The Audacity of Hope and the Paucity of Israel

I was going to ask you to guess what glaring omission Barack Obama made in his chapter on foreign policy in The Audacity of Hope, but I couldn’t stop myself from giving it away in the title of this post. Dan at GayPatriot just finished reading Obama’s book and notes that there are 54 pages on “The World Beyond Our Borders” and Israel isn’t mentioned. Not even once.

Wait. Obama titled The Audacity of Hope with a phrase coined by his anti-Semitic pastor and the book fails to address the Jewish State? Surely you jest!

In related news, young Jewish Obama supporters are descending upon the Fort Lauderdale area in an organized effort to convince their pro-Israel grandparents to vote for Obama in November. They’re calling it The Great Schlep, and one of their talking points is that “Obama hearts Israel and so do you.”

I’m just not feeling the love.

September 21, 2008 · Filed Under Barack Obama, Election 2008

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I’m In a Purple State of Mind

Last year my husband and I left true blue New York for redder pastures in the south. Little did I know we might be giving up a pair of swing state votes:

Seven weeks until Election Day, the race for President has tightened in New York, with Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) leading Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) 46-41 percent among likely voters, according to a new Siena (College) Research Institute poll released today. Obamaâ€™s five point lead is down from eight points in August, 13 points in July and 18 points in June, when he led 51-33 percent.

The Siena poll has New York looking pretty purple.

I’ve been eligible to vote in three presidential elections, and each time the Dems won New York comfortably, with 58 to 60 percent of the vote. But this year, even though Empire State Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than 2.3 million voters, it looks like my motherland might actually be in play for McCain. That’s likely an overly optimistic outlook, but we’ll see what other polls say during the coming days.

I almost feel guilty for leaving New York when my vote could have helped. I guess if I want to influence the outcome in a battleground state, I’ll have to keep working on my Obama-leaning sister in Colorado.

Update, 9/17/08: As I kind of expected, pollsters are raining on my parade.Â The latest Rasmussen poll gives Obama 55% of likely New York voters and McCain 42%.Â That gives Obama a nice 13 point cushion, and Rasmussen estimates the Dems have an almost 90% chance of taking New York’s Electoral votes in November.

Still, it’s worth noting that Rasmussen gave Obama a 31 point lead in June and a 20 point lead last month.Â He probably won’t take New York, but his performance will be embarrassingly lackluster compared to Kerry and Gore.

September 16, 2008 · Filed Under Election 2008

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You Can Put Lipstick on an Ass …

But Barack Obama is still an ass.

With the Obama campaign’s release of a new campaign ad today, we saw a desperate attempt to use John McCain ‘s reported lack of Internet fluency as an indicator that he is generally out of touch. As it turns out, what the Obama camp paints as neo-Luddism is actually attributable to lingering effects of the McCain’s POW injuries. Jonah Goldberg explains:

The reason he doesn’t send email is that he can’t use a keyboard because of the relentless beatings he received from the Viet Cong in service to our country. From the Boston Globe (March 4, 2000):

McCain gets emotional at the mention of military families needing food stamps or veterans lacking health care. The outrage comes from inside: McCain’s severe war injuries prevent him from combing his hair, typing on a keyboard, or tying his shoes.

Mark Steyn wonders how team Obama could have missed this. Maybe they don’t know how to work The Google.

Allahpundit points out a recent NYT piece in which John McCain says he is learning to get online by himself. I would guess that McCain is either accessing the Web with assistive software, like a voice recognition application, or he has an alternative input device that offers better ergonomics for someone with reduced range of motion.

Suitably Flip shares a Forbes article from 2000 that describes McCain as “the U.S. Senate’s savviest technologist” and “an inveterate devotee of email.” The article says Cindy handled the physical aspects of computing for her husband at that time.

This means the charge that McCain “can’t send an email” isn’t just offensive, it’s categorically untrue.

So bring on the next smear, team Obama. The right side of the blogosphere has a Google and they’re not afraid to use it.

September 12, 2008 · Filed Under Barack Obama, Election 2008, John McCain

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OMG! No Web Lulz for John McCain!

John McCain must be super productive. If I didn’t use email I’d reclaim hours a week. Barack Obama, of course, sees it a little differently:

Granted there are benefits to being Web-savvy, but c’mon, the man has people for that.

I don’t agree with all of John McCain’s ideas about how to run our country, but when it comes to the American people, he’s way more plugged in than Barack Obama, even if he doesn’t know how to vandalize Wikipedia and read viral email smears.

September 12, 2008 · Filed Under Barack Obama, Election 2008, John McCain

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Live From the Sty, Obama Calls Palin a Pig in Lipstick

Barack Obama stepped in it big time today. Addressing the McCain/Palin message of change and reform, he told the audience at a town-hall event:

You can put lipstick on a pig … itâ€™s still a pig.

Oh yes he did. And he got a standing ovation.

If Obama didn’t spend so much time in the sty, he might not have pigs on the mind. But his purported intentions with this outrageous turn of phrase are irrelevant.

After Sarah Palin’s joke that lipstick is the only thing that distinguishes a hockey mom from a pitbull, there was no question in Obama’s mind that people would realize he was calling Sarah Palin a pig. Like the liberal media, he indiscriminately tossed out a slur to seed hatred, then he’ll pretend to take offense that his intended meaning is being skewed.

Like his running mate who earlier today called Sarah Palin a backward step for women, Barack Obama epitomizes poor taste and poor judgement.

Ready to lead, indeed.

Update: Hot Air has video of the slur and audio of the response from the McCain camp. Reporters are actually suggesting that this isn’t a gendered comment.

Update 2: Tammy Bruce captures the problem with Obama’s words perfectly. “Make no mistake, Barry has created the culture of sexism within the Democrat party, and this is just one more indication that it’s his choice for his campaign to use the personal destruction of women as its standard.”

Update 3: Hot Air updates us that an Obama rep has called the McCain camp’s response “a pathetic attempt to play the gender card.”

September 9, 2008 · Filed Under Barack Obama, Election 2008, Misogyny, Sarah Palin

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You Know What’s Great About Barack Obama?

Obama is the sum of his missteps, lies, bad ideas, and questionable associations, and that gives Republicans plenty of political fodder. There should be no temptation to manufacture false rumors to undermine his campaign because his history, his positions, and indeed, his very character serve to enfeeble his message.

And yet, people seem to relish taking Obama’s words out of context. Doing so is unfair, hypocritical, and quite frankly, sleazy.

On Sunday the big story was that Obama had admitted his Muslim faith during a televised interview with George Stephanopoulos. Sure, that’s what it sounds like if you artfully truncate the clip at just the right point. VoilÃ , a viral sound bite!

But as Allahpundit and Ann Althouse point out, if you watch the full segment it’s clear that Obama is addressing a smear, not admitting to lying about his faith.

And this brings us back to what’s great about Obama. The man spent 20 years attending a Black Liberation Theology church with a hateful, anti-Semitic racist for a pastor. For his opponents and critics, that’s a big fat cherry atop a three scoop sundae. Why bother massaging the truth, when reality is low hanging fruit, ripe for the picking?

September 8, 2008 · Filed Under Barack Obama, Election 2008

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