That Three AM Call….

You will doubtless recall Hillary’s “Daisy” ad, where she raises the question about who is going to answer that 3am phone call.  Obama released a response ad last week, too.

But in a rare bit of honesty, the New York Times in it’s blog, is reporting that  a senior aide to Obama is saying neither candidate is ready for such a call. Like I said, rare honesty.

The fact…(and it’s one that even the Times doesn’t mention)… is that both will be spending so much time on increasing taxes and social policy, and social spending, there will be no money and no energy left to defend the nation when it comes under attack.

I mean, it’s fun watching these two attack each other, but what we’re dealing with is two of the most tone deaf and misdirected people we could possibly offer up as possible leaders, given the state of the world.

• It strikes me as amusing indeed that the plan that Hillary Clinton is using to win the Democratic Party primary is the very same plan Al Gore used back in 2000, in his attempt to win the election.  Namely, challenge the agreed-upon rules and demand a re-vote.
• It’s equally weird how Obama, who wants all the people heard, is going to try and convince Florida their votes don’t count.
• At what point are we going to stop hearing how the afore- mentioned Mr. Gore can save the Democrats from themselves? Seems to me all that does is reinforce dishonest behavior… something which Gore has been raising to an art form, of late.
• Well, I’ve seen a lot of people bombed in Times Square, but never a building.  See my recent post, where I mentioned the leftist politics which suborn this kind of nonsense. It’s all part of the same package, in the end. And no, Bruce… it’s not a cheap shot. More like accurate enemy identification.
• This is what happens when you’re too stupid to use incendiary bombs.
• If there is a stronger indication that the left is at war with itself, than this, I don’t know of it.

Much is being made just now, of the possiblity of the DNC making a ‘do-over’ in Florida and Michagan.  If I considdered oward Dean a principled man, I’d suggest he wouldn’t do it on the basis of principle. But these are Democrats we’re talking about, and thus principle and the application thereof is not the primary consideration.

James Joyner gets into all of this, this monring, with an overview of some of the surrounding issues.

There is unquestionably a sense of irony surrounding the idea that twice, now, the election hangs, for Democrats on Florida. And now, this time, Mich, too.

This is imporant, I think, because of the degree of emotionalism that the Democrat party tends to base it’s campaigns… and it’s chocies of campaigners.. on. The combo is a deadly one, either way Dean were to rule on this one. James suggests calling a do-over is dangerous for Dean and the Democrats. I suggest that the party is divided at near enough 50/50 as to not matter much, which way he rules… any choice at all is bound to tick off half the party, and likely cost the independant vote, as well… and across the country, not just in those states.

Either way, it comes off as high-handed, and we’ll see charges of both an arbitrary ruling, and a pre-selection by the DNC.

However that subset goes, there’s the image of a party that is in extreme disarray, and over the last 4 presidential cycles, a situation that’s been getting worse.

In all of this the one thing that shows rather clearly is something I’ve been lamenting for some time; the only thing that makes McCain look good is the Democrats…. now, not only from a matter of policy, but as a matter of sheer organizational inability.

It used to be ‘global warming’. Then a few dozen  enviro-nazi rallies got stopped by snowstorms. Kinda hard to claim global warming when you’re freezing your buttocks off.

Remember how it was vital we ‘save the whales’? Well, that’s out now, too.

 OSLO -(REUTERS)- Eat a whale and save the planet, a Norwegian pro-whaling lobby said on Monday of a study showing that harpooning the giant mammals is less damaging to the climate than farming livestock.
Environmental group Greenpeace dismissed the survey, saying almost every kind of food was more climate friendly than meat.

The survey, focused on whale boats’ fuel use, showed that a kilo (2.2 lbs) of whale meat represented just 1.9 kilo (4.2 lbs) of greenhouse gases against 15.8 for beef, 6.4 for pork and 4.6 for chicken.

“Basically it turns out that the best thing you can do for the planet is to eat whale meat compared to other types of meat,” said Rune Froevik of the High North Alliance, which represents the interests of coastal communities in the Arctic.

“Greenhouse gas emissions caused by one meal of beef are the equivalent of eight meals of whale meat,” the study said.

There are some stories which don’t require comment.

This is one such.

The Business in Venezuela is getting worse. Chavez has closed the Columbian border. AFP is reporting:

A crisis between three Latin American nations worsened Tuesday when Venezuela said it was closing its border with Colombia, even as frantic diplomatic talks to stave off war were about to begin.

Venezuelan Agriculture Minister Elia Jaua said “we have taken some measures, like closing the border,” according to the Colombian television station Caracol.

The announcement aggravated a stand-off between Colombia and leftwing neighbors Venezuela and Ecuador that was triggered by a Colombian raid inside Ecuador to kill a senior FARC rebel commander.

Interesting. FARC makes it’s money from drug traffic. FARC also was identified in this blog, recently as supporting Obama for President. And of course, guess who Crazy Uncle Hugo is supporting?  Work the math, people. This isn’t rocket science.

When pols power is under threat, all that crap goes away to be replaced by sleeze and attack. I note a story this morning at MSNBC, which reports on the comments from Barrack Obama Campaign manager David Plouffe, who has started what only weeks ago was labeled ‘name calling’, ‘mud slinging’, and was generally speaking, off limits:

The Obama campaign is stepping up the rhetoric. Campaign Manager David Plouffe went so far as to call Hillary Clinton the “most secretive politician in America today.”

The tough talk underscored not only the negative shift in tone of the Obama campaign in the past 24 hours, but just how contentious this fight for the nomination is becoming.

Part of what the Obama campaign would like the focus to be on is ethics — something adviser David Axelrod said they would be glad to have a debate over. But the Obama campaign may be a victim of time, since an argument on ethics could be tough to steer with the ongoing Rezko trial.”I think that you know Sen. Clinton has talked a lot about disclosure in the last few days,” Plouffe told reporters. “Sen. Clinton is the most secretive politician in America today. This has been a pattern throughout her career of the lack of disclosure.”

Echoing Axelrod, Plouffe said the campaign would be more than willing to tangle with the Clintons, appearing to suggest that if needed they would raise issues like Whitewater that plagued the Clintons in the 90s..

The pattern is already clear.  Politicians .. of any stripe…  in reality, can only afford to be magnanimous so long as their power or their path to is as the case may be, isn’t threatened. With her wins in Texas and Ohio Hillary Clinton suddenly presents a serious threat to to Obama’s attainment of power. And so he goes negative before the echo dies. The relationship between such threats and such responses is as predictable as any physical law.

Of course, the same is true for John McCain.  Once his path to power was no longer threatened by his fellow Republicans, he suddenly became unwilling to discuss the negative points of the people running against him.  Since he now has the Republican nomination sewn up, the only threat in his path is whatever Democrat candidate manages to survive the mess the Democrats have built for themselves. We’ll see that coming forth shortly.

Mind you, I don’t see this as a bad thing. It is what it is. That’s one major reason why all of McCain’s bluster about not going negative and chastising his supporters who do, strikes me as totally disingenuous, and is for me a total turnoff. He’s as likley to go negative as anyone when his path to power is under threat.

At least, he’d better, if he wants to win.

Candidates is glass houses, the Obama campaign on the Clintons’  campaign, via MSNBC:

“As it relates to ethics and transparency,” Plouffe said, “we’re surprised that they would want to have an extended conversation about contributors and land deals and ethics issues. I don’t think that’s a lengthy conversation that’s probably going to work out very well for them.

“So we are obviously not going to allow these attacks to go unanswered, and we think things like who has the strongest ethics, who has the chance to really bring about reform, who’s going to be the most open with the American people that that’s a real distinction,” he said

I am sure the McCain campaign is paying attention and taking notes.

Self defense, sanity, New York Times:

PHOENIX – Horrified by recent campus shootings, a state lawmaker here has come up with a proposal in keeping with the Taurus .22-caliber pistol tucked in her purse: Get more guns on campus.

The lawmaker, State Senator Karen S. Johnson, has sponsored a bill, which the Senate Judiciary Committee approved last week, that would allow people with aconcealed weapons permit – limited to those 21 and older here – to carry their firearms at public colleges and universities.

Canada attacks free speech, Michelle Malkin:

You need to know about this. The same tool who went after Canadian publisher Ezra Levant over the Mohammed cartoons is also targeting other Canadian conservative bloggers with “defamation” legal threats. He is trying to shut up and shut down the right-leaning blogosphere up north one blog at a time-and then is suing people who call him a censor.

Connie Fournier at No Apologies reports on the crisis

It is time to abolish open primaries, Hot Air.

Pander Parade, Bob Hunter, Wall Street Journal:

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both claim to be ready to be president on “day one.” But on the campaign trail, both are pandering to organized labor and other antitrade activists on the left.

If the ‘rats will not stand-up to special instersts, the labor unions, they can be expected to stand-up for our country.

Fat Chance, Chicago Sun-Times:

WASHINGTON — It’s the latest big bang theory of Democratic presidential politics.

Democrats who can’t decide between Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton saw the possibility dangled in front of them Wednesday that they could end up with both

Messiah, Jr,  Boston Globe:

Aides to Governor Deval Patrick fanned out across the State House yesterday, delivering copies of an 11-page, color brochure extolling the benefits of the governor’s casino plan to individual lawmakers, a move that emphasized his key arguments in advance of the scheduled release today of an independent analysis by the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.

Deval Patrick is a major role model for Barack Obama.   Is this slso Obama’s plan?

Less than 48 hours ago, I posted a note from Bluto about the Lee Media Network.

Great news from Rusty…. They’re gone.

Keep up the fight, guys.  We’re with you.

• They’re waking up, sorta. Drum, today:

VITRIOL….Atrios:

The campaigns and candidates themselves may not get nasty, but I get the sense that supporters of the various candidates are getting angrier at the other camp. Sure a lot of this is just relatively harmless virtual world internet flaming, but it has real world manifestations too.

This has sort of taken me by surprise too. I’m reminded of the old saying that the smaller the stakes, the more vicious the battle. Obama and Clinton are obviously different in some important ways, but overall there just aren’t any huge gaps between them, either in ideology or governing theory. They’re both great candidates (as was John Edwards), and I confess that I have a hard time understanding the level of vitriol that the race has produced among supporters on both sides. I sure hope that all the doom and gloom talk is just talk, because anybody who’s seriously thinking about sitting out this election if their guy doesn’t win is being an idiot.

Not really, given McCain. But what’s really happening here is the real loyalties are being exposed, here. Your point, Kevin, about there not being water between the two Democrat candidates is more correct than you know. But actual policy differences have not been what’s been driving the Democrats since Reagan, anyway. Why on earth would that change, now? Oh… and I should note that your being unable to recognize that point shows clearly that you’re part of the problem, as is Atrios.

• Further, I note the Democrat on Democrat violence continues unabated, which further proves the point.
• Gateway Pundit notes a rather interesting connection between Obama and Terrorism. The Jawas are on it as well.
• It’s an interesting discussion…. the question of how much Limbaugh influenced Hillary Clinton’s primary wins in Texas and Ohio. OTB has some discussion on this. Personally, I figure it’s likely he did in fact influence things, and if nothing else, it shows clearly the strength of the Republicans in those states, given the exit polling we’re seeing. But more, it shows how McCain got the Republican nod. Do we really want open primaries, people?
• Snow and ice here last night. Not 1991 ice storm type but big enough to have me casting a wary eye at that tree in my backyard, and my power lines.
• I see where Clinton has suggested that Obama would make her a good VP. Well, first, no, because I don’t think he makes a good much of anything at all. (Which arguably makes him a perfect fit) Secondly, no, it’s not going to happen, either way. Clinton won’t be Obama’s VP and Obama won’t be Clintons. In truth, the ego of each is too big for the other to deal with. Obama would never stand for the Clintons “We are the Vice President” pooping on Obama’s parade, and versa visa. Of course the speculation is that the combo, either way it’s presented to the voters would be a winner by about 6 points at least, for whatever that’s worth. I guess all this proves is the slippery grip the Democrat voter has on reality. In any event, it’s too early in the campaign for any such measurement to be meaningful. And like I say, ego is the biggest factor here. Ain’t gonna happen. Bottom line is this was Hillary, claiming victory and rubbing Obama’s nose in it. Which, I suppose also puts an interesting spin on her ability to discern reality.
• McGehee takes the occasion of Huckabee dropping out of the race to point out that he’s yet another one who won in Iowa, and lost the race.

Gateway Pundit is reporting that FARC, a Columbia terrorist group, is rooting for Barack Obama  to be elected  President:

The FARC Terrorists were hoping and expecting that Barack Obama would win the US elections in November because he was most aligned with the Colombian Marxist group

This is not to say that FARC has explicitly endorsed Obama, or that Obama has either sought or accepted such an endorsement.   However what does it say about Obama’s politics that  Marxist drug dealing murders would view Obama as their preferred candidate?   Are FARC”s interests aligned with our interests?  No.

Obama wife doesn’t like America.   FARC does like America.   Yet they like Obama.

Michelle Obama, a.k.a. the Bitch, is an American woman of African descent.  JammieWearingFool reports that the Bitch thinks we, the United States, are ‘Just Downright Mean‘.   She  has, two Ivy League degrees, an executive job, a million dollar house and (AFAIK) her clitoris.   If she were an African she not have none of these.   The Bitch thinks the United States is mean.    No bitch, this is mean here, here..

Did you see Hume, last night?

A study of the three broadcast network evening news programs indicates John McCain’s media fortunes have taken a dramatic turn south since early January. The Center for Media and Public Affairs says the percentage of McCain coverage it deemed positive was 46 percent from mid-December through mid-February. But look at the contrast between his 97 percent positive number before the New Hampshire primary on January eighth – and just 30 percent positive since.

Meanwhile, Barack Obama’s overwhelmingly positive coverage has slipped a bit. Between mid-December and mid-February, Obama received 84 percent positive coverage. Hillary Clinton got 53 percent positive. But since Super Tuesday in early February, Obama’s good press number is 67 percent. Clinton has dropped slightly to 50.

Breaking down coverage by network – ABC and CBS gave Obama 90 percent positive coverage – NBC 73 percent. For Clinton – ABC had 68 percent positive, CBS 50 percent, and only 38 percent on NBC.

And so here we have the vindication of my statements on the matter a few months ago.  The press, for all it’s glad handing of McCain in the early going, was never going to stay on once the train left the station. It’s called “Manipulation”.

OK< I should make mention that John McCain has clinched the nomination.

Huck has quit,  and  President Bush will endorse McCain.

Oh… and the sun came up today, too.

But I guess this is still good news by comparison. AsI suggested earlier this monring, it seems a sure bet that we’re going to be witness to open warfare withing the Demorat party, between now and November, whereas the Republicans have their candidate.

Do the math.

[Barack] Obama has exposed himself as a seriously inexperienced and flawed candidate. He hasn’t really been tested until now, and the glass jaw he showed in the first few days of the real bout must have the party establishment worried about a lengthy battle against either Hillary or McCain

Ed Morrissey, Hot Air.

OK, so, Hillary Clinton did win Texas and Ohio, which places the Democrat race at essentially all equal. Which once again, leaves the Democrats hanging on Florida.  You do know that’s going to come up again, right? It seems the bloom is off the rose for Obama, now, too.
However that might be, it’s my take a brokered convention is all but assured. But the one thing we’re assured of totally, is that the Democrats are going to be at each other’s throats right until November.

I can’t say I disapprove.