Daily Dope

From Alexander Marquardt:

(CNN) – Responding to an Israeli reporter’s question Wednesday on his commitment to protect the Jewish state, Barack Obama pointed to a bill “we passed” in the U.S. Senate Banking Committee that tightens sanctions and authorizes divestment from Iran. “My committee,” he called it.
Except that he isn’t a member of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs

Mrs. Clinton must be very fustrated having lost to this idiot.

As always, Professor Althouse is elequent:

I guess we’re not supposed to think about how Obama wanted and still wants to give up on the Iraq war. Surely, if he’d been there in 1948, he would have said the Berlin airlift is hopeless. He thought the surge was hopeless.

As alway, Ace is not:

Are you somehow implying that Captain Bullshit says one thing and does another?

With respect to this, Jake Tapper:

Shortly after 6 pm Central time — just a few hours after Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, gave his speech in Berlin, which his campaign insisted was not political — his campaign manager, David Plouffe, sent out a fundraising solicitation using the speech to raise campaign cash.

BO credits the Berliners for keeping hope during the dark days of the Berlin Air Lift.  Personally, I’d credit the United States Air Force.

There is an interesting poll out that confirms this is a center-right nation at least in terms of fiscal responsibility in government.

Conducted in late June, the poll surveyed 800 voters and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.46%. Likely voters were asked the following question: “All things being equal, for whom would you be more likely to vote for the U.S. Congress: 1) A candidate who wants to cut overall federal spending, even if that includes cutting some money that would come to your district or 2) A candidate who wants to increase overall spending on federal programs, as long as more federal spending and projects come to your district?”

The results were unambiguous. Fifty-four percent of general election voters chose the frugal candidate, compared with only 29% who chose the profligate candidate. Republicans overwhelming favor less federal spending, 72% to 17%, with independents close behind at 61%. Only Democrats prefer more federal spending, but only by a plurality. Thirty-six percent of Democrats chose the more fiscally conservative candidate, with 42% choosing the alternative.

So perhaps Obama’s tax and spend policies are just playing to his democratic base. For sure, I think we see one element of why the democratic majority congress is seeing historic low approval ratings.

• 90 Billion BBLsof oil under the ice.
• So, Obama went to the wall today. We’re suppsoed to be impressed by the turnout. Perhaps before you get too impressed with how well Germans react to his posturing, perhaps you’ll be smart enough to remember that about half the country is still annoyed that the communists are no longer in power. Do you suppose it’d be hard for him in that environment, to gather a bunch of drooling morons to hear him spout? I mean, forget the guy is offering rockbands and beer, and food. The press didn’t mention it last time, either.  Forget that the posters annoucing the thing look like something out of Joe Goebels Closet.
• There’s a lot of argument about electric cars. The electric car is no panacea, gang. Sorry. Go and read.
• Meantime, Oil continues to fall.  As I predicted. Another $4 down yesterday. Down to about $125 as of this writing, and doubtless lower by the time you see this, particularly once folks figure out that Dolly didn’t do all that much damage to oil platforms in the gulf.   An I’m paying under $4/gal now.  I’ll keep my SUV, thank you.
• Wonder no longer why business types are leaving California. The all-powerful government.
• I mentioned this morning about John Edwards. Apparently the Clintonistas are still after him. Far as I’m concerned that confirms the thinking.
• Bruce gets this one:
  

  The surge insured and helped spread the Anbar Awakening. The fact that we promised to stay made it easy for tribal leaders in other provinces to cooperate with us. The fact that we surged 30,000 troops into Iraq made it pretty much a no-brainer, in a tactical sense, for al Sadr to stand his motley crew down. And while we’re at it, it also allowed the time necessary to continue the training of the ISF to the point that they were recently able to mount successful major operations in Basra and more recently, Baghdad’s Sadr City.So don’t let the Democrats rewrite history on this one. They were wrong about opposing it and that is what they’re trying so hard to duck. When all is said and done, it was the decision to change strategy and surge troops into Iraq to implement that strategy which played the major role in defeating AQI, turning the rest of the insurgents into allies and driving the Mahdi army off the battlefield, at least temporarily (and later permanently).

  Correct. As for the timing, the mere commitment to the policy was enough. You don’t stay in a burning house just because the fire isn’t in your room yet. The Mahadi and AQI split when they knew there was more folks coming than they could handle. Let me draw you a bit of a picture, by way of an interesting little parallel…Let me take you back a mere few days…

  Bush steps up before the mikes yesterday and says we gotta drill… open up offshore fields… and chides congress about opening up ANWR, and what happens? Price drops $9/bbl almost at once. That’s the biggest drop in the price of oil since 1991.

  So, tell me again, oil haters, how our committing to drilling for our own oil, and freeing up domestic production, including ANWR, won’t have an immediate effect on the price of oil… even before such fields come online.

  Here we have the mere spectre of a commitment by the US to drilling our own oil, and the price falls like it hasn’t in nearly 20 years

  Clearly, we affected the sutuation before the policy Bush mentions is put in place.

  So to attach that to the subject at hand…tell me, when did we decide on the surge strategy? Late 2006, wasn’t it? Since Bush made the pronouncements on the matter in his SOTU address in 2007, and it was panned as nothing new at the time, clearly the idea that the US was going to go with the surge was out there prior to that time. Even Wikipedia notes that the planning stages of the thing went back to 2006. Do you consider that the Iranians and the Sheiks are not watching our domestic politics closely enough to react to such situations as they appear on the horizon? You know they were. They saw the threat on the horizon and split.   As for the ones who remained, I submt that abesent the Surge the Awakening would have been back in dreamland before anyone noticed it. The surge gave the Iraqis an alternative to al Qaeda, and in more than just Anbar.  The Democrats were wrong about the outcome of the surge, and it’s really that simple. Had we listened to them, we’d have been defeated.

Senate Republicans have finally noticed that gasoline prices are up over four dollars a gallon, and American motorists are feed-up with the high prices.  Manu Raju, Hill, reports Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell is threatening to shut-down the Senate. unless Dirty Harry Reid allows floor votes on expanded domestic drilling :

“We think there is nothing more important that we can do right now than to deal with the Number One issue of the country,”

Moe Lane, Red State. says:

[N]o downside. So shut it down, baby.

Second the motion.

 :

 Thomas Barnett notes:

Spray one apartment and the bugs move over to the next. Wherever there’s the least resistance or the most opportunity, you find them clustered.

The Anbar awakening ruins al Qaeda’s long-term chances in Iraq, and so the clustering refocuses on Pakistan. With the surge succeeding in Iraq and Bush finally coming around to rapprochement with Iran, our re-direct on Afghanistan/Pakistan seems well underway for the next president.

Joyner notes the piece and says:

Of course, they could always re-direct back if we “surge” in Aghanistan/Pakistan and leave Iraq before it is able to sustain the gains in security.

BO has a problem taking a clear position.  Meryl Yourish has no such problem:

Obama is using the Holocaust to score rhetorical points. Mind you, he’s not the only person ever to have done so, but I’m calling bullshit on this quote:

“I am always taken back to sort of the core question of humanity that the Holocaust raises. That is, on the one hand, man’s great capacity for evil, and on the other hand, our ability to come together to stop evil.”

Stopping the Holocaust had absolutely nothing to do with the Allies coming together to stop Hitler. People who think that WWII happened to stop the Holocaust are either fools or liars. Allied leaders had the reports. They knew what was happening. They did nothing. No, wait. Some encouraged it, by refusing to take in Jewish refugees from Hitler’s advances (we’re looking at you, Britain).

Hat tip and More:  Jay Tea, Wizbang:

One guy, who holds a Bachelor’s in Political Science and International Relations from Columbia University, a degree from Harvard Law School (magna cum laude), and a former professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Chicago Law School, seems to think that “stopping the Holocaust” was one of the major motivating factors in World War II.

I refer, of course, to Senator Barack Obama.

 And the gafffes keep on coming.

I’ll use James’ post over at OTBto spring off of, because I’ve been thinkng about this for a couple of days:

John Edwards has been spotted back together with his alleged mistress, Rielle Hunter

James quotes the story, and then comments:

This is the National Enquirer we’re talking about here, not the Washington Post.  Then again, as Byron York points out, “the Rush Limbaugh oxycontin story was broken by the Enquirer, and the press ran with that one.”  Indeed, the Enquirer breaks legitimate scandals all the time.  But they run with all manner of nonsense too — they just don’t care so long as they sell papers

Mmmppppfhhhh.

I’m not sure I accept York’s argument.

 Let’s remember that the National Enquirer  is home to a large number of Hillary Clinton supporters, not least among them David Kendall.  So conceptually, Hillary Clinton’s fingerprints are all over that one at the off.  But the reason behind such a move may not be apparent to the casual observer… and frankly, it wasn’t until last night that this occurred to me; I’m somewhat annoyed at myself for not seeing this earlier.

John Edwards had all the endorsements of the various unions wrapped up, before he dropped out.  Most of these are unions, the rank and file of which have shown some reluctance to vote for the “Black”  guy.

(I put black in quotes because of course Obama is half-white… but I digress..)  (

(Oh… and yes, racism is alive and well among Democrats…)

 Obama chosing Edwards as a VP at that point would have been a no-brainer, and likley would have been enough to at least cause McCain some serious trouble in the general election.  Edwards would ahve brought the union voter along with him. With the scandal though, Edwards is a less attractive candidate to say the very least, thus lowering the chances of HIllary Clinton gaining the White House.  So, the National Enquirer  offered up this story… true or not, it has the desired effect. And, for the record, I consider it true. So much for Union support for Obama.

So where does this leave us? It leaves Obama with one less obvious choice for VP for one thing, it leaves him without union backing, barring anyone else in that position that the Unions will rally to, sice they’re clearly less than inclined to rally around Obama himself… and it leaves Hillry Clinton in a position once again to be taken seriously as a VP candidate. Else, it leaves Hillary Clinton in a position to be running against a Republican incumbancy.

Either way, she’s not out of this thing yet, gang.

Today’s installment of the Daily Dope comes courtesy of Dean Barnett, Weekly Standard:

How can Obama, he of the “talented, incredible gift of a mind,” be unaware of such basic facts? Then again, in Obama-world, perhaps such a deal would be called “tough and principled diplomacy.” Regardless, Obama’s assertion that terrorism has made Israel “dig in” is ludicrously counterfactual. I understand that on the Obama campaign bus they only watch ESPN, but it’s still surprising that the news of last week’s prisoner swap escaped the presumptive nominee’s notice

The mind of a terrible thing to waste.  Apparently the Obama campaign is wasting bus loads of them.

What you see here is something called “Happy Flu, which is an experiment run by Marc Danziger. If you’ve got a blog and you saw this here first, click “Spread It” which will give you a chance to get the code to embed the thing on your own site which will of course stop global warming, get us off oil in the next 15 minutes, and rid us of Al Gore forever. As more sites pick this up the thing apparently goews. I admidt being mildly curious, so I posted it.

The ever interesting and erudite Michael Barone posted about what the 2010 census is looking like right now in terms of shuffling the electoral votes by adding or subtracting congressional districts due to population changes.  The long and the short of it is 14 EV will get moved around with those states going for Bush in 2004 getting +8 and those states going for Kerry getting -8.

But there is more to the story. If you further refine the data for states that went strongly for Bush (>5% margin), weakly for Bush (<=5% margin), weakly for Kerry (5% margin), you find that the switch is even more pronounced.

The states that went strongly for Bush are likely to gain 10 EV (Arizona +2, Florida +2, Georgia +1, Louisiana -1, Missouri -1, North Carolina+1, South Carolina +1, Texas +4 and Utah +1). Those that went weakly for Bush are likely to lose 2 EV (Iowa -1, Nevada +1, Ohio -2). The states that went weakly for Kerry are likely to lose 2 EV (Michigan -1, Minn. -1, Oregon +1, Penn. -1). Those that went strongly for Kerry are likely to lose 6 EV (California -1, Illinois -1, Mass. -1, New Jersey -1, New York -2).

This means that in the 2012 match up, the democrats will start 16 EV behind where they lost in 2004. That’s more EV than if they lost a democratic stalwart like New Jersey (currently 15EV, going to 14EV).  I will leave it as an exercise to the reader to ponder on why states that trend republican are on net gaining population while states that trend democratic are losing population.

Addendum: (Bit)

Bitsblog readers, please welcome YetAnotherJohn. John agreed to start writing with us a short time ago. I’ve liked John’s style for a long while, now, and I’m sure you will, as well.  I was going to make an announcement but decided it’d be more fun this way. Welcome YAJ!

• A .491 Blood Alcohol level? Why is this guy still breathing? And he was Driving?
• Profits at The New York Times are off 82%If I’m Rupert Murdoch I’m watching this one.
• Dolly visits Texas. No deaths, far as I know.
• I see John Edwards and Rielle Hunter are in the news again.  I’ve seen less than desireable women, but this one actually makes Hillary Clinton look good.  I wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt, and say it was a bad photo of her…. we’ve all had those… usually un some form of ID that follows us for deacdes.  But, evey photo I’ve ever seen of her she looks… well, never mind.  I begin to suspect John Edwards and Price Charles were separated at Birth. It would explain their shared taste in women, and Edwards apparently thinking he’s royalty. What can be said about the judgement of such a person?
• I wouldn’t be so quick to say Obama doesn’t want to lose the war, James. Democrats have been successful at labeling it “Bush’s war”, and snice they’re running against their nemesis, instread of against McCain, they view it as being in their best interest to lose. They’re completely dedicated to delegitimizing and thus destroying the Bush presidency, thereby giving themselves a leg up. Do3esn’t matter who dies as a result, so long as they win in November. It also goes directly to their argument that there was no way to win. A recent poll done by Fox, reports that one in five Democrats think the world would be better off if we lost the war in Iraq. Obama, Murtha, Reid and Kerry have all made unpatriotic remarks about our troops. They’ve worked in a very active fashion to stop their flow of supplies..(By as I mentioned a few days ago, bringing up the “Genocide” thing with Turkey, so as to cut off our Iraq front supply lines which run through  that country. That was Pelosi, Lantos and Slaughter.)  Murtha also worked to cut off supplies, and worked hard to demean our troops in the field… and when his statements were proven wrong, he suddenly disappears from the stage. No apologies, no explaining of his anti-American actions. These are the cream of the crop… the leaders of the Democrat party. So, now you’re going to tell me that Obama breaks that mold? That he doesn’t want us to lose when he’s so clearly working toward that end like the rest of the Democrat party? As Bruce says this morning:
  

  How clueless can one be? There has never been any doubt that Iraq is of no significance or importance to Barack Obama – and that means he really doesn’t care about a successful outcome there. He simply wants us out – regardless. He’ll mouth the platitudes about honoring our military’s sacrifice, but bottom line, he’s going to pull us out of there regardless of the advice he gets from generals or the conditions there at the time – and it has to do with politics and the presidency.

   Sorry James, I’m unconvinced.

• Interesting news out of the Southernteir of NY. Interesting to me, anyway. Seems Route 81 Broadcasting was foreclosed on. Rt81 holds…. welll, HELD… WENY AM-FM, WENI AM-FM, WCBA, WGMM,(WNAK, WCDL, WAZL, WLNP WHYL, WCOJ and WS2K. I used to work at WCBA, you see. Seems the model they were using…trying to work what synergy there was betrween their stations in each market, didn’t help them much.  I predicted that would happen when Eolin sold them the place. Ah, well. At least Jack Shane wasn’t alive to see what’s become of the place. Never did hear what happened to Dean, though.
• At some point the folks attacking the right are going to get their stuff together. After which, the world will end.
• Something wierd in the new version of WordPress is fouling the way pictures get wrapped with text in posts… To be specific, they DON’T get wrapped, wven when you ostensibly set up the code that way. A little annoying. I’m working on that.
• Ann Althouse is correct here.
  

  “If Klein wants to get all outraged about something, he should get outraged retrospectively about how Obama and many Democrats were ready and even eager to embrace defeat. If Klein wants to worry about who is unsuited for the presidency, he ought to recognize that if Obama had been President two years ago, we would have suffered a humiliating defeat in Iraq that would have repercussions for decades.”

  Applause from here, Ann.

• The reports from the DNC in Denver are still not looking the best for the Democrats. Clearly they think they’re better than the rest of us, immune to the laws they’d have us follow. And it’s not just Al Gore.
• I may say something more about this later, and I’ll decidedly post a pic for you, but just before this goes to press, I found out our older cat, Sam, passed on today. He’s been having kidney trouble for years, so, sadly, this was pretty much expected.  OK, I know… it’s a small thing in the history of the world, but huge in the world of Casa de Bit.   Those of you who have lost pets will understand the impact this can have. Sam was as freindly a cat as you’ll ever see in your life.. a real snuggler, and a good companion.  It was his way of things that caused us in short order to become cat people, if you will, bringing home in short order. Ray, who died with cancer last year, and  Molly, who after Ray died was joined by Ginny. If Sam hadn’t been so nice a cat, we’d not have welcomed more into our house.  But as it happens, Sam was the ideal cat. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention him today. There’s no doubt in my mind he knew he was loved, and loved in return. I miss him already. (Sigh)
•  Finally, I note with interest that a stretch of road (NY20-A)  near Ralph Wilson Stadium in Buffalo (well OK, Orchard Park) is to be named for Tim Russert. They’re trying to rename the airport in Buffalo for him, too I hear. I’ll have to check with my buddy over in Buffalo and see how that’s doing. Normally, I’d wonder about stuff like this. But really, Russert is as close to a celeb as Buffalo is likely to get for a while. So why not? And yes, that a news person is a celeb, or close to it, I see as problematic, eventually, but let it pass for now.

Here is where the Democrats are today, as noted at OTB’s comments section last night. Two different people, both leftists, both speaking about Iraq and the liberation of it’s people: First one:

Certainly when you look at the cost/benefit equation, the wisdom of removing Saddam by force is questionable

Incredulous, I ask if we a re now judging the value of freedom by the dollar sign.  And, he responds:

That is a good point. According to Austin’s logic, ousting Charles Mugabe should be worth several hundred billion. The yahoos in Sudan should be worth multiple trillions. At what point does Charles Austin suggest we stop with his logic? Clearly, he’s saying we’re better off with Mugabe in power if he isn’t for all out war resulting in a regime change in Zimbabwe

So, we look further down the comment list, and we see another inDUHvidual:

My personal opinion is that if the people of Iraq wanted freedom, they should have fought for it all by themselves. We have a lot of problems in our own country to deal with, and we are burning up a lot of our resources in Iraq, a country with great wealth of its own.

The real cost of freedom is a willingness to die for it. Did the people of Iraq ever show that?

Actually, they were dying daily. Ask the Kurds, the Marsh people and so on. But here’s the thing… these two are flying Democrat party colors. And in that party this narrow-mindedness is hardly unique.  It used to be different in that party, though. Back on January 20th, 1961, we first heard these words:

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
…
To those peoples in the huts and villages across the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required—not because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right.

You know, it’s a wonder to me that the Democrats still invoke JFK as an icon, given how far away from his ideals they’ve traveled.

The Perky One interviewed BO.  This what Gateway Pundit had to say about the interview:

This was an amazing segment on CBS News. Katie Couric interviewed both Barack Obama and John McCain on the surge.
Obama sounded TOTALLY arrogant and ridiculous!

Katie’s interview, video:

[wp_youtube]3B7cbm68wPU[/wp_youtube]

BO might have the media in the tank for him. However if the Messiah continues to give dumb answers, his halo will be come a neck scarf.

Hat tip photo:  Avant Trash.