Instapundit links to this Washington Post article entitled “Many Clinton Supporters Say Speech Didn’t Heal Divisions.”
I beg to differ. Continue reading →
Dowd gets stranger—and less limpid
Maureen Dowd’s latest on the Democratic Convention has two especially odd and ignorant moments, even for her. Continue reading →
Hillary: vote for Obama cause he’s not McCain (who is actually Bush in disguise)
I don’t usually watch much of the convention action, since I’m not a big one for speeches and infomercials. But I decided to tune in for the Hillary moment tonight.
Here are my impressions, not all of them especially deep: Continue reading →
Judgment and war: Obama and the Democratic party
It’s ironic that the surge’s success has made the issue of the Iraq War less central rather than more in this campaign. “Ironic,” because the passage of time has made it clearer that, no matter what one thinks of the wisdom of the war’s genesis, those who counseled that the surge was a failure even before it began (and that includes both nominee Obama and most of the Democratic Party leadership) were wrong. If we had followed their leadership, Iraq would have been an even worse failure—and tragedy—than Vietnam was decades ago.
Fortunately, they did not prevail this time. But how is it that this party and these leaders can ask us to trust their judgment and elect them to make decisions about military matters in the future? Continue reading →
One reason a bitter primary campaign isn’t such a hot idea…
…is that affords an opportunity for the opposition to make ads like this one in the general:
Everybody knows that, in a primary, candidates say nasty things about rivals in their own party. What’s to stop the other party’s nominee from using those clips to their own advantage once the primaries are over?
Absolutely nothing.
Totten on Georgia
As usual, Michael Totten is well worth reading. Here’s his take on the Georgian situation.
The PUMA revolt
A fairly large percentage of Hillary Clinton’s supporters are mighty angry at the Obama campaign. To see what I mean, just go to a blog such as Talk Left and read the comments there, especially the ones written after the Biden pick. Despite the bloggers’ (and Hillary’s) calls for unity, these ladies are hopping mad. Continue reading →
“This little trick”—hovering in the air
I’m currently reading I, Maya Plisetskaya, the autobiography of the wonderful Russian dancer about whom I wrote this tribute. She was known for vivacity, smoldering sensuality, and her powerful yet graceful jump, the latter of which she describes as follows:
I quickly grasped the “jumping” mazurka in “Chopiniana” in two rehearsals with the rehearsal coach…and I danced it with thundering success. Nature had not passed me over when it came to jumps, and I flew across the stage in three jetés…I deliberately tried to hover in the air at the top of each leap, and the audience responded enthusiastically. Each leap was accompanied by a crescendo of applause. I myself couldn’t have imagined that the audience would take such a liking to this little trick.
Is this possible? Continue reading →
Not all Obama supporters are happy with the way the rollout went
When the MSM spilled the beans on Obama’s VP pick last night, I was thinking that, not only will the PUMAs absolutely hate this, but many young and “progressive” Obama supporters will as well. I’m not just talking about the choice of Biden, but the way the whole text-message thing played out. Continue reading →
Obama’s pick: why, it’s the Democratic McCain!
My title is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, of course. But it did occur to me, watching clips of Joe Biden late last night, that Obama’s new running mate is the closest thing to John McCain that Obama could have found in the Democratic Party. Continue reading →
“Waiting for Barack”
You’ve got to hand it to him—Obama certainly knows how to milk the drama of the VP wait.
And speaking of drama, I think you’ll agree that Beckett was remarkably prescient. Note especially the reference to Bush.
ESTRAGON:
(despairingly). Ah! (Pause.) You’re sure it was here?
VLADIMIR:
What? Continue reading →
Obama and the tax code: from each according to his ability, to each according to “fairness”
Some of Obama’s slightly-less-publicized statements are the ones that concern me most.
Case in point: in this WSJ column by William McGurn, the author points out that for Obama, taxes are not just about collecting revenue. What are they for? Fairness.
Obama was being quizzed on his proposal to raise the capital gains tax. Continue reading →