Free Republic

When Barack Obama asks us to believe in one of his changes, it is never quite clear whether the rubes to be fooled are the Great Unwashed who agree with the Flop or the naifs who agreed with the Flip. The eternal question always is, "who are the rubes"? Well, in what is obviously a gust-busting turn, the editors of the New York Times are beginning to worry that they are the rubes. In this morning's lead editorial ("New and Not Improved"), they detail and denounce many of Obama's post-Hillary pivots to the center. As their irritation builds, I'm thinking...

Barack Obama's policy switches are giving the Left whiplash The Democratic nominee's policy pivots are causing anguish among liberals. He is no fool Gerard Baker Change, it turns out, wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. Having campaigned for the past year as the agent of transformation, the man who would lead an historic shift in America's political direction, Barack Obama is discovering that there is quite a lot he likes about the way things are. Since securing the Democratic nomination a few weeks ago, the only change coming from the Illinois senator has been in what he...

CNN) -- Sen. Barack Obama on Wednesday will lay out a plan to create volunteer and service opportunities to help tackle some of the nation's most pressing issues, part of his weeklong focus on patriotism and national service. "This will not be a call issued in one speech or one program -- this will be a central cause of my presidency," Obama will say in a speech at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs, according to advance remarks released by his campaign. "We will ask Americans to serve. We will create new opportunities for Americans to serve. And we...

"Emily Hussein Nordling," her entry now reads. With her decision, she joined a growing band of supporters of Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, who are expressing solidarity with him by informally adopting his middle name. Mr. Obama may be more enthusiastic, judging from his response at a Chicago fund-raiser two weeks ago. When he saw that Richard Fizdale, a longtime contributor, wore "Hussein" on his name tag, Mr. Obama broke into a huge grin, Mr. Fizdale said. "The theory was, we're all Hussein," Mr. Obama said to the crowd later, explaining Mr. Fizdale's gesture.

The e-mail landed in Danielle Allen's queue one winter morning as she was studying in her office at the Institute for Advanced Study, the renowned haven for some of the nation's most brilliant minds. The missive began: "THIS DEFINITELY WARRANTS LOOKING INTO."

Europe Fears Obama Might Undercut Progress With Iran By Glenn Kessler Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, June 22, 2008; A14 European officials are increasingly concerned that Sen. Barack Obama's campaign pledge to begin direct talks with Iran on its nuclear program without preconditions could potentially rupture U.S. relations with key European allies early in a potential Obama administration.

WASHINGTON -- With the Democratic presidential nomination in his grasp, Sen. Barack Obama is making a full-throttle push for centrist evangelicals and Catholics. It's a move that's caught some conservative evangelicals off guard. They say they are surprised and dismayed to see a liberal-minded politician attempting to conscript their troops. At the same time, they say that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has done little to court their affections. "I've never seen anything quite like it before," said evangelical author Stephen Mansfield, who wrote "The Faith of George W. Bush" and has a forthcoming book about Obama. "To be running against...

JACKSONVILLE, Florida (CNN) – Barack Obama told supporters that Republicans will “try to make you afraid of me” in remarks he made Friday at a Florida fundraiser. "The choice is clear. Most of all we can choose between hope and fear. It is going to be very difficult for Republicans to run on their stewardship of the economy or their outstanding foreign policy. “We know what kind of campaign they’re going to run,” said the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. “They’re going to try to make you afraid. They’re going to try to make you afraid of me. ‘He’s young and...

Boca Raton, Fla. - In an unexpected move to bolster Barack Obama, Mayor Bloomberg yesterday told Jewish voters they have an obligation to repudiate persistent rumors that the Democratic presidential candidate is secretly a radical Muslim. The comments came hours before Obama, on the stump in Florida, directly referred to being black as something the GOP will use to make voters "afraid of me." In an impassioned half-hour speech before a couple of hundred members of the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County, Bloomberg raised the Muslim rumors and said, "Let's call those rumors what they are: lies." "Demagogues...

Here are some things we can look forward to learning about Barack Obama: That he was mentored in high school by a member of the Soviet-controlled Communist Party. That he launched his Illinois state Senate campaign in the home of a terrorist and a killer. That while serving as a state senator, he was a member of a socialist front group. That his affiliations are so dodgy that he would have trouble getting a government security clearance. That there is reason to doubt his "loyalty to the United States." These and many other implausible accusations were offered by a group...

Barack Obama is not a Muslim, but a recent survey found that about 10 percent of Americans believe he is. That perception has been fueled by a campaign of rumors and innuendo. It's a campaign that has caused pain in many Muslim communities, including one in Pennsylvania, which holds a key presidential primary Tuesday. Obama had a Muslim stepfather. As a child, he learned about Islam and sometimes went to mosque. Nevertheless, he's a devout Christian. But his middle name, Hussein, has been used by opponents to imply that he's a Muslim. In February, radio host Bill Cunningham spoke in...

WARNING: Some Graphic Language I read occasionally of former Weatherman Bill Ayers and his wife Bernardine Dohrn, both now not only accepted, despite their bombing campaign against America in the 1960s and 70s, but successful , establishment educators whose opinions on social issues are taken seriously. Every time I see Ayers’ name I shudder with fear and rage and realize that I will never be able to erase the mark he left on my life one evening 40 years ago. It was at the Undergraduate Library at the University of Michigan on a Friday night in November 1965. I was...

(CNN) — Barack Obama on Thursday suggested that he and Democratic rival Sen. Hillary Clinton have debated enough and that he’d rather spend his time campaigning in the closing weeks of the campaign. The two debated Wednesday night in Philadelphia — their final meeting before Tuesday’s primary in Pennsylvania. Clinton has agreed to a debate next week, but Obama has not yet accepted the invitation.

"Obama writes in Dreams From My Father that he saw “Frank”( Barack Obama’s childhood mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, a member Communist Party USA) only a few days before he left Hawaii for college. He said that Davis called college an “advanced degree in compromise,” warned Obama not to forget his “people,” and not to “start believing what they tell you about equal opportunity and the American way and all that shit.” This pro-Communist view appears to have been the mindset of Frank Marshall Davis, who spent many hours advising and reading poetry to a young Barack Obama. Barack Obama’s childhood...

INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama tried to quell a political furor on Saturday over his comments about small-town Pennsylvanians, saying he used the wrong words to describe their mood. Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and Republican candidate John McCain kept the heat on the Illinois senator for his comments that small-town residents were bitter over job losses and turned in frustration to religion, guns and anti-immigrant sentiments. Clinton, campaigning in Indiana before the state's May 6 contest, said the comments were elitist, divisive and out of touch and did not reflect the values of Americans she met. "I...

Prosecutors called Chi Mak the "perfect sleeper agent," though he hardly looked the part. For two decades, the bespectacled Chinese-born engineer lived quietly with his wife in a Los Angeles suburb, buying a house and holding a steady job with a U.S. defense contractor, which rewarded him with promotions and a security clearance. Colleagues remembered him as a hard worker who often took paperwork home at night. Eventually, Mak's job gave him access to sensitive plans for Navy ships, submarines and weapons. These he secretly copied and sent via courier to China -- fulfilling a mission that U.S. officials say...

Barack Obama has a problem. Nearly a quarter of Democrats who hold a negative view of him believe he is a Muslim, according to a poll published by Pew Research on Thursday. Yet most Democrats who think negatively of Mr Obama also disapprove of his link to Jeremiah Wright, the pastor who introduced him to Christianity two decades ago. Ten days after he delivered what many described as a historic speech on race, Mr Obama’s relationship with the black community still remains an issue. Although Hillary Clinton has largely avoided the topic – other than to say that she would...

CASPER, Wyo. - Barack Obama was the projected winner in Wyoming's Democratic caucuses on Saturday, clenching a majority of the 12 delegates, NBC News declared.

Q&A: Barack Obama "I believe in the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus Christ." Interview by Sarah Pulliam and Ted Olsen | posted 1/23/2008 02:18PM Barack Obama wants to set the record straight. He is not a Muslim, as recent e-mails falsely claim.The Democratic presidential candidate is fighting the e-mails that have been widely circulated. Obama has been continually speaking about the role of faith in politics since his Call to Renewal address in June 2006.In the days before the South Carolina primary, he is driving efforts to speaking with media to emphasize his Christian beliefs. His campaign also sent...

(AP) -- For Barack Obama, it is an ember that he has doused time and again, only to see it flicker anew: links to Islam fanned by false rumors, innuendo and association. Obama and his campaign reacted strongly this week when a photo of him in Kenyan tribal garb began spreading on the Internet. And the praise he received Sunday from Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan prompted pointed questions — during Tuesday night's presidential debate and also in a private meeting over the weekend with Jewish leaders in Cleveland. During the debate, Obama repeated his denunciation of Farrakhan's views,...