Genuine Surprise

From Kate O’Beirne: A Bush-Cheney campaign official just expressed genuine surprise that John Kerry didn’t enjoy more of a bounce following Boston. It was pointed out that the Dem ticket is not statistically ahead in any of the recent polling and I was reminded that no successful challenger has ever not been leading at this … Continue reading “Genuine Surprise”

From Kate O’Beirne:

A Bush-Cheney campaign official just expressed genuine surprise that John Kerry didn’t enjoy more of a bounce following Boston. It was pointed out that the Dem ticket is not statistically ahead in any of the recent polling and I was reminded that no successful challenger has ever not been leading at this point in the campaign. Republicans had expected to be down in the polls going into their own convention late this month. This campaign veteran points out that the last presidential candidate who ran a campaign based on the notion that he was an acceptable alternative to the other guy was Richard Nixon, who barely pulled it off and who didn’t face an incumbent.

Interesting.

A Kolkata Fisking

Check out Suman’s Fisking of the Kerry speech: In an effort to shrug off the political ennui that had me gripped by the very tender balls these past few months, I had resolved to avoid watching or reading overtly political material. Give that old blood pressure a break, as it were. Kerry’s fans will wish … Continue reading “A Kolkata Fisking”

Check out Suman’s Fisking of the Kerry speech:

In an effort to shrug off the political ennui that had me gripped by the very tender balls these past few months, I had resolved to avoid watching or reading overtly political material. Give that old blood pressure a break, as it were.

Kerry’s fans will wish Suman hadn’t saved it all up until now.

Moore busted again

It seems that Michael Moore has been caught playing fast and loose with the truth again: The (Bloomington) Pantagraph in central Illinois has sent a letter to Moore asking him to apologize for using what the newspaper says was a doctored front page in the film. A scene early in the movie shows newspaper headlines … Continue reading “Moore busted again”

It seems that Michael Moore has been caught playing fast and loose with the truth again:

The (Bloomington) Pantagraph in central Illinois has sent a letter to Moore asking him to apologize for using what the newspaper says was a doctored front page in the film.

A scene early in the movie shows newspaper headlines related to the legally contested presidential election of 2000. It includes a shot of The Pantagraph’s front page with the prominent headline: “Latest Florida recount shows Gore won election.”

But the Pantagraph says that headline was never on the front page. It only appeared — in much smaller type — above a letter to the editor.

Why does this not surprise me? It’s just like the staged scene in Columbine where an actor hands a rifle to Moore on a stage; banks don’t really hand out guns in their lobbies, for obvious reasons, and newspapers don’t generally tell bald-faced lies in headlines on their front pages. Moore likes to put his most egregious lies in the mouths of others, and sometimes they object.

Here’s another one, via Tim Blair:

THE movie Fahrenheit 9/11 asserts the children of US congressmen are under-represented in US forces in Iraq.

There are 300 million Americans; 130,000 US troops in Iraq; 535 congressmen and women; and at least five children of congressmen serving in Iraq.

Thirty seconds of intellectual effort shows that children of US congressmen are very over-represented in Iraq; but 30 seconds is way over the capacity of admirers of Fahrenheit 9/11.

The fun never stops in the world of Moore’s delusions.

Bush Calls for New Intelligence Director

Like Ken Layne, I’m not real excited about Presdient Bush’s announcement that he intends to cave into the 9/11 Commission’s recommendation on creating a new Intel Czar: WASHINGTON – President Bush on Monday endorsed the creation of a national intelligence director and a counterterrorism center ? his first steps to revamp the U.S. intelligence-gathering system … Continue reading “Bush Calls for New Intelligence Director”

Like Ken Layne, I’m not real excited about Presdient Bush’s announcement that he intends to cave into the 9/11 Commission’s recommendation on creating a new Intel Czar:

WASHINGTON – President Bush on Monday endorsed the creation of a national intelligence director and a counterterrorism center ? his first steps to revamp the U.S. intelligence-gathering system to help prevent a repeat of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In asking Congress to create the center and a national director who would oversee all 15 agencies in the U.S. intelligence community, Bush embraced key recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission’s report.

“The work of security in this vast nation is not done,” Bush said, standing in the Rose Garden with the administration’s top national security officials.

Bush resisted the panel’s recommendation that the director control all intelligence budgets, and he also disagreed with the commission’s idea for placing both the counterterrorism center and the director post within the White House.

The actual serious issue here is that dissenting views on the nature of terrorist threats need to be heard and evaluated at the highest level of government, and the consolidator function proposed by the Commission prevents that from happening. While Bush’s plan is not as radical as Kerry’s (who wants to make intel subservient to politics by design), it’s still a step in the wrong direction. The Homeland Security director and the Intel director will step on each other’s toes, and the CIA and the FBI and the DIA and the NSA will continue to play cloak-and-dagger games against one another.

We need an intelligence agency that’s insulated from politics, and we need to reduce the number of agencies, not increase it.

What about the Iraqis?

Democratic Party compassion was on prominent display in Boston, but one large group of people was left out: Edwards spoke only hours after at least 70 Iraqis had been killed by a car bomb, a particularly gruesome new atrocity against a population liberated from dictatorship by American troops. Yet Edwards, in a speech replete with … Continue reading “What about the Iraqis?”

Democratic Party compassion was on prominent display in Boston, but one large group of people was left out:

Edwards spoke only hours after at least 70 Iraqis had been killed by a car bomb, a particularly gruesome new atrocity against a population liberated from dictatorship by American troops. Yet Edwards, in a speech replete with tributes to U.S. losses and sacrifices, did not mention that tragedy and referred only in glancing terms to the price that Iraqis are paying in what must be seen as a joint struggle.

Kerry — who in his unspoken subtext accused Bush of being a liar, a coward and a subverter of the Constitution — spoke authoritatively on national security, if in general terms. But he and the Democratic platform also largely neglected the fate of the people of Iraq, who are being progressively lost in the shuffle of electoral politics — as are Britain, Poland, Italy, Japan and the other nations that are helping in what the Democrats insist on calling the “go-it-alone” U.S. presence in Iraq. Kerry’s stinging shot at the Saudi royal family will also not ease his self-described task of bringing allies to America’s side if he wins.

In New York, when the Republicans gather in a month’s time, the Iraqis and the coalition partners are not likely to be ignored. The danger there will be that they will be used as props and symbols for the wisdom and resoluteness of the president. That kind of attention would be as bad as neglect. Neither party should leave the people of Iraq behind in fighting this election.

Let’s hope that doesn’t happen in New York.

Kerry de-frocked

David Brooks nails Sen. Kerry: What the Democratic Party is going through is not yet a genuine muscular centrist revival. As a friend joked, from the voters of Iowa to the delegates in Boston, there’s been a vast left-wing conspiracy to present a candidate who looks like a muscular moderate, but they picked someone who … Continue reading “Kerry de-frocked”

David Brooks nails Sen. Kerry:

What the Democratic Party is going through is not yet a genuine muscular centrist revival. As a friend joked, from the voters of Iowa to the delegates in Boston, there’s been a vast left-wing conspiracy to present a candidate who looks like a muscular moderate, but they picked someone who is not in his heart of hearts a muscular moderate, or anything else.

Indeed.