SUNDAY,  NOVEMBER 1,  2009

NEW JERSEY LATEST - AT 8:38 P.M. ET:  The latest respected New Jersey poll that we have was taken Wednesday through Friday and shows GOP challenger Chris Christie with a one point lead over incumbent Democratic Governor Jon Corzine.  A third candidate, who, it is believed, takes votes from Christie, is at eight percent, and fading.

That one point lead means nothing.  The Dems control the election machinery in New Jersey, and don't be shocked if we find, after Tuesday's election, that more people voted in some precincts than lived there.

Obama was in the state today, and held a massive rally for Corzine in heavily African-American Newark.  The racial undertone was obvious in the themes on display:  This was something owed to the president.  This went beyond New Jersey.  They could have easily been chanting, "The whole world is watching."  At one point Obama urged voters to get their lazy uncles off the couch and to the polls.  If anyone else had said that, it would have been called racism.

It may work.  Dems have a history of pulling out elections in New Jersey.  But the fact that it is this close, requiring several presidential visits, and the fact that Virginia seems likely to go GOP on Tuesday, indicates that the age of Obama may have lasted 10 months.

November 1, 2009   Permalink
 

NICE TO KNOW - AT 6:28 P.M. ET:  The president's political adviser, David Axelrod, has been doing the talking today on Afghanistan policy, and I thought you'd like to know the state of the president's thinking on what Obama recently called a "war of necessity":

''We are going to deal with the government that is there,'' senior Obama adviser David Axelrod said. ''And obviously there are issues we need to discuss, such as reducing the high level of corruption. These are issues we'll take up with President Karzai.''

Axelrod said Obama would announce a war strategy ''within weeks.'' A senior U.S. official told The Associated Press that Obama has still not yet decided what to do, and it remains unclear whether he will decide before he goes to Asia on Nov. 11.

COMMENT:  How many months has Obama been in office?  It's going on ten.  He hasn't yet decided what to do?  But he was out campaigning for the disliked governor of New Jersey today.  And yesterday he was holding a Halloween party, with some of his advisers in costume.  One costume, worn by our UN ambassador, was the Disney character, Goofy.  Look, she wore it.  I'm just reporting.

Maybe we'll get a decision on Afghanistan soon.  In the meantime, enjoy all the White House entertainment.

November 1, 2009   Permalink

DISGRACEFUL - AT 4:39 P.M. ET:  I happen to believe that there is room for a reasonable variety of views in each of our two major parties.  Indeed, the genius of American politics is its practicality.  Unlike European parties, ours are not so ideologically based that a change of government produces convulsions. 

But there are limits.  We saw one limit reached today.  In New York's 23rd Congressional District, the focus of national attention, the official Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava, faced a challenge from Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman.  Hoffman, with the backing of prominent  national Republican leaders, overtook Scozzafava in the polls.  Scozzafava, ostensibly a Republican, actually is to the left of 46% of the Democratic members of the state assembly, where she sits.

Scozzafava dropped out yesterday.  It was expected that this would give Hoffman an easy win.  But today, Ms. Scozzafava endorsed the Democratic candidate, Bill Owens, in an act of disloyalty that should get her thrown out of any respectable party.  She could have remained silent.

Now the race is in turmoil.  If the Dem wins, with Scozzafava's endorsement, it will be a setback for conservative Republicans, who couldn't stomach Scozzafava's phoniness.  Scozzafava will then undoubtedly reap some rewards from the Democratic Party, maybe a job in the administration in Washington. 

Dems are gloating, pointing to the 23rd as evidence that the Republican Party is narrow, intolerant, and is purging moderates.  (Scozzavafa, of course, isn't a moderate, but a liberal, like former Senator Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, who's now become a Democrat.)  Of course, Dems probably won't want to discuss what they did to Joe Lieberman in Connecticut, who dared to stray from the liberal party line on national defense.  And, of course, they won't want to discuss the trashing of Hillary Clinton during the 2008 campaign - even calling her a racist - to advance the 1960s dream of Barack Obama.

We'll watch the 23rd on Tuesday night.  There will be fallout either way.

As for now, we must be tolerant, but within limits.  A party must stand for something. Ms. Scozzafava should be shown the door.

November 1, 2009   Permalink 

HOW MOVING - AT 2:18 P.M. ET:  Bill Clinton is also traveling, having renewed his American Express card.  From AP:

PRISTINA, Kosovo -- Thousands of ethnic Albanians braved low temperatures and a cold wind in Kosovo's capital Pristina to welcome former President Bill Clinton on Sunday as he attended the unveiling of an 11-foot (3.5-meter) statue of himself on a key boulevard that also bears his name.

Clinton is celebrated as a hero by Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority for launching NATO's bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999 that stopped the brutal Serb forces' crackdown on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians.

COMMMENT:  No picture of the statue is shown.  We are assuming it shows Clinton alone, and fully clothed. 

November 1, 2009   Permalink

THE TIMES OF INDIA MUST GET WITH THE PROGRAM - AT 10:35 A.M. ET:  It's pretty clear that reporters and editors of The Times of India don't know how to get invited to the proper parties in Georgetown and Manhattan.  Here, the nerve of them, they actually run a story favorable to former President George W. Bush:

NEW DELHI: Prime ministerial lunches are rarely fun affairs. People sort of get on with it, and then get on with their lives. Not on Friday.

Early in the day, former US president George Bush, on a pleasure trip to India, announced cheerily, “I’m off to have lunch with my old pal.”

He sauntered across to the home of his pal, one Manmohan Singh, who famously abandoned his starchy mien to declare this nation’s “deep love” for Bush, then stood stoically through the vicious jokes hurled at him. But for all those present at the “friendly” lunch this afternoon, Bush clearly reciprocated in full measure. The food wasn’t to die for but the conversation, declared one guest, was adequate compensation.

Colleagues reported that Singh was rarely as “chirpy” as he was on Friday afternoon. The conversation was light and sparkling, there was a lot of laughter and banter. So when Singh talked about how much he appreciated the huge gesture of the nuclear deal, Bush quipped, “Yeah, it was a big deal and to get it we had to break a bit of china.”

COMMENT:  Wait a second.  Just wait.  I thought President Bush was hated throughout the world.  I thought they throw shoes 'n stuff at him.  I thought none of these countries actually exist anymore because of BUSH (!!).  I thought...

Maybe I'm reading the wrong papers.  Maybe I'm reading papers.

Fact is, former President Bush is highly respected in many parts of the world - India, the world's largest democracy; Africa, where there are roads named for him; Eastern Europe, which appreciates his stalwart support; Japan; South Korea.  Unfortunately, these aren't the places dear to the hearts of the university and media left.  They much prefer the cafes of Europe and the socialist union halls of the UK. 

Bush, like Truman, will grow in stature.  But some historians and columnists may have to retire first.

November 1, 2009   Permalink

PRESIDENT SLIPPED IN OCTOBER RASMUSSEN POLL - AT 9:38 A.M. ET:  With October now past, Scott Rasmussen sums up the trends for the president during the month, and finds that Mr. Obama dipped a bit:

When tracking President Obama’s job approval on a daily basis, people sometimes get so caught up in the day-to-day fluctuations that they miss the bigger picture. To look at the longer-term trends, Rasmussen Reports compiles the numbers on a full-month basis.

The president’s ratings dipped slightly in October after stabilizing in September.

In October, for the third straight month, 39% Strongly Disapproved of the president’s performance. The number who Strongly Approved fell two percentage points to 29%, the president’s lowest full-month total to date. That leads to a Presidential Approval Index rating of -10, also a new low for Obama.

Also in October, the president’s total approval slipped a point to 48%. His total disapproval remained stable at 51%.

COMMENT:  There is really nothing encouraging on the horizon for the president.  The White House might mention the possible passage of health-care "reform," but that is so controversial that it's hard to see it helping Mr. Obama's cause.  He continues to dither in Afghanistan.  The only thing on time and working smoothly is Air Force One.

November 1, 2009    Permalink

THE GUY FROM IRAN'S MOUNT RUSHMORE SPEAKS - AT 9:16 A.M. ET:  The president of Iran is feeling mighty good these days, and why not?  He's rolling the West in the nuclear talks, giving up nothing while getting plenty of time to develop a nuclear bomb.  This is the fruit of Obama's "engagement" policy.  From AP:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday compared the power of Iran's enemies to a "mosquito," saying Iran now deals with the West over its nuclear activities from a position of power.

He rarely speaks the truth.  This is the rare time.

The comment from Ahmadinejad came as Iran is negotiating with the West over a UN-backed proposal to ship its uranium abroad for further enrichment.

And...

"While enemies have used all their capacities ... the Iranian nation is standing powerfully and they are like a mosquito," a government Web site quoted Ahmadinejad early Sunday as saying.

Ahmadinejad also said Iran doesn't trust the West when it sits for talks.

That's nice to know, now that the West has invested seven years in fruitless talks with the mullah menace.

"Given the negative record of Western powers, the Iranian government ... looks at the talks with no trust. But realities dictate to them to interact with the Iranian nation," he said according to the site.

COMMENT:  The Iranians have essentially turned down our latest offer, but there are indications yet of any punishment.  That has been the problem all along.  We're told, in a report based on an unnamed Washington source, that Obama wants to "play out" the talks.

Maybe the play should stop.  This is not a student government.

November 1, 2009   Permalink   

THE OUTRAGE CONTINUES - AT 8:54 A.M. ET:  A health update:  Earlier this year Scotland, with Britain's assent, released the Lockerbie bomber back to Libya on compassionate grounds, claiming he had only three months to live.  There was outrage at the time, especially from families of the victims of the bombing of PanAm 103 in 1988.  The outrage grew amidst reports that the "deal" involved commercial considerations.

A few weeks ago it was reported that the Lockerbie bomber had died.

Not so fast.

He is alive and well, and past the "three months to live" standard that Britain said it had applied when it agreed to the release. London's Telegraph reports:

The health of the Lockerbie bomber has "not deteriorated" since his release from prison three months ago – despite doctors' assessments that he would have died by now, a senior source has told The Sunday Telegraph.

Of course, he hasn't been subjected to Obamacare.

The disclosure will reignite the row over the release of Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds despite his conviction for the murder of 270 people when Pan Am flight 103 exploded in mid-air over Lockerbie in 1988.
Megrahi, who is suffering terminal prostate cancer, was sent home to Libya to die after medical experts concluded in a report on July 30 he had just three months left to live. The time span was crucial because only prisoners with three months or less to survive are eligible for release on compassionate grounds.

Within three weeks of the medical examination by Professor Karol Sikora, one of Britain's leading cancer specialists, Megrahi was put on a plane and sent home to Tripoli to die.

But three months on from Prof Sikora's diagnosis, Megrahi is well enough to "walk and talk" and shows no sign of deterioration, according to a senior source involved in his release.

Watch.  He'll next appear on "Libyan Idol," and win.

COMMENT:  The whole thing is a farce, and an act of appeasement.  We know where appeasement goes.  There should be a formal investigation in Britain.

November 1,  2009   Permalink

SATURDAY,  OCTOBER 31,  2009

THE LAST GREAT HOPE - AT 10:56 P.M. ET:  It's reported that President Obama is pulling out all stops for profoundly unpopular Governor Jon Corzine of New Jersey, whose head is on the chopping block in Tuesday's election.  The president will be back in the state campaigning for Corzine, and Corzine is expressing his passionate love for the president, as The New York Times lovingly reports:

NEWARK — In the final hours of this intensely fought campaign, supporters of Gov. Jon S. Corzine are knocking on doors here with a message for people who voted for Barack Obama: Your president needs you.

In an effort they are calling “Yes We Can 2.0,” Corzine campaign officials are devoting millions of dollars and thousands of volunteers to try to bring back to the polls those 442,000 New Jersey residents who had never voted before Mr. Obama’s election last November. They are flooding them with phone calls, mail and text messages, hoping to contact each of them at least eight times before Tuesday.

With the president significantly more popular than Mr. Corzine in New Jersey, the governor has lashed himself to Mr. Obama, and will appear beside him Sunday on the president’s third visit to the state to campaign on Mr. Corzine’s behalf.

Whether the first-time Obama voters turn out could make a crucial difference in this race, with most polls showing Mr. Corzine and his Republican opponent, Christopher J. Christie, still running neck and neck two days before the election.

COMMENT:  Let us translate the above into everyday English:  The story means either one of two things:  1) Late polls show Corzine has a good chance of winning, and Obama wants to be known as the man who came into the state and saved the governor, or 2) late polls show Corzine in trouble, and Obama wants to throw a Hail Mary pass to try to save him, knowing that governorship losses in both Virginia and New Jersey would be humiliating to the president, the titular head of his party.

I don't think there's a third possibility. 

There is an implied subtext to this contest, and it's race.  The close, passionate identification with the president sends a signal to New Jersey's large African-American population that it owes Obama the loyalty of turnout...so he won't be embarrassed on election day.  That's a powerful message.

My own guess, and it's only a semi-informed guess, is that Corzine will pull it out, primarily because there's a third candidate running who's draining votes from the Republican, Chris Christie.  Dems have a way of holding New Jersey, sometimes by the neck.  But we could be pleasantly surprised.

October 31, 2009   Permalink

THE ASSAULT ON FOX NEWS - AT 6:23 P.M. ET:  Strategic analyst Ralph Peters, writing in the New York Post, examines the administration's assault on Fox News, and finds it of a piece with leftist attacks on the press worldwide.  (Note:  The New York Post is owned by News Corporation, which also owns Fox News.):

The Obama administration's un-American attempt to vilify Fox News only increased the network's popularity. But this White House debacle can't be judged in isolation: There's a global left-wing assault on the freedom of information.

Intense leftist sentiment in most of the international media isn't enough. Extremists seek total control.

True.  And there are leftist journalists who would give up their freedoms if it meant their side wins.

The Obama administration's aborted Fox hunt simply aligned our government with the hounds of the global left. Our Constitution and common sense frustrated the White House apparatchiks -- but other leftist and radical regimes are crushing press freedoms, murdering dissenting journalists and turning the media into a state weapon.

In country after country where Obama's been tapping re-set buttons, the media are under assault:

Peters lists Russia, Venezuela, Argentina, Iran, and Egypt.  In each case, Peters says, "Obama looks away."

So the White House temper tantrum over the popularity of Fox News is perfectly understandable: It's just leftists being leftists. They fear that left-wing theories, long discredited in practice, will die like vampires if exposed to the light of day.

For decades, the left has "owned" our media (as well as our schools and universities). Even today, Fox News remains the single national voice of dissent in television. Every other broadcast or cable network that presents the news demonstrates a left-of-center bias, from the button-down liberalism of ABC through the soft-core activism of CNN to the screwball extremism of MSNBC.

If the left's vision for humanity is so superior, you'd think leftists could live with alternative views. But the left is totalitarian at heart and can no more tolerate debate than al Qaeda's fanatics can accept religious diversity.

COMMENT:  Very well said.  In addition to the left being totalitarian, it is also juvenile, representing an adolescent view of the world.  Ever try arguing with an adolescent?

While the attack on Fox has been condemned by many responsible journalists, others have remained silent, the better to be in with the in group. 

And we may not have seen the last of this kind of assault.  The FCC - Obama's FCC - may well have some ideas about talk radio down the line. 

And again, there is silence in the very precincts where we have a right to expect outrage - the universities, the law schools, the so-called "civil liberties" organizations.  There's a lot of mislabeling of groups going on.

October 31, 2009   Permalink

BIG TROUBLE IN RUG COUNTRY - AT 5:44 P.M. ET:  The main challenger in Afghanistan's runoff election for president is scheduled to pull out of the contest, throwing its legitimacy into confusion, and complicating American efforts:

KABUL — President Hamid Karzai's challenger plans to call for a boycott of next weekend's runoff election, hoping to force a delay until spring to allow time to organize a fair vote, his campaign manager said Saturday.

In the meantime, ex-Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah wants an interim government to run the country, Satar Murad told The Associated Press.

Abdullah has called a press conference for 10 a.m. Sunday to announce his final decision after Afghans and Westerners close to the challenger said he would withdraw from the second round scheduled for Nov. 7. His campaign manager said the candidate might still change his mind, but that "as of now" he planned to call for a boycott.

That decision came after Karzai rejected a series of Abdullah's demands, including removal of the top three election officials allegedly linked to widespread fraud in the Aug. 20 balloting.

At the same time, there is news that President Obama has asked for still more troop requirement studies from the Pentagon, hoping to whittle down General McChrystal's request to something, apparently, that the far left in Obama's party can live with.

Obama has now compromised McChrystal so much, and humiliated him so much, that it's hard to see any honorable way for McChrystal to stay on.  The president seems to be making Democratic Party decisions rather than national decisions.  We will not be safer for his effort, if there is any effort involved.

October 31, 2009    Permalink

BULLETIN - AT 11:53 A.M. ET:   There has been a remarkable development in the most closely watched off-year congressional election in the country.

In New York's 23rd Congressional District, the establishment Republican candidate, Dede Scozzafava, has suspended her campaign, meaning that the conservative vote on Tuesday won't be split.  NBC's Chuck Todd reports:

As first reported by the Watertown Daily Times, the Republican nominee in the New York 23rd Congressional special election, Dede Scozzafava, announced this morning she's suspending her campaign. Her exit leaves Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman, who had garnered plenty of national GOP support, as the favorite to win what was a hotly-contested 3-way race. Republicans had feared that Hoffman and Scozzafava would split the Republican vote in this somewhat competitive district and hand the seat to Democrat Bill Owens. Former Republican Congressman John McHugh resigned his seat earlier this year after he was named by Pres. Obama to be the Secretary of the Army.

COMMENT:  It's a moderate Republican district, but Scozzafava is left of moderate, which annoyed conservatives, who got behind Hoffman, in a revolt.  Assuming Hoffman brings in most of Scozzafava's vote, he'll win.

But the race may leave some bitterness within the party.  True, Scozzafava was hardly a model Republican candidate.  But many national Republicans, including Sarah Palin, stepped in to boost the Conservative Party alternative.  To what degree should national figures try to influence a local race, run by the local party, which knows the district?  This will be debated.

October 31, 2009   Permalink

MEANWHILE, IN DETROIT - AT 11:27 A.M. ET:  Did anyone notice that there was a major anti-terror raid in Detroit this week, in which a radical Islamic leader was killed?  Okay, so it's not American Idol, but it's something.

Reader Alan Bell has been keeping us up to date on the terror beat, and alerts us to this, from National Review Online, which points out that, while the group involved had not yet committed a terrorist act, the clock was ticking:

None of these people had committed a terrorist act yet, at least to our current knowledge, but people who believe in violent jihad against their fellow citizens and train in the use of firearms are just a small step from becoming terrorists. After all, the shariah law that they dreamed of imposing on the ummah that they fancied gives only three options to infidels: Convert to Islam, submit to Muslim rule and discrimination, or be killed.

And...

...the slain leader of this group, Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah, was a high official of the top national organization of African-American Muslims, the Muslim Alliance of North America (MANA), a group founded and led by radical Islamists such as the notorious Brooklyn imam Siraj Wahhaj.

The larger group to which Abdullah and his cohorts belonged and pledged allegiance, the “national community” of Imam Jamil al-Amin, a.k.a. H. Rap Brown, also enjoys an excellent standing in the American Muslim establishment, despite the inconvenient fact that the good imam is a convicted cop-killer serving a life sentence in a maximum-security prison in Colorado.

Yes, we remember H. Rap Brown from his Black Panther days.

It is this disturbing reality of an American Muslim establishment in charge of countless mosques, Islamic cultural centers, madrassas, and charity organizations dominated by radical Islamist ideology and funded by Saudi money that Washington — under both Bush and now Obama — has long refused to acknowledge or do anything about in a systematic way. Until that happens, homegrown terrorism is not a matter of if but of when.

COMMENT:  Correct.  But only when "when" occurs will the press start paying major attention.  And even then, a good chunk of journalists will use the event to explain the "root causes," right out of the sixties handbook.

October 31, 2009   Permalink

WHOOPS - AT 10:43 A.M. ET:  The Politico reported a few days ago that Sarah Palin was asking $100,000 for a political speech in Iowa, before the Iowa Family Policy Center.  Iowan feathers were mighty ruffled, as politicians who have presidential aspirations normally do Iowa for zip.  Chattering classes chattered that Palin wasn't running in 2012, or didn't know the rules.

But, as reader Tom Wharton alerts us, it may have been a $100,000 misunderstanding.  Newsweek's "The Gaggle" reports:

...did Palin actually ask the group to pay $100K for her appearance? An IFPC spokesman tells Martin he's "not personally aware" of a speaker's fee. "There may or may not be, I don't know," he tells Politico. For their part, the Palin camp tells NEWSWEEK there's no fee. Meg Stapleton, Palin's spokeswoman, tells your Gaggler that Palin "has not requested anything" and that she "does not charge people to campaign for them."

Besides...

"We don't believe she will be able to attend with her tightly scheduled book tour, and the group has been told that through formal and informal channels," Stapleton says in an e-mail this morning. "However, it appears that some enthusiastic members are willing to try anything to entice the governor as we look at her schedule."

COMMENT:  Our Sarah, no gouger is she.  I'm glad she didn't commit a political sin.

October 31, 2009   Permalink

WHAT STIMULUS? - AT 10:23 A.M. ET:  We were told that the president's stimulus package was heavy with public-works projects, the kind of things that employ construction workers and get the economy moving.

Not so fast, economic wizards.

Turns out the details are a bit different:

The best symbol of the $787 billion federal stimulus program turns out not to be a construction worker in a hard hat, but rather a classroom teacher saved from a layoff.

On Friday, the Obama administration released the most detailed information yet on the jobs created by the stimulus. Of the 640,239 jobs recipients claimed to have created or saved so far, officials said, more than half — 325,000 — were in education. Most were teachers’ jobs that states said were saved when stimulus money averted a need for layoffs.

Can you say "teachers unions"?  Go ahead, say it.

Although the stimulus was initially sold in large part as a public works program, only about 80,000 of the jobs that were claimed Friday were in construction.

We love teachers here, but I see more shenanigan than stimulus.  Schools can usually squeeze with a few fewer teachers, but if that road or bridge doesn't get built, it doesn't get built. 

There may be more hard-hat projects next year, but let's see.  Why do I think the money will go where Deem politicians want it to go?

October 31, 2009   Permalink

THREE DAYS TO GO - AT 10:08 A.M. ET:  Most interesting last-minute polling is in New Jersey, where the governorship race is a dead heat.  All late poll results are inside the margin of error. I still expect the disliked incumbent governor, Democrat Jon Corzine, to pull it out because it's a Dem state and the Dems control the election machinery, but, hey, you never know.  If the GOP guy, Chris Christie, can topple Corzine, they'll be preparing Molotov cocktails in the White House.

Also a dead-heat is New York's 23rd Congressional District, where it's now come down to a race between the Dem candidate, Bill Owens, and the Conservative Party candidate, Doug Hoffman.  The establishment GOP candidate, Dede Scozzafava, has fallen into an embarrassing third place in this normally Republican district.  If Hoffman surges to victory, he's a new right-wing hero.  If he splits the vote just enough for Dem Owens to win, he's a goat.

Virginia is safely GOP in the governor's column unless all GOP voters get the flu by Tuesday.

Mike Bloomberg is safe for a third term as mayor of New York, keeping the Dems out of power in this overwhelmingly Democratic city for 20 years.  There isn't a Democratic meter maid left in the city.  The ones now can actually read the meters.

October 31,  2009   Permalink