Wow. That was one of the most amazing comebacks I have ever watched as a Michigan football fan. It was made all the more amazing because the offense looked so pathetic for so long. It looked like this was going to be a reply of the Notre Dame game but without the offense moving the [...]
Obama started the distortion last night:
Just one last point I want to make, since Senator McCain talked about providing a $5,000 health credit. Now, what he doesn’t tell you is that he intends to, for the first time in history, tax health benefits.
The Biden did what he does best and talk out of his – well, the side of his mouth:
John McCain and Sarah Palin “are proposing the largest increase on middle class taxpayers in American history….It will cost the middle class over one trillion dollars in additional taxes. It is almost unbelievable.” –Joe Biden campaign rally, Greensburg, PA. September 25, 2008.
True? Nope. Washington Post pulls out the Four Pinochios:
John McCain wants to drastically overhaul the health insurance system in order to encourage Americans to go out and buy their own health care plans rather than relying on employer-based plans. To achieve this, he plans to tax employer-provided health benefits and provide a $2,500 tax credit ($5,000 for families) toward the cost of health insurance.
By most independent calculations, the McCain plan will leave most taxpayers better off in strictly financial terms, at least until 2013. After 2013, the benefits will begin to diminish. By 2018, taxpayers in the top quintile will be slightly worse off, but middle-income taxpayers will either break even or be slightly ahead. According to the non-partisan Tax Policy Center, the McCain proposals will result in a net benefit of $1,241 to the average tax payer in 2009, $895 in 2013, and $386 in 2018.
“It is not fair to pull out just one part of the McCain proposal,” said Eric Toder, a TPC analyst. “It is a package. They are giving back more than they are taking away.”
At what point does Obama and Biden get called on the fact that every day on the trail seems to bring a new lie or deceptive claim. At what point do Biden’s gaffes stop being a joke and start being a vulnerability?
I encourage everyone who is able to participate the in the Live Blog on the front page. In case of technical problems, or an overwhelming number of comments, I wanted to make you aware that I will also be live blogging the debates at Obama’s Con.
The limits of the system make it hard to always approve comments in a timely manner and the chat can move at a very quick pace when you have a lot of participation. So I figured I could serve as the overflow room if it is needed.
End of public service announcement.
Well, if the previous game against the Cleveland Browns wasn’t enough to wake up Steeler fans Sunday’s game did the trick. In the run up to the season fans were all wondering if the Steelers could really compete with the NFL elite with a makeshift offensive line. The opening day slaughter of the Houston Texans [...]
Allow me a point of personal privilege for a bleg. I am looking for some bloggers to help me provide content for Obama’s Con.
Circumstances have made it so that I will not be able to commit the time and energy necessary to post regular content at the blog as I have in the past. But I think the site’s mission is important and I think it can serve a useful purpose.
So what I am looking for is a few quality bloggers who would be interested in posting(I don’t mind if they want to cross post from RS or from their own blog.)
I am not interested in conspiracy theory rants or over-the-top attacks. Rather, what I am interested in are posts that calmly and carefully lay out the dangers of an Obama presidency and that reveal the empty rhetoric and failed liberalism that is behind the Obama campaign.
What is the benefit for you? Well, you get a platform that is easy to use (WordPress) and the opportunity to build an audience. If done right it could boost your blogging profile and even make an impact on the election.
The blog has a base of traffic on which to build and I will continue to do what I can to promote it and increase traffic.
So if this is something you are interested in please contact me: editor [at] obamascon [dot] com. Let me know why you are interested, where you currently blog, and feel free to ask any questions you might have.
Thanks,
KH
What: Writer Blogger New Media Fan Political Junkie Bibliophile
Michael Gerson gets to the heart of Obama’s problem. Obama’s metioric rise was based on the idea that he was different; that he could bring true “change.” This has become problematic as the only thing truly different about Obama is his image and personality. As I have been arguing, his politics are numbingly conventional leftist agitprop and big government liberalism.
Gerson outlines how this has led to Obama struggling in a cycle that should be a slam dunk:
Barack Obama is cool, firm and permanently unruffled. It is precisely this quality of steadiness that has made him seem a credible prospective president with the thinnest of résumés.
But Obama’s campaign is rootless, reactive and panicky. At every stage since securing the nomination, it has seemed fearful of missteps and unsure of its own organizing principle. So it has invariably adopted the Democratic conventional wisdom of the moment.
The details below.
He argues that when it came time to pick a VP Obama went with “a partisan, undisciplined, congressional liberal” rather than a Democratic governor or Hillary. Conventional and safe rather than exciting change.
When it came time for the convention in Denver Obama again chose conventional Democratic wisdom rather than a style and theme that matched his political identity:
In his Denver speech, it seemed that every American home was on the auction block, every car stalled for lack of gasoline, every credit card bill past due, every worker treated like a Russian serf. And John McCain? He was out of touch, with flawed “judgment.” His life devoted to serving oil companies and big corporations. And, by the way, he didn’t have the courage to follow Osama bin Laden “to the cave where he lives.” In obedience to the best Democratic advice, Obama managed to be conventional, bitter and graceless.
Finally, Obama spends his ad money on harsh attacks against John McCain. Gerson then notes:
Who is hurt most by this race to the bottom? McCain, by the evidence of his own convention, wants to be a viewed as a fighter — which a fight does little to undermine. Obama was introduced to America as a different and better kind of politician — an image now in tatters.
Even worse for Obama, all these shifts to catch the prevailing winds confirm the most serious concerns about his political character. As a senator, he has almost never opposed the ideological consensus of his party. (The ethics reform he often cites as his profile in courage eventually passed the Senate 96 to 2.) And now as a presidential candidate, Obama has run his campaign with all the constancy of a skittish sailboat on an erratic ocean.
Gerson bemoans the disappearance of the formerly eloquent and seemingly different politician, but ignores the obvious answer: that candidate never really existed. Obama has always been a rather conventional politician but this has been covered up by the his rather exotic background, unique personality, and obvious rhetorical skills on the big stage.
This presented a number of problems in the general election. First, Obama has never had to face a real partisan challenge and thus has no experience running as anything other than a clear liberal with Hope and Change as garnish. And two, given the thinness of his resume, and his lack experience in actually bringing change, no one really believes you can run a campaign on rhetoric and style alone. Third the angry leftist base of the party doesn’t care about Hope and Change, they want liberalism in charge and they want it now! They have been out of power for far to long and they believe that their righteous anger will carry the day. They see undecideds and independents as mushy no-nothings no critical swing voters.
In other words, Obama and his advisors don’t have the courage to risk the most favorable climate for Democrats in decades on Hope and Change so they gave into the conventional partisan hacks and have ran a very conventional campaign on issues and on tactics.
And who knows, it still might work. But at least we can dispense with the cannard that Obama is anything other than a conventional liberal politician.
Megan McArdle defines the term: This is a first class example of what I like to call “Supertwaddle”: thoroughgoing nonsense wrapped up in just enough technical knowledge to be more thoroughly, amusingly wrong than the ordinary twaddle you buy at your local drugstore or neighborhood bar. Sadly, it often sounds very convincing to people who [...]
The folks at Stop Him Now have created this humorous daily news program staring Champ Kinkade. The one from yesterday is worth sharing, at least IMHO:
The candidate with the vaunted rhetorical skills is a little awkward without his safety net:
It appears Barack Obama’s teleprompter is hitting the campaign trail.
The Democratic presidential nominee has never tried to hide the fact he delivers speeches off the device, though normally he doesn’t use one at standard campaign rallies and town hall events.
But the Illinois senator used a teleprompter at both his Colorado events Monday — making for a particularly peculiar scene in Pueblo, where the prompter was set up in the middle of what is normally a rodeo ring.
No wonder he declined to do townhalls with McCain.