Politics and Government in America

Barak Obama’s debate comments and John McCain’s response have been well documented by now. However, we are getting so caught up in the rhetoric that we have missed the larger issue. The problem is that Democrats believe that Al-Queda is going to be in Iraq as long as we are there. What they have failed to accept is that Al-Queda is not going to follow us out.

Senator Obama said that there was no Al-Queda in Iraq before we invaded that country. This shows that despite his claims, he does not have the judgement to be president. To truely believe that Al-Queda was everywhere in the world, including Florida, except in Iraq shows a strong lack of judgement and common sense. We now know that Saddam Hussein was at least seeking a relationship with Al-Queda if one did not actually exist.

Barak is now running an ad which says that he knew “our real enemy was Al-Queda in Afghanistan, not in Iraq.” Wheter it was intentional or accidental, and I tend to believe that it was accidental, Senator Obam makes the inferance that there was an Al-Queda presence in Iraq before the war. He also makes the inferance that Al-Queda in Iraq is not our enemy. This would explain why he was willing to, by his own admission, ignore the existance of Al-Queda in Iraq when he said that IF Al-Queda started to gain a presence in Iraq he would send troops back in.

 Well Barak says he knows Al-Queda in Iraq exists, so we need to ask what he’s going to do about that situation.Barak Obama is using his judgment as his key selling point. Isn’t it time to think about what that “judgement” says about him.

Lately I have heard a lot of chatter about what Republicans should do in the Texas prima-cacus. Some have been saying that Republicans should crossover and vote for Obama to finish off Hillary one and for all. Others have been saying that they should vote for Clinton to encourage chaos in the Democratic party. I have a different idea.

Republicans should go to the polls and vote for Republicans. Huckabee, McCain, Ron Paul, anyone; even Mitt Romney is still on the ballot if you want to vote for him. Just don’t go vote in the Democratic primary simply to screw with the system. That is what Democrats do. That is how we ended up with John McCain as the presumptive nominee, and we all know how we felt when they were doing it to us. Turnabout is not fair play, it is incumbant for us to show that we have the moral high ground. This is a clearcut case of how the “Golden Rule” should be applied to American politics. If we want to change the system, the only place to start is with us.

Hillary Clinton is out to pull the wool over the eyes of the American public. She is trying to draw attention away from herself by calling attention to flaws with Barack Obama’s healthcare plan. The scary thing is that she is succeeding.

In Tuesday’s Democratic debate in Ohio, Hillary said that Barack’s healthcare plan was bad for America because the excess costs of the plan would be passed on to the American people. When she said this alarms began to go off in my head. I kept waiting for Senator Obama or one of the moderators to ask the logical follow-up question. However, that question never came.

The question that never came is how does Hillary plan on funding her plan? Well the answer is simple, we are going to be the ones paying for it. It will be payed for by the same mechanism that every other government program is payed for, taxes. In order to pay for such a massive increase of federal spending, there is going to need to be a similarly massive increase in taxes.

Hillary is trying to use sophistry to draw your attention away from what she wants to do by acusing her opponent of the very same thing that she’s going to do. She wants to make you think that she is a fiscal conservative by accusing her opponent of being a free spending liberal. She has even sent Chelsea out to say she has never seen anyone as fiscally conservative as her mom. If she’s really so fiscally conservative then why has her money run out so quickly?

Remeber that the liberals and the hit and run media has been out telling us that John McCain’s nomination means that the conservative movement is dead. Meanwhile Hillary is starting to pander to conservatives in her speechs and in the debates. If conservatism is dead, why is Hillary trying to win us to her side?

We have most likely all heard the following story told by Sen. Obama at the Texas Debate:

“I heard from a Army captain who was the head of a rifle platoon, supposed to have 39 men in a rifle platoon, ended up being sent to Afghanistan with 24 because 15 of the soldiers had been sent to Iraq, and as a consequence they didn’t have enough ammunition, they didn’t have enough Humvees.  They were actually capturing Taliban weapons because it was easier to get Taliban weapons than it was for them to get properly equipped by our current commander-in-chief.”

Now that is horrible story, and it is certain to invoke a lot of wrath towards the president. However, there are some problems with it. First of all, the COC doesn’t personally approve every supply order. If these troops are not getting enough supplies then it is that unit’s direct commander who is not doing his job, not the president. The captain who told Obama’s staff this story is the one responsible for seeing to it his men are supplied properly. If there are supply problems it is the platoon leader’s job to get them straightened out. I know, I used to be a military leader.

Second problem is that no company or battalion commander would ever approve a platoon being broken up like this. Furthermore no major unit commander would ever ask for a unit to be deployed like this. It is after all against several military regulations to deploy understrength units into a combat zone. Consider this statement from an army spokesperson:

“Without a unit designation or time frame of deployment, it’s difficult for us to verify the validity of what was told to the senator. Our soldiers deploy as complete units — either as companies, battalions or brigades, and they do so with every soldier armed with his or her individual weapon. … Army units and individual replacements arrive in country fully capable to conduct combat operations.”

The last problem in Sen. Obama’s story is the fact that the ammo being used by the Taliban fighters will not work in the weapons being used by the U.S. military. The AK-47’s used by the Taliban take a 7.62mm Warsaw Pact round, while the American M-16’s use a 5.56mm Nato round. The two are not compatible. If they really were trying to use Taliban ammo in U.S. weapons it’s no wonder that their equiptment was breaking.

Sen. Obama has already had to revise the story once. When it was pointed out that a lieutenant is in command of a rifle platoon, not a captain; his aids said “he was a lieutenant when the event happened.” So this story is already having to be spun just to keep Obama credible. How much do you want to bet that this “army captain” turns out to be another Jesse McBeth or one of Tom Daschle’s imaginary “friends.”

Meanwhile, there has been no analysis or investigation by any of the hit and run media outlets. “Investigative” reporters are stilling crawling all over John McCain trying to find some inconsistancy or chink in his story to blow his candidacy apart. Yet Obama’s story is riddled with holes and yet no one is investigating it. The only people who have been allowed to talk to this “captain” is ABC News and they even said there are inconsistancies, but “the substance of the story is valid.” That’s media double speak for “it’s all bogus but we like the guy so we’ll protect him.” Where is Media Matters or Factcheck.Org? It’s time for America to wake up and be their own media watchdogs.

The left has spent a lot of time comparing the current war in Iraq to the war in Vietnam. They have also spent a lot of time talking about how the United States is alienating it’s allies around the world. However, they have ignored one fundamental fact about the two.

Newt Gingrich has a book out called “Real Change.” It is one of the best political books that I have read in a long time. The only ones that I have found that are better is Roger Scruton’s “The West and The Rest,” and Juan Williams’ book “Enough.”

One of the things that Rep. Gingritch discusses in his book is the failures of the United States in dealing with Iraq. He rightly points out that there is plenty of blame to go around, but also points out that much of it sits squarely at the feet of the bureaucracy. As has been pointed out by better sources than I, the bureaucracy at the State Department is predominately left-wing and many are hold overs from Bill Clinton’s administration. Whether their failures were deliberate sabotage of the president or simple ineptitude is a moot point, and one which Rep. Gingritch wisely chooses not to debate.

Just in passing he also mentions a statement from Sir Robert Thompson, Britian’s premier expert on counter-insurgency, head of the British Advisory Mission during the Vietnam War and an advisor to President Nixon. Sir Robert said “perhaps the major lesson of the Vietnam Wars is: do not rely on the United States as an ally.” It is clear from Sir Robert’s statement that the alienation of our allies began with our failure to keep our commitment to South Vietnam, not from our “unilateral” invasion of Iraq.

The problem is that the Left doesn’t want to talk about this one fundimental truth. The rest of the world is only our allies so long as we have something to offer them. The spectre of the Soviet Union kept most of western Europe in our camp so long as we were willing to protect them from the big bad Russians. The only member of the left that I have even seen comment on Sir Robert’s statements was Dr. William Polk, and he was condemning Sir Robert’s theories in order to defend the advice that he gave to President Kennedy and President Johnson. He aslo continues to fail to acknowledge the fact that the United States has been feared and respected, but never liked.

Simply put, it is the policies of the left that have alientated the United States from the rest of the world. It started when the anti-war left forced us to withdraw from Vietnam. Today the terrorists and insurgents in Iraq have recognized fundamental truth from the Vietnam War; that they don’t have to beat the U.S. military, just the U.S. media. I lived overseas during the Clinton years and much of Europe considered Bill Clinton to be the laughing stock that the American left thinks that they feel George W. Bush is. Things will not get better until the left realizes the fundamental truth that we better do what we say we will or we will continue to suffer a lack of trust from our “allies.” We need to fix Iraq and make it a better place when we leave than when we got there. If not the only people we have to blame for what happens is ourselves.

There was much discussion on the Sunday shows about who John McCain should name as his Veep. I would like to suggest that he consider Jon Huntsman Jr. Governor Huntsman has shown that he has what it takes to be the Vice-President and eventually president of the United States. He is a strong conservative and has served as a member of McCain’s staff already as co-chair of his exploratory commitee.

Governor Huntsman has presided of the largest period of economic growth in the history of the state of Utah. He built it into what is currently the strongest state economy in the country. Utah’s economy is currently growing 4 times faster than the national average. He increased state spending for education by the largest amount ever, while at the same time giving the largest tax cut in the state’s history. He has demonstrated that he understands how to meet government responsibilities while decreasing the tax burden on the average person. He has also shown that he understands that lower taxes means more revenue because of increased economic activity. Some say that he has simply stood on the shoulders of great men, but ultimately he has shown the one skill that all leaders should have, the ability to take a good idea and make it great.

It has begun, the Republicans who wish to get an in with John McCain are beginning to go on the attack and slander those of use who have substantive conservative disagreements with John McCain. Michael Steele went on Fox News and said that conservatives who disagree with John McCain are “fringe radicals” and out of touch with what it means to be conservative. Eric Shawn of the Fox News Channel compared conservatives who are questioning McCain to the North Vietnamese soldiers who imprisoned and tortured the Vietnam vet. Ross McKenzie said that conservatives who have disagreements with John McCain to Stalinist ideologues who sent those that disagreed with them to gulags or had them shot for dissent.

Then you have Mike Murphy, a McCain strategist who said ” There are a lot of conservative potentates with a mailing list or a radio microphone. They’re important, but they don’t rule the Republican primary…So I think it’s easy to talk to a small group of self-referencing potentates who talk about the conservatives as opposed to what conservatives are actually doing…” Later Bob Bennett compared conservatives to Trotskyites. All because we have concerns about John McCain and his record from the Keating Five to McCain-Leiberman.

This is only the beginning folks. The country club Republicans in the blue states want to take the Republican Party to the left so that they can get back into power there. The conservatives that are backing McCain are for the most part guys who have been in Washington and are looking to get back. Guys like Warren Rudman, Jack Kemp, Gary Bauer, and others are all former establishment Republicans who have been on the out for awhile and see hitching their star to McCain as a way to get back in. Even Newt Gingrich has jumped on the bandwagon, telling conservatives that political victory was more important than ideological purity. Don’t buy it, compromising values for victory is what a Clinton Democrat would do, not a Reagan Republican.

Ladies and gentlemen, the mayor of Toledo, Ohio evicted the Marines from his city on Friday. A detachment of Marines from Grand Rapids, Michigan made arrangements with the city to use some abandoned buildings for training purposes. However, it seems that someone forgot to inform Mayor Carty Finkbeiner (yes I know that he sounds like a cartoon character) andhe decided to flex his muscle and throw the Marines out of town. Now how Carty didn’t know about the Marines coming is something of a mystery since everyone else from the city council to the local media outlets knew about it.

Yesterday in his State of the City address, Mayor Finkbeiner said that if had to do it again he would. He added that he had evicted the Marines to protect “the health, the welfare, and the safety of the people of Toledo.” However, he added that if the Marines wanted to come back, “we have plenty of other abandoned building that they can use.” It turns out that these exercises have been going on for the past four years. Carty seems to be trying to jump out in front of the anti-Marine Corp parade that Bizerkeley started. However, Berkeley is also backing off of this stand as they consider a measure that would still make it clear that they condemn the war but does not say that the Marines are “uninvited and unwelcome intruders.”However I think that Zanne Joi of Code: Pink summed up liberal support for the troops by saying her group is “supporting the troops by being against the war and against recruiting. It’s because we care about these people that we are standing up against the war machine.”

Now that there is no conservative candidate left for president, what do conservatives do now? We continue to hold true to our beliefs. We cannot let the lack of options force us to compromise our values and beliefs. We must continue to educate people about what it means to be conservative and show them how conservatism is the most compassionate philosophy in our modern political system.

We must also never forget that the president can not do anything without congress. Since we must resign ourselves to the fact that we will have at best a moderate in the White House, we must focus our efforts on gaining a conservative majority in Congress. This way we keep the movement going, and we can block any tax increases, immigration scams, or retreat and surrender plans the next president might have.

I must admit that I was wrong about Mike Huckabee. I had expected that he would drop out of the race once Mitt Romney was gone. That has not happened, in fact he vows to continue to fight to the end. However, the end is going to be bitter. Governer Huckabee simply needs more delegates than are avalible to become the Republican nominee. John McCain will be the nominee, that is a fact that conservatives have to accept.

That being said, it does not mean that we have to like it. It seems like we have been sold a bill of goods by the Republican establishment and the hit and run media. They kept saying John McCain was inevitable, that he was the most electable candidate. They talked about all the primaries he had won and how all the polls showed that John McCain, out of all the Republican candidates, beat Hillary and Obama in head to head polling. In fact they told us that just last week on the Sunday morning shows.

Flash forward one week. This is how Gwen Ifill characterized the Washington Primary, “…people who voted for someone other than McCain won the majority.” Funny, that has been true in every primary that McCain has won, except for a handful in the northeastern states. A week ago, before Mitt Romney dropped out, Mike Murphy, a Republican, said “McCain definately is in a stronger situation.” Bob Shrum added that he hoped “…that Mitt Romney really pulls a big upset on Tuesday, beacause I don’t want to run against McCain.” Does anyone believe that a Democrat stratagist like Shrum would really announce the candidate he doesn’t want to run against on national television? Romney was the guy they were really afraid of.

So last week John McCain was a strong candidate that was in a great place and he was the best choice for Republicans. It didn’t matter that in almost every primary he has run in he didn’t get more than 40% even when he won. He was also beating Hillary and Obama in every poll out there. Now suddenly he is a weak candidate who’s not getting a majority of votes and the polls have Hillary beating him 52-44, and Barak beating him 48-41.

The media has been waging a war against Mitt Romney since he got into this race. I have tried to do a good job of documenting it here and others have done better than I have. They have succeeded in selling us John McCain, by convincing us that we need to compromise conservative principles in order to win. They succeeded in getting Mitt Romney, the one candidate they were really afraid of, out of the race.

It makes me wonder how many of the polls showing McCain’s strength against the Democrats were cooked in order to get what they wanted. It seems the only way to explain the sudden turn around in the polls. Watch the media closely in these next few monthes. They are already trying to marginalize conservatives. I saw a report this morning on Fox News about how 70% of conservatives support McCain and how the ones who don’t are fringe radicals. They will be on the attack. Don’t let them win.