Who Does He Think He Is?

By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, July 18, 2008

WASHINGTON -- Barack Obama wants to speak at the Brandenburg Gate. He figures it would be a nice backdrop. The supporting cast -- a cheering audience and a few fainting frauleins -- would be a picturesque way to bolster his foreign policy credentials.

What Obama does not seem to understand is that the Brandenburg Gate is something you earn. President Reagan earned the right to speak there because his relentless pressure had brought the Soviet empire to its knees and he was demanding its final "tear down this wall" liquidation. When President Kennedy visited the Brandenburg Gate on the day of his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech, he was representing a country that was prepared to go to the brink of nuclear war to defend West Berlin.

Who is Obama representing? And what exactly has he done in his lifetime to merit appropriating the Brandenburg Gate as a campaign prop? What was his role in the fight against communism, the liberation of Eastern Europe, the creation of what George Bush 41 -- who presided over the fall of the Berlin Wall but modestly declined to go there for a victory lap -- called "a Europe whole and free"?

Does Obama not see the incongruity? It's as if a German pol took a campaign trip to America and demanded the Statue of Liberty as a venue for a campaign speech. (The Germans have now gently nudged Obama into looking at other venues.)

Americans are beginning to notice Obama's elevated opinion of himself. There's nothing new about narcissism in politics. Every senator looks in the mirror and sees a president. Nonetheless, has there ever been a presidential nominee with a wider gap between his estimation of himself and the sum total of his lifetime achievements?

Obama is a three-year senator without a single important legislative achievement to his name, a former Illinois state senator who voted "present" nearly 130 times. As president of the Harvard Law Review, as law professor and as legislator, has he ever produced a single notable piece of scholarship? Written a single memorable article? His most memorable work is a biography of his favorite subject: himself.

It is a subject upon which he can dilate effortlessly. In his victory speech upon winning the nomination, Obama declared it a great turning point in history -- "generations from now we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment" -- when, among other wonders, "the rise of the oceans began to slow." As economist Irwin Stelzer noted in his London Daily Telegraph column, "Moses made the waters recede, but he had help." Obama apparently works alone.

Obama may think he's King Canute, but the good king ordered the tides to halt precisely to refute sycophantic aides who suggested that he had such power. Obama has no such modesty.

After all, in the words of his own slogan, "we are the ones we've been waiting for," which, translating the royal "we," means: "I am the one we've been waiting for." Amazingly, he had a quasi-presidential seal with its own Latin inscription affixed to his podium, until general ridicule -- it was pointed out that he was not yet president -- induced him to take it down

He lectures us that instead of worrying about immigrants learning English, "you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish" -- a language Obama does not speak. He further admonishes us on how "embarrassing" it is that Europeans are multilingual but "we go over to Europe, and all we can say is, 'merci beaucoup.'" Obama speaks no French.

His fluent English does, however, feature many such admonitions, instructions and improvements. His wife assures us that President Obama will be a stern taskmaster: "Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism ... that you come out of your isolation. ... Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed."

For the first few months of the campaign, the question about Obama was: Who is he? The question now is: Who does he think he is?

We are getting to know. Redeemer of our uninvolved, uninformed lives. Lord of the seas. And more. As he said on victory night, his rise marks the moment when "our planet began to heal." As I recall -- I'm no expert on this -- Jesus practiced his healing just on the sick. Obama operates on a larger canvas.

http://www.townhall.com/Columnists/CharlesKrauthammer/2008/07/18/who_does_he_think_he_is

*Breaking* Obama SuperDs Switching to Hillary!

From http://noquarterusa.net

…There are unconfirmed reports based on phone banking efforts to reach out to Super D’s that 8 previously Obama SD’s, expressed that, given the opportunity, they would vote for Hillary at the convention.

Did you get that?

Superdelegates who have “declared” for Obama are now saying that they would vote for Hillary at the convention.

How many more disillusioned SuperDs are out there?

No wonder Obama wants to break with tradition and keep Hillary off the convention ballot, even though she won more popular votes than he did, and neither of them earned enough pledged delegates to secure the nomination.

Alegre explains how the story broke…

I heard about an interview Will Bower of PUMA did recently, where he said delegates are starting to say theyll vote for Hillary in Denver if the DNC does the right thing and run an open and fair convention. That means a roll call vote with Hillarys name put into nomination and on the ballot.

So I shot an email to Bower to ask him where he got that info from, and here’s what he sent me regarding the efforts of a friend of his:

“A large phone banking effort to the super d’s combined with Obama’s flips and poor presumptive nominee performance, etc have yielded doubts within the super delegates, enough that 3 elected and 5 DNC members have confided that should they have the opportunity to do so, they will vote for Hillary.”

Maybe this is why BHO and the Toxic Trio are pushing so hard to keep Hillary off the roll call ballot eh? Ive been wondering what theyre so afraid of now it looks like we have part of the answer.

…And points to a Tuesday story in Politico entitled Hill Democrats Miffed at Obama…

I think Politico may have stumbled upon one or two reasons why the Supers are starting to take a fresh look at Hillary….The folks on the Hill (aka Super delegates) are getting pissed at BHO for the lack of effort on his part when it comes to fundraising, coordination and support they’re getting in their own bid for re-election etc. Todays Politico has the story:

After a brief bout of Obamamania, some Capitol Hill Democrats have begun to complain privately that Barack Obamas presidential campaign is insular, uncooperative and inattentive to their hopes for a broad Democratic victory in November.

They think they know whats right and everyone else is wrong on everything, groused one senior Senate Democratic aide. They are kind of insufferable at this point.

Read the rest of Alegre’s story here. She wraps it up with this zinger:

Yeah - I can see why those Supers are starting to take a fresh look at Hillary, and are swinging back her way. No way would Hillary ignore down-ticket dems or toss them to the curb the way BHO has.

H E L L O SUPERS?! Anyone out there??!?!?!

Has there ever been a time in history when a Democratic candidate was KEPT OFF the ballot?

Sorry, Barack, you are not appointed by God. This is a time-tested democractic process.

It’s alarming that there now has to be a movement to keep Clinton ON the ballot.

There must be a roll-call vote with Clinton’s name on the ballot.

I envision an uprising at Denver if she’s not.

http://noquarterusa.net/blog/2008/07/15/breaking-obama-superds-switching-to-hillary/#comment-462799

Would You Hire a President Who Padded His Resume?

July 14, 2008 - by Jennifer Rubin

Barack Obama has a solution to his lack of accomplishment and experience: pad his resume. If resume fraud were a crime, Obama would be looking at fifteen to life. And it is not just an isolated incident or two. He is a repeat offender.

Obama started early. Even the [1] New York Times acknowledges that in his book [2] Dreams From My Father Obama accomplished little as a “community organizer.” (”It is clear that the benefit of those years to Mr. Obama dwarfs what he accomplished.”) But he did manage to steal credit for asbestos testing and removal in the Altgeld Gardens, a public housing project in Chicago. But he didn’t quite tell the whole story. The Times writes:

What Mr. Obama does not mention in his book is that residents of the nearby Ida B. Wells housing project, and some at Altgeld itself, had already been challenging the housing authority on asbestos. A local newspaper had also taken up the issue.

Now Obama is running for the presidency on the slimmest record of accomplishment of any major party candidate in recent memory. In June Obama was interviewed by ABC’s [3] Jake Tapper. There was this exchange:

TAPPER: But have you ever worked across the aisle in such a way that entailed a political risk for yourself?

OBAMA: Well, look, when I was doing ethics reform legislation, for example, that wasn’t popular with Democrats or Republicans. So any time that you actually try to get something done in Washington, it entails some political risks.

But I think the basic principle which you pointed out is that I have consistently said, when it comes to solving problems, like nuclear proliferation or reducing the influence of lobbyists in Washington, that I don’t approach this from a partisan or ideological perspective. And the same is true when it comes to the economy. The same is true when it comes to national security. You know, this administration, the Bush administration, has made, for example, the war on terror into a sharply partisan issue. But the truth is, is that I admire some of the foreign policy of George Bush’s father. And I’ve said so before. I think that there’s a tradition of us working together to make sure that we are dealing with the threats that are out there and that we are building a consensus here in the United States. That’s the kind of approach I intend to take when I’m president of the United States.

If you missed the answer to Tapper’s question — name a bipartisan accomplishment putting you at political risk — don’t worry. There wasn’t one. Because unlike John McCain who has taken his lumps from his own party but who has actually accomplished something in Congress, Obama’s record is relatively barren.

[4] Even friendly bloggers remarked that he might have to improve on this non-answer.

Perhaps sensing that Obama needed to demonstrate some record of accomplishment his campaign put up an ad in early July touting his record on welfare reform, [5] claiming he “passed a law to move people from welfare to work — slashed the rolls by 80 percent.” But this wasn’t true. He actually opposed the 1996 welfare reform bill passed by his former rival Hillary Clinton’s husband. As [6] Factcheck.org pointed out:

That’s going too far. First, the law in question wasn’t dreamed up out of thin air by its sponsors. It was the follow-up to the [7] welfare reform act, the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, that President Clinton signed on Aug. 26, 1996. That law gave states the ability to design their own welfare programs as long as they met certain federal requirements, including limits on how long recipients could get benefits. The bill that Obama cosponsored was Illinois’ version. And far from having “passed” the bill single-handedly, Obama was among five Senate sponsors of the measure, as we [8] said previously. It was passed by both chambers of the Illinois Legislature and signed into law by the governor.

. . .

But we don’t think Obama alone, or even Obama and the four other sponsors of the Illinois law, can take credit for all of this. It was the federal law, hammered out by Clinton and the Republican Congress, that set the wheels in motion and forced states to act.

That same ad also contained an exaggeration about his personal life. Although he claimed to have worked his way through school, his campaign could identify only [9] two summer jobs during his college years.

This propensity to pad his own resume has continued unabated. John McCain nearly committed political suicide by championing comprehensive immigration reform. Obama? His role was slight. Indeed he [10] helped sink the bill at a critical time by joining other pro-Big Labor Democrats in voting on poison pill amendments. But now he boasts of his own role. Chicago Sun-Times’ Washington bureau chief and longtime Obama watcher [11] Lynn Sweet calls foul. She writes:

Obama on the campaign trail inflates his leadership role — casting himself as someone who could figure out how to get something done. Obama “did not absolutely stand out in any way,” said Margaret Sands Orchowski, the author of “Immigration and the American Dream: Battling the Political Hype and Hysteria,” and a close follower of the legislation. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a McCain ally and a key player on immigration, said Obama was around for only a “handful” of meetings and helped destroy a 2007 compromise when he voted for making guest worker visa programs temporary. A permanent guest worker program was to be a trade for a legalization program to cover many illegal immigrants. “When it came time to putting that bill together, he was more of a problem than he was a help. And when it came time to try to get the bill passed, he, in my opinion, broke the agreement we had. He was in the photo op, but he could not execute the hard part of the deal,” Graham said.

So what to make of all this? Obama claims that [12] experience is not as important as “judgment” or “change.” By manufacturing or existing accomplishments, however, he suggests that he does not buy his own pitch.

Rather, his repeated attempts to bolster his resume indicate that he may be nervous about his non-existent record of achievement. Not trusting that voters will buy his disparagement of experience, Obama is now resorting to a common, but risking tactic of under-qualified job-seekers: fudge the resume.

Resume fraud carries grave risks. If the employer finds out you are lying, you are unlikely to get the job, even if the competition is weak. And for Obama, who is already belaboring under an [13] avalanche of [14] tough press about his many policy flip-flops, he hardly needs another storyline which sheds doubt on his credibility and character.

It is not yet clear whether more than a few savvy reporters and fact checkers will pick up on Obama’s exaggeration and outright lies about his accomplishments.

But the McCain camp’s new communications team would be smart to ask: would your hire someone who lied on his resume?

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/would-you-hire-a-president-who-padded-his-resume/

How Dare He

By Chet Richards

July 4, 2008

A prominent politician recently proclaimed that he would make America great. Which America is he talking about? Is it the America which gave the world:

A refuge and home for multitudes fleeing from tyranny...
Bounteous wealth for all who would work for it...
Peace and security despite a world filled with terror...
Ideals of justice for all...
Freedom from religious persecution...
Freedom of religion...
Freedom of speech...
Freedom for people be secure in their persons...
Freedom for people to be secure in possessions...
The absolute right of self defense...
The right, and power, to succeed or fail on your own...
The people¢s ultimate power over government...
Democracy for all citizens...
Color blindness...
Racial blindness...
Class blindness...
Wealth blindness...
The notion that who you are is vastly more important than where you came from...
The first written Constitution...
The first written Bill of Rights...
The worlds oldest and most stable Democracy...

Or, is he referring to the America which gave the world:

Electricity...
Electric lighting...
Steamboats and steamships...
The transcontinental railroad...
Petroleum...
Steel...
Sheet glass...
Skyscrapers...
The telephone...
Radio...
Television...
Motion pictures...
Sound recording...
Data recording...
Instantaneous transoceanic communication...
Electronics...
The Vacuum Tube...
The Transistor...
The Integrated Circuit...
Computers...
The Internet...
Search engines...
Cell phones...
The airplane...
Supersonic flight
The modern rocket...
The Moon...
Intercontinental air passenger travel...
Nuclear energy...
Genome decoding...
The first giant telescopes - on Earth and in Space...
Telecommunications satellites and direct broadcast T.V. ...
The Global Positioning System...
The Laser...
Fiber optics communications...
The Electron Microscope...
Elementary particle accelerators...
The Standard Theory of Elementary Particles...
String Theory...
Communications theory...
Servo control theory...
Mass produced automobiles and the freedom to travel...

How about the America which gave the world:

Jazz...
Rock and Roll...
The Broadway Musical...
A treasure chest of great songs...
Great classical music...
Great film scores...
Modern Dance...
Movies...
The greatest motion pictures...
Great poetry...
Great literature...
Great art...

Is he talking about the America which is the true cultural and political magnet for the entire world?

Is he talking about the America which bled itself to:

Abolish slavery...
Save Western Civilization - four times by my count...

Or, is he talking about the America which, from its inception, has placed the liberty of the individual first, last and always?

Who is this politician who claims he will make America great? How dare he?


I've tried to find a link to think but have been unable, if someone can provide a link I would like to link back to the original - THANKS! Monty

O=Zero

Written by Dr. Jack Wheeler

Thursday, 05 June 2008

To The Point is proud to present its candidate for Best Bumper Sticker of 2008: The O-man, Barack Hussein Obama, is an eloquently tailored empty suit. No résumé, no accomplishments, no experience, no original ideas, no understanding of how the economy works, no understanding of how the world works, no balls, nothing but abstract empty rhetoric devoid of real substance. He has no real identity. He is half-white, which he rejects. The rest of him is mostly Arab, which he hides but is disclosed by his non-African Arabic surname and his Arabic first and middle names as a way to triply proclaim his Arabic parentage to people in Kenya. Only a small part of him is African Black from his Luo grandmother, which he pretends he is exclusively. What he isn't, not a genetic drop of, is "African-American," the descendant of enslaved Africans brought to America chained in slave ships. He hasn't a single ancestor who was a slave. Instead, his Arab ancestors were slave owners. Slave-trading was the main Arab business in East Africa for centuries until the British ended it. Let that sink in: Obambi is not the descendant of slaves, he is the descendant of slave owners. Thus he makes the perfect Liberal Messiah. It's something Hillary doesn't understand - how some complete neophyte came out of the blue and stole the Dem nomination from her. Obamamania is beyond politics and reason. It is a true religious cult, whose adherents reject Christianity yet still believe in Original Sin, transferring it from the evil of being human to the evil of being white. Thus Obambi has become the white liberals' Christ, offering absolution from the Sin of Being White. There is no reason or logic behind it, no faults or flaws of his can diminish it, no arguments Hillary could make of any kind can be effective against it. The absurdity of Hypocrisy Clothed In Human Flesh being their Savior is all the more cause for liberals to worship him: Credo quia absurdum, I believe it because it is absurd. Thank heavens that the voting majority of Americans remain Christian and are in no desperate need of a phony savior. Obama is a Zero. There is nothing really there. O=Zero. You can get a O=Zero bumper sticker for your car, a O=Zero t-shirt, encourage your friends to do the same, and get the message out there: That his candidacy is ridiculous and should not be taken seriously by any thinking American. http://www.tothepointnews.com/content/view/3227/44/

Obama Denies Christ in His Own Words

Cathleen Falsani, the author of The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People, interviewed Barack Obama about his faith March 27, 2004, a few days after he clinched the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat that he eventually won.

Because of the intense interest in Obama's faith, she has made the entire interview available uncut and in its entirety.

What emerges is a man who is not comfortable discussing spiritual matters, and is a spiritually confused theological eclectic. He is clearly not a Christian by any biblical, historic measure. He repeatedly affirms then denies Christ, says he believes but is filled with doubt.

Obama's faith reflects the Universalistic beliefs of his grandparents. The fact that he felt comfortable in Trinity United Church of Christ, one of the most radical churches in one of the most liberal denominations, is entirely understandable.

When Falsini asks, "What do you believe?" Obama effectively calls himself a Buddhist, agnostic, Muslim, Jewish, Christian. If you read the whole interview you will see a person who seems to be trying very hard to not take a stand on the Christian faith, yet at the same time tries to identify as a Christian.

It is only fair to take Obama at his word and in context. Please take the time to read the following lengthy article, after all, he might be the next President and leader of the free world. My only purpose is only to answer the question, is Obama a Christian according to biblical, historic standards? I have added my parenthetical comments in bold italics.

The entire interview is available at the following link, very eye opening. Monty

http://www.christianadc.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=38840

Clinton supporters still not embracing Obama

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- One week after Sen. Hillary Clinton made a public show of unity with Sen. Barack Obama, a new survey suggests supporters of the New York senator are increasingly less likely to follow her lead.

A growing number of Clinton supporters polled say they may stay home in November instead of casting their ballot for Obama, an indication the party has yet to coalesce around the Illinois senator four weeks after the most prolonged and at times divisive primary race in modern American history came to a close.

According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Friday, the number of Clinton supporters who plan to defect to Republican Sen. John McCain's camp is down from one month ago, but -- in what could be an ominous sign for Obama as he seeks to unify the party -- the number of them who say they plan to vote for Obama is also down, and a growing number say they may not vote at all.

In a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey completed in early June before the New York senator ended her White House bid, 60 percent of Clinton backers polled said they planned on voting for Obama. In the latest poll, that number has dropped to 54 percent.

In early June, 22 percent of Clinton supporters polled said they would not vote at all if Obama were the party's nominee, now close to a third say they will stay home.

In another sign the wounds of the heated primary race have yet to heal, 43 percent of registered Democrats polled still say they would prefer Clinton to be the party's presidential nominee. Watch why Clinton supporters are struggling with supporting Obama »

That number is significantly higher than it was in early June, when 35 percent of Democrats polled said they preferred Clinton to lead the party's presidential ticket.

Obama won 59 percent of support from registered Democrats polled in June; now he garners 54 percent.

"These things always take time to heal," said Bill Schneider, CNN senior political analyst. "I think Clinton's supporters are waiting to see if Sen. Obama will pick her as vice president. That would certainly be very healing to them."

But most political observers agree the prospects of an Obama-Clinton ticket are dim, most notably because Clinton remains a divisive figure in American politics and Obama's message of change threatens to be muddled by the 16 years Clinton has spent in Washington

But the question remains whether Obama can win enough Democrats without Clinton as his No. 2.

"If he doesn't pick her, a later stage of grief is depression and then acceptance," Schneider said. "In the end I expect Clinton supporters will accept Obama, because they will listen to Sen. Clinton, who has said the stakes are too high for Democrats to sulk."

The analysts said maybe more than four weeks is needed for many of Clinton's most devoted supporters to move past her loss, especially considering the primary campaign stretched more than 17 months.

"Many voters find it tough to immediately switch allegiances to a candidate that they once opposed, so they find a 'neutral' setting more comfortable for awhile," said Keating Holland, CNN polling director. "If that's what is happening to the Clinton supporters who now say they plan to stay at home, Obama may have nothing to worry about. If not, there's a big chunk of the party base that Obama won't be able to count on in November."

While Clinton's stock among many Democrats remains high in the latest poll, her husband's is decidedly lower since a year ago.

Much has been made of Bill Clinton's role in his wife's White House bid -- the increasingly aggressive campaign style, the sharpened attacks leveled at Obama that some viewed as carrying racial overtones and the outbursts at some reporters over what he viewed as unfair media coverage.

The former president increasingly came under fire from neutral Democrats and party elders concerned he was fracturing the party in an election cycle during which Democrats appeared to hold the advantage in nearly every way.

Among all registered voters questioned in the latest poll, his approval rating is down 9 points in just more than a year, from 60 percent to 51 percent.

"Former presidents are supposed to be above politics, but Bill Clinton couldn't be above it in this campaign since his wife was a candidate for president," Schneider said. "But he was seen as too political. Democrats thought it was appropriate for him to support his wife but not appropriate to get overly critical of Obama."

So can Clinton, who left office eight years ago with approval ratings well over 60 percent, repair his image with most Americans?

"He needs to show he's gotten over it," Schneider said.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/04/clinton.poll/