Who needs principles?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/opinion/26collins.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212

Earlier this month, Newton “Newt” Gingrich told Greta Van Susteren on Fox News that if he was in charge of the country the first thing he would do about Libya would be to “exercise a no-fly zone this evening.”

Then President Obama made exactly that decision. Newt must have been thrilled!

“I would not have intervened,” he told Matt Lauer on the “Today” show.

Cynics might suspect that Gingrich’s only real principle is to be opposed to whatever Obama is doing.

Perhaps Newt spent too much time on Fox News, reflexively objecting to everything Obama proposed.

I’m not saying Newt is necessarily wrong the second time; I’m not at all sure our intervention in Libya will work out well – it seems to have some chance of becoming yet another war in an Arab country. But the inconsistency of position is disturbing.

Be Obama's neighbor!

If you're a political science professor, what better idea than to buy the house of IIT political science professor Bill Grimshaw. Bill Grimshaw "and his wife opted to sell because they want to downsize from the sprawling three-story, 6,000-square-foot home."

He's picky, though. "Interested buyers will be vetted to determine whether they're financially capable of spending at least $1.5 million on a home and why they want to live there. The names of people who pass the initial screening then will be given to the Secret Service before a showing is arranged."

Vetted by the Secret Service? Sure. This house is right next to Barak and Michelle Obama's house in Kenwood. It's quite the gated neighborhood these days.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/classified/realestate/chi-sat-obama-house-09120sep12,0,579672.story

You, too, can be born in Kenya

Want to bond more with Obama? You, too, can have a fake Kenyan birth certificate circulating on the internet! Apply at http://kenyanbirthcertificategenerator.com/

Thanks to Mark Silva of the Washington Post for the link.

Chia Obama

Doesn't seem to be a joke, either. See http://www.chia.com/

Can you grow one?

YES YOU CAN.

Political winners and losers

January 20, 2009 -- on the way up, and on the way down:

President Barack Obama raised his hand to take the oath of office as President.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich was fingerprinted again by federal investigators.

So, who did the military support?

Although the military is traditionally thought to vote Republican, there were far more contributions to Obama:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. soldiers have donated more presidential campaign money to Democrat Barack Obama than to Republican John McCain, a reversal of previous campaigns in which military donations tended to favor GOP White House hopefuls, a nonpartisan group reported.

[Note: this story is from August 14th, 2008.]

Troops serving abroad have given nearly six times as much money to Obama's presidential campaign as they have to McCain's, the Center for Responsive Politics said.

The results also are striking because they favored Obama, who never has served in the military. McCain meanwhile, is a decorated war veteran who spent nearly five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. The Arizona senator graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and had a 22-year career as a naval aviator.

Not surprising when you think about it. For one thing, there are a lot of African-Americans in the military. For another, the war is going on and on.

May God be with all of us

McCain endorsements rolling in

It's come to this. Cheney's unsurprising endorsement of McCain is being advertised on TV -- by the Obama campaign.

And McCain's endorsed by Al Qaeda:

Obama's college records

There are people posting that Obama hasn't released his college records, with the sinister implication that there's something bad in there. In terms of grades, there's unlikely to be anything very bad -- after all, he got into Harvard Law School.

But it's true that Obama's college records are an embarrassment:

There's some Bill Cosby albums. "Why is there Air?" has obviously been played lots of times.

Lots of Motown. Lots. On a Gladys Knight and the Pips album, he's pasted pictures of his face over the faces of the Pips.

But there's some Bob Newhart there too. And Firesign Theatre, for those nights when he didn't have a date and got stoned in his room.

Three Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass albums. A black guy listening to Herb Alpert? He was out of date for white guys by then.

It's no wonder he doesn't want to discuss his college records.


[all "facts" above made up]

Does it help to be endorsed by a bank CEO?

Hugh McColl Jr., former chairman and CEO of Bank of America, has endorsed Obama.

McColl speaks with some eloquence below. But you have to wonder whether this will help, given the millions of Americans who are angry at banks and bankers just now.

The economic disarray threatening our community and nation poses critical challenges but also presents opportunity. We can observe the presidential candidates in the crucible of crisis.

Only one of them demonstrates the needed intellect, fortitude and temperament. That is why I have decided to publicly support Barack Obama.

What is needed in Washington is sound judgment and exceptional leadership. Through the years that I've been a businessman and before that an officer in the Marine Corps, I saw what qualities make effective leaders. I see them in Obama: a sharp intellect, stiff spine and steady hand.

McCain now ahead ... or not

The mainstream media is having a field day with the news that a Zogby poll shows McCain now ahead of Obama. Of course, maybe this is just because I've been reading the Wall Street Journal lately.

Polling is interesting, in that polls done for the media really don't need to be very accurate, and in fact it is better for the media purchaser paying for the poll if they aren't very accurate. The "McCain ahead" numbers are getting such interest precisely because they are new information; otherwise they would just be one more poll showing Obama with a slight lead.

Pollster.com shows the Zogby poll of 1089 likely voters conducted August 14-16 with McCain ahead 46-41, but the Zogby poll of 3339 voters conducted August 12-14 with Obama ahead 44 to 42. Did you hear much publicity about THAT poll? No, because it wasn't "news". Other polls done at the same time continue to show Obama with a slight lead.

Andrew Gelman has some interesting charts showing that you can't tell much from polls done a few months before the election (remember president Dukakis?)

By the way, don't get me started on the whole "margin of error" business. What a joke that is!

Clinton camp criticizes Obama Kindergarten Essay

The horror!!! Obama actually wrote an essay in kindergarten about wanting to be president!!!

Next up: an expose about how an 8 year old Oprah dreamed of being a TV star?


from The Swamp


Here's a press release the Clinton campaign issued Sunday:

SEN. OBAMA REWRITES HISTORY,

CLAIMS HE HASN’T BEEN PLANNING WHITE HOUSE RUN

Today in Iowa, Senator Barack Obama said: "I have not been planning to run for President for however number of years some of the other candidates have been planning for.”

Oh really?

“Senator Obama’s comment today is fundamentally at odds with what his teachers, family, classmates and staff have said about his plans to run for President,” Clinton spokesperson Phil Singer said. “Senator Obama’s campaign rhetoric is getting in the way of his reality.”

Immediately after joining the Senate, Senator Obama started planning run for President. "'The first order of business for Senator Obama's team was charting a course for his first two years in the Senate. The game plan was to send Senator Obama into the 2007-2008 election cycle in the strongest form possible'...The final act of the plan was turning up the talk about a potential Presidential bid, which was greatly aided by his positive press and suggestions by pundits that he run for President." [U.S. News and World Report, 6/19/07 ]

His law school classmates say that Senator Obama has been planning Presidential run for 'more than a decade.' [A]ccording to those who know him, he has been talking about the presidency for more than a decade. "It was clear to me from the day I met him that he was thinking about politics," says Harvard Law School classmate Christine Spurell. [Washington Post, 8/12/07 ]

15 years ago, Senator Obama told his brother-in-law he was planning to run for President. Craig [Robinson] pulled him aside [in 1992] and asked about his plans. "He said, 'I think I'd like to teach at some point in time, and maybe run for public office,' recalls Robinson, who assumed Senator Obama meant he'd like to run for city alderman. "He said no -- at some point he'd like to run for the U.S. Senate. And then he said, 'Possibly even run for President at some point.' And I was like, 'Okay, but don't say that to my Aunt Gracie.' I was protecting him from saying something that might embarrass him." [Washington Post, 8/12/07 ]

In third grade, Senator Obama wrote an essay titled 'I Want To Be a President.' His third grade teacher: Fermina Katarina Sinaga "asked her class to write an essay titled 'My dream: What I want to be in the future.' Senator Obama wrote 'I want to be a President,' she said." [The Los Angeles Times, 3/15/07]

In kindergarten, Senator Obama wrote an essay titled 'I Want to Become President.’ "Iis Darmawan, 63, Senator Obama's kindergarten teacher, remembers him as an exceptionally tall and curly haired child who quickly picked up the local language and had sharp math skills. He wrote an essay titled, 'I Want To Become President,' the teacher said." [AP, 1/25/07 ]

Think about this, people: Obama was WRITING ESSAYS IN KINDERGARTEN!! That's the type of precociousness we want in a president.