Fouad Ajami: Obama and the Politics of Crowds
(FROM: The Wall Street Journal) Very interesting. Exceptionally written.
There is something odd — and dare I say novel — in American politics about the crowds that have been greeting Barack Obama on his campaign trail. Hitherto, crowds have not been a prominent feature of American politics. We associate them with the temper of Third World societies. We think of places like Argentina and Egypt and Iran, of multitudes brought together by their zeal for a Peron or a Nasser or a Khomeini. In these kinds of societies, the crowd comes forth to affirm its faith in a redeemer: a man who would set the world right …
Save in times of national peril, Americans have been sober, really minimalist, in what they expected out of national elections, out of politics itself. The outcomes that mattered were decided in the push and pull of daily life, by the inventors and the entrepreneurs, and the captains of industry and finance. To be sure, there was a measure of willfulness in this national vision, for politics and wars guided the destiny of this republic. But that American sobriety and skepticism about politics — and leaders — set this republic apart from political cultures that saw redemption lurking around every corner.
Found in a Run-down Boston Public Housing Estate: Barack Obama’s Aunt Zeituni Onyango
(FROM: UK Times Online) So, his half-brother lives on one dollar each month in Kenya, and his aunt lives in dilapidated public housing in Boston. How wonderful. For a guy who is often seen as elitist and egotistical, this sure does a lot for that perception. Between Sen. Joe Biden’s abysmal record of donations to charity–in the past ten years, the Bidens have given $3,690 out of their $2,450,042 in income–and Obama’s failure to provide at all for his own family, the same family spoken of so nicely in his memoirs, it’s a wonder that the pair can so successfully misrepresent themselves as caring for those who have less than they do. Amazing how they have no qualms about forcing ordinary Americans like you and me to share our wealth involuntarily, but have utterly refused to volunteer to share their own.
Matthews on Obamamercial: ‘Fabulous … Just Right … Realism’
(FROM: Newsbusters) To paraphrase morning anchor and former Congressman Joe Scarborough, they’re all ‘independents’ at MSNBC. Especially Chris “The Thrill is Gone [up my leg]” Matthews, who had this to say about Obama’s 30-minute infomercial:
I thought it was Hollywood. It was romance. It was realism. The technical quality of it, the production values were perfect, the way they timed going to live, the biographical material. But most important, the connection with the average person in the economic turmoil we face right now I thought was fabulous. Of course, there we see the setting, which is very much like an Oval Office setting, showing that he’s comfortable and we should be comfortable and will be with him in such a setting. I thought everything was just right.
I thought, the most important part of it, I thought, was the biographical, showing him talking about his mom and talking about him taking a chance in history and not wanting to miss it having seen his mother die at a young age. It was very human and I think you’d have to be a tough customer not to be touched by it.
Karl Rove: Don’t Let the Polls Affect Your Vote
(FROM: The Wall Street Journal) I’ve said it privately, so I might as well say it here: I think John McCain is going to win this election. And, while it may not be by a truly hefty margin, I believe it will be enough so as to leave those on the political left in America standing around on Wednesday morning, wondering what the hell just happened. Of course, I could be wrong. The polls certainly say that I am, and those of you following the Berg v. Obama case know that my gut feeling, as improbable as I admitted it was, was still off when it came to the disposition of the case in district court. That being said, I have confidence in middle America, in God-fearing people who bleed red, white and blue and who know, for one reason or another, that Barack Hussein Obama just isn’t right for this country.
SEE ALSO:
- Dick Morris: McCain Closing the Gap (Newsmax)
- Rasmussen Reports: McCain Trusted More on Taxes and Economy
Biden Blows Fuzzy Tax Math
(FROM: The New York Post) So, which one is it? Throughout the past few months, Barack Obama has maintained that he would “cut taxes” for those who made less than $250,000 per year. In a television spot last week and in last night’s marathon infomercial, the number was suddenly $200,000. Now, Biden is saying that it is $150,000. That’s nice. Should Obama win, I wonder what the magic number will be by Inauguration Day — maybe, just maybe, it will be low enough that Obama’s beloved aunt in Boston can receive a tax cut.
John Lott: The Barack Obama We Hardly Know
(FROM: Fox News) When I clicked on the link, I expected a piece detailing Obama’s perspective as a former community organizer on the Second Amendment. However, Lott takes his signature common sense approach to the Illinois senator’s ideology as a whole and, while a number of recent articles have gone into greater detail–see, for example, Joshua Muravchik’s Obama’s Leftism–this was nonetheless a solidly written, informative piece.
SEE ALSO:
- Michael Reagan: You Can’t Be Half-Socialist (Townhall)
- Andrew McCarthy: Obama’s ‘Redistributive Change’ and the Death of Freedom (National Review)
- Michael Barone: New New Deal No Better than the Old One (National Review)
Did Saddam Hussein Bagman Help Obama Buy Mansion?
(FROM: WorldNetDaily) I’ve written before about Obama’s involvement, through friend and corrupt Syrian businessman Tony Rezko, with Iraqi government fraud. The information in this article, included alongside a solid timeline, really opens up yet another set of questions for the Illinois senator. I’ll let you read it for yourself and decide.
Ex-CIA Expert: Obama Took Millions in Illegal Campaign Donations
(FROM: Newsmax) Kenneth Timmerman has been all over this from the beginning, and just last week broke the story stating that $63 million of Obama’s $605 million collected campaign funds came from unnamed sources, some of which used pre-paid debit cards to contribute to the senator’s campaign. Now, he adds to the already exponentially expanding pile of information. You know, any one of these things–foreign contributions, ACORN, lying about tax plans, and the whole stable full of questionable associations and alliances–would be enough to completely and unequivocally disqualify John McCain or any GOP candidate, yet Obama seems to emerge unscathed.
MSM Ignores ‘Nonpartisan’ ACORN Boss Bertha Lewis’s Impassioned Endorsement of Obama
(FROM: Newsbusters) It absolutely blows my mind that more has not been made of Obama’s blatant attempt, through surrogates and those who share his ideology, to steal this election. An ACORN whistleblower just testified that she was provided with an Obama donor list. By golly, he gave them donor lists, paid them to get out the vote, and get out the vote they most certainly did — now, they’re being investigated in more than a dozen states, many of them swing states. At any rate, watch the video, and tell me just how non-partisan it is.
