Redstate

Posted at 6:36pm on Jul. 11, 2008 Dueling June Obama fundraising claims?

Seems like there's an easy enough way to settle this.

By Moe Lane

To walk you through this: today there was a Wall Street Journal article discussing yesterday's fundraising announcement by the McCain campaign. Said article noted in passing (via Political Punch):

Meanwhile, June fund-raising for Sen. Obama appears to be falling below the expectations of some supporters. The campaign hasn't released its June numbers, but people close to the fund-raising operation say the total will likely be just over $30 million. While this isn't a poor showing, it is an underwhelming haul for a campaign that has ballooned in recent months, has promised a true, 50-state electioneering effort and has told its biggest fund-raisers that it wants to collect $300 million in general-election cash by mid-October.

The reason for the lower-than-expected numbers for Sen. Obama, fund-raisers said, was his continuing difficulty in getting former supporters of Democratic rival Hillary Clinton to open their purses for him, following a protracted, bitter primary battle. Sen. Obama has also tacked to the middle on some recent policy issues, annoying many in the left wing of the Democratic Party. These more liberal-leaning supporters make up a large proportion of his small-donor cadre. The campaign says that some 1.7 million people have given $200 or less, making up 45% of Sen. Obama's total.

A bit of an eye-opener, that. And subject to what is ostensibly a swift pushback (Read on)...

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | fundraising | Obamafiles — Comments (2)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:28pm on Jul. 11, 2008 What Does John McCain Believe About Barack Obama?

The Burning Question

By Dan McLaughlin

Here's the thing I keep coming back to about this election and what it will take to win it. It's a point that Hillary Clinton grasped, albeit too late to save her. And it's an open question about our own nominee and how he will approach the next 116 days.

Most people who would consider voting Republican in this (or any) election either like McCain, grudgingly respect him, or are hard-core Republicans/conservatives who ought to be persuadable for any Republican, even McCain. But none of those groups is going to be fired up with positive enthusiasm for the guy or his platform. On the conservative side, he's got folks who need regular reminding why they should vote for a guy who has butted heads with them so many times; on the moderate side, he's got people who are OK with him but are feeling like maybe the new guy from the other party deserves a shot. McCain has the experience and the biography, he is good on some issues (your mileage may vary as to which ones), and has some good ideas (ditto), but very few people are super-enthused about the things he is promising to bring to the Oval Office. Reassured, perhaps, but not enthused.

At the same time, McCain's opponent is not Generic D but rather a left-wing extremist with no experience, horrible, tried-and-proven-failure ideas and terrible judgment in friends, supporters and staff. That ought to frighten moderates and conservatives alike when they contemplate giving him the car keys. McCain's path to victory, then, is in collecting the people who like him, the people who respect him, and the people who can force themselves to tolerate him, and persuading them that an Obama presidency would be a disaster for the nation.

But McCain can only do that consistently and effectively if he, himself, believes that Obama would be a disaster for the nation.

Does he?

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | John McCain — Comments (31)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:01am on Jul. 11, 2008 MI Morning Update: McCain Talks Jobs in MI - Another Obama Flip-Flop - McCotter Sticking it to the left

By saul anuzis

116 Days until Election Day

July 11, 2008

MORNING UPDATE:

McCAIN TALKS JOBS IN MICHIGAN...in a Town Hall meeting in Belleville.  Do you remember how Obama said he would meet John McCain anytime, anywhere at these Town Hall meetings...you know, earlier, when he was seeking the nomination.  Now he refuses to engage in these discussions.  Hypocrisy and/or flip flop...again.

Posted in Barack Obama | John McCain | Michigan Republican Party | Republicans | Saul Anuzis | Thad McCotter — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:59am on Jul. 11, 2008 Obama/... DODD?

Clearly, I am in some sort of benevolent version of the Truman Show.

By Moe Lane

It's like this entire election season was created to make me laugh like a loon on a regular basis.

Obama seeks info on Dodd in vice president search
By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer 57 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama's presidential campaign has requested information from Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd as part of its search for a possible vice presidential candidate.

The former White House hopeful and Connecticut lawmaker indicated Wednesday that he has been approached by the campaign. "There's been some inquiries, yeah," Dodd said. "They ask for a lot of stuff. I'll leave it there."

Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton and Dodd's Senate office declined comment Thursday.

Probably wise of both. Free hint to the Obama campaign: when the AP, on looking over a potential VP candidate's recent history, decides to go with the "may be implicated in mortgage kickback scandal" bit over the "sorta-kinda fought to derail the FISA bill" bit... yeah, maybe this was a bit of a time-waster for you. But don't let me stop you from picking the man. All I ask is that you wait for my air-popper to finish the latest bowl of popcorn.

Because you can't put BACON SALT* on microwave popcorn, of course.

Moe Lane

*It's even kosher! No, really.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Chris Dodd | Obamafiles | Veepstakes — Comments (12)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:43pm on Jul. 10, 2008 Video from Obama's Unity Gaffe.

Normally I'd just update, but this is prime stuff.

By Moe Lane

Via AoSHQ, via Ed Morrissey, watch this video from the gaffe I mentioned earlier. Remember, this is for a event specifically designed for Unity:

Contra Ed, I'll call the MSNBC coverage a wash: fawning introduction, yes, but they were also kind of mean in their commentary while watching the clip in question. Not that I blame them for not resisting temptation: that was such a dumb error to make. We expect a certain professionalism from our professional politicians, yes?

Moe Lane

PS: Given that Obama is telling his people that fundraising efforts are going a "little slow" right now, and that Clinton's campaign debt needs to go away, just why is he being so sloppy?

Actually, the real question there is whether anybody knows the answer to that.

Posted in 2008 | A Child wearing an adult's clothes | Barack Obama | gaffes | Hillary Clinton | Obamafiles | unity — Comments (8)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:14am on Jul. 10, 2008 Yeah. He's *Really* into this entire Unity thing.

It shows.

By Moe Lane

Call me nuts, but when you throw together an event explicitly designed to try to convince your supporters to give money to retire a former opponent's debt - isn't it a good idea to not forget to put that request in your actual speech?

Apparently not:

Obama briefly forgets to urge help for Clinton
By BETH FOUHY – 11 hours ago

NEW YORK - It was all part of a careful arrangement: Democrat Barack Obama would get fundraising help from his erstwhile rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, in exchange for his help retiring about $10 million of her campaign debt.

But Obama momentarily forgot his part of the deal at a major New York fundraiser Wednesday night, forcing him to retake the stage after he had concluded the event and said goodnight to the audience.

The Illinois senator spoke to about 1,000 donors in a Manhattan ballroom, all of whom had paid at least $1,000 to attend. Many were Clinton supporters until she dropped out of the race last month.

Read on.

Posted in 2008 | A Child wearing an adult's clothes | Barack Obama | Hillary Clinton | Obamafiles | unity — Comments (8)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 7:42am on Jul. 10, 2008 MI Morning Update: McCain in MI Today - Obama Offering More Granholm Policies - NASCAR Fans for McCain -

By saul anuzis

117 Days until Election Day

July 10, 2008

MORNING UPDATE:

McCAIN IN MICHIGAN TODAY...as he rolls out his plans and vision for America and specifically talks about how he wants to fix our economy.

Posted in Barack Obama | John McCain | Michigan Republican Party | NASCAR | Republicans | Saul Anuzis — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 11:05pm on Jul. 9, 2008 "Oh, The Tide Is Turning!"

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

When the senior Senator from the home state of the presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee--who is the Senate Democratic Whip to boot--comes out in favor of offshore drilling, you have to know that there is a change in the political landscape. I figure that it is only a matter of time before Barack Obama changes his position on this issue as well.

Posted at 10:51pm on Jul. 9, 2008 Redstate Roundtable: Obama's Unending Psychology of Change

That's a lotta flipflop

By Ben Domenech

Let's sit down next to the couch for a moment to discuss this. Five questions for Contributors (and you!) are at the end.

Over the past few months, a strong meme has developed regarding Barack Obama: that his loyalties to a position are only as strong as they need to be given the demands of the moment. His eagerness to throw close associates or even mentors like Jeremiah Wright under the bus if the press or the political right demands it is second to none in the history of presidential politics. He has no qualms about shifting positions - such as on meeting without preconditions with the leaders of enemy nations - if it will squelch a media storm or make it easier to win a state. He has not a stubborn bone in his body, it appears - and is, to put it simply, not a fan of inconvenient truths.

But in the month since Obama cinched the Democratic nomination, this stream of flipflops has become a torrent. A brief summary:

-Obama said the D.C. handgun ban and the almost as restrictive Chicago ban were constitutional and supported handgun restrictions, but now he says definitively that it was unconstitutional.
-Obama promised he would accept public financing when he thought he'd need it, but then decided he'd rather not.
-Obama opposed welfare reform while in Illinois, but now says he supports it.
-Obama opposed the death penalty on principle and supported a moratorium on capital punishment - even implying that Osama Bin Laden should not be "martyred" by it - and now he believes it is justified not just in the case of homicide and terrorism, but also of child rape and other circumstances.
-Obama opposed legal immunity for telecom companies for cooperating with government security surveillance, but now he claims to support it.

And just this past week came two of the largest flipflops - certainly the greatest ones I have ever witnessed DURING THE COURSE of a presidential campaign:

-Obama supported immediate day one withdrawal of troops from Iraq, but now says he'll "refine" his position and listen to the commanders on the ground if they tell him to phase out the troops slowly, while still claiming to support an impossible mark of 16 months to a total withdrawal. You can read the three different versions of this new Obama position on Iraq here.

-Obama supported unlimited access to abortion, including taxpayer funding and opposing born alive infant protection, but now he says he supports states rights to restrict and even prohibit all late-term abortions, and have now requirement to have a health exception that allows for the (overwhelmingly used) basis of "mental health."

The story is here, and his inevitable attempt to refine further is here. As for the original interview, the full text is here, and below the fold.

Read on for the questions and responses...

Posted in 2008 | Abortion | ANWR | Barack Obama | Redstate Roundtable — Comments (12)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 9:34pm on Jul. 9, 2008 "McCain hits Obama on Abortion"

By Feddie

More of this, please:

"Sen Obama voted against, as a member of the Illinois state legislature, a ban on partial-birth abortion," McCain noted, calling the procedure "one of the most odious things I’ve ever heard of."

Posted at 8:26pm on Jul. 9, 2008 Complaint Filed Over Obama’s Sweetheart Mortgage Deal

Obama's mortgage may have violated the law and Senate ethics rules

By California Yankee

The Hill reports complaints were filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the Senate Ethics Committee against the Democrats' presidential candidate over Obama's Countrywide-like sweetheart mortgage deal he received from Northern Trust:

Judicial Watch, a conservative legal watchdog group, filed the the complaints after The Washington Post reported that Obama received a discount on a mortgage for a Chicago home valued at $1.65 million:

The complaints said the Illinois senator received a loan at the interest rate of 5.625 percent, which Judicial Watch says is lower than the standard rate of between 5.93 and 6 percent indicated by surveys.

The complaint asks the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate whether the favorable rates constitute a prohibited “gift” under Senate rules.

“It appears that due to his position as a U.S. senator, Barack Obama received improper special treatment from Northern Trust resulting in an illicit ‘gift’ which has a value of almost $125,000 in interest savings,” wrote Judicial Watch President Thomas Fitton in a letter to the Ethics Committee.

The complaint also notes that Northern Trust employees have given $71,000 in donations to Obama’s campaigns.

As noted in the complaints, Northern Trust has supported Barack Obama's political campaigns for elected office since 1990. In addition to the $71,000 Northern Trust employees have donated to Obama, the Northern Trust political action committee gave $1,250 to Senator Obama's 2004 campaign for the United States Senate.

Read on.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Countrywide | Ethics | mortgage — Comments (21)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:05am on Jul. 9, 2008 MI Morning Update: Why John McCain? - Drill and Save!

By saul anuzis

118 Days until Election Day

July 9, 2008

MORNING UPDATE:

WHY McCAIN...because the country's at war, the economy is struggling, oil prices are surging... AND OBAMA...is just an opportunistic and self-obsessed politician who will do and say anything to get elected.

Posted in Barack Obama | Domestic Drilling | John McCain | Michigan Republican Party | Republicans | Saul Anuzis — Comments (2) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:57pm on Jul. 8, 2008 "Reality-Based" Budgeting

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

The Los Angeles Times has taken a look at the Obama fiscal plan and finds it wanting:

"I don't think it all adds up," Isabel Sawhill, an official in President Clinton's Office of Management and Budget, said of Obama's spending plans.

"There will definitely need to be a recalibration of these proposals once someone is in office," said Sawhill, now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. "The fiscal situation just isn't going to permit doing what Sen. Obama or anyone else would like."

[. . .]

Obama's staff thinks that ending the Iraq war would free up money -- at least $90 billion a year -- that could be redirected to the new government programs. But it is unclear when that would occur. Obama has not given a clear date by which the Iraq war might end. On Thursday, he said he remained committed to withdrawing combat troops in 16 months. At a debate in September, he would not commit to pulling all U.S. troops out of Iraq by 2013.

Some budget experts say even a speedy end to the war would not give Obama much money for new programs.

"You cannot justify a longer-term commitment to a program based on a one-time saving on the war in Iraq," said Stuart Butler, who studies domestic policy at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative-leaning think tank.

In addition, replenishing the military and rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan are certain to become expensive priorities once the fighting stops, said Alice Rivlin, who directed the Office of Management and Budget for several years under Clinton.

"Savings from the Iraq war will not be all that great," she said.

Other new sources of revenue in Obama's plan include about $80 billion a year from closing tax loopholes and $100 billion from a variety of cuts in spending and revised government procurement rules.

The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center examined Obama's plans to eliminate tax loopholes and said it could not confirm the projected savings.

"If you look at official revenue estimates, the numbers come out to be less than half of what they say they're going to raise," said Len Burman, director of the center and a former Treasury official in the Clinton administration, referring to Obama's campaign staff.

It's good and reassuring to see that there exists critical coverage of the Obama fiscal plan, but that coverage needs to expand to more media outlets and the Obama campaign needs to respond to critics who point out that the numbers for Obama's fiscal plan simply do not add up. Thus far, they have done a poor job of defending their intellectual product, even if there has been relatively little in the news concerning the many deficiencies in the Obama fiscal plan.

Posted in Barack Obama | Economy | Fiscal Policy — Comments (1)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:55pm on Jul. 8, 2008 Disconnect

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

This Washington Post editorial applauds Barack Obama for "adjusting" his Iraq policy.

Of course, Obama himself claims that there has been no shift whatsoever in his Iraq policy, which means that he and the Washington Post need to sit down and figure out just what on Earth the story actually is. Thus far, about the only thing that we can say is that Obama has actually done nothing to alleviate the concerns of centrist and center-right voters, while at the same time appearing to go out of his way to stick a thumb in the eye of his liberal base.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Flip-Flopping | Iraq — Comments (1)/ Email this page » / Read More »