Treatment of President Bush Has Been a Disgrace

Jeffrey Shapiro, who worked on the John Kerry Election effort, speaks out on the treatment of George W. Bush over the past eight years and how history might view his presidency.

This is Hope and Change? Obama Reinventing the Clinton White House

As the Presidential campaign wore on it became evermore clear that Obama does not have a lot of personal confidants. Where is his base of support from his collegiate and professional career? That is of course beyond Bill Ayres, Reverend Wright and Tony Rezko who were outed during the campaign. It's appearing more and more the case there isn't much of a pool of Obama talent to draw from in developing his Presidential team and what were seeing is the return of the Clinton cronies. How bizarre is that for the man who won the White House based on the message of hope and change? Looks like more of the same to me.
Hillary as potential Secretary of State.
Eric Holder, Clinton Deputy Attorney General and infamously involved in Marc Rich pardon and the Elian Gonzalez case is being considered for Attorney General.
Rahm Emmanuel, Top Clinton adviser now Obama's Chief of Staff
John Podesta, Clinton's Chief of Staff heading the Obama transition team

Planet Getting Cooler Does Not Stop Global Warming Wackos From Spinning Their Story

Hat Tip to Gateway Pundit for an excellent collection of data and information showing the current cooling trend of the planet and the less than above board gyrations of the environmental left to spin current trends to support global warming. It ain't happening folks. The world is getting cooler.

Alan Keyes Files California Lawsuit On Obama's Legitimacy To Become President

On the surface it would seem easy to dismiss the claims surrounding Barack Obama's place of birth as just sour grapes by the opposition, but why doesn't the President-elect end all of the speculation and lawsuits beginning to build across the nation and release his valid birth certificate? Instead, we continue to be pointed to the Certificate of Live Birth on his web site as proof, but that document does not contain basic items on all birth certificates such as the doctor overseeing the birth and the name of the hospital where Obama was born.

Former Presidential candidate, Dr. Alan Keyes, has now submitted a lawsuit in the state of California attempting to force the Secretary of State from submitting California's 55 Electoral Votes until such time that Obama provide proof of his US citizenship. Here is more on that story from WND:

The biggest question is why Obama, if a Hawaii birth certificate exists, simply hasn't ordered it made available to settle the rumors?

The California secretary of state should refuse to allow the state's 55 Electoral College votes to be cast in the 2008 presidential election until President-elect Barack Obama verifies his eligibility to hold the office, alleges a California court petition filed on behalf of former presidential candidate Alan Keyes and others.

The legal action today is just the latest is a series of challenges, some of which have gone as high as the U.S. Supreme Court, over the issue of Obama's status as a "natural-born citizen," a requirement set by the U.S. Constitution.

The governor's office in Hawaii said there is a valid certificate but rejected requests for access and left ambiguous its origin: Does the certificate on file with the Department of Health indicate a Hawaii birth or was it generated after the Obama family registered a Kenyan birth in Hawaii?

Obama's half-sister, Maya Soetoro, has named two different Hawaii hospitals where Obama could have been born, while a video posted on YouTube features Obama's Kenyan grandmother Sarah claiming to have witnessed Obama's birth in Kenya.

The California action was filed by Gary Kreep of the United States Justice Foundation on behalf of Alan Keyes, the presidential candidate of the American Independent Party, along with Wiley S. Drake and Markham Robinson, both California electors.

"Should Senator Obama be discovered, after he takes office, to be ineligible for the Office of President of the United States of America and, thereby, his election declared void, Petitioners, as well as other Americans, will suffer irreparable harm in that (a) usurper will be sitting as the President of the United States, and none of the treaties, laws, or executive orders signed by him will be valid or legal," the action challenges.

The petition is a request for the Superior Court of California in Sacramento County to issue a peremptory writ barring Secretary of State Debra Bowen "from both certifying to the governor the names of the California Electors, and from transmitting to each presidential Elector a Certificate of Election, until such documentary proof is produced and verified showing that Senator Obama is a 'natural born' citizen of the United States and does not hold citizenship
of Indonesia, Kenya or Great Britain."

It continues with a request for a writ barring California's electors from signing the Certificate of Vote until documentary proof is produced.

Gateway Pundit has more on the story including a portion of the actual lawsuit:

Legal Basis
62. Article II, Section I of the United States Constitution, states, in pertinent part, as follows:

"No Person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President;"

63. Senator Barack H. Obama is a candidate for the Office of the President of the United States. However, to assume such office, Senator Obama must meet the qualifications specified for the Office of the President of the United States, which includes that he must be a "natural born" citizen. Senator Obama has failed to demonstrate that he is a "natural born" citizen. There are other legal challenges before various state and federal courts regarding aspects of lost or dual citizenship concerning Senator Obama. Those challenges, in and of themselves, demonstrate Petitioners’ argument that reasonable doubt exists as to the eligibility of the Democratic Party’s nominee for President.

64. SOS is responsible for ensuring the validity of the State election process by, among other things, verifying the qualifications of the voters, approving the ballots and the candidates, supervising the counting of the ballots, and certifying the results. This certification of the vote by SOS, based upon which Electors received the highest number of votes in the state, is the method provided for in California law for ascertaining which Electors are appointed to vote for president (California Elections Code §15505, 3 U.S.C. § 6). On December 1, or as soon as soon as the election results have been received from all counties in the state, SOS shall certify the names of the ascertained Electors to the Governor, and then transmit to each presidential Elector a certificate of election (California Elections Code § 15505). The Governor then issues and seals a Certificate of Ascertainment which is delivered to the Electors by December 15 (3 U.S.C. § 6), who then meet to sign the Certificate of Vote (Federal Election Code § 192.006). The office of SOS is intended to be non-biased and to provide the critical sense of fairness and impartiality necessary for the people to have faith in the fundamental underpinnings of the democratic basis for our elections.

Why doesn't Obama end all of this and show the world his original birth certificate? Does he have something to hide?

Bush Tells It Like It Is on Economic Tipping Point

Good read in the Investor's Business Daily on President Bush's remarks prior to the upcoming G-20 meetings:

In a badly needed speech that seemed to bring the stock market back to life late in the day, the president delivered a sweeping, and eloquent, defense of free markets during a luncheon talk to the Manhattan Institute. Amid all the gloom and the revived enthusiasm for massive government intervention in the world economy, Bush's comments were a breath of fresh air.

A few remarks in particular caught our attention:
"History has shown," Bush said, "that the greater threat to economic prosperity is not too little government involvement in the market, it is too much government involvement in the market." He went on to show how this was the case in the U.S. with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were created by Congress and lay behind the whole subprime mortgage mess that later begat our current financial meltdown.

From all this, Bush said, "There is a clear lesson: Our aim should not be more government — it should be smarter government." And he took it even further, to what he called the "most important principle that should guide our work: While reforms in the financial sector are essential, the long-term solution to today's problems is sustained economic growth. And the surest path to that growth is free markets and free people."

We hope President-elect Obama and the world's leaders heading for Washington were listening closely. Because President Bush is dead right. The 20 nations that will meet this weekend are rightly in a panic over the global financial meltdown that has now sacked the world economy. But they should follow the economic pol icy equivalent of the Hippocratic Oath: First, do no harm.

Sadly, that doesn't seem to be the case. On Monday, for instance, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for a "new global order" and "global governance" over nations' financial regulators. He's not alone in his sweeping, and ultimately dangerous, vision: Both France and Germany likewise would end what they derisively call the "Anglo-Saxon" model of free-market capitalism practiced mainly in the English-speaking world.

They would replace it with what might be called the Continental Model of capitalism — the slow-growing, hyper-regulated version that reigns in the stagnant European Union.
"We see friction between Anglo-Saxon capitalism on the one hand and the European-style capitalism on the other hand," said French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde last week, after meeting with other G-20 ministers. "Self-regulation to solve all problems, it's finished," French Prime Minister Nicholas Sarkozy has said. "Laissez-faire, it's finished. The all-powerful market that is always right, it's finished . . . It is necessary then for the state to intervene."

Germany's Angela Merkel is more circumspect. But even she proposes that hedge funds be punished, and that bankers' pay be capped by law. These are dangerous ideas, from a bad model — the European model. It's certainly not one that will fix the troubled world economy. It's a recipe for slow growth, stagnant labor markets and declin ing standards of living. It would mark an end to the creative, dynamic capitalism that has enriched not just Americans, but the entire world.

That's surely what Bush had in mind Thursday when he pointedly noted that the financial meltdown "was not a failure of the free market system. And the answer is not to try to reinvent that system. It is to fix the problems we face, make the reforms we need, and move forward with the free market principles that have delivered prosperity and hope to people all across the globe."

By the way, U.S. per-person GDP, after adjusting for inflation and currency fluctuations, is anywhere from 15% to 36% greater than any member of the European Union. And the gap is growing wider. In 2007, each American produced $43,267 in goods and services, measured in 2005 dollars. By comparison, the average German produced $32,228, the average Dutch citizen $36,783, the average Swede $34,457 and the average Briton $33,191.

Europe's leaders, so in love with top-down economic solutions and socialism, are clearly losing the long battle for economic supremacy. So they're using a financial crisis to tear down the one global economy that truly delivers for its citizens.
The only question is, even in the midst of a global meltdown in which once-radical ideas suddenly have come to the fore, why would we adopt such a failed system?
The Europeans would have us do what they've already done to themselves: Create an infantilized version of capitalism where every move is regulated, where few jobs are created and where breakthrough innovations are rare. A spoon-fed economy.

They'll try to sell the U.S. and developing nations on the idea that the world economic slump is really a result of insufficient regulation, of unbridled "cowboy capitalism." In fact, the exact reverse is true. Inept and excessive regulations — the very antithesis of free-market capitalism — are to blame for our problems. And nothing the Eurocrats now plan to do will end that. Unfortunately, Bush's wise remarks aren't likely to be the last on this subject.

The European Union hopes to hold a series of these meetings, extending into President-elect Obama's first term, to hammer out a "new world order" and to browbeat the U.S. into seeing things their way. At a time when many are calling for a revival of Keynesian thought to validate massive government intervention into the workings of the free market, it's important to have someone who knows that Milton Friedman's vision of free markets and free minds was ultimately the correct one.

We hope President-elect Obama, members of the incoming Congress and Americans in general will mark President Bush's timely words as closely as the financial markets seemed to do on Thursday.

2008 Voting -- Red Versus Blue America

Without borders.

Some salient observations from Karl Rove in the Wall Street Journal:

Second, a substantial victory was won by modest improvement in the Democratic share of the vote. Barack Obama received 2.1 points more in the popular vote than President Bush received in 2004, 3.1 points more than Vice President Al Gore in 2000, and 4.6 points more than John Kerry in 2004. In raw numbers, the latest tally shows that Mr. Obama received 66.1 million votes, about 7.1 million more than Mr. Kerry.

Four out of five of these additional votes came from minorities. Mr. Obama got nearly 3.3 million more votes from African-Americans than did Mr. Kerry; 2.9 million of them were from younger blacks aged 18-29. A quarter of Mr. Obama's improvement among blacks -- 811,000 votes -- came from African-Americans who voted Republican in 2004. Mr. Obama also received 2.5 million more Hispanic votes than Mr. Kerry. Over a third of these votes -- 719,000 -- cast ballots for Republicans in 2004.

Then there were those who didn't show up. There were 4.1 million fewer Republicans voting this year than in 2004. Some missing Republicans had turned independent or Democratic for this election. But most simply stayed home. Ironically for a campaign that featured probably the last Vietnam veteran to run for president, 2.7 million fewer veterans voted. There were also 4.1 million fewer voters who attend religious services more than once a week. Americans aren't suddenly going to church less; something was missing from the campaign to draw out the more religiously observant.

In a sign Mr. Obama's victory may have been more personal than partisan or philosophical, Democrats picked up just 10 state senate seats (out of 1,971) and 94 state house seats (out of 5,411). By comparison, when Ronald Reagan beat Jimmy Carter in 1980, Republicans picked up 112 state senate seats (out of 1,981) and 190 state house seats (out of 5,501).

In the states this year, five chambers shifted from Republican to Democrats, while four shifted from either tied or Democratic control to Republican control. In the South, Mr. Obama had "reverse coattails." Republicans gained legislative seats across the region. In Tennessee both the house and senate now have GOP majorities for the first time since the Civil War.

This matters because the 2010 Census could allocate as many as four additional congressional districts to Texas, two each to Arizona and Florida, and one district to each of a number of (mostly) red-leaning states, while subtracting seats from (mostly) blue-leaning states like Michigan, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania and, for the first time, California. Redistricting and reapportionment could help tilt the playing field back to the GOP in Congress and the race for the White House by moving seven House seats (and electoral votes) from mostly blue to mostly red states.

History will favor Republicans in 2010. Since World War II, the out-party has gained an average of 23 seats in the U.S. House and two in the U.S. Senate in a new president's first midterm election. Other than FDR and George W. Bush, no president has gained seats in his first midterm election in both chambers.

The Iraq War Is Over And We Won

From Instapundit via Pajamas Media:

"THE WAR IS OVER AND WE WON:" Michael Yon just phoned from Baghdad, and reports that things are much better than he had expected, and he had expected things to be good. "There's nothing going on. I'm with the 10th Mountain Division, and about half of the guys I'm with haven't fired their weapons on this tour and they've been here eight months. And the place we're at, South Baghdad, used to be one of the worst places in Iraq. And now there's nothing going on. I've been walking my feet off and haven't seen anything. I've been asking Iraqis, 'do you think the violence will kick up again,' but even the Iraqi journalists are sounding optimistic now and they're usually dour." There's a little bit of violence here and there, but nothing that's a threat to the general situation. Plus, not only the Iraqi Army, but even the National Police are well thought of by the populace. Training from U.S. toops has paid off, he says, in building a rapport.

Let's hope that President Bush makes a trip to Iraq before the end of his term to celebrate victory in Iraq before President-elect Obama takes credit for "ending" the war in Iraq with no mention of victory in the process.

Leading Feminist Camille Paglia Defends Sarah Palin Against Liberal Dem's Sadomasochistic, Anti-Palin Orgy

Once again Camille Paglia provides a thought provoking piece at Salon.com on Sarah Palin and the Luddite treatment she has received from liberal democrats during the election. Paglia, a self-proclaimed progressive and leading woman in the feminist movement makes no bones about her admiration for Governor Palin. An excerpt from the Salon piece:

Given that Obama had served on a Chicago board with Ayers and approved funding of a leftist educational project sponsored by Ayers, one might think that the unrepentant Ayers-Dohrn couple might be of some interest to the national media. But no, reporters have been too busy playing mini-badminton with every random spitball about Sarah Palin, who has been subjected to an atrocious and at times delusional level of defamation merely because she has the temerity to hold pro-life views.

How dare Palin not embrace abortion as the ultimate civilized ideal of modern culture? How tacky that she speaks in a vivacious regional accent indistinguishable from that of Western Canada! How risible that she graduated from the University of Idaho and not one of those plush, pampered commodes of received opinion whose graduates, in their rush to believe the worst about her, have demonstrated that, when it comes to sifting evidence, they don't know their asses from their elbows.

Liberal Democrats are going to wake up from their sadomasochistic, anti-Palin orgy with a very big hangover. The evil genie released during this sorry episode will not so easily go back into its bottle. A shocking level of irrational emotionalism and at times infantile rage was exposed at the heart of current Democratic ideology -- contradicting Democratic core principles of compassion, tolerance and independent thought. One would have to look back to the Eisenhower 1950s for parallels to this grotesque lock-step parade of bourgeois provincialism, shallow groupthink and blind prejudice.

I like Sarah Palin, and I've heartily enjoyed her arrival on the national stage. As a career classroom teacher, I can see how smart she is -- and quite frankly, I think the people who don't see it are the stupid ones, wrapped in the fuzzy mummy-gauze of their own worn-out partisan dogma. So she doesn't speak the King's English -- big whoop! There is a powerful clarity of consciousness in her eyes. She uses language with the jumps, breaks and rippling momentum of a be-bop saxophonist. I stand on what I said (as a staunch pro-choice advocate) in my last two columns -- that Palin as a pro-life wife, mother and ambitious professional represents the next big shift in feminism. Pro-life women will save feminism by expanding it, particularly into the more traditional Third World.

As for the Democrats who sneered and howled that Palin was unprepared to be a vice-presidential nominee -- what navel-gazing hypocrisy! What protests were raised in the party or mainstream media when John Edwards, with vastly less political experience than Palin, got John Kerry's nod for veep four years ago? And Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, for whom I lobbied to be Obama's pick and who was on everyone's short list for months, has a record indistinguishable from Palin's.

Ted Nugent Goes Hunting for RINO's

Ted Nugent declares it open season on RINO's (Republican's In Name Only). Here's a few excerpts from the always enjoyable Nugent:

RINOs are Fedzilla punks who feign support for conservative principles only when it serves their political interest. RINOs are also known for their moderate positions such as supporting tax increases, federal “bailouts”, “comprehensive immigration reform”, advocating more counterproductive gun control that guarantee more innocent victims, opposing the death penalty, and growing and sustaining Fedzilla and all its toxic mongrels by going along with the liberals. RINOs have forgotten President Ronald Maximus Regan's admonition that government is the problem, not the solution.

RINOs reach across Fedzilla's aisle to cut deals and build consensus with the liberals. Consensus building means compromising values and cutting deals with the socialist prankster punksters whose goal it is to turn America into EuroAmerica.

Consensus building is for wimps and soulless people who stand for nothing. Compromise is not about being tolerant: these days, it’s about giving up conservative principles.

As the Republican Party begins to retool, rebuild and return to the "less government is best government" conservatism that makes America work, the first thing the GOP needs to do is to lock the RINOs out of the discussion. Heavily armed with an abundance of conservative attitude, my hunting buddies and I will provide security to ensure RINOs are kept downwind from the discussion. If allowed to participate, RINOs will continue to rot the Republican Party from within and diminish it in the eyes of the public. Enough is enough.

Rest of the article at Human Events.

Sarah Palin with NBC's Matt Lauer

Palin looks comfortable, relaxed and takes on those anonymous sources that have attempted to pin McCain's loss on her. Don't underestimate this woman as conservatives move forward.

Keep An Eye On Franken Coleman MN Senate Race -- Starting To Smell Fishy

So far we've seen some mysterious voting changes occur prior to the recount scheduled for later this month and in all cases thos changes have broken Al Franken's way. Impossible? No. Improbable? Yes. Norm Coleman's lead has fallen from 700+ to just a shade over 200 due to exhausted poll workers, missing absentee ballots in the back of trunks to name a couple incidents.

Keep an eye on this race. Its beginning to smell a bit fishy.

Schwarzenegger Encourages Anti-Prop. 8 Supporters to Do What it Takes to Win

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in his ongoing effort to rebrand the Republican Party, suggests to the LA Times that opponents of Proposition 8 to fight on and never give up. It appears that the Governator made no attempt to condemn the violence perportrated by the Anti-8 supporters who spent the better part of the weekend rioting in Palm Springs and threatening Mormon and Catholic churches with further acts of violence. Michelle Malkin has more here.

From the LA Times:

Reporting from Sacramento and Pasadena — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today expressed hope that the California Supreme Court would overturn Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that outlawed same-sex marriage. He also predicted that the 18,000 gay and lesbian couples who have already married would not be affected by the initiative.

“It’s unfortunate, obviously, but it’s not the end,” Schwarzenegger said in an interview on CNN this morning. “I think that we will again maybe undo that, if the court is willing to do that, and then move forward from there and again lead in that area.”

With his favorable comments toward gay marriage, the governor’s thinking appears to have evolved on the issue.

In past statements, he has said he personally believes marriage should be between a man and a woman and has rejected legislation authorizing same-sex marriage. Yet he has also said he would not care if same-sex marriage were legal, saying he believed that such an important societal issue should be determined by the voters or the courts.

Following that position, he publicly opposed Proposition 8, which amends the state Constitution to declare that “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”

Today, Schwarzenegger urged backers of gay marriage to follow the lesson he learned as a bodybuilder trying to lift weights that were too heavy for him at first. “I learned that you should never ever give up. . . . They should never give up. They should be on it and on it until they get it done.”

Schwarzenegger has just recently decided to overturn his no new tax pledge with a proposed increase to the state sales tax and now he appears to ready to support overturning the will of the people on the definition of marriage. Arnold personifies the true meaning of RINO (Republican in name only).

This gets real interesting around the 2:30 mark of the video where the anti-8 mob surrounds an eldery lady holding a cross, rips it from her hands and begins stomping on it. If the roles were reversed, this story would be the lead on every major news outlet in America, but instead its buried. So nice to see such true compassion and caring once again on the Left. I'm sure we will be seeing another attempt to overthrow the will of the people via the courts very soon.

Obama Ready to "Rule" on Day One

Co-chair of Barack Obama's Transition Team, Valerie Jarrett, appeared on Meet the Press this weekend and states that Obama is ready to rule on day one. Not exactly the type of characterization that is going to make conservatives think Obama will be anything less than is his perceived Messiah image.

Sunday Funny

Cartoon by Michael Ramirez

Ashville N.C. School teacher browbeats student over being a McCain supporter

This is outrageous. I feel so sorry for the soldier's daughter as she is brow beat by this supposed educator about the job her dad is doing in Iraq for his country. More from Michelle Malkin:

This is ghastly. If you are a parent with elementary schoolchildren, you will hit the roof. A teacher in Cumberland County, N.C. near Fort Bragg (NOTE: she is no longer in Asheville) was caught on tape by Finnish documentarians making a film about Barack Obama’s supporters. The teacher, Diantha Harris, uses the classroom as a propaganda vehicle to shove her politics down the children’s throats.

Watch her bully a little girl who dares to answer “McCain” when asked whom she supports for president. The child is the daughter of a soldier. Watch the teacher mock the girl and her father (”So that mean yo’ daddy could stay in Iraq for another hundred years!”). Watch the little girl’s eyes well up in tears. Is this the kind of education reform Barack Obama advocates?

Don't Blame Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin is taking a lot of heat from the mainstream media about costing McCain votes and perhaps the election. Below is a piece from Tom Flannery on WND that lays out the case that this is flat out absurd. Palin singlehandedly energized the conservative base for McCain who bet the farm on appealing to moderates. Without Palin, this election would have been an even larger bloodbath for Johnny Mac.

The John McCain campaign didn't wait for Tuesday's decisive loss to start pinning the blame for the shellacking on Sarah Palin. It started weeks earlier with campaign operatives putting out the word that she was a "diva," saying she was difficult to work with and confirming reports of a rift with McCain. Not to mention the leaking of a $150,000 bill for clothing that Palin neither picked out nor paid for, but for which she was saddled with the entirety of the blame.

Talk about the "Straight Talk Express" going off the rails!

The media elites who have demonized and demeaned Palin in every way imaginable will surely run with the McCain campaign's spin and milk it for all it's worth. The storyline will likely lead the election postmortem coverage for quite some time to come. Before long, hardly anyone will remember how energized the Republican National Convention – and the Republican base nationally – was by the Palin selection, or how McCain emerged from that convention (thanks to her stunning performance) with a solid lead over Obama.

Then came the Wall Street financial crisis, and rather than side with the people – who abhorred the Washington bailout and opposed it with unbridled intensity – McCain instead made himself the public face of that bailout by suspending his campaign and rushing back to Washington to try to hammer out the deal. With that, his poll numbers collapsed.

McCain probably couldn't help himself. This is what he'd been doing his entire career – working with Washington liberals to push through horrendous legislation or reach arranged "compromises" favorable to the liberal agenda and then taking credit for being courageous enough to "do the right thing."

This time, McCain alienated not only conservatives across the country (as he had done repeatedly on a host of issues through the years – immigration
, campaign finance reform, drilling, judges, etc.) but the vast majority of the voting public – and he never recovered from it. Hundreds of national opinion polls taken from that point forward showed Obama in the lead, often by double digits, as did most polls in the key swing states.

While this was by far McCain's biggest misstep of the campaign, it was by no means his only one. He also let two of Obama's biggest lies, both on taxes, stand virtually unchallenged.

The first one was Obama's flat-out false assertion that the Bush tax cuts helped only the rich, when in fact they helped people of all income groups and spurred a lagging economy. Of course, it was hard for McCain to make that argument, considering that he opposed the Bush tax cuts on the same baseless grounds of benefiting the rich as all his liberal buddies in the Senate (another example of "McCain being McCain" coming back to haunt him).

The second one was Obama's vow to cut taxes on 95 percent of Americans, notwithstanding the fact that about 40 percent of Americans pay no taxes at all. McCain should have been hammering away at this point relentlessly, and reminding voters that Obama's vow is a typical Democratic ploy (remember Clinton's promise of a middle-class tax cut vanishing as soon as he was elected?), but he remained largely silent.

Consequently, polls showed that McCain had only a slight advantage at best over Obama on the tax issue, an issue that Republicans historically own at election time.

Ronald Reagan liked to say that God put Republicans on earth to cut taxes, and the electorate's understanding of this has propelled innumerable GOP candidates into office. But the voters weren't buying it this time around. Without question, McCain's "courageous" pre-election aversion to tax cuts hurt him badly in his presidential run.

And even though Obama was the most radical presidential candidate in U.S. history to have a legitimate shot at the presidency, McCain negated this by soft-pedaling the incontrovertible proof of it – Obama's lifelong radical associations. To hear McCain tell it, Obama's close relationship with unrepentant domestic terrorist William Ayers was merely a lapse in judgment. Worse yet, McCain decided early on to take the execrable Jeremiah Wright off the table altogether as a topic of discussion.

He also failed to answer the constant questions about Palin's supposed lack of experience. McCain should have been making the point that, however inexperienced she might be, she nevertheless has far more executive experience than Obama. As Newt Gingrich wrote earlier this week: "[I]t is revealing that no national network TV interviewer asked Gov. Sarah Palin about her experiences as governor; her experience writing an $11 billion state budget; her experience leading the 29,000 employees of the Alaskan state government; her experience negotiating a big deal with ExxonMobil, Shell, BP and the rest of Big Oil; her success in giving the money from that negotiation to the people of Alaska as a $1,300 tax cut for every man, woman and child in the state; or her experience in negotiating a natural-gas pipeline that is the biggest civil-construction project in North America, and which three former governors
failed to get done."

Perhaps they were just too busy asking her "gotcha" questions in an attempt to reduce her in the eyes of the American people and impress their fellow media elites with their usefulness to the Obama campaign they all so enthusiastically abetted.

Without question, the mainstream media worked assiduously on Obama's behalf and did everything possible to destroy Palin. Their hatred for her can be summed up in one word – "Trig," the name of her Down syndrome child. Her baby boy is not only living proof of her commitment to her Christian, pro-life principles, but he is also a haunting presence to the millions of women who have aborted their own children. Palin is arguably the most serious threat to the liberal agenda on the national stage today, so the media went after her with everything they had to not only keep her from becoming vice president but to undermine any future she might have in politics.

To that end, expect Democrats and the media to make the case in the weeks ahead that the McCain campaign was done in by his decision to nominate such a woefully unqualified running mate. In short, Sarah-bashing will be raised to something of an art form as she is blamed for everything that went wrong.

Still, the fact remains that when all of the votes were tabulated last night, John McCain was left lying in a bed that he himself had made. And if he wants to know who cost him this election, all he has to do is look in the mirror.

Huge Voter Turnout Appears to Have Faded Dramatically

The record turnout in this year's election appears to be a myth. Obama garnered just a few hundred thousand more votes than George W. Bush did in 2004. It's clear BHO did a much better job of turning out the Democratic base, but there does not appear to be a tsunami of new voters in this election.
John McCain got over six million less votes that Bush did in 2004. Conservatives were not as energized for their candidate in this election.

Expectations Set for Obama Supporter -- Where Do I Send My Gas and Mortgage Bills?

It's all going to be so easy now that BHO running the show. In many respects, this type of response is my biggest fear to the Obama presidency. If people don't think they need to achieve to get ahead in life its going to be a long slow slog towards mediocrity for this country.

Philly Man Votes Twice OK With CNN Reporter

Make every vote count.... as many times as possible.

Black Panthers Intimidating Voters in Philly

Billy club wielding Black Panther standing guard outside Philadelphia voting place to intimidate voters. This is unbelievable.
Concerned citizen confronts these hoodlums. Poll watcher to guard: “I think it might be a little intimidating that you have a stick in your hand.”
The Police respond.
Once again, only Fox News is doing any real reporting on this surreal situation.

Get out and vote. Do not be intimidated by the thugs on the Left.

Questions Obama Should Answer to the American Public

World Net Daily has posed fifteen questions that Barack Obama should move swiftly to answer for the American Public:

1. Why won’t Obama allow the public to see his doctor-generated, hospital-released birth certificate?

2. Was Obama born in Kenya or Hawaii, as his campaign continues to maintain?

3. Was Obama officially adopted by his Muslim stepfather when he lived in Indonesia with his mother and stepfather, from the ages of approximately 6 to 10 years old?

4. Did Obama ever renounce his U.S. passport? Has Obama ever traveled internationally on a passport other than a U.S. State Department-issued passport?

5. Did Obama travel to Pakistan as a student on a U.S. passport, or on an Indonesian passport? Why did Obama travel to Pakistan, who did he visit there and what was the purpose of the trip?

6. How did Obama pay his tuition at the exclusive high school preparatory Punahou Academy he attended in Hawaii, as well as his college tuition at Occidental in California and at Columbia at New York?

7. How did Obama pay his tuition at Harvard Law School?

8. Why will Obama release none of the school records at any of the schools he attended?

9. Obama’s school records in Indonesia show that at both the Catholic and public school he attended there he was registered as a “Muslim” and an “Indonesian Citizen.” Was Obama ever officially instructed in Islam, even in elementary school?

10. Why has Obama refused to discuss the clients he served when he worked for the law firm of Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland in Chicago?

11. Did Obama ever receive any money from the millions Rezko borrowed to redevelop the low-income housing projects in Chicago that Rezko evidently defrauded of the improvements contracted by Obama's firm?

12. Has Obama’s campaign instituted sufficient fiscal controls to determine if any credit card contributions made to his 2008 presidential campaign have come illegally from foreign sources? Have any such foreign contributions been reported to Federal Election Commission authorities and returned, as required by federal law?

13. Has Obama ever renounced black liberation theology as espoused by its chief apologist, James Cone?

14. Has Obama ever renounced Islam?

15. Why have the detailed minutes and funding activities of the Woods Fund and the Annenberg Challenge documents in which William Ayers and Barack Obama participated never been completely released to the public?

While no campaign ever will put to rest every question voters may have, these questions are significant in that the next occupant of the White House will be making decisions on the security of the nation and issues of life and death based in large part on his beliefs and life experience.

Obama, Ayres and Farrakhan Vote at Same Polling Place

Just a couple guys in my neighborhood...Hat Tip to Tapper at ABC News.

Among the other voters who have shown up to vote at Shoesmith Elementary School this morning, where Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., will vote: Louis Farrakhan and William Ayers.

Seriously.

Welcome to the South Side of Chicago.

Obama Gives McCain the Middle Finger?

You decide.
Did the same to Hillary. Coincidence?

Obama Video Bankrupt the Coal Industry

Is it too late? Why did the San Francisco Chronicle sit on this until the last day before the election?

Battleground Polls Getting Tighter Near the End

Politico reports on their last set of battleground polls. Very interesting.

The final round of Mason-Dixon polls has Obama enjoying small leads in the red states that would deliver him the presidency, but he's below 50 percent in each and there are enough white undecided voters to leave some too close to call.

Colorado: Obama 49, McCain 44, Undecided 4
Florida: Obama 47, McCain 45, Undecided 7
Nevada: Obama 47, McCain 43, Undecided 8
Pennsylvania: 47, McCain 43, Undecided 9
Virginia: Obama 47, McCain 44, Undecided 9
Ohio: McCain 47, Obama 45, Undecided 6
Missouri: McCain 47, Obama 46, Undecided 5
North Carolina: McCain 49, Obama 46, Undecided 5

As Brad Coker, who runs the Mason-Dixon poll, notes, the vast majority of the undecided voters in these states are whites.

So according to Politico most of the undecided voters are white. If they break towards McCain it could be very close and perhaps a victory for McCain, tough one would not believe that possible listening to the main stream media.

Obama Not His Brother's Keeper Apparently

Its very hard to comprehend how Obama, the supposed candidate full of empathy for others, has not moved quickly to help his own family members in need. This is a man who does not seem to understand that families need to first and foremost take care of other family members. Rather, its becoming more clear everyday that Obama really believes that the government (using others money) should take care everyone.

Does anyone find it puzzling that a man with so few living relatives is not showing more interest in helping family members in need?

Obama Promises San Francisco Audience He Will Bankrupt Coal Industry

The text of Obama's comments from Free Republic:

Let me sort of describe my overall policy.

What I've said is that we would put a cap and trade system in place that is as aggressive, if not more aggressive, than anybody else's out there.

I was the first to call for a 100% auction on the cap and trade system, which means that every unit of carbon or greenhouse gases emitted would be charged to the polluter. That will create a market in which whatever technologies are out there that are being presented, whatever power plants that are being built, that they would have to meet the rigors of that market and the ratcheted down caps that are being placed, imposed every year.

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted.

That will also generate billions of dollars that we can invest in solar, wind, biodiesel and other alternative energy approaches.

The only thing I've said with respect to coal, I haven't been some coal booster. What I have said is that for us to take coal off the table as a ideological matter as opposed to saying if technology allows us to use coal in a clean way, we should pursue it.

So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can.

It's just that it will bankrupt them."

Arnold Schwarzenegger Wows McCain Ohio Fans

Arnold is a great campaigner. This clip is too long, but has several memorable lines supporting McCain and go after Obama. He might just be enough to get McCain across the finish line.