Free Republic

I so, so wanted to believe it. Really I did. He is so handsome, so fresh and, well, truth be told, I want everybody to know that I embrace diversity. I’m hip, if you can dig it. I’m not afraid of change. That is, as long as by “change” Barack Obama and his followers are referring to a change in vision, a change in paradigm and perhaps a change of tone in Washington. Politics can be so grubby and nasty. Everybody wants to see the Jimmy Stewart, “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” movie come true. Unfortunately, what I think Obama...

When the Obama camp announced that it was going to make a play for North Dakota, a lot of people scoffed. I, for one, was skeptical. But then we all started taking a look at the ROI — the fact that the Obama camp could throw relative pennies at the state and win enough votes to make it competitive — and started thinking that maybe it was a smart choice to at the very least annoy McCain there. Well, now the polls are suggesting that maybe the Obama team was on to something. A new Research 2000 poll released today...

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson slammed GOP presidential candidate Sen. John McCain today, calling his criticism of Barack Obama's trip to Europe and the Middle East as nothing more than "sour grapes." Richardson, one of Sen. Obama's most high-profile surrogates, also said that the Obama campaign was considering a trip to Latin America sometime prior to the November election. "There are discussions about it. He wants to emphasize that his administration would not be Europe-centric or only focused on the Middle East," said Richardson in an interview. The trip would also likely generate excitement among many of the country's Hispanic...

The John McCain and Barack Obama campaigns continued their back-and-forth today over Obama's cancelled visit to wounded soldiers in Germany. Obama said he did not want to bring presidential politics to hospital bedsides, and his campaign said the Pentagon also was concerned about a campaign visit. But military officials said he could have visited as a senator without campaign officials, as he did in Iraq, and Republicans have been piling on incessantly. This afternoon, McCain's campaign issued a statement from retired Lt. Colonel Joe Repya, a 30-year veteran of Vietnam and the Persian Gulf wars. "The most solemn duty of...

London, July 26 (Xinhua) The US needs the help of overseas partners to solve its domestic problems, US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said here Saturday. “The reason that I thought this trip was important as I am convinced that many issues we face at home are not going to be solved as effectively unless we have strong partners abroad,” he told a news conference. Commenting on his meeting with British Prime Minister Gorden Brown, Obama said, “We share the same language and the same belief and Britain and the US have gone through the world wars together and share...

McCain Campaign on Barack Obama's Cancelled Troop VisitsContact: Press Office, 703-650-5550; www.JohnMcCain.com ARLINGTON, Va., July 26 /Standard Newswire/ -- Today, retired Lt. Colonel Joe Repya issued the following statement on Barack Obama's cancelled visit to Ramstein and Landstuhl:"The most solemn duty of a commander in chief is to fulfill his responsibility to the men and women who serve this country in uniform. Barack Obama had scheduled a visit with wounded American troops who have served with honor and distinction in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but he broke that commitment, instead flitting from one European capital to the next....

Heading home from an overseas trip aimed at strengthening his foreign policy credentials, Sen. Barack Obama said Saturday he's not counting on an immediate political boost and thinks it's just as likely he'll experience a short-term dip in polls simply because he's been out of the country for nine days."The reason that I thought this trip was important was I am convinced that many of the issues that we face at home are not going to be solved as effectively unless we have strong partners abroad," Obama said, speaking outside 10 Downing Street after his private meeting with Prime Minister...

Today, retired Lt. Colonel Joe Repya issued the following statement on Barack Obama’s cancelled visit to Ramstein and Landstuhl: “The most solemn duty of a commander in chief is to fulfill his responsibility to the men and women who serve this country in uniform. Barack Obama had scheduled a visit with wounded American troops who have served with honor and distinction in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but he broke that commitment, instead flitting from one European capital to the next. Several explanations were offered, none was convincing and each was at odds with the statements of American military...

At a morning press conference after a meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown in London, Barack Obama got caught up in the web of lies his campaign has spun about the cancellation of his planned visit to wounded troops at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany on Friday.Obama stated: "We had scheduled to go, we had no problem at all in leaving, we always leave press and staff off -- that is why we left it off the schedule."Not true, Washington Post reported this morning: When Obama arrived in Germany on Thursday, a printed schedule said he would fly...

Anyone perusing the media in recent days might have gotten the vague impression that someone named Barack Obama has been on some kind of foreign trip somewhere. Funny how that information somehow seeped through despite all the other competing stories about the presumptive Democratic candidate for president visiting Iraq and Afghanistan. And there were other distracting stories about a freshman senator from Illinois meeting with Israeli and Palestinian politicians. And a former state senator, also coincidentally from Illinois, speaking to a large crowd of Germans in Berlin for some reason. And then an African American lawyer from Chicago had a...

Will the Pro-Obama Bias Turn Anti-Edwards? At this point, does Barack Obama want John Edwards to even show up in Denver, much less give a prime time speech? Even if the Love-Child saga progresses no further than it already has, an Edwards Denver appearance will inevitably be accompanied by renewed speculation about his seemingly scandalous and politically toxic behavior. Obama's in what looks like a surprisingly close race. He doesn't need to carry Edwards' baggage. He needs a positive convention. And Obama has previously shown a willingness to bury troublesome associates without much fuss (ask Jim Johnson). If you're an...

Imagine if a bunch of disgruntled Mitt Romney supporters were currently stalking John McCain or Republican events loudly demanding that their candidate be nominated. Think the national press would be featuring it bigtime as an example of Republican party disunity? Well, the same thing is happening except the people are disgruntled Democrats expressing their opposition of Barack Obama while loudly continuing to support Hillary Clinton. They are known as PUMA ("People United Means Action" or "Party Unity My Ass").  PUMA was formed last month in the aftermath of Hillary Clinton conceding the Democrat nomination to Obama. However, contrary to being just...

WITH gestures that ranged from a wink to a sneer, most anyone you met here this week volunteered the view that Barack Obama’s visit to Europe caused unprecedented frenzy. But it’s been hard for me to find a European, aside from two Harvard-educated friends in Paris, who confessed to excitement — not just about the visit, but the prospect of an Obama presidency. It is true that Der Spiegel, the German newsweekly, featured Mr. Obama on its cover, topped by the words “Germany Meets the Superstar” — but the cover was satire, and nasty satire at that. The editors managed...

This is just one link I found out of many that says muslims don't celebrate birthdays and it was reported here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/barackobama/2460299/Barack-Obama-does-not-give-birthday-presents-to-children.html that Obama does not buy his children birthday gifts.

Does anyone know who (I think it was someone prominent) said something to the effect of this during the Dem primaries, that in picking Obama, the Dems had managed to find a candidate who made Hillary Clinton seem moderate and politically attractive? I'm trying to remember who said it, because at the time I remember thinking it was a scathing indictment of how radical that party has become.

MoveOn.org, whose endorsement Barack Obama solicited and accepted (http://moveon.org/press/pr/obamaendorsementrelease.html), recently posted a petition with the following content. “FOX must stop injecting racism, prejudice, and fear into our political dialogue. We intend to hold FOX, its advertisers, and its personalities accountable for FOX’s attempts to smear the Obamas.” This is quite an audacious and hypocritical statement from an anti-Catholic (http://www.stentorian.com/MoveOn/catholic.html) (and anti-Semitic) hate group whose now-disgraced Action Forum welcomed statements like “Catholic Pedophiles of America” and “The Catholics are raping your children” while publishing an official anti-Catholic hate cartoon that could have come directly from the pen of 19th century cartoonist...

First the Iraqi government gave Senator Barack Obama a boost by seeming to embrace his proposal for a 16-month timetable for withdrawing American troops from Iraq. But could Senator John McCain, who built his candidacy in large part on his opposition to a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, possibly be following suit? “I think it’s a pretty good timetable,” Mr. McCain said Friday in an interview on CNN’s “The Situation Room,’’ before adding that it should be based “on the conditions on the ground.’’ For months Mr. McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, has railed against setting timetables for withdrawing from...

Gerard Baker reads his 'He He ventured forth to bring light to the world' Video at link

Gallup now has Obama ahead 47-41 and Rasmussen has Obama leading by a 46-40 percent margin. Media bias is certainly a factor but McCain is running a campaign as thrilling as watching paint dry.

The upcoming joint appearance by Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain at Rick Warren's evangelical Saddleback Church is co-sponsored by a left-leaning group led by a Unitarian-Universalist minister who once headed her denomination's homosexual advocacy office. Meg Riley is the board president of Faith in Public Life, whose board members include other theological liberals, including a pro-abortion Muslim leader and a Jewish rabbi, reported OneNewsNow. The group's stated vision hints at its challenge to the influence of the so-called religious right, saying it "envisions a country in which diverse religious voices for justice and the common good consistently impact public...

They're putting questions on state ballots designed to turn out GOP voters. Social and religious conservatives are placing an increasingly large wager on a strategy they believe may overcome their constituents' lack of enthusiasm for Sen. John McCain, giving him a competitive edge over Sen. Barack Obama even in states as deeply blue as California. Essentially, the strategy is a reprise of one Karl Rove used to push George W. Bush to victory in 2004, when he helped place measures banning same-sex marriage on the ballot in 11 key states. The Republican incumbent carried them all as religious conservatives --...

Interesting TNR article here. The thing is about how the Obama campaign's hubris is starting to piss off the media. In particular an incident with a NYT reporter is written about in some length. When you get lefty rags like TNR openly making admissions like the quote below, and whining about how closed and controlling the Obama campaign is, it sounds to me like the campaign's honeymoon is just about over....The press certainly helped Obama get so far so fast; the question is, how far can he get if his campaign alienates them?... ...But, as Obama ascended from underdog to...

Listen to one of the great shows. Roger was the best sub for Limbaugh. ROGER HEDGECOCK LIVE ONLINE

Spectators cheer as they watch Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., leave a hotel in London, Saturday, July 26, 2008.

Here is a report from NBC's Kelly O'Donnell on remarks by Sen. John McCain yesterday in which he characterized the decision early last year on supporting or opposing the "Surge Strategy" in Iraq as a "real-time" Commander-in-Chief test. McCain bluntly said that he passed that test and that Barack Obama failed. McCain needs to keep this a part of every speech he gives from now to November. . . (see video)

After meeting with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown today, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, came before the microphones... SNIP But the Pentagon said that wasn't true, that Obama was more than welcome to come, it was just that he couldn't bring the media or campaign staff. So here's what Obama said about it all: "The staff was working this so I don’t know each and every detail but here is what I understand happened," Obama said. "We had scheduled to go, we had no problem at all in leaving, we always leave press and staff off -- that is why we...

At British Parliament today, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, met with Tory Leader David Cameron. Seemingly unaware of an enormous fuzzy boom mike held by ABC News' Eric Kerchner, the two chatted casually -- and privately. "You should be on the beach," Cameron told Obama. "You need a break. Well, you need to be able to keep your head together."

FNC on July 25 featured Times of London's Gerard Baker reading aloud his hilarious column, “He ventured forth to bring light to the world,” which recounted Obama's life story as if told through a gospel in the Bible.

I am looking for that photo of Barack Obama standing away from the flag, refusing to...what was it? Was it the National Anthem? The Pledge? Can someone post it for me? Thanks.

LONDON (AFP) — White House hopeful Barack Obama denied Saturday his adulation-soaked foreign tour was a premature victory lap, but admitted it could see him take a short term dip in the polls back home. The Democratic candidate wrapped up his Europe and Middle East swing with talks with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, before heading back home to throw himself back into the American campaign-trail crossfire. As his tour ended after trips to Iraq and Afghanistan and a speech before a staggering 200,000 people in Berlin, Republicans accused him of pulling off a shallow political stunt abroad. "I am...

"There is clear prima facie evidence that Senator Barack Hussein Obama has held at least two Citizenships, American and Indonesian. Under Article II of the Constitution that disqualifies him for POTUS, and it should. " Divided Loyalties, Obama’s Eligibility Problem, PART 2 July 26, 2008 NOTE by TexasDarlin: This is the second article in a two-part series by Judah Benjamin challenging the Constitutionality of Barack Obama’s bid for President. This article was preceded by my Foreword, and by the author’s Part 1, which explores the legal history and definition of “natural born citizen” under Article II of the US Constitution....

PARIS -- An aide to Sen. Barack Obama said Friday the Democratic presidential contender believed he could visit wounded troops at a military hospital in Germany without involving them in a campaign controversy and scrapped his plans after the Pentagon raised concerns. The spokesman, Robert Gibbs, said the Air Force several days ago cleared Obama's chartered campaign jet to land at Ramstein Air Base. It was only Wednesday night, two days before the planned visit, that Pentagon officials conveyed their views, he said, and Obama decided not to go. Gibbs said Obama had decided several weeks ago he wanted to...

McCain began by recalling the beginning of the surge: "Senator Obama and I also faced a decision, which amounted to a real-time test for a future commander-in-chief. America passed that test. I believe my judgment passed that test. And I believe Senator Obama's failed. We both knew the politically safe choice was to support some form of retreat. All the polls said the "surge" was unpopular. Many pundits, experts and policymakers opposed it and advocated withdrawing our troops and accepting the consequences. I chose to support the new counterinsurgency strategy backed by additional troops -- which I had advocated since...

Barack Obama's vice presidential search team has floated the name of a member of President Bush's first-term Cabinet, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, as Obama's running mate. The search committee, now led by Caroline Kennedy and Eric Holder, raised Veneman's name — among others — in discussions with members of Congress, two Democrats familiar with the conversations said.

Barack Obama at least has one thing right: the author of "The Audacity of Hope" is certainly audacious. The junior Illinois senator has been telling us for months now: "We are the hope of the future. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek." If I believed that about myself, I'd be pretty audacious. Not to mention messianic. And so the political savior went to Berlin to stand on the shoulders of giants, and didn't even have the courtesy to tip his hat to the president of the United States -- Ronald Reagan...

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. The printed word has its problems too,...

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- As the soaring cost of fossil fuels grabs both voters' and the candidates' attention, alternatives including nuclear power are enjoying a renaissance on the campaign trail. But while both Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama embrace nuclear power as a viable form of energy, hurdles remain to ramping up production, including the cost of building plants, where to store the related waste and how to transport it. Moreover, politicians will have to overcome jitters about building new plants in local communities. With 104 nuclear power plants in the U.S., nuclear energy currently produces about 20% of U.S....

The U.S. Senate soon could debate whether you, your spouse and each of your children – as well as your in-laws, parents, grandparents, neighbors and everyone else in America – each will spend $2,500 or more to reduce poverty around the world. The plan sponsored by Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, is estimated to cost the U.S. some $845 billion over the coming few years in an effort to raise the standard of living around the globe. Barack Obama S.2433 already has been approved in one form by the U.S. House of Representatives and now has been...

Democrat Presidential candidate Barack Obama is in Great Britain to appear in front of 10 Downing Street. He may have his younger brother there to meet him. Bernard Obama, 37, his younger brother was found in Britain

WITH gestures that ranged from a wink to a sneer, most anyone you met here this week volunteered the view that Barack Obama’s visit to Europe caused unprecedented frenzy. But it’s been hard for me to find a European, aside from two Harvard-educated friends in Paris, who confessed to excitement — not just about the visit, but the prospect of an Obama presidency. It is true that Der Spiegel, the German newsweekly, featured Mr. Obama on its cover, topped by the words “Germany Meets the Superstar” — but the cover was satire, and nasty satire at that. The editors managed...

If that is what the senator thought he was doing, he still has a lot to learn about both foreign policy and the views of the American people. Although well received in the Tiergarten, the Obama speech actually reveals an even more naive view of the world than we had previously been treated to in the United States. In addition, although most of the speech was substantively as content-free as his other campaign pronouncements, when substance did slip in, it was truly radical, from an American perspective.

NOTE by TexasDarlin: This is the second article in a two-part series by Judah Benjamin challenging the Constitutionality of Barack Obama’s bid for President. This article was preceded by my Foreword, and by the author’s Part 1, which explores the legal history and definition of “natural born citizen” under Article II of the US Constitution. Those two posts should be read first, and in full. Part 2 explores the factual basis for Barack Obama’s dual citizenship, and concludes that he has been a citizen of at least two countries, and therefore is ineligible to be President.

Obama has a problem: What do you do when you're a lightly accomplished one-term senator, a former state legislator from Illinois, a Harvard law graduate who has no substantive record of accomplishments and are running against a war hero whom polls show that Americans overwhelmingly view as far more fit to be commander in chief? Pose, of course. What else can a guy like Mr. Obama do? So the man who would be president of the United States of America flies around the world in the middle of a political campaign, enlisting the U.S. military and the Berlin Wall as...

Isn't it enormously ironic that Sen. Barack Obama now finds himself the unintended beneficiary of the Iraq surge he so vocally — and wrongly — opposed? It seems that Mr. Obama's untimely calls for a withdrawal timetable have lingered long enough to have some merit in the eyes of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Mr. al-Maliki told Der Spiegel, a German magazine, that U.S. troops should withdraw from Iraq "as soon as possible, as far as we are concerned. U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right time frame for a withdrawal,...

Sen. John McCain said Friday that Sen. Barack Obama has "failed" the test of leadership posed by Iraq, ridiculing his Democratic presidential rival for continuing to reject the troop surge even as he acknowledges it has helped stabilize the troubled nation. Continues...================================================================== Obama: I'm ready to take Training Wheels off me! Obama insists he's trying to "reassure" Americans he's ready to be POTUS by conducting his week-long staged circus. Obama posed for pictures in Afghanistan and Iraq and shook hands with Sarkozy -- I feel so reassured! As if that's not enough, he drew large, cheering crowds in . ....

This edition features the visit from senators Obama, Hagel and Reed, and a five-star hotel in Baghdad's International Zone. http://www.mnf-iraq.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21382&Itemid=163

The headline on the website of German magazine Der Spiegel about Barack Obama's speech in Berlin: "Huge crowds left with mixed feelings." Obama turned out 200,000 in Berlin. However, CNN's Candy Crowley, reporting from the event, went on in her report to her TV audience about an absence of "euphoria." As Sen. Obama went global with "yes, we can" and "change we can believe in," he left at least some in the huge crowd in Berlin scratching their heads. Perhaps these Germans, out to hear what all the excitement was about regarding this unusual American presidential candidate, were looking for...

The upcoming joint appearance by Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain at Rick Warren's evangelical Saddleback Church is co-sponsored by a left-leaning group led by a Unitarian-Universalist minister who once headed her denomination's homosexual advocacy office. Meg Riley is the board president of Faith in Public Life, whose board members include other theological liberals, including a pro-abortion Muslim leader and a Jewish rabbi, reported OneNewsNow. The group's stated vision hints at its challenge to the influence of the so-called religious right, saying it "envisions a country in which diverse religious voices for justice and the common good consistently impact public...

Just days after a Rasmussen Reports survey was released showing more than three times as many likely voters “believe most reporters will try to help Obama with their coverage” than help John McCain, a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll taken July 22-23 of 900 registered voters discovered six times as many think “most member of the media” want Obama to win than wish for a McCain victory. On Thursday's Special Report, FNC's Brit Hume relayed: “67 percent of the respondents think most media members want Obama to win. Just 11 percent think most in the media are for McCain.” A FoxNews.com...