The Respectfully Republican Conversation

And the nightmare is, waking up on Nov. 5th with a democrat in the White house, and a majority in both houses.  Hannity was saying we lived through this scenario before (Carter) and got through it.  Why do we have to go through all that again?  Just because the young didn't live through those times, and don't have a clue, we have to live it one more time?

Anyway, I hear John McCain is coming out today against affirmative action.  I'm not in the loop on this one.  There was a time it was very necessary, but are those days gone forever?  I don't know.

Oh my gosh!  You MUST read this opinion piece by Gerhard Sporl.  This is the article that Bill Kristol was so upset about that Susie posted.  It's a must read to get the FULL effect.

One quote that this man wrote and I thought, WOW you DO understand why this basketball hero should be our next prez!    Now, I had to add another quote.  I'm steaming!  Who in the hell do they think they are!?  Someone needs to plaster this opinion piece all over the place.  I hope Fox reads parts of this to their audience.  I'm sure MSNBC won't.  Don't know much about CNBC.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,567919,00.html

"He also could have said: We are a world power, the only one on the planet at the moment, and I intend to act as if this were the case. But you're also allowed to participate in the attempt to try to save the world -- at least a bit of it. In that sense I am different from George W. Bush, very different. Indeed, Barack Obama has his own sound -- it's more utopian, he speaks of the general human desire for better conditions for all of humanity; and he speaks of the longing for strong and dynamic presidents and chancellors who are capable of acting on a global scale. With this drive and this radiance, he managed to drive Hillary Clinton out of the campaign. It is also the way he will outpace John McCain by November 4. It is the way he took the hearts of Americans by storm, and it is the way he is now taking Europe by storm."

"Anyone who saw him make the short way from the Victory Column in Berlin on Thursday to the podium saw a man with the serious gait of a basketball player, a man who seemed young, decisive and focused. For those who witnessed his appearance in Berlin, it is hard to imagine that John McCain has any chance. McCain is 25 years his senior, a man who because of the torture he endured in Vietnam is in constant pain -- unable to comb his hair or lift his arm in celebration."

Happy reading!

Shirley

Ahhhh Shirley--I actually have an article here from an honest to goodness "Liberal" commentator (for your daughter's benefit-LOL). You don't get much more liberal than this guy.  He works for the Washington Post---and he has been following Obama for the past year and has apparently had a sudden revelation as is posted on Real Clear Politics

--------------------------------------------------

July 29, 2008
What Has Obama Accomplished?
By Richard Cohen

"Just tell me one thing Barack Obama has done that you admire," I asked a prominent Democrat. He paused and then said that he admired Obama's speech to the Democratic convention in 2004. I agreed. It was a hell of a speech, but it was just a speech.

On the other hand, I continued, I could cite four or five actions -- not speeches -- that John McCain has taken that elicit my admiration, even my awe. First, of course, is his decision as a Vietnam War POW to refuse freedom out of concern that he would be exploited for propaganda purposes. To paraphrase what Kipling said about Gunga Din, John McCain is a better man than most.

But I would not stop there. I would include campaign finance reform, which infuriated so many in his own party; opposition to earmarks, which won him no friends; his politically imprudent opposition to the Medicare prescription drug bill (Medicare has about $35 trillion in unfunded obligations); and, last but not least, his very early call for additional troops in Iraq. His was a lonely position, virtually suicidal for an all-but-certain presidential candidate, and no help when his campaign nearly expired last summer. In all these cases, McCain stuck to his guns.

Obama argues that he himself stuck to the biggest gun of all: opposition to the war. He took that position back when the war was enormously popular, the president who initiated it was even more popular, and critics of both were slandered as unpatriotic. But at the time, Obama was a mere Illinois state senator, representing the (very) liberal Hyde Park area of Chicago. He either voiced his conscience or his district's leanings or (lucky fella) both. We will never know.

And we will never know, either, how Obama might have conducted himself had he served in Congress as long as McCain has. Possibly he would have earned a reputation for furious, maybe even sanctimonious, integrity of the sort that often drove McCain's colleagues to dark thoughts of senatorcide, but the record -- scant as it is -- suggests otherwise. Obama is not noted for sticking to a position or a person once it (or he) becomes a political liability. (Names available upon request.)

All politicians change their positions, sometimes even because they have changed their mind. McCain must have suffered excruciating whiplash from totally reversing himself on George Bush's tax cuts. He has denounced preachers he later embraced and then, to his chagrin, has had to denounce them all over again. This plasticity has a label: Pandering. McCain knows how it's done.

But Obama has shown that in this area, youth is no handicap. He has been for and against gun control, against and for the recent domestic surveillance legislation and, in almost a single day, for a united Jerusalem under Israeli control and then, when apprised of U.S. policy and Palestinian chagrin, against it. He is an accomplished pol -- a statement of both admiration and a bit of regret.

Obama is often likened to John F. Kennedy. It makes sense. He has the requisite physical qualities -- handsome, lean, etc. -- plus wit, intelligence, awesome speaking abilities and a literary bent. He also might be compared to Franklin D. Roosevelt for many of those same qualities. Both FDR and JFK were disparaged early on by their contemporaries for, I think, doing the difficult and making it look easy. Eleanor Roosevelt, playing off the title of Kennedy's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, airily dismissed him as more profile than courage. Similarly, it was Walter Lippmann's enduring misfortune to size up FDR and belittle him: Roosevelt, he wrote, was "a pleasant man who, without any important qualifications for office, would very much like to be president." Lippmann later recognized that he had underestimated Roosevelt.

My guess is that Obama will make a fool of anyone who issues such a judgment about him. Still, the record now, while tissue thin, is troubling. The next president will have to be something of a political Superman, a man of steel who can tell the American people that they will have to pay more for less -- higher taxes, lower benefits of all kinds -- and deal in an ugly way when nuclear weapons seize the imagination of madmen.

The question I posed to that prominent Democrat was just my way of thinking out loud. I know that Barack Obama is a near-perfect political package. I'm still not sure, though, what's in it.
cohenr@washpost.com

Susie, Is the following true?  I would really like to know or is this writer, not an Obama fan, making it up?  I can't imagine why Obama would not have revealed his prayer since it was very innocent, but if he did give it to the papers, why was there so much coverage on the issue?  You seems to have access to all types of information.

Israeli newspapers: Obama approved Western Wall note for publication

As this is the Republican thread, I'll post this here.  I was disappointed in McCain's changes in position from 2000, a time when I admired him.  But I was happy to see a bit of the old McCain back, when he said everything is on the table, includng taxes. Can anyone really believe that we can keep or lower taxes, keep current entitlements, and lower the deficit by just cutting earmarks.  It's impossible and, for me, a leader is someone who tells the people the truth. "Everything for everybody" makes me wild--and angry.

I just hope the American public is mature enough to accept that we're in a hole and you don't get out of a hole by digging down, and that it accepts the truth and rejects pandering.   

Then, today I heard about a man who applied for the states aid for chemo.  He received a letter telling him that they wouldn't offer him the chemo, but would offter him assisted suicide.  I can't remember the correct words, but Oregon has a Death With Dignity Act.  This man has no more than a 5% chance of living for five years with the assistance of chemo.  So, instead they're offering to kill him.  If they want to offer him ANYTHING, they should offer ALL options, not just death.  BTW, Washington State may pass such a bill.

I realize many people will say, well, he's going to die anyway.  That IS NOT the point.  And it shouldn't be up to the state to tell him he's not worth living.  My daughters stepmother-in-law had breast cancer return after 10 years.  She was state IV when she was dxd.  Her doctors sent her to Duke and she was put in the hospital for some very heavy duty chemo.  They gave her five years.  Well, it didn't come back until 10 years later.  And, ladies, none of us thought she "last" this long.  She has been living (and it's her choice, not what I think is right or wrong) with this mets for I know two years.  She discovered while in treatment that her son was going to have a baby.  She wanted to live to see that son.  I never thought she COULD have.  That baby is now at least seven months old.  No, she's not doing well.  But, she's walking, talking and live HER choice of QOL.  My dd told me when she saw her a couple of weeks ago that her hair was growing back.  She extremely thin.  But, she still tries to eat which is awesome.  How long she has no one knows.  I know her doctors are amazed that she's still alive.

Will this work for everyone....no.  But she's doing it HER WAY!

A friend of my who's a nurse said she learned in nursing school that when people lose respect for the babies and the elderly, then this nation will be nothing.  And, I see that happening everyday.  I think about Obama and his view on late term abortion (which I against), and how he viewed a baby born alive during this procedure...don't help them live.  Thank God that bill didn't pass.

Okay, off my soap box FOR NOW.  I've GOT to stop listening to the news so much.  It's so damned depressing!

Shirley

Unfortunately, Shirley, I don't have any girls, but I'm sure your children will be there for you.  Where I'll be at 80 is anyone's guess.  As an aside, I asked my doctor today to change my BP medication from an ACE inhibitor to an angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB).  I believe you have high BP as well from your posts.  Recent evidence suggests that ARB's are helpful in preventing alzheimer's more than other BP meds.  So why not I decided.  If my mind is still active then I assume I'll be okay. I'm even thinking of taking a statin (which although I should I've put off until now). Statins also are helpful in preventing alzheimers.  I'm trying to cover all my bases.

If we can wait long enough they'll come up with a drug for Alzheimer's, and they have.  It's called Rember, made in Singapore, its in trials now, so we all have to hold on for another 5 more years or so.  They're all excited about it, but who knows?   If we keep talking about politics we won't need that drug anyway.  Something more calming will be in order. 

More on McCain's remarks about taxes.  I think everyone knows they have to do something about social security, it's going to run out of money in a couple of years, but now the McCain people are saying something else and I can't get it to post correctly, but we'll hear all about it soon anyway.  Over and over again, I'm sure.

This should get our brains activated this morning:

 Obama's Victory

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/29/AR2008072902068.html?hpid=topnews

Did you hear he doesn't give Christmas or birthday gifts to his kids?  What the heck is that about?

America must be changing.  Normally, anyone behaving this way, we'd turn our backs on them.  This isn't what we're all about.  When Nixon changed the uniforms for the guards in front of the White House to look more imperial, we fell over laughing.  This guy is acting imperial and all is well.

Then I stumbled upon this:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/maps/obama_vs_mccain/

Look at Florida and Michigan.  They aren't upset at all about being disenfranchised. 

I think Rasmussen actually has Florida leaning Republican.  I guess the main argument for putting Romney on the ticket is Michigan although it may also help with some of the western states.

What happened today in Congress is very telling about the repercussions of sitting out this election on many issues in addition to energy-----but hey on energy just inflating your tires and getting a tuneup will end our dependence on Middle-east oil.

This is from Jeff Emanuel's site:

GOP tries to keep House in session to provide gas price relief; Democrats vote to skip town on paid vacation
Submitted by Jeff Emanuel on Wed, 07/30/2008 - 5:34pm.

Republicans in Congress have been pressing the lower House's Democrat leadership to consider realistic solutions to the energy crunch to no avail for weeks now.

50-mile-or-more offshore drilling? Off the table. Using a fraction of ANWR to provide America with years' worth of fuel? Also off the table. Nuclear energy? Waaaay off the table. About the only thing Speaker Pelosi and her band of merry men have allowed even to grace the table's presence is a "use it or lose it" legislative demand that oil companies drill on land they already own, which isn't currently being drilled because it doesn't have any oil under it. Now that's a good way to help folks like you and me pay less at the pump.

With Congress due to take a monthlong recess beginning this weekend, the House Republican leadership decided to make energy solutions -- with an emphasis on the solutions -- their first and only priority this week.

Further, putting their money (or, more correctly, their vacation time) where their mouths were, Republicans decided to do everything they could to keep the House in session past this week and into the August recess, until such a time as the energy situation had been, in some way, dealt with.

Needless to say, House Democrats, far more inclined to continue blaming the Bush administration for high gas prices while doing everything in their power to block legislation that would affect them in any meaningful way, weren't in favor of the plan.

This afternoon, a roll-call vote was held to adjourn for the August recess. With nothing whatsoever having been done to actually help lessen the toll being taken on the American people by towering energy prices, the Republicans united to oppose this move by Democrats to reward themselves with a paid vacation (at taxpayer expense, of course) that would enable them to leave town while leaving their constituents in such a bind.

The motion to adjourn passed, 213-212, with 17 Democrats joining the House GOP in opposing Congress' being rewarded for abdicating their responsibilities and refusing to do their jobs.

One vote was the difference between Congress staying late to actually do their jobs, and taking off for a month of paid vacation having done absolutely zero to deregulate the price of gas down from its current state.

One single vote.

With a margin of one, there are 223 Congresspersons who effectively cast the deciding vote to leave America in the lurch while they took a paid vacation.

213 voted to leave; 10 -- including four Republicans (one of whom was, I am sad to say, House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO)) -- took an even lower road by refusing to vote at all.

When you're paying your $4 per gallon at the pump this November, just remember the 219 Democrats and 4 Republicans who either voted for that early paid vacation, or cast de facto votes for it by not voting at all, while the price of gas was nigh unaffordable thanks to their regulatory actions.

Blame it on brain fog----How could I have missed the mind-boggling quote in the article Rosemary posted earlier today.----

This doesn't sound like a presidential candidate--It sounds like a megalomaniac.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ABC News
The Note: Inevitability, Now
The Incredibly Vanishing Brands of The Presidential Contenders
By RICK KLEIN with JOHN SANTUCCI, ALEXA AINSWORTH and AMANDA TEMPLE

July 30, 2008

If you look carefully through those tubes, you can see why Sen. Chuck Schumer is thinking about the big Six-Oh.

If you look carefully at the news cycle's latest popular kid, you can determine how new Gov. Tim Kaine and his friends are at this veepstakes thing.

If you look not-so-carefully at what President Bill Clinton is up to, you might forgive him for missing the perks of the presidency.

If you look carefully at what Sen. John McCain is doing and saying, you can measure how much twisting straight talk can survive.

If you look carefully at what Sen. Barack Obama is doing and saying, you can watch his self-image swell to fill the mold being fitted for him. (And hey -- the inevitability thing worked SO well in the primaries . . . )

Some of the most interesting looking centers on Obama: Secret meetings, a bizarrely vague public schedule, sit-downs with the Fed chairman and the new Pakistani prime minister, all after a heralded foreign trip?

You might say he's measuring the drapes -- but that assumes he hasn't ordered new windows.

The latest entry in the (bulging) Obama files: "This is the moment . . . that the world is waiting for," he told House Democrats Tuesday night, per The Washington Post's Jonathan Weisman. "I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions."

(Read that sentence again, and try to imagine how it would look if it was said on camera.)

Obama may be right (and if he is, he wins) -- but the first person singular is the most dangerous of tenses, particularly when the meme is being set. Toss in a jettisoned faux-presidential seal, a canceled visit with troops, maybe a sprinkling of broken promises, and you've got enough to weave an uncomfortable yet unforgettable suit.

With a public schedule that "would have made Dick Cheney envious," this is Obama going from presumptive to presumptuous, Dana Milbank writes in his Washington Post column.

"Some say the supremely confident Obama -- nearly 100 days from the election, he pronounces that 'the odds of us winning are very good' -- has become a president-in-waiting," Milbank writes. "But in truth, he doesn't need to wait: He has already amassed the trappings of the office, without those pesky decisions."

(If you don't think the hype is contagious, check out the newspaper headlines over Patti Solis Doyle's shoulder in this photo -- and remember that Solis Doyle once managed Hillary Clinton's campaign.)

From Obama's perspective, it's not bad work if you can get it -- except McCain is using those very symbols to try to take it away from him. (It's in full techno-music glory in the RNC's new Web ad.)

This is fun to make fun of, sure (and the world can always use an extra Hasselhoff reference).

But with Obama set to return to "real" campaigning in Missouri Wednesday with the start of a bus tour (and McCain set to share a piece of the state with him), consider how Obama has set the stage: His economic message is being built on the same pillars as his foreign policy, as if meeting with important people sends the message that he cares.

At this snapshot of a moment, who has the more compelling economic message? And who's the insider in this equation?

The late night comics finally have something besides McCains age to focus on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuMZzXAWv2U