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Starting at 2:39, on youtube clip of ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, August 31, 2008:On Governer Sarah Palin: KERRY: ...You know, she may be — I mean, I’m sure she’s a terrific person. I’m not attacking her. I think John McCain’s judgment is once again put at issue, because he’s chosen somebody who clearly does not meet the national security threshold, who is not ready to be president tomorrow. And there’s just no way to...STEPHANOPOULOS: You heard Senator Graham, though. He said that she has more experience than Senator Obama.KERRY: That’s just ridiculous on its face. I mean, John...

At the Democratic presidential nominating convention in Denver last week, Richard Danzig, a top national-security adviser to Barack Obama, seemed to be everywhere. The former Navy secretary reassured visiting diplomats, rapped with security experts and made the case that Obama's foreign policy is more complex than his detractors have made it out to be. He chatted with NEWSWEEK's Adam B. Kushner at a hotel near Invesco Field, where Obama accepted the Democratic nod Thursday night. Excerpts: Kushner: You were on Obama ' s first world tour. Why do you think that, except for the rules of diplomatic protocol, Obama was...

To counter opponents’ accusations that he lacks experience in foreign policy, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois often cites his ties to relatives in poor villages in Kenya and the years he spent growing up in Indonesia. Now he has added a new personal detail to that résumé: a trip to Pakistan while a college student.

When I was in junior high school, my bedroom wall was decorated with political memorabilia - campaign posters, bumper stickers and “parchment” copies of political speeches. Among the speeches were some gems from John F. Kennedy. President Kennedy had wonderful speechwriters, and his addresses are filled with memorable quotes. But my all-time favorite Kennedy line is the ambiguous conclusion of a speech he gave in West Berlin in June of 1963. Kennedy, trying to express his solidarity with the people of Berlin, concluded with the words, “Ich bin ein Berliner.” Now this can mean one of two things, either “I...

Rudy Giuliani headed today’s Team McCain conference call, discussing the trip taken by Barack Obama adviser David Kurtzer to Syria in July. Giuliani, the recent selection for the GOP convention’s keynote speaker, took the opportunity to reassert himself on national security and foreign policy. Michael Goldfarb and Randy Scheuneman also took part in the call. Mayor Giuliani told the conference that the fact that the trip was not disclosed at the time shows Obama’s inexperience and irresponsibility on foreign policy. Giuliani pointed out that Obama included Assad on his list of world leaders he would meet without preconditions. He says...

Senator Obama went to Berlin and told a crowd of 200,000 Europeans that he was speaking to them not as a candidate for President of the United States, but as “a fellow citizen of the world.” He then proceeded to insult the memories of any German over age 30 and the intelligence of every American who remembers what the Berlin Wall was all about. In Berlin, Obama credited the “people of the world” for bringing down the Berlin Wall. That will be surprising news to the people of Mexico, Switzerland and dozens of other nations who not only sat out...

Unless you've been imbibing 100-proof hope-and-change, you could hardly listen to President — er, make that, Candidate — Obama's Berlin speech without questioning whether there is anything that he is truly willing to fight for. Not merely fighting metaphorically or deploying persuasive prose, but actually committing American lives to defend a principle that must not be compromised. When Obama's campaign appropriated Brandenburg Gate as the backdrop for his "citizen of the world" speech, his handlers certainly expected the venue to frame him in a distinctly presidential stature. Instead, the staging created an unmistakable contrast between courageous presidents who faced down...

Senator Obama went to Berlin and told a crowd of 200,000 Europeans that he was speaking to them not as a candidate for President of the United States, but as “a fellow citizen of the world.” He then proceeded to insult the memories of any German over age 30 and the intelligence of every American who remembers what the Berlin Wall was all about. In Berlin, Obama credited the “people of the world” for bringing down the Berlin Wall. That will be surprising news to the people of Mexico, Switzerland and dozens of other nations who not only sat out...

It's true that enthusiasm for Barack Obama around the world is sky-high. Furthermore, the trip did little to assuage many voters' concerns about Obama's lack of foreign policy experience, an issue that McCain holds a 15-point advantage in among voters. Obama's popularity in the Islamic world has also earned him some dubious admirers that the McCain camp has been eager to point out. In April, Ahmed Yousuf, political advisor to Hamas said in an interview that, "actually we like Mr. Obama. We hope he will (win) the election and I do believe he is like John Kennedy, great man with...

It is clear that this US presidential election has brought to the surface a bunch of lingering issues inside the country: racial, class and gender stresses. Even more starkly it has rekindled emotions outside the US, affecting how the world views America, from presumably allied countries in Europe to the developing world and, especially the Muslim world. It is amazing how quickly the mind gets cleared of American TV and internet chatter after a business trip to Europe with an added leg in the Middle East. For starters, we may be complaining about the cost of everything in the US,...

I’ll say this much for the Obamas: No one has more interesting political conversations with second-graders than they do. Something for everyone here — for the righties, some easy snark that the correct way to proceed in Iraq is obvious even to grade-school kids; for the lefties, some even easier snark that it takes someone with the mindset of a grade-school kid to think this is the correct way to proceed; and for the nonpolitical among us, a warm and fuzzy moment at the end. A good time was had by all. Video at link

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has seen his lead in Massachusetts and across the nation slip precipitously over the past few months, especially with older, more experienced, voters. In June, Obama was ahead of Republican candidate John McCain by 23 percentage points, but this summer, Obama has been virtually bleeding support in the Bay State. He now leads McCain by only 9 percentage points here. Nationally, Obama's lead varies on an almost daily basis. In recent days, he has been tied with McCain, ahead by 3 points and ahead by 1 point. The fluctuating numbers come on the heels of...

It’s one thing to point out what our country could do to become superior to its former self, but quite another to preface such counsel with the implication that it’s inferior to every other nation. If Barack Obama sought to win the votes of Germans, he need seek no more. Of course, his new image was all the rage in the Old World long before he gave his July 24 speech in Berlin. Along with the mainstream media and murderer Dale Leo Bishop, Senator Sweetness and Light is the man the Europeans want as our leader. Although Obama certainly has...

Only this time, Barack Obama will be a little less subtle about his purposes. On the second day of the Republican Convention, Obama will do some low-key fundraising … among Hollywood heavyweights … in Geneva, Switzerland. George Clooney will arrange for a $1,000 a plate reception, but that’s just the appetizer: Academy award winning actor George Clooney is set to host a fundraiser for Barack Obama in Switzerland next month. The event, taking place on the evening of September 2 in Geneva, Switzerland will be split into two parts: a reception and a dinner. According to Obama’s National Finance Committee,...

Anyone who wants to understand Barack Obama would do well to stay away from the radio and the TV. Obama is a theatrical presence. That's what it means to be "charismatic": To an unnerving degree his appeal relies on sight and sound rather than sense. Better, in my opinion, to stick to the printed word. On paper (or the computer screen) his words can be thought about and chewed over. You can understand him at your own pace, undistracted by that rich baritone, the regal bearing, the excellent drape of his Burberry suits.

My account was trashed on USA Today, I suspect by a lib protesting my right to speak freely and basically for publishing a few little dittys about BRO-sama: I.E.: There once was a Dem named Bar-ack With fans who loved to attack All those who disagree, and don’t go yippee, When Barry declared he was crack free! Abroad, he would stutter and stammer, Like a springboard being hit with a hammer Not Muslim denied he, yet we found it to be That Obama was more like Osama! AND.. There is a dem named Hussein, Who’s running quite a campaign, He’s...

Rasmussen reports that McCain is pulling even with Obama, apparently Obama's excellent adventure in Europe didn't have much effect on American voters: The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows the race for the White House is tied with Barack Obama and John McCain each attracting 44% of the vote. However, when "leaners" are included, it’s McCain 47% and Obama 46%. This is the first time McCain has enjoyed even a statistically insignificant advantage of any sort since Obama clinched the Democratic nomination on June 3. That's good news for McCain, but this election is not really about...

When I heard Barack Obama had planned a trip to visit Landstuhl Military Hospital in Germany, I knew from personal experience how much of a lift it would have given the hundreds of soldiers recovering from war wounds there. As fate would have it, I was sent to Landstuhl two years ago, after my lower legs were shattered by shrapnel from a mortar round in Iraq. After undergoing surgery, I spent nearly a month as a bedridden patient in the recovery care unit, uncertain whether or not I would ever walk again. It was around July 4th and I was...

Barack Obama just had the worst week since his beloved pastor, Jeremiah Wright, decided to expatiate on black liberation theology at the National Press Club. Coming off his royal progress through the Near and Middle East, Berlin, Paris and London, Barack had surged to a nine-point lead in the Gallup tracking poll. By Friday, he was back to a dead heat with a 72-year-old opponent with none of his natural skills, in a year when grocers are pulling Republican brands off the shelves. For all its gracelessness, the McCain campaign, given openings by Barack, stepped in and put Muhammad Ali...

Sen. Barack Obama's recent speech in Berlin may have been a hit with American journalists. That, however, is due to most journalists' politics, not to the profundity of Obama's remarks. They were neither profound nor stirring. Indeed, a careful study of the speech should lead an impartial observer to be concerned about Obama's grasp of the world. I started my analysis last week; I conclude this week. Let me begin with that which was praiseworthy. Obama: "This is the moment when we must defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism that supports it. This threat is real and...

Up until now, I have been urging caution in (over)interpreting the results of the Gallup and Rasmussen tracking polls, which had shown the presidential race tightening to a near-tie in recent days. Although the tracking numbers are important sources of information, this trend had not really been reflected in much of the state polling, nor in other, one-off national polls. Today, however, we have a set of state polling out that does indicate some tightening in the race: (Table at link) The most interesting results are in Florida and Massachusetts. In Florida, SurveyUSA shows John McCain ahead by 6 points....

AS the presidential candidates enter the three-month sprint to November, Barack Obama must be wondering: If that didn't do it, what will? "That" is his Berlin speech. "It" is assuage anxieties about his understanding of the need to supplement diplomacy with military force. Obama exhorted Germans to be more willing to wage war, in Afghanistan. He was right to do so. But polls taken since his trip abroad don't indicate that Obama succeeded in altering the oddest aspect of this campaign: Measured against his party's surging strength, he's dramatically underperforming. Surely this is related to anxieties about his thin resume...

"I've been hustled," said Obama, after a Euro tabloid fell down and worshipped his big muscles at the gym during the Ego Trip to Germany.  Well, yes. The Euromedia instantly recognized a slick hustler from America, and they celebrated his Ego Trip with giant headlines for Marxoman. But the real victims in Obama's Audacity Hustle are millions of gawking, slack-jawed, suckered, mind-numbed voters in America. Because Europe and Obama share the same overriding goal, which is to hitch America to the wagon of worldwide socialist elites. Marxists really love America, you see -- but only if America bows to the Party...

Democrats remain flummoxed and liberal pundits fret: what’s the matter with Barack Obama? He is supposed to be winning. By a lot. Well, a Democrat is supposed to be winning, but this particular one is having his share of problems. Charles Krauthammer on Friday explained: I think the sheen from earlier this year, where he was seen as a streaking meteor and he was the candidate of hope–I think it was Brit Hume who said he started the year by selling hope, but now he’s selling audacity. And I think there’s a sourness setting in. And you see it even...

After his visit to Iraq, Democrat Party presidential candidate Barack Obama all but admitted the success of what's come to be called "the surge." Obama claims he met with military leaders in Iraq and spoke with rank and file soldiers who've been fighting the Iraqi insurgents and members of Al-Qaeda who refuse to acknowledge defeat. However, military leaders are not refuting the fact that the additional troops coupled with a more aggressive war plan has resulted in continuing success. Yet, the American left -- Obama included -- refuse to give credit where credit is due. And he's being assisted by...

No kidding. The Spalding group is giving away One Million “NoBama” Bumper stickers. All you have to do is send a self addressed stamped envelope for the sticker. Details on the free offer:

"J'aime l'Europe." "Ich liebe Europa." Whether you say it in French or German, many on the American left harbor a not-so-secret sentiment: "I love Europe." Maybe their trans-Atlantic love affair stems from affection for the Enlightenment, an affinity for secularism or a secret hope for socialism. Regardless, liberals have longed to clone the Old Country. Or at least make America a little more like France. During presidential candidate Barack Obama's supposedly senatorial visit to Europe, the crowd of 200,000 in Berlin made it clear: "Deutschland liebt Barack" and "Barack loves Germany." Interestingly, though, in his meetings with heads of state,...

A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday showed that energy and the gasoline crisis have "emerged as the dominant economic issue," said Clay Richards, assistant director of Quinnipiac's Polling Institute. Mr. Richards spoke at a Monitor-sponsored breakfast for reporters on Thursday morning. Voters say they are more concerned about energy than the war in Iraq, according to Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac poll, who also spoke at the Monitor breakfast. The new poll found that while Senator Obama leads Senator McCain in all three states, Obama's lead has narrowed in the past month. Florida and Ohio are now too...

August 02, 2008, 0:00 a.m. Was Obama’s Bounce a Bubble?Polls continue to show an unstable presidential campaign. By Michael Barone Just when you think you’ve got the presidential race figured out, something comes along to upend your carefully wrought conclusions. Mainstream media provided lavish coverage of Barack Obama’s trip abroad the week of July 21–25 and predicted he would get a bounce in the polls. Some of his supporters believe he has put the election away. Other observers employ the hackneyed and meaningless phrase, “It’s his to lose.� The poll numbers tell a different and more nuanced story. The...

Cannot post due to copyright issues: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/obama-can-he-prove-hes-a-regular-guy-883265.html

WASHINGTON -- As the presidential candidates enter the three-month sprint to November, Barack Obama must be wondering: If that did not do it, what will? The antecedent of the pronoun "that" is his Berlin speech. The antecedent of the pronoun "it" is assuage anxieties about his understanding of the need to supplement soft power (diplomacy) with hard power (military force). He spoke in Berlin at the bullet-scarred base -- it was in the crossfire 63 years ago as Russian troops neared Hitler's bunker about a mile away -- of an 1873 monument to German militarism. To be precise, the monument...

Here is a new McCain web ad entitled, "The World According to Obama." I'm not the brightest bulb in the house, and my Spanish is not good, but it would seem The Messiah forgot to mention any Latin American, South American, or Spanish-speaking countries in his masterpiece Berlin speech. Apparently, in Obama's world, Latinos aren't too uppermost in his thoughts. . . (see video)

The McCain campaign just blasted out the following email: All: Sen. McCain today said that the Obama campaign retracted Sen. Obama's comments in Missouri. They clearly walked away from his statements and we are moving on. As the Politico reported yesterday: Obama's campaign quickly put out a statement Thursday retracting the candidate's suggestion that McCain had improperly used race, and, while on a conference call with reporters, campaign manager David Plouffe declined repeatedly to revisit any aspect of the question of race. http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=7B3AECC9-3048-5C12-00BA1E7BD09BDBA5 Will this be the end of it? We'll see.

It’s hard to imagine a more warped and callous statement about the Iraq War than this one made by Senator Charles Schumer, when asked whether he would support a troop surge in Afghanistan: Yes. The bottom line is I think Obama’s trip was brilliant. Not in the short term, but in the long term, because it’s changed the whole debate. And the whole debate now is focused on Afghanistan more than on Iraq. So: It’s not the U.S. troops who gave everything so that Iraq has a chance at a stable, viable future.

LAST weekend, Barack Obama dazzled crowds in Europe. Discussing international security, he spoke eloquently about needing an American-European partnership to defeat terrorism. In Paris, he said that “terrorism cannot be solved by any one country alone,” and that we should establish partnerships. In Berlin, he expressed hope that Europeans and Americans “can join in a new and global partnership to dismantle the networks” of terrorists worldwide. But there’s one problem. We already have a counterterrorism partnership with the European Union. And it works. Indeed, despite news media caricatures of aggressive Americans feuding with pacifist Europeans, both groups are quite serious...

If Barack Obama sought to win the votes of Germans, he need seek no more. Of course, his new image was all the rage in the Old World long before he gave his July 24 speech in Berlin. Senator Sweetness and Light is the man the Europeans want as our leader. Although Obama certainly has a stateside cult following as well, one reason Americans' enthusiasm pales in comparison may be that we - at least some of us, anyway - can decipher his words better than foreign-language speakers. As to this, there is a certain segment of the Berlin speech...

Last week I was on the road during Obama’s Berlin Speech. Naturally, the only program I was able to listen to the speech on was Rush Limbaugh, who conveniently gave his commentary while the speech was occurring. To this date, Limbaugh is the only media personality I know of to point out that Obama set the stage to inject race into this election during his speech. At the beginning of the speech, Obama stated,...

Obama's trip ... tripping or tripe?  By Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera's Senior Political Analyst    Part four of Al Jazeera Senior Political Analyst Marwan Bishara's analysis of Barack Obama's Middle East and Europe tour and what it means for his presidential campaign.Wow!Wow! Wow what? Like so many I was wowed. What a rock star! Did you see how Obama drew a crowd of 200,000 in Berlin, how people were clamouring to take his picture and autograph?What are you, a teenager?Come on! Barack looked truly presidential during his Middle East and Europe trip - like really cool.Yeah and he has Denzel Washington's teeth...

His endorsement of the Democratic candidate, against John McCain, his Republican rival, would usually be considered unusual for a Conservative. But during his recent European tour, Mr Obama proved successful at winning over politicians of all persuasions, charming David Cameron, the Conservative leader, who he met for talks in his House of Commons office. A survey carried out last month found that a third of Tory MPs want the Democrat to emerge triumphant. But the Mayor of London is the most high profile Conservative publicly to throw his weight behind Mr Obama. He told this month's Square Mile magazine: "I...

The McCain campaign issued the following statement today: Today, Dr. Danny Jazarevic, who served as the Chief of Trauma, Critical Care and Vascular Surgery at Landstuhl, issued the following statement on Barack Obama's canceled visit to Ramstein and Landstuhl: "Last week, Senator Obama skipped a visit with wounded U.S. troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany because the Pentagon would not allow campaign staff or media to accompany him into the hospital. I served as director of trauma surgery at that hospital for nearly four years and saw the effect that a visit from a celebrity like Senator Obama...

Barack Obama's claims that he was not going to use a planned visit to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center as a photo-op were blown out of the water tonight by a spokesman for Landstuhl who told Stars and Stripes that plans had been made for Obama's campaign press contingent to film the candidate as he entered and left the hospital.U.S. European Command spokesman Lt. Col. John Dorrian said that local and traveling press would have been brought to the entrance of Landstuhl to film Obama entering and leaving the hospital.The article also noted that it would have been permissible for Obama...

A Washington Post story on Barack Obama’s visit to Iraq caught my eye last week. “In essence, Obama has declared the war in Iraq all but over,” the story said, noting the Democratic presidential candidate’s vow to shift troops away from Iraq to the worsening conflict in Afghanistan. At a time when U.S. military statistics show less violence in Iraq than at any time since early 2004, it’s worth asking the question — is the war over? It is not over for Iraqis in some northern provinces, where al Qaeda militants remain active. And there may be more days like...

Well, one thing's for sure. If you embark upon a world tour, and you decide to make a campaign speech in a foreign country in front of 200,000 Germans, and you act like you're already president, people may notice. And that's what this is about: that he chose to go to Germany and do something I've never known a candidate to do before. You know, he orchestrated the press conference with the French president. He said something, yesterday, basically, that he embodies everything good about America. Well, you know, it's good to have self-confidence. But you can, maybe, go too...

TALLINN, Estonia – When I arrived in Estonia last week – a former Soviet republic that lies just south of Finland – everyone had an opinion on Barack Obama's speech in Berlin. The headline of the British Daily Telegraph we picked up in Finland blared "New walls must not divide us," with half-page photos of the American presidential candidate silhouetted against a sea of 200,000 people. One of the first people I met in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, was Abdul Turay, the editor in chief of The Baltic Times, an English-language weekly that covers Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, the...

Ross Douthat at the Atlantic.com notes that the Obama camp is accusing the McCain campaign of making Obama's rally in Berlin look like the sort of thing that Der Fuhrer might have staged. It's remarkable what those fiendish GOP operatives can squeeze into thirty seconds: Not only does McCain's "celeb" ad have "Barack Obama will rape yo daughters overtones," says Rick Perlstein (who's apparently under the impression that most Americans think of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears as stand-ins for their daughters), but it was edited to blatantly evoke Triumph of the Will as well - the better to freak...

LANDSTUHL, Germany – Although news outlets have reported charges that Sen. Barack Obama canceled his trip to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany because the media weren’t allowed to cover the event, U.S. European Command officials say plans were in place to allow limited press coverage. All media, including local press and the more than 40 journalists accompanying the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee on his eight-day international trip last week, would have been able to photograph the Illinois senator entering and leaving the hospital, said Air Force Lt. Col. John Dorrian, a U.S. European Command spokesman. Defense Department public affairs...

Today, Dr. Danny Jazarevic, who served as the Chief of Trauma, Critical Care and Vascular Surgery at Landstuhl, issued the following statement on Barack Obama's canceled visit to Ramstein and Landstuhl: "Last week, Senator Obama skipped a visit with wounded U.S. troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany because the Pentagon would not allow campaign staff or media to accompany him into the hospital. I served as director of trauma surgery at that hospital for nearly four years and saw the effect that a visit from a celebrity like Senator Obama could have on morale. During that time, I...

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Vote Both the passionate group devoted to nudging Barack Obama to pick one-time fierce rival Hillary Clinton as his vice presidential running mate is over. Organizers Adam Parkhomenko and Sam Arora said they were ending their effort since all indications are Hillary would not be Obama’s number two. "Because it seems that Senator Obama has made his decision to offer the slot on the ticket to another candidate, we believe that continuing to ask him to pick Hillary is no longer helpful to our party's chances of winning in November," they posted on their website. The writing on the wall...

An American woman fighting to get back four daughters living in the West Bank with their Palestinian father has gotten unusually high-powered help - from Barack Obama. The U.S. presidential hopeful raised the case of the Chicago-area woman in his meeting with Palestinian leaders last week, and won a promise from Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to look into the matter. And that's how the private battle between Yasser and Colleen Barghouti, which spans continents and cultures, took a public turn. In separate interviews, the two offered conflicting explanations of what brought the family to Barghouti's home village of Kobar in...