When you’re reading this, remember that Obama is a citizen of the world, and not the United States, so support from Germans does indeed matter. Even if they can’t vote.
Germans overwhelmingly back Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama over Republican contender John McCain, a poll showed, though a majority said the U.S. election outcome won’t affect relations with Europe.
Seventy-four percent of Germans say they would prefer Obama as president, with only 11 percent supporting McCain, according to the Forsa survey for N-TV and Die Welt newspaper. Among Germans under 30 years old, 84 percent said they back the Democratic senator from Illinois.
Obama boosted his popularity in Germany last month when he delivered a speech in Berlin’s central Tiergarten park that drew some 200,000 people. Germans also favor positions held by Obama such as his opposition to the Iraq war, combating global warming and greater engagement with European allies.
Wow… good to know that Germans support Obama. Meanwhile, American citizens who actually can elect him are liking him less and less. See? Campaigning in Europe did pay off! But hey, the mainstream media’s gotta do what they can to make it seem like their boy is still the Savior. So even if McCain is outpolling Obama, they have to find a way to make it appear that Obama is still the popular choice.
So hey, when you’re voting in November, just make sure to remember that Germany backs Obama. I’m sure it’ll be an instrumental factor in your decision.
Hat Tip: My colleague Warner Todd Huston at Stop the ACLU
Sometimes I wonder if there’s a mole inside the Obama campaign… someone who plans stuff like this to intentionally make Obama look bad. Because I can’t fathom how someone came up with this plan and kept a straight face:
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s big speech on Thursday night will be delivered from an elaborate columned stage resembling a miniature Greek temple.
The stage, similar to structures used for rock concerts, has been set up at the 50-yard-line, the midpoint of Invesco Field, the stadium where the Denver Broncos’ National Football League team plays.
Some 80,000 supporters will see Obama appear from between plywood columns painted off-white, reminiscent of Washington’s Capitol building or even the White House, to accept the party’s nomination for president.
He will stride out to a raised platform to a podium that can be raised from beneath the floor.
The show should provide a striking image for the millions of Americans watching on television as Obama delivers a speech accepting the Democratic presidential nomination.
Politicians in past elections have typically spoken from the convention site itself, but the Obama campaign liked the idea of having their man speak to a larger, stadium-sized crowd not far from where the Democratic National Convention is being held, at the Denver pro basketball arena.
Obama was taking a page from the campaign book of John Kennedy in 1960 when the future president delivered his acceptance speech to 80,000 people in the Los Angeles Coliseum.
Once Obama speaks, confetti will rain down on him and fireworks will be fired off from locations around the stadium wall.
You couldn’t make this stuff up. Seriously… never would I have imagined that Barack Obama would plan something this ridiculous. And the guy wonders why most Americans see him as an arrogant, elitist snob. He tries to play himself off as an everyman, and then pulls this?! People are tired of the fawning adulation from the media and from Democrats. They’re tired of the Obamamessiah passing himself off as some kind of Savior. If Obama was smart, he’d start coming down to Earth… using less of the arrogant God stuff and more of the “I’m just a regular guy” stuff. Performing a speech on a raised platform in a Greek temple with confetti raining from the sky and fireworks is more than a little bit ridiculous. Who in his campaign thought this would endear him to undecided voters? The only people who will like this are the people who are already locked in for Obama. The ones still deciding will be turned off by this. But hey, whatever makes his loss easier in November is good with me. And this was definitely not a good decision.
When your set-up is so ridiculous that it’s impossible to use any snark, it’s a sign that you probably should go with something more subdued. Just a tip.
Hat Tip: Ace of Spades
Joe Biden, a.k.a. Mr. Gaffetastic, is just a-full of wonderfulness already. I can’t wait to see what other kind of awesomeness we can find. Yesterday, Barack Obama and Joe Biden may have been celebrating a little too much (who knows?), because we first had Obama introducing Biden as the next President, and then Biden introducing… BARACK AMERICA!
Seeing as how Biden didn’t correct himself, I have no idea if this was intentional or not. Given the amount of arrogance and ego that permeates the campaign of the Audacity Twins, who knows? It does bring to mind this image from Ace of Spades:
It just makes you want to laugh. Apparently, the RNC thinks so too. They’ve actually added a counter — I’m not even joking — until Biden’s next gaffe onto their website. Frikkin’ awesome.
Can I just go ahead and thank the Obamamessiah for adding Mr. Gaffetastic to his campaign? This is going to be so great. I’m really excited.
Hat Tip: Newsbusters
Obama’s selection of Joe Biden presents a number of problems, but one of the biggest I can foresee if the “Washington insider” role the Obama campaign wants to paint McCain as playing. Obama’s released several ads labeling John McCain as nothing but another Washington insider. Obama’s whole campaign revolves around the hope-changeyness he can supposedly bring to Washington. It’s his attempt to turn his lack of experience into a positive. He’s not inexperienced, he’s just not a Washington insider! Washington’s broken, so we need someone fresh and new — a savior, even! — to come in and fix our political system!
The thing is, no one denies there are problems in Washington. Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, liberals: we all agree that a lot of changes need to be made. The difference of opinion is on what changes need to be made and how. And if Barack Obama wants to run his entire campaign on the empty rhetoric of “change”, then how does Joe Biden fit into that? As Erik Erickson points out at Redstate:
1. When Joe Biden entered the United States Senate, John McCain was in his fifth year of captivity at the Hanoi Hilton.
2. Barry Obama was eight when Biden began his Senate career.
3. Nixon was starting his second term as President.
Joe Biden is more of a Washington insider than McCain is. I don’t necessarily see that as a negative, but Barack Obama has been portraying it as something terrible for his entire campaign. What now? Does he change his attitude about “Washington insiders”, or does he just ignore the contradiction? It’s just another sign that Biden was not the best pick for Obama to make.
I guess we really should be celebrating Barack Obama’s pick of Joe Biden for VP. It was a not-too-bright decision on his part, but hey, it works for me. The Obamamessiah and Mr. Gaffetastic will give us lots of fun soundbites over the next few months. I mean, come on — Obama already introduced Biden as “the next President - Vice President - of the United States… “. But hey, today we’re going to have fun with Joe Biden instead.
Check out this video where Biden was talking about AIDS:
I think the money shot was the look on Al Sharpton’s face. It made me laugh. A lot.
Joe Biden is just going to be so much fun. Ace does the best job of summing up just who Biden is:
Joe Biden is a scatterbrained and socially awkward guy. He’s the guy at the party who announces, out of nowhere, “I just had some subcutaneous fat injected into my penis to increase its girth, so that’s pretty good.”
And then… the uncomfortable silence as everyone takes keen regard of their shoes and watches.
Oh, man… we’re gonna have a lot of fun over the next few months.
Hat Tip: Ace of Spades
… we’ve got Obama’s Presidential seal, volume two. It’s under images:
Did he not learn the last time? Did the selection of Joe Biden just heap more arrogance into the campaign? Or does he simply still feel like the Presidency is an inevitability for him?
Then again, the normal rules about controlling your ego and arrogance don’t apply to the Obamamessiah. He’s a savior and all, so I guess he can create his own seal. As rdbrewer commented at Ace of Spades,
Oh, look, the seal of the United States of Heaven.
That’s right. Bow down to your Savior, and submit to the will of the Audacity Twins!
Hat Tip: Alice H at Ace of Spades
The non-news story of the day: Barack Obama has selected Joe Biden to be his running mate. Yawn.
Sen. Barack Obama has selected Delaware Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate, according to his official Web site and a text message the campaign sent to supporters on Saturday.
“Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee,” the text message, sent at around 3 a.m. ET, said.
“Joe and I will appear for the first time as running mates this afternoon in Springfield, Illinois — the same place this campaign began more than 19 months ago,” Obama said in an e-mail sent to supporters Saturday morning.
“I’m excited about hitting the campaign trail with Joe, but the two of us can’t do this alone,” he wrote. ” We need your help to keep building this movement for change.”
Before the text messages were distributed, multiple Democratic sources confirmed to CNN early Saturday that Obama wanted the Delaware senator as his vice president.
…
Sen. John McCain’s campaign quickly reacted to word that Biden would be Obama’s running mate, calling attention to Biden’s past comments about Obama’s experience.
“There has been no harsher critic of Barack Obama’s lack of experience than Joe Biden,” McCain campaign spokesman Ben Porritt said in a written statement.
“Biden has denounced Barack Obama’s poor foreign policy judgment and has strongly argued in his own words what Americans are quickly realizing — that Barack Obama is not ready to be president.”
Biden sure did argue against Barack. The CNN article itself has a few examples, as well as Flopping Aces:
“Who among us is going to be able on day one to step in an end the war? Who among us understands what to do about Pakistan? Who among us is going to pick up the phone and immediately interface with Putin and tell him to lay off Georgia because Saakashvili is in real trouble. Who among us knows what they’re doing? I have 35 years of experience.”
“You were asked, ‘Is he ready?’ You said, ‘I think he can be ready, but right now, I don’t believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training,’” Stephanopoulos said.
“I think I stand by that statement,” Biden replied.
“Having talking points on foreign policy doesn’t get you there.”
“It’s a well-intended notion he has, but it’s a very naive way of thinking how you’re going to conduct foreign policy. … [T]he way to deal with it is not to announce it, but to do it. The last thing you want to do is telegraph to the folks in Pakistan that we are about to violate - quote - ‘their sovereignty.’”
There’s more of that — Biden slammed Obama left and right during the primary — but it isn’t really important. There’s a lot more in the goodie bag when it comes to Joe Biden. I mean, who could forget this?
“I mean, you’ve got the first sort of mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a story-book, man,” Biden said.
Mm-hmm. There’s also the Indian comment:
Charming, eh? Then there was the bragging about his state being a slave state, because, you know, that will help win over South Carolina residents:
Because, you know, Southerners are just dying to get back to the good ‘ole days when we still kept slaves. For those who don’t live in reality, let me just clue you in. No southerner is proud of slavery. We don’t, however, pretend it was an exclusively Southern phenomenon, which infuriates me. But that’s another issue.
Biden also has a little problem with lying about his background and plagiarism.
Then there was also the little issue of him making the huge mistake of, well, actually telling the truth about what Democrats think of voters:
“We’ve got to trust the American people more,” Biden said.
“I think they’ve really lost faith in the American people in terms of leveling with them,” he said of his leading rivals.
When he asks groups of Democrats if they think the American people are stupid because they elected George W. Bush twice, most respond that, yes, they do, he said. He said he thinks that attitude is a real problem for the Democrats, who fail to understand how smart and pragmatic the American people really are.
Asked if he thinks, as he suggested recently in another interview, that the other candidates tend to think the American people are stupid or easily fooled, he said, “Well, I do.”
“It’s not even so much they don’t trust, which is a piece of it,” he said. It’s that they think that “the way to win is the Bill Clinton triangulation and the Karl Rove angering.”
“It’s the thesis that you go to your base because people don’t vote. Well, why don’t they vote?” he asked. He said he thinks people don’t vote because they’re tired of the way politicians treat them.
He said Democrats would do better if they stopped dividing the electorate by playing to their base and instead brought people together. He criticized the left wing of his party for demonizing the rich and Republicans.
“Rich folks are as patriotic as poor folks, but we don’t talk that way,” he said.
John McCain’s already striking with a campaign ad:
I can’t help but wonder if this was really the best choice for Barack Obama. Yes, Republicans will have a field day with this guy (he’s incredibly gaffe-prone, not to mention narcissistic), but that’s beyond the point. The Obama camp has been trying to hype up the announcement for weeks now, but they’ve waited so long that whoever they picked would’ve been a non-story. What were they thinking, making the announcement at 5:00am on a Saturday? My only guess is that they either wanted to lessen the impact or make it be the news everyone woke up to. Given the arrogance of both politicians, I’d go with the latter. There’s also going to be a noticeable lack of enthusiasm surrounding Joe Biden. He’s not a pick that gets the base fired up. He’s a safe pick, a non-threatening one, and given that Obama’s been lagging lately, you’d think that he’d want to go with someone exciting. There’s also the small problem of Biden being a major player in Washington for quite some time now. Doesn’t that contradict Obama’s meme of “not the usual politics”? I mean, it’s empty rhetoric and all, but you’d think Obama would want to go with someone who wouldn’t fit so easily into the label of politician.
Ed also makes a good point:
In fact, one has to wonder whether Obama really had made up his mind, or whether his first or even second choice didn’t turn him down. That would explain the delays in the announcement, and the apparent disorganization of Team Obama in handling an event that should have underscored the seriousness of their candidate. After all, they set the expectation that the running mate announcement would come this week, and they missed their own target.
Not only has Obama turned this into a game show, he has also now built up expectations to the point where almost any selection would be a letdown. The two rumored picks, Joe Biden and Evan Bayh, do not scream excitement. They don’t have the kind of star status that would justify this kind of NFL Draft Day engineering. Only Hillary Clinton or Al Gore might approach that kind of celebrity. Hillary would be better announced at the convention than on a Saturday afternoon, and Gore has already done the VP gig for eight years.
Obama has made a mess out of this announcement, and blown a natural opportunity to demonstrate his leadership. He also has given John McCain a wide opening to handle his own running-mate announcement in a manner which will demonstrate the Gravitas Gap which has widened considerably this month between the two candidates.
If the guy can’t even handle his own campaign, how can he handle the country?
My take is that Biden is definitely not the best pick Obama could’ve come up with.
There’s a few oddities in here, but look for yourself:
Former New York City mayor and presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani will be the keynote speaker at the Republican National Convention, which begins Monday, September 1st. His Tuesday night address will follow primetime speeches from Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, who are seen as two of the most likely candidates to become John McCain’s running mate, were not granted primetime speaking slots. Romney is currently slated to speak on Wednesday, Sept 3rd, while Pawlenty is scheduled to join Charlie Crist, Sam Brownback and Mel Martinez to address the convention on Thursday, Sept. 4th, before McCain’s convention-closing address.(The schedule could change.)
Whomever McCain selects as his running mate will give an address in primetime on Wednesday, along with Cindy McCain and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindel.
Former Democrat Joe Lieberman and Vice President Dick Cheney will speak on the convention’s first day. They will be followed in primetime by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush.
Am I missing something? Whose idea was it to make Rudy Giuliani the keynote speaker? Yeah, that’ll energize the base. And then there’s the question of timing on Wednesday night. The schedule says that Bobby Jindal will speak after the VP, whereas Ed says his copy of the schedule says before. Which is it? Weird.
Like Allah, I’m a little unsure as to why exactly Rudy and the Governator are getting prime-time speaking slots over people like Mitt Romney, Carly Fiorina, and Tim Pawlenty. Neither one of them are real conservatives — hell, they’re barely Republicans. And they aren’t the rising stars in the party. Their stars are getting dimmer.
I’m glad to see that Sarah Palin will have a prime-time appearance. I think I’m more excited to hear what she has to say, and Bobby Jindal as well, than anyone else at the convention.
This certainly doesn’t shine any light on who McCain’s VP pick will be, either. I’ve stayed mum on that subject because speculating over and over again seems to be an exercise in futility in my opinion. I just want them both to make the damn announcement and get it over with.
The convention is supposed to fire up the base, and I hope they’re able to do that. With Giuliani as the keynote speaker, though… we’ll have to see.
In New Mexico, Obama had this to say about illegal immigrants:
“We are a nation of immigrants,” Obama answers.
“The only people can say that they aren’t immigrants are the people sitting right here,” the Presidential candidate says and points to the tribal leaders.
“There are some families who have been here for 4 or 500 years. They didn’t cross the border, the border crossed them.”
The border crossed them. Nice, Obama. Real nice. How about siding with your own country?
So, does this mean that my relatives in South Carolina whose ancestors had land granted to them by the King of England when Europeans first started settling here don’t count as natives? And in any case, I certainly don’t see myself or anyone else in my immediate family as immigrants. I was born here, my parents were born here. Some of my grandparents were immigrants but are now citizens, and some of my grandparents were born here as well. But I guess because I have European origins, it means that I’m automatically an “immigrant”, whereas illegal immigrant Mexicans are the real “natives”. So I guess this means we should just open the floodgates and let them in, eh?
And also, what does Barack Obama hope to achieve by bringing up this issue? Going all reconquista doesn’t help achieve any unity or redress any grievances. It opens old wounds; it deepens rifts. It gives Mexican reconquistas a sense of legitimacy. I mean, really, is that the goal? I’m sure it wasn’t — the goal was likely to pander to Hispanics in New Mexico — but is it worth it? Is picking up a few extra votes worth the votes he’ll lose from — yes, I’m going to say it — the white Europeans who will be offended over this? How can he say that we’re immigrants but Mexicans are not, when my family, and many other people’s families, have been living in the United States for hundreds of years? And in any case, having an ancient ancestry that you can trace back to this land before it was the United States does not automatically guarantee you citizenship. Does my Italian ancestry guarantee me Italian citizenship? Uh, no. It’s the most idiotic concept I’ve ever heard in my entire life. Squabbling over who was here first is a futile exercise, and it’s immature and moronic to boot.
And at the very least, Obama should be siding with the country he wants to run, not the country who wants to dismantle the country he wants to run so that they can reclaim it and settle a hundred year grudge. As President, shouldn’t that just be a given? For Obama, I guess not.
Hat Tip: Hot Air
I know, you’re all shocked. It’s like the sun actually rises in the East. That’s how crazy this revelation is. Well, Don Surber was able to ferret out this little nugget of fantastic-ness from back in 2001:
On the Illinois Senate floor, Obama was the only senator to speak against the baby-protecting bills. He voted “present” on each, effectively the same as a “no.”
“Number one,” said Obama, explaining his reluctance to protect born infants, “whenever we define a pre-viable fetus as a person that is protected by the Equal Protection Clause or the other elements in the Constitution, what we’re really saying is, in fact, that they are persons that are entitled to the kinds of protections that would be provided to a — a child, a 9-month old — child that was delivered to term. That determination then, essentially, if it was accepted by a court, would forbid abortions to take place. I mean, it — it would essentially bar abortions, because the Equal Protection Clause does not allow somebody to kill a child, and if this is a child, then this would be an anti-abortion statute.”
If only Obama had the same proficiency at lying as Bill Clinton, he’d be having no problems here. It’s a shame for him, isn’t it? And let’s not even get started on courage. He may be filled with all the hope-changeyness in the universe, but this guy has got about as much spine as a jellyfish.
Of course, this is irrelevant, right? The real issue here is that McCain cheated, and poor little Obama wasn’t given the same opportunity to prepare. If only he’d been able to study beforehand and start preparing answers. Unfortunately, he was too busy catching some killer waves in Hawaii to bother.
In all seriousness though, I think that this just proves my earlier thesis. He’s terrified to let Americans know where he really stands on controversial issues. So he’s desperately trying to remain as vapid and ambiguous as possible. And of course, the question was not easy to answer. But he’s a constitutional scholar, for crying out loud. He’s a Senator running to be President. In his job as a Senator, he should be able to make tough decisions like this. No one said being President would be easy, and that once you’re inaugurated you’d suddenly mysteriously have all the answers. But you do have to take a stance, and make a decision, and be able to live with the fact that it will sometimes be the wrong one. Can the Obamamessiah handle that? My guess is no, he can’t. He’s bought into the hype already. As far as he’s concerned, he is the Anointed One here to save us all. He can’t give a wrong answer. So when people start questioning the things he says and does, he is completely flabbergasted by it. I almost feel bad for the guy… he’s been surrounded by too many “yes” people.
In any case, if Obama thinks that he’ll be able to make it through this entire election without anyone finding out about his radical liberal positions, he’s dead wrong. He got into the wrong profession if he didn’t want to have to deal with this kind of stuff. It’s just the way it goes. Yes, every vote you record in the Senate can possibly be held against you in the future. Yes, everything you say will be picked apart and analyzed. And why shouldn’t it be? You want to be the guy who will decide which direction this country will go in for the next four years. Americans have a right to know where you stand. They can agree or disagree… but they have a right to know.
And Obama, you owe us that much. Is honesty and enough backbone to be willing to stand up and say, “This is what I believe in”, too much to ask from you? It certainly seems so.
Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin
