Peggy Noonan blasts today’s pathetic Republican Party. She’s not saying anything new. She just has a way with words, and her essay sums up the problems nicely.
These problems, however, have been apparent for years, and even Peggy has been late to the party. In Kansas in 2006, old Republicans bolted from the party and won seats as Democrats.
The Republicans deserve to get crushed in the fall. If that happens, it will be the best possible result for the party (and the country).
This will help McCain minimize the damage done by his enthusiastic courting of Hagee in getting his endorsement. Bill Donahue has accepted the endorsement, clearing the way for him to support McCain in the fall. Democrats will still bring this up, especially if McCain raises the Wright issue, but this will quiet Donahue and other Catholic commentators.
Like most people in Mingo County, West Virginia, Leonard Simpson is a lifelong Democrat. But given a choice between Barack Obama and John McCain in November, the 67-year-old retired coalminer would vote Republican.
“I heard that Obama is a Muslim and his wife’s an atheist,” said Mr Simpson, drawing on a cigarette outside the fire station in Williamson, a coalmining town of 3,400 people surrounded by lush wooded hillsides.
Tuesday will be an ugly day for Obama. Fortunately, it really doesn’t matter, but it will present yet another opportunity for Hillary to pontificate about race.
Obama said he was offended when McCain said last month, “It’s very clear who Hamas wants to be the next president.”
“I think it’s disappointing because John McCain always says, ‘Well, I’m not going to run that kind of politics,’ and then to engage in that kind of smear I think is unfortunate, particularly since my policy on Hamas has been no different than his,” Obama said.
“And so for him to toss out comments like that, I think, is an example of him losing his bearings as he pursues this nomination.”
John McCain has been flying under the radar as the Democrats grab the headlines, but more news organizations are paying attention to the Hagee story and his anti-Catholic remarks.
A musician who was denied a liver transplant because he used marijuana with medical approval under Washington state law to ease the symptoms of advanced hepatitis C died Thursday.
The death of Timothy Garon, 56, at Bailey-Boushay House, an intensive care nursing center was confirmed to The Associated Press by his lawyer, Douglas Hiatt, and Alisha Mark, a spokeswoman for Virginia Mason Medical Center, which operates Bailey-Boushay.
Dr. Brad Roter, the physician who authorized Garon to smoke pot to alleviate for nausea and abdominal pain and to stimulate his appetite, said he did not know it would be such a hurdle if Garon were to need a transplant.
The case has highlighted a new ethical consideration for those allocating organs for transplant, especially in the dozen states that have medical marijuana laws: When dying patients need a transplant, should it be held against them if they’ve used pot with a doctor’s blessing?
Garon died a week after his doctor told him a University of Washington Medical Center committee had again denied him a spot on the liver transplant list because of his use of marijuana, although it was authorized under Washington state law.
“He said I’m going to die with such conviction,” Garon told an AP reporter at the time. “I’m not angry, I’m not mad, I’m just confused.”
Barack Obama didn’t mince any words today, going after Wright’s recent “ridiculous” remarks, and also taking questions.
The person I saw yesterday was not the person that I met 20 years ago. His comments were not only divisive and destructive, but I believe that they end up giving comfort to those who prey on hate, and I believe that they do not portray accurately the perspective of the black church.
They certainly don’t portray accurately my values and beliefs. And if Reverend Wright thinks that that’s political posturing, as he put it, then he doesn’t know me very well. And based on his remarks yesterday, well, I might not know him as well as I thought, either.
As Richard Wolffe just said on MSNBC, this is now personal. Obama was visibly angry that Wright would try to take over the campaign narrative.
He was even more offended that Wright would repeat statements that contradicted everything Obama stands for.
This fight is not over. But the fight might be exactly what Obama needs.
What John McCain really stands for came up most recently in light of his position on abortion. Planned Parenthood commissioned a survey showing that more than half of those women polled don’t know much about McCain’s stance, and a quarter of those who are in favor of keeping abortion legal mistakenly think the senator agrees.
These misperceptions will be corrected by November. Writers like Anna Quindlen are talking about it, and it will certainly come up in the campaign. McCain has been a favorite of many independents, but that was when he was running against Bush. Now that he faces a general election in a tough year for Republicans, his abortion stances are likely to hurt him with independents and some moderate Republicans.
Can a conservative former congressman who helped impeach President Clinton, is a board member of the National Rifle Association and has done contract work with the ACLU dent Sen. John McCain’s presidential bid?
That’s exactly what Mr. McCain would face if Bob Barr, the former Republican who joined the Libertarian Party two years ago, wins his adopted party’s presidential nomination.
Barr is one of many Republicans who are fed up with today’s Republican Party that has embraced the religious right and has abandoned the principles of small government and freedom. The Ron Paul candidacy showed that there is real support for traditional libertarian positions, and Barr could present a protest votes for conservatives who are fed up with the GOP.
All those conservatives blasting Obama and Reverend Wright while praising Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. might want to read this column. Dr. King was a great man, but he hated war, and he did not mince words about America’s war in Vietnam.
The mayhem at Fox News this morning shows that some members of that organization are becoming uncomfortable with Fox’s attempts to destroy Obama and distort everything he says.
This morning, one anchor on Fox News literally walked off the set after his two-co-anchors continuously tried to distort Obama’s statements and take them out of context.
Then, Chris Wallace came on air and said he was watching the program for two hours and expressed his disappointment that the program was basically engaged in “Obama-bashing” all morning, especially on a day when Obama was being endorsed by Bill Richardson and we have the passport controversy.
Good for Wallace. It’s nice to see he hasn’t completely forgotten the concept of journalistic integrity.
It’s statements like this that explain I always liked Mike Huckabee and why he was able to generate so much support. I don’t agree with many of his policies, but the man is a true Christian. He has empathy for other people and tries to understand their plight. He also understands that we’re all human and we make mistakes.
And one other thing I think we’ve gotta remember. As easy as it is for those of us who are white, to look back and say “That’s a terrible statement!”…I grew up in a very segregated south. And I think that you have to cut some slack — and I’m gonna be probably the only Conservative in America who’s gonna say something like this, but I’m just tellin’ you — we’ve gotta cut some slack to people who grew up being called names, being told “you have to sit in the balcony when you go to the movie. You have to go to the back door to go into the restaurant. And you can’t sit out there with everyone else. There’s a separate waiting room in the doctor’s office. Here’s where you sit on the bus…” And you know what? Sometimes people do have a chip on their shoulder and resentment. And you have to just say, I probably would too. I probably would too. In fact, I may have had more of a chip on my shoulder had it been me.
Reverend Wright said some very stupid things. They should be condemned and Barack Obama condemned them. But, it’s clear this man is very angry about the injustices that blacks have endured in this country. This does not justify his statements, and as Obama explained, this anger can cloud one’s judgement. Wright could not see the progress we have made.
That said, it was incredibly gracious for Huckabee to show some compassion and understanding, and to not kick Wright while he’s down. Here’s the video.
Andrew posts an entire sermon from Reverend Wright, Obama’s old pastor. The networks have been playing clip after clip of some of Wright’s offensive comments, leaving the impression that every sermon he gives has this type of language.
The sermon posted by Andrew is called “The Audacity of Hope” and Barack Obama used this as the title of his second book. When you read the sermon, you see a pastor doing what you would expect from a pastor, giving a sermon about finding hope through one’s faith. It’s a good sermon.
After reading this, it is easier to beieve Obama’s claim that most of what he heard at Trinity were sermons about Jesus and family.
In an exclusive on the Huffington Post, Barack Obama resonds to the offensive statements made by his pastor:
The pastor of my church, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who recently preached his last sermon and is in the process of retiring, has touched off a firestorm over the last few days. He’s drawn attention as the result of some inflammatory and appalling remarks he made about our country, our politics, and my political opponents.
Let me say at the outset that I vehemently disagree and strongly condemn the statements that have been the subject of this controversy. I categorically denounce any statement that disparages our great country or serves to divide us from our allies. I also believe that words that degrade individuals have no place in our public dialogue, whether it’s on the campaign stump or in the pulpit. In sum, I reject outright the statements by Rev. Wright that are at issue.
He goes on to explain how he became involved in the church, and how he will stay there with the new pastor who replaced Wright.
He will obviously need to address this subject again many times in the future. It will no doubt hurt him politically with some voters. He asks that people judge him on his own statements, and I suspect most voters will do just that.
Let me repeat what I’ve said earlier. All of the statements that have been the subject of controversy are ones that I vehemently condemn. They in no way reflect my attitudes and directly contradict my profound love for this country.
With Rev. Wright’s retirement and the ascension of my new pastor, Rev. Otis Moss, III, Michelle and I look forward to continuing a relationship with a church that has done so much good. And while Rev. Wright’s statements have pained and angered me, I believe that Americans will judge me not on the basis of what someone else said, but on the basis of who I am and what I believe in; on my values, judgment and experience to be President of the United States.
Obama does give a great speech, but it’s his temperment and willingness to listen to other points of view, even when he disagrees with them, that sets him apart from most politicians.
