Pundits all across the country are buzzing about Sarah Palin and the impact she’s having on the Obama-McCain matchup. This represents typical inside-the-box thinking. I think it’s also out of step with a new matchup that’s taking center stage: the Palin-Obama matchup.

People across America still understand that the presidential matchup is still McCain-Obama but they’re starting to notice that, when it comes to reform, it’s really a Palin-Obama matchup.

Prior to Gov. Palin’s entry into the mix, people generally thought of Sen. Obama as a change agent, a reformer. Now that people are finding out how Sarah Palin took on the powers-that-be within the Republican Party of Alaska and how she ran out the Republican Attorney General before thrashing the sitting Republican governor in a GOP primary, people are taking a second look at Sen. Obama’s reformer’s credentials.

The closer the scrutiny, I predict, the less impressed voters will be with Sen. Obama. The reason for that is because his reformer’s credentials are largely nonexistent. While he made his way up the food chain in Chicago’s crony-laden political system, Sen. Obama didn’t utter a peep about the corruption that dotted Chicago’s political landscape.

Instead, he picked friends like Jeremiah Wright, a racist, and William Ayers, a terrorist. While those relationships with radicals prove that Obama isn’t an inside-the-box politician, those relationships don’t prove that he’s got an ambition to change the status quo when the status quo is corrupt.

In fact, what it really proves is that, putting it charitably, Sen. Obama’s judgment on personal matters is suspect. It also calls into question Sen. Obama’s priorities. Based on this information, it’s difficult to prove that reforming Washington is a priority. (continue reading post »)

Friday evening, Mort Kondracke of the Beltway Boys said during the roundtable portion of Special Report that Sarah Palin wasn’t qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency. I took offense with that, especially considering the ineptitude and qualifications of Sen. Obama, who wouldn’t be “one heartbeat away from the Oval Office”.

This morning, I wrote an email to Mr. Kondracke. Here’s the text of that email:

Mort, You’ve really outdid yourself this time. Saying that Gov. Palin, who’s visited Kuwait to talk with the troops from Alaska’s National Guard deployed in the Gulf, who’s rooted out corruption within her own party, isn’t qualified is uninformed opinion. It’s also irresponsible journalism.

Why haven’t you talked about Obama’s lack of qualifications? As you know, he chairs a subcommittee with oversight on Afghanistan. As you know, that subcommittee hasn’t met under his control. He’s been to Iraq twice. The last time he visited, he couldn’t even admit that the surge had worked because his hyperpartisanship wouldn’t allow him to admit that.

Who’s qualified to be commander-in-chief? It isn’t the junior senator from Illinois. (continue reading post »)

The Politico’s Jim Vandehei and John Harris have written something analyzing Sen. McCain’s pick of Gov. Palin. In their article they cite “six things the Palin pick says about McCain.” According to Mssrs. Vandehei and Harris, here’s what the pick tells us about Sen. McCain:

1. He’s desperate. Let’s stop pretending this race is as close as national polling suggests. The truth is McCain is essentially tied or trailing in every swing state that matters, and too close for comfort in several states like Indiana and Montana the GOP usually wins pretty easily in presidential races. On top of that, voters seem very inclined to elect Democrats in general this election, and very sick of the Bush years.

McCain could easily lose in an electoral landslide. That is the private view of Democrats and Republicans alike.

McCain’s pick shows he is not pretending. Politicians, even “mavericks” like McCain, play it safe when they think they are winning, or see an easy path to winning. They roll the dice only when they know that the risks of conventionality are greater than the risks of boldness.

Listen to the BS in that fist sentence. Mssrs. VandeHei and Harris are suggesting that all of the polling is badly wrong. Talk about arrogant. It’s beyond their belief that Sen. McCain could hang with this smooth-talking do-nothing liberal. Perhaps they didn’t notice that Sen. Obama’s fundraising comments about rural voters clinging to their guns and to God alienated voters to the extent that they wouldn’t trust him if their life depended on it. (continue reading post »)

If anyone doubted that the House GOP’s attacks are wearing Ms. Pelosi down, this article removes all doubt:

House Democratic leaders and protesters waving McCain signs had a war of words Tuesday at a press event outside an old train station. The demonstrators interrupted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with chants of “Drill here! Drill now!”

Pelosi paused and asked the group, “Right here?”

Seeming to enjoy the back and forth, she followed with another question: “Can we drill your brains?”

What a totally snotty thing of Ms. Pelosi to say. She isn’t the first politician to take heat from protesters but she might be the first politician who’s responded with such hostility and hatefulness to protesters. Ms. Pelosi owes these protesters, indeed all of America, an apology for conduct unbecoming the office she holds.

Simply put, if she can’t take the heat, then she doesn’t belong in that position.

BTW, here’s the video:

Disgusting just begins to describe Ms. Pelosi’s behavior. Childish, petulant and bitter fit, too. Adult isn’t an adjective I’d use.

Technorati Tags: Gas Crisis, Nancy Pelosi, Protesters, Drill Here, Drill Now, Hissy Fit, YouTube

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

If the network news wasn’t as awful as it is, Jack Cafferty would be THE laughinstock of the news industry. As it is, he’s just ONE of the laughingstocks. Imagine my surprise when I read Cafferty’s article claiming that John McCain is intellectually shallow:

Sen. John McCain takes weekends off and limits his campaign events to one a day. He made an exception for the religious forum on Saturday at Saddleback Church in Southern California.

I think he made a big mistake. When he was invited last spring to attend a discussion of the role of faith in his life with Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, at Messiah College in Pennsylvania, McCain didn’t bother to show up. Now I know why.

It occurs to me that John McCain is as intellectually shallow as our current president. When asked what his Christian faith means to him, his answer was a one-liner. “It means I’m saved and forgiven.” Great scholars have wrestled with the meaning of faith for centuries. McCain then retold a story we’ve all heard a hundred times about a guard in Vietnam drawing a cross in the sand. (continue reading post »)

John Culberson’s use of technology and the internet has helped fuel the House Republicans’ rebellion against Speaker Pelosi’s dictatorial closing of debate on energy bills. This Houston Chronicle article explains Rep. Culberson’s motivation:

His text messages may be cryptic and hurried on the instant messaging network known as Twitter (www.twitter.com). And his shaky and furtive camera-phone interviews with colleagues posted on Qik (www.qik.com) may resemble hostage videos. But they are vanguards of the future for a technology buff who still lovingly describes his first telescope.

House rules bundle restrictions on state-of-the-art electronics with provisions governing “decorum and comportment” on the House floor.

Lawmakers “may not wear a hat or remain by the clerk’s desk during the call of the roll or the counting of ballots,” the rules state. “A person may not smoke or use a wireless telephone or personal computer on the floor of the House.”

In practice, lawmakers routinely use cell phones and BlackBerries on the House floor for text messaging, e-mail and access to the Internet. The sergeant-at-arms only enforces a restriction on talking on the cell phones from the House floor. (continue reading post »)

I just saw the video taken during the Republican Revolt Friday afternoon. It’s a video that everyone MUST SEE to appreciate.

This 4:52 worth of video should give us all the motivation we need to work our butts off the last 90-something days of this campaign. Watching Mike Pence got my blood flowing. It was inspirational watching him. I’m betting you’ll feel the same way.

Nancy Pelosi tried shutting the House down. Ms. Pelosi’s strongarm tactics failed. They failed because an inspired group of GOP representatives used their words, their camcorders and their smart use of technology to tell Ms. Pelosi that this is still the People’s House, not Pelosi’s Politburo. (continue reading post »)

Nancy Pelosi and her Democratic brethren adjourned the House for the next 5 weeks. The bad news for them is that Republicans refused to leave, causing a major media opportunity to highlight Ms. Pelosi’s Politburo mentality. Here’s Rep. John Shadegg’s quote on Ms. Pelosi’s strongarm tactics:

“The speaker wouldn’t let us have the five-minute speeches because she didn’t want the day dominated on the floor by speeches pointing out she has not allowed a vote on a single measure to permit greater oil exploration for the past two months. This is our answer to the Orange Revolution and our modern day Boston tea party.”

Ms. Pelosi obviously underestimated the Republicans. It’s equally obvious that Ms. Pelosi attitude’s is that of a dictator. In fact, here’s what the Politico is quoting Rep. Thaddeus McCotter as saying:

“This is the people’s House,” said Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.). “This is not Pelosi’s politiburo.”

Ms. Pelosi has ruled the 110th Congress with an iron fist. Now that style has returned to bite her. She’s a little tyrant.

I’ll be mightily surprised if this isn’t THE NEWS STORY of the night. Here’s a great Mike Pence quote:

While Democrats have privately decried the breakdown in order, Republicans defended the protest. “You are not witnessing a revolt,” said Rep. Mike Pence. “You are witnessing democracy in action.”

Ms. Pelosi has been a picture in desperation, if not abject failure. She’s tried blocking the GOP’s legislation that would increase oil exploration and production. The overwhelming majority of people polled agree with the GOP on this issue. (BTW, if Republicans want to reach out to moderates and independents without abandoning their principles, this is the vehicle.) (continue reading post »)

Each election, candidates are scrutinized from a variety of directions and on an even wider variety of issues. Two issues that shouldn’t be debated, though, are the First Amendment and our nation’s prosperity. With that in mind, every candidate or incumbent nationwide should answer some questions on those subjects. Let’s get to the questions:

Do you support reviving the Fairness Doctrine? If you do, explain why? If you don’t, why not? Please keep your answers as precise and on point as possible.

If you support the Fairness Doctrine, outline with specificity how it could be implemented. Also, explain what impact it would have on the radio industry.

To House candidates:

Do you support Rep. Michael Capuano’s proposal to make it mandatory that representatives get prior approval to post work-related content on blogs, YouTube and other websites containing advertising on them? If you support it, why do you support it? If you don’t, why don’t you?

To all candidates and incumbents: (continue reading post »)

Earlier this week, I posted about the House Democrats’ attempted censorship of its members. This effort is spearheaded by Rep. Michael Capuano, (D-MA). This morning, I got an email from Rep. Mike Conaway, (R-TX) asking me to sign a petition to halt the Democrats’ attempt to halt the free flow of information between my representative and myself. I’ve already signed the petition. I’m urging my readers to do the same.

Follow this link to sign Rep. Conaway’s petition.

PS- After you’ve signed the petition, I strongly encourage you to bookmark Rep. Conaway’s blog, too.

Let’s remember that then Speaker-Elect Pelosi said that the 110th Congress would be the most open and ethical congress in history. We knew that was a line of BS then. All that’s changed is that we now have proof that they’re anything but transparent or ethical.

Technorati Tags: Petition, Mike Conaway, Blogs, Michael Capuano, Nancy Pelosi, Censorship, Ethics

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog