Bookworm Room

At Iowa, McCain “gets in your face” mano a mano (that is, he doesn’t delegate his surrogates, but gives a speech to America, Obama included), and he focuses on the facts.  This is a very concrete speech, which appropriately boasts his virtues and clearly exposes Obama’s failings: U.S. Senator John McCain will deliver the following [...]

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The McCain campaign is giving substantive responses to the attacks the Obama campaign is leveling against it: TO:                 Interested Parties RE:                Empty Words And Insults Cannot Cover A Weak Record DATE:            September 15, 2008 Over the last few days, the Obama campaign has watched their poll numbers falter and decided to lash out with personal [...]

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I noted earlier that the “Country First” slogan that McCain uses is meaningful (and moving) only if you understand McCain’s life story. Otherwise, it sounds suspiciously jingoistic, especially to liberal ears.  Beldar, however, has come up with a brilliant slogan that would serve McCain and Palin very, very well.  What do you think? Hat tip:  [...]

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I finally got the chance last night to watch John McCain’s speech and I thought it was excellent.  It was, in fact, exactly what I anticipated:  pragmatic, straightforward, low on, and rich with a sense of love for America.  Certain subjects fired him up, especially national security, about which he spoke with fluency and fervor.  [...]

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To me, the first good thing about the Palin nomination is that it highlights Obama’s inexperience.  You can just hear him going around the house muttering, “I know you are, but what am I?  I know you are, but what am I?  I know you are, but what am I?” To date, Obama has written [...]

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It looked in the beginning as if the McCain campaign group was doing nothing at all.  They were just dormant, though, ready to explode.  They came up with a series of great ads that highlighted the creepy personality cult building around Obama.  They timed the VP announcement perfectly to suck the air out of Obama’s [...]

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Information or disinformation? It’s hard to tell right now.  The AP article expresses surprise that McCain would pick a neophyte for a VP when he’s been attacking Obama for being a neophyte.  Apparently the AP reporter is confused about the difference between being a VP (a good place for on-the-job training) and being President (a [...]

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I’ve been traveling, so I missed the Saddleback conversation with the candidates.  Nevertheless, through emails and Mike Devx’s comments, I’ve become aware of the question Rick Warren posed to the two candidates about evil.  Here’s the transcript: REV. WARREN: Okay, we’ve got one last — I’ve got a bunch more, but let me just ask [...]

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A group of Bay Area bloggers have joined together to create a blog advocating a John McCain presidency.  I’m one of those bloggers.  The new blog is called (appropriately enough) Bloggers for John McCain.  i’ll have a regular Saturday gig there.  My first post there today is called “The Tide Is Turning.”  Here’s a snippet, [...]

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In 1980 (and again in 1984), Ronald Reagan won in significant part because traditionally Democratic voters abandoned their party to vote for him. Those same “Reagan Democrats” have shown up frequently in the news today.  Indeed, McCain is specifically targeting those same people and demographics.  US News & World Report explained back in May: As [...]

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Pamela Geller, who blogs at Atlas Shrugs, has spent countless hours following both McCain’s and Obama’s money.  In a carefully detailed article at American Thinker, she explains that McCain’s donations are squeaky clean, while the donations coming into the Obama campaign are, to put it tactfully, questionable.  For example, Obama’s gotten more than $30,000 from [...]

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Regular readers now that I have a fatal weakness for ABBA.  I can’t help it.  Sometime back in the 70s, during my formative years, they left an imprint on my brain, and I just get fizzy happy when I hear their bouncy music and beautiful harmonies.  It turns out that I’m not alone.  John McCain [...]

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“Better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.” You’ve probably noticed that I’ve said nothing about Russia invading Georgia.  This is, in part, because the exigencies of the past week have deprived me of time to read in detail about it.  I only know [...]

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Although I was still an unthinking Democrat back in 2000, and I cast my vote for Gore without blinking an eye, I was sufficiently objective to concede one fact:  Bush seemed like the much nicer guy.  Gore might hold forth on erudite subjects at a cocktail party, but Bush was the guy you’d want to [...]

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I was worried that the McCain people, flush with excitement about the success of their two ads puncturing Obama’s celebrity and Messiah status, would just keep churning out more silly satires, weakening both the message and the campaign.  Fortunately, they’re not that dumb. The newest ad references the celebrity point to provide context, but then [...]

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In Marin,  9 out of 10 bumperstickers one sees are liberal in context.  Make that 9.9 out of 10. There’s the “Endless This War” sticker; and the still popular “Somewhere in Texas a village is missing its idiot” sticker; and the saccharine, unrealistic and facile “Coexist,” with the symbols of various religions used in lieu [...]

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The LA Times has mounted a spirited defense against the ever increasing volume of reader complaints the Times is getting about its loving coverage of Obama, especially when contrasted with the fact that its McCain coverage is minimal and fairly hostile.  Here’s the key part of its defense: [I]t’s the string of Page 1 stories [...]

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I think everyone should in its entirety the speech McCain gave today in Denver.  It is the hardest hitting speech yet I’ve seen about McCain’s leadership qualities, and Obama’s complete absence of same (emphasis mine): Thank you for that kind introduction and warm welcome. I want to begin by talking about an issue in this [...]

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Obama’s getting the press, but McCain’s saying the important stuff, at least to those who believe that Israel, as the sole liberal democracy in the Middle East, deserves our support: American presidential candidate John McCain told Israel’s Channel 2 News station that stiffer sanctions might stop Iran’s threats against Israel. In the interview broadcast Monday, [...]

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The Times may have refused to publish McCain’s Iraq editorial (afraid, no doubt, that publishing it would cast a shadow on Obama’s purported wisdom), but I have no such fear.  Here’s, courtesy of the Drudge Report, is the op-ed McCain wrote — and it’s an op-ed that any reasonable, non-partisan newspaper would have freely printed: [...]

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See important update below. I have been trying without success for a couple of weeks now to volunteer my writing and editing services to the local “John McCain for President” chapter.  No one is getting back to me — and I’ve been told by someone with ties to the local “McCain for President” chapter that [...]

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TigerHawk has an interesting article on Andrew Sullivan’s comments about our recent successes in Iraq.  The article includes this quote from Sullivan: Of course, this all makes Obama’s 16 month withdrawal timetable more and more feasible. It really now is a question of prudence and strategy in how best to withdraw troops. Do you trust McCain [...]

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I was pondering whether to post about Wesley Clark’s latest inanity, to the effect that McCain’s experience as a POW does not prove his leadership abilities.  A conversation I had today with a beloved liberal (that would be my dear, dear mother) made me decide to do so.  A lot of people have gotten embroiled [...]

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As they do every election year about this time, the polls strongly favor the Democrats, which is very disheartening.  Right around now I find it especially worrisome, because I think that Obama, emboldened by media adulation, is being more and more forthright about his political agenda, and it’s one that ordinarily would should have the [...]

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