Degree of Madness

Sen. Tom Harkin: McCain "trapped" in worldview shaped by the military

Democratic Senator Tom Harkin:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain's family background as the son and grandson of admirals has given him a worldview shaped by the military, "and he has a hard time thinking beyond that," Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Ia., said Friday.

"I think he's trapped in that," Harkin said in a conference call with Iowa reporters. "Everything is looked at from his life experiences, from always having been in the military, and I think that can be pretty dangerous."

Harkin said that "it's one thing to have been drafted and served, but another thing when you come from generations of military people and that's just how you're steeped, how you've learned, how you've grown up."

So a family tradition of serving one's country is a bad thing? 

He said that "I just want to be very clear there's nothing wrong with a career in the military" and that he has friends who are generals and admirals who have served the country well.

I'm glad he cleared that up, sort of:

"But now McCain is running for a higher office. He's running for commander in chief, and our Constitution says that should be a civilian," Harkin said. "And in some ways, I think it would be nice if that commander in chief had some military background, but I don't know if they need a whole lot."

Mark Steyn:

Oh, okay. So it's great if you were in combat for a couple of months like Senator Kerry but if you make a whole big career deal of this military thing, that's just way over the top

John at Power Line:

For what it's worth, it's hardly correct to say that McCain has "always...been in the military;" he retired from the Navy 27 years ago.

For what it's worth, I think Harkin is the one who's trapped.  In a worldview of incoherence.

Barack Obama, whining for votes

Why, do you suppose, Barack Obama is so far behind Hillary Clinton in Kentucky?  Could it have anything to do with this?  Or this?  Is he too liberal?  Maybe it has something to do with this.  If not, this could be the answer.  Or maybe it's Fox News:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, facing a likely defeat in next Tuesday's primary election, won't travel to Kentucky before the voting, but said he hopes to have much more time to win over Kentucky voters before the November general election.             

He also blamed Fox News for disseminating "rumors" about him and said that that and e-mails filled with misinformation that have been "systematically" dispersed have hurt him in Kentucky.

I guess it hasn't occurred to Obama that he is running for President and should expect that not everyone is going to vote for him.  Not everyone is going to agree with him.  Blaming e-mails and Fox News is one more example of Obama's increasingly irritating habit of whining in public.  It's not a very attractive trait. 

Obama also believes one of the problems is that folks in Kentucky just don't know him:

Obama conceded that he has a steep challenge to get his message and background to voters in states such as Kentucky — where he trails Sen. Hillary Clinton by 27 points, according to a poll published earlier this week — and West Virginia, where voters chose Clinton over Obama by 40 points on Tuesday.

"What it says is that I'm not very well known in that part of the country," Obama said. "Sen. Clinton, I think, is much better known, coming from a nearby state of Arkansas. So it's not surprising that she would have an advantage in some of those states in the middle."

Wrong again.  This has been a very long campaign for the Democratic nomination.  The longer it goes on the more we learn about the Senator and his background.  A background he really doesn't want to talk about.  Obama has declared that questions about his background are "distractions".  The only thing we need to know about him is that he's all for hope and change.  Unfortunately for Obama, not everyone is hopeless.  And all change means is "something different", not necessarily something better.

Obama's claims against Fox noticeably lack any specific examples:

“And there are a lot of voters who get their news from Fox News. Fox has been pumping up rumors about my religious beliefs or my patriotism or what have you since the beginning of the campaign.”

Obama sounds petty and spiteful.  And not at all Presidential.

Jill Simpson goes to Washington

John H. Hinderaker continues to do the heavy lifting on the Jill Simpson story.  From his Weekly Standard column:

Jill Simpson is an unusual woman. A lawyer, she has scratched out an uncertain living in DeKalb County, Alabama. Fellow DeKalb County lawyers describe her as "a very strange person" who "lives in her own world." The daughter of rabid Democrats, she has rarely if ever been known to participate in politics as even a low-level volunteer. Yet today, she is a minor celebrity who is unvaryingly described in the press as a "Republican operative." Those who know her in DeKalb County scoff at the idea that she is a Republican at all.

...Jill Simpson, who barely got by in Alabama, is now toasted by the national Democratic party and featured on network and cable news. All this because she has testified--without a shred of supporting evidence--to a conspiracy so vast as to be not just implausible, but ridiculous.

Simpson claims to have participated in a phone conversation with several Alabama Republicans in which she was made privy to a plot involving the Republican governor of Alabama, Bob Riley, a former justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, a federal judge, two United States attorneys, several assistant United States attorneys, the Air Force, and, apparently 12 jurors, to "railroad" former governor Don Siegelman into his 2006 conviction for bribery and mail fraud...

And a final conspirator: Karl Rove, who, according to Simpson, orchestrated the plot against Siegelman.

This woman's story is so full of holes you could drive an eighteen wheeler through it.  So what?  Who needs facts when you can nail Karl Rove.  House Democrats, 60 Minutes and MSNBC's Don Abrams (who seems to have gone completely off the deep end on this story) are determined to give her the credibility she's never had in Alabama.  How's this for objective journalistic principles...from Abrams' webpage at MSNBC where he links to the stories he's done on the Simpson/Siegelman story:

Bush League Justice
A look at how the Bush Administration has politicized the Justice Department.

No forgone conclusions there. 

As Hinderaker points out, Simpson has offered no evidence whatsoever for her claims, the most outlandish being she was hired by Karl Rove to spy on Siegelman, to try and photograph him "in a compromising sexual position" with one of his aides.  This whole elaborate conspiracy concocted by Simpson is bordering on the insane.  In the extremely unlikely event any of it turns out to be true, truth would indeed be stranger than fiction.

From John Hinderaker's March 1, 2008, post at Power Line: 

Actually, every single person whose name Simpson invokes as she spins her stories says that she is either lying or deluded. Even Don Siegelman. Simpson says that she signed her affidavit after repeated urging by Siegelman, whom she spoke with several times on the telephone. Untrue, says Siegelman. As the Justice Department wrote in a letter to John Conyers' Judiciary Committee:

The alleged conversation described by Ms. Simpson has been denied by all of the alleged participants except Ms. Simpson. Indeed, even Mr. Siegelman states that Ms. Simpson's affidavit is false as it relates to him. Moreover, according to Ms. Simpson, she met with Mr. Siegelman and his co-defendant Richard Scrushy for several months before signing the statement at their urging. She also claims to have provided legal advice to them. She contends she drafted but did not sign a motion filed by Mr. Scrushy seeking to have the federal judge removed from the case.

Sometimes denial is just a river in Egypt.

There is a bit of good news, according to Hinderaker's column Jill Simpson is leaving Alabama, heading for the suburbs of Washington, D.C.  Good move on her part, plenty of targets there for her "lunatic" conspiracies, all in one place.

Scott Johnson writes about the conspiracy in today's Power Line here.

Dogpile salutes our troops

Screenshot from today's Dogpile Homepage.  "All the best search engines piled into one"

via Instapundit

Huckabee for VP? Maybe not...

Just a few days ago it was reported that Mike Huckabee was on John McCain's short list for a running mate.  Maybe he was, but after today, maybe not anymore.  Speaking before the National Rifle Association convention, reacting to a noise offstage, Huckabee's well deserved reputation for humor failed him.  Big time:

During a speech before the National Rifle Association convention Friday afternoon in Louisville, Kentucky, former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee — who has endorsed presumptive GOP nominee John McCain — joked that an unexpected offstage noise was Democrat Barack Obama looking to avoid a gunman.

“That was Barack Obama, he just tripped off a chair, he’s getting ready to speak,” said the former Arkansas governor, to audience laughter. “Somebody aimed a gun at him and he dove for the floor.”

The "audience laughter" came before the gun remark.  Allahpundit has the video:

It comes at around the halfway point.  The silence is excruciating.

And the silence from the McCain campaign might be just as excruciating for Huckabee.  I think the short list just got shorter.

*** Update 9:55 PM CT***

Mike Huckabee apologizes:

During my speech at the NRA a loud noise backstage, that sounded like a chair falling, distracted the crowd and interrupted my speech. I made an off hand remark that was in no way intended to offend or disparage Sen. Obama.I apologize that my comments were offensive, that was never my intention.

Would someone please kiss Barack's boo boo?

The whining is getting on my nerves. 

For the record.  Here's what the President said:

"Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is –- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

Barack Obama, obviously assuming that everything spoken must be about him:

"After almost eight years, I did not think I could be surprised by almost anything George Bush says," Obama told a crowd at a campaign event in Watertown, South Dakota, Friday, "He accused me and other Democrats of wanting to negotiate with terrorists and said we were appeasers no different than people who appeased the Nazis before World War II."

Did the President say that?  No.  But Obama, obviously recognizing himself in the statement, threw a hissy fit (along with various other Democrats).  Apparently Obama is trying to distance himself from...himself:

Obama said President Bush and John McCain have a lot to answer for.  So do you, Senator.  Unfortunately anytime someone asks you a question you don't like you grab your blankee and cry NO FAIR. 

Obama has thrown down the gauntlet:

In a press conference following his town hall meeting in South Dakota, Obama continued on the offensive, insisting there is "no separation" between Bush and McCain and repeating the challenge that he would meet McCain "anywhere, anytime" for a debate on foreign policy.

How about meeting at the flagpole after school?  I'm sure McCain is shaking in his boots.

Speaking of John McCain:

“It was remarkable to see Barack Obama’s hysterical diatribe in response to a speech in which his name wasn’t even mentioned,” said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds...

Hope, change, and hysteria we can believe in.

GOP 2.0

Doug Ross has a plan:

...The Republican brand has lost its way.  I believe that it's time for citizens to rise up and demand a new Republican Party!  I'm calling it GOP 2.0.  And I'm perfectly willing to throw out those "Republicans" who are stuck on stupid -- and are stuck in the GOP 1.0 world.

The Republican Party is in trouble and for good reason.  We need Comprehensive Party Reform.  Here's what "some of the smartest minds in Republican politics" came up with.  Fine, well and good.  Doug's plan cuts to the chase:

If Republicans would follow the GOP 2.0 plan, they probably wouldn't have to Beg for help, Burn the Bush, or Fan the fear.  They will, however, have to Get a clue and Cut the crap.

Tennessee Republicans welcome Michelle Obama

I don't think this message was approved by Barack Obama, who seems to think he's the decider when it comes to Republican campaign ads:

The Tennessee Republican Party welcomes Michelle Obama, wife of Barack Obama, to Nashville today, where she’s the guest of honor at a Tennessee Democratic Party fundraiser.

To welcome Mrs. Obama to Nashville and Tennessee, we asked a few Tennesseans to take a few moments to tell her what makes them proud of their country. Viewers will find their statements stand in stark contrast to two incidents in February when Mrs. Obama announced that for “the first time in my adult life” she was proud of America.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGjR81pFJI4&feature=related

And while Mrs. Obama has trouble being proud of the country where she earned degrees from Princeton University and Harvard Law School and then became a multi-millionaire, her husband makes statements that belittle average Americans’ response to the difficulties of life, including his recent statement that, in tough times, “it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

Tennessee talks back here.  Barack Obama talks back as well.  Michelle Obama is OFF LIMITS.  She can make any comment she pleases but Republicans better not quote her.  What's the matter Barack?  Not too proud of Michelle's campaign speeches?

Michelle Malkin:

On a more inspiring note, here’s a wonderful tribute to America’s finest that someone set to Taylor Hicks’ “Do I Make You Proud?”

I dedicate it to Mrs. Obama:

President Bush tells the truth

And Democrats can't handle it.  What the President said:

"Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," the President said to the country's legislative body, "We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is –- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

And the hit dog hollers, or as Confederate Yankee puts it "it's the bit dog that barks loudest.":

"It is sad that President Bush would use a speech to the Knesset on the 6Oth anniversary of Israel's independence to launch a false political attack. It is time to turn the page on eight years of policies that have strengthened Iran and failed to secure America or our ally Israel. Instead of tough talk and no action, we need to do what Kennedy, Nixon and Reagan did and use all elements of American power -- including tough, principled, and direct diplomacy - to pressure countries like Iran and Syria. George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists, and the President's extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel."

Never supported engagement with terrorists?  I guess it depends on the meaning of the word "engagement".

President Bush simply stated a fact.  Obama, instead of defending his own position, which is on the record, is outraged.  (Even though President Bush never mentioned Obama's name.  Curious Obama would get so worked up).  But the good news is that Obama is now agreeing with President Bush. 

Obama, sweetie, calm down.

More Dems who need to calm down:  Joe Biden, Harry Reid, John Kerry, and Richard J. Durbin.  (Keep in mind, President Bush said "some seem to believe").  Nancy Pelosi has also taken offense:

...said Thursday that Bush's remarks were "beneath the dignity of the office of the president and unworthy of our representation" at the celebration of Israel's 60th anniversary.

Maybe the President should have just gone to Syria instead.  Pelosi's little message of peace has worked out so well, peace is just breaking out all over.  How dignified.  Will Bunch says the President has committed treason:

President Bush went on foreign soil today, and committed what I consider an act of political treason: Comparing the candidate of the U.S. opposition party to appeasers of Nazi Germany -- in the very nation that was carved out from the horrific calamity of the Holocaust. Bush's bizarre and beyond-appropriate detour into American presidential politics took place in the middle of what should have been an occasion for joy: A speech to Israeli's Knesset to honor that nation's 60th birthday.

Maybe I'll finish this post when I stop laughing. 

White Americans turning themselves inside out

Trying to justify not voting for Barack Obama.  Apparently white Americans must make excuses "for why they're not supporting" him.  Not that those "excuses" will be accepted.  After all, there can be only one excuse.  No racism in the presidential election?:

...some white Americans are turning themselves inside out to come up with excuses for why they're not supporting Obama. It seems like just yesterday that these folks were arguing there is no racism in the immigration debate, and now they're insisting there is no racism in the presidential election.

Who are "these folks"?  I guess he's talking about me.  I oppose illegal immigration and there's no way in hell I would vote for Barack Obama.  But he's wrong about one thing, I'm not turning myself inside out to come up with any excuses.  Obama is a far left liberal democrat and illegal immigration is illegal.  I'm not for either one.  Period.  Or maybe he's just talking about Democrats who won't vote for Obama, as if Hillary Clinton just came out of nowhere and a vote for her is necessarily a vote against Obama.  The reality is, it is Obama who came out of nowhere, he has not even served a full term in the Senate, and has spent most of that time running for President.  Maybe the more voters learn about Obama the more they realize he is too inexperienced, and if his "past" associations are any indication, too extreme, to be a viable candidate for President of the United States.  But what do I know?

Some want to know why it isn't racist when 70 percent of African-Americans vote for Obama but it is when 70 percent of whites vote against him.

The answer has to do with history. Over the decades, black Americans have had plenty of opportunities to vote for white people for president. And they have done so. But this is the first time that white Americans have a chance to vote for an African-American with a shot at the presidency. And what are they doing?

Answer?  Mr. Navarrette says:  Many are responding quite well.  In other words, those white Americans who do not support Obama are not responding quite well.  He seems to be saying that in order to prove one is not a racist one must vote for Obama:

Many are responding quite well. Obama won the votes of many, to borrow a phrase, "hardworking white Americans," in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and Wyoming. But, elsewhere, as Obama said in a recent interview, people may need to get their head around the concept of an African-American even seeking the presidency, let alone winning it.

Assuming Obama is the nominee, this is what we have to look forward to. 

By the way, this racist Conservative voted for Alan Keyes in the 1996 Republican primary.  So Mr. Navarrette, this white American had a chance to vote for an African-American and I did.  Instead of slandering voters who do not agree with your vision, maybe you should take a closer look at your candidate.  He is not presidential.  Not by a long shot.