UK Telegraph: Obama’s Brother Founding Living in a Hut in Nairobi on Less Than a Dollar a Month

Thomas Sowell: Barack Obama has the kind of cocksure confidence that can only be achieved by not achieving anything else.

Drudge Report for Saturday Morning: “Zogby: McCain Moves into Lead 48-47 In One Day Polling”

Yesterday, McCain scolded supporters at a rally for booing Obama. McCain declared Obama “a decent man.” He added: “I admire Sen. Obama and his accomplishments."

Contrary to McCain, I do not believe Obama has any substantial accomplishments worth admiring. Nor, do I believe that a decent American would affiliate with Tony Resko, William Ayers, Bernadette Dorn, Reverend Wright, Michael Pfleger or the likes of ACORN. And, I would run the other way from a man who Farrakhan not only endorses for the Presidency, but refers to as Messianic.

It almost seems as if McCain is running more against Palin than Obama. While Palin rallies the troops toward victory, McCain signals retreat. Sarah Palin aptly plays the role of a political Petraeus, while McCain admires and respects “decent” Obama’s single accomplishment of raising the white flag of surrender.

Palin won the debate. She presented a fresh and lucid rationale for her principles. Biden’s style showed a command of the "facts," though often distorted and even blatantly wrong. For example, Joe Biden, in his typically brash, rapid-fire manner, skewered Dick Cheney’s views concerning the constitutional role of the Vice-presidency with this claim:

Somebody please get Senator Biden obtain a copy of the United States Constitution. Article I of the Constitution focuses on the legislative branch. Article 2 defines the executive branch of the Federal Government. The first mention of the office of the Vice President in the Constitution is appears in Article I, section 3, clause 4 is the first time the Vice President is mentioned in the Constitution. This clause states: “The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.”

Contrary to Biden’s claim, this section briefly develops, explicitly and implicitly, the relationship of the Vice-President to the Senate. A recent article by University of Tennessee College of Law Professor, Glenn Harlan Reynolds, argues that that the "Vice-Presidency's legislative character" is "significant" (Northwestern University Law Review, Vol. 102, 2007).

Article 2 covers the Executive Branch and briefly notes that how the Vice-President is elected with the President. It does not, however, enumerate a specific job description of the Vice-Presidency.

This is just one example of many showing that much of Biden’s blustering is actually bloviating bull.

Palin won the debate. She connected with American’s like Biden never will.

Good: Rasmussen’s daily tracking poll has McCain and Obama once again tied at 48 percent. The Rasmussen Report Electoral College update is not the best news for the Republicans, but it is still close. Maybe too close.

Bad: With the Electoral College vote so close, The Washington Times present a doomsday scenario – and it really is! Can you imagine what would happen to this country if the election results in a 269 tie in the Electoral College?

Ugly: As if they are preparing for even worse results, the Democrats, according to Dennis Prager, are stoking the racist fires.

Obama made the point yesterday that if anyone was “promulgating negative ads that are completely unrelated to the issues at hand, I think I win that contest pretty handily.” I’m hoping he misspoke. He probably meant to say, as the candidate of change and hope, he would not stoop so low as to put out a negative ad – which would only continue the “same old failed politics of the past.”

We should excuse the gaffe as the result of being flustered when asked by “Good Morning America” why he put out an ad calling McCain old. Obama insisted “that his campaign commercial pointing out that Republican Sen. John McCain doesn't know how to use a computer wasn't a sly shot at his rival's age.”

Obama, the candidate promising to bring people together, argued: “I didn't say that. What I said was ... that John McCain is out of touch.”

In an Associated Press release, entitled “Obama mocks McCain as computer illiterate,” Nedra Pickler describes the ad:

It matters little whether Obama meant to attack McCain for being “out of touch” or just old. The commercial reveals a bewildered Obama campaign in panic mode. The ad was obviously not vetted. The fact that Obama approved the ad shows him to be ignorant, insensitive, and just like the rest of the political hacks running Chicago’s south-side. No decent American would put out this commercial while knowing the reasons behind McCain’s lack of e-mail history. Obama’s refusal to apologize or pull the ad says plenty about who is actually “out of touch.”  

I’m not sure I really care if the President of the United States sends e-mails. He has subordinates that take care of that task. It is reported that Clinton sent two e-mails during his entire presidency.

The reason John McCain doesn't send email, according to Jonah Goldberg, is that he can't use a keyboard because of the relentless beatings he received from the Viet Cong in service to our country.

Years ago, the Boston Globe (March 4, 2000) explained:

Basically, Obama’s ad mocks McCain for the consequences of his injuries wrought as a POW while in the service of his country. Obama probably did not intend this message. Likely, he simply wanted to mock something else about McCain. Obama seems to be often misunderstood (e.g., his lipstick on a pig “metaphor”). Then again, maybe Obama’s braggadocio promotion of his negative ads against McCain wasn’t actually a gaffe. It could be that Obama was telling the truth when he bragged that if anyone was “promulgating negative ads that are completely unrelated to the issues at hand, I think I win that contest pretty handily.”

The Obama campaign should consider as a new theme song, the Richard Burton tune from Camelot: "How to Handle a Woman." And one quick piece of advice along these same lines: do not call Governor Sarah Palin a pig, with or without lipstick.

It’s hard to imagine that it was only one week ago that Governor Sarah Palin burst Barack’s bubble! She uttered a few deft lines mocking his pompous presumptuousness. And, pop went the weasel. Arguments have actually ensued over which were her best zingers. Was it her line about Barack’s authoring of “two memoirs but not a single major law or even a reform, not even in the state Senate?” Or when she reminded us that Obama was the kind of “a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting and never use the word ‘Victory,’ except when he's talking about his own campaign?” My personal favorite was her warning that “when the cloud of rhetoric has passed, when the roar of the crowd fades away, when the stadium lights go out and those styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot... When that happens, what exactly is our opponent's plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet.”

Still, who would have ever imagined that Obama candidacy could sink so fast? By comparison, the Titanic even looks like a better ride. Palin is evidently the iceberg the Obama campaign never expected. When hit, rather than bailing the flood of incoming water, Barack’s bucket brigade frantically grabs the fire hoses to put out the Palin fire, while their ship sinks. Meanwhile, his passengers are jumping ship at an alarming rate.

Governor Palin may be the General Petraeus of the 2008 election battle. Recent polls show a dramatic surge upward for the McCain/Palin ticket. The RealClearPolics.com polling average now has McCain leading Obama by 2.3 percentage points. According to the L.A. Times, “Democrats expressed anxiety about the new challenge suggested by recent surveys showing McCain has gained ground among independent voters and women, who could decide the race in states such as Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Virginia.” The Times cites the Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released Tuesday showing that “McCain is now winning among white women 52% to 41% after having been statistically tied with Obama in that crucial category just a month ago.” Congressman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), a strong Obama backer, anxiously worried: “Whenever you see that kind of movement, you ought to be concerned; you ought to try to address it.”

Based on yesterday’s news, the Obama camp has not yet figured out how to address the problem of Sarah Palin. Obama was quoted on an ABC blog as saying: "You know, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig." Considering Palin’s oft-told joke about the only difference between a hockey mom and a pit-bull is lipstick, one need not make too much of a leap to conclude that Obama was calling the Republican vice presidential nominee a pig. At least that is how many women are interpreting the comment. The lipstick smear must have been part of that morning’s Obama campaign’s talking-point memo. According to Politico, Democratic Congressman Russ Carnahan introduced Joe Biden at a campaign event and referred to Governor Palin’s record with slightly different lipstick reference. He said: “There’s no way you can dress up that record, even with a lot of lipstick.”

Many pundits, including those at Power Line, are now wondering aloud “whether Obama is starting to come apart at the seams. As his party's Presidential nominee, he should be doing battle with John McCain, not Sarah Palin. But he seemingly can't help himself. Over the last couple of days, several generally apolitical people have told me that they think Obama has been melting down ever since Palin's nomination was announced. Hysteria does appear to be sweeping the Obama camp, with over the top attacks on both Palin and McCain. One wonders whether their internal polling numbers are really, really bad.”

Paul Mirengoff suggests that “McCain threw Obama a curve-ball when he selected Palin, and it has Obama off-balance. Actually, the Palin pick might better be seen as a knuckle-curve. The curve ball consists of the gender card, not completely unexpected but still difficult to deal with. The knuckler consists of Palin's instant celebrity status. Surely, Obama did not expect to face the prospect of being matched, or even overshadowed, in this category.”