October 10, 2008
PJB: Can McCain Still Win?
By Patrick J. Buchanan
Two weeks after the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn., John McCain and Sarah Palin were striding forward toward victory.
They had erased the eight-point lead Barack Obama had opened up in Denver and watched as one blue state after another moved into the toss-up category.
That is ancient history now.
Since mid-September, the stock market has cratered, losing half of the $8 trillion that has vanished since October 2007. All five of America’s great investment banks — Bear Sterns, Lehman Brothers, Merrill-Lynch, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley — have either ceased to be independent or ceased to be.
The nation’s largest savings and loan, Washington Mutual, and largest insurance company, AIG, have gone belly up, with the federal bailout of the latter costing $100 billion and counting. Perhaps $3 trillion of the $8 trillion in stock value that is gone disappeared after passage of the $700 billion federal bailout of Wall Street.
No bottom is in sight to the worst market crash since 1929. Recession is now certain. George W. Bush has fallen to 26 percent approval, a level unseen since Richard Nixon was driven from office in the Watergate summer of ‘74. Four in five think the nation is on the wrong course.
Yet, Obama has only a six-point lead in an averaging of national polls. While he has moved ahead in Ohio, Florida, North Carolina and Virginia, one senses America is not so much rallying to him as running away from a Republican brand that is now on the same shelf with Chinese baby formula.
Obama still has not closed the sale. He has overtaken McCain not because of any brilliant campaign he has conducted but because of the dreadful news pouring out of Wall Street. McCain and Palin are being dragged down by Dow Jones, not Barack Obama.
As of today, the country is not so much voting for Barack and the Democrats as it is preparing to vote against the Republicans.
Consider: The Congress, whose Democratic ranks the nation is getting ready to enlarge — the Congress led by Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid — has an approval rating half that of Bush.
Indeed, looking back on the Year of Barack, 2008, it is clear he has never closed the sale, either with the people or his own party.
After he came off the blocks with a startling triumph in Iowa and ran up a dozen straight primary and caucus victories in February, arrived the spring when Hillary, though Obama’s media auxiliary was ordering her to get out, defeated him in Texas, crushed him in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and humiliated him in West Virginia and Kentucky.
Each time the voters take a long second look at Barack, their positive first impressions seem to dissipate. Barack is a weak closer.
Herein lies McCain’s hope. The country wants change, but it has not concluded it wants Obama. But if John McCain cannot raise grave doubts about his agenda, his associates, his record, his character, his fitness to be president, Obama is going to win by default.
Obama has succeeded in the debates by playing defense. By his cool demeanor and persona, he has diminished apprehensions about an Obama presidency. There is no evidence of surging enthusiasm.
The Obama media are well aware of Obama’s Achilles’ heel, his great vulnerability, the doubts about him that still exist in the public mind. That is why they are near hysterical about Palin’s ripping of Obama for “palling around” with “domestic terrorists” like William Ayres, the 1960s and 1970s Weatherman radical who conspired to bomb the Capitol and Pentagon and was quoted the morning of 9-11 as saying he wished he had set off more bombs.
The mainstream media call this irrelevant, as it was so long ago.
Yet, can one imagine how the media would have reacted had they learned that a GOP presidential nominee was introduced to politics and worked in harness with a KKK bomber of black churches in the 1960s, who was quoted the morning of Oklahoma City as saying he wished he had planted more bombs?
As McCain is an establishment man on illegal aliens, NAFTA and Wall Street bailouts, uneasy with social issues like affirmative action and abortion, he lacks the full panoply of weapons that successful Republicans like Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Bush II used to win two terms. He seems to confine himself to the limited arsenal Gerald Ford, Bush 1 and Bob Dole employed when they went down to defeat.
This election is not over. Yet, even if McCain gets a bit of luck, a dead cat bounce on Wall Street, he must persuade the nation Obama is an unacceptable occupant of the White House if he is to win.
Palin appears ready to take the heat to make that case. But McCain seems ambivalent to the point of being bipolar on whether he wants to take responsibility for peeling the hide off Barack Obama.
Perhaps it comes down to what McCain really thinks about an Obama presidency, and how he wants to be remembered by history.
Tags: Bailouts, Barack Obama, Economy, John McCain, Sarah Palin
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NO!!! The rebublican party must be shaken to it’s core. They have not represented the majority of it’s base, as Pat calls them, the MAR’s for a very long time. He has been on the wrong side of the majority of issues killing this great country. As I watched him squeal like pig about pork barrell spending he did nothing to stop the pork filled wall street sellout. His actions in the failed amnesty bill in which his best boy, Lyndsey Graham, called all americans against the bill bigots on the steps of la raza(THE RACE). Don’t get me started on his unweilding support of nafta type trade deals. I really dislike the socialist Obama but the GOP desperatly needs a cold blue shower in november to wake them up.
I will vote independant!!!!
Well the election is over for me, I already voted for Chuck Baldwin.
I would have voted for a Buchanan/Paul ticket in a New York minute, but both of the major party candidates are way too far to the left to get my vote.
Anyone want to go fishing with me?
I know, you think that a Buchanan/Paul ticket would not have had any chance at success, but…I wonder. Given a choice between one of the two wild-eyed liberal candidates now running and a Buchanan or a Paul lead ticket, and you might be surprised how smart the American people are.
Lawrence S. Miller
That’s an excellent point, Pat. If McCain is willing to “peel the hide off Barack Obama,” as you put it, he might win. If he’s afraid to go all out, he won’t win. The question is whether McCain thinks that an Obama presidency would be worse than the possible outcomes of an anything-goes street fight. He may be worried about the reputation of the Republican Party, or he may be worried that he might incite one of his supporters to go too far.
Obama cannot close the deal - not because of his cool and collected demeanor or so-called “lack of experience” - but because of racism, plain and simple. Too many simply cannot imagine a person of color as president.
Who was it that did Ron Paul suggested voting for?
I love seeing you on the MSNBC shows. Maybe it is just me, but Chris Matthews is downright rude to you. I can barely contain myself when he is smirking during and after your comments. Most of the time, however, you are the only one on that show who makes any sense.
My few comments to your article.
The first is with everything in his favor, why isn’t Obama 25 points ahead? All the dynamics are in place for a 325 plus Democratic electoral vote. There is some underlying factor playing into this. It has to be more, in my opinion, than voter dishonesty and “social discomfort”.
The second factor is the Hillary factor. Time after time in the Primaries polls showed Obama with commanding leads in large states only to lose or for her to greatly close the gap in the few days before voting took place. I agree the “social discomfort” factor and Bradley Effect probably played a part. But, I am also of the opinion that Obama tends to cruise to the finish line and is not a closer. I think voters sense this weakness and want more strength from their leaders, especially their President. I also think many voters don’t make up their minds until the very end. They take a closer look at his record, his policies, and his experience and just don’t like what they see.
Yes, McCain can still win. All he needs to do at this point is connect blame for the economic meltdown to ACORN, the culture of Ayers, which includes the elite media, and Barrack Hussein Obama. ACORN was the pressure group that intimidated banks to make the toxic loans, and Obama was their attorney, champion and trainer.
The whole election process, at least the national elections, are rigged by the wealthy corporatists, and serve only as a distraction for we the people away from really important issues.
The corrupt and unconstitutiional monetary system that we operate under is not up for debate. Any talk about foreign policy lacks the discussion of its most important aspect: protectionism. Ron Paul and Chuck Baldwin included these issues in the forefront of their platforms.
Many people think it will be very bad if Obama wins over McCain. I think it will be very bad irregardless. At least with Baldwin as President, when the system implodes, it will have leadership to be reconstructed with the Constitutional integrity that our forefathers intended for the U.S.
I’m one of the many Republican’s who will no longer vote for the lesser of two evils. McCain has proven himself to be a globalist socialist with his most recent vote for the bail out along with his latest consideration for putting Al Gore in charge of a United Nations global warming initiative if elected, and is not a conservative no matter how much we want to believe he is. Too many Republicans now see this, hence his drop in the polls and recognize their thinking that he would be the better of two evils as counterproductive as a solution to our economic crisis. I think the solution is to flip the ticket or initiate a campaign to write in Sarah Palin for President that will sweep across this country like a fire storm. Extreme circumstances such as exist today require extreme measures. McCain will not win this election as too many American’s are looking for a new direction as the Communist Obama is promising. Sarah Palin has the conservative credentials and the popularity to win this election for the GOP and for America’s survival.
As people lose their homes and life savings, they couldn’t care less about Bill Ayers (or the KKK). I fear issues of character and judgment are no-sells at this point. Folks want “change,” i.e., they want to punish those who’ve most recently betrayed their trust, and that may well result in their electing others who will betray them even more. We’ve already seen this in the Democratic takeover of Congress. Such are the nature and consequence of reactive politics.
Pat’s right, this election is a referendum on the failure of “neo-conservatism,” not an endorsement of “welcome back to the 60’s” liberalism.
Pat needs to proclaim that we have passed the point where voting “lesser of two evils” will still produce a tolerable outcome. NOW is the time to vote for a Third Party candidate. The rationale is that the Diebold machines and corrupt elections process will decide whether John McBush or Barack O’Bush will win. Neither outcome is tolerable, therefore to try to vote “lesser of two evils” is truly throwing one’s vote away. Just contemplate what it would mean if Baldwin, Nader, and Moore collectively won 60% of the popular vote, leaving the two Establishment puppets to split the remaining 40% between them.
Have the courage to cast a vote for Chuck Baldwin, Ralph Nader, or Brian Moore! There are still voting districts that don’t use Diebold machines! I’d like to see voter groups spring up and commit to vote for a particular minor party presidential candidate. If a voter group commits to vote for Baldwin and the elections results don’t reflect the votes that they can prove via mutual contract, plus exit polling and statistically random votes, they could charge elections fraud and force a recount.
Common Pat, you know McNuts would be a total disaster as President. A total shill for the cabal and ZOG. Unfortunately the other guy is not much better…but better than McNuts! I agree with a previous comment that there is a lot of latent racism out there, alot of us whites cant see Obama as President simply because of his race.
Are we really fretting over Obama’s weakness? Isn’t weakness his seminal virtue? Most every point made on this thread is correct (Obama’s not a closer, it’s not pro-Obama sentiment driving the demographics, it’s anti-Republicanism…), but, instead of wringing our hands, we should shout for joy.
Let’s take a peek over the horizon: (but first, let’s preface the prognostication) the political climate of post 911 America was highly conducive to codifying any and all of these ‘value’ issues (especially abortion) the social right had, for at least twenty years prior, pushed and pleaded their leaders to take seriously and enact meaningful legislation. What did value-voters get for their political hegemony – both houses of Congress, the White House, the Supreme Court, most of the various state’s governor’s mansions, most of the various state’s legislatures…a clean sweep – well, they saw the uber-wealthy rewarded with ill-advised tax cuts, corporate welfare for those well-connected, abomination after abomination regarding our civil liberties, a feckless foreign policy, precipitous erosion of worker’s rights, improvident and illicit wars – basically, the implementation of a fascist agenda (big-business wed to big-government).
Now, to top it off, after the release of the NIST report, we KNOW that we don’t know the whole story relative to 911. So, in order for this nation to long endure, we desperately need to encourage the collapse of our prurient two-party political system. We need a weak and subordinated government; one terrified to cross the people they represent; one uniquely composed of full-time citizens and part-time legislators; one purged of this putrid political class; one that doesn’t elevate the narrow special-interest over and against the broad general-interest; presidents concerned with domestic issues rather than always affecting the Caesar-like potentate; specifically, a government that reflects the tenants of The Constitution.
We are so far divorced from any semblance of our original republic that I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to find our way home; but I do know that we’ll never even approach good-governance if we continue to put faith in the system that we have. The first step will be investigations; if John McCain is elected, we’ll only see investigations of ACORN and the like. If, however, Obama is elected, we – God willing – will finally get the congressional hearings we’ve been waiting for: where are the multiple TRILLIONS that have disappeared from our military budget? Are extra-judicial renditions and out-right torture permitted under this dubious ‘unitary executive’? Were American citizens spied upon without cause and without warrant? Of course, we need to uncover who’s responsible for 911 – we have, after all, fought two wars, spent trillions, and lost thousands of American boys. This is just an abbreviated list, the hearings will be legion.
Because the Democratic agenda is incapable of securing broad-based popular support (because they are disconnected with the American heartland), they – Democrats as we know them — will never be able to parlay Republican corruption into enduring majorities. Jim Webb doesn’t belong in that party, don’t kid yourself; I don’t belong there, but I’ll stay till another option emerges. And that’s the salient issue: what will emerge to replace the Republican Party? Something similar to the Bull Moose? The know-nothings? Libertarians? I don’t pretend to know; but I am certain it will be an improvement over what we have now.
In no way am I suggesting that there aren’t any honorable Republicans remaining; obviously, Ron Paul is a Republican, I’m proud of Dick Shelby’s recent courageous stand, and I could keep naming those who’ve had to forfeit chairmanships or special favors for daring to deviate from this wicked administration’s agenda. I’ll know where I belong when that yet unidentified party starts submitting bills to eradicate the Fed; when the middle class is supported with real political muscle instead of meaningless rhetoric as an election approaches; when ideology is shelved in deference to reality; when fear is not fomented and translated into tyranny…on and on and on.
So, bring on Obama; then make way for the velvet revolution. For if we do not get our velvet revolution, there WILL most certainly be another kind coming. In case the Federal government has forgotten, we are HEAVILY armed out here in fly-over country!
Don’t tread on me!
SG
i do not agree with a lot of Pat’s rhetoric on MSNBC, but I have to say that he is a lot more likable. i guess he is supporting McCain because he feels its the better of two evils.
Come on Pat. Bill Ayers has done a lot in recent years to improve the schools in Chicago. What he did 40 years ago is ancient history. Do you believe that no one is redeemable? What did Jesus say about forgiveness?
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2008/04/mayor_daley_defends_obama_vouc.html
McCain and Obama agree on too many issues; increase military, police the world, run up deficits, let the Fed run wild, allow mass immigration and move towards the new world order.
As you said earlier, McCain missed the opportunity to separate by allowing the market to liquidate bad and malevolent debt. He continues to disregard the wants of real conservatives.
The difference is that Obama has a larger “core of strength” than McCain. Maverick has no base.
Dear Mr. Buchanan,
I do not understand you. I get mixed signals from you. On one hand, I get the feeling that you do not like McCain and his policies. You post anti-McCain videos on your website… making one think, may be you want voters to look someone other than McCain. On the other hand, you sometimes (very few times) say good thing about Obama, while other times you bash him. Who exactly do you want your voters to vote for?
I keep hearing the “change” slogan from both major parties. Just watching the debates, I don’t see any real change from either one. I see more of the destructive wars, outsourcing of American jobs, deficit spending, and the same path to self-destruction of the USA. If you are sincere about change, then you must be referring to Chuck Baldwin, Ralph Nader, or some 3rd party candidate. You aren’t going to see any “change” otherwise.
Several things I think:
I think these suggestions of racism keeping Obama out are a joke. Of course some racism in America exists…but far weaker and less influiential than many pretend. Additionally Obama will be getting just as many race votes to have the first black/minority president as he’ll miss out on from people not liking his skin. It’s a wash, if not an advantage to him.
I think either candidate will take us in a terrible direction. McCain perhaps slightly less so, but I’m not even sure of that. Add in that no third party candidate has a shot, and I feel like my vote can’t do anything to help us or have educated conservation policies represented over the next 4 years.
I think the above suggestion that flipping the ticket and shooting for President Palin would be a disaster. She’s in over her head. Certainly a nice woman and holding many of the right values, but Washington has too many layers of decit and sweet talking lobbiests posing as economic/foriegn affairs/military/etc experts. They’d have the wool over her eyes in half the time it took to turn George W. into a drone. No, very few are equiped to fix the gov’t as it is and none of the 4 people on the top 2 tickets are on the short list.
I think…I..I think we’re screwed.
“Now! While their economy is vulnerable. Now is the time–soon. The first was just a metaphor. Soon we can destroy their economy completely. Oh the beauty of it. The beauty of their stupidity. It is a glory to watch while they sleepwalk to their deaths. Soon we will bury America up to its neck in fear, poverty, madness and sorrow.
But we must wait until after their election. If we strike before, it will help McCain.
The first was just a metaphor. Now!”
Breaking Obama News
US District Court Judge R. Barclay Surrick, the federal magistrate for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ruled Obama must produce original proof of citizenship by Oct. 15, 2008 by Order of the Court of Pennsylvania. Obama and the DNC are demanding a jury trial.
http://docs.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/pennsylvania/paedce/2:2008cv04083/281573/18/0.pdf
“BERG v. OBAMA et al” Docket Report
http://news.justia.com/cases/featured/pennsylvania/paedce/2:2008cv04083/281573/
* * *
We are screwed 7 ways to Sunday either way but here are some thoughts.
1. If you were running for President would you want to inherit this mess? Maybe this explains what I see as McCain’s lack of enthusiasm. Maybe Rush is right and he’ll have to be dragged across the finish line. Who real wants to inherit a depression, two wars, a monster debt, etc. Maybe he is now of the mind that it is such a mess that he’ll just let Obama have it. All Obama can really do is mess it up more.
2. Obama is the Kennedy front man. This is the second attempt by Kennedy to push the Clintons out of power and retake the Democratic Party. Kerry was the first and if you notice they always use a total radical like Obama or Kerry. The Kennedy’s are dangerous and so are their puppets.
3. I think the Obama supporters are really beginning to get under people’s skin with the trying to play the race card continuously. The have also employed Bullying and intimidation tactics on the Internet in an attempt to shut down free speech. Obama is dangerous and his supporters like NW have come on here and given us a preview of that. Demanding that free speech be shutdown if anyone disagrees with or does not like Obama. I think the tide may begin to shift as the Obamabots begin to get on peoples nerves. Here is an example of their intimidation so please take a look. http://governor.mo.gov/cgi-bin/coranto/viewnews.cgi?id=EkkkVFulkpOzXqGMaj&style=Default+News+Style&tmpl=newsitem
I guess the best we can hope for is that McCain dies in Office and Palin hasn’t lost who she is and we see some real conservatism in The White House once again. Remember the last time America had a real President? Ronald Reagan. Boy it’s sure been a long time. I really miss the gipper!
McCain or Obama would be disastrous for America
No McCain cannot win and why should he? His campaign has been pathetic for the simple reason the candidate is pathetic. Is your only requirement to vote for a moron like McCain that he is a member of the republician party? Pat, do you recall all the bad things McCain has said about you over the years? How can you vote for this guy? How can anyone vote for this guy? If Obama was a republician you would vote for him. What happened to the man of principle, Pat? I thought you left the republician party which is just what I am about to do. I will be back the next time I want incompetant, fake, dishonest, wastefull, idiots running the country.
I don’t think it can be emphasized enough how important it is than U.S. citizens rid themselves of the major two party mind set of Democrat or Republican. Claiming one party of the other is simply a laziness on the part of the citizens.
Over the last century, the federal government has grown to a monstrous size, and it hasn’t mattered whether Democrats or Republicans were in control. In that same time frame, both sides of the aisle have allowed the unconstitutional Federal Reserve Act to go unconstested, which has resulted in an aberration of laissez faire capitalism, turning it into predatory or monopoly capitalism, which has led in turn to Big Corpo buyout of politicians, so that we now have corporate fascism.
This oversized federal government bureaucracy is what the founders of the country tried to prevent. Leadership that will break this oversized, corrupt government, is available, but not from the ideology of Republican and Democrat two party politics. Honesty is solution for dishonesty. It will take the integrity of people like Ron Paul, Pat Buchanan, Chuck Baldwin, Michael Farris, Dennis Kucinich, and others of their ilk, to return this country back to prosperity.
caricature of a leader. A hero only to those that reflect the most desperate members of our society, those that hide bigotry and incompetence under the Christian/Patriotic dogma of “country first!”
How tragic that a War Hero is being called out by American’s as Rush Limbaugh’s puppet. And now we’ve got Americans calling him a coward and a fool. Sarah Palin, not who America needs in the current foxhole of economic disaster and destruction. She is a mascot, like the college football teams use to bring frenzy to the sidelines.
Get her a costume!
And now even old ladies are mad at Sensator McCain.
http://ashleysaddicts.blogspot.com/2008/10/dear-john-dear-barack-letter.html
This comment is for “sethgentry” :
That was one slick speech you just made, but you can’t kid me. You’re just another socialist for
Obama, and an Obama presidency would be the worst possible outcome of this election.
When both candidates promise change, who are you going to believe: the one who came out of left field or the one who has been firmly planted in the infield for the better part of 3 decades? McCain is a soporific speaker, a poor campaigner, and no one can understand his health insurance agenda. He also never uses the term “middle class” while Obama throws it around constantly. Once he bought in to this ridiculous bailout he signed his death warrant. I happen to agree with others on this board. If Obama does lose the election, it will probably be because a lot of whites simply cannot pull the lever for him.
The enemy within is the liberal media. It ran interference against Hillary and beat her by a hair, with time running out. If the truth about the black radical could have seeped out a few weeks earlier, Obama would have lost to Hillary. Now the media is running interference against Palin/McCain. Having wasted most of the next month, McCain must relate more of the truth about Obama. It is already seeping out, with 25 full days remaining. Its a horserace. The truth MUST find its way to more of the people, must find a way around and through NBC/CBS/ABC/Times/Post barrier. One way would be for McCain and Palin to permit themselves to be interviewed by the enemy and use the opportuunities to attack hard. The last debate is McCain’s last chance to get a substantive message through, but he must make every second count. This is the one venue the media can not silence, spin, lie or laugh off.
I believe in supporting what you believe in and John McCain has less passion for the job than did Bob Dole. His foriegn policy would not differ from O’bama and both will pursue the US world policeman meddling in the third world. Both are for big Government and Corporate Fascism. Both are Sold out to the system that got them in the spotlight.
Christianity would have vanished in the first century had the 12 apostles tried to ‘cut a deal’ with the Ruling systems of their time, ie Judaism and Rome.
John McCain has no message to offer, except that he will help us to lose a bit more slowly.
I’d rather work for Bob Barr and have an honorable program to endorse.
If you’re waiting for the Networks to give Bob Barr a fair hearing or the Republicrats who control the so called ‘debates’ don’t hold your breath.
Here is a good link to Bob Barr’s Website.
It is time for Americans to reject the sham Republicrat Soap Opera and get into the trenches.
http://www.bobbarr2008.com/
You cannot achieve victory by losing a bit more slowly.
The United States is now officially a socialist nation. And who would have thought that it would be George W. Bush who accomplished the deed? The only choice now is between Wall Street Socialism, wherein the taxpayers assume all the debts and all the risks and the usurers get to keep all the profits, or Real Socialism wherein the taxpayers still assume the risks and the debts but get to share in the profits in the form of social programs like universal healthcare. That’s the choice,folks. T.I.N.A., “there is no alternative” as the cocky capitalists of the dead and gone Reagan era used to say.
Forget 2008. Who’s running in 2012? Stop the world bailouts, I want to get off. Support change we can really rely on, support someone for American interests first.
No. But hopefully he can win back his integrity by muzzling Sarah Palin’s hatespeak. How a woman with no viable resume to lead, could erase 30 years of McCain’s service to country is truly a tragedy. Pat, please do not place yourself in the position any longer of defending her abilities to be Vice President. You can see the truth in your eyes!
McCain fell victim to his own party’s naivete regarding off-shoring.
Listening to clueless greed parrots like Graham, Fiona and Romney, he stood before the affected workers in Ohio and Pennsylvania and regurgitated the falsehoods that our trade policies are somehow ultimately good for us and that there is no way manufacturing jobs are coming back. Not only not the right message to win those states, but patently wrong in themselves.
McCain is the victim of his own lack of financial curiosity. Had he just questioned the outsource advocates and engaged them on their assumptions, he would have found that their arguments were more wishful thinking than hard fact.
Americans are highly productive and efficient design and automation can keep just about any job here – if given the chance to compete in a realistic trade competition.
It is obvious that McCain forgot (or never understood) Supply Side Economics. The basic premise is that you must FEED THE CONSUMER.
If you want milk from a cow, you must feed it. Investors have diverted their entire trickle down to Asia and told themselves that displaced American consumers would somehow find other jobs in the fairyland called the Service Economy and keep on buying – forever and ever-amen.
Well, Republicans, the Consumer didn’t find those great jobs. Their opportunities, pay and benefits were whittled away and they’ve run out of spending loot.
Feed the Cow John – that is the secret to fixing the economy – Feed the Cow.
The Dems are gonna run the table in November! I am an ex-Ron Paulie and am doing all I can to work for NADER right now. I will not vote for this loser McCain!
Vegas
Willis, I agree with what you said about McCain’s ignorance of economics, and there is no way either McCain or Obama will get my vote; but “supply side economics” is something no one needs to understand, because demand always comes first. The cows can be left to feed themselves.
…Hannibal ad portas.. three words which came to describe the awful fear as citizens stared down their mortal enemy at the gates of ancient Rome. If we could only be so lucky, at least they knew who their real enemy was.
We are entering the final chapter of this presidential race and it now feels like the outcome has already been decided. My friends and good citizens are struggling to keep a lid on their frustrations, helplessly watching an electoral process which many feel has devolved into a monumental con job. Beyond this, the world of nations is being ravaged by a financial tsunami of catastrophic proportions and I am compelled by the visceral sense that we are witness to history. This much now seems obvious; the rapid spiraling of world events is changing the implications of an Obama presidency.
As I listen to the chattering classes I am starting to hear an ominous drumbeat. The panic created by this financial meltdown is now increasingly overlaid with calls for “leadership” – meaning “global leadership” since so many nations are now implicated. For the first time in recent memory, we can now see the plausible path by which a sufficiently ambitious individual can assume that role. This is biblical and scary.
This scenario is simple: Into the breach steps the newly elected savior; a US president, a mesmerizing speaker, a complete unknown to most Americans and apparently beloved by the rest of the world which knows him even less.
In reality he is no longer such an unknown to many of us. Even if we disregard his links to outright subversives, his past and current association with left wing radical groups is becoming increasingly apparent- even as the major media tries desperately to dismiss all the evidence. Apparently, they have already taken sides since they are stubbornly refusing to do the due diligence which is their only true role in this contest.
The facts about this are incontrovertible. Barack Obama has, through his campaign and the foundations he controls, been a direct sponsor of organizations such as Acorn which have engaged in systematic voter registration fraud in all swing states. This fraud has been so blatant that even the most partisan democrat election officials have had to bring these violations to light and the Justice Department now has them under criminal investigation. The illegal activity in the swing states is telling and we need only follow this thread a short distance to confront the evidence. We cannot be shocked that such radical anti-american organizations exist, but the link to a presidential candidate is appalling indeed. A final question now remains; why is this entire matter not being called the conspiracy which it so obviously is.
Whether by design or by abysmally poor judgment, a candidate for president of the United States has helped fund and promote an organization involved in voter fraud - unbelievable. Is there any way to minimize this? I don’t think so. “One man one vote” is a cornerstone of our democracy and loss of faith in the electoral process poses an existential threat to our system. It’s quite simple really, if Obama does not get this then he is not fit for the job. Period.
Again, I have to ask, what reasons can a man have to engage in this? Beyond this, we also have to wonder; does he really believe that american voters are so stupid? The answer, and it pains to say, is that he may be right. Truly, the unfolding confluence of events sends a chill down my spine.
America, the America we have known is in great peril. We have never been weaker and the mood of the country is such that we seem willing to accept fundamental changes to our economic system-changes unthinkable even a fortnight ago. The pace of events is feeding on itself and demanding ever more government control with no end in sight. At this critical juncture, the prospect of an enemy within is terrifying. Who will look out for America? I fear that future generations will read this history and wonder how we lost our democracy while we had vast armies out campaigning throughout the world to advance that very cause.
it is probably also fair to say that obama has not run mccain’s campaign, which has also kept mccain’s numbers up.
obama does not mention mccain’s moonie/ex-nazi/white supremacist connection (remember when he was on the board of the “world anti-communist league”? http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/6173/wacl.txt)
obama does not run a campaign that harps on mccain’s either “immoral” or “fun loving” past (prostiutes and an ugly divorce).
there has been no suggestion from the obama campaign that 5 1/2 years of vietnamese brainwashing makes mccain a security risk (can you say “manchurian candidate”?).
i have heard you, mr. buchanan, suggest obama needs to run a more “fire breathing” campaign, or words similar–and i would suggest to you that his failure to run such a campaign is part of what’s keeping mccain’s numbers up.
personally, i admire obama for that choice…but in that choice there is a cost, and it may be easy poll numbers.
I recently heard Mr. Buchanan say on television that McCain and Palin have no responsibility for the truth or lack thereof of statements they make about Obama because it is up to the voter to decide whether such statements are true, and their significance. He cited particularly the governor’s reference to Obama “palling around” with William Ayers, a patent lie by any standard. But Mr. Buchanan thinks the Republican ticket can say anything they wish because the people will judge the veracity of such charges.
Applying the Buchanan Rule his (Mr. Buchanan’s) election opponents could have said that he had relations with barnyard animals. After all, his opposition would not have to make such allegations with any proof because it would be up to the electorate to judge their veracity. Or perhaps I misunderstand what the Buchanan Rule is. Can anyone clarify this?
I am quite sure he has not had improper relations with animals and I will continue to read his editorials and watch him commentate on television. He is often very interesting, though William F. Buckley he ain’t.
Phil M states Obama can not close the deal because of racism. I agree that Obama’s racism that is demonstrated by him going to Reverend Wright’s church for 20 years and the many racists passages from his first book, “Dreams from My Father” is costing Obama votes. Considering his rasists past, Obama doing so well in the poll speaks highly of the tolerance of the white population in America.
Can John McCain still win? This question is at the heart of the chattering media narrative as we enter the final weeks of this contest. You may be forgiven if you truly believe that they care.
Theirs is simply the fear of the winning team locked in a close game. This is the fourth quarter and these nervous fans cannot keep their eyes off the ticking clock; they know that up to the final second of the final play we are still but a touchdown away from the dreaded “game changer”. There is however one last play and John McCain would be well advised to use it. It is well worn, but useful precisely because it is well understood and because it now rings truer than ever. Before our very eyes, the democrats under Barack Obama are attempting to usurp the American Dream.
This argument could be made on so many levels but time is short. Voters are now focused on the economy and there has never been a better time to reassure Americans that the American Dream is alive and well. This is what they want, and what they desperately need to hear. Nothing is as important, and certainly nothing is as relevant.
Hard times may be upon us and now is when the programs of the left are having their greatest appeal. Citizens are being seduced by ever more generous policies of the welfare state, designed to bring some measure of help to the disadvantaged and the weary. Clearly we have reached the sad juncture where there is room for some of this, but the true cost, the essential counterbalance to this equation, is being kept under the table, well away from voters’ eyes. Yet this story needs to be told once again. There is no mystery here, we have seen the socialist scenario before and we know how it ends. Obama and his supporters are now giddy at the prospect this new America. “Change” may be at hand but it is most definitely not the change America needs. Meanwhile John McCain can spend the rest of this campaign in the tall grass of economic issues, arguing over the finer details of his health care plan, or the complex financial ramifications of the government bailout plan, while the electorate turns glassy-eyed and republicans march to defeat.
What matters now is Barack Obama’s vision for the United States. Sadly, in this contest John McCain’s vision is quite irrelevant; no one really wants to know, yet on this issue the contrast needs to be made, and McCain needs to make this case. He may just have had the help he needs.
As often happens when a mighty emperor descends among the multitudes, his humble subjects often ask the peskiest questions. Yesterday, the true nature of our emperor’s glittering vestments was questioned by a lowly plumber from the great state of Pennsylvania. Obama’s response could not have been more telling, and in a brief moment of naked candor, publicly exposed the audacity of his plan. The plumber’s idea of the American dream must have come crashing around his ears as he heard Obama condescendingly explain how his taxes would go up because he needed to “share the wealth”. This would be a non-story except that the plumber is an American citizen and he had it right about something Americans are instinctively privileged to understand.
It is after all the real dream of millions to aspire to greater things, and by hard work and effort, lift themselves up the ladder of success. Yet, what we heard was the death knell of this cherished American notion; the ladder, heretofore as tall as your dreams would now be capped at the whim of our government. Out of some ridiculously misguided notion of fairness, or “neighborliness”, this coming “change” would have us trade-in our dreams for an abbreviated version, where the first rungs are lowered but the ladder itself turned into a step-stool. Government, in Obama’s scenario, would cease to play its traditional role at the sidelines, opting instead for a major part, and through liberal tax policy, shape and curb the ambitions of its citizens.
Incredibly, this revolting notion, un-American to the core, which seeks to relegate the American Dream into the ash-heap of history, has failed to make a dent in the news cycle. Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, Acorn, and a host of other valid issues still remain, but these have been unable to penetrate the media defensive line and to outflank the race card, which is being used with impunity by the left. It is now McCain’s play. Can he do it? The hour is at hand but there is still a window, time enough for one good play.
ericm said:
Phil M states Obama can not close the deal because of racism. I agree that Obama’s racism that is demonstrated by him going to Reverend Wright’s church for 20 years and the many racists passages from his first book, “Dreams from My Father” is costing Obama votes. Considering his racist past, Obama doing so well in the polls speaks highly of the tolerance of the white population in America.
RE:Old Folks post about the Breaking Obama News
These “documents” are mearly templates from justia.com that have been filled in to create a false court case. I went to the docket of this particular court and NO SUCH CASE EXISTS.
Nice try!
Hey Friscokid,
Thanks for the complement, a complement couched in a criticism, but a complement nonetheless. Well, on second thought, I’m not so sure ‘slick’ can be rightly reckoned a complement – insofar as the other slickster we know of is Willie, William J. Clinton (sic); and since the American politico has lately favored crafting appraisals informed by other’s associations, I’d prefer to steer wide and clear of ‘slick’ and all similar adjectives.
“Socialist” is another arrangement of letters upon which many folks frown (though it’s only a noun; a proper one depending on your perspective), and for no mean reason. Socialism is responsible for more corrupted minds than syphilis, Oprah and Howard Stern combined. But that’s a tacky and tasteless preface to the bloodshed and suffering it precedes; aptly so, for the socialists themselves were a motley crew of hoodlums, waifs, malcontents and vagrants who employed an empty-headed program for secular paradise as justification to turn the order of the world on its head. Not to validate their premise, but it seemed to matter not that these dogmatic zealots and ideologues were instantly evolving into the tyrants they toppled, at least not to the ideologues themselves. I do not accept any of the principal tenants of socialism; as they fails to factor human nature into their vast and impossibly naïve cannon.
I support Obama because he is clearly the lesser of two evils; because he is clearly more presidential; and because he may be sincere – we have reason to suspect he is.
Socialism is not alone in her inadequacies. Every ism, ist, ian and eer is a delusion full of vapid mental masturbation designed to distract, indoctrinate, convert and finally corrupt. The clearest and most common lesson we can draw from our environment is that adaptability equals viability. In order to live well you must be accommodating, yielding, keen to confess your sins (to yourself and others), open for answers rather than dictating ‘solutions’, and, in a word, humble. Doctrinaires of every breed subscribe to some rigid orthodoxy built with imbecilic binary reasoning; while each is equally convinced that their pet philosophy is the most practical, provident and profitable. Don’t say, then, that I’m a nihilist; that’s a product of doctrinaire reasoning.
“Christian” is the only thing that I still am; and that, I soundly suspect, I’ll always remain. And because I am such, I believe very much that the state, while apparently endowed of our Lord, should remain entirely separate of all religious considerations. It is patently unchristian to codify the faith; for the faith should never be soiled by the state, which, when attempted, it invariably does.
So, I’m supporting Obama because he is the better choice; and if he is sincere, I’m detecting a willingness to deliberate policy free of the fetters of ideology, and to consciously assert that freedom. Of course we’re not to believe a politician, but if you listen very closely and heed the subtleties and nuance of his platform, you’ll start to see who’s the maverick and who is not. As is always the case, frauds forcefully market themselves according to a contrived narrative while the genuine let the general opinion decide. Furthermore, if you’re willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt, and ‘hope’ he will govern in the fashion he promises, we may be able to at least mend some of the damage his predecessor has done. No, I don’t think he’s some wunderkind or some uberman; in fact, I believe he may have a more colored past than we know. This for me, however, is not a negative quality. Did he conduct himself with relative honor when he passed through some of the worlds he entered? The lack of a criminal record and his sustained success seem to suggest that he did. Moreover, I believe a broad and open-minded experience in life to be very enriching.
All that being said, I’ll add this: The selection of vice president is the first executive act a candidate makes, and John McCain could not have made a poorer decision. This is not press secretary/pitbull; no, this is his choice to lead the nation in the not highly unlikely event of his untimely (though according to the actuaries (remember, he’s a cancer survivor) timely) death. This woman is an embarrassment to herself, let alone our nation. Are we to meekly accept the fact that an unknown vice presidential candidate will not readily sit down to an interview? And for the interviews she does consent her most valuable time and august personage, she must be rigorously prepped, programmed and puppeted. It’s an affront to our dignity submitting a vice presidential candidate like this. This caustic caroler (bomb, bomb Iran) is either stupid or senile or unserious about this office; he’s turned his campaign into a sad burlesque, opting to translate moronic advice like, “this election is not about issues; rather, it’s about a composite image people will take from the campaign” (or some such nonsense) into the selection of Sarah Palin. Good Lord! What has become of my nation? You thought Harriet Meyers was a bad joke; wait till ole Punk McNasty nominates Ellen Degeneres to the Supreme Court…’she’s got sunk and charisma’ he’ll say…’she’ll help me connect with women, young voters and homosexuals all at the same time – she’s a threefer’.
Oh, as far as the lesser of two evils thing goes, socialism is the fourth or fifth, but fascism is the ninth circle of political hell, and hasn’t any close rivals.
PS. tonight makes three clear victories for Obama…it’s a clean sweep…game’s over…turn out the lights…start making tee times in Phoenix…the grumpy old man’s goin home.
SG