COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Stepping Out on a Limb. Obama Will be President.

A Deuce or an Ace? We shall see.

Here we are on April 3, 2008 and like it or not, this is my prediction for this political year. Times have changed, they always do and too many of us have not. The boomer era is at its end.

Hillary will effectively lose Pennsylvania. There is no excitement for her. At best there is resignation. Obama is going to every small town and college and in a personal way is showing himself to be smart, reasonable and more pragmatic than a doctrinaire wild eyed raging liberal. He has a reasonable chance of winning Pennsylvania, but a small loss will finish Hillary.

The Clintons are over. Reluctantly, I am convinced that the Republicans have done themselves so much damage, that the best of them would have had a very difficult time winning the 2008 Presidency. There is no excitement within the Republican ranks  for McCain. Without that excitement from within, there is not enough political independents that are sold on the idea that we need more of what we have had for the last eight years. Obama is not scary enough.

Then there is always that one moment of truth. For me it was when McCain assisted a frail and diminished Nancy Reagan out to the garden to announce her support, I knew we were over.

McCain will not have the energy nor the ability to convince enough Americans that any Republican deserves four more years. Obama will argue that a change is worth trying and enough Americans will concede that he is right. Life will go on.

I for one will support McCain, the way I did Bob Dole and to equal effect.

39 comments:

  1. 2164th: Obama will argue that a change is worth trying and enough Americans will concede that he is right. Life will go on.

    Hugh Hewitt will flog the dead Reverend "God Damn The U S of KKK" Wright horse from now to the general election, even though he wrote a book arguing that Mitt Romney's adherence to Mormonism prior to their inclusion of blacks to the priesthood in 1978 was irrelevant.

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  2. Ace, funny that you should mention Romney. When Hillary had to backpedal on her duck and cover days in Bosnia, I thought of the Romney 1 brain washing fiasco. Hillary lost her legs with that move. Enough people had to lower their eyes to hide, spare her the embarrassment, and that ended her comeback.

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  3. I feel you Deuce.

    This election pits the Warfare / welfare party vs. the Welfare / warfare party.

    Each selling the same plates of slop with Texas Pete on different foods.

    Both statists. Both hostile to securing our borders. Both dedicated to equally stupid foreign policies that will bring disaster.

    Worst of all is the thought of a dem White House with a pliant dem congress. I lived in California under those conditions. Bailed out after six years. The inmates ran the asylum.

    I think I need to start looking to Panama or Costa Rica.

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  4. If McCain pushes for alternative energy projects to get those outgoing petrol dollars back into American pockets, he will solve half of Americas problems in the long term.

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  5. Carbon Swaps
    What's up w/that?
    Do you believe that stuff?
    Why no comments?

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  6. Commence Drilling in North Dakota!
    (some already are)

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  7. "punished with a baby"
    "Obama's Abortion Extremism"
    Hugh Hewitt
    From Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson :
    Obama's record on abortion is extreme.
    He opposed the ban on partial-birth abortion -- a practice a fellow Democrat, the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan, once called "too close to infanticide."

    Obama strongly criticized the Supreme Court decision upholding the partial-birth ban. In the Illinois state Senate, he opposed a bill similar to the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which prevents the killing of infants mistakenly left alive by abortion.
    And now Obama has oddly claimed that he would not want his daughters to be
    "punished with a baby" because of a crisis pregnancy -- hardly a welcoming attitude toward new life.

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  8. 3. Obama never tells a lie, and loves this country more than his wife.

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  9. carbon swaps.... experiment with google search engines.

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  10. 2164th: Hillary lost her legs with that move. Enough people had to lower their eyes to hide, spare her the embarrassment, and that ended her comeback.

    El Rushbo's theory is that Katie Couric was all lined up to MC the North Carolina debate, and Hillary bailed out of it, so CBS retaliated with their video of Tuzla. It's one thing to carry water for Hillary, but when she screws over their bottom line, loyalty be damned.

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  11. Doug: 5. Saudi Arabia is seen as the largest single source of funds for international terrorists globally.

    And where does Saudi get their money? From all those SUVs you see on the freeway with just one little lady in each of them.

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  12. brother d-day wrote:

    "I think I need to start looking to Panama or Costa Rica."

    Kinda funny in a way: the latinos and the ... 'conservatives' switching places.

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  13. Whit,

    In response to your upset over my posting that Salon article about the war crimes of John Yoo take a moment and think about what powers the Bush administration (i.e. John Yoo) has asserted they have. Now place your pal, Hillary, or Obama, as POTUS with the same powers. Are you happy now? Warrantless wiretapping, indefinite incarceration of US citizens simply by being designated by the President as 'illegal combatant' and institutionalized torture. Is this your vision of the US? Screw the constitution, the Pres as dictator. Hey, Obama may be able to take your precious gun from your hands.

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  14. if obama becomes the dem's guy

    watch the words "black liberation theology"

    obama's church supports hamas

    obama's church thinks jesus was a black palestinian

    cant wait for typical america to learn how retarded obama's church (and actually all nation of islam/black nationalism/liberation theology) are...

    there is a 20% of america that hates it'self, america and all america stands for...

    these are the people that were fellow members of rev wright's church...

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  15. I see CNN caught up with the painting elephant.

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  16. Hillary's got it right. Obama can't get elected. He loses in most of the big, racially mixed states. And he's not winning in these small population white boy states out this way either, where he did so well in the primaries/caucuses. He will sufficiently motivate the working class/middle class whites to get out and vote. People aren't going to vote for that God damn America stuff.

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  17. You were just ahead of the wave, Ash.:)

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  18. 2164th said...

    "I see CNN caught up with the painting elephant."

    I usually find the issues addressed here at the bar precede the MSM by a couple of days at least.

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  19. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  20. "Hugh Hewitt will flog the dead Reverend "God Damn The U S of KKK" Wright horse from now to the general election, even though he wrote a book arguing that Mitt Romney's adherence to Mormonism prior to their inclusion of blacks to the priesthood in 1978 was irrelevant."

    An entire book on the subject? Wow.

    Cite?

    Romney, just like his father, openly opposed the position of his church and worked to change it from within.

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  21. If true, one generation of frauds succeeds the other (and that includes the "Straight-talk express").

    I just finished Miracle at Philadelphia by Catherine Drinker Bowen.

    Those people are still out there. They're not in Washington though - probably best for their sanity.

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  22. "I believe he has a glass jaw -- and he is going to get hit hard," said Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio.

    Obama Glass Jaw

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  23. Cutler: An entire book on the subject? Wow.

    Cite?


    http://www.amazon.com/Mormon-White-House-Things-American/dp/159698502X

    The hypocrisy is that Hewitt was willing to overlook Romney's non-disavowal of the Mormon Church for their racism, but ignores Obama's disavowal of Jeremiah Wright's racisim. Both men remained members of their respective churches, but to Hugh Hewitt, only Romney gets off the hook for not walking. Obama needs to account for his failure to walk.

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  24. The lady from the land of Leaves of Grass goes to the city of The Flowers of Evil---

    Abigail Adams, finally rejoining her husband John after four years, was shocked by what she saw in Paris.

    'She thought Paris far from appealing, for all the splendor of its public buildings. And if she had not seen all of it, she had "smelt it". Given its state of sanitation, it was more than she could bear....The people themselves were the "dirtiest creatures" she had eve laid eyes on, and the number of prostitutes was appalling. That any nation wuld condone, let alone license, such traffic, she found vile, just as she found abhorrent the French practice of arranged marriages among the rich and titled of society.

    "What idea, my dear madame,can you form of the manners of a nation, one city of which furnishes(blush oh, my sex, when I name it) 52,000 unmarried females so lost to a sense of honor and shame as publicly to enroll their names in a notrary office for the most abandoned purposes and to commit iniquity with impunity," she wrote in outrage to Mercy Warren. "Thousands of these miserable wretches perish annually with disease and poverty, whilst the most sacred of institutions is prostituted to unite titles and estates."

    On a visit later to a Paris orphanage run by Catholic Sisters of Charity, she was shown a large room with a hundred cribs and perhaps as many infants...In an average year 6,000 children were delivered to the orphanage...Even as they talked, one was brought in that appeared to be three months old. In various parts of the city, it was explained, there were designated places with small boxes in which a baby could be "deposited>" '

    from "John Adams"

    She got to like the opera and the plays though, and there is a hilarious description of Madame Helvetius, to whom Ben Franklin had proposed marriage(she turned him down because they were both too old, she said), entering a room, a slovenly old bitch:)

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  25. Cutler: Romney, just like his father, openly opposed the position of his church and worked to change it from within.

    If you can find a Romney quote where he even acknowledges that the Mormon Church policy before 1978 was wrong, please cite it, because I'll be damned if I can find it.

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  26. Now place your pal, Hillary, or Obama, as POTUS with the same powers.

    Indeed, I'd be much more worried with them in charge, especially Hillary, than with George. How many of your stateside pals have gone missing, Ash?

    While I don't like government snooping, by any means, some is necessary, the issue is overblown. As with nuclear power, the French may have a good idea here as well, I think. I've read they let the security services snoop all they want, but whatever is found, can only be used in a true terrorism case. We might give that some thought, at least.

    It's true, governments always tend to blur the lines.

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  27. Now place your pal, Hillary, or Obama, as POTUS with the same powers.

    Indeed, I'd be much more worried with them in charge, especially Hillary, than with George. How many of your stateside pals have gone missing, Ash?

    While I don't like government snooping, by any means, some is necessary, the issue is overblown. As with nuclear power, the French may have a good idea here as well, I think. I've read they let the security services snoop all they want, but whatever is found, can only be used in a true terrorism case. We might give that some thought, at least.

    It's true, governments always tend to blur the lines.

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  28. Bobal: Hillary's got it right. Obama can't get elected.

    She just burned her last bridge. When Obama gets the nomination, how is she going to throw her support behind Obama at the Convention with a straight face? Now she can't even hope for the VP spot. And this is going to accelerate her decline and fall in the Pennsylvania polls. It's over.

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  29. Right, Obama's gets the nomination. Unless Hillary makes a nearly clean sweep of the remaining contests. Your dream ticket, my nightmare, Hillary/Obama doesn't seem to be in the cards, and Hillary won't take second fiddle, even if offered, which it probably won't be, I wouldn't think.

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  30. Might as well taking a parting shot at Obama as I go out the door--from John Lott's Website--

    The Trial of Obama's Close Friend Starts Yielding Some Explosive Results
    Under the headline "Gov was told of threat to 'take them down'," Chicago Sun-Times reports:


    Despite Gov. Blagojevich's repeated denials that he knew anything about alleged pay-to-play schemes, "the big guy" was told about one plan to squeeze campaign contributions from a firm seeking state business, according to bombshell testimony Wednesday at Tony Rezko's corruption trial.

    "Mr. Rezko indicated to me that he had made the governor aware of the situation" involving threats from a Chicago businessman-turned-Hollywood producer to expose a shakedown for campaign cash in 2004, star prosecution witness Stuart Levine told jurors. "And the governor agreed with the way Mr. Rezko wanted to handle it." . . . .


    Here is my question: how could have Obama been so deeply involved in Chicago politics without any notion of this level of corruption. Possibly it is the same lack of knowledge that Obama had regarding Rev. Wright. Obama once major memory loss was bad enough, but another huge one might prove more troublesome.

    Ed Morrissey has a similar take here and NRO here.
    Labels: 2008PresidentialRace, Obama

    posted by John Lott at 10:54 AM

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  31. "It's true, governments always tend to blur the lines."

    It isn't so much that Bush et al have blurred the lines - they have blatantly crossed them while dissembling and hiding behind political appointees statements that what they are doing is legal.

    Look, if you don't mind having the government conduct sweeping fishing expeditions through all electronic communications without a warrant then change the laws so they can. It is a debate worth having. There is definite info that can be gleaned by searching all emails ect. BUT, to do it secretly on the basis of 'legal opinions' of those you appoint to uphold the law is wrong. It is illegal and it should be treated as such. Those who willingly participated in such illegal activity should be prosecuted.

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  32. Ol' "Amnesty, whatever you do, don't pour a little water down a Terrorist's nose" McCain might get elected; but it will be without my vote.

    Now, on to Something Important.

    CIBC has a good track record on energy; and I would take their numbers pretty seriously.

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  33. Frankenstein drops behind Coleman, temporarily at least, in the land o' lakes.

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  34. Perfect Example of why it's so hard to trust people who haven't been here for a long, long time. Guy 'slept' for twenty years.

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  35. It'll be Gore / Obama, they will ride victorious down Pennsylvania Ave, to the new digs.

    They'll have close to sixty Senate seats, perhaps filibuster proof on most isses. The GOP will fracture, for their "share" of earmarks.

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  36. Here's a guy that has really done some homework. If you like maps, you'll love this. Comes to the conclusion that Hillary isn't finieshed by any means. Interesting.

    Puerto Rico may hold the key, he speculates, with reason.

    Remember Bill giving those P.Rican fellows a get out of jail card?

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  37. dr:

    It'll be Gore / Obama, they will ride victorious down Pennsylvania Ave, to the new digs.

    If gore and obama run, then McCain and Lieberman will run too...

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  38. Not if McCain is true to his word, announcing his VP pick prior to the convention.

    He's "maverick" enough to do it, too!

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