The OFlake

clipped from www.americanthinker.com Here's a young man who graduated from Columbia with high marks, with a choice of positions anywhere in the country. He comes from a state generally held to be a close match to Paradise. One, furthermore, that can be characterized as the most successful multiracial society in the world So where does he choose to go? To Chicago. One of the windiest, coldest, most brutal cities in the country. One that is also infinitely corrupt in a sense that Hawaii is not. One that remains one of the most racist large cities in the U.S. (Cicero, Al Capone's old stomping grounds, a suburb that is effectively part of the city, is completely segregated to this day.) It would be nice to learn which of these aspects most attracted young Obama to the city. But if you'd asked at the beginning of the campaign, you'd still be waiting. And what does he do when he reaches the city? Why, he joins a cult.

The Genius

clipped from hotair.com Many believe that Barack Obama chose Joe Biden for his running mate to address a profound weakness on foreign policy.  Power Line points out an example of the Biden prowess on foreign relations that first appeared in href="http://www.tnr.com/columnists/story.html?id=ba9b09bb-ed01-4582-b6ec-444834c9df73&k=93697">The New Republic’s profile of Biden from October 2001.  In a vignette at the end of the article, Biden ponders mightily over how the US should respond to 9/11: At the Tuesday-morning meeting with committee staffers, Biden launches into a stream-of-consciousness monologue about what his committee should be doing, before he finally admits the obvious: “I’m groping here.” Then he hits on an idea: America needs to show the Arab world that we’re not bent on its destruction. “Seems to me this would be a good time to send, no strings attached, a check for $200 million to Iran,” Biden declares. He surveys the table with raised eyebrows, a How do ya like that? look on his face.

Obama Bin Biden: The MBNA Fannie Bus

clipped from hotair.com How thoroughly did Barack Obama vet Joe Biden?  After months of demonizing lobbyists, Obama selected a running mate who has taken millions in contributions from those same lobbyists Obama supposedly eschewed, at least until the DNC started running out of money.  In fact, Biden’s son works as a lobbyist on Capitol Hill, accruing the kind of earmarks that Obama has both decried and pursued: Take a look at the top five industries that donate to Biden as well: Lawyers/law firms Real estate Retired Securities & investment Miscellaneous finance Real estate and miscellaneous finance — wouldn’t that figure into the credit crisis and the housing market collapse? It looks like Obama didn’t just throw Hope and Change under the bus, but himself right along with it.  Whether this is hypocrisy or incompetence, it’s stunning either way.

All Mouth, No Brain

clipped from blogs.abcnews.com "The White House isn't the place to learn how to deal with international crisis, the balance of power, war and peace, and the economic future of the next generation," said a TV ad for Sen. Joe Biden's 1988 presidential campaign.  "A President has got to know the territory, but that's not enough." Campaigning for president in New Hampshire in 1987, href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE4D91F3CF931A1575AC0A961948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print">Biden admitted he had misstated several facts about his resume after a man named Frank questioned his Syracuse Law School resume. ''I think I have a much higher I.Q. than you do," Biden responded. He added that he ''went to law school on a full academic scholarship - the only one in my class to have a full academic scholarship,'' adding that he ''ended up in the top half'' of his class (not true) and ''graduated with three degrees from college" (not true). Five months later, Biden acknowledged that he graduated 76th in a class of 85.

A good match for Obama in other words...

How Is O Just Like H?

clipped from hotair.com The Washington Post notes an odd coincidence between the University of Chicago Medical Center, where Michelle Obama worked as a vice-president until recently, and a major Barack Obama donor.  The UCMC, under Michelle’s supervision, granted a $650,000 contract to a local minority contractor for upgrading the center’s intranet.  In her 2006 report, Michelle listed only Blackwell Consulting in demonstrating how she had strengthened ties to the local community.  Robert Blackwell, however, turns out to be something more than just a lucky local: EKI claimed that Obama spent long hours perusing contracts and advising them on “compliance and human resources” issues.  Did they get $112,000 worth of advice in 16 months?

Why because hundred thousand dollar wads keep mysteriously landing on their doorsteps of course...

As I've said, at *best* he's Mayor Daley with lipstick and a Che T-shirt.

Is Obama An Idiot? Yes.

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com So our "charging into" Iraq--with dozens of allies, supported by a U.N. resolution, as a last resort after six months of build-up and negotiations, to unseat one of the cruelest dictators of modern times who had twice invaded neighboring states, was in violation of more than a dozen U.N. resolutions and was responsible for the deaths of something like two million people, who was shooting at American aircraft and had tried to assassinate a former President of the United States, in Obama's childish mind, was just like Russia's "charging into" Georgia, which resembles Saddam's Iraq in no respect. And, of course, we invaded a horrifying charnel-house so as to establish a democracy, whereas Russia invaded a peaceful democracy that it wants to re-incorporate into its empire.

Other Than That

clipped from campaignspot.nationalreview.com Speaking of opposing military action, I note that Obama said at Saddleback that opposing the war was the most gut-wrenching decision he's ever had to make, partially "because there were political consequences." Obama was a liberal Democratic state senator running in a Democratic primary against other liberal Democrats, when the base of the Democratic party staunchly and passionately opposed invading Iraq. MoveOn.org and every major liberal grassroots group was organizing and mobilizing opponents of the war. No Democrat suffered any serious political consequence for opposing the 1991 Persian Gulf War, and that well-executed war ended up being of no serious benefit to President George H. W. Bush. But other than that, I'm sure the political consequences were huge.

Thank You For Disabusing Me

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com Hugh Hewitt draws on David Freddoso's reportage to demonstrate the factitious quality of Obama's account: Obama cited McCain here as his cover for acting in a bipartisan or non-partisan fashion. The detailed account of this "teamwork" from David Freddoso's new book [The Case Against Barack Obama, pp. 97-99] puts the lie to Obama's account. In fact Obama approached McCain and "promised to work with him seriously on a bipartisan lobbying and ethics reform package," in February 2006. After some work "McCain thought they had an agreement." Freddoso then reprints the account of the Obama double-cross reported by Marc Ambinder, then working for the highly respect National Journal. Obama sent McCain a letter backing out of the effort.. McCain responded with a blistering rebuke. "I concluded your professed concern for the institution and the public interest was genuine and admirable," McCain responded. "[T]hank you for disabusing me of such notions."

Chutzpah.

Odacity Update

clipped from online.wsj.com Speaking before the Veterans of Foreign Wars this morning, Barack Obama delivered an amazing show of chutzpah. John McCain had addressed the VFW yesterday, and as the Associated Press reports, he was predictably critical of Obama: McCain . . . said Obama "tried to legislate failure" in the Iraq war and had put his ambition to be president above the interests of the United States. He said the Illinois senator did this by pushing for a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq In politics one often hears the charge of hypocrisy: My opponent criticizes me for X, but he has done Y, which is just as bad or worse. Obama's argument here, though, is roughly opposite in form. He concedes that McCain is above reproach on this particular subject and therefore demands that McCain treat him as if he were beyond reproach. Obama's acknowledgment of a McCain virtue is well and good, but it does not mitigate or excuse his own shortcoming.

Luddites (Part 6,386,724)

clipped from planetgore.nationalreview.com The WSJ has a great editorial today on the biggest obstacles to implementing green power: Democrats and environmentalists. An excerpt: In this year's great energy debate, Democrats describe a future when the U.S. finally embraces the anything-but-carbon avant-garde. It turns out, however, that when wind and solar power do start to come on line, they face a familiar obstacle: environmentalists and many Democrats. To wit, the greens are blocking the very transmission network needed for renewable electricity to move throughout the economy. The best sites for wind and solar energy happen to be in the sticks — in the desert Southwest where sunlight is most intense for longest, or the plains where the wind blows most often. To exploit this energy, utilities need to build transmission lines to connect their electricity to the places where consumers actually live. Arnold Schwarzenegger said recently. "They say that we want renewable energy, but we don't want you to put it anywhere."

Nevermind

clipped from campaignspot.nationalreview.com I and others had noted that Obama had been caught in a (charitable interpretation) misstatement or (less charitable interpretation) lie on voting against three Born Alive Protection bills in the state legislature. The National Right To Life went back and found one of them included the exact provision that Obama said he needed to vote yes; he called them liars Saturday night. Others and I thought Obama had to put up or shut up on a charge like that. A day later, his campaign explains... "eh, nevermind." He had other concerns at the time, that he never bothered to mention until now. Well, that clears things up.

A Lie Gets Halfway Around The World

clipped from www.lifenews.com Lake Forest, CA (LifeNews.com) -- During the presidential forum on Saturday night, pro-abortion presidential candidate Barack Obama repeated the erroneous claim that abortions have not declined under President Bush. The idea behind is the claim is to make it appear that pro-life policies don't reduce abortions. Yet that claim doesn't square with the latest national abortion numbers put forward by the Alan Guttmacher Institute, a research firm associated with Planned Parenthood, the abortion business that has endorsed Obama. "The claim is repeated by supporters of abortion rights as evidence that Bush's anti-abortion policies have backfired, or at least been ineffective," it added. "But the claim is untrue. In fact, according to the respected Alan Guttmacher Institute, a 20-year decline in abortion rates continued after Bush took office."

The Manchurian Candidate (Part 92355)

clipped from campaignspot.nationalreview.com Just to review, the public cannot get access to paperwork related grants distributed by then-state-legislator Obama (records from 1997 to 2000 aren't available); his state legislative office records (which he says may have been thrown out); he refuses to release a specific list of law clients, instead giving a list of all of his firm's clients, numbering several hundred each year; he won't release his application to the state bar (where critics wonder if he lied in responding to questions about parking tickets and past drug use); he’s never released any legal or billing records to verify that he only did a few hours of work for a nonprofit tied to convicted donor Rezko; and he's never released any medical records, just a one-page letter from his doctor. Now the University of Illinois at Chicago is denying Stanley Kurtz access to documents relating to the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a small foundation, founded and inspired by Bill Ayers, for which Obama served as board chairman.

Above His Pay Grade To Tell The Truth

clipped from hotair.com In this version, Obama finally acknowledges that the bill he shot down as committee chair had the neutrality clause, but now he voted against it because it would have had some deleterious effect on abortion law.  As the NRLC points out to Berman, that’s flat-out untrue.  The neutrality clause Obama now acknowledge existed in the law explicitly stated that the law had no intent on affecting abortions in which the fetus did not survive; that was the entire point of the neutrality clause.  Even without it, in the language of the original bill, the law clearlt stated that it only applied to infants born alive. So Obama lied, and in typical fashion for liars, lashed out at the people who exposed the lie before finally acknowledging it.  He told David Brody in his CBN interview taped Saturday that he found it “offensive” that people pushed him on this issue, and 24 hours later the campaign folded on the point.

ODu'oh

clipped from corner.nationalreview.com If he truly believes that knowing when life begins is "above [his] pay grade" wouldn't any even moderately sophisticated moral code demand that he then err on the side of caution in deciding when to end that potential life?

And Don't Forget Medicare

clipped from corner.nationalreview.com Bottom line: Obama takes the top marginal tax rate to a level it hasn't been at for more than 20 years, and for the trouble he fills 15 percent of Social Security's shortfall. If the program's problems are as trifling as Obama makes them out to be, why does he whiff on the solution? Biggs also has a nice answer to a bogus statistic: Sen. Obama says, "Social Security has lifted millions of seniors and their families out of poverty. Without it, nearly 50 percent of seniors would live below the poverty line." This is a common talking point, but let's be clear on what it means: if we forced people to pay Social Security taxes all their lives but didn't pay them any benefits, yes, nearly 50 percent of seniors would live below the poverty line. But this is a silly standard. If we were truly "without" Social Security, we would also be without Social Security taxes, which individuals could then save on their own for retirement.

Not More Than Wildly Extreme. Move Along Now.

clipped from article.nationalreview.com In 2001, Senator Barack Obama was the only member of the Illinois senate to speak against a bill that would have recognized premature abortion survivors as “persons.” The bill was in response to a Chicago-area hospital that was leaving such babies to die. Obama voted “present” on the bill after denouncing it. It passed the state Senate but died in a state house committee. In 2003, a similar bill came before Obama’s health committee. He voted against it. But this time, the legislation was slightly different. This latter version was identical to the federal Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which by then had already passed the U.S. Senate unanimously (with a hearty endorsement even from abortion advocate Sen. Barbara Boxer) and had been signed into law by President Bush. Obama is currently misleading people about what he voted against, specifically claiming that the bill he voted against in his committee lacked “neutrality” language on Roe v. Wade. The bill did contain this language.

The (Sadly) Irrelevant

clipped from www.nytimes.com As a Lebanese-Christian immigrant who spent her girlhood amid the bloody devastation of the Lebanese civil war, you have lately emerged as one of the most vehement critics of radical Islam in this country. Are you concerned that your new book, “They Must Be Stopped,” will feed animosity toward Muslims? I do not think I am feeding animosity. I am bringing an issue to light. I disapprove of any religion that calls for the killing of other people. If Christianity called for that, I would condemn it. What about all the moderate Muslims who represent our hope for the future? Why don’t you write about them? The moderate Muslims at this point are truly irrelevant. I grew up in the Paris of the Middle East, and because we refused to read the writing on the wall, we lost our country to Hezbollah and the radicals who are now controlling it.