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MONDAY, AUGUST 16, 2010

GATES TO GO? – AT 7:09 P.M. ET:  Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, a holdover from the Bush administration, and one of the few Obama cabinet members to enjoy bipartisan support, is suggesting that he will be gone next year.  From The Politico:

When will Robert Gates go — one of Washington’s favorite parlor games — swung back in action Monday, when the defense secretary was quoted saying he plans to quit sometime next year.

Gates has cultivated the mystery by playing up just how much he wants to retire, but he told Foreign Policy this week he wants to leave office in 2011. “I think that it would be a mistake to wait until January 2012,” he said...

...Aides said he has long wanted to leave D.C. and return to Washington state, where he will most likely write a book and plan his next move, but he also enjoys the influence and respect he commands in Congress and inside the executive branch.

The Foreign Policy article is accurate, said Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon’s press secretary, but he said it doesn’t necessarily mean the secretary is leaving next year.

“This is not Bob Gates announcing his retirement,” Morrell told POLITICO. In fact, he said, every time Gates has planned his own retirement; he’s been called back into service.

COMMENT:  Stay, Bobby, stay! 

No, Gates is not indispensable.  In fact, there's a French saying, wrongly attributed to DeGaulle and maybe even wrongly attributed to Clemenceu, that the graveyards of the world are filled with indispensable men.  But Gates's presence is important because it prevents Obama from appointing a new secretary of defense, with the real possibility that he'd go with a major-league clunker like former Republican Senator (and turncoat Republican) Chuck Hagel.  It was recently reported, without attribution, that Hagel had been offered the post of national intelligence director, but had turned it down.  Maybe Chuck is looking for bigger fish.

Maintaining Gates guards against another Obama nutbag appointment.  And at least we know Gates is on the American side.

August 16, 2010      Permalink

REID OPPOSES MOSQUE – AT 6:18 P.M. ET:  In a serious blow to President Obama, his own Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, has come out against the mosque at Ground Zero.

In a statement issued by his spokesman, Jim Manley, Reid came out against the building of the Islamic center.

"The First Amendment protects freedom of religion," Manley wrote in an e-mail. "Senator Reid respects that, but thinks that the mosque should be built someplace else."

According to Fox News, other Democrats privately fear that this can lead to a wave of defections on the issue.  Obama's support is coming primarily from the chattering classes, who know that opposing the mosque may affect party invitations in Manhattan and Georgetown. 

The president's support of the mosque obviously did not go down well with the great majority of Americans.  And his arrogant, self-righteous tone didn't help. 

By the way, there is a new story out from Haaretz, a leftist Israeli newspaper, saying that the mosque project will soon be history:

Sources in New York said on Monday that Muslim religious and business leaders will announce plans to abandon the project in the next few days.

New York Governor David Patterson said last weekend that Muslim leaders had rejected outright his proposal to swap the site in for another in Manhattan.

But several people familiar with the debate among New York's Islamic activists now claim that the leaders are convinced abandoning the site is preferable to unleashing a wave of bitterness towards Muslims.

They also hope the move will be seen as a show of sensitivity to families of the victims of the 9/11 attacks, and to the American public generally.

Sensitivity?  A little late, don't you think?

I can't confirm the accuracy of the Haaretz story, and there are no named sources cited.  If the story is true, we'll be relieved, but we'll also watch as the mosque planners are turned into martyrs by our own political left.

August 16, 2010      Permalink

REMEMBER WHEN THE JAPANESE WERE NINE FEET TALL? – AT 9:28 A.M. ET:  My, how the Emperor's subjects have fallen.  Japan has just lost its place as the second largest economy, yielding the distinction to China. 

TOKYO -- Japan lost its place as the world's No. 2 economy to China in the second quarter as receding global growth sapped momentum and stunted a shaky recovery.

Gross domestic product grew at an annualized rate of just 0.4 percent, the government said Monday, far below the annualized 4.4 percent expansion in the first quarter and adding to evidence the global recovery is facing strong headwinds.

The figures underscore China's emergence as an economic power that is changing everything from the global balance of military and financial power to how cars are designed. It is already the biggest exporter, auto buyer and steel producer, and its global influence is expanding.

China has been a major force behind the world's emergence from deep recession, delivering much-needed juice to the U.S., Japan and Europe. Tokyo's latest numbers, however, suggest that Chinese demand alone may not be enough for Japan or other economic giants.

"Japan is the canary in the goldmine because it depends very much on demand in Asia and China, and this demand is cooling quite a bit," said Martin Schulz, senior economist at Fujitsu Research Institute in Tokyo. "This is a warning sign for all major economies that just focusing on overseas demand won't be sufficient."

COMMENT:  For some reason, we just don't take the challenge of China seriously enough.  Its military is growing rapidly, and is a clear threat to American dominance of the Western Pacific.  It manufacturing sends huge numbers of electronic devices and other products to the U.S. each year.  And, bottom line, it holds much of the American national debt. 

At the same time, China is plagued with internal problems, including, as my friend Gordon Chang points out, a discontented population.  So China becomes one of those "on the one hand, on the other hand" cases.  On the one hand, it is growing in power.  On the other hand, that power can be compromised by internal rot. 

But the decline of Japan is remarkable.  How many books were on bestseller lists in the last few decades describing the Japanese economic miracle? 

There are no final winners.  There are only temporary gainers.  The U.S. is going through hard times right now, but don't underestimate the ingenuity of the American people.  The question is whether a statist administration will allow those people to breathe and dream.

August 16, 2010      Permalink

CORNYN PREDICTS – AT 8:49 A.M. ET:  Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas is one of the shrewdest political minds on the Hill, so his assessment of the GOP future in congressional races is worth considering:

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, predicted on Sunday that the GOP will make gains in November’s midterm elections but efforts to overtake Democrats may take two election cycles.

“If everything goes our way, I can see a pathway there,” Cornyn said on "Fox News Sunday." “Realistically, I think it’ll be a two-cycle effort.”

But Cornyn said Republican gains in the House and Senate will push President Barack Obama to take more centrist positions on issues after the election. He drew connections between this election and GOP gains in the 1990s during President Bill Clinton's administration.

“It can force President Obama to the middle as it did with President Clinton,” Cornyn said.

COMMENT:  Cornyn is probably right.  We can see a scenario where the GOP takes the House this November, but the Senate would require that almost everything go the Republicans' way.  Also, despite GOP leads at the moment, races tend to tighten as election day approaches.  And the Dems will be waging a fierce campaign.

But will Obama take a more centrist position if his party does poorly?  As Cornyn points out, that's what Clinton did after the Dems' 1994 debacle, and it helped him get reelected in 1996.  Obama, though, is a different personality – far more ideological and with a much stronger leftist pedigree.   In addition, the Democrats likely to get knocked off in November aren't the liberals, who often have safe seats in large urban areas, but the moderates, who are barely clinging to their seats in swing districts.  Liberals are not interested in compromise, and they may actually wind up stronger in the Democratic Party than they are now. 

There's also the intriguing question of whether Obama wants to run again in 2012.  People assume that he does, but he strikes me as a man who really doesn't like the job of president, although he enjoys the perks.  Big plane.  Great eats.  Nice trips.  If faced with an uphill struggle in 2012, he may well opt for early retirement.

It will be a battle for us all the way.  This year is an important way station.  It's 2012 that's the Emerald City.

August 16, 2010     Permalink

RUBIO RISING – AT 8:22 A.M. ET:  It has been tough recently for Marco Rubio, Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in Florida, and a terrific guy.  First, he ran for the GOP nomination against incumbent Republican Governor Charlie Crist.

When Crist realized he was far behind, he bolted the Republican Party and entered the race as an independent, turning the general election into a three-way contest between Rubio, Crist, and a Dem candidate as yet unchosen.  Some recent surveys have shown Crist, the poster boy for political opportunists, ahead, in part because he's picked up some Democratic support.  Crist is milking that support by going into high grovel, even supporting the Ground Zero mosque in New York.  Apparently, that will win him some liberal votes in south Florida.

But the tide may be turning.  Results of a recent poll are encouraging:

TAMPA - A new poll shows Marco Rubio slipping ahead of Gov. Charlie Crist in the U.S. Senate race for the first time.

It also suggests that Rep. Kendrick Meek of Miami is turning around his race against Palm Beach real estate investor Jeff Geene in the Democratic Senate primary, moving to a double-digit lead after trailing Greene by substantial margins for the last several weeks.

Meek is African-American, which plays a role here.

The poll also indicates that Crist, a no-party candidate, is heavily dependent on support from Democrats, and if Democratic voters move toward a nominee of their own party, Crist's support will erode.

Crist has long been unusually popular among Democratic voters -- black voters in particular -- for a lifelong Republican.

But the new poll results show he may have trouble hanging onto enough Democratic voters to make up for the loss of GOP support caused by his move away from the Republican Party.

The numbers:

• With Meek as the Democratic nominee, the poll shows Rubio, a Republican, leading a three-way race against Meek and Crist by a statistically significant margin -- Rubio 38 percent, Crist 33 percent, Meek 18 percent and 11 percent undecided.

• With Greene as the Democratic nominee, Crist remains in first place, but by a margin so narrow it's a statistical tie -- Crist 39 percent, Rubio 38 percent, Greene 12 percent and 11 percent undecided.

COMMENT:   With Meek as the Dem candidate, African-Americans will flood toward him.  If the whitish Greene gets the nod, blacks will give heavy support to Crist.

My hunch is that our guy Rubio will pull it out anyway.

August 16, 2010      Permalink

BULLETIN:  HAMAS ENDORSES MOSQUE AT GROUND ZERO – AT 7:56 A.M. ET:  Hamas has brought its huge moral authority down on the issue:

A leader of the Hamas terror group yesterday jumped into the emotional debate on the plan to construct a mosque near Ground Zero -- insisting Muslims "have to build" it there.

"We have to build everywhere," said Mahmoud al-Zahar, a co-founder of Hamas and the organization's chief on the Gaza Strip.

"In every area we have, [as] Muslim[s], we have to pray, and this mosque is the only site of prayer," he said on "Aaron Klein Investigative Radio" on WABC.

"We have to build the mosque, as you are allowed to build the church and Israelis are building their holy places."

Hamas, he added, "is representing the vast majority of the Arabic and Islamic world -- especially the Islamic side."

Well, I guess that settles it, doesn't it?  Oh, and get this:

Zahar said Muslims around the world, including those who live in this country, are united in a common cause.

"First of all, we have to address that we are different as people, as a nation, totally different," he said.

"We already are living under the tradition of Islam.

"Islam is controlling every source of our life as regard to marriage, divorce, our commercial relationships," Zahar said.

Let us state immediately our awareness that not all Muslims think that way, but that is a very chilling statement.  Next time Jimmah Carter tells us that we must treat Hamas with respect, remember those words.  Plenty of people, in the 1930s, thought we should treat Hitler with respect.  The outcome speaks for itself.

August 16, 2010     Permalink

SUNDAY,  AUGUST 15,  2010

BUT WILL OBAMA LISTEN? – AT 8:36 P.M. ET:  General David Petraeus is giving the nation some straight talk about the war in Afghanistan.  Americans can take straight talk.  The question is whether President Obama and the political class will listen:

KABUL -- In his first six weeks as the top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David H. Petraeus has seen insurgent attacks on coalition forces spike to record levels, violence metastasize to previously stable areas, and the country's president undercut anti-corruption units backed by Washington.

But after burrowing into operations here and traveling to the far reaches of this country, Petraeus has concluded that the U.S. strategy to win the nearly nine-year-old war is "fundamentally sound."

In a wide-ranging, hour-long interview with The Washington Post, he said he sees incipient signs of progress in parts of the volatile south, in new initiatives to create community defense forces and in nascent steps to reintegrate low-level insurgents who want to stop fighting.

With public support for the war slipping and a White House review of the war looming in December, Petraeus said he is pushing the forces under his command to proceed with alacrity. He remains supportive of President Obama's decision to begin withdrawing troops next July, but he said it is far too early to determine the size of the drawdown.

"We are doing everything we can to achieve progress as rapidly as we can without rushing to failure," Petraeus said in his wood-paneled office at the NATO headquarters in Kabul. "We're keenly aware that this has been ongoing for approaching nine years. We fully appreciate the impatience in some quarters."

But he warned against expecting quick results in a campaign that involves building Afghan government and security institutions from scratch, and convincing people to cast their lot with coalition forces after years of broken promises -- all in the face of Taliban intimidation and attacks.

"It's a gradual effort. It's a deliberate effort," he said. "There's no hill to take and flag to plant and proclamation of victory. Rather it's just hard work."

COMMENT:  It's an extraordinarily difficult situation, and neither the Bush nor the Obama administration has handled it all that well.  My fear is that Obama is influenced by a certain class of people who don't really care whether we win or lose, as long as we withdraw on schedule and devote the saved funds to "social programs."  Obama is less than an inspiring commander.  He's a cynical commander, and I fear he doesn't really have the capacity to see this through to success.

August 15, 2010     Permalink

THE REVIEWS ARE IN – AT 8:02 P.M. ET:  We have commented occasionally on the many journalistic inadequacies of Christiane Amanpour, the former chief international correspondent for CNN, citizen of the world, possessor of a refined British accent, professional leftist, apologist for things Islamic, daughter of a guy named Mohammed, and painful bore to those of us who take journalism seriously.

In a recent blunder, one out of many, ABC News hired Amanpour to anchor its "This Week" program, once graced by David Brinkley, helmed for a time by George Stephanopoulos, and recently run by the fine Jake Tapper.  The result has been a complete disaster, as NewsBusters reports:

After manning the helm of ABC’s “This Week” last Sunday for the second time since her August 1 debut, longtime foreign correspondent Christiane Amanpour continues to receive decidedly negative reviews...

...Tom Shales, Washington Post style columnist, was one of the many mainstream critics who railed on her debut August 1 performance, calling her “miscast,” “shrill,” and “showy” — descriptions some have criticized as sexist. His sharpest critique, however, was the accusation that Amanpour meant to give her respects to the Taliban during the show’s “In Memoriam” segment. “Perhaps in keeping with the newly globalized program, the commendable ‘In Memoriam’ segment ended with a tribute not to American men and women who died in combat during the preceding week but rather, said Amanpour in her narration, in remembrance of ‘all of those who died in war’ in that period,” he wrote. “Did she mean to suggest that our mourning extend to members of the Taliban?”

Yeah, that's our Christiane, a real international "sophisticate," well above the peasantry and those American hicks who really think that enlarging freedom is a bit better than snuffing it out.  Such ordinary folk.

Viewer commentary after the first two shows that flooded message boards, Twitter, and Facebook, has been similarly negative. “I’ll have to find something else to watch on Sunday morning. I can’t stand to listen to the new host. I also want to know what happened to the ‘round table,’” wrote mlw777888 in the comment section on the show’s webpage. “The table that they have now is as lopsided as the opinions.”

Lopsided?  Is the peasant calling for balance?  What a demeaning concept.

Amanpour has no business being in that chair.  Tapper, who's earned his spurs as a tough, fair political reporter, was just fine.  But he isn't as hot among the wine-and-Brie crowd, which is what a lot of this casting is all about.

August 15, 2010      Permalink

THANKS, DOC.  I'LL RECOMMEND YOU TO MY FRIEND – AT 11:01 A.M. ET:  As you know, one of the murderers of PanAm 103, the flight bombed over Lockerbie, Scotland, with a loss of almost 200 Americans, and many more from other lands, was released by Scotland in 2009 on "compassionate" grounds.  The release came after a doctor had said the thug had only three months to live.  He's now been alive in Libya for a year.

There have been credible reports that the release was really about United Kingdom oil deals with Libya.  Now, the doctor who made the call is eating his medical words:

LONDON (AP) — A cancer expert who said Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi had only three months to live before his release from prison was quoted Sunday as saying he should have been more cautious about the prisoner's chances of survival.

Al-Megrahi was released on compassionate grounds from a Scottish prison in August 2009, and allowed to return home to Libya, where he continues to be treated for prostate cancer.

The Libyan is the only person to have been jailed over the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 above the small Scottish town of Lockerbie, which killed 259 people — mostly Americans — onboard and 11 more on the ground. He was convicted in 2001 and sentenced to serve a minimum of 27 years in a Scottish prison.

Al-Megrahi was freed by Scotland's government following advice from medical experts and a prison doctor. At the time of his release, al-Megrahi was not expected to survive for more than three months.

Three other experts provided an opinion for the Libyan government on al-Megrahi's condition. While those assessments were shared with Scottish authorities, officials insist those opinions were not taken into account when deciding to release the bomber.

"If I could go back in time, I would have probably been more vague and tried to emphasize the statistical chances and not hard fact," Prof. Karol Sikora, one of the experts who provided an assessment for Libya, was quoted as telling Britain's Observer newspaper on Sunday.

COMMENT:  Quick, get this quack for Obamacare.  SEE all the savings resulting from Dr. Sikora rejecting claims because a patient, suffering from prickly heat, has only three months to live.  SEE Dr. Sikora honored as "diagnostician of the year" by the Obama White House.  Forget the green card.  Just send him over here.

Yuch.  I'd like to know how much pressure was applied to this doctor.

August 15, 2010      Permalink

THE PRESIDENT AND THE MOSQUE – AT 10:21 A.M. ET:  It's pretty clear that the White House didn't expect the backlash that's building over President Obama's endorsement Friday night of the mosque at Ground Zero.

Part of the backlash is honest, heartfelt opposition to the placement of the mosque itself.  But part of it, and this is very dangerous for the president, is a growing public anger at hearing the word "bigot" or "racist" applied to anyone who dares to disagree with the wisdom that comes down from the mouthpieces of the liberal establishment.  It is a modern-day McCarthyism, practiced to the hilt, perfected in the 60s, and now back in full force.

Michael Goodwin, the common-sense columnist for the New York Post, has a great take on the mosque issue.  He understands:

Thanks for nothing, Mr. President. Now we know how Arizona feels.

First Obama stood with the president of Mexico as he bashed Americans as bigots for exercising their right of democracy on illegal immigration.

Now he stands with the developers of a mega-mosque near Ground Zero that, outside of Mayor Bloomberg, few New Yorkers want.

As always, this self-described "citizen of the world" mounts his high horse to emphasize that we must prove to foreigners how decent we are. "This is America and our commitment to religious freedom must remain unshakeable," he declared.

But it is unshakeable, as proven by the hundreds if not thousands of mosques in America, including many in the New York region. And it's worth noting that Obama made his announcement to Muslims marking Ramadan at the White House -- hardly a sign of religious oppression.

Yeah, well said.  We will be spending a good part of this afternoon trying to find a church or synagogue in Saudi Arabia, to whose king our president bowed down in Mr. Obama's first year in office.

At first, the White House said that Mr. Obama wouldn't get involved in the mosque controversy.

All that changed on a Friday night, without public warning, showing bad faith and bad manners. Then again, both are a habit with this president, which is why the nation has soured on him so quickly.

The more we found out, the less we liked.  We would have come to that conclusion earlier, but an in-the-tank press covered for Obama during the 2008 campaign.

One thing is certain: the mosque will now be a hot issue in the midterm elections and a litmus test for candidates across the country. It would serve Obama right if he loses his House and Senate majorities over his support.

Even New York Democrats are pulling away from Obama, and this is one of the bluest of the blue states.  Tells you something.

August 15, 2010       Permalink

INDIES TURN ON OBAMA – AT 9:57 A.M. ET:  A new AP poll confirms the shift of independents away from Obama and the Democratic Party:

WASHINGTON — Independents who embraced President Barack Obama's call for change in 2008 are ready for a shift again, and that's worrisome news for Democrats.

Only 32 percent of those citing no allegiance to either major party say they want Democrats to keep control of Congress in this November's elections, according to combined results of recent Associated Press-GfK polls. That's way down from the 52 percent of independents who backed Obama over Republican Sen. John McCain two years ago, and the 49 percent to 41 percent edge by which they preferred Democratic candidates for the House in that election, according to exit polls of voters.

Independents voice especially strong concerns about the economy, with 9 in 10 calling it a top problem and no other issue coming close, the analysis of the AP-GfK polls shows. While Democrats and Republicans rank the economy the No. 1 problem in similar numbers, they are nearly as worried about their No. 2 issues, health care for Democrats and terrorism for Republicans.

Ominously for Democrats, independents trust Republicans more on the economy by a modest but telling 42 percent to 36 percent. That's bad news for the party that controls the White House and Congress at a time of near 10 percent unemployment and the slow economic recovery.

"People are just struggling, they need a job but there's nowhere to get a job," said independent Leilani Buxman, 55, of Greeley, Colo. Of Obama, she said, "It seems like he talks but he doesn't do anything about it."

COMMENT:  We're halfway through August.  The election campaign begins in earnest in two and a half weeks.  We'll then have two months until election day – the most critical two months in a midterm campaign in our lifetime. 

We are awaiting a Republican statement of principles, due from the congressional leadership.  That's a good first step.  After that, the GOP must be prepared to counter what will undoubtedly be a stunning fear campaign.

It can be done.  I look forward to the time, three months from now, when we celebrate a famous victory...assuming we earn it.

August 15, 2010     Permalink