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Bambi said something today that we already knew he thought: Only government can fix what ails us. / What, precisely "ails us"? We have an economic contraction. Contractions are wonderful things. They spawn creative destruction, the very engine of a capitalistic system. / Bottom line is - a president just doesn't have that much control. / GDP and economic policies from LBJ through W.

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/slideshow/photo//090104/481/0c6f73d8856d4995b2938583e29d4f5f/http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20090104/capt.0c6f73d8856d4995b2938583e29d4f5f.indonesia_israel_protest_jak103.jpg?x=400&y=269&q=85&sig=4uegUWFKDQbcB_ccAcKtHA--World reacts to U.S. electionMuslim protesters wearing masks of, from left, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, take part in a rally against Israeli air strikes on Gaza, in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2009

Will America Unite in One Obama? by Edward Hudgins December 29, 2008 - George W. Bush ran for president as “a uniter, not a divider.” He only managed to unite Republicans and Democrats in disappointment—though for different reasons—with his administration. Barack Obama sounded the same theme: “We’re all in this together!” Will he succeed where Dubya failed? Divided States of Americans Many Americans have seen in recent years the culture and politics growing more mean and coarse, contentious and uncivil, malicious and malevolent. We’re bombarded by coast-to-coast belly-aching on 24-hour cable news channels where we’re likely to encounter shout-fests. Talk...

President-elect Barack Obama and his family are flying to Chicago tonight, ending a 12 day vacation in Hawaii. Now it's down to work. As Mr. Obama trades the white sands of Hawaii for the White House he faces an unprecedented slew of challenges, reports CBS News correspondent Ben Tracy. "You have to look at the United States as a dam that is leaking," said CBS News analyst Douglas Brinkley. "It's not going to do good just to stick a finger in one hole, you're going to have to plug them all up quickly." First, there's the economy and how to...

Behind the scenes work is already underway to rename Chicago’s Midway Airport after Obama — becoming the Barack H. Obama International Airport. Apparently, there are those in the city, especially on the Olympics Committee, that want this done before October 2009, to give the IOC a little more incentive to award Chicago the 2016 games (despite the fact that here in Chicago it’s already considered a done-deal we’ll get the Olympics, and has been since November 4th). The Obamafication of Chicago begins with renaming Midway…and is partially designed to remind the IOC, in as loud a voice possible, that Chicago’s...

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has asked most Bush administration political appointees except those targeted for dismissal to stay on in the Pentagon until replaced by the Obama administration in the coming months. "I have received authorization from the president-elect's transition team to extend a number of Department of Defense political appointees an invitation to voluntarily remain in their current positions until replaced," Mr. Gates said in an Dec. 19 e-mail to political appointees. The chance to stay is "available to all willing political appointees with the exception of those who are contacted individually and told otherwise," he stated. ...

CHICAGO - The large brick house Barack and Michelle Obama bought in June 2005 sits in a neighborhood of historic mansions. Its 6,400 square feet included six bedrooms, six bathrooms, and a wine cellar for 600 bottles. It had been renovated five years earlier in high style: antique Chinese washbasins, mahogany bookshelves, a granite kitchen floor. It was a fitting home for a new senator. And it was a good deal. The list price was $1.95 million, but the Obamas paid $1.65 million, the same price the sellers had paid five years before. Obama called Rezko for advice. The men...

I wonder if Obambi will try to deny that he ever met Odinga.

Please post the lies and gaffes that Obama made.    I know he made one --   Saying "the eight years the Bush administration has concentrated on Iraq." (I'm paraphrasing)   What a farce he is.     Please add the versions of Obama gaffes and detected lies that you heard.................

McCain Suspending Campaign Sen. McCain has made a history making decision to temporarily suspend his campaign to go back to DC and work on the economy. Was McCain's decision to suspend the campaign a country first decision or a political one?

Comes from Jonah Goldberg: Does anyone know why McCain doesn't use a computer or email? As a couple readers suggested to me, it might be because his injuries prevent it. I mean he can't lift his arms much higher than his chest and it looks like he has all sorts of other mobility problems with them. Maybe he can't type or use something like a blackberry. I don't know. But I hope the Obama campaign found out before they played the granpa Simpson card on McCain. I'd hate for Obama to be mocking a veteran's disability to score cheap points....

Barack Obama is slumping. Poll numbers are down. Enthusiasm is down. Democrats, once again, are freaking. So, we asked a few folks, from different walks of life, to offer their opinion on what Obama should do to improve his standing. Here's what former Massachusetts Governor and 1988 Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis had to say: On campaigning: "I think this thing is going to be won in the field, with basic grassroots organizing ... and I don't think McCain has anything out there. Obama is attempting to do that more thoroughly and better, in more states, than I think anybody...

Amie Parnes reports from Lebanon, VA: Obama poked fun of McCain and Palin's new "change" mantra. "You can put lipstick on a pig," he said as the crowd cheered. "It's still a pig." "You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change. It's still gonna stink." "We've had enough of the same old thing." The crowd apparently took the "lipstick" line as a reference to Palin, who described the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull in a single word: "lipstick."

NEW YORK Barack Obama has been paraphrasing a line from a recent Tom Toles cartoon. In the drawing, The Washington Post/Universal Press Syndicate creator showed John McCain standing with Sarah Palin near the White House. The Republican presidential candidate says: "Watch out, Mr. Bush! With the exception of economic policy and energy policy and social issues and tax policy and foreign policy and Supreme Court appointments and Rove-style politics, we're coming in there to shake things up!" Obama, in a sarastic reference to McCain's supposed desire for change, initially used a version of the Toles-cartoon dialog without crediting the source....

Hello fellow FReepers, Are you tired of Barack Obambi and the lamestream media tearing apart our SarahCuda? Barack Obama has just presented us with a GOLDEN opportunity to destroy his Get Out The Vote efforts - all from the comfort of our computer chair. Do you have 5 minutes to spare? You will be anonymous - and HIGHLY EFFECTIVE! Here are the details: Barack Obama has just started an on-line way for his "supporters" to actively participate in his Get Out The Vote drive. It is called "Neighbor-to-Neighbor". Essentially, you "register" on his web site and they provide you with...

The troop surge in Iraq has been more successful than anyone could have imagined, Barack Obama conceded Thursday in his first-ever interview on FOX News. As recently as July, the Democratic presidential candidate declined to rate the surge a success, but said it had helped reduce violence in the country. On Thursday, Obama acknowledged the 2007 increase in U.S. troops has benefited the Iraqi people. “I think that the surge has succeeded in ways that nobody anticipated,” Obama said while refusing to retract his initial opposition to the surge. “I’ve already said it’s succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.” Speaking on...

Barack Obama continues to hold a lead over John McCain, 49% to 42%, in the latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking update. The results are based on interviewing conducted Sept. 1-3. The vast majority of interviews on Wednesday evening were conducted before Sarah Palin gave her much-anticipated convention speech. However, the data do indicate that the initial first two nights of the convention -- the slimmed down Monday program in deference to Hurricane Gustav and Tuesday's speeches headlined by former senator Fred Thompson -- have, so far, done little to change voter preferences. Thursday's interviewing will be the first to reflect...

Monday’s "American Morning" featured a segment on CNN political analyst Roland Martin’s recent TV One interview with Michelle Obama which seemingly sought to counter negative assertions about Obama by Republicans and “crazy folks on the right.” After airing a clip of Obama talking about her blue-collar upbringing, during which she stated that her story was the "quintessential American story," co-host Kiran Chetry asked Martin about how important it would be for Obama to address that in her speech at the Democratic National Convention. In his reply, Martin contended that "crazy folks on the right" are to blame for mischaracterizations of...

Sarah Palin is preparing to take the stage at the Republican convention, and if you believe the chorus in the MSM, the pivotal issue she must deal with is the pregnancy of her teen-age daughter — which in the space of two days has apparently become one of the most burning policy matters of our time. Move over, U.S. economy, world markets, jihadis, oil despotisms, resurgent Russian aggressors, Kim Jong Il and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. I don’t know what Sarah Palin is going to say. But I am trying to imagine the effect it would have if she stood up before...

Rightwing fodder-- Barack Obama Invesco Field convention tickets picture upside down US flags- an international symbol of distress. The DNC tickets printed for Barack Obama's acceptance speech at Invesco Field show an upside down US flag on both sides. This is the international symbol of extreme distress. FOX 9 reported: Some viewers contacted 9NEWS Saturday, questioning the design of the credentials to see Sen. Barack Obama accept the Democratic Party's presidential nomination at INVESCO Field at Mile High. The viewers say with the stars and blue field in the lower left corner, it looks like an upside down American flag....

And we know what horrible outcomes can arise when people without experience are placed in positions of great power. InstaGlenn accuses him of actually saying it but that’s not true: Watch him catch himself mid-sentence, the first fateful syllable of the word “experience” already out of his mouth, before he stops short and switches gears by basically calling Thomas a moron instead (at least, “at the time”) — an aspersion reinforced a moment later by the implicit contrast he draws in praising Scalia’s brilliance. A golden gaffe, narrowly avoided. Stay classy, Barry. Video at link:

<p>DALLAS - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama side-stepped a pointed query about abortion on Saturday by “mega-pastor” Rick Warren during a televised forum.</p> <p>Asked at what point a baby gets “human rights,” Obama, who strongly supports abortion rights, said: “… whether you’re looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity … is above my pay grade.”</p>

Originally Pamela Geller had the action in this story: ATLAS EXCLUSIVE: FINAL REPORT ON OBAMA BIRTH CERTIFICATE FORGERY CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN Sunday, July 20, 2008 http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/07/atlas-exclusive.html But since then, the momentum has shifted to TexasDarlin, over at Wordpress: *Breaking* Sister Maya’s Name Uncovered on Alleged Obama Birth Certificate [Update] August 5, 2008 http://texasdarlin.wordpress.com/2008/08/05/breaking-sister-mayas-birth-certificate-used-to-forge-obamas/   *BREAKING* Barry Soetoro’s Birth Certificate in Republican Hands [UPDATE] August 10, 2008 http://texasdarlin.wordpress.com/2008/08/10/breaking-barry-soetoros-birth-certificate-in-republican-hands/   Obama’s Dual Citizenship Disaster: an Overview August 10, 2008 http://texasdarlin.wordpress.com/2008/08/10/obamas-dual-citizenship-disaster-an-overview/ Unfortunately, I think that TexasDarlin may have been getting threats from the Obamanation kooks [possibly to include death threats], so...

John McCain has gotten his groove back. How sweet it must be to have found a message for his campaign - but how sad that his message is all about how horrible his opponent is. It's not a huge surprise; McCain did hire several Bush strategists. They've done a "search and replace" on the 2004 briefing books, substituting "Obama" for "Kerry" and - voila: Elite. Out of touch. Hates the troops. The McCain team is doing a mini-Swift Boating - attacking Obama for his strengths. The Democrat attracts crowds and generates excitement, runs a good campaign, plans ahead and inspires...

BAGHDAD - The monthly U.S. toll in Iraq fell to its lowest point since the war began, with 11 American deaths as July drew to a close Thursday after the departure of the last surge brigade. Iraqis also are dying at dramatically lower numbers with the war in its sixth year.

"We could save all the oil that they're talking about getting off drilling if everybody was just inflating their tires and getting regular tune-ups. You could save just as much."

Want to get an idea why Democrats have no clue on energy policy? Take a listen to Barack Obama explaining how we can get an extra 12 million barrels of oil a day. We can pull it out of thin air — literally: "There are things you can do individually, though, to save energy. Making sure your tires are properly inflated — simple thing. But we could save all the oil that they’re talking about getting off drilling — if everybody was just inflating their tires? And getting regular tune-ups? You’d actually save just as much!" Er, no it couldn’t....

Video. This one is a little unnerving. Either we’re missing something, or Obama needs medication and some quality time with a psychiatrist.

DRUDGE HEADLINE WITH PHOTO: "POLITICS HITS THE WALL: PRAYER FOR CHANGE"

After meeting with top U.S. military commanders and members of the Iraqi government, Sen. Barack Obama today said his opposition to the surge and support for a firm timetable for the withdrawal of troops hasn't changed. ~snip~ Obama and Petraeus have also staked out opposing positions on whether there should be a timetable for withdrawing American forces. Obama said that in his meeting with Petraeus, the general discussed his "deep concerns" about "a timetable that doesn't take into account what they anticipate might be a change in conditions." "My job is to think about the national security interests as a...

Campaign '08: The man who opposed the surge in Iraq now wants a surge in Afghanistan. But if Barack Obama had his way, there would be no troops to be redeployed and no free Iraq to visit.Much has been made, too much we think, of the remarks by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in the German newsmagazine Der Speigel that seemingly endorsed Barack Obama's proposed 16-month timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. As John McCain has pointed out, and a fawning press has not, there would be no democratic Iraq to visit and no Prime Minister al-Maliki to have a photo-op...

U.S. Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Wednesday said he'd like the world free of nuclear weapons and pledged to fight emerging threats posed by biological and cyber-terrorism. The Senator from Illinois made the remarks at a roundtable discussion on national security in West Lafayette, Ind.

The list of issues on which Barack Obama has flipped now that the primaries are over is long and growing rapidly: # He says he believes in a Second Amendment right to bear arms. # He now opposes late-term abortion. # He suddenly is a devotee of using faith-based institutions to deliver public services. # He now says that he won’t raise Social Security taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year. In the primary, he said he’d eliminate the threshold entirely, including on people making as little as $100,000. # He recently opposed the Fairness Doctrine for talk...

McCain has got an 80 - 55 % advantage over Obama regarding his ability to be Commander in Chief. Hmmm. Interesting.

A runaway metaphor is not the worst sin in the world. But if former Navy Secretary Richard Danzig really is a potential national security adviser under President Obama, he's doing his potential future boss no favors when he talks like this: Richard Danzig, who served as Navy Secretary under President Clinton and is tipped to become National Security Adviser in an Obama White House, told a major foreign policy conference in Washington that the future of US strategy in the war on terrorism should follow a lesson from the pages of Winnie the Pooh, which can be shortened to: if...

“My grandfather marched in Patton’s army, but I cannot know what it is to walk into battle like so many of you,” he told a small group of veterans here Obama also spoke about his uncle, who was part of the American brigade that helped to liberate Auschwitz.

Obama Grilled on Ties to Pro-Palestinian Professor by FOXNews.com Thursday, May 22, 2008 A persistent questioner at a campaign stop Thursday grilled Barack Obama on his ties to a professor with pro-Palestinian views, prompting Obama to speak at some length against “guilt by association” and about his support for the Jewish community. The at-times heated exchange occurred during a town hall event held at a synagogue in Boca Raton, Fla. The questioner focused on Obama’s relationship to Rashid Khalidi, a professor of Arab studies at Columbia University who has drawn fire for some of his criticisms of Israel. Obama responded...

You always know you've struck gold when liberals react with hysteria and rage to something you've said. So I knew President Bush's speech at the Knesset last week was a barn burner before even I read it. Liberals haven't been this worked up since Rev. Jerry Falwell criticized a cartoon sponge. Calling the fight against terrorism "the defining challenge of our time" -- which already confused liberals who think the defining struggle of our time is against Wal-Mart -- Bush said: "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will...

Likely Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama told supporters Iran is just a “tiny” country at a campaign stop in Oregon Sunday evening. "Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. They don't pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us,” Obama said. Obama’s rivals, including his fellow Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton, have criticized Obama for his willing to meet with Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism. Presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain issued a strong retort to Obama's assessment at a stop in Chicago on Monday. "The...

Democrat Barack Obama has a message for Tennessee's Republican Party: "Lay off my wife." ADVERTISEMENT Obama, his party's presidential front-runner, and his wife, Michelle, were asked in an interview aired Monday on ABC's "Good Morning America" about an online video last week by the state's GOP taking her to task for a comment some considered unpatriotic. "The GOP, should I be the nominee, can say whatever they want to say about me, my track record," Obama said. "If they think that they're going to try to make Michelle an issue in this campaign, they should be careful because that I...

Sen. Barack Obama ripped into a Republican ad today that targets comments made by his wife, Michelle, and called the GOP tactic "low class" and "detestable." The senator and his wife discuss the race for the White House. The Illinois senator told "Good Morning America" that he expects hardball tactics from the Republicans if he becomes the Democratic presidential nominee. "But I also think these folks should lay off my wife," he told "GMA" as his wife chuckled beside him. Obama told "GMA" that he believes he will win a majority of the Democratic delegates once the votes are counted...

So, round one of the 2008 foreign policy debate goes to ... Barack Obama? Improbable as it seems, in the first direct rhetorical showdown of the general election campaign - over a question, foreign policy "toughness", that's been a perceived Democratic weakness since Vietnam - it was the guy with the thin foreign policy résumé, suspected by some of his compatriots of being a Muslim, who out-punched the war hero with the extensive résumé. And shall I add that the one with the thin résumé and the strange name has a dodgy position on the question at hand, and yet...

CHICAGO (AP) -- Perhaps no one took greater comfort in the Republican Party's third straight loss of a long-held House seat this week than Barack Obama, who says the results point to clear limits in the effectiveness of attack ads he expects this fall. The Democratic presidential candidate played a prominent role in all three special elections to fill vacant GOP seats, and he landed on the winning side each time. In recent contests in Louisiana and Mississippi, Republicans or their allies ran TV ads linking the Democratic House nominees to Obama, warning that a vote for them was a...

By Amanda Carpenter Thursday, May 8, 2008 Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama flatly promised to raise taxes in a television interview Thursday afternoon. “I will raise CEO taxes,” Obama told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “The Situation Room.” “If you’re a CEO in this country you’ll probably pay more taxes,” Obama said. Obama speculated his CEO tax rates “won’t be prohibitively high, you’ll pay roughly what you did in the 90’s when they were doing fine.” Obama also said he would eliminate the Bush tax cuts and install what he called a “middle class tax cut.” Blitzer asked Obama to define...

Sen. Barack Obama won the endorsement of the Teamsters earlier this year after privately telling the union he supported ending the strict federal oversight imposed to root out corruption, according to officials from the union and the Obama campaign. It's an unusual stance for a presidential candidate. Policy makers have largely treated monitoring of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters as a legal matter left to the Justice Department since an independent review board was set up in 1992 to eliminate mob influence in the union.

Live NOW on FOX, CNN, and MSNBC! The Holy Messiah Obama is throwing Rev, Wright under the Bus!!

Barack Obama on Monday once again distanced himself from his retired pastor, Jeremiah Wright, as the reverend grabbed the spotlight for the fourth day in a row by suggesting the furor around his controversial remarks is an attack on black churches in America. Plagued by the ongoing uproar regarding Wright, Obama said Wright does not represent his views or vice versa. “I have said before and I will repeat again that what some of the comments that Reverend Wright have made offend me and I understand why they’ve offended the American people,’ Obama told reporters while traveling in Wilmington, N.C....

McCain spoke with bloggers this morning on a number of issues ranging from William Ayers to Rev. Wright to Tony Rezko. Jennifer Rubin noted that Hamas had endorsed Senator Obama and asked McCain whether Obama might have given "an unhelpful signal" to the terrorist group. McCain's response: All I can tell you Jennifer is that I think it's very clear who Hamas wants to be the next president of the United States. So apparently has Danny Ortega and several others. I think that people should understand that I will be Hamas's worst nightmare....If senator Obama is favored by Hamas I...

Prominent Democrats only whisper when they compare Obama, the first African-American with a serious chance to be president, with what happened to Los Angeles' black Mayor Tom Bradley a quarter of a century ago. Exit polls in 1982 showed Bradley ahead for governor of California, but he actually lost to Republican George Deukmejian. Pollster John Zogby (who correctly predicted Clinton's double-digit win Tuesday) said what practicing Democrats would not. "I think voters face-to-face are not willing to say they would oppose an African-American candidate," Zogby told me.The escape route from this dilemma only a few months ago seemingly was indicated...

Unable once again to score a knockout, Sen. Barack Obama is likely to make his new negative tone even more negative -- with a sharp eye on trying to end the Democratic presidential nomination fight after the May 6 primaries in Indiana and North Carolina. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's victory yesterday in Pennsylvania has only accentuated the quandary that Obama faces: Stay negative and he risks undermining the premise of his candidacy. Stay aloof and he underscores Clinton's argument that he will not be able to beat a "Republican attack machine" sure to greet him this summer. Obama campaign manager...