Free Republic

In Obamaland, the 3 a.m. phone call has become the 3 a.m. e-mail. In their own way, both speak to a crisis mentality and a groping for security. The contexts couldn’t be more different, but the anxiety—real and imagined —is no less genuine. To review, the 3 a.m. phone call was in a TV ad Hillary Rodham Clinton ran against Obama in the heat of the Texas and Ohio primaries in 2008. It asked voters to ponder the fate of America if Barack Obama were president and a national crisis struck in the middle of the night. Now, the 3...

Here Comes Obama's 3 AM Phone Call By James LewisFebuary 27,2012 In the next 60 days Obama's presidential career will finally meet that concrete wall of reality. He will either fail or survive. Trouble is, he might take many innocent people with him if he fails. So far, the most hyped-up and unqualified president in US history has shown no capacity at all to act, in the face of a do-or-die challenge. This is the ultimate test of character, the one that John F. Kennedy met well enough in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. This is the test that Jimmy...

I wish I had a cigarette. I know I told the people of America that I quit but hell, I've told them so many things that were not true, how's a measly cigarette going to make a difference? It's my health, isn't it? And, talking about contradictions, I was smoking a pack a day when I gave the country Obama Healthcare. I admit 57 percent of the country didn't want my kind of healthcare. That's why I had a Congress I controlled shove it down their throats. By 2016 we will have the same healthcare as Canada-lousy, but cheap. I...

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's foreign minister has confirmed claims by an exiled Iranian opposition group that a factory west of Tehran is manufacturing centrifuge parts. Ali Akbar Salehi, quoted by the state news agency IRNA, says the facility is no secret and that many other facilities in the country are involved in manufacturing parts for Iran's nuclear program. Iran has long said it produces centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium, a process that the U.N. has demanded Tehran halt. Two days earlier, the exile Mujahedeen-e Khalq group said its spies identified the factory, called the TABA facility. Iran says...

A prophetic insight. Video at link...

One of the issues raised in the run-up to our last presidential election was the question "Which candidate is best qualified to handle a '3 AM moment'?" America now has a partial answer. It isn't President Obama. Last Friday was Day 4 of the ongoing protests in Egypt, where tens of thousands Egyptians took to the streets to demand the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak. As the situation reached a flash point, with a mounting death toll and Egyptian tanks in the streets of Cairo, President Obama maintained his silence. Well, not quite. He did Twitter, by proxy.

The White House Phone Rang at 3 a.m. Posted by Erick Erickson Sunday, April 11th at 9:43PM EDT Remember back during the 2008 campaign Hillary Clinton ran that ad asking who you’d want to be in the White House when the “3 a.m. phone call” came? 3 hours after midnight Eastern time this past Saturday, that 3 a.m. phone call came. The President of Poland, his wife, major government and military leaders, and others all died in a horrible plane crash in Russia. In Europe, the rumor is rampant, without any evidence, that Vladimir Putin was behind it. The confirmed...

WASHINGTON -- Turns out Hillary Rodham Clinton was right all along. During the nastiest battle of the entire 2008 presidential race, she aired an alarming television commercial warning voters that they would come to regret nominating Barack Obama to occupy the White House. If -- in a national security crisis -- the "red phone" rang at 3 a.m., the ad intoned, Obama would not hear it.

Turns out Hillary Rodham Clinton was right all along. During the nastiest battle of the entire 2008 presidential race, she aired an alarming television commercial warning voters that they would come to regret nominating Barack Obama to occupy the White House. If -- in a national security crisis -- the "red phone" rang at 3 a.m., the ad intoned, Obama would not hear it. Or he would fail to answer it. Or he would be on vacation. In any case, an Obama White House would so diminish the threat of terrorism that the government's focus would shift away from the...

Top aides to President Obama say that, yes indeed, he did have that 3 a.m. phone call that then-rival Hillary Rodham Clinton warned he couldn't handle. Before the Texas Democratic primary last year, Clinton aired a provocative TV ad that showed children sleeping peacefully and asking voters who they would trust to deal with a middle-of-the-night crisis. Senior adviser David Axelrod, communications director Anita Dunn, and press secretary Robert Gibbs told CNN that it happened in April, when Obama was in Prague and North Korea tested a long-range missile. "I think it was about 4:00 in the morning we were...

This guy is worse than Carter. He can't make a tough decision to save his life. Afghanistan in particular. Iran in particular. Sit back and wait. that way you can't be criticized by anyone, he hasn't made a decision yet. Obama's ego is such that he must be loved by everyone. He cannot handle anyone who doesn't. He's got ALL the mainstream media in print and tv and cable for him. The MSM gives him daily Lewinskis but the two things he constantly bitches about like a little girl are Fox News Channel and conservative talk radio. God help this...

It occurs to me that the last person in the whole wide world that I'd like to talk to at three in the freakin' morning would be Hillary. On a bunch of different levels. As the SecState, well, she's probably not going to tell you what a great job you are doing. As the professional woman, she's going to loudly speculate about the anotomical deficiencies of all of these foriegn policy czars running around on her turf. As the liberal idealogue, she'll be bitching about policy wonk details and staying on message. And, almost worst of all, her screech meter...

Conservatives 4 Palin put together an excellent video on the famous 3:00 AM phone call Obama has been getting weekly.

Follow link and click to watch video. It's good. Short and sweet. http://www.conservatives4palin.com/2009/08/obamas-300-am-call.html

ON first watching Hillary Clinton’s recent “It’s 3 a.m.” advertisement, I was left with an uneasy feeling that something was not quite right — something that went beyond my disappointment that she had decided to go negative. Repeated watching of the ad on YouTube increased my unease. I realized that I had only too often in my study of America’s racial history seen images much like these, and the sentiments to which they allude.

Clinton: Obama has proven his toughness, international savvy Posted: 10:34 AM ET WASHINGTON (CNN) — Hillary Clinton is convinced. After questioning Barack Obama's international savvy and toughness while campaigning against him last year, the secretary of state said Sunday she has seen plenty of both from the president so far. "Those were appropriate issues to raise in the campaign," Mrs. Clinton said Sunday on the NBC program "Meet the Press." She went on to declare: "I'm here to say that I think his performance in office has been incredible." Asked specifically about her campaign criticisms, Mrs. Clinton said, "I don't...

"The reality is that these times bring not only dangers but also opportunities." - VP Dick Cheney, August 27, 2002, VFW speech Father's Day arrived early for the Obamas: ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — The first family was in the mood for something sweet _ something like vanilla custard, fudge and sprinkles. On a muggy Saturday just before Father's Day, President Barack Obama took Sasha, 8, and Malia, 10, to The Dairy Godmother, a frozen custard shop just outside Washington. The president snacked on vanilla custard with hot fudge and toasted almonds in a cup, said the shop's owner, Liz Davis....

President Obama is feeling the heat lately for his limp foreign policy postures, showcased now more than ever with the increasing violence and chaos following Iran’s presidential election. Surprisingly, the critique is stemming from both sides of the aisle and is beginning to crescendo. Since the announcement of Ahmadenejad’s victory, Obama’s response has been more than unimpressive, it’s been plain impotent. If Iran is the ringing red phone, Obama is putting the call straight to voicemail. Apparently in this administration, forceful, timely responses have been reserved for houseflies instead of our most threatening enemies. The president believes that we shouldn’t...

Clinton: Obama has 'absolutely' passed '3 a.m.' test Posted: 09:49 AM ET WASHINGTON (CNN) — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says President Obama has answered the central question that she raised about him when she was his chief rival for the Democratic presidential nomination. In an interview with ABC's "This Week" broadcast Sunday, Clinton was asked about her famous "3 a.m." ad last year, which questioned whether Obama was the right candidate to handle a middle-of-the-night international crisis. "Has the president answered it for you?" host George Stephanopoulos asked. "Absolutely," Clinton replied.

While President Obama was speaking in Prague about nuclear disarmament, North Korea delivered the most tellingly timed comment on The Trip. The Pyongyang rogue regime -- proprietor of a nuclear arsenal -- defiantly launched an intercontinental multi-stage rocket in violation of an explicit U.N. Security Council resolution.  The President used strong words about the rocket launch:  "Rules must be binding.  Violations must be punished.  Words must mean something."  Obama flunked his first 3 A.M. test. Tragically, there were no actions to match Obama's words.  This President prefers to use the United Nations, rather than U.S. power, to protect world peace.  Ludicrously,...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Hillary Clinton said there would be days - and nights - like this. For the second time in four days and with less than three months in office, President Barack Obama has received the "3 a.m. phone call" that Clinton warned about. In their bitter presidential contest, Clinton suggested that her young rival was not ready for a national security crisis. His tests are coming early: first from the borderline rogue government in North Korea, then from stateless bandits preying on shipping lanes off the East African coast.

It's official – Sen. Hillary Clinton is moving on. On Monday she has accepted the President-elect Barack Obama's nomination to be Secretary of State. It's a far cry from a year ago, when Clinton was ripping into Obama for his slim resume on foreign affairs. But, that was then and this is now. The former rivals were side by side Monday and the two had nothing but praise for each other.

OK, so if the phone call comes at 3 a.m., Barack Obama will be able to transfer it to Hillary Clinton. At the ugliest stage of the race between Obama and Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, Clinton's campaign aired a commercial featuring images of children sleeping peacefully as a soothing male voice said, "It's 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep. But there's a phone in the White House and it's ringing. Something's happening in the world. Your vote will decide who answers that call. Whether it's someone who already knows the world's leaders, knows the military...

Joe Biden's warning that America's enemies will test the mettle of Barack Obama is a reminder that this election should be about which presidential candidate is best equipped to handle an international crisis. For supporters of Israel this question takes on even greater importance in light of Jesse Jackson's warning that in an Obama administration "decades of putting Israel's interests first" would end. Israel now is surrounded by tens of thousands of missiles, provided by Iran to Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas. Syria is known to have the largest chemical weapons stockpile in the Middle East, and both Syria and Iran...

Since tomorrow is my birthday, and I can't draw, I ask that someone who can draw these cartoons: Putin's Nightmare -- Putin receives a phone call in his bed (Kremlin spires in the window): "This is SARAH. Get your troops back over on YOUR SIDE of the border NOW!" A picture of Obama in a business suit, followed by an equal sign, followed by a picture of the business suit in the same pose without Obama.

It was more like 10 AM than 3 AM. Somewhere, a phone was ringing to announce the news that John McCain had selected Sarah Palin as his running mate. And Barack Obama's operation immediate response was intemperate and inappropriate. Obama found himself apologizing, calling the reaction "hair trigger." He and Biden subsequently made the more gracious kind of comment that should have been made in the first place. Senators get to "revise and extend" their remarks when they've said something dumb on the floor. That's not always the case for presidents. A "hair trigger" reaction to a real crisis could...

Here is a new John McCain Ad out this morning that is called "3 A.M." It essentially uses Hillary Clinton's ad from the Dem Primary by the same name, only a little more direct. CLINTON AD: It’s 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep. Who do you want answering the phone? ANNCR: Uncertainty. Dangerous aggression. Rogue nations. Radicalism. HILLARY CLINTON: I know Senator McCain has a lifetime of experience that he will bring to the White House. And, Senator Obama has a speech he gave in 2002. ANNCR: Hillary’s right. John McCain for President. . . . (see...

ARLINGTON, Va., August 26 /Standard Newswire/ -- U.S. Senator John McCain's presidential campaign today released its latest television ad, entitled "3 A.M." The ad highlights Hillary Clinton's serious questions about Barack Obama's lack of experience and judgment to handle an international crisis -- the "3 A.M. moment." The ad will air in key states. VIEW THE AD HERE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yYlzX2ZOLM Script For "3 A.M." (TV :30) CLINTON AD: It's 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep. Who do you want answering the phone? ANNCR: Uncertainty. Dangerous aggression. Rogue nations. Radicalism. HILLARY CLINTON: I know Senator McCain has a lifetime...

If you think you've heard this line of attack before, there's a reason. Republican John McCain's latest TV spot is playing off Hillary Rodham Clinton's best-known ad against Barack Obama to heighten any concerns that Obama isn't ready to take a 3 a.m. phone call that could signal a crisis demanding judgment and experience. The McCain ad debuted Tuesday, just hours before Clinton was to address the Democratic National Convention in Denver. While she was expected to repeat her post-primary support for Obama's candidacy in an effort to bring her supporters to his side, McCain's campaign didn't want voters to...

Many Obama supporters never received 3am VP wake-up text By Scott M. Fulton, III, BetaNews August 25, 2008, 12:30 PM "Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee," read the Obama campaign's early morning SMS message to his supporters. Trouble was, even by that time, many already knew it, and some weren't even getting the message. The original plan was for Barack Obama supporters nationwide to be the first to receive the news of his vice presidential running mate. But well over two hours before many of those supporters received what ended up being, perhaps in an...

SNIP Sen. Barack Obama enjoyed dinner with the family including his wife, Michelle, and two daughters. "Where's the text?" reporters shouted while holding out cell phones to get the presumptive Democratic nominee's attention as he walked into Roy's in downtown Chicago. At first, Obama, D-Ill., acknowledge the press but after some louder shouts, he relented and looked over with a laugh. As he left, the intrepid band of reporters following Obama's every move tried again. "How's Obama-Biden sound?" reporters yelled. "See ya guys!" Obama replied. The candidate has since returned to the Park Hyatt hotel in Chicago where aides advise...

I stumbled out of bed about 7:15 a.m. and there, on the cell phone I'd turned to "silent" for the night, was a note on the screen telling me I had 1 message from 62262. I knew his number by now: Barack. Frankly, I'd signed up out of curiosity, not really as a fan, but I still felt a small letdown, knowing that the news was already several hours stale. At the same time, I was relieved that the phone hadn't woken me up in the middle of the night. Joe Biden is not worth waking up for at 3...

CNN) -- John McCain's attacks on Barack Obama on national security issues seem to be working: Polls show McCain has cut the Democrat's lead in half. Sen. John McCain speaks at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention Monday in Orlando, Florida. 1 of 2 According to CNN's average of several recent national surveys, Obama's lead is now a slim 3 points over the Arizona senator, 46-43 percent -- half of his advantage in a CNN poll of polls one week ago, and down from a high of 8 points in mid-July. A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll out Tuesday evening was...

Cannot post. Here is the link:http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2008/08/mccain-follows.html

Michael Ramirez imagines how Barack Obama would respond to Russia's invasion of Georgia; click to enlarge:

Hillary Clinton's best anti-Obama ad came to be known as the "3 a.m. phone call." It stoked voter worries that in the event of an international crisis, the first-term junior senator from Illinois might be out of his depth. On Aug. 8, the White House phone did ring, alerting President Bush that the Soviet Union, um, that is, Russia, had just sent columns of tanks and armored personnel carriers across the internationally recognized border of Georgia (formerly the Soviet Socialist Republic of Georgia), a tiny, democratic, America-friendly, Western-leaning country in the Caucasus mountains. It was a near perfect laboratory test...

Barack Obama has apparently reversed himself on what John McCain called a 3 AM moment, in reference to Hillary Clinton’s primary campaign ad. Originally, Obama had decided to castigate both Georgia and Russia over the outbreak of hostilities in South Ossetia, even while Russian bombs fell on Georgia itself. Today, Obama has changed his tune, following McCain’s lead in demanding that Russia cease its aggression: Obama called for direct talks among all sides and said the United States, the U.N. Security Council and other parties should try to help bring about a peaceful resolution.“I condemn Russia’s aggressive actions and reiterate...

When the North Caucasus slid into war Thursday night, it presented John McCain and Barack Obama with a true “3 a.m. moment,” and their responses to the crisis suggested dramatic differences in how each candidate, as president, would lead America in moments of international crisis. While Obama offered a response largely in line with statements issued by democratically elected world leaders, including President Bush, first calling on both sides to negotiate, John McCain took a remarkably — and uniquely — more aggressive stance, siding clearly with Georgia’s pro-Western leaders and placing the blame for the conflict entirely on Russia. 'snip'

When the North Caucasus slid into war Thursday night, it presented Senators John McCain and Barack Obama with a true '3 a.m. moment,' and their responses to the crisis suggested dramatic differences in how each candidate, as president, would lead America in moments of international crisis. While Obama offered a response largely in line with statements issued by democratically elected world leaders, including President Bush, first calling on both sides to negotiate, John McCain took a remarkably-and uniquely-more aggressive stance, siding clearly with Georgia's pro-Western leaders and placing the blame for the conflict entirely on Russia. The abrupt crisis in...

“Three o’clock in the morning And it looks like it’s gonna be another sleepless night …” That’s Crystal Gayle from the opening of her hit song, “Talking In Your Sleep,” Number One on the Billboard Country charts in 1978. No, hang on a minute, it’s Hillary Clinton’s new campaign theme. In Crystal’s case, her sleepless night was caused by her husband lying next to her talking in his sleep, moaning in ecstasy and whispering sweet nothings to some other gal. But Hillary learned to snore through that a long time ago. In the Clinton scenario, the 3 a.m. sleeplessness is...

<p>And it looks like it's gonna be another sleepless night … "</p> <p>That's Crystal Gayle from the opening of her hit song, "Talking In Your Sleep," No. 1 on the Billboard Country charts in 1978.</p>

There had to be a murky racial subtext in there somewhere; every attack on Obama contains one if you’re just willing to look hard enough. I thought TPM would be the ones to find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow but instead it’s Orlando Patterson, drinking in a critique of a black candidate that features sleeping non-black children and concluding, naturally enough, that it’s quasi-Klan propaganda. I have spent my life studying the pictures and symbols of racism and slavery, and when I saw the Clinton ad’s central image — innocent sleeping children and a mother...

Rasmussen Reports finds most voters said John McCain is the person they’d most want to answer the phone in the White House when a foreign policy crisis arrived. Which candidate would be best President to answer a foreign policy crisis call? John McCain - 42% Hillary Clinton - 25% Barack Obama - 25% This is why Hillary's "experience" argument makes no sense. Senator McCain is by far the most experienced candidate, and the voters know it: Among Republicans, 79% named McCain while neither Democrat reached double digits. Among unaffiliated voters, 39% said McCain would be their top choice to handle...

That, says the Washington Post's Fifth Column of One™ Dana Milbank, is the theme of the new and reinvigorated Hillary! campaign. On the call with Wolfson and Lewis, Jane Hamsher from the liberal blog Firedoglake pointed out that Clinton's phone-ringing ad was "reinforcing the be-afraid-all-the-time Republican campaign theme." And if that's the argument, she added, "isn't John McCain ultimately the winner?"Whether he is or not, Clinton looked as if she'd borrowed a page from the Bush White House at her Westin meeting. Against a backdrop of six U.S. flags and several of the flag officers who support her, she raised...

Rasmussen calls a Code Red (Phone) on the Hillary Clinton “3 AM” ad: Before Hillary Clinton was declared the winner in Texas, most American voters had read, seen, or heard about her 3:00 a.m. telephone commercial. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 43% had seen at least part of the commercial which was played incessantly on news networks and other outlets for days. Another 16% had heard something about it and the overwhelming majority (81%) correctly identified Hillary Clinton as the candidate whose campaign ran the commercial (see the commercial).The commercial was credited as one factor enabling Clinton...

Duly qualified, of course, with the caveat that Hillary and Maverick (and thus, presumably, anyone lacking executive experience) aren’t ready either. Think that’ll stop the RNC from turning this into a honey of a soundbite for an attack ad this fall? Video at link.

Obama still has his fans in the MSM, or Hillary her detractors . . . Appearing on this afternoon's Hardball, the seemingly mild-mannered Evan Thomas of Newsweek took a surprisingly tough shot at Clinton, undermining the very premise of her now-famous "it's 3 AM" ad. Discussing Hillary's comeback, Evans offered his blunt assessment with no real prompting. EVAN THOMAS: What I don't get about his ad, the whole idea about 3 AM is you want coolness and detachment, right? She's not cool and detached. She's either really hot and angry, or she's icy cold and tough. But I don't think...

Who do you want to answer the phone? posted 06 January 2008 by YouTube user readynow22209

I may be overly sensitive on this subject but my first reaction is that these victims of a Maryland street-racing incident were unlucky, undeserving and incredibly foolish: “A car plowed into a crowd that had gathered to watch a drag race on a suburban road early Saturday, killing eight people and injuring at least five, police said. Police said the white sedan was not involved in the street race but accidentally drove into the crowd of about 50 people that had spilled onto the highway to watch two racing cars speed off. *** According to police, two cars had lined...