They’re here….

It’s debate time!

So let’s debate about debates…

Do they really matter?

Do you watch them?

Do you care?

I know you do!  Doesn’t everybody? 

We know most are watching to learn about the candidates, right?

No one is watching to see who will flip or flop.

Who will totally fall apart or have a, heaven forbid, wardrobe malfunction.

Who will come up with the next best line…you know, “lock box.”

No, we are all there only for the issues.

Yeah, right...



Sen. John F. Kennedy (r) speaks
and Vice President Richard Nixon
listens during the fourth presidential
debate from a New York TV studio, 21 Oct 1960

The first televised presidential debate was held during the election campaign of 1960.

"The candidates need no introduction," said the debate moderator Howard K. Smith. "The Republican candidate is Vice President Richard M. Nixon and the Democratic candidate is Senator John F. Kennedy."

Kennedy's youthful appearance helped him on television. Nixon suffered from a cold and bad makeup.

"I think in the final analysis, it depends on what we do here. I think it is time America started moving again," Kennedy said.

"There is no question but that we cannot discuss our internal affairs in the United States without recognizing that they have a tremendous bearing on our international position," said Nixon.

Those who watched the debates on television generally thought Kennedy was the winner. Many of those who listened on radio gave the edge to Nixon.

Kennedy narrowly won the election that year. And even though Nixon eventually won two presidential elections in 1968 and 1972, he never took part in another presidential debate.

In the 1976 election campaign, incumbent Republican President Gerald Ford trailed badly in the polls for much of the year behind his Democratic challenger, Jimmy Carter.

Ford nearly came back to win the election that year, but stumbled in one of his debates with Carter when he tried to argue that Eastern Europe was not controlled by the Soviet Union.

"There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration," he said.

While much attention is paid to what is said in the debates, they can also be won or lost based on how the candidates speak and even their non-verbal body language.

Continued    HERE    Voice of America

We’ve had some tough presidents…and one, well, Jimmy Carter….

Who were the 5 most badass presidents of all-time?

I'm sure  you have your choices…

from Cracked.com...

"As we all prepare to spend a long weekend enjoying Presidential Savings on mattresses and used Toyotas, we could take time to thank some of the presidents who passed bills that protect some of the freedoms your enjoy daily. Or we could spend the day celebrating the presidents who are decidedly more Action Movie Heroes than diplomats.

Anyway, guess which kind of president this website decided to focus on? "

View their "badass" five-page presentation

HERE

 

Please do not try to compare yourself to former President Ronald Reagan, who was revered as a giant of conservative Republicanism.  

You are an American Hero, and I respect you for your service to our country and for all that you went through, but you are not Ronald Reagan.




"Freedom" -- featuring Ronald Reagan's wisdom, Fred Thompson's narration and John McCain's vision for
our future -- lays out the stakes on Election Day and was the feature video for the 2008 President's Dinner.

Sometimes controversial videos are posted on the YouTube and elsewhere…then they disappear quickly.

I found one late last night on YouTube but could not get it to open.  It had three postings.

Today they are all gone.

Some other sites, I’ve noticed, have their links broken from a non-YouTube site.

I found it on one other blog site, so get it while it’s hot, because I’m sure it will disappear from here soon too.

Lorne Baxter explores the life of Barack Hussein Obama   í  here

This is a powerful video.

H/T Urban Grind

P.J.O'Rourke, correspondent for The Weekly Standard, spent 24 hours on the USS Theodore Roosevelt. 

He wanted to get some insight on John McCain, U.S. Veteran Naval Aviator, who flew attack aircraft from carriers. 

He found what he wanted, and more, about McCain and America.

Here are some excerpts from his report:

"Some say John McCain's character was formed in a North Vietnamese prison. I say those people should take a gander at what John chose to do--voluntarily. Being a carrier pilot requires aptitude, intelligence, skill, knowledge, discernment, and courage of a kind rarely found anywhere but in a poem of Homer's or a half gallon of Dewar's. I look from John McCain to what the opposition has to offer. There's Ms. Smarty-Pantsuit, the Bosnia-Under-Sniper-Fire poster gal, former prominent Washington hostess, and now the JV senator from the state that brought you Eliot Spitzer and Bear Stearns. And there's the happy-talk boy wonder, the plaster Balthazar in the Cook County political crèche, whose policy pronouncements sound like a walk through Greenwich Village in 1968: "Change, man? Got any spare change? Change?" [...]


"These are supremely dangerous jobs. And most of the flight deck crew members are only 19 or 20. Indeed the whole ship is run by youngsters. The average age, officers and all, is about 24. "These are the same kids," a chief petty officer said, "who, back on land, have their hats bumped to one side and their pants around their knees, hanging out on corners. And here they're in charge of $35 million airplanes." [...]

"A strange flight it is--from the hard and fast reality of a floating island to the fantasy world of American solid ground. In this never-never land a couple of tinhorn Second City shysters--who, put together, don't have the life experience of the lowest ranking gob-with-a-swab cleaning a head on the Big Stick--presume to run for president of the United States. They're not just running against the hero John McCain, they're running against heroism itself and against almost everything about America that ought to be conserved. "


Read the full story     ê here

24 Hours on the 'Big Stick'
What you can learn about America on the deck of the USS 'Theodore Roosevelt.'
by P.J. O'Rourke




McCain (right) with his squadron and T-2 Buckeye trainer in 1965
Wikipedia

Bitter, huh?





Michelle Obama appears bitter.

She's always complaining about something.

About not having enough money.

About being an American.

About people being racist.

About people using the "fear bomb" regarding Barack's middle name.

Do as she says, not as she does.

But I guess Barack Obama doesn't see her as bitter.



So, once again, a statement made by Obama or an issue surrounding Obama is just expected to go away .

Just keep opening your mouth, Barack.

You just never know....



Obama Remarks Likely to Hurt Pennsylvania Effort   ç  here

Just the other day I posted about Hanoi   Jane Fonda’s “endorsement” of Barack Obama.

Funny thing is, back in April of 2005, Fonda did an interview with Time Magazine where she stated she supported Hillary Clinton.

Now, granted, we all can change who we decide to support for President.

And, of course, Clinton hadn’t yet decided to run back then. 

Another puzzling thing, though, is that Jane Fonda is known to be a guest of the Clinton White House.  She’s on what’s known as the “Sleepover List.”  You’ll see her listed under the category “Arts and Letters." 

This same information is listed in a 2005 Newsmax article, that also states Fonda contributed to Clinton"s campaign.  More interestingly, it says this:

"Links to Fonda proved toxic for Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign last year, when NewsMax published an authentic photo showing him standing near the left-wing actress at a 1970 anti-war demonstration in Pennsylvania. [A subsequent photo circulated on the Internet showing Fonda standing side-by-side with Kerry at a 1971 protest was doctored.]

Reaction to the Kerry-Fonda photo was sharp.

"Seeing this picture of Kerry with [Fonda] at anti-war demonstrations in the United States just makes me want to throw up," Rep. Sam Johnson - a former Vietnam POW - told the Washington Times.

Sen. Kerry insisted that he barely knew his fellow protester, though both he and Fonda shared top posts in the group, Vietnam Veterans Against the War."

Jane Fonda is bad news....

So, the conspiracy theory that will be floating around now, since Fonda blurted out that she was voting for Obama, is that it may be a set-up by someone on the Clinton team.

Maybe, maybe not.

We’ll probably never know.

One thing I do know....Jane Fonda is a bit of a kook.







 H/T NoMoreMisterNiceBlog

 
Presidential nominee, Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona has refused to request Secret Service protection.

Is he being a hero?  Or does his desire to be more in touch with the people make him just naive in these times?

Not even these times.....How many years ago was it that Bobby Kennedy was assassinated on the campaign trail?  40?

I know McCain served during Vietnam, had close calls, and was a POW, but for him, or any of the candidates to not use Secret Service protection is ignorant.

He may have fought in combat, but he isn't carrying a weapon to defend himself right now.

He's a target...and what's worse is, now everybody knows it.

John McCain....don't be a hero.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Read the article from CBS News

No Secret Service Protection for McCain  í here

Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., l
eft, speaks to his press secretary, Brooke Buchanan, on the tarmac
before boarding the campaign charter airplane in Jacksonville, Fla.
Thursday, April 3, 2008, during his Service to America campaign tour.
(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

 

 Photo of Jane Fonda in Vietnam war protest days
by Nihon Denpa News / Associated Press


This week Michelle Obama is holding hands with Teresa Heinz Kerry.

And now Hanoi Jane Fonda is endorsing Obama. 

Jane Fonda was an anti-Vietnam war advocate and was widely known as Hanoi Jane.

She visited Vietnam in 1972 and had several photographs taken.

She 2005 she acknowledged that sitting on the enemy aircraft gun in the photo was a betrayal to soldiers.

She did not regret broadcasting on Radio Hanoi, though....

Endorsed by Fonda.

Who could ask for anything more?


I don't think John McCain would want Jane Fonda endorsing him, since he was a Vietnam POW.

I'm sure this will be another proud moment for Barack Obama. 

But, of course, it isn't his fault who endorses him - Fonda's not part of his campaign.

We'll have to see what his comments are about it though, won't we?

After all, just because someone is a movie star, or famous, or wealthy....

Doesn't mean you have to accept their endorsement....you can say "Thanks, but no thanks!"

Just like you don't have to keep attending a church if you don't believe in what your pastor is preaching.


Oh... Babs Barbra Streisand has been awfully quiet...

But wait...

Barbra Streisand Endorses Hillary Clinton

Probably a wise move on her part.

 

Hillary……


35 years of experience….

and a fighter who doesn’t give up, too?


You’re everything we, the American people, dream of in a candidate!


"Recalling a famous scene on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Clinton said to end her presidential campaign now would be as if "Rocky Balboa had gotten halfway up those art museum steps and said, 'Well, I guess that's about far enough.'"

"Let me tell you something, when it comes to finishing a fight, Rocky and I have a lot in common. I never quit. I never give up. And neither do the American people," Clinton said."

 

Hillary, Hillary, Hillary!

Read the story on Yahoo News!


Clinton Compares Herself to "Rocky"   ç  here

"Maybe she's been pondering the Monica Lewinsky question from a college student last week?"

Either way, do you think Chelsea is kind of feeling like a child from a broken home right about now?

I'm sure she's dreaming of those days when the press wasn't allowed to ask her questions.

Maybe if Bill hadn't screwed up earlier in the campaign, she wouldn't have to be out there doing his dirty work.

Okay, here goes....

Do I really want to bring this up?

Yes, I do...

Remember a couple weeks ago I blogged about how I thought
Michelle Obama was not in touch with the "average American?"


You remember, Michelle, whining back in Ohio...


"But there are still problems. As she has many times in the past, Mrs. Obama complains about the lasting burden of student loans dating from her days at Princeton and Harvard Law School. She talks about people who end up taking years and years, until middle age, to pay off their debts. “The salaries don’t keep up with the cost of paying off the debt, so you’re in your 40s, still paying off your debt at a time when you have to save for your kids,” she says.

“Barack and I were in that position,” she continues. “The only reason we’re not in that position is that Barack wrote two best-selling books… It was like Jack and his magic beans. But up until a few years ago, we were struggling to figure out how we would save for our kids.”

Poor, Michelle...woe is me.....

Oh, Michelle and Barack, your tax returns are in... 

Check it out at National Review Online    í here


It's pretty bad, isn't it?

$240,505 in 2000
$272,759 in 2001
$259,394 in 2002
$238,327 in 2003
$207,647 in 2004
$1,655,106 in 2005
$983,826 in 2006


"I know we're spending — I added it up for the first time — we spend between the two kids, on extracurriculars outside the classroom, we're spending about $10,000 a year on piano and dance and sports supplements and so on and so forth," she told the women of her own household expenses. "And summer programs. That's the other huge cost. Barack is saying, 'Whyyyyyy are we spending that?' And I'm saying, 'Do you know what summer camp costs?'"


I don't know how Michelle Obama sleeps at night.

I can't imagine having to toss and turn worrying over how she is going to pay the next extra-curricular activity bill.

Not on what she and Barack have pulled in over the last years....

H/T:  KarenT
         Rachel Lucas

Well, we said it wasn’t going to go away…and it sure isn’t….


"The new pastor of Barack Obama’s church delivered a defiant defense of its retiring reverend Sunday, comparing media coverage of Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. to a modern-day lynching that resembles Jesus’ death at the hands of the Romans."

"In a sunrise Easter sermon, Rev. Otis Moss III never mentioned Wright by name, but implied that his mentor, who has delivered sermons in which he likened the U.S. to the Ku Klux Klan and declared it damned for its “state-sponsored terrorism,” is facing the same challenges Jesus did.”No one should start a ministry with lynching, no one should end their ministry with lynching,” Moss said."

This from Fox News....

See the entire article 

In Easter sermon, new Obama Pastor charges Rev. Wright victim of  "lynching"  í here


This church is just getting better, and better.

Below is a video with a portion of the sermon






Sermon: How Do You Handle A Public Lynching
Rev. Otis Moss III

from stushietoon




Not quite the same thing, is it?

Or is it?





Very scary….

Newt Gingrich dissects Barack Obama's speech....

No one says it better than Gingrich.

Obama "puts all of his judgment and credibility on the line."

Do we need to play 20 Questions to figure out who said this quote?:



October 2007:

“I understand MSNBC has suspended Mr. Imus. But I would also say that there’s nobody on my staff who would still be working for me if they made a comment like that about anybody of any ethnic group. And I would hope that NBC ends up having that same attitude. …

He didn’t just cross the line. He fed into some of the worst stereotypes that my two young daughters are having to deal with today in America. The notions that as young African-American women — who I hope will be athletes — that that somehow makes them less beautiful or less important. It was a degrading comment. It’s one that I’m not interested in supporting.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Any guesses???????



Þ

Þ

Þ

Þ

Þ

Þ

Þ

Þ

Þ



Barack Obama


Hmmmm….




H/T Sister Toldjah

Excerpt from Barack Obama's speech of March 18, 2008, A More Perfect Union

"And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions – the good and the bad – of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother – a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love."



See the speech in its entirety on the Drudge Report


Obama Speech in full:  A More Perfect Union    ç here






_____________

Did Obama give more hope to his flock of supporters? 

I certainly believe he did.

Did he do damage control regarding the "controversy?"

I'm sure he has mended fences with some people.

He spent two days writing a passionate speech.

So, Rev. Wright is his "family."

You don't disown family.

He wouldn't disown his "white grandmother" because she made a racial slur.

Well, Rev. Wright didn't just make a racial slur.

It's kind of like the old, "Would you turn your brother in if he committed a crime?" question.

Barack Obama is running for President of the United States.

We'll be seeing video of Obama's speech in the coming weeks....

Let's not forget the other video....

AP photo






Last Friday Nancy Pelosi confirmed that it does not matter what the popular vote says as far as the primaries go.

In an interview with George Stephanopoulos, Pelosi said it would be “harmful” to Democrats if superdelegates were to give the party’s presidential nomination to a candidate who is trailing in the delegates awarded in primaries and caucuses.

“But what if one candidate has won the popular vote and the other candidate has won the delegates?” asked Stephanopoulos.

“But it’s a delegate race,” Pelosi replied.

“The way the system works is that the delegates choose the nominee.”



Read more here from ABC News


Pelosi Delegate Stance Boots Obama  í  here

You know, President Bush has been criticized for praying too much.

He hasn't hidden the fact that he looks to his faith to help him run the country.

He's been criticized for sending out a religious Christmas card, even though Christmas is a religious holiday.

I realize there are critics of President Bush's beliefs.

Barack Obama goes to church....

If Barack Obama is going to follow THIS....

Well, just another reason why I don't want to be a follower of Barack Obama....

 H/T:  KarenT

AP photo


Looks like Nancy Pelosi has had to break apart the playground antics of Obama and Clinton and send each of them to a corner for a time-out.


"[Pelosi] said she believes that supporters for both Obama and Clinton, after a long and exciting race, have grown strongly attached to their candidate. She worries how those voters will react when - inevitably - one of the two candidates loses."

"So many new people are involved because of Barack Obama and we don't want them to be disenchanted," Pelosi said. "On the other hand, there is a chance that he might not win, and hopefully he will keep them in the fold. I think it will be about his leadership, too - whether he wins or not - to keep them in the fold and to attract others."

"She said the same is true if Clinton loses the fight for the nomination. Many of Clinton's supporters, especially women, are just as passionate about her candidacy, and those voters will be crucial in November, Pelosi said.""You have to have a thick skin in this business. You can win or you don't win, but it doesn't mean you pick up your marbles and go away," she said."

I don't think the "bickering" has been anything that unusual.

It's not any worse than we have seen in past elections.

And even with Pelosi's reprimand, I believe we will be seeing the war of words between Obama and Clinton reach higher levels as time goes on.

Especially with Obama pulling some of Clinton's old skeletons out from the back of the closet.

It will be interesting to see what Clinton can find to try to knock Obama off his pedestal.

In the meantime, McCain can just sit back and let those two just fight it out. 

The less bad mouthing he has to do, the better for him.


Read the full article from the San Francisco Chronicle


Pelosi asks Clinton, Obama to Stop Sniping   ç here