to do was look straight into the camera and inject a little emotion of his own. Something like, "Israel is one of our most loyal allies in the world. Their security is absolutely sacred to me. And if Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or any other tin-pot dictator thinks he can threaten Israel in my presence or anywhere else, he's in for a rude awakening. I would leave absolutely no doubt in his mind how we treat countries looking for fights with our allies."
--------------------

Even the New York Times agrees...

"The debate was generally a relief from the campaign’s nastiness."

Hey, Times... maybe that's because Barack Obama has been running from debating John McCain for over 110 days! Why has no reporter asked Obama about avoiding the town halls? I haven't seen a single question asked of him about it. They're all busy chasing Sarah Palin stories in Alaska, I guess. Strange priorities, until you realize they're in the tank for Obama.

Mac is Back!

Roger Simon leads his debate analysis with: "John McCain was very lucky that he decided to show up for the first presidential debate in Oxford, Miss., Friday night. Because he gave one of his strongest debate performances ever."

One point from tonight...

Barack Obama was wrong about Henry Kissinger being on his side regarding meeting with the President of Iran without preconditions.

Sec. Kissinger has already responded to tell him he's wrong.

The Debate...

I will be at the Met Club party, and will have my reaction tomorrow.

In the meantime, Ann Althouse will be live blogging...

A little comic relief...

Barack-rolled...

McCain leads, Obama follows...

I'm very much looking forward to the debate this evening.

John Podhoretz tells everyone to take a deep breath...

Good advice.

Leadership...

With a Capital L.

McCain-Palin meet with Presidents of Ukraine and Georgia...

Peace through strength (a stock Reagan line) will best be achieved with a President McCain. Those in the Bear's path know that deeply...

Which side is leaning on the refs?

Using the "community organizer" approach to pressure the Associated Press...

If Sen. Obama is elected President, don't be surprised if the "community" is roused against you if you take a position against his administration. Pressure is how the Alinsky method makes radical changes.

Gingrich: McCain must oppose bailout

$700B - $1T bailout or opposition and reform from Washington?

The NEXT PRESIDENT of the UNITED STATES!!!

Welcome NY Women for McCain! Please, take a look around. The blog is about 6 months old and has a lot of history. This is my favorite clip of Sen. McCain speaking EVER...

- Chris

John McCain closes huge gap with women...

Lifetime poll:

---------------
Since picking Sarah Palin as his running mate, John McCain has obliterated what had been a 34-percentage-point deficit in a poll of likely women voters on the question of which candidate has a “better understanding of women and what is important” to them.

The two are now effectively tied, with McCain's 44 to 42 percentage lead within the margin of error of the most recent poll conducted by pollsters Kellyanne Conway and Celinda Lake for Lifetime Television. In Lifetime's July poll, women preferred Barack Obama on the same question by nearly three-to-one— 52 to 18 percent.

The Chicago Machine goes to Washington...

With friends and associates like these...

Why Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac created this crisis...

This op-ed from Bloomberg on why the failure of the Fannie/Freddie reform bill in 2005 was the turning point:

--------------------------
Now that the collapse has occurred, the roadblock built by Senate Democrats in 2005 is unforgivable. Many who opposed the bill doubtlessly did so for honorable reasons. Fannie and Freddie provided mounds of materials defending their practices. Perhaps some found their propaganda convincing.

But we now know that many of the senators who protected Fannie and Freddie, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Christopher Dodd, have received mind-boggling levels of financial support from them over the years.

Throughout his political career, Obama has gotten more than $125,000 in campaign contributions from employees and political action committees of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, second only to Dodd, the Senate Banking Committee chairman, who received more than $165,000.

Clinton, the 12th-ranked recipient of Fannie and Freddie PAC and employee contributions, has received more than $75,000 from the two enterprises and their employees. The private profit found its way back to the senators who killed the fix.

There has been a lot of talk about who is to blame for this crisis. A look back at the story of 2005 makes the answer pretty clear.

Oh, and there is one little footnote to the story that's worth keeping in mind while Democrats point fingers between now and Nov. 4: Senator John McCain was one of the three cosponsors of S.190, the bill that would have averted this mess.

McCain Economic Message...

As I stated last Sunday, the financial crisis is the top issue on the minds of most Americans this week, and we need to get out ahead of it...

Sen. McCain unveiled a detailed policy prescription on Friday in Wisconsin. It centers around a Mortgage and Financial Institutions Trust (MFI) that will provide a systematic approach to the crisis.

In addition, Sen. McCain has -- for months -- had a comprehensive "Jobs for America" program which is explained on his website with a video message and policy papers.

It would be nice, as I said last week, if Sen. McCain would name a point person on the economic message (Bloomberg? Romney??) to push these programs. Obviously, he can do it, but there are substantial foreign policy issues as well and it would be nice to have someone to focus only on this crisis in conjunction with Sec. Paulson's plan.

Lehman's Contributions...

When it comes to Lehman Brothers in particular, both candidates have taken lots of donations. Obama has received almost $400,000 from Lehman employees in his three-plus years in the Senate. McCain has gotten less than $150,000 from them since 1989. Certainly both have benefited from Lehman’s largess, and simply taking donations doesn’t prove any kind of corruption. But a hundred k a year certainly cuts into Obama’s message of “change.” “Hope,” too.

How can the Democrats be impartial with Dick Fuld (Lehman CEO) when he testifies next week? They'll probably be encouraging him to attend a party with them the night before.

The problem with the media's Sarah Palin coverage...

This is one of the most complete, factual and balanced analysis of media coverage I've seen. If you're looking for factual examples, read this.

Barry: How come I would make the economy better

As a sixth grade essay, this was not an A...

AIG... a New York, national and worldwide tragedy...

The Fed was forced to step in tonight with $85 Billion Loan Rescue. I just watched Hank Greenberg on Charlie Rose.

Mr. Greenberg is a national hero, the founder of AIG and one of the best businessmen of the 20th Century.

He was summarily pushed out of his own company on trumped up charges by Eliot Spitzer. This is another chapter in his ridiculous reign. Spitzer should go to prison for this.

Barack Obama's philosophical mentor...

and why "Community Organizer" in Chicago should create some consternation...

Gotta love those small donors...

I gotta guess for this amount, they're going to expect some access. Maybe he can let them stay in the Lincoln Bedroom or something...

New McCain CNBC video on the economy...

John McCain shows he sincerely understands the nation's financial crisis... Teddy Roosevelt would be proud!

The smell of fear and desperation...

Top Democrats Privately Urging Major Donors To Fund Outside Groups To Attack McCain...

Maybe something like this?




Sen. Obama did not think it was out of bounds, and just voted "Present" when he had an opportunity to condemn this ad, so this style would seem to be OK...

New York is in play!!

New Siena poll in New York. We're within 5 points!!

McCain hits just the right note on the financial crisis...

Smarter, clearer, stronger regulation by Washington. We need fundamental reform in this area, and Sen. McCain will provide the most comprehensive, market based reform without killing the economy with massive tax increases and new government spending programs.

Smarter, clearer, stronger SEC and Treasury/Banking regulators. A cop on the beat of Wall Street. But no big government tax increases and spending giveaways that will create another Fannie/Freddie debacle...

The definition of Dishonorable...

would be going after someone in an advertisement based on his physical limitations due to serving his country in a war.

Well... that's exactly what the Obama campaign did this weekend. If the Obama campaign had any inherent honor, it has now lost it. The party of JFK, RFK and FDR is heading toward a new low.

Wall Street awakes to 2 storied firms gone...

Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers will not exist as we know them after the events of today... with the fire sale of Bear Stearns this spring, this is a three-fer that will reverberate around the world.

The Presidential candidates have to get out ahead of this. Sen. McCain needs to name a "czar" of economic-financial survival as a spokesman NOW, and needs to become intimately conversant with this crisis.

The nature of this crisis is growing, and problematic. Sec. Paulson and Chairman Bernanke have drawn some interesting lines (saving Bear through JP Morgan Chase, pulling Freddie and Fannie under the federal umbrella, but letting Lehman twist) that will be tested by political wrangling. There are going to be headlines about "Wall Street Meltdown" and fear could course the markets this week. This issue could become huge, and we need to be ready...

UPDATE: More analysis from the Times Business editor Floyd Norris...

UPDATE #2: The WSJ calls this crisis a "Category 5 test of our financial levees".

McCain gets inside Obama's head...

Michael Barone: McCain Flies His Campaign Past Obama

Mark Penn: Media Tougher on Palin...

CBS News Reports...

Pay Equity in Name Only...

Obama only talks good game on gender pay equity

Second thoughts galore...

In Hindsight, Hillary Looks Good as a Running Mate

The national media provides cover fire for Obama AGAIN...

The national media is calling the McCain campaign ad on Obama's sex ed to K-6 children "lies" and "false". The analysis of the bill's language begs to differ.

Thanks for your factual reporting ABC and others... it is appreciated. Seriously, what is "the McCain ad 'makes it sound like'"... is that reporting?? That is rank opinion, Jake. You're better than that...

Maybe that's why John Roberts of CNN slipped and said "we" when referring to the Obama campaign...

McCain and Obama together at Ground Zero...

Camille Paglia on the pioneer spirit that Sarah Palin represents...

I never thought I'd be excerpting Camille Paglia during this campaign, but this is so uniquely brilliant it's required reading (here's the whole article):

-------------------------
Perhaps Palin seemed perfectly normal to me because she resembles so many women I grew up around in the snow belt of upstate New York. For example, there were the robust and hearty farm women of Oxford, a charming village where my father taught high school when I was a child. We first lived in an apartment on the top floor of a farmhouse on a working dairy farm. Our landlady, who was as physically imposing as her husband, was an all-American version of the Italian immigrant women of my grandmother's generation -- agrarian powerhouses who could do anything and whose trumpetlike voices could pierce stone walls.

Here's one episode. My father and his visiting brother, a dapper barber by trade, were standing outside having a smoke when a great noise came from the nearby barn. A calf had escaped. Our landlady yelled, "Stop her!" as the calf came careening at full speed toward my father and uncle, who both instinctively stepped back as the calf galloped through the mud between them. Irate, our landlady trudged past them to the upper pasture, cornered the calf, and carried that massive animal back to the barn in her arms. As she walked by my father and uncle, she exclaimed in amused disgust, "Men!"

Now that's the Sarah Palin brand of can-do, no-excuses, moose-hunting feminism -- a world away from the whining, sniping, wearily ironic mode of the establishment feminism represented by Gloria Steinem, a Hillary Clinton supporter whose shameless Democratic partisanship over the past four decades has severely limited American feminism and not allowed it to become the big tent it can and should be. Sarah Palin, if her reputation survives the punishing next two months, may be breaking down those barriers. Feminism, which should be about equal rights and equal opportunity, should not be a closed club requiring an ideological litmus test for membership.
-------------------------------

Read the whole thing...

Lipstick on a trainwreck...

This, from Sen. Obama today. (h/t to Jennifer Rubin from Commentary)

------------------------
The latest mega gaffe comes directly from Barack Obama’s lips. ABC news reports:

You know, you can put lipstick on a pig,” Obama said, “but it’s still a pig.” The crowd rose and applauded, some of them no doubt thinking he may have been alluding to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s ad lib during her vice presidential nomination acceptance speech last week, “What’s the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick.” “You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called ‘change,’” Obama continued, “it’s still gonna stink after eight years. “We’ve had enough of the same old thing! It’s time to bring about real change to Washington. And that’s the choice you’ve got in this election.” Obama added that “it is not going to be easy … John McCain has a compelling biography, you know Sarah Palin is an interesting story.” The crowd booed. “No, she’s new!” Obama said. “She hasn’t been on the scene, you know, she’s got five kids and my hat goes off to anybody who’s looking after five. I’ve got two and they tire Michelle and me out!”

The entire exchange is of course deeply offensive and disrespectful, treating his opponent’s running mate as a sexualized object and a mere mother, to put it bluntly. I can’t imagine there is any Democratic woman — forget the Republicans and Independents — who isn’t embarrassed. Obama appears to be crumbling under pressure, reduced to swinging away at the person who has supplanted him as the political star of the Election.
-----------------------------

HotAir has video and audio of the McCain team's response...

Instapundit is all over this story...

Why breaking your word is never good...

Sen. Obama broke his word on public financing, and now he's struggling to raise funds...

"The worm has turned"...

Two takes on the Fan/Fred mortgage bailout...

Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin write (entire op-ed here):

The bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is another outrageous, but sadly necessary, step for these two institutions. Given the long-term mismanagement and flawed structure of these two companies, this was the only short-term alternative for ensuring that hard-working Americans have access to affordable mortgages during this difficult economic period.

We are strong advocates for the permanent reform of Fannie and Freddie. For years, Congress failed to act and it is deeply troubling that what we are now seeing is an exercise in crisis management rather than sound planning, and at great cost to taxpayers.


---------------------------------
House Democratic Chairman of Finance Barney Frank has repeatedly defended reform of Fan and Fred (full WSJ editorial here):

Fannie Mae's Patron Saint

September 9, 2008

Taxpayers are now on the hook for as much as $200 billion to rescue Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and if you want to know why, look no further than the rapid response to this bailout from House baron Barney Frank. Asked about Treasury's modest bailout condition that the companies reduce the size of their high-risk mortgage-backed securities (MBS) portfolios starting in 2010, Mr. Frank was quoted on Monday as saying, "Good luck on that," and that it would never happen.

There you have the Fannie Mae problem in profile. Mr. Frank wants you to pick up the tab for its failures, while he still vows to block a reform that might prevent the same disaster from happening again.

At least the Massachusetts Democrat is consistent. His record is close to perfect as a stalwart opponent of reforming the two companies, going back more than a decade. The first concerted push to rein in Fan and Fred in Congress came as far back as 1992, and Mr. Frank was right there, standing athwart. But things really picked up this decade, and Barney was there at every turn. Let's roll the audiotape:

In 2000, then-Rep. Richard Baker proposed a bill to reform Fannie and Freddie's oversight. Mr. Frank dismissed the idea, saying concerns about the two were "overblown" and that there was "no federal liability there whatsoever."

Two years later, Mr. Frank was at it again. "I do not regard Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac as problems," he said in response to another reform push. And then: "I regard them as great assets." Great or not, we'll give Mr. Frank this: Their assets are now Uncle Sam's assets, even if those come along with $5.4 trillion in debt and other liabilities.

Again in June 2003, the favorite of the Beltway press corps assured the public that "there is no federal guarantee" of Fan and Fred obligations.

A month later, Freddie Mac's multibillion-dollar accounting scandal broke into the open. But Mr. Frank was sanguine. "I do not think we are facing any kind of a crisis," he said at the time.

Three months later he repeated the claim that Fannie and Freddie posed no "threat to the Treasury." Even suggesting that heresy, he added, could become "a self-fulfilling prophecy."

In April 2004, Fannie announced a multibillion-dollar financial "misstatement" of its own. Mr. Frank was back for the defense. Fannie and Freddie posed no risk to taxpayers, he said, adding that "I think Wall Street will get over it" if the two collapsed. Yes, they're certainly "over it" on the Street now that Uncle Sam is guaranteeing their Fannie paper, and even Fannie's subordinated debt.

By early 2007, Mr. Frank was in charge of the House Financial Services Committee, arguing that he had long favored some kind of reform. "What blocked it [reform] last year," Mr. Frank said then, "was the insistence of some economic conservative fundamentalists in the Bush Administration who, to be honest, don't think there should be a Fannie Mae or a Freddie Mac." What really blocked it was Mr. Frank's insistence that any reform be watered down and not include any reduction in their MBS holdings.
-------------------------------

In the very least, we need some check on the Democratic Congress in the White House come January. These cozy deals are running rampant, and one party government will help them blossom and balloon...

John McCain - Master Strategist...

JPost on how the Palin pick showed Sen. McCain's ability to read a situation and dominate it strategically...

NY Post endorses McCain/Palin...

THE Post today enthusiastically urges the election of Sen. John S. McCain as the 44th president of the United States.

McCain's lifelong record of service to America, his battle-tested courage, unshakeable devotion to principle and clear grasp of the dangers and opportunities now facing the nation stand in dramatic contrast to the tissue-paper-thin résumé of his Democratic opponent, freshman Sen. Barack Obama.

McCain Manhattan "Show of Force" in the Daily News...

The McCain Manhattan event yesterday is filtering into the local news...

New McCain Manhattan Photo Page...

We have a Flickr page gathering McCain Manhattan pictures in one place.

Great thanks to Kim Hill for all of his beautiful work...

10 POINTS!!!!!

WOW! USA Today/Gallup: McCain 54 - Obama 44 among likely voters...

NBC/MSNBC Comes to its senses...

This is good news... and I hope that MSNBC becomes a more balanced source of coverage. Keith Olbermann had really strayed so far from reality as to be positively Dobsian... or O'Riellian.

Welcome back MSNBC. I'll give you a second shot now for my political watching home...

Another one bites the dust...

Seriously... how long is this going to go on and how many people is this going to hurt? The media needs someone to stand in the middle of the highway and say "STOP"! or at least "Think before you speak"!!!

The clown continues to beclown...

Sometimes on Saturdays I wander over to the NY Times website and see that Charles Blow has written another column. Sometimes I'm even stupid enough to click on it and read it.

Today's column "Let's Talk About Sex" was, I knew, clearly going to be about Sarah Palin's daughter. I thought a second about clicking, but still of course did click...

The first line: Sarah Palin has a pregnant teenager.

Thanks jack*ss. I didn't know. He's soooo informative in his columns. Read the other classy ones here and here...

With idiots like this writing for this old newspaper, it's going to be hard for them to get interviews with the McCain/Palin administration. You guys at the Times should get prepared for that...

And They're TIED!!

Just released CBS News poll has McCain/Palin picking up 8 points over last week's poll!!

And Sen. McCain hasn't even spoken to the country yet!!

37 Million Viewers!

Sarah Palin spoke to 37 million people last night on TV. Basically the same TV crowd as Obama. This thing has excited the country, and now it’s time for the main event!!


GO MCCAIN!!

When Liberals Attack...

it's often because their worldview is being tested.

Sarah Palin is testing a lot of old-guard liberals...

The WSJ tells the liberal media where to go...

Here... in its entirety is the WSJ's brilliant editorial on the media's savaging of Sarah Palin for the past four days. I really hope you guys are proud of yourselves...

-----------------------------

The Beltway Boys
September 3, 2008; Page A22
Even as the Obama camp ponders how best to handle John McCain's veep pick of Sarah Palin, the high priests and priestesses of the media have marked her as an apostate. The Beltway class is in full-throated rebellion against a nondomesticated conservative who might pose a threat to their coronation of Barack Obama and the return of Camelot-on-the-Potomac.


Here is a sampler of media comment on Governor Palin this week:

- Eleanor Clift, the McLaughlin Group: "If the media reaction is anything, it's been literally laughter in many places across newsrooms."

- Sally Quinn, Newsweek: "It is a political gimmick . . . I find it insulting to women, to the Republican party, and to the country."

- E.J. Dionne, Washington Post: "Palin is, if anything, less qualified for the vice presidency (and the presidency) than [Harriet] Miers was for the court. But there is one big difference: Palin passes all the right-wing litmus tests."

- Maureen Dowd, New York Times: "They have a tradition of nominating fun, bantamweight cheerleaders from the West."

- Ruth Marcus, Washington Post: "But as a parent in the media, I also know that the Palins assumed this risk. Anyone who watched coverage of the Bush twins' barroom exploits knew that the avert-your-eyes stance toward candidates' children has its limits."

- Charlie Cook, Beltway pundit, on PBS's "Charlie Rose": "I had a friend that had a young person tell them that they had three interviews to get a job as a server at Ruby Tuesday! So this is like putting a whole -- for someone that hasn't played on a national -- Geraldine Ferraro had more -- Dan Quayle had undergone more scrutiny, had played on a bigger stage than this. This is putting an enormous risk on someone he didn't know. And he has to just pray that it works!"

This is the same media whose chant for weeks -- no, months -- has been "let McCain be McCain." If we know anything about John McCain, it is that he is by instinct a reformer, sometimes to a fault. Yet when he acts like McCain and picks a maverick reformer in his own mold, his former media cheering squad turns on him for not conforming to Beltway mores and picking someone they've all met 10 times in the CNN green room.

They want a VP to be a kind of parliamentary choice, someone they have already vetted, someone who's made them laugh with insider jokes at the Gridiron dinner. The Beltway class whines constantly about how it wants fresh voices in politics, but we guess this means a first-term Democratic Senator rather than a first-term Republican Governor from some godforsaken U.S. state few of them have ever been to.

We are instructed that Mrs. Palin isn't qualified, because she lacks Washington experience. But until recently that was said to be a virtue in Mr. Obama, who is at the top of his ticket. Meanwhile, there's hardly a peep of media notice that the Obama campaign is preposterously trying to remake Joe Biden into a poor scrapper from Scranton when he's been in the Senate for 36 years. They all know Joe. But when Mr. McCain picks an authentic middle-class mother who is also a Governor, we are told she's not up to the job.

The spin du jour is that her choice reflects poorly on Candidate McCain because she wasn't properly vetted. Yet this seems to be false. Campaign vetter A.B. Culvahouse, White House counsel under Ronald Reagan, says Mrs. Palin told the campaign about her pregnant daughter and her husband's DUI at the age of 22. On Monday, Time magazine's Nathan Thornburgh wrote from Wasilla, Alaska, that Bristol Palin's pregnancy had been known by virtually everyone there, with little made of it. But what do these private family matters have to do with Mrs. Palin's credentials to be Vice President in any case?

The press in 2000 ignored marijuana use by Al Gore's son, as it should have. But now we are told a teenage pregnancy is going to raise second thoughts among evangelicals and "family values voters" about Mrs. Palin's ability to be both a mother and a public official. This is also false.

Leaving aside the embarrassing reality that the Beltway press corps barely knows any evangelicals, religious leaders this week greeted the pregnancy news with support for the Palins. Offering support for unwed pregnant women and their families is a primary activity of these churches from one end of America to the other. That might even make a good story for someone this weekend.

What's really going on here is that the Beltway class can see how popular the Palin pick is with Republicans outside Washington, and especially with middle-class conservatives. As Richard Land, a leader with the Southern Baptist Convention, said Monday, John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin closed the "enthusiasm gap" between the two parties.

There is nothing more dangerous to entrenched Washington power than a populist conservative who looks unlikely to buy into Washington's creature comforts. Take a close look at Governor Palin's record on ethics and energy in Alaska, and it becomes clear what this Beltway outburst is actually about. The irony is that while Senator Obama is running on change, his acceptance speech made explicit that he's promising only more power and money for Washington. Sarah Palin's history of taking on the career politicians of a corrupt Alaskan GOP machine -- her own party -- shows that she's the more authentic change agent.

* * *
If Sarah Palin succeeds as a national candidate, she could help John McCain proceed to a reform Presidency. Even if he loses while she does well, she could emerge as a major figure in GOP politics for years to come. This is why the media and political classes are so eager to discredit her. They can't let it happen.

We hope Mr. McCain and the GOP are prepared to fight back. On the evidence this week, it looks like an army of volunteers is forming up to help them.

See all of today's editorials and op-eds, plus video commentary, on Opinion Journal.

Why Iraq will help answer the "Commander in Chief" question...

Iraq has turned into a big trump card for Sen. McCain... he was right in 2003-4 when he criticized Don Rumsfeld and Pres. Bush's strategy. He has finally been fully vindicated with the surge strategy that Pres. Bush implemented shortly after he fired Rumsfeld...

Two stories today show the facts on the ground and the political ramifications...

For all of those not paying close attention, Sen. Obama has not yet admitted that the surge worked, that we're all safer for it, and should celebrate its success... That seems to me to be enough to question his ability to be Commander in Chief.

On the media...

From my hero Instapundit...

HOW THEY COULD HAVE KEPT THE PALIN PREGNANCY STORY OUT OF THE PRESS: Leaked it that John Edwards was the father . . . .

Hillary was right...

On sexism and the media...

This list will surely only grow...

I think having an example of a strong female in elected executive office will help to change this.

On Sarah Palin's experience...

Today's Wall Street Journal has the details...

A class operation...

Please visit this site for opportunities to help out with the Gulf Coast re: Hurricane Gustav.

Early reports from New Orleans are encouraging, but remember that during Katrina the first reports were wrong... I would say we will begin to know for sure how the levees held by midday tomorrow.

Obama campaign just admitted... theme of tonight "Back to the 70s"!

Just overhead on MSNBC's Morning Joe... Obama Chief Spokesman Robert Gibbs when asked "Will Barack Obama be wearing a toga tonight??"... "Actually, it's a whole Animal House theme we're going for tonight"

The Temple of "The One"...

Pictures and Video...

Rendell... symbol of Hillary's supporters compares Sen. Obama to Adlai Stevenson...

The remorse is strong in a large part of the Democrat audience...

More of the "Race Card"...

If you have doubts about a guy with little national experience and no record of executive accomplishment, you must be a racist.

If you like a guy with extensive bi-partisan legislative accomplishment, with a record of service as a war hero, an unquestioned patriot who has national security credentials in his bones, you must be a racist.

I am so sick of this crap...

Barron's on the McCain/Obama dueling Economic Policies...

Barrons provides expert analysis on the McCain and Obama tax and economic policies. They are not kind to the outcomes should Sen. Obama's tax plans become law.

Capital -- and the attendant jobs and economic activity that go with it -- will flow out of the United States if we make taxes higher on capital and business. Money is mobile and it will flow toward the lowest tax and highest stability country. We must understand that we're in a competition and compete, or we will be the losers...

Key section (my emphasis):

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In McCain and Obama, the electorate is presented with dueling visions of what shape the economy, and particularly the nation's tax structure, should take. Obama's stated belief is that the best way to revitalize America is by raising taxes on the rich and redistributing wealth to the poor and middle class. McCain, in contrast, would retain all of President Bush's tax cuts, including those for the wealthy, and cut corporate taxes markedly, with the aim of boosting investment in businesses and creating jobs.

Whichever concept prevails will have profound implications for the economy over the next decade. And, if Obama's plan prevails, it could well be for the worse. While both candidates' proposals have their pros and cons, Obama's appears to have a few too many cons. There's no question about that if you happen to be in the top 1% of income-tax payers. According to the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center, the Obama plan would boost the average tax bill for that group by $93,709, to $652,890. McCain's plan would reduce that group's average by $48,862 to $510,319.

But far more is at stake than the size of any single fat cat's tax bill. With adjusted gross incomes totaling $2 trillion, or $1.6 million per capita, the top 1% of taxpayers account for more than 20% of all adjusted gross income. And these folks tend to plow a lot of their money into businesses -- from family operations to blue-chip stocks -- to say nothing of shopping trips and travel. In other words, cutting their after-tax income could deal another blow to an already-hobbled economy.

The problem would only be compounded by Obama's stand on capital-gains and dividends taxes -- he'd hike them both. He also would institute a more onerous estate tax than McCain would.

It's almost as if Obama wants to repeat the mistakes of Herbert Hoover. During the Great Depression, Hoover raised the top marginal rate to 63% from 25% and hiked corporate taxes, too, says Michael Aronstein, chief investment strategist at Oscar Gruss & Son in New York. The moves siphoned needed investment capital out of the markets and into the hands of bureaucrats, delaying the turnaround.