Redstate

Posted at 6:48am on May 9, 2008 Obama started with mysogyny, now attacks McCain's age

By Soren Dayton

Barack Obama is no stranger to gutter politics. He will tell you for the next 6 months that he is the victim of it. I call BS. Barack Obama plays gutter politics.

Yesterday he said that John McCain was "losing his bearings", an unsubtle attack on McCain's age. I'll get to the McCain campaign's response. But first, I want to point remind you of one of the great un(der)reported stories of the Democratic Primary, Barack Obama's sexist attacks on Hillary Clinton.

Jake Tapper first noted this when Obama said that Hillary was "taking out the claws." At the same time he noted that Obama would use "[l]anguage such as 'when she's feeling down' 'periodically' she 'launches attacks.'" Tapper noted that a number of female reporters and bloggers picked up on this. Later Obama complained that Hillary was "throwing the China" at him. Again, Tapper heard the dog whistle. Tapper noted that this "feeds into the 'harridan' caricature of Clinton."

So when Obama attacks McCain with an age-based smear, it shouldn't be surprising. Mark Salter, one of McCain's senior advisors, nailed it:

First, let us be clear about the nature of Senator Obama's attack today: He used the words 'losing his bearings' intentionally, a not particularly clever way of raising John McCain's age as an issue. This is typical of the Obama style of campaigning.

We have all become familiar with Senator Obama's new brand of politics. First, you demand civility from your opponent, then you attack him, distort his record and send out surrogates to question his integrity. It is called hypocrisy, and it is the oldest kind of politics there is.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama — Comments (12) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 5:54am on May 9, 2008 Chris Matthews: Jealous of Rush Limbaugh

The London Telegraph might want to rethink putting Matthews above Limbaugh on the list of most influential pundits

By Erick

Poor, poor Chris Matthews. He is so jealous of Rush Limbaugh he finally blew it the other day on Hardball. Matthews said

"I have to offer a Keith-style special comment on that. Anyone who voted to screw up the political system of this country with the purpose of mischief should carry that with them the rest their lives. What a ridiculous way to use the vote for which people fought and died, to use that vote to make mischief. I hope you're proud of yourself."

There are a few things to take away from that.

Matthews and his pals at MSDNC have, for months, been shilling for Barack Obama like a Quiznos junior manager in a gorilla outfit in the right of way -- obviously, obnoxiously, and with little impact on sales. For months and months we've heard Matthews describe how he nearly wets himself every time Obama sighs and has chills go down his spine and up his leg every time Obama speaks.

The whole network, save Joe Scarborough, has behaved like dogs in heat for Obama. Dan Abrams, just two weeks ago, begged and pleaded for Obama to avoid Fox News because they might actually ask the candidate substantive questions, unlike his network. Olbermann is all Obama all the time when he isn't putting Limbaugh and RedState on his "worst person in the world" list -- a list no one would be shocked to see all of the apostles except Judas show up on.

And then there is Limbaugh. After months of MSDNC shilling for Obama, begging people to vote for Obama, and slanting all their "news" coverage to favor Obama, Limbaugh just suggests that voters go vote for Hillary and they do. People went out in a coordinated effort to prolong the Democratic primary. What Matthews and all of MSDNC could not do after months of trying, Rush Limbaugh was able to do -- get people to the polls in droves.

Hell, I'd be jealous too if I spent months preaching the gospel of Obama only to have some guy on freakin' radio outdo me in one day.

Of course, there is more to it than that. Read on . . .

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Chris Matthews | Rush Limbaugh — Comments (63)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 5:45pm on May 8, 2008 Permit me to translate this letter for you.

Just because.

By Moe Lane

It's a letter from Senator Clinton to Senator Obama regarding the Michigan and Florida delegations (via Hot Air), and like all such letters what the writer would like to say is not necessarily what it does say. Fortunately, I am in the throes of a telepathic trance (or a minor throat infection, which has roughly the same effects), so let's rectify that, shall we? The actual letter is in blockquotes: my, ah, channelings of what Senator Clinton actually wanted to say and/or include are in italics.

Senator Barack Obama

Obama for America
P.O. Box 8102
Chicago, IL 60680

Dear Senator Obama,

[Me channeling HRC: Guess what? I'm still here. I guess Jimmy was right: give you one of mine and we'll both have two. Oh, by the way, Jimmy really appreciated the way that you just sat there and took the insult to both you and your wife not like a man at all. "Performance art?" You're from Illinois: did you really think that'd play in Peoria?]

[Read on, Barry.]

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Hillary Clinton | The Best Democratic Primary EVER — Comments (9)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 9:33am on May 8, 2008 US allies blast Dems on trade

By Soren Dayton

The European Union's Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, Tony Blair's right-hand man in Europe, blasted the Democrats for their isolationist rhetoric:

It is irresponsible to be pretending to people you can erect new protection, new tariff barriers around your economy in this 21st century global age and still succeed in sustaining peoples’ living standards and jobs. It is a mirage and they know it.

It is a mirage. It is the same mirage that led a representative of the Obama campaign to tell the Canadian government that Obama's isolationist rhetoric in Ohio was "just politics."

I can assure you that our allies are very worried about this. I recently attended a dinner of Europhiles in Washington in which a number of diplomats from left-leaning governments declared Obama "scary" and "ignorant" on globalization, Europe, and NATO.

Read on for more on Mandelson and other allies we are alienating.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Democrats | European Union | Isolationism | Trade — Comments (4) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 5:38am on May 8, 2008 Who will be the traitors? Operation Chaos can still cause more chaos if the General wants.

By Erick

It's been 300 days since Barack Obama deigned to set foot in Michigan. Michigan has 18 unpledged super delegates.

Florida has 13 super delegates who are uncommitted.

Obama, in addition to thumbing his nose at Michigan, has blocked Florida's delegates from being seated, despite a legitimate election with his name on the ballot. Obama could have worked with Hillary Clinton for a do-over. But he knew he'd lose both states so he sought to block them.

Which super delegates will be betray loyalty to their state and endorse Obama? Will Representatives Tim Mahoney or Allen Boyd stab Florida in the back? Mahoney had a hush-hush meeting with Clinton today. Maybe he'll be loyal to the state Obama peed on.

What about Senator Carl Levin and Representative Bart Stupak in Michigan? What about soon to be indicted (potentially) Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick? 300 days it has been since Obama gave their state any attention. And Obama continues to push environmental legislation that would harm Michigan's auto industry, not to mention his rah-rahing of protectionism while going to Canada to tell Canadians to ignore it; he didn't mean it.

Who will these super-delegates pick? The woman who paid their states the attention those sates were due? Or the man who thumbed his nose at them?

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Hillary Clinton | Operation Chaos — Comments (10)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:28am on May 8, 2008 It Cannot Be Stressed Enough

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are the most protectionist major Presidential candidates to come down the pike in recent memory. I say "recent" because, of course there is one particular President who was in the same league with both Clinton and Obama when it came to promulgating lousy trade policy and making the country suffer for it. I know that Charlie Black works for the McCain campaign and gets paid to throw elbows, but he is right to go where he goes verbally:

The growing shopping list of promises has also served further to sharpen the contrast with John McCain, the Republican nominee, who has staked out a robustly free-trade stance for the general election.

"The last time we had a protectionist president was Herbert Hoover [in office from 1929 to 1933] and look how that worked out," says Charlie Black, a senior adviser to Mr McCain. "We think we can win this debate in a general election."

The ghost of Hoover may be smiling now. The ghosts of Hawley and Smoot most certainly are. The rest of us have every reason to feel grim.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Economic Antediluvianism | Free Trade | Hillary Clinton | Protectionism — Comments (3)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:34pm on May 7, 2008 Obama's Ignorance of American History

By Dan McLaughlin

Apparently Obama is unfamiliar with the concept of "unconditional surrender." At least by our enemies, at any rate. Maybe his grade school in Indonesia didn't really give him a solid grounding in American history.

Posted at 12:48pm on May 7, 2008 McGovern endorses Obama, asks Clinton to quit

By Neil Stevens

So today, former Presidential nominee George McGovern has asked Senator Clinton to quit the race, and endorsed Senator Obama as the Democratic nominee.

Nobody told him that Presidential losers aren't superdelegates, and that the superdelegates are supposed to prevent him from happening again, I guess.

Posted at 11:01am on May 7, 2008 300!

By RightMichigan.com

Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

There's a lot of speculation this morning that the race for the Democrat nomination for the Presidency ended last night somewhere on a back road in North Carolina.  Barack Obama delivered a WWE sized butt-kicking to Hill-Rod there in the squared (or in NC's case, rectangular) circle of primary politics.  

Posted in Barack Obama | Breaking News | Hillary Clinton | Michigan | www.RightMichigan.com — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:43am on May 7, 2008 Obamomentum, Revisited

Obama Gets A New Injection Of Fumes To Run On

By Dan McLaughlin

Most anyone watching the primaries had expected all along that Obama would win North Carolina - where the Democratic primary electorate is dominated by African-Americans and college towns - and Hillary would win the more conservative white Democrats in Indiana last night, but Hillary's relatively narrow margin of victory in Indiana and the simple fact that Obama notched a victory in a state of significant size after a string of losses both add up to an undeniably good night for Obama. Let's update the chart I ran previously of the popular vote since the beginning of March:

As you can see, over this period - covering the time after the genuine cracks in Obama's previously untouched public brand image had appeared - Obama is still behind in the popular vote, and with only Oregon on May 20 as a likely source for significant number of votes for Obama, that's not going to change.

Read On...

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Hillary Clinton | The Best Democratic Primary EVER — Comments (52)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 9:39am on May 7, 2008 If you MUST run with scissors pointed up...

By RightMichigan.com

Cross-posted on Right Michigan at www.RightMichigan.com.

(The relevance of this particular graphic is coming... promise...)

Most days you don't have to look far in Michigan news to find a ridiculous headline or a story about behavior that defies logic and common sense.  And that's not a dig on the mainstream media.  Sure, they're responsible for a laughable or frustrating choice of words from time to time but you work with what you're given, you know?  They can only report on what's happening out there (in theory) and it's usually our fair State and the good folks running it who create the ridiculous situations they cover.  

Posted in Barack Obama | Big Government | Breaking News | Liberals | Michigan | UAW | www.RightMichigan.com — Comments (1) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:36am on May 7, 2008 Primary Night

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

So Obama has won North Carolina big and may very well win Indiana (it's very close as I write this and the networks have refused to call it for anyone the last I checked the television). A whole host of commentators are declaring the race over Obama has been all-but-anointed as the nominee.

Which he likely will be. But Hillary Clinton will fight on if her speech this evening was any indication and given the demographic patterns that have emerged during this fight for the Democratic Presidential nomination, the Clinton people probably have good grounds for believing that they will do well in the upcoming contests in West Virginia and Kentucky. Meanwhile, they will point out to superdelegates what E.J. Dionne and Ramesh Ponnuru observe concerning Obama's ability--or lack thereof--to draw votes from all parts of the political spectrum. And as pointed out by Michael Barone (link via Brother Erick), coming into tonight, Clinton has actually gotten more popular votes than has Obama. I haven't done the math to see whether that is still the case and it may not be, given Obama's huge win in North Carolina. But the point is that when it comes to the popular vote, Clinton is hanging in there and she may well use the popular vote to push for the argument that come general election time, she will be more electable than will Obama.

Is it possible that Hillary Clinton will drop out after this evening--especially if Indiana goes Obama's way? Sure. But I'm not betting on it. People named "Clinton" don't give up claims to power that easily.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Hillary Clinton | Kneel Before Zod | Let's You And Him Fight | Rooting For Injuries — Comments (111)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:31am on May 7, 2008 If Pandering Is The Game . . .

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

It is generally agreed by those who are actually in the know when it comes to the specifics of trade policy and how free trade genuinely benefits America that both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are moving Heaven and Earth to pander to protectionists for votes. But as Daniel Ikenson points out, in the runup to tonight's primaries in Indiana and North Carolina, both pandering to free traders is the smart thing to do:

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Indiana's producers shipped $26 billion worth of goods to foreign customers in 2007 -- 14 percent more than the year before, and 80 percent more than in 2001. In fact, since 2001, the state's exports have grown at a rate one-third faster than U.S. exports overall. In North Carolina, producers shipped $23 billion worth of goods to foreign customers in 2007 -- 10 percent more than the year before, and 59 percent more than five years ago.

In 2007, exports accounted for 20 percent of U.S. manufacturers' total sales revenues -- the highest percentage in modern history. And nowhere in America is manufacturing more important to the economy than in Indiana, where the sector accounts for over 30 percent of the state's gross domestic product. Manufacturing is also more important to North Carolina's economy than it is to most other states, accounting for 22 percent of the state's gross domestic product, ranking it fifth among states in that measure.

In China, Canada, and Mexico -- the primary villains in the candidates' anti-trade narratives -- Indiana's producers are building relationships that are yielding extraordinary returns. Exports from Indiana to China increased by a whopping 36 percent between 2006 and 2007 -- twice the rate of total U.S. export growth to China, and nearly four times Indiana's exports to China in 2001.

Likewise, Indiana's exports to Canada and Mexico have grown 9 percent from 2006 and 67 percent from 2001, eclipsing overall U.S. export growth to the NAFTA countries in both periods. North Carolina's exports to NAFTA have grown 46 percent over the past five years -- to $7.4 billion.

Read on . . .

Posted in Barack Obama | Economy | Free Trade | Hillary Clinton | John McCain | Protectionism — Comments (2)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:54pm on May 6, 2008 The Niche Candidate Fills A Niche Of His Arena

You, Too, Can Lead A Mass Movement - If You Limit The Seating Enough

By Dan McLaughlin

If you watched the election returns tonight, you undoubtedly saw Barack Obama win North Carolina by a fairly wide margin. Of course, that's North Carolina's Democrats, and even among the Democrats he yet again got clobbered among white voters ... but if you slice the salami of the electorate until it looks like the kind of people who vote in Democratic primaries in a state like North Carolina, Obama is indeed the people's choice. It's easier, after all, to be the people's choice if you choose the right people to be the choice of.

If you watched him on television, you undoubtedly saw Barack Obama speak tonight before a large and enthusiastic crowd at Reynolds Coliseum on N.C. State's campus. But just as with the North Carolina Democratic primary electorate, it turns out that the illusion of Obama's enormous popularity is a function of limiting the people - in this case, roping off a single corner of the arena. Mary Katherine Ham has a great post contrasting the picture you see above (her image) with what you saw on television.

The rest of those seats will be reserved for general election voters. Individual results may differ.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama — Comments (16)/ Email this page » / Read More »