Will Obama Rise to the Challenge? - Susan Estrich, FOX News

Excerpt:

Finally, as for the vice presidency, Obama made a safe choice that brought him basically nothing, politically speaking (sorry Joe, nothing personal), and gave some Hillary supporters one more reason to be angry. McCain made a high-risk choice that, at least at this juncture, many Democrats misread and completely mishandled, and many Republicans and many women have applauded.

Time will tell, but I’m betting that the harder liberals try to sink Palin, the more likely McCain is to win.
It may well be that in the history of this campaign, Lehman Brothers and AIG will be seen as a turning point. Obama is, finally, back on message, on the economy, dismissing the lipstick and the pigs and the rest, and focusing on what matters to voters. If he wins, it will be because the economy gets him there.

If he loses, it will be because McCain has more experience, and made better choices.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/09/will_obama_rise_to_challenge_o.html(Click here to read the full article) 

Obama Needs to Sell Himself, Not Attack McCain - Karl Rove, WSJ

Excerpt:

This election is not fundamentally about Mr. McCain. It is much more about people's persistent doubts concerning Mr. Obama. The only way to reassure them is to provide a compelling, forward-looking agenda. That sounds obvious, but the Obama campaign seems to be betting on making Mr. McCain an unacceptable choice by striking at his character. Mr. McCain has absorbed many harder blows than anything the Obama campaign can throw his way.

In a revealing slip in an interview with ABC recently, Mr. Obama said, "If we're going to ask questions about who has been promulgating negative ads that are completely unrelated to the issues at hand, I think I win that contest pretty handily." That he is in fact winning the contest for the most negative campaign could well spell his defeat.

(Click here to read the full article) 

Obama Proves All Too Human - Victor Davis Hanson, RealClearPolitics

 Excerpt:

For the hope-and-change candidate, those natural readjustments now appear insincere and opportunistic -- especially given that he had to move so far from the left to get to the middle. On campaign-finance reform, FISA, NAFTA, abortion, capital punishment, guns, Iran, Iraq, the surge, and drilling offshore, Obama has fudged on his earlier positions in the normal way of savvy pragmatists -- but not in a manner befitting angelic idealists.

The new Obama probably will recover from his temporary setback in the polls. But right now his problem is that disappointed independent voters are catching on that this saintly savior is all too human.

(Click here to read the full article) 

Recent Obama Ads More Negative Than Rival's, Study Says

Excerpt:

Despite perceptions that Sen. John McCain has spent more time on the attack, Sen. Barack Obama aired more negative advertising last week than did the Arizona Republican, says a study released yesterday.

Seventy-seven percent of the Illinois Democrat's commercials were negative during the week after the Republican National Convention, compared with 56 percent of the spots run by McCain.

(Click here to read the full article)  

Obama's Hesitation Blues - David Frum, The Week

Excerpt:

Crisis does not bring out the best in Barack Obama. His instinct is to equivocate and temporize. We saw that tendency in August, when the Russians invaded Georgia and Obama had to work through a gamut of soft-line stances before arriving at the same position that John McCain had announced immediately.

McCain’s call for tighter standards on Wall Street point to the lesson to be learned from this crisis: The great national experiment in attempting to push the home ownership rate above 65 percent has ended in disaster. Future homebuyers will be held to higher standards of creditworthiness—and will have to put more money down. Barack Obama’s attempt to condemn “Bush-McCain” economic policy evades the need to produce specific solutions of his own.  

(Click here to read the full article)   

Trump endorses McCain on Larry King

Donald Trump, the flamboyant New York magnate, said on CNN’s “Larry King Live” on Wednesday night that he is supporting Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) for president.

Trump, never shy with his opinions, went on to say that McCain appears to be winning, and that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) should have chosen Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) as his running mate.

“I know John McCain, and John McCain's a great guy, a tremendous guy,” Trump told King. “I've known him for a long time. And I'm with him, and I'm with him based on the fact that I have great knowledge of John McCain. Also, this is not the right time for tax increases. And Obama wants to increase your taxes drastically.”

Well, maybe not your taxes. But certainly The Donald’s: Obama would repeal President Bush tax cuts for households making more than $250,000.

During the Democratic primaries, Trump donated to Hillary Clinton, according to records posted by the Center for Responsive Politics. Trump donated to McCain in May, according to the records.

“I don't understand why Hillary wasn't chosen [for vice president],” Trump said. “ She was really winning. I have a friend that came to this country and was here for the last four weeks of that whole election. He said: How did she lose? She won every primary? He didn't understand it.

“The fact is, that Obama went limping across the finish line. He should have chosen Hillary, It would have been a much different race, I believe. Right now, it looks to me like McCain is probably winning.”

During the show, the two men had this exchange:

TRUMP: I'm endorsing McCain. I am basically very strongly — you have to understand: I've known him. I like him, I respect him.

KING: So you're endorsing him?

TRUMP: I think he's going to be a great president.

KING: So you're endorsing him.

TRUMP: Sure, I'll endorse him on your show.

KING: You just endorsed him.

TRUMP: I endorse him.

KING: Are you pessimistic or optimistic about this financial situation?

TRUMP: Well, I'm very pessimistic.

Beating the Battle Drum

The McCain/Palin campaign isn’t rolling over and playing dead on the economy. Facing a relentless MSM message that this issue will favor Obama, the McCain/Palin people have to create a counter-message and they’re on it.

Hopefully, they’ll begin to make a case for all the connections to Obama and the Democrats that helped this sinkhole develop. Here’s a detailed description of the grubby money trail at Maggie’s Notebook.
The new ad from the campaign ratchets up the kind of rhetoric I love to hear. It warns of “massive government” and “painful taxes” all the while making the thing look like a horror movie trailor.

Obama Prevaricates In El Espanol, Tambien!

 Posted at TheAmericanSentinel.com, reposted here to share:


So now the Obama campaign has released an ad equating John McCain to Rush Limbaugh.  Were it not for the seriousness of the business at hand, this would be hilarious.  Obviously, Obama assumes that Hispanic voters are ignorant, or stupid, or both - - pretty much the same way he views us rednecks.

I guess we’ll have to brush up on our Spanish.  Fortunately, hablo un poquito del Espanol, so here are some words and phrases that may come in handy.

The Spanish word meaning “to lie” or “to prevaricate” is mentir.  So, for example, “nosotros mintió Obama” is translated as “Obama lied to us.” 

The Spanish word for “lie” is mentira.  The “a” ending is feminine in Spanish, so “the lie” is la mentira and “a lie” is una mentira.  The phrase una mentira como una casa translates as “a big lie” or “a whopper.”

The word falsedad can also be translated as “lie” and carries the meaning of “falseness” or “hypocrisy.”  The sentence, su declaración estaba llena de falsedades, translates as “his statement was riddled with lies.”  That one should come in really handy!

McCain Endorsements

Yesterday it was reported by multiple organizations as well as here, that a prominent Clinton supporter and Democratic National Committee member has publicly endorsed John McCain for the presidency and last night on CNN’s “Larry King Live, another high profile figure, New York real estate magnate Donald Trump, endorsed McCain as the Politico reports.

Trump had donated to the Hilary Clinton campaign, believing after she lost the primaries Obama should have chosen her as his vice presidential running mate, told Larry King, "I know John McCain, and John McCain's a great guy, a tremendous guy,” Trump told King. “I've known him for a long time. And I'm with him, and I'm with him based on the fact that I have great knowledge of John McCain. Also, this is not the right time for tax increases. And Obama wants to increase your taxes drastically.”

Trump went on to say "I don't understand why Hillary wasn't chosen [for vice president],” Trump said. “ She was really winning. I have a friend that came to this country and was here for the last four weeks of that whole election. He said: How did she lose? She won every primary? He didn't understand it.

“The fact is, that Obama went limping across the finish line. He should have chosen Hillary, It would have been a much different race, I believe. Right now, it looks to me like McCain is probably winning.”

During the Democratic primaries, Trump donated to Hillary Clinton, according to records posted by the Center for Responsive Politics. Trump donated to McCain in May, according to the records.

King pushed Trump's statements asking if he was formally endorsing McCain and Trump confirmed he was.

As Poll Bounces Level, Obama's Advertising Becomes More Negative Than McCain's

Posted at Wake Up America.com, reposted here to share:

A new study conducted by Wisconsin Advertising Project, based at the University of Wisconsin, concludes that since the end of the Republican convention, negative advertising has filled the airwaves, with 77 percent of Barack Obama's advertising being listed as negative and 56 percent of John McCain's advertising being shown as negative as reported by The Washington Post. Before the convention McCain's advertising was seen as more negative.

Despite many decrying the negative advertising and many claims about how this campaign season has been the most negative, another Rasmussen survey taken shows that only 23 percent of voters believe this to be true.

55 percent of voters believe this campaign season is no more negative than other election cycles.

Most voters (55%) say the tone of this year’s presidential campaign is about the same as in other recent election years, despite complaints from Barack Obama’s side and some in the media that John McCain has been campaigning negatively.

Only 23% say this election cycle is more negative than most, and nearly as many (20%) say it’s more positive than in recent years, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

While pundits and commentators who favor an individual candidate each sees areas of strength and the presidential debates just around the corner, the race is shaping up to be very tight and barring any unforeseen circumstance, the general consensus from impartial observers seems to be that while we see swings from week to week for one specific candidate and then the other, by election day, the race will still be tight when people go to the voting booth and pull the lever for their candidate.