Obama's Massive Headfake?

Patrick Ruffini makes several interesting points that may show Obama has chosen Hillary for VP.

They make sense, as well as the points he makes about the other VP candidates:

• Joe Biden's mouth is a constant source of embarassment. And how would the PUMAs take to a failed second-tier candidate leapfrogging someone with 18 million votes?
• Evan Bayh has been vetoed by the netroots
• Kathleen Sebelius would be a clear and direct affront to the PUMAs, much more so even than Biden. The first woman VP/President -- and one you've never heard of -- would increase the sense of Clintonian alienation.
• Tim Kaine. Hahahahahahahahahaha
• Wesley Clark would provide the military experience Obama needs, but his comments about McCain's service are a problem
• Chris Dodd is a crook

and he suggest they might have a chance if they send Bill to Tahiti for the next 80 days, but what will they do with his for four years.

Barack Obama blinks in Hillary face-off

Michael Goodwin reported Russia rolls over Georgia, Hillary Clinton does the same to Barack Obama.

The difference is that GWB and Condi are standing up for Georgia and trying to make Russia back down; no one is standing up for Obama, not even Obama.

Now we know who's boss. Obama blinked and stands guilty of appeasing Clinton by agreeing to a roll call vote for her nomination. That he might not have had much choice if he wanted peace only proves the point that he's playing defense at his own convention.

Eneryone wants peace, but if he cannot handle Hillary what makes people think he can handle Russia? Or Iran? Or even Lithuania?

.... Yet already the list of what Hillary wants and what Hillary gets is unprecedented for somebody who lost the nomination. She gets a prime-time address where she will be introduced by daughter Chelsea. She gets her own team to produce a hagiographic video of her. Hubby Bubba gets a prime-time speech on Wednesday night. And Hillary gets a platform plank that uses "glass ceiling" language right out of her speech to suggest she would be the nominee if not for sexism. A few more big-ticket items and she'll be the co-nominee. Maybe that's the point.

It is. She still thinks there is a chance that with Obama sinking in the polls the Super Delegates might change their vote. She may be making thw speech Thursday night in Invesco Field

It reminds me of a Cold War joke about how the Russians view a compromise. They come to the table and announce the rules: What's mine is mine, what's yours is negotiable. How would President Obama respond? I think we just found out.

And it isn't pretty.

Bill Gwatney

Gunman Kills Arkansas Democratic Party Chairman - NYTimes.com reported Bill Gwatney, the chairman of the Arkansas Democratic Party, was shot in his office in Little Rock Wednesday morning and died a few hours later, police officials said. The officials said a single gunman fired three shots at Mr. Gwatney, a former state legislator, in the party’s headquarters a few blocks from the state Capitol and then drove away. Mr. Gwatney was rushed to the medical center of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, but a friend of the Gwatney family, who asked not to be identified, said doctors determined that his wounds were inoperable. He died about four hours later, police officials confirmed.

There is no indication of his political affiliations, his ideology, or his motives for singling out the Democrat Party chairman. Yet Greg Cancilla (artvandelay3@verizon.net) blames Michelle Malkin Once again the hate you and folks like Hannity spew has caused another right wing nut to resort to violence.

Why blame Michelle and Hannity? For blogging, writing books and columns, and appearing on television saying things he disagrees with?

He needs to cutback on the amount of kool-aid he drinks, and perhaps he should start taking his medications again.

Required To Volunteer?

KMGH Denver reported The Obama campaign has begun notifying people who got tickets for the big acceptance speech at Invesco Field the final night of the convention.... Those viewers said the campaign told them they must volunteer six hours for the campaign by Friday in order to get a ticket.

Volunteer is something you do of your own free will, not something you are required to do. If they want to announce that volunteers will get a ticket, that is one thing, but to announce free tickets, and then say you must earn them by volunteering is another.

"I got a call that if I want the tickets I have to volunteer two shifts of three hours apiece -- for one ticket. If I want two tickets, then it's four shifts of two hours apiece," said Berenice Christensen. Another 7NEWS viewer sent an e-mail that said, "I received a call Monday saying I could 'qualify' for the tickets if I do 12 hours of volunteer work for the Obama campaign between now and Friday the 15th.".... The Obama campaign insists that volunteering is not a requirement to get a ticket.

They said those who were told they must volunteer must have clicked on the opt-in button for "all-star seating" when they signed up for the tickets. If you click that button, then you are required to volunteer, but you get a better seat.

Oh so they fill up the poor seats with anyone, but you can work to get a better seat. Are you still a volunteer if you are being compensated by a better seat?

If you choose not to volunteer, you retain your place in line for what is called a "community credential," according to the campaign.

Susan Duclos blogged To make matters worse, it is reported that the telephone recording also makes it clear that satisfying the work requirement still does not guarantee someone to be eligible for a ticket.

That is a bummer. You might do volunteer work you did not want to do, and still not get a ticket.

Ed Morrissey wondered If the campaign requires people to work for several hours to acquire them, doesn’t that make this an in-kind contribution rather than volunteer work? If people who have already contributed to the limit for Obama perform work as compensation towards these tickets, then they could break campaign law by doing so....

Obama didn’t require Germans in Berlin to work for him in order to cheer him at the Tiergarten. Why does Obama treat Germans better than Americans?

Stoptheaclu blogged Me personally, I can think of a lot better things to do. You know, like, work for a living, spend time with my family, sleep, shove bamboo shoots under my fingernails… stuff like that. But I guess if you support the Obamamessiah and want to see your idol, you must automatically put your life aside and sacrifice every hour you aren’t at your job volunteering for him. Who needs sleep when you’ve got the Obamamessiah?

Cassy Fiano blogged I guess that Democrats aren't as concerned about their supporters working and taking care of their families. But of course, this is typical Obama. We're supposed to give up everything for him, support everything he does, and then cheer wildly about it at the end of the day. And why would he give anything away for free? This bait-and-switch deal with Obama is the premise of his entire campaign: he lures you in with pretty words and nice-sounding promises, and then once he's got you hooked, he knocks you over the head with reality.

Michelle Malkin blogged Guess she won’t be making the Big O gesture with the rest of the cult. The Soul-Fixer has his work cut out for him.

Riehl blogged They always said if George Bush were elected the country could be looking at forced labor camps. And they were right.

TBlumer blogged Can you imagine the traditional media outcry if the GOP convention and its stereotypical mean, exploitative capitalists started demanding “slave labor” as a condition for entry — and either incompletely disclosed the requirement, or only disclosed it after the fact?

Yes, She Can

Maureen Dowd wrote in NYTimes.com reported While Obama was spending three hours watching “The Dark Knight” five time zones away, and going to a fund-raiser featuring “Aloha attire” and Hawaiian pupus, Hillary was busy planning her convention. You can almost hear her mind whirring: She’s amazed at how easy it was to snatch Denver away from the Obama saps.

And if Obama can't handle Hillary, think what it is going to be like when he negotiates with Ahmadinejad

Like taking candy from a baby, except Beanpole Guy doesn’t eat candy. In just a couple of weeks, Bill and Hill were able to drag No Drama Obama into a swamp of Clinton drama. Now they’ve made Barry’s convention all about them

With Clinton it is always all about them.

— their dissatisfaction and revisionism and barely disguised desire to see him fail. Whatever insincere words of support the Clintons muster, their primal scream gets louder: He can’t win! He can’t close the deal! We told you so!

Does she really hope for the super delegates to chnge their minds in 2008, or is she just shooting for 2012?

Hillary’s orchestrating a play within the play in Denver. Just as Hamlet used the device to show that his stepfather murdered his father, Hillary will try to show the Democrats they chose the wrong savior.... Some Democrats wish that Obama had told the Clintons to “get in the box” or get lost if they can’t show more loyalty, rather than giving them back-to-back, prime-time speaking gigs at the convention on Tuesday and Wednesday.

If Obama can't handle a defeated Hillary, what makes anyone think he can run the country.

Al Gore clipped their wings in 2000, triggering their wrath by squeezing both the president and New York Senate candidate into speaking slots the first night and then ushering them out of L.A.

And triggering his defeat in November.

Racist Slurs

Joseph A. Palermo gets his knickers bunched up on Huffington Post about This photo was posted on August 8, 2008 on the web site of the Council of Conservative Citizens (C of CC).

I went to their website and had to really search to find the photo that upset Palermo. It is here, but I notice it is not as large as Palermo posted it, and because I have my browser set for 800x600 part of the photo was cut off on the C of CC website, but it was all showing on HP.

He says This kind of racism aimed at Barack Obama's candidacy for president should not be tolerated as we approach the most intense phase of the election cycle.

I happen to agree. There are plenty of good reasons to oppose Obama. Resorting to racist attacks are not a good idea. Focus on the fact that he is an empty suit with no real experience, and that many of his ideas are really wacky.

The C of CC site also features prominently Jerome Corsi's new attack book on Obama ("The Obama Nation"),

Really? I went to their web site and did not see it. So it must not have been as prominent as he says.

along with an interview that Corsi recently gave on a racist radio station. This kind of white supremacy,

There are a few things on the C of CC website that make me pause a bit, but most of it did not seem that bad. They may have emphasized the race conflict a bit more than I would, but that is all.

interconnected with the Republican Party (especially its Southern wing), should require clear and repeated denunciations from John McCain (who recently told the NAACP that he is a great admirer of Martin Luther King, Jr.).

As am I.

Debunking three 'truths' about offshore drilling

washingtonpost.com reported The Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund has taken out full-page ads in this newspaper and others to decry offshore drilling for oil as "George W. Bush's Gasoline Price Elixir"

At least he is concerned about gas prices

that is "100% Snake Oil."

At least the snakes are domestic snakes

The editorial goes along to debunk the three false claims

• Drilling is pointless because the United States has only 3 percent of the world's oil reserves.

  Proven reserves require you to drill and show you can deliver oil. We believe there is a lot more there, we just need to be able to drill to find it.

• The oil companies aren't using the leases they already have.

  Maybe they don't have oil on them.

• Drilling is environmentally dangerous.

  Then make them agree to cleanup any spills.

Betsy Newmark blogged The Post repeats the argument that drilling now won't pay off for a decade. They're ignoring basic economics about how the market would react to such a change in American policy. The Post is correct that we need a comprehensive plan that couples drilling with expanded research in alternative sources of energy as well as nuclear energy.

Don Surber blogged Environmentalists tie up the oil companies from using their leases then complain that oil companies are not using their leases. It is a game aimed at, what, all I can see is destroying capitalism.

The Post is not enamored of drilling, but concluded: “No, the United States cannot drill its way to energy independence.

But not drilling certainly is not going to do it.

But with the roaring economies of China and India gobbling up oil in the two countries’ latter-day industrial revolutions, the United States can no longer afford to turn its back on finding all the sources of fuel necessary to maintain its economy and its standard of living.” That standard of living allows people to loll around and pretend they are saving the world by trying to stop it.

I would'a won but for....

ABC News reported Sen. Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic presidential nominee if John Edwards had been caught in his lie about an extramarital affair and forced out of the race last year,

As Ed Morrissey indicated The National Enquirer made the story public in December, after weeks of handwringing by the Los Angeles Times, which sat on the story.

insists a top Clinton campaign aide, making a charge that could exacerbate previously existing tensions between the camps of Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama. "I believe we would have won Iowa, and Clinton today would therefore have been the nominee," former Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson told ABCNews.com.

So Silky Pony should have pulled out when the tabloid story first broke out, and let Queen Hillary take Iowa, even though he had spent a year or two in Iowa trying to win.

"Very clear" timeline

Yahoo! News reported The United States must provide a "very clear timeline" to withdraw its troops from Iraq as part of an agreement allowing them to stay beyond this year, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Sunday.

We should tell Zebari that if he insists on a clear timeline, we will give him one. September 2009, and we should send every transport plane we have to Iraq and start loading up both soldiers AND MATERIAL. Then when he says that is too fast, that we need to stay longer, and they are not ready yet to do it without our help, then say we will stay until conditions on the ground permit it.

Cute Clip

Hat tip to the Anchoress for this funny 9 minute video clip.