So it’s not a great night to be a Phillies fan. The heavily favored club has come off a three-game sweep of the Reds to stumble to the Giants, a team they handled with ease in the regular season. The vaunted aces have faltered and the bats fallen silent. Odds are fourth-string pitcher and well known layabout Joe Blanton will get plastered tonight by the surging Giants. The annointed ones are suddenly the underdogs.

But what if Blanton exercises his God-given right as an American to pursue happiness?

There are certainly no guarantees that Blanton will rise to the challenge and lead his team back into this series. But then again he might–the fat mediocre guy who naps while the hawks are practicing–might just get up there and shock those Giants out of their orange complacency. Or maybe he flubs it and the Phillies go home for good tomorrow night making him the goat of the Philadelphia fans. Or maybe even worse he flubs it and the tall, handsome H20 (Halladay, Hamels and Oswalt if you don’t know) save the series in seven, thus relegating Blanton to the dustheap of Phillies history. But I hope not. I hope Blanton has the night of his life. There have been precious few opportunities for Blanton to be a hero in the past, and if he fails tonight another is unlikely to come his way again. If he can grab hold of this one an ordinary career will have an extraordinary moment, and that’s the promise of the American way.

Here’s hoping an underdog has his day.

I was honored to be asked to be the lay preacher at our church this morning.  Here are my remarks as prepared for delivery.
St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Whitemarsh
July 4, 2010

On a sweltering July day eleven score and fourteen years ago, a group of men “mutually pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor” as they declared their freedom from Great Britain.  It happened not so very far from here in downtown Philadelphia, but we should remember that in the eighteenth century Chestnut Hill was a summer community several hours’ journey from the city, and may have seemed somewhat remote that July 4th.  It was hot in Philadelphia, but I’m sure the breezes out here were cooling and the trees provided ample shade—especially with no cars or trucks on Bethlehem Pike.  The view looking out from our hill over the fields of Hope Lodge, then in the process of being sold to William West, must have been bucolic compared to the raucous scene around Independence Hall.  The following year, however, the fallout of this audacious Declaration was brought home to St. Thomas’ as after the British victory at Germantown the redcoats stormed up Church Road to the top of this very hill and the area saw fierce fighting.  The little church that stood on this site was destroyed—its windows blown out and its graveyard desecrated.  These events make this Sunday on the date that precipitated them even more sacred for our congregation.  Since our predecessors thought it was worth dying over the Declaration of Independence, it seems to me an opportune moment to reflect on the great gift we were given all those years ago, and how we can act as good stewards of it today.

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I understand that aspects of the new Arizona immigration law are contraversial. I also understand that as a non-minority I might not fully appreciate how threatening some of the provisions in the law might seem. But it is also a fact that illegal immigration is threatening our national security, and Arizona is on the front line. From where I sit at least Governor Jan Brewer is attempting to do something to rectify the situation, not just turn a blind eye while uttering soothing politically-correct platitudes. You might think that any conversations about developing a coherant national immegration policy should include her–and is it that great a stretch to imagine that the President and the Director of Homeland Security would even look for an oppotunity to discuss and debate the Arizona legislation with Governor Brewer were she to visit Washington, D.C.?

Apparently the answer to that question is no.

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Claire Berlinski has an intriguing piece in this issue of The City titled “A Hidden History of Evil: Why doesn’t anyone care about the unread Soviet archives?” Part research paper and part detective story, Berlinski traces the fate of the damning records of Soviet totalitarianism–an unappetising tale that does not turn rosy even with the advent of perestroika in the 1980s. A number of these documents have been physically and electronically smuggled out of Russia by researcher Pavel Stroilov and dissident Vladimir Bukovsky, who are now trying to publish them for a western audience. But they have found scant enthusiasm among translators and the academic presses that you might think would have an interest in disseminating primary documentation. Why?

Berlinski suggests that the root of the problem is a basic academic affinity with the tenets of communism and I’m inclined to think she’s right. In perhaps the same impulse that leads many denizens of the ivory tower to sympathize with Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, there is a tendency to view Soviet communism as a flawed but still valid experiment. For those who believe in the basic soundness of Marxism, the catastrophic failure of the Soviet Union is an inconvenient truth made more palatable by the assertion that it was brought about by external factors. The line seems to be that the Soviets were no better and worse than we–different, sure, but perhaps we could learn from them and we certainly are in no position to judge.

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During a speech in Illinois on April 28, the President went “off the teleprompter” as it were and opined, “I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money.” He did allow that if you had a successful business model you could go on making money, this being America and all, but the implication–and the disdain–were clear. “Good” people wouldn’t go on pursuing Mammon when their legitimate needs were filled. They would pay their exorbitant taxes, I’m sorry, I mean “share” with their fellow Americans as they are morally and now legally obligated to do, and get away from this distasteful world of wealth generation and dig a well or plant a tree or write a poem or run for office or do whatever it is that Mr. Obama’s “good” people do.

I wouldn’t know as for better or worse I am in the other camp.

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From the give credit where credit is due file: The Washington Post editorializes today on the damning Inter-American Commission on Human Rights report on Venezuela that was issued last week. The evisceration of Venezuela’s democracy is laid out in dispassionate detail–the judicial and media crackdowns, the elimination of the private sector and the targeted use of violence against any and all opposition. Our tendency has been to dismiss Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez as a minor annoyance–a buffoon who bumbled his way into power and would bumble out again at some point, or, worse, to embrace him as a modern day Che Guevara who channels low-cost heating oil through the kindly auspices of Joe Kennedy and Bill Delahunt to underprivileged Americans. But this report paints a very different and ugly picture of a canny, ruthless manipulator who has over the last decade effectively consolidated power the power of this once-vibrant democracy into his despotic hands.

The response so far has been a resounding so what? Why should we care, and even if we could summon the energy to care, what can we do about it? Unfortunately, the answers to these questions are now we should care very much and there is precious little we can do–although if Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would read this report it would be a start.

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Thank you all very much.  It’s a pleasure to be here, and especially to receive the Keeper of the Flame Award in the company of so many good friends.  

I’m told that among those you’ve recognized before me was my friend Don Rumsfeld.  I don’t mind that a bit.  It fits something of a pattern.  In a career that includes being chief of staff, congressman, and secretary of defense, I haven’t had much that Don didn’t get first.  But truth be told, any award once conferred on Donald Rumsfeld carries extra luster, and I am very proud to see my name added to such a distinguished list.  

To Frank Gaffney and all the supporters of Center for Security Policy, I thank you for this honor.  And I thank you for the great energy and high intelligence you bring to as vital a cause as there is – the advance of freedom and the uncompromising defense of the United States.

Most anyone who is given responsibility in matters of national security quickly comes to appreciate the commitments and structures put in place by others who came before.  You deploy a military force that was planned and funded by your predecessors.  You inherit relationships with partners and obligations to allies that were first undertaken years and even generations earlier.  With the authority you hold for a little while, you have great freedom of action.  And whatever course you follow, the essential thing is always to keep commitments, and to leave no doubts about the credibility of your country’s word.

So among my other concerns about the drift of events under the present administration, I consider the abandonment of missile defense in Eastern Europe to be a strategic blunder and a breach of good faith.  

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Bill Safire died today.  As self-styled wordsmiths, opinionators and pundits we are all the poorer for his passing. Safire could be a maddening soul–he was not a party man but rather the creature of his own principles, civil liberties first and foremost among them.  As such, he could not be depended upon by left or right to deploy his elegant prose on demand.  He followed his own star.

I had the good fortune to get to know Mr. Safire a little over the past few years, and am personally feeling a little short-changed this evening.  I had hoped for more.  He was, as you might imagine, not a warm and fuzzy type.  You needed to bring your A game to any encounter with him, or risk him shooting you a look and saying, “That’s enough time”–in other words, it’s time for you to leave.  But he was also insightful and witty and generous.  Conversations could be like seminars, not only on events but also on the proper way to describe them.

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As part of part of Hillsdale
College’s DC-based Kirby Center for the Constitution and Citizenship
“First Principles on First Fridays” lecture series, John Bolton spoke at the Heritage Foundation today.  9/11 is of course a somber anniversary for our country, and a fitting moment to reflect on how how American foreign policy is being shaped in the post-George W. Bush era.

In Ambassador Bolton’s view, it is not a pretty picture.  He graded President Obama’s performance as ”absent.”  As Bolton pointed out in his remarks, the administration is pursuing a course of “Neo-Isolationism,” the point of which appears to be withdrawing American forces and refraining from using American influence around the world because such actions might be objectionable to the global community.  Ambassador Bolton noted that while President Obama has declared he believes in “American exceptionalism ,” the President followed up that assertion by saying he believed in it just as he suspects “that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.”  By this logic all countries are exceptional in their own view–which should make everyone feel good–but the problem is that then no country is truly exceptional, including America.  This approach, Bolton surmised, has been the guiding principle that unites the President’s repeated offers to negotiate directly with Iran, enabling of the dog-and-pony show that was former President Clinton’s visit to North Korean, and eagerness to cede power to the International Criminal Court–while presiding over the evisceration of the Defense budget.  Ambassador Bolton was particularly outspoken on the current situation in Honduras, in which the administration is siding with Hugo Chavez, Daniel Ortega and Fidel Castro and against Honduras’ constitutional process.  He gave that situation “an F.  No question about it.  This is a disgrace.”

After the lecture, Ambassador Bolton graciously granted Redstate an exclusive interview to follow up on the formation (or lack thereof) of foreign policy by President Obama’s national security team, Hugo Chavez’ mischief-making around the globe, and the ramifications of the Obama administration’s policy towards Israel.  Click here to listen to the full podcast.

I had the pleasure of speaking recently with Paul Rahe, who is the author of Soft Despotism, Democracy’s Drift: Montesquieu, Rousseau, Tocquville and the Modern Prospect (Yale University Press: 2009).

Professor Rahe’s book is the first of three that I will be recommending for summer reading in preparation for the RedState get-together in Atlanta on August 1st. Judging from the covers, this trio might not seem the lightest of reading but fortunately all three authors prove in their own styles that substantive reading doesn’t have to be a long, hard slog. And all three of them have important lessons for us in this lazy, off-election-cycle summer.

Over the months since the 2008 election, conservatives of all stripes have searched their souls and wrung their hands and gnashed their teeth over the apparent demise of our movement. Various proposals to reinvent, repackage and/or rebrand conservatism have been widely offered. My thought is that we might productively, with the assistance of these three excellent books, strive for another “r” word—renaissance.

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Caption this.

I know it’s not a “scientific” poll but the numbers at the poll regarding the recent award to Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) by outgoing Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter earlier this month are nothing short of gobsmacking.  Vote now to see for yourself.  And if that feels pretty good, there’s a petition you can sign, too.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to participate in a Hudson Institute/RedState sponsored “New Media Forum” with John Walters, who served as President Bush’s “drug czar” from 2001-09.  As we all know, the escalating drug war in Mexico threatens to violently destabilize the nation and so create a serious problem for the neighboring United States.  The crisis appears intractable–indeed there are some in the US who have speculated that Mexico is on the brink of being a “failed state.”  The Obama administration response appears to be one of manning the ramparts rather than attempting to find a solution.  You might expect Mr. Walters to consequently offer a grim prognosis.  The surprising thing is that he did no such thing–he sounded a note of optimism and described the current situation in Mexico as an opportunity for, rather than a threat to, the United States.

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Earlier this year, Redstate lost Mark Kilmer to cancer.  Our community is not alone–cancer touches almost all of us either directly or through one that we love.  And while treatments have certainly been progressing, the battle seems an uphill one.

Today, however, there is some good news.

“Big Pharm” poster child Pfizer announced it is halting the phase three trial of its new pancreatic drug Sutent. 

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When I read about the airstrike in Pakistan that killed 18 (including “five foreign militants,” AKA “terrorists”, and I suppose 13 “others”), I thought oh no, something is wrong.  With Obama as our President no “others” are supposed to be killed in these episodes.  How could this happen?

Then I had another thought, which is that with the successful airstrikes over the past few months, we must be getting much better target-identifying intelligence in the region.  And how many of these targets can there be?  After yesterday’s successful mission, can the eliminaiton of Usama bin Laden be far behind?

Now I would be delighted to see Usama captured and another blow struck to al Qaida.  But wouldn’t that be a stick in the eye of Mr. Bush, and a huge coup for President Obama?  Wouldn’t it vindicate the softer, gentler action against terrorism that he has proposed?

Based on this line of reasoning, I will venture a prediction:  UBL will be eliminated or captured within six weeks.

Come up with your own predictions and consider this an open thread.

Eight years ago, on inauguration day, I watched the festivities in my office as I tried out a new exercise bike. We had considered going to Washington for the ceremony as I had worked on the campaign, but my husband had a business trip to Chile and I didn’t want to go alone. So there I was riding that bike. I wasn’t in great shape but even so it seemed I was getting very tired very quickly. I remember thinking that it must be a combination of the grueling campaign and the even more exhausting recount–and I thought that now, with the inauguration, I might get some more sleep.

Ha. Famous last words. It turned out I was just pregnant with our first child.

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No, not David Vetter–Barack Obama. 

Apparently the President Elect is chafing at the bonds of his new position that brings with it, among other things like the awesome responsibility of leading the free world, 24/7 security and press coverage.  The press, in particular, rankles as they note down mundane details like what he eats for lunch and snap innumerable pictures of him at work and play.  Now Mr. Obama knows that these idiots have their uses–after all, they do tend to push the most flattering pictures of him to the fore, and even his mundane details have a certain glamour (he orders his sandwiches on 12-grain bread!).  But can’t they understand that while tracking his every move may be their bread and butter, they shouldn’t be so, well, so very eager?  Can’t they operate with the same insucient, effortless cool that Mr. Obama effects and observe the delicate rules of just-so-far-and-no-farther?

It seems they cannot.  I fear that when Mr. Obama discovers that, even for him, the real news is made when he stumbles rather than glides, it may be something of a shock to his system.

Bizarro Update (with thanks to Adamsweb): So Mr. Obama understands that pictures of him golfing in paradise might be a little grating to many Americans these days, but his solution is not to, you know, not play golf.  His solution is to try to get the press corps drunk so they’ll stop taking the pictures.  Charming.

I hate to go all Grinchy the day after Christmas, but can anyone tell me why is it okay for Barack Obama to spend Christmas during the worst economic downturn in decades in the course of which thousands of Americans face losing their homes in Hawaii in a 9 million dollar house body surfing and playing golf when it is not okay for the leader of the free world who has been presiding over two wars for several years to clear brush at the rather modest ranch he owns in Texas during hurricane season?

Or, along the same lines, why is it so terrible for harried executives to save time–and quite frankly in the grand scheme of things not spend that much money compared to what we really face–by travelling by private aviation when the man elected to preside over this mess frolics in the lap of luxury?

Now I know that Mr. Obama hails from Hawaii and no one blames him for going home for the holidays.  But does he have to revel in such such a luxurious rented mansion and be photographed participating in such elitist sports?  Was there no lesser house on offer? 

I suppose that his apologists will now argue that it’s not Mr. Obama’s fault that he now needs to travel with security and support staff that make a more modest dwelling impractical, but when did these same commenters, wearing their critic’s hats, ever extend such understanding to President Bush?

I have to wonder, when even Paul Krugman is raising a bushy eyebrow and scolding that “symbolism matters,” just how in touch this future President is with the terrible financial challenges that will bedevil our nation next year?

Actor Gary Sinise received the Presidential Citizens Medal last week.  It was a well-deserved honor as Mr. Sinise has done more than any other celebrity in recent memory to support our men and women in uniform.   In a quiet, persistent campaign that could do him significant professional harm, he doesn’t just pay lip service to “supporting the troops” (while denigrating their missions)–he does what he can to help them win.  To this end, he has founded “Operation Iraqi Children,” a non-profit organization that distributes school supplies to Iraqi children.  The theory is that this work is good for the Iraqis as it improves education and so quality of life, and that it is good for the Americans as it helps them win those crucial but elusive “hearts and minds” we hear so much about.

I know charitable donation dollars are in short supply this season, but if you have $5 or more to share this is a great cause to support–and if you’re so inclined, you can put together school-supply packages with your children.  I can’t think of anything activity more truly in the spirit of Christmas.  If you can make a donation, I suggest you make it in honor of Mr. Sinise’s Medal.  Thank goodness America still has her heroes.

There are some interesting regional elections going on in Venezuela today, which, following on the failed Constitutional referendum of last year, could spell serious trouble for Hugo Chavez. Daniel at Venezuela News and Views is live-blogging the day.

The Carter Center could not be reached for comment.