Polls are showing that the race is tightening between Obama and McCain as his trip is underway. The American electorate is awakening from their Obama coma and realizing reality has it's way of making even the deepest dreamer awaken.

David Brooks, NY Times Op-Ed, July 25, 2008:

Playing Innocent Abroad

When I first heard this sort of radically optimistic speech in Iowa, I have to confess my American soul was stirred. It seemed like the overture for a new yet quintessentially American campaign.

But now it is more than half a year on, and the post-partisanship of Iowa has given way to the post-nationalism of Berlin, and it turns out that the vague overture is the entire symphony. The golden rhetoric impresses less, the evasion of hard choices strikes one more.

When John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan went to Berlin, their rhetoric soared, but their optimism was grounded in the reality of politics, conflict and hard choices. Kennedy didn’t dream of the universal brotherhood of man. He drew lines that reflected hard realities: “There are some who say, in Europe and elsewhere, we can work with the Communists. Let them come to Berlin.” Reagan didn’t call for a kumbaya moment. He cited tough policies that sparked harsh political disagreements — the deployment of U.S. missiles in response to the Soviet SS-20s — but still worked.

And he concludes:

The odd thing is that Obama doesn’t really think this way. When he gets down to specific cases, he can be hard-headed. Last year, he spoke about his affinity for Reinhold Niebuhr, and their shared awareness that history is tragic and ironic and every political choice is tainted in some way.

But he has grown accustomed to putting on this sort of saccharine show for the rock concert masses, and in Berlin his act jumped the shark. His words drift far from reality, and not only when talking about the Senate Banking Committee. His Berlin Victory Column treacle would have made Niebuhr sick to his stomach.

Obama has benefited from a week of good images. But substantively, optimism without reality isn’t eloquence. It’s just Disney.

Time to give the American people their national insulin shot: The Truth.

Media Bias - Really -Ya Think?

The Anchoress says...

...the Times decision strikes me as so outrageous, controlling and foreign to the concept of the free exchange of ideas in an election season. The NY Times says “revisions are often requested”, well, okay, but when Obama is getting the equivalent of millions of dollars of free and uncritical exposure, why can’t McCain just be allowed to say what the hell he wants for a few hundred words?

Then she goes on to congratulate the paper on creating the ultimate underdog in this strangest of all elections. And Americans being the competitive sorts we are, pull for the underdogs. After all, when this nation was young, WE were the underdogs!

UPDATE: The New York Post printed McCain's editorial. I wonder what the NYT weasels are saying now.

Even the Left is noticing the gag-inducing LoveFest. Via Newsbusters:

Andrea Mitchell might be a doyenne of the liberal media, but she has her reporter's pride and principles, which have been trampled by the way the Obama campaign has managed the media during the candidate's current trip to Afghanistan and Iraq. Mitchell let loose on this evening's Hardball, speaking of "fake interviews," and decrying that she was unable to report on pertinent aspects of the trip because the media has been excluded and that the video released is unreliable because it's impossible to know what has been edited out.

Jennifer Rubin has more at PJM.

Obama has shamelessly used the troops as a "tool," a backdrop for his "presidential" pretend sessions, just like selecting the lovely swirly gray background for your family portrait. He is not giving press conferences or talking to the press, obviously to avoid his peculiar way of "mis-speaking." But he's really lining himself up for a belly-flop in Berlin, after changing the location of his speech (emphasis mine):

Team Obama has outdone themselves on symbolism with this choice. They’ve managed to make their hosts uncomfortable for a second time with their choice of rallying point, and perhaps more so this time. If one wanted to talk peace, what worse location could one choose than Adolf Hitler’s favorite monument to militaristic domination? One has to wonder how France, Denmark, and Austria will feel about Obama rallying German masses under the Siegessäule. Deja vu?

James Lewis at The American Thinker notes that the Siegessäule with its super-sized phallic imagery is a favorite landmark of Berlin gays, which is humorous in itself since Little Adolf was such a homophobe. In Europe, everything old is new again. The snooty socialist condescension toward their rescuers from over the pond never abated.

In fact, Eurosocialism still contains all the seeds of classic European imperialism: The endless sense of Europe's superiority over the rest of the world, the preachiness of how the rest of the world must live, the constant efforts to impose global carbon taxes, poverty taxes, and UN rules on subject nations (like the US) for the greater glory of Germany-France-Spain-Britain -- all the classic European imperial powers look at the US with green imperialism envy.

Imperialism never stopped in Europe. It just stopped being violent for a while, because America beat European imperial powers in WWI, WWII, and the Cold War. And don't think they don't know it. Why do you think Europeans loved to hate America over the overthrow of Saddam? Saddam's Baathist Party was modeled after Europe's fascist parties, after all.

[...] Welcome back to Europe, Senator Obama. They will recognize you there, although they might be just a little bit nervous about those screaming mass rallies on their home grounds. That hasn't really happened a lot since you-know-who.

But, wouldn't you know, as usual, The Anchoress has the best quote over all these Obamagasms: "Only a Sith speaks in absolutes." Maybe we should test his blood for midiclorians.

So many gaffes, so little time. Should start tallying lists of things he HASN'T misspoken about instead? That sounds less daunting.

After eighteen months of a Democratically controlled Congress, let's take a look at gas prices (chart from Gasbuddy, via Michelle Malkin).

My, my. Haughty Pelosi sniffs and asks if the lifeboats will be seated by class. Heaven forbid she would have to rub elbows with any dirty, greasy commoners. President Bush called her bluff, lifting the executive order prohibiting drilling off American shores and urging Congress to lift their ban as well. Then an amazing thing happened - oil prices dropped.

Enraged that the Evil Bush might get an upper hand, she lashes out, stamping her feet and yelling Hoax! Hoax! But the joke is on her.

In the meantime, while the world is distracted by the Magical Mystery Tour cavorting about across the pond, Nancy's minions quietly float the idea of a gas tax increase. Classic taxation without representation, but with pixie dust!

When I read this OP-ED in the WaPo, for today, Sunday July 20, 2008 I realized that maybe, just maybe the media's own egos would not fail us:

Sunday, July 20, 2008; Page B07

Barack Obama is on his way to Europe, where an adoring public awaits. But I wonder if the reception would be quite so enthusiastic if Obama's fans across the Atlantic knew a dirty little secret of his remarkable presidential campaign: Although Obama portrays himself as the best candidate to engage the rest of the world and restore America's image abroad, and many Americans support him for that reason, so far he has almost completely refused to answer questions from foreign journalists. When the press plane leaves tonight for his trip, there will be, as far as I know, no foreign media aboard. The Obama campaign has refused multiple requests from international reporters to travel with the candidate.

As a German correspondent in Washington, I am accustomed to the fact that American politicians spare little of their limited time for reporters from abroad. This is understandable: Our readers, viewers and listeners cannot vote in U.S. elections. Even so, Obama's opponents have managed to make at least a small amount of time for international journalists. John McCain has given many interviews. Hillary Clinton gave a few. President Bush regularly holds round-table interviews with media from the countries to which he travels. Only Obama dismisses us so consistently.

He continues:

Perhaps Obama considers members of the foreign media a risk rather than an opportunity. His campaign learned the hard way how comments to foreigners can resonate at home -- recall adviser Austan Goolsbee's hints to a Canadian diplomat that Obama's critique of NAFTA was just campaign rhetoric, or former aide Samantha Power's "monster" remark about Hillary Clinton to the Scotsman. Or perhaps we're witnessing the arrogance that comes from being so close to power. One of his campaign advisers told me recently: "Why should we take the time for foreign media, since there is Obamania around the world?"

Obama is indeed popular in my country and elsewhere in Europe. But Europeans have the same questions about his experience and character that Americans do. Unlike U.S. citizens, we can't vote in the election; its results, though, will affect our lives, much as it will affect theirs. Surely a man who has said he would talk with U.S. adversaries such as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad can spend a few moments with journalists from friendlier countries.

The writer is Washington bureau chief of Der Tagesspiegel, a Berlin-based daily newspaper.

We know the exact reason why don't we troops? BO opens his mouth and the truth spills out - and they know that if that happens.....the great Obama's house of lies will begin to crumble if they are not already!

The coverage of BO's World Tour has only just begun, but already the media egos are providing the fodder.

Pardon me, but you'd think if he was REALLY born in Hawaii, he'd at least get the Pearl Harbor facts right.

While Obama is over in Europe on his rock star tour, complete with lap-dog anchorpersons to breathlessly report every crease in his trousers, his supporters stateside are issuing death-threats to Clinton supporters who refuse to be assimilated. One was even targeted with arson. Obamatrons gone wild.

Charles Krauthammer says it best, though, when he notes

Barack Obama wants to speak at the Brandenburg Gate. He figures it would be a nice backdrop. The supporting cast — a cheering audience and a few fainting frauleins — would be a picturesque way to bolster his foreign policy credentials.

What Obama does not seem to understand is that the Brandenburg Gate is something you earn. President Ronald Reagan earned the right to speak there because his relentless pressure had brought the Soviet empire to its knees and he was demanding its final “tear down this wall” liquidation. When President John F. Kennedy visited the Brandenburg Gate on the day of his “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech, he was representing a country that was prepared to go to the brink of nuclear war to defend West Berlin.

Who is Obama representing? And what exactly has he done in his lifetime to merit appropriating the Brandenburg Gate as a campaign prop? What was his role in the fight against communism, the liberation of Eastern Europe, the creation of what George Bush the elder — who presided over the fall of the Berlin Wall but modestly declined to go there for a victory lap — called “a Europe whole and free”?

Does Obama not see the incongruity? It’s as if a German pol took a campaign trip to America and demanded the Statue of Liberty as a venue for a campaign speech. (The Germans have now gently nudged Obama into looking at other venues.)

Americans are beginning to notice Obama’s elevated opinion of himself.

Most right-of-center bloggers have been noticing for a while. But now, it seems that a couple of MSM outlets are daring to raise concerns. Wonder how long before they are under the bus....?

Every day around 8 a.m., foreign policy aides at Senator Barack Obama's Chicago campaign headquarters send him two e-mails: a briefing on major world developments over the previous 24 hours and a set of questions, accompanied by suggested answers, that the candidate is likely to be asked about international relations during the day.

One recent Q. & A. asked, for example, whether Obama supported the decision by Iraq's prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, to include a timetable for American troop withdrawal in any new security agreements with the United States. The answer, provided to Obama with bullet points, was yes — or "a genuine opportunity," as he put it in a speech on Iraq this week.

Behind the e-mail messages is a tight-knit group of aides supported by a huge 300-person foreign policy campaign bureaucracy, organized like a mini State Department, to assist a candidate whose limited national security experience remains a concern to many voters.

"It is unwieldy, no question," said Denis McDonough, 38, Obama's top foreign policy aide, speaking of an infrastructure that has been divided into 20 teams based on regions and issues, and that has recently absorbed, with some tensions, the top foreign policy advisers from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign. "But an administration is unwieldy, too. We also know that it's messier when you don't get as much information as you can."

I wonder, if elected, will he be the puppet or the puppet master?

Firstly, are we watching the same election?

Is this the same election where Obama’s racial authenticity has been called into question? Where his bid has sparked numerous discussions about the black experience in America—highlighting persistent inequality? Where the role of his race in the election is at once celebrated and used as fuel for racist tirades at home and abroad?

You cannot get away from race in this election which is why when someone says that my generation is color blind I’m not celebrating, I’m worried. Color blindness during a time when race is being discussed not just in terms of controversy ( i.e. affirmative action) but in terms of its impact on our day to day lives sounds more like intellectual laziness than progressivism.

This lack of input is even more startling when we realize that my generation is increasingly at the forefront of a racially charged issue: gentrification.  While many may say the issue is rooted in class, the controversy rests in how people view the changing landscape of neighborhoods--changes that become evident first in culture. For example, my return to the neighborhood where I grew up (Bed Stuy, Marcy Projects) would be celebrated since it is seen as me bringing my capital back to my community. A white person with my same capital is assumed to bring a new culture and thus is seen as invasive.

And this hostility, while seen as an inevitable by product of gentrification, appears irrational as we realize that a. the rate of people moving out of neighborhoods because rising costs is less than 1% and b. the rate of blacks moving out is twice as high as white people moving in.

Maybe we don’t have the language to discuss race in a useful manner. Maybe we are tired of all the race talk because we don’t see anything beneficial coming out of it. Or maybe some of us truly don’t think about race. Yet this kind of silence does more harm than good as it implies that our generation is not concerned or involved in an issue that impacts the relationships and livelihoods of people in this country.

The President of the United States is a man, yes, a mortal man. He has flaws, he makes mistakes, we may not agree with the policies he puts forth; but he holds an office, he is not king; he is not there to be idolized. What we ask of him is Constitutionally bound; as he is to be the commander in chief, but what we ask of him is to keep the office of the Presidency and in keeping it, we ask him to do so humbly, selflessly and foremost keeping America as his solemn promise.

The Constitution grants the President limited powers. It is there by design. The Founders did not want another King; they wanted a leader. Knowing the need to have one voice put forth as the voice of America, they did struggle with how much power, how little power - most wanted to grant him more, yet their knowledge of how one man could be feared and idolized was in the forefront of their minds. They knew that divisions of such 'love' of a man could cause divisions and blind faith in his works; therefore the powers became limited and the office became solemn. It was created to be held, protected and guarded for the defense of the Constitution, not for the creation of lifetime.

We expect our President to lead. We expect our President to support, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. America comes first. He guards the office, protects this nation against all enemies foreign and domestic - he is in fact our national guard.

If the President dies, the succession is swift. Why? Because it is the office that is of the highest importance, not the man who sits in the chair. It is the way it should be. President Bush has remembered that lesson. John McCain understands that principle; Barack Obama only sees the power of the chair, not the office that is the sacred obligation.

When President Clinton's disgusting behavior enraged a nation, we were preached at on how it was his personal business. We agrued and shouted, "No! What he did he did in the Oval Office-He disgraced the Office of the Presidency." When Governor Bush ran for office, do you remember what he said that drew the biggest applause lines, " I will bring dignity back to the Oval Office." When he took his oaths, and was repeated, " I will support, protect and DEFEND..the Constitution.." He raised his hand up and down in determination. When you see President Bush behind the podium, with our troops..in front of Congress, with the bullhorn..he is a man who understands that the office is a humble place, a trusted place - not about him but about us.

Barack Obama has demonstrated that he is nothing more than a rock star. He is liked, he is emulated, he is loved. He speaks a great teleprompter, he talks the talk of those that support him..But what he is lacking is the knowledge that we don't just vote for a man, we vote for a man who understands the office of which he is about to be elected to - that is what is missing in this hallow man. What is missing is the very essence to be President of the United States.

(Dang! I can't get the thing to embed, so go watch it at HotAir. Dang!)

Listening to the chorus of fainthearted responses to this week’s New Yorker cover, one gets the impression that satire, like everything else in our sad culture, must now come with a warning label and child-safety latch. Barry Blitt’s slightly overwrought but still amusing illustration, which is even pedantically titled “The Politics of Fear,” features the Obamas fist-bumping in the Oval Office. Michelle is rendered as an AK-47-wielding Angela Davis, Barack is tricked out as a pious Muslim, an Osama Bin Laden portrait hangs on the wall and an American flag burns in the fireplace.

Irony should cut like a rapier, not drop like a Steinway, but still, it’s not hard to appreciate what this pictorial intends. Yet it has got a few supporters of the Illinois senator barking mad.

[...] A basic rule of satire is that if you have to explain your point, even a little bit, you’ve already failed.

[...] A less observed rule of satire concerns its inevitable consequences. No amount of explanation will ensure that the joke won’t still be misconstrued or misunderstood by those destined by cruel nature to do just that. What are the odds that the number of voters who think that the “real” Barack Obama belongs in a Gitmo detention cell has increased since this latest issue of the New Yorker hit newsstands? Anyone who could be converted to those feverish ranks by a mere caricature is going to cause electoral trouble anyway.

We saw with bloody effect, in the aftermath of the Danish cartoon mess, that some audiences are born thick and crude, and that the only sure way to prevent giving “offense” to them is not to do or say anything, anytime, anywhere. It was argued then by correct-thinking types who claim to be on the side of art and literature and free expression that those cartoonists were right-wing bigots who needlessly provoked their own attempted murders. Now a highbrow liberal weekly in the United States is being assailed by the bien-pensant because it failed to dumb down its characteristically mordant daubing.

So much for the idea that sophistication is moored to progressive politics.

Like bad jokes from a reality TV comedian contest, Obama still doesn't get it. It was HIS choice to step into the public limelight, the mother of all public limelights, in fact, by entering the race for the American Presidency. This isn't the 1920's, where campaigns are run from smoky rooms and speeches made from cabooses in every little town between here and Topeka. This is the first decade of the 21st century, where every outfit, tie, hair, zit, accessory, shoelace and breath of the Annointed is recorded and photographed and you-tubed for three dimensional examination for proof that he is the second-coming. And some Democrats are beginning to see that he is NOT:

After a brief bout of Obamamania, some Capitol Hill Democrats have begun to complain privately that Barack Obama’s presidential campaign is insular, uncooperative and inattentive to their hopes for a broad Democratic victory in November.

“They think they know what’s right and everyone else is wrong on everything,” groused one senior Senate Democratic aide. “They are kind of insufferable at this point.” (Politico)

Obama is the very worst kind of politician, not some new, improved variety, and it is wise to remember that every organization is a mirror of its leader.

If this man is elected (which he won’t be; his shortcomings are so severe) this would be the type of Administration we could expect: Swaggering braggadocio on an epic scale accompanied by an infantile self-confidence born of nothing.

A thick-as-asphalt-skin is requirement numero uno to run for President. Michelle Malkin thinks he's overreacting. Then she lists just a small sampling of the cartoons that others in public office have had to endure lately. You didn't hear THEM crying to media,complaining and whining that "it offends me". Get a life!

To add insult to injury, he continues to flip-flop on every issue, like we are a nation full of lemmings incapable of an original thought. How can you explain a simple literary device that your average eighth grader excels in, to a politician who can't pick a stance and stick with it more than a few days. The latest belly-flop involves his website, which now has been scrubbed of any Surge criticism. That was a pretty big job; must have really reduced his bandwidth requirements! Erick at Redstate compares Obamaworship with another questionable religion, Scientology.

When the situation in Iraq was going badly, Barack Obama wanted us to retreat. When the surge took hold and the situation in Iraq improved, Barack Obama wanted us to retreat. No turn in Iraq went unstoned in Obama's commitment to retreat and surrender.

Not any more. Obama has thrown his old positions under the bus. And, for a guy whose campaign claims to get the net, he's done an extremely dumb thing -- he purged his website of his former positions. Apparently he's never heard of a cache.

The presumed Democratic nominee replaced his Iraq issue Web page, which had described the surge as a "problem" that had barely reduced violence.

"The surge is not working," Obama's old plan stated, citing a lack of Iraqi political cooperation but crediting Sunni sheiks - not U.S. military muscle - for quelling violence in Anbar Province. . . .

Obama's campaign posted a new Iraq plan Sunday night, which cites an "improved security situation" paid for with the blood of U.S. troops since the surge began in February 2007.

It praises G.I.s' "hard work, improved counterinsurgency tactics and enormous sacrifice."

Gone are Obama's days of criticizing the surge, which he claimed was sure to fail. It's like L. Ron Hubbard writing Scientology. Every aspect of the religion is subject to revision until it is published for Tom Cruise to jump on a couch and attract creepy cultists and far left automatons. And even then the second edition can edit out inconvenient gibberish the Messiah originally wrote some staffer accidentally inserted without the foreknowledge or permission of the Messiah.

Is there no position this man will not take that he will later repudiate? Is there nothing this man will not say or do to get elected?

That's what inexperience and ineptitude get you. Always having to tuck tail and run the other way as fast as you can. This is what we lawyers sometimes denote as a "continuing pattern and practice."

Oops, missed a couple there, buddy.

Buzz Brockway writes Obama a letter, asking why he has a "pre-determined agenda" for his fact-finding mission overseas multiple photo-op campaign with tyrants who hate America to Iraq and Afghanistan? Will he change his mind again, saying he misspoke or misphrased this or that when he gets back?

Third, How the HELL can you take an information gathering junket to Iraq and Afghanistan with a predetermined agenda? So you’re going to spend my tax dollars and waste time, fuel and Secret Service security to tell me that you want to end the war? Barack, no one and I repeat, NO ONE wants that war to last any longer than is necessary to achieve victory- a stable, democratic and peaceful country. If you want to make this a charade so you can say you have been there and you still want a unilateral withdrawal, save the effort and just make another speech!

The Anchoress explains being Presidential, for the satirically challenged:

The Office of the American President was not created for pageantry, and the man (or woman) voted into it is not there to be “loved.” He is there to protect and defend his nationals and and articulate the primacy of human liberty throughout the world, even if he never gets much credit for it. Kosovo loves Bill Clinton. Iraq loves George W. Bush.

Nations and people who have lived under jackboot and tyranny always love the American President. And nations ruled by tyrants have always loved his foes.

So Barack, if you can stop checking your pants the mirror, you'll find an excellent example of "...protect...defend...articulate the primacy of human liberty throughout the world, even if he never gets much credit for it...", in the Oval Office right now. Not only has he suffered the slings and arrows of outrageous SATIRE over the last eight years, he can spell it and use it in a sentence. So he just beat you at the spelling bee! Try not to be offended or change your answer. Again.

Cross-posted at RedState

I do realize that being 71, John McCain's admission that he is still learning to get online and that he has never sent an email and doesn't see the need for it is probably closer to average than my experiences.  I do believe, though, that an admission that you do not utilize one of the most popular, especially for the young and new voter, means of communication will put you at a disadvantage.

I compare McCain to both my parents.  My mother, who is not in her 70's, and I chat via IM most week days.  She emails me pictures of what is going on in the desert of Southern California.  I email her pictures of what is going on in the Southern Tier of New York.  My father, who is 70, has gotten to the point - mostly due to his employer as far as I can tell - that he checks his email daily.  If I cannot reach him via telephone before he starts his commute or via mobile phone on his commute, I know I can email him at the "office" and he will get it.  I don't know that he likes it but he checks it.

What will the backlash be?  How can a candidate who says he has yet to totally master getting online, who says he has never sent an email and doesn't see the need for it relate to the average person, relate to those who are trying to convince companies to get high speed internet for all areas of the county and country?  How can a federal office candidate survive in an era when all candidates have a myspace or facebook page or use digg it to get the "articles" on their site more read when the candidate doesn't have an official social networking page?

Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill looted money from a drug forfeiture fund and a vending machine fund, spending it wildly, according to a suit filed by the Sheriff's Office's former accountant.

Let's review, shall we? Snipers on the roof, illegal terminations, hostile take-over attempts, holding inmates double hostage - for paperwork, barring the press from public meetings, 17000 unserved warrants... shall I go on? (Whew! I need to take a little breather here.) He's a busy fellow alright, especially when it comes to NOT doing the job he was elected for. Destruction seems to be right up his alley - of the rule of law, the citizen's trust, public safety, accountability, respect, integrity - just pick one. Now Walking Small is running for a second term.

[Pam] Blasingim claims that when she and the legal advisor told the sheriff his spending was inappropriate, he would ask, "Can I go to jail?" When she told him she couldn't justify expenses, in case of an audit, he allegedly said he wasn't worried about an audit and she shouldn't be either -- she should just do what she was told.

My hope and prayer for Clayton County is that he loses in the primary. TOMORROW, TOMORROW, the primary's TOMORROW, it's only a DAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYY AAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWAAAAAYYYY!!

UPDATE: At least he's in a run-off. Unbelievable!

John McCain suffered as a POW longer than Barack Obama has been a senator.

In fact, John McCain was a Prisoner of War 13 times longer than Barack Obama was a US senator before he decided to run for President.

From the time Barack Obama was sworn in as a United State Senator, to the time he announced he was forming a Presidential exploratory committee, he logged 143 days of experience in the US Senate.

In contrast, John McCain has 26 years in Congress, 22 years of military service, and 1,966 days in captivity as a POW in Hanoi, via Cheri Jacobus.

This puts things into perspective.

Yessirree, it sure does. Now here we have a picture of the door to Sen. John McCain's Hoa Lo prison cell (via GatewayPundit & Washington Whisperers)

The same cell in the same prison where McCain reset Bud Day's arm in this incredible story.

When he [Day] was recaptured, a Vietnamese captor broke his arm and said, "I told you I would make you a cripple."

The break was designed to shatter Mr. Day's will. He had survived in prison on the hope that one day he would return to the United States and be able to fly again. To kill that hope, the Vietnamese left part of a bone sticking out of his arm, and put him in a misshapen cast. This was done so that the arm would heal at "a goofy angle," as Mr. Day explained. Had it done so, he never would have flown again.

But it didn't heal that way because of John McCain. Risking severe punishment, Messrs. McCain and Day collected pieces of bamboo in the prison courtyard to use as a splint. Mr. McCain put Mr. Day on the floor of their cell and, using his foot, jerked the broken bone into place. Then, using strips from the bandage on his own wounded leg and the bamboo, he put Mr. Day's splint in place.

Years later, Air Force surgeons examined Mr. Day and complimented the treatment he'd gotten from his captors. Mr. Day corrected them. It was Dr. McCain who deserved the credit. Mr. Day went on to fly again.

This man understands the evil that would destroy America. The door that held him prisoner inside this vile pit for those many dark days did not break his spirit, his sense of duty or his love of country. His belief that he would have a life after his time behind the door gave him the hope and strength to survive.

Now here's another door.

Guess who is stuck in this door? The same fellow who can't take a stand and keep it for more than 48 hours. The same fellow who thinks "Do as I say, not as I do" is a campaign platform. The same fellow who believes that less than seven months as a junior senator and some community organizing is experience enough for the job of Commander in Chief.

The door is spinning and spinning and spinning. No way in, no way out. Doors can be like that, you know. The question is, does the door control the man or does the man control the door?

My father would womanize, he would drink. He would make outrageous claims like he invented the question mark. Sometimes he would accuse chestnuts of being lazy. The sort of general malaise that only the genius possess and the insane lament. ~ Dr. Evil

Was Dr. Evil's dad John McCain?

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) plans to promise on Monday that he will balance the federal budget by the end of his first term by curbing wasteful spending and overhauling entitlement programs, including Social Security, his advisers told Politico.

All this while spending indefinitely on the Iraq occupation and cutting taxes for the wealthy? Impressive! Who said "the issue of economics is not something [McCain has] understood as well as [he] should"? [Hint: it was John McCain. ~ ed.] McCain doesn't understand economics like a fox, I'd say!

This is getting old fast. Kinda like the cool new boyfriend that suddenly loses his shine. Patterico notes that today Obama flip-flopped the mother of all flip-flops. (You HAVE to read the whole thing!)

Obama is now “restating” his plan to exit Iraq — or maybe he isn’t. He’s now topped John Kerry by being against an immediate withdrawal before he was for it — all in one day.

I've asked before, what does Obama believe? I don't think even he (or his staff) knows anymore. But it does seem he believes that President Bush has supernatural powers. From his evil tower atop an evil mountain he pointed his evil wand to cause the Iowa floods. sheeeesh. The Anchoress scolds him and his party for their arrogance toward others and general lack of brain-cells. I mean really, some days I wonder how those dunderheads are able to string together a complete sentence (without lifting it from another source), much less a party platform that's comparable to the stability of the Titanic's forward deck.

Oh, and that global warming angle is really working as well...

Today I only have one thing to say - Wesley Clark is an idiot.

UPDATE: Beth hits on out of the park! General Idiot, yeppers.

It's over. For now.

No Joy in UGAVille.

Burger Heaven.

Little Green Buddies.

First, Obama says he is NOT a Muslim, even though he was raised a Muslim and attended an Islamic school. And let's not forget that Muslims who leave Islam face a death sentence. Sooo... either he was never a Muslim to start with, or he's really crafty in that he's negotiated some kind of protection from the Religion of Peace during his campaign in exchange for unnamed favors later. Hmmmm....

Next, Obama says he IS a Christian. But just the other day, when James Dobson dared to question something he said TWO YEARS AGO, Obama pooh-poohed it off as "...he was just making stuff up..." Which is really not a rebuttal or even an answer. Then, of course, the wagons circled and the fingers wagged because no one can question him on his positions or issues or even crack a political joke without it becoming a "racial" issue. Sooo.... either he was never a Christian to start with, or he's really crafty in that he's using these black churches to generate publicity and notoriety and name recognition for all the wrong reasons. And I really don't want to be around when they figure out they've been hood-winked. Hmmmmm.......

Then yesterday, out of the blue, is the news that an Indian group presented him with a gold-plated IDOL. Not some cute little figurine for the living room table; an IDOL.

NEW DELHI: With Democrat senator Barack Obama busy in the run-up to the US presidential polls, a group of well-wishers in the capital have decided to send him a symbol of his lucky charm, Lord Hanuman, to help him emerge victorious.

Obama's representative Carolyn Sauvage-Mar on Tuesday received a gold-plated two-feet-high idol which she will pass it on to the Obama after it is sanctified.

The idol is being presented to Obama as he is reported to be a Lord Hanuman devotee and carries with him a locket of the monkey god along with other good luck charms.

An hour-long prayer meeting to sanctify the idol was earlier organised at Sankat Mochan Dham and by Congress leader Brijmohan Bhama, Balmiki Samaj and the temple's priests.

"Obama has deep faith in Lord Hanuman and that is why we are presenting an idol of Hanuman to him," said Bhama.

Accepting the souvenir, Sauvage-Mar, who is chairperson of Democrats Abroad-India, said, "Obama has extended his thanks for the support."

However, questions on Obama's religious beliefs elicited just a smile from Sauvage-Mar, apparently to avoid controversy back home...

OOOOOOOOKAY. I know government officials get all sorts of gifts from all sorts of places (remember the enameled box in No Way Out?). And I know guys like to keep trinkets like special coins, guitar picks, blarney stones, maybe a rabbit's foot, sticks, shark's teeth, old raisins, etc....just all sorts of stuff to help them get through their day. But a Monkey God? GatewayPundit has more and it looks like Buuuuurrrrning Hot is on the EXACT same page as I am, as far as wondering just exactly WHO Obama worships, besides himself, of course. I'm really trying to keep an open mind here, really, and he's not helping. Soooo... either he really never believed in Lord Hanuman in the first place, or he's really crafty in that he's collecting all these valuable gifts from around the world like Xerxes or Alexander or whatever ancient warrior king he thinks he's channeling this week to be used to fund some top-secret and yet unnamed project later. Hmmmmmmmm......

(And I AM NOT GOING to even think what some of his campaign staff might say about him being given a monkey idol. Being concerned with the faith angle, it did not even occur to me that someone might consider this a "racial" statement, until I read it elsewhere. Folks, please, take a deep breath and grow just a smidge of thicker skin, will ya?)

Oh wait ... here it comes... MonkeyGodGate! You heard it here first, folks! /sarcasm

Just once, Obama, JUST ONCE, will you give a straight answer and stick with it for more than 48 hours? Are you Christian? Muslim? Hindu? Agnostic? Atheist? Obamist? Anything at all?

UPDATED: See, even Ed Morrissey, the Grand Poobah of the Blogosphere is wonderin' the same thing.

What does it say about the candidate when even his closest advisers have no consistent idea what he represents? Barack Obama has now committed so many reversals, obfuscations, and rhetorical parsings that he now stands for nothing — only himself. Even his surrogates can’t get his story straight; how are voters supposed to decide what he believes?

Cross-posted at RedState

Sports has its own breed of talking heads; just stat-spewing pundits with thicker necks. As part of the vamping, the tedious waiting for the TV gods to say the clouds have parted and it's ok to play, the blabbers continue to blab about Imus. Must be a very slow news day. Blah Blah Blah.

Wait for the flying pigs.... weeee.... there they go. The NYT admits the surge was a success. And that President Bush was right. Watch out for those pieces of the sky falling.

Don't try to figure out Obama's energy plan du jour. You'll get dizzy. Like all his other plans du jour.

Speaking of Obama, his High Anointed One and the Frocked Missus sat down for a one-on-one interview with none other than the blogosphere's own Dr. Sanity.

Funny, funny Laurie is up to it again. Now she has a new internet business.

That's why they call them "socialists", dude.

The Game has started ... more later!

Go Dawgs!

Over at RezcoWatch, Digging Deeper notes

...Obama is adopting the recommendations of his "advisers", all of whom are married to corporate interests.

Ronald Reagan was right: personnel is policy. "It meant that if you want conservative policy, you had better go hire the smartest and toughest conservatives you can find to execute it".

Since it is evident that for Obama personnel is policy, we are doomed...

But these two, oh boy, these two blow the doors off the wagon. He's got experience alright, but not with the Girl Scouts selling cookies down the street.

First, Little Green Footballs highlights an article up on Obama's OWN website that has been up since May 26th:

I think we have the jawdropper of the day, as the official web site of a candidate for president of the United States contains a blog posted by a follower of World Can’t Wait, linking to an article by the chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party.

And this is the official website MONITORED by his campaign!

Secondly, GatewayPundit gives a history lesson where Obama's first speech was sponsored by, you guessed it (!), a marxist campus group founded by none other than Tom Hayden. You might remember him as a previous Mr. Jane Fonda.

In 1969 Hayden's students for democracy group began imploding into factions. One of them, a group calling itself Weatherman, was elected to SDS leadership and proclaimed that the time had come to launch a race war on behalf of the Third World and against the United States.

[...] The new entity dissolved Hayden's Students for a Democratic Society and formed a terrorist cult in its place, which was given the name Weather Underground.

Is it really surprising then that after his first public speech at Occidental College Barack Obama would just happen to find himself working several years with William Ayers, the founder of the terrorist cult Weather Underground, in Chicago?

At this rate, we'll have completed the Seven Degrees of Kevin Bacon in no time at all! But with bombs. The endorsements continue to roll in.

Oh yes, this is change, lots of change, but none that I want a part of!

The AP says the world is spinning out of control (sorry - just the link, no longer quoting AP material). Maybe the world is really spinning with a laughter hang-over about the AP's notion to charge bloggers for "quotations". Hey AP, I own the word MORON. You owe ME money! But back to the article. Such doom and gloom, such emo goth angst, and it took TWO people to write it. TTTTOOOOOO. What a little pity party! James Pethokoukis notes

I dunno, maybe contributing to our low national morale are media that 1) compare a weak economy—although one that has yet to suffer even a single negative quarter—to the disastrous economies of the 1930s and 1970s; 2) forget to mention that the average person buying a home in, say, January 2000, is still sitting on a 66 percent gain; 3) ignore the economy's sky-high productivity, which helps make it the most competitive in the world; 4) ignore a global economic boom that is pushing up gas prices but also raising hundreds of millions of people out of poverty; and 5) for the heck of it, perpetuate the myth that college is unaffordable.

[...]America's "can-do" attitude? We are coming off a record year for initial public offerings. I mean, I could go on and on here. I don't know anyone who is giving up, other than the AP.

Maybe we'll get a two-fer, both Obama and the AP will the laughed off the stage.

Or better yet, put Fausta in charge over there at AP. You get more info in her weekly Festival of Latin America than a week full of whiny AP newspapers!

Capital idea, capital indeed.

UPDATE: TexasFred has the ultimate Obama Lie List.