With scrutiny. Sometimes it’s deceiving, and sometimes….just humorous. Take, for instance, this New York Times article with the headline “McCain and Obama Turn Fire on Each Other.”

Oh, really? Then why the big photo of Hillary Clinton shaking hands at a rally? And where is that headline news in the first two paragraphs of the story?

Here it is, in the third.

In early appearances on Wednesday, Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama both turned their fire on the opposition party, perhaps signaling a new dynamic in the presidential race.

“Fire”? After the Potomac primaries of Tuesday, I heard Sen. Obama honor and encourage praise for Sen. John McCain’s heroic military service to his country. And then he went on to disagree with McCain’s party principles. That’s what elections are about. And later I heard Sen. McCain credit Sen. Obama for the strong campaign he has run. Of course, he… click here to read whole article and make comments

…seems like a good time to visit the issue of Christian voters and what motivates their vote. Especially since that term doesn’t cover one body of believers. In fact, this year the “Christian” vote is seriously divided.

The Religious Left is successfully redefining what it means to be a conservative evangelical by misrepresenting what it means to be a conservative evangelical.

This is a necessary examination of how public opinion is being re-formed to influence whole blocks of voters.

By convincing America that conservative evangelicals are concerned only with two issues, stopping abortion and preserving traditional marriage, these new voices of evangelicalism are effectively making the case that conservative evangelicals ignore poverty, HIV/AIDS, and the environment. The history of evangelicalism tells a different story.

Evangelicals have set the standard throughout history for social action which continues into the present through numerous humanitarian relief organizations. The Association… click here to read whole article and make comments

…the issue at the center of all others remains, for a great many Americans, the sanctity of life. But you wouldn’t know it to hear the mainstream media reporting lately on the presidential races.

Not that they have their finger on the pulse of the nation, as evidenced in most of the primary results so far.

So, since they’re not keeping you informed about endorsements and positions among people for whom the right to live precedes the right not to be discriminated against or even waterboarded (this came from a caller on a radio show I was on…honest), here is an update on the news that Dr. James Dobson has actually endorsed a candidate.

Dobson, the founder of Focus on the Family, has never issued an endorsement in a presidential primary before and this one didn’t come until McCain and Huckabee were the only two major candidates left standing.

… click here to read whole article and make comments

I’ve been traveling, away from computers, but deeply immersed in conversations with thoughtful associates and scholars about the political landscape of America right now. One subject coming up now, provoking compelling questions, is the Constitution, and how the next president will view it. That’s a strikingly serious question.

The fabric of society is woven of the laws and liberties laid out by the Founding Fathers in that document and the Declaration of Independence. They are “self-evident truths” about the equality of all people and the “inalienable rights” endowed on us by “our Creator”. Over the past few decades, judicial activism has hammered away at a re-crafted reference point for civil and human rights, and the Constitution is not usually even required reading in university classes on constitutional law. No kidding. They read case precedent…..of cases established by liberal judges operating on the theory that the Constitution is a ‘living breathing document’.

So how the next president sees… click here to read whole article and make comments

They need to keep changing tactics, the two parties and the two leading contenders within the parties.

The Saturday surprises in Obama’s sweep and Huckabee’s good showing set up the Sunday surprises of Clinton’s campaign manager departure and  her increasingly weak standing with party loyalists. Losing her campaign manager now is a bombshell, treated as a softball by liberal media caught off guard when it happened (are they ever on guard for these things?).

The weekend Journal had some good analysis of both parties and their serious considerations.

This piece focused on the increasingly contentious struggle to count the votes of the two renegade states that move up their primaries against party rules, thus eliminating the outcome as relevant or countable. But Hillary Clinton won, so she’s fighting to have them counted. That’s a huge undertaking of political consequence, as this article makes clear.

The elections continue to surprise, but only a little less so with each day.

For Sen. Barack Obama, yesterday’s primaries were an amazing and highly successful sweep.

Obama, an Illinois senator who would be the first black president, scored decisive wins over New York Sen. Hillary Clinton on Saturday in Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington in the race to be the Democratic nominee in the November 4 election.

And he now looks unstoppable.

Meanwhile, for the Republicans…

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee beat McCain in Louisiana and Kansas and ran a very close second in Washington state. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, far behind in the Republican race, was a close third in Washington.

“It was great day for us,” Huckabee said on Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” show. “This thing could go to the convention.”

It probably won’t,… click here to read whole article and make comments

We can pluck a few observations from political expert Michael Barone’s assessment over at NRO and get the current picture.

Clinton and Obama have split the Democrats into rival tribes — blacks versus Latinos, young versus old, upscale versus downscale, Kennedys versus Clintons. They may eventually smooth over their differences as Democrats have before. But right now, the Clinton and Obama campaigns’ paths seem headed in a direction dangerously close to the intraparty equivalent of the 2000 Florida controversy.

Democratic voters in contests to come and Democratic super delegates may want to select the candidate with the best chance of winning. But that’s a difficult assignment. Hillary Clinton polarizes general election voters right down the middle, which means (a) she can win and (b) she can lose. Barack Obama, with his soaring rhetoric about what unites Americans, has a higher upside potential but also, with his lack of experience, a lower downside potential,… click here to read whole article and make comments

02.08.08

Don’t say you’re going to sit out this election…

Posted in Society, Politics at 9:46 pm by Sheila

…when some of our citizens only wish they could vote.

“I voted for Barack Abooma!” bragged Davita Randall the other day. One should perhaps forgive the mispronunciation. After all, she and her brother Davin, also an “Abooma” enthusiast, are only in kindergarten.

No, they can’t actually vote, but the Randall twins of Elk Grove, Calif., are excited about this election nonetheless. As is first-grader Alex Taylor, who discussed the race animatedly with his mother all the way to their New York City polling station on Super Tuesday — only to see Mom vote another way.

… click here to read whole article and make comments

There’s an air of inevitability to Sen. Barack Obama’s run for the presidency, and a lot more than that.

Romney, in the end, failed to inspire. By contrast, Barack Obama is nothing but inspiring–so inspiring that it is becoming deeply creepy. The Boston Globe reports on a new music video touting Obama:

“Inspired by the speech Barack Obama delivered in Nashua the night of the state primary, will.i.am [of the Black Eyed Peas] set Obama’s text to simple guitar and a soulful melody, recruited 36 artists to appear in a music video that was conceived, shot, and edited over three days last week, and posted “Yes We Can” online over the weekend. . . .”

The unmoored passion is intensifying.

The video…depicts people who appear to be in some sort of trance as they mouth along with Obama’s various rhetorical flourishes from his speeches, then repeat… click here to read whole article and make comments

Peggy Noonan asks this question in today’s WSJ column.

 If it comes to it, down the road, can she give a nice speech, thank her supporters, wish Barack Obama well, and vow to campaign for him?

The press is starting to either ask these kinds of questions, for the first time. Only days ago all the talk and analysis was over whether it would be a McCain-Clinton race for the White House, speculation only ranging over whether a Romney or Huckabee opposition could seriously contend in a battle against Sen. Clinton. I kept wondering why they were presuming that she would be the party’s nominee, given Sen. Barack Obama’s meteoric rise in popularity.

What a difference a few days make, Romney’s departure combined with Clinton’s struggles.

Mrs. Clinton is losing this thing. It’s not one big primary, it’s a rolling loss, a daily one, an inch-by-inch… click here to read whole article and make comments