I didn’t think it until tonight but there are some brave souls working for the AP. Who would’ve thunk it that they’d factcheck Obama’s infomercial? Here’s the first factcheck:

THE SPIN: “That’s why my health care plan includes improving information technology, requires coverage for preventive care and pre-existing conditions and lowers health care costs for the typical family by $2,500 a year.”

THE FACTS: His plan does not lower premiums by $2,500, or any set amount. Obama hopes that by spending $50 billion over five years on electronic medical records and by improving access to proven disease management programs, among other steps, consumers will end up saving money. He uses an optimistic analysis to suggest cost reductions in national health care spending could amount to the equivalent of $2,500 for a family of four. Many economists are skeptical those savings can be achieved, but even if they are, it’s not a certainty that every dollar would be passed on to consumers in the form of lower premiums.

I’m not surprised. The entire Obama agenda is smoke and mirrors. Why shouldn’t we expect him to tell some whoppers?

THE SPIN: “Here’s what I’ll do. Cut taxes for every working family making less than $200,000 a year. Give businesses a tax credit for every new employee that they hire right here in the U.S. over the next two years and eliminate tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. Help homeowners who are making a good faith effort to pay their mortgages, by freezing foreclosures for 90 days. And just like after 9-11, we’ll provide low-cost loans to help small businesses pay their workers and keep their doors open. ”

THE FACTS: His proposals—the tax cuts, the low-cost loans, the $15 billion a year he promises for alternative energy, and more—cost money, and the country could be facing a record $1 trillion deficit next year. Indeed, Obama recently acknowledged—although not in his commercial—that: “The next president will have to scale back his agenda and some of his proposals.”

Instead of saying “Here’s what I’ll do”, he should’ve modified that statement. He should said something like this: “Here’s what I’d do if I wasn’t facing a huge deficit that both parties created.” The additional truth is that has three options: raise taxes on people making alot less than $150,000, explode the deficit to an unprecedented level or cut back spending in ways that’ll have his extremist base upset with him. My prediction is that he’ll raise taxes on people making $75,000-$100,000.

The Economist liveblogged the event. Some of its obvservations are pretty sharp. Here’s my favorite observation:

8:21: Wow, they are really exaggerating his legislative accomplishments. Did Mr Obama really change the way Washington works in his four years in the Senate?

Sen. Obama: Legend in his own mind? I’ll say this for Sen. Obama: His image of himself is off the charts popular, which is a fancy way of saying that he’s delusional. Here’s another enjoyable observation:

8:06: “Cut taxes for those making less than $200,000″. Didn’t that used to be $250,000?

Answer to the Economist’s question: Yes, the figure used to be $250,000. It also used to be $300,000. It also used to be $150,000. It doesn’t mean a thing. I’m betting that they haven’t finalized their tax policy yet.

I remember an old episode of Hogans Heroes that fits here. Two Nazis are talking about how long the news on the Russian Front will take. The one officer says “It can be as long or as short as we want it to be. We make it all up anyway.” I think Sen. Obama’s numbers keep shifting because he’s making it up. The notion that he’s a tested tax cutter is absurd. He had 94 opportunities to vote for tax cuts. Ninety-four times, he opted not to vote for tax cuts.

I give the AP credit for highlighting some of the whoppers Sen. Obama told. It’s a shame they didn’t do that throughout the campaign.

Technorati Tags: Obama, Infomercial, Fact Check, Taxes, Senate, Reform, Deficit, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

Vets for Freedom sent Rep. John Murtha this letter telling him to stop smearing heroic Marines:

Dear Representative John Murtha,

In May 2006, you accused a group of United States Marines of killing “innocent civilians in cold blood”. You made these allegations during an ongoing investigation. In fact, a Marine Corps spokesman said that you made your statement a week before you had even been briefed.

You continued to accuse these eight Marines of “cold-blooded murder and war crimes”, even after the Marine Corps itself said your comments on the matter “would be inappropriate and could undermine the investigatory and possible legal process.”

As a result of the investigation, the charges were dropped against 7 of the 8 Marines and the other Marine is awaiting his day in court.

However, you have not withdrawn your statements or apologized for your defamatory remarks.

Marines implicated in the incident believe that you have committed slander and libel against them. These United States Marines, whose honor you have attacked, deserve to hear an apology from you.

We, the undersigned, implore you, Representative Murtha, as a man who serves the public in Congress, as a man who once served in the Marine Corps, to do the honorable thing.

You must apologize.

Signed,

Pete Hegseth, Vets for Freedom
Erick Erickson, Red State
Paul Mirengoff, Powerline
Marc Danziger, Winds of Change
Jim Hoft, Gateway Pundit
Roger L. Simon, Pajamas Media
Ed Morrissey, Hot Air
Alex Charyna, PA Watercooler
Eric Odom, Conservablogs
Michael Illions, Conservatives with Attitude
Scott W. Graves, Red County

Reading through VFF’s letter felt like reading through my timeline post. This race is teetering on the brink. I know that because Murtha ran to MoveOn.org to fundraise. Here’s the letter he sent out: (continue reading post »)

Captain Ed interviewed John Hinderaker at last night’s Talk the Vote event. Here’s the video of that event:

I think John’s right about Norm and Michele. I see them both winning, norm by 5-6 points, Michele by a slightly smaller margin. John makes a totally valid point, saying that Michele has been taught a valuable lesson.

As far as McCain winning this state, I don’t know if he’ll get Minnesota’s 10 EV’s but I’ll say this: If Obama doesn’t stem the bleeding, I think he’ll lose next Tuesday. His Joe the Plumber gaffe has cost him lots of votes in the battleground states. The audiotape of his WBEZ interview from 2001 only amplifies Sen. Obama’s redistributionist tendencies.

What’s significant about the audiotape is that it appeared right when the Joe the Plumber meme might’ve started losing some of its punch. The minute people started listening to that interview was the minute that the Joe the Plumber meme got recharged.

What’s causing more hemorrhaging is their shifting of what I call the ‘$250,000 mantra’. Prior to this week, the Obama mantra was that 95% of Americans would get a tax cut and that “people making less than $250,000 would get a tax cut.” That abruptly changed this week. Sen. Obama said that people making $200,000 or less would get a tax cut. Later, Sen. Biden said anyone making $150,000 or less would get a tax cut.

What makes this important is that each downward shift means fewer people will get a tax cut. There’s lots of votes to be had with people making less than $250,000. The minute that changes to people making less than $200,000, people making $200K have one less reason to vote for Sen. Obama. The minute that changes to people making less than $150,000, people in that income bracket have another reason to not vote for Sen. Obama.

I don’t have the statistics but I’m betting that the group of people making $150,000-$200,000 is significantly bigger than the group making $200,000-$250,000.

It’s also important to note that the vast majority of people making that much money are capitalists, not redistributionists. I can’t deny that there are redistributionists making $150,000-$250,000. I’m merely suggesting that they’re the exception, not the rule.

If that trend continues, the McCain-Palin ticket will be the beneficiaries. This morning’s polling shows the race tightening, suggesting that the momentum is on McCain’s side. What will happen over the last 6 days is impossible to know. You can’t overlook the fact that Obama is still leading. Still, there’s reason for McCain supporters to feel energized.

I’d say there’s about 150,000 reasons to feel energized.

Technorati Tags: Campaigns, Norm Coleman, Michele Bachmann, Joe The Plumber, John McCain, Capitalism, Barack Obama, Redistributionist, taxes, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

I was just stunned by this headline:

Stocks surge as investors hunt for bargains

Here’s one of the paragraphs that jumped off the page for me:

In the final minutes of trading, the Dow rose 709.42, or 8.68 percent, to 8,885.19. The big moves weren’t a surprise, given the huge swings stocks have shown in the past six weeks since the bankruptcy filing of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Only two of the 19 trading days in October haven’t ended with the Dow up or down by triple digits.

Obviously, this waws written before the final bell rang. Here’s the final count:

Dow 9,065.12 +889.35 +10.88%
Nasdaq 1,649.47 +143.57 +9.53%
S&P 500 940.49 +91.57 +10.79

I’m not a stock broker so I don’t know the answer to this question so I’ll ask that someone far more knowledgeable than me this question: Have there been many times when all 3 indexes gained 10% the same day? I can’t imagine that there’ve been many days like this.

This doesn’t mean the economy is back on stable ground. It’s just an interesting bit of news.

Technorati Tags: NYSE, NASDAQ, S & P 500, Stock Market

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

Check out this video of Megyn Kelly’s defense of FNC after Obama spinmeister-in chief Bill Burton accused “FNC, the Drudge Report and John McCain” of manufacturing a news story after the audio surfaced of Sen. Obama’s 2001 appearance on WBEZ where he talked about redistributing the wealth:

To say that Megyn Kelly is as ferocious in defending FNC against the Obama campaign’s charges of bias is understatement. In this video, Bill Burton attempts to best Megyn, who’s fast gaining a reputation of being the most no-nonsense interviewer on TV. Mr. Burton was clearly outclassed in this exchanged. Whenever Burton tried sticking with talking points, Kelly discredited his remarks with Obama’s own words. (continue reading post »)

When I read this article in Haaretz, I was a little stunned. Here’s what I read that stunned me:

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is very critical of U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama’s positions on Iran, according to reports that have reached Israel’s government.

Sarkozy has made his criticisms only in closed forums in France. But according to a senior Israeli government source, the reports reaching Israel indicate that Sarkozy views the Democratic candidate’s stance on Iran as “utterly immature” and comprised of “formulations empty of all content.”

This isn’t surprising to anyone who paid attention to Sen. Obama’s deer-in-the-headlights reaction to Russia’s invasion of Georgia. The only thing that makes this stunning is that Sarkozy’s critique of Sen. Obama is as negative as it is.

Following their July meeting, Sarkozy repeatedly expressed disappointment with Obama’s positions on Iran, concluding that they were “not crystallized, and therefore many issues remain open,” the Israeli source said. Advisors to the French president who held separate meetings with Obama’s advisors came away with similar impressions and expressed similar disappointment.

Saying that Sen. Obama’s policies weren’t crystallized is code for saying that he didn’t think things through, at least not enough to formulate a coherent policy. (continue reading post »)

If you didn’t know what an Obama administration looked like, this article gives you an idea what their communications department would look like:

Biden so disliked West’s line of questioning that the Obama campaign canceled a WFTV interview with Jill Biden, the candidate’s wife.

“This cancellation is non-negotiable, and further opportunities for your station to interview with this campaign are unlikely, at best for the duration of the remaining days until the election,” wrote Laura K. McGinnis, Central Florida communications director for the Obama campaign.

McGinnis said the Biden cancellation was “a result of her husband’s experience yesterday during the satellite interview with Barbara West.”

The message being sent is clear: If a TV station acts like a serious journalist, that TV station will have its access to the administration cut off at the knees. This also tells the media that a potential Obama administration won’t be transparent.

Let’s remember that the president and vice president work for us, not vice versa. We set the rules, not them. If they won’t be held accountable campaigning, it’s likely that they’ll do everything possible to avoid being held accountable if they’re elected.

The good news is that the TV station is sticking with its principles:

WFTV news director Bob Jordan said, “When you get a shot to ask these candidates, you want to make the most of it. They usually give you five minutes.”

Jordan said political campaigns in general pick and choose the stations they like. And stations often pose softball questions during the satellite interviews. “Mr. Biden didn’t like the questions,” Jordan said. “We choose not to ask softball questions.” Jordan added, “I’m crying foul on this one.”

Bravo to Mr. Jordan. I wish more media outlets were this steadfast. If media outlets showed a spine, the Obama campaign would be forced into being accountable to We The People.

It’s insulting to think that Obama would even attempt to pull a stunt like this. That they’ve set these rules says everything I need to know that they won’t hesitate to resort to fascist tactics.

This isn’t Kruschev’s Soviet Union. This is supposedly the United States of America. This is utterly unacceptable. That’s why these tactics should be rejected before they reach 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Technorati Tags: Censorship, Fascism, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Accountability, Media, Transparency, Barbara West, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

It’s amazing how thin-skinned the Obama-Biden ticket is. Today, they whined that the questions WFTV anchor-reporter Barbara West asked Sen. Biden. First, here’s a transcript of their interview:

WEST: I know you’re in North Carolina trying to help get out the vote but aren’t you embarassed by the blatant attempts to register phony voters by ACORN, an organization that Barack Obama has been tied to in the past?

BIDEN: I am not embarassed by it. We are not tied to it. We have not paid them one single penny to register a single solitary voter. We have the best GOTV operation in modern history. We’ve registered the voters ourselves and so there is no relationship. So I am embarassed for anybody in ACORN who went out there and registered somebody who shouldn’t be registered. I’m not embarrassed by our campaign because we haven’t paid ACORN a single penny to register a single voter.

WEST: But in the past, Sen. Obama was a community organizer for ACORN. He was an attorney for ACORN and certainly in the Senate, he has been a benefactor for ACORN.

BIDEN: How has he been a benefactor for ACORN? He was a community organizer. John McCain stood before ACORN not long ago and complimented them on the great work they did. Does tghat make John McCain complicit in any mistake that ACORN made? C’mon. Let’s get real. (continue reading post »)

I haven’t seen any polling but it’s apparent that Melissa Hart is turning up the heat on Rep. Jason Altmire. The NRL Pac’s endorsement should help in socially conservative western Pennsylvania. Here’s the text of NRL PAC’s endorsement letter:

“We commend you for your perfect 100 percent pro-life voting record during your six years in the House of Representatives (2001-2006).

You were the prime sponsored of the Unborn Victims of Violence Act (”Lacy and Connor’s Law”), a bill to recognize as a legal victim any unborn child who is injured or killed during the commission of a federal crime. When your bill was signed into law by President Bush on April 1, 2004, it was a major pro-life milestone.

You also co-sponsored many other important pro-life bills and helped to advance them. These include the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, which was signed in to law by President Bush in 2003, and the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act, a bill to protect the right of parents to be notified before an abortion is performed on a minor daughter, which passed the House in 2005. In addition, we take special note of, and thank you for, your votes to support the current ban on federal funding of research that requires the killing of human embryos.

We believe that your superb record of leadership on behalf of the most vulnerable members of the human family has earned you the support of every citizen who recognizes the paramount importance of defending innocent human life.”

Here’s Ms. Hart’s reply: (continue reading post »)

Speaking for MMGers everywhere, we heartily agree with Michelle Malkin’s NRO column. It’s time that we booted Murtha for being a spinmeister, a corruption machine, an EX-Marine and for being the most dovish hawk in the House of Representatives. This paragraph is the perfect encapsulation of the choices the voters of PA-12 have:

The Democrat supports the pork-stuffed, debt-exploding government bailout for the banking industry. The Republican opposes it. The Democrat supports a raft of illegal-alien amnesty measures. The Republican opposes them. The Democrat supports race-baiting campaign rhetoric and contemptuous smears against both American troops and gun-owning, Bible-respecting citizens. The Republican opposes those divisive tactics and reckless slander.

Let’s hope that the people in PA-12 have finally realized that Rep. Murtha hasn’t helped their district that much. Yes, he’s brought home a ton of bacon but most of that money goes to a few select cronies. It certainly hasn’t helped the masses in PA-12.

I think that Rep. Murtha’s statements calling his constituents racists, then explaining that they weren’t racists, that they were rednecks instead, is proof that he’s rattled. I think Murtha’s feeling the heat from the Russell Brigade. I think that pressure is causing a number of Murtha misstatements. In turn, I think that’s exposing the true John Murtha.

While you’re thinking about Murtha’s plentiful ethical lapses, stop past Brigade HQ and contribute to Russell’s victory.

Technorati Tags: John Murtha, Corruption, Earmarks, William Russell, Reformer, Election 2008

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog