Blog Archive

I agree wholeheartedly with this sentiment from Reid Buckley on Sarah Palin: Unlike the Beltway snobs (an insular pathology that now defines the East Coast from Bangor, Maine to Key West), I place my trust in Sarah Palin. Dadgummit, by golly, she speaks the American language of the plains and the frontier. I trust it, [...]

Just came across this Jim Lindgren post at The Volokoh Conspiracy on Obama.  The conclusion is rather fascinating and thought provoking: People should not confuse Obama’s personality with his political orientation: by personality, Obama is the most reasonable, thoughtful, moderate person on either national ticket. He is definitely NOT an ideologue. Yet by political orientation, [...]

Mark Steyn: This is an amazing race. The incumbent president has approval ratings somewhere between Robert Mugabe and the ebola virus. The economy is supposedly on the brink of global Armageddon. McCain has only $80 million to spend, while Obama’s burning through $600 mil as fast as he can, and he doesn’t really need to spend [...]

The Michigan Wolverine’s season so far: First lost to a MAC team in 25 games?  Check. First lost to Penn State in 10 years?  Check Headed to first non-bowl season in 33 years?  Sure looks like it. Headed to the first losing season in 41 years?  Ditto. Next week should be interesting.  Michigan State will [...]

Heading into the Cincinnati Bengals v. Pittsburgh Steelers game this weekend, I figured I would show this YouTube for laughs: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsmGGnxHJmI[/youtube]

This is a feeling I have never had before. No, not being bitterly disappointed and embarrassed by the play of a Michigan football team, but the feeling that Michigan was just not a competitive football team. The history is staring me in the face: Michigan lost to a MAC team for the first time in [...]

As I experience my worst college football season in my lifetime – Michigan fan living in Columbus, Ohio – and the economy heads toward whatever it is heading toward, I thought I would offer a little comic relief. The picture below was take in the parking lot of a local grocery store.

Sad, but true: Any attempt to list the full dossier of Michigan errors over the past few weeks would provoke a cascade of emotions from the reader starting with rage and ending with full-bore ennui. Along the way we’d touch grim sarcasm, depression, contempt, fatalism, resignation, dread, and a whole host of other things that [...]

My reaction to the last two debates is to pose the question above. Do facts matter? It seems not. It seems to me that what matters is the persona and personality of the candidates.

Obama is cool and collected. He calmly answers the questions. He seems comfortable in his own skin. No matter what is said he keeps pounding his Bush caused this and McCain is just like Bush mantra. And why not? It works.

Biden, although not particularly consequential, has the same pattern. It doesn’t matter what he says or whether it is true or not. He is a long time Senator and sounds like he knows what he is talking about so he must be better and more qualified.

More on this question below.

• Does it matter that Obama insists the the financial crisis was caused by deregulation when this is simply not true?
• Does it matter that the policies of “deregulation” Obama attacks were supported by President Clinton, a majority of Democrats, and his own VP pick?
• Does it matter that Obama and Democrats insisted that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were fine and resisted any attempts to reign them in prior to their implosion? Does it matter that he continues to get advice from people involved in this critical aspect of the crisis.
• Does it matter that Obama insists that he is going to cut spending and taxes when everything we know about a Democratic controlled congress and Obama’s record indicates this is highly unlikely in the extreme?
• Does it matter that Obama’s higher marginal tax rates will hurt economic growth when we need it the most?
• Does it matter that Obama misrepresents McCain’s health care plan constantly to confuse and frighten voters?
• Does it matter that Obama’s foreign policy explanations are incoherent and contradictory? (His constantly changing stance on the surge, we should have intervened in Darfur but should have left Iraq immediately, Bush missed capturing Osama Bin Laden by invading Iraq even thought Bin Ladin escaped before the Iraq invasion, Does he want to meet with rogue leaders without precondition or not, etc.)
• Does it matter that Obama’s chief policy making attempts in areas like education and public housing have been spectacular failures?
• Does it matter that the man preaching Hope and Change has no record of reforming a thing in the corruption filled world of Chicago politics but in fact was buddies with a host of questionable charcters like Rev. Wright, Bill Ayers, Tony Rezko, etc.?

On and on the list goes. The fact of the matter is that Obama is highly skilled at seeming like a competent and articulate young politician when in fact he is in fact a rather inexperienced run of the mill leftist.

Like him or not, John McCain has accomplished things in Washington. All Obama has accomplished is getting elected and becoming famous. But when personality is king, Obama wins.

I am becoming cynical about voters ability, or desire, to see beyond Obama’s cool demeanor and McCain’s age and party affiliation. They blame Bush for everything and so seem content to elect Obama because he has a calm and cool temperament.

If they are not to regret their choice, people need to ask: do facts matter?

I think we can definitively put the “he was just some guy in my neighborhood explanation” behind us. Noted racist right wing organization CNN has a report on the relationship between Obama and William Ayers and they found “the relationship between Obama and Ayers went much deeper, ran much longer, and was much more political than Obama said.” Here is the video:

For the details on Ayers and Obama see the indispensable Stanley Kurtz here and here and here.