VOTING RACIST?

In The Big 'What If' Randall Kennedy subscribes to racist motives if white voters don’t vote for Barack Obama. According to him, black voters

[D]eep in their bones, ... will believe -- and probably rightly -- that race was a key element, that had the racial shoe been on the other foot -- had John McCain been black and Obama white -- the result would have been different.

If Obama loses, ... I'll believe that American voters have made a huge mistake. And I'll think that an important ingredient of their error is racial prejudice -- not the hateful, snarling, open bigotry that terrorized my parents in their youth, but rather a vague, sophisticated, low-key prejudice that is chameleonlike in its ability to adapt to new surroundings and to hide even from those firmly in its grip.

So white voters must vote for Obama to prove they’re not racist. But that logic cuts both ways, for the converse is that black voters must vote for McCain to prove they’re not racist.

It appears that the progressives are so invested in race and victim politics that they cannot possibly conceive any possibility that voters, of any race, gender, religion, or economic status might believe that McCain is the better choice.

How sad.

POST WATCH, PART III

In Stopping At Nothing To Win, David Ignatius continues to beat the discredited “Palin is too inexperienced” drum by blaming John McCain:

In the military culture that shaped John McCain, there is no more important responsibility than the promotion boards that select the right officers for top positions of command. It's a sacred trust in McCain's world, because people's lives are at stake.

McCain wrote in his memoir of the officer's responsibility for those who serve under him: "He does not risk their lives and welfare for his sake, but only to answer the shared duty they are called to answer."

McCain made the most important command decision of his life when he chose Sarah Palin as his vice presidential nominee. Two weeks later, it is still puzzling that he selected a person who, for all her admirable qualities, is not prepared by experience or interest to be commander in chief. No promotion board in history would have made such a decision.

Uh, David, military promotion boards, like the American public, are perfectly capable of recognizing talent when they see it.

GEN David Petreaus was promoted from a Brigadier General (1-star) in 1999 to General (4-star) in 2007 – a mere 8 years. That was talent, not experience.

Before he retired to become Director of National Intelligence. Mike McConnell was a Vice Admiral (3-star) in the U.S. Navy. In a speech delivered at his alma mater (Furman University), McConnell stated, “He [Colin Powell] caused me to go from Mike McConnell, brand-new one-star, to Mike McConnell, three-star...and it happened nine months after I pinned on one star.” Talent, not experience.

The American people promoted Bill Clinton from Governor of a small state to President of the United States. Talent, not experience.

The American people promoted George W. Bush from Governor of a larger state to President of the United States. Talent, not experience.

Mr. McCain recognizes talent, and the American people rightly approve his judgment.

POST WATCH, PART II

The Post’s third Obama apologist, Marc Fisher, has a wonderful snark-filled entry (For Working Moms, ‘Flawed’ Palin Is the Perfect Choice) for the “Palin is Average” contest.

Eight working mothers from the Virginia Run development in Centreville went together to the Palin-McCain rally yesterday because Sarah Palin is "just like us." This is something new. Nobody ever accused Franklin Roosevelt or Ronald Reagan of being just like us.

Perhaps it's because they weren't snobs disdainful of the little people clinging to their Bibles and guns.

In this time of "American Idol," bedroom bloggers and the belief that experience, knowledge and education don't necessarily mean a whole lot, Palin is a symbol, a statement that anyone can make it if he or she really tries.

Isn’t that the American dream?

The crowd, which I counted at 8,000 but which police estimated at 23,000, gathered at Van Dyck Park in Fairfax City represented votes for John McCain but passion for Palin... [D]id the man who might be the next president know that hundreds would start streaming out of the park as soon as Palin finished speaking, leaving a noticeably sparser audience to hear from the top of the ticket?

Heh. Thanks, Marc, for reminding of us of the “The One.”

Think of whomever you consider the greatest presidents, and odds are, they were about as far as you can get from being like the rest of us. They tend to have come from wealth, power, fame, the pinnacle of our education system or all of the above.

Abraham Lincoln. Harry Truman. Lyndon Johnson.

In this hyperdemocratized society, the national conviction that anyone can succeed is morphing into a belief that experience and knowledge may almost be disqualifying credentials.

No, Marc. What is happening is that the nation has finally come to recognize that the elite – “those from wealth, power, fame, the pinnacle of our education system” - don’t have a lock on intelligence, courage, conviction, common sense, knowledge, or experience, for that matter.

Reader Rebecca F. Benner swallows the average meme whole. Lauding Fisher in the (9/13) Letters section she writes: “It astounds me that [just like me] is one of the qualities that most people desire most. After all, we do not want our doctors, lawyers, airline pilots or electricians to be just like us.” and “I want a president who is smarter, better educated, more even-tempered and far wiser than I am.”

Rebecca, there are differences between being trained, being smart, and being wise.

[UPDATE 9/13] Power Line links to a post by Steven F. Hayward:

Give 'em Hell, Sarah
Like Truman, a natural-born executive

Lurking just below the surface of the second-guessing about Sarah Palin's fitness to be president is the serious question of whether we still believe in the American people's capacity for self-government, what we mean when we affirm that all American citizens are equal, and whether we tacitly believe there are distinct classes of citizens and that American government at the highest levels is an elite occupation.

Exactly right.

POST WATCH

Part One of a continuing series (well, continuing until I can no longer stomach reading the Washington Post editorial page).

The Obama apology twins are back, whining through their lipstick.

Here’s EJ Dionne, Tiptoeing through the mud:

The campaign is a blur of flying pieces of junk, lipstick and gutter-style attacks.

The media bear a heavy responsibility because "balance" does not require giving equal time to truth and lies. So does McCain, who is running a disgraceful, dishonorable campaign of distraction and diversion.

and Eugene Robinson, Listening to the scream machine:

I hear McCain's amen chorus screaming, "Lipstick on a pig! Lipstick on a pig!" But they're well aware that Barack Obama was unambiguously talking about McCain's economic ideas, not his running mate. It seems incomprehensible that the McCain campaign would make so much noise about an allegation that clearly doesn't hold a drop of water -- until you realize that the noise is the whole point.

As long as people are talking about barnyard beauty tips, they're not talking about substance. Any day spent arguing about meaningless ephemera is a small but significant victory for a campaign that has nothing to say.

Uh, huh. Just who made the “lipstick on a pig” comment, anyway? Let’s be generous and assume that the lipstick comment was “unambiguously about McCain’s economic ideas” (a stretch) and Obama is half as smart as the Democrats think he is. Just how smart do you have to be to realize the implication of that comment when one-half your opponent’s team is female?

Back to E.J.:

Yes, Democrats are a gloomy lot, inclined to see ... the other side as tougher, meaner and more manipulative.

Tough? Well, yes, Republicans are tough. Progressives might be able to figure that out if they’d abandon their stereotype of red America as filled with gap-toothed hillbillies too stupid to look out for their own interests and look anew at the people who are actually building this great nation.

Mean? Well, if by “mean” Dionne infers that Republicans fight back with all the tools* at their command, then yes, I guess Republicans are “mean.”

But manipulative? Oh, come now, E.J. Hunters don’t manipulate their prey into a trap; they shoot straight for the heart.

So, yes, Democrats have a right to be gloomy.**

------------------------------------------------
*Sarcasm is a tool. So is humor. Both are more effective than obscenity and whining.

**Gotcha!

THERE IS A GOD

Idiot newscaster gets swamped by hurricane ...



Couldn't have happened to a nicer person.

OBLIVIOUS

The Washington Post Style section today has a 4-column, above the fold picture of Sarah Palin with the headline “Who Do We Think She Is?”

Um, the next Vice President of the United States?

NO MORE MR. NICE GUY

The very next time a telephone solicitor calls me and reminds me to fasten my seat belt, eat my Wheaties, or take my vitamins, I'm going to reach through the telephone, grab him by the throat, and shove those words so far down that they stick out the other end.

I am sick and tired of nanny-state elitists who feel compelled to treat me as a wayward child before demanding that I give them my money so they can further protect me.

Be warned.

NEVER FORGET

I'm also linking to this 9/11 rememberance with thanks to Instapundit for reminding me of the link.

Never Forget.

ELECTION PREDICTION

Given what I’ve read – and heard – since the nominating conventions, I’m going to go way out on a limb with these predictions. Someone can hand me a saw later.

1. It will be McCain/Palin by a landslide, possibly rivaling the 1972 Presidential election.

2. The Democratic party as currently constituted will collapse in flames.

3. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth, a new center-left Democratic party will arise from the ashes, consigning the progressive “reality-based” wing to the “dustbin of history.”

4. Moderates and independent voters will have a choice again.

Republicans, if they’re smart, will take prediction #3 very seriously. [Prediction #5: they won’t.]

BUMPER SNICKERS

McCAIN/PALIN - strong, decisive

OBAMA/BIDEN - wrong, divisive

LOOK FAMILIAR?

BIKE RACE

This one is too good to pass up.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON STRIKES AGAIN

Via Instapundit: Victor Davis Hanson notes that "On matters like abortion, capital punishment, gun control and FISA, Obama again moves closer to McCain rather than vice versa."

Given that Obama still has a chance at becoming the next President, I’m grateful for the movement. Nevertheless, I have more confidence that the McCain/Palin ticket will remain true to its committments.

Here’s Hanson again:

I have been far more comfortable with, and have far more confidence in, the pragmatic judgment and worldview of rural America than I have found among the blinkered and intolerant sophisticated and educated elite.... Columbia, Harvard, Chicago wards, and Trinity Church do not offer any stimulus for pragmatism, self-reliance, or American exceptionalism, but are landscapes in which government is the answer, a particular elite know best, politics is the art of dispersing someone else’s money, and America is to blamed first not last in matters of controversy.

Yes. The “reality-based community” has proven time and time again to be completely ungrounded.

AVERAGE ISN’T GOOD ENOUGH

In a Los Angeles Times opinion piece, Sam Harris, a founder of the Reason Project takes issue with the selection of Sarah Palin as the Vice President nominee of the Republican Party.

In his opening shot, Harris claims that according to Social Security actuarial tables Mr. McCain has a 10% likelihood of not surviving his first term in office. a 27% percent chance of not surviving his second term, and that therefore an “average” (meaning unqualified) Sarah Palin could become president. Here’s Harris at his worst:

Let me put it plainly: If you want someone just like you to be president of the United States, or even vice president, you deserve whatever dysfunctional society you get. You deserve to be poor, to see the environment despoiled, to watch your children receive a fourth-rate education and to suffer as this country wages -- and loses -- both necessary and unnecessary wars.

Well.

Lets apply some “reason” to Mr. Harris’ statements.

First, the actuarial tables. Yes, in any given year a person has a certain percentage risk of dying. And that factor does increase year to year. But the relevant statistic is not percentage of risk; it is life expectancy. According to the standard mortality tables, a 72-year old man has a life expectancy of 14 years. Last I checked, two terms in office is only 8 years, and so when he retires after two full terms in office, Mr. McCain will still have a life expectancy of 9 years. Imagine that.

Second, Sarah Palin is average? AVERAGE? Oh, come now, Mr. Harris. Mrs. Palin is far, far from average. Average people don’t become mayors of towns, even small towns. Average people don’t become Governors of states, even small states.

According to its web site, the Reason Project (I’m quoting here) is … "devoted to spreading scientific knowledge and secular values in society. The foundation draws on the talents of prominent and creative thinkers in a wide range of disciplines to encourage critical thinking and erode the influence of dogmatism, superstition, and bigotry in our world."

It's failing. Perhaps because it isn’t “average.”

BIRDS OF A FEATHER?

Remember "Rage Boy," the Islamist protestor who was always appearing in the news?
Keep that face in mind and go here to see "Rage Girl."

Right. Just your average "Woman for Peace."

FOR THE FIRST TIME, I FEEL LIKE WE DESERVE TO WIN MORE THAN THEY DESERVE TO LOSE

Bill Whittle writes that he's proud of the GOP. Read it.

IN THE WORDS OF MY SPEECHWRITER

David McGrath appears to think that Governor Palin scored a home run with her acceptance speech because it was written by a (horrors!) speechwriter.

Here’s McGrath:

Today, selling term papers to students to use as their own is still illegal, but selling speeches to politicians to use as their own remains a legitimate enterprise.
How can that be?

Uh, Mr. McGrath, are you certain it is? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m rather certain that Gov. Palin didn’t just ask for an acceptance speech. Nor would I believe that of any politician, on any speech. I’m pretty sure that Gov. Palin (and the McCain staff, of course) had thoughts, ideas, phrases, and organization that they wanted incorporated. And I’m pretty sure that Gov. Palin did the final editing. Back to Mr. McGrath:

[P]olitical audiences are already aware that politicians employ speechwriters. Granted, it can be easy to determine when President Bush is reciting from someone else's script and when he is ad libbing in his own fractured English. But how can we know whether a line, or an entire speech, comes from the brains of McCain or Obama, or from hired staffers?

Uh, maybe because the speaker is telling the speechwriter what he wants to say? McGrath again:

Can voters this year be sure they learned something about the real Sarah Palin from her GOP vice presidential nomination acceptance speech last night, considering news that it was originally written by speechwriter Matthew Scully over a week ago for an unknown male nominee?

Um, because it sounded like her? Campaign Spot reader Jay in Texas, said it this way:

The problem with the whole teleprompter argument is that the entire speech was about her life.

When she said that, as a mother of one of those troops, she wanted McCain as Commander in Chief, it doesn't matter who typed in the words. She wasn't just the reader; she was the mother of one of those troops.

When she talked about attacking corruption in the Republican party, she wasn't merely the speaker; she was the one who attacked corruption in her own party.

And when she spoke of the special love required for a special needs baby, she didn't just deliver the speech.

She also delivered the baby.

McGrath ends with this:

If contemporary political candidates cannot find time to write all their speeches, the way Teddy Roosevelt or Abraham Lincoln did, they should at least craft the major ones.

Does McGrath really believe that any speaker, President, Vice-President, or even lowly old me, would not have major input into his/her speech’s content, look, and feel?

Sure, the shoe was polished. But it fit.

A MESSAGE FOR OBAMA

An Iraq Air Force veteran has a little message for the junior senator from Illinois.

The video.

He’s not a professional speaker — but this is worth watching all the way through.

Via Don Surber

IF THE KITCHEN SINK DOESN'T WORK

Here are some more suggestions for the Democrats ....

Sarah Palin shops at Wal Mart!

Sarah Palin buys her eyeglasses at Lenscrafters.

They won't work, but what the hell. Nothing else has either.

[UPDATE] Heh. "Palin is also helping among men, conservatives, notably with suburban and rural voters, and with frequent Wal-Mart shoppers, who tend to be 'values' voters who like a good value for their money."

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF THE FAIR TAX

As a long-standing practicioner, I’ve long asserted that the fundamental obligation of systems engineering is to search for unintended consequences of product design decisions. I’ve even gone so far as to propose the Three Laws of Unintended Consequences, following in the footsteps of Isaac Asimov in his I, Robot collection of short stories.

They are:

First Law: There are always unintended consequences.
Second Law: At least one will be bad.
Third Law: It will appear at the most inopportune time.

But not all unintended consequences are bad. Most are just, well, unintended; and some may well be good.

And that brings me to the Fair Tax. It strikes me that the Fair Tax has unintended consequences that may prove to be very good indeed. Since the Fair Tax is not imposed on resales, it seems reasonable to think that it may cause (a) an uptick in recycling, and (b) a move away from “throw away” to “repair and reuse.”

For me personally, the latter is an important issue. I’m constantly frustrated by having to toss some useful item because of a minor defect which is more costly to repair than it is to replace.