Obama blinked

Michael Goodwin in the NY Daily News:

Barack Obama blinks in Hillary face-off

Russia rolls over Georgia, Hillary Clinton does the same to Barack Obama. Now we know who's boss.

Obama blinked and stands guilty of appeasing Clinton by agreeing to a roll call vote for her nomination. That he might not have had much choice if he wanted peace only proves the point that he's playing defense at his own convention.

What does he get out of it? Not much and not for long. […]

It makes him look weak and ratifies Clinton's sense of entitlement to share party leadership and the convention spotlight. [...]

It reminds me of a Cold War joke about how the Russians view a compromise. They come to the table and announce the rules: What's mine is mine, what's yours is negotiable.

How would President Obama respond?

I think we just found out.

Hey, that’s what we’ve been saying.

Animal Kingdom

Sad news today from our local zoo:

ASHEBORO, N.C. -- A 14-year-old giraffe named Azog died Thursday afternoon while undergoing surgery, the N.C. Zoo announced Friday. [...]

Azog was born at the N.C. Zoo in July, 1994 and was one of two adult giraffes in the zoo's collection.

Better news for a cute and cuddly kitten:

HIGH POINT, N.C. (WGHP) -- Workers from Bill Davis Racing removed a kitten that refused to come out from an SUV's undercarriage Friday morning at the High Point Country Club. On Thursday, the car's owner found a note taped to his door advising him to not start the engine without first checking for the cat. Efforts failed to entice the kitten out with food, so Bill Davis Racing brought equipment to jack up the vehicle and access the kitty.

(Not the vehicle the kitten was under)

A re-enactment of the rescue is here.

So if a cat is stuck up in a tree, you call the fire department. If it is stuck under an SUV, you call a NASCAR Team.

You learn something new every day. If you’re paying attention.

Obama Celebrity Watch

Time Magazine asks: Why Can't Candidates Be Celebrities?

The article goes immediately astray, seemingly equating the questions about Obama’s celebrity with McCain using Winston Churchill and Teddy Roosevelt in a video warm-up act for a Pennsylvania town hall meeting.

Obama is being painted by Team McCain as a celebrity in the mold of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, who, we feel comfortable in suggesting, do not quite rise to the political importance of Churchill and Roosevelt (who, we are equally comfortable in suggesting, do not quite rise to the pop-culture celebrity of Hilton and Spears).

But where in the world would Team McCain get the idea that Obama is tied into the Hollywood celebrity culture?

Well, let’s take a look – and what the heck, let’s get an actual look (with pictures!) – at some of the beautiful people hosting fundraisers for Obama in the coming days, which we discover courtesy of The Caucus Blog:

Sarah Jessica Parker, Sex and the City and Anna Wintour, Editor of Vogue

Ellen Pompeo and Justin Chambers, Grey’s Anatomy

George Clooney, Obama Speech Coach and Foreign Policy Advisor (and aspiring actor)

Scarlett Johansson, Obama pen pal (and aspiring actress)

But Obama doesn't just hang with celebrities, of course. He is treated like one. There's the fainting that being in his presence causes among women, there's the thrill going up the leg that his speeches cause in some men. And then there's this reaction of one Obama supporter during the candidate's recent visit to his old prep school in Hawaii (h/t Greg Pollowitz at NRO's Media Blog):

"My only regret is I didn't get a picture of him kissing my wife. If there's any man in the world who can kiss my wife, it's Barack Obama," said Candace's husband John Cheever, also a Punahou teacher.

Just a kiss? Lame. The real question is, is Obama on Candace’s “freebie list”?

No, wait. The really real question is, are the fundraisers above Obama's "freebie list"?

Driving in circles

The Federal Highway Administration says people drove a lot less in June this year than last year:

WASHINGTON - As summer vacation season kicked in, Americans got out of their cars, driving 12.2 billion fewer miles in June than the same month a year earlier.

The 4.7 percent decline, which came while gas prices were peaking, was the biggest monthly driving drop in a downward trend that began in November, the Federal Highway Administration said Wednesday.

Not us, of course. We took the big trip for the 4th of July that began in June. The drive from NC to ID was roughly 2,100 miles.

We head on over to the Federal Highway Administration website to find the actual figures for June – Americans drove approximately 250,232,000,000 miles in the month of June.

That means our trip accounted for around 0.0000008392212% of all the miles driven.

Interesting.

The total population of the United States, estimated by the US Census Bureau, is 301,621,157

That means, as a family of 4, we represent 0.0000013261669% of the overall US population.

250 billion miles divided by 301 million people means the average person drove 829.6 miles. So, take 4 average people and you have 3,318.5 miles.

Yet our family of four people just managed 2,100 miles?

Disturbing.

Here we’ve been made to feel guilty about our carbon footprint, and yet, even in a month where we take a cross-country trip, we drove almost 37% fewer miles than an average four people in the US? Seriously, that just makes us want to go deflate our tires by six or seven pounds per square inch!

Oh, but wait – maybe we should really only look at the US population that includes persons of driving age (our kids are five and six). So, here we find that the estimate for those 16 or older is 236,468,212

Well, then.

250 billion miles divided by 236 million people means the average driving age person drove 1,058.2 miles. So, take 2 average driving age persons and you have 2,116.4 miles.

That means our trip put us right at the average number of miles driven by those of driving age.

Fascinating.

But our 2,100 miles were accomplished by driving across the country. What did all these other people do to rack up their miles?

And where were they driving last year that this year’s number was 4.7% less?

Baffling.

And before you lob the accusation that we must have too much time on our hands to go to that much trouble to make almost no point – if you are still reading this post, do you really have standing to cast the first stone?

Kidding.

You heard it here first

If we were omniscient, we would be in a position perhaps to make the claim that 'you heard it here first'. However, the internet is a really big place and we can’t claim to have read it all, so maybe someone else said this before us.

So, as far as we know, you heard it here first; we just readily admit that we don’t know very much.

But you did hear it here!

Obama has won the nomination – yet Hillary has secured all the leverage in the relationship.

Why do we bring this up again?

Via Jennifer Rubin at Contentions, pull up a chair and listen to the ruminations of Maureen Dowd:

While Obama was spending three hours watching “The Dark Knight” five time zones away, and going to a fund-raiser featuring “Aloha attire” and Hawaiian pupus, Hillary was busy planning her convention.

You can almost hear her mind whirring: She’s amazed at how easy it was to snatch Denver away from the Obama saps. Like taking candy from a baby, except Beanpole Guy doesn’t eat candy. In just a couple of weeks, Bill and Hill were able to drag No Drama Obama into a swamp of Clinton drama.

Now they’ve made Barry’s convention all about them — their dissatisfaction and revisionism and barely disguised desire to see him fail. Whatever insincere words of support the Clintons muster, their primal scream gets louder: He can’t win! He can’t close the deal! We told you so!

The point in our post referenced above had nothing to do with bringing about Democratic Party unity with butterflies and unicorns. Rather, the point is that there is a world full of people who don’t just want to defeat Obama politically, they want to defeat the US globally:

If Hillary can make a hash of Obama in negotiating her end to the race – just imagine what those in Iran and North Korea will do.

Go back and read John Bolton’s take on Obama, both in this interview by Hugh Hewitt and in this Los Angeles Times Op/Ed. But instead of focusing on Iran and North Korea as the ones sitting across the table from Obama, let’s imagine Obama staring face to face with Putin and Medvedev.

Are we really being asked to trust someone who can’t even stand up to a defeated political rival in his party’s presidential primary to stand face to face with those seeking the defeat or destruction of us or our allies?

Which one of these stories…

…is not like the other…which one of these stories just doesn’t belong…

Group Plans Campaign Against G.O.P. Donors, New York Times, August 7, 2008

The letter is an opening shot across the bow from an unusual new outside political group on the left that is poised to engage in hardball tactics to prevent similar groups on the right from getting off the ground this fall.

Led by Tom Matzzie, a liberal political operative who has been involved with some prominent left-wing efforts in recent years, the newly formed nonprofit group, Accountable America, is planning to confront donors to conservative groups, hoping to create a chilling effect that will dry up contributions.

Colorado Democrats Threaten Delegate's Status, TheDenverChannel.com (7News, Denver ABC affiliate), August 11, 2008

DENVER, Colo. -- An e-mail sent from the Political Director of the Colorado Democratic Party threatened the status of a national delegate, alleging she made "disparaging public remarks" about Sen. Barack Obama. […]

Millstone acknowledged she was frustrated over how the Obama campaign was treating delegates who supported Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and told a fellow delegate, in what she believed was a private e-mail exchange, that she was not sure she could vote for Obama at the Democratic National Convention later this month.

The other delegate apparently filed a complaint with the state Democratic Party suggesting Millstone lose her status as a delegate.

Apparently the Political Director of Colorado's Democratic Party, William Compton, took the suggestion very seriously and told Millstone via e-mail, "You are directed to come in to the Party Headquarters and explain your comments and why you should remain a national delegate..."

Millstone, who worked on the campaign for Hillary Clinton, considered the e-mail a threat.

"I think that one of the reasons I got this letter was to intimidate me," said Millstone. "It sounded very totalitarian. I thought it sounded undemocratic and I was completely shocked." [...]

"I think that it was calculated to have an impact on other delegates and I think this kind of communication does have a very chilling impact on other delegates because people become afraid to speak up. They become afraid to say what they think."

(h/t Slapstick Politics, via Hot Air)

Campaign to silence dissent in West Bank, Gaza, AP, August 12, 2008

NABLUS, West Bank - A West Bank professor is thrown into a police jeep and beaten with pipes. Detainees in Gaza are prevented from seeing lawyers. Club-wielding troops in the West Bank break up a peaceful march, and their counterparts in Gaza keep journalists from covering a police raid.

It's all part of a widening crackdown on political opponents, both by the Western-backed Fatah movement in the West Bank and by the Islamic militant Hamas in Gaza.

Trick question! They all belong. Each of these stories is based on the idea that dissent is an unwanted form of political expression. Other than that, it’s just a quibble about the means to rid oneself of it: do you stifle it, silence it, intimidate it, legally threaten it or violently crush it.

One more point on Exxon-Obama

In the excitement of last Thursday in putting together the Exxon-Obama logo (and thanks to the many fine folks who linked us!), we ended up failing to make one point.

Many others have made it in this case – that when Obama comes out guns blazing on trying to tie McCain to “big oil”, it is he, Obama, who has received more money from the likes of Exxon. And that when Obama comes out hammering McCain as wanting to continue the Bush energy policy as crafted by Cheney, it is he, Obama, who voted for the 2005 energy bill.

But don’t think that this is an isolated case of Obama being caught attacking McCain on an issue for which he has issues.

Though Obama has spent the last several weeks in reactionary mode against McCain (witness Obama’s latest response to McCain’s charge of Obama being an airhead celebrity, which we might term the “I’m rubber and you’re glue” approach), when Obama does go on the attack against McCain, pay attention.

We wrote a piece last month on just this very thing. You can go read it here, but here is the opening and closing:

As general election ramps up in earnest, there is a pattern emerging. The battles Obama is choosing to wage in the campaign show that when he attacks McCain, he often does so on issues on which he himself is vulnerable. It is an odd pattern to be sure. It is hard to tell if it is a deliberate strategy intended to head off criticism, or if it is the unintentional reaction of someone who is projecting his own potential weaknesses onto his opponent.

[…]

Not all battles a candidate must engage in are ones of choice. Some are thrust upon him by circumstances beyond his control. Others, however, are ones which a smart candidate, as Obama surely is, selects because he thinks they will provide him an advantage, help advance a key theme, or help frame his opponent in a particular manner. As this campaign progresses and the number and intensity of the battles between Obama and McCain increases, it will be fascinating to watch the ones Obama chooses. And to consider each time Obama goes after McCain: is this just another example of the pot calling the kettle... Oh wait. Can't go there. The use of a colorful phrase might create a hue and cry as being divisively distracting. Rather, each time Obama goes after McCain, we should consider the source.

We knew Obama would help make our point, and probably repeatedly. But we want to extend a very special thank you to him for making it in such a high profile and easily discernible way, and on the issue most important to voters right now.

Thank you Obama!

This time, tears of joy

We covered the heartbreaking news from Afghanistan last month in which 9 US troops were killed in an attack on a US held base, including local soldier Pruitt Rainey.

Today we come across the heartwarming news that another local soldier, who survived that attack, is coming home:

THOMASVILLE, N.C. (WGHP) -- Less than a month after being attacked by insurgents in Afghanistan, Sergeant Matthew Gobble is returning home to the U.S.

Sgt. Gobble is scheduled to arrive back in the Piedmont around 9 p.m. at Piedmont-Triad International Airport.

Matthew Gobble had been deployed since May 2007, and was stationed in Valencia, Italy.

Since the attack last month, Gobble has been in rehab in Europe. He suffered shrapnel wounds when a grenade exploded nearby.

Gobble, a 2001 graduate of East Davidson High School, joined the army immediately following high school.

Haw River native, Specialist Pruitt Rainey, was killed in the attack along with eight other soldiers.

More coverage here:

Sgt. Matthew Gobble, a 24-year-old U.S. Army paratrooper and East Davidson High School graduate, was serving in Operation Enduring Freedom in Wanat, Afghanistan, when he and a group of other American and Afghan troops were attacked by enemy forces July 13. Nine soldiers were killed in the attack, and several more were injured, including Gobble. One of the soldiers killed in the attack, Cpl. Pruitt A. Rainey, was from Haw River.

Since suffering the injuries, Gobble has been recovering at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, but he is coming home to Thomasville on Monday to see his mother, Sandra Gobble; father and stepmother, Mike and Marcia Gobble; grandmother Rene Gobble; and other family members. Family friends Alisha and James Dale want to make his homecoming a remarkable event that will let Gobble know how much his service and valor means to others.

“We want to line the streets with people waving flags and clapping for him to see as he travels to his mom’s home,” said Alisha Dale, who served in the U.S. Army for four years. [...]

The Dales ask that anyone who wants to participate in the coming-home celebration meet at the Big Chair in Thomasville at 9:30 p.m. Monday. Then they will spread out as long as the line will allow down Main Street toward National Highway. Gobble’s escorted motorcade is expected to travel from National Highway down Main Street.

In fact, his car at the airport will be met by the Patriot Guard Riders, a veterans’ group of motorcycle enthusiasts, and escorted to Thomasville, Alisha Dale said. Then a motorcade of Thomasville police officers will pick up the escort at the city limits and accompany Gobble to the Big Chair and bandstand.

Welcome home, Sergeant Gobble.

HOME: Some coverage of the homecoming here:

Thomasville - Sgt. Matthew Gobble survived hell in Afghanistan.

He came back home last night to streets lined with people waving American flags and holding signs bearing his name.

Just an hour before, Gobble had stepped off a plane at Piedmont Triad International Airport. Supporting himself with a crutch, he walked to the airport's public waiting area where his family and friends hugged him. His father, Mike Gobble was there with his stepmother, Marsha Gobble, and his mother, Sandra Gobble.

Later in Thomasville, Gobble walked to the gazebo in the middle of downtown without the crutch, smiling all the way.

"Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined this type of support," he told the crowd.

Being in the military, he said, is often a thankless job, and it meant a lot to see how much people cared about him and the other soldiers who are still over in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"I really appreciate it," he said. "I really do." [...]

Gobble is home for about a month and then heads out to join his unit in Vicenza, Italy. He hopes to sleep late, ride motorcycles and visit family and friends. As happy as he is to be home, he also mourns the deaths of the nine American soldiers, friends, he said, who had helped keep him alive.

As he stood in the gazebo and choked back tears, he asked the crowd to pause to remember them.

The cheers died down, for just a moment, before the hugs started back up, reminding Matthew Gobble that he was home.

Click the link for the whole thing, including a picture of Sgt Gobble hugging his grandfather. Yes, tears indeed.

MORE: Heh

"I am not going to lie," Gobble said, surrounded by friends and family. "I had butterflies in my stomach since I left Atlanta. I knew my family would all come, and I should have known they'd bring the whole town."

Follow this link for video.

Obama Foreign Policy

Jennifer Rubin at Contentions, commenting on Obama's initial "limp" reaction to the situation in Georgia:

The situation in Georgia is serious. The U.S. and the West are being tested: will we defend an ally and check Russian ambitions in the Caucasus?

[...] Contrary to the linked article, Obama’s initial limp comment is not in keeping with the White House’s position –President Bush has definitively told Russia to cease the attack. It is instructive that Obama takes such a ho-hum attitude to the invasion of a U.S. ally. You don’t have to be a partisan to see how serious the situation is and how inadequate Obama’s response is.

So what is ahead? Just as Iran went from being a “tiny” country and no real threat in The One’s mind to a serious and grave one, I see a flip-flop coming on this issue. I’m sure the Winnie-the-Pooh fellow and the rest of the 299 are thinking hard. Unfortunately, a candidate’s — or a president’s — first reaction to an international crisis is often critical and always telling.

Well, okay then, back to the Pooh thing it is...

Barackrolled

From absentee at Red State, Barack Obama in all his glory:

But whatever you do, don't laugh.

Because that would be racist.

Windfall Profits Tax

We are coming around on the idea of a "windfall profits tax".

The extreme high price of gas is hurting consumers in ways that no one would have forseen even just one year ago. Families are being forced to cut back on driving, make hard choices at the grocery stores, and in some cases even go without some of the basic necessities just to make ends meet.

As a nation, we need to find ways to ease the burden on our families. We need to put aside the bickering and the divisiveness and find solutions that will bring real relief to the American people.

Senator Obama, despite promises to the contrary, has decided to forego public financing of his presidential campaign. His decision to do so is premised on the fact that he can raise more money outside the system than within it -- which will give him an advantage over his opponent.

Obama has repeatedly claimed that he is receiving a very large percentage of his donations from small contributors, surely those same people who are most hurting from the high cost of gas and food and other items.

Instead of relying upon the public financing system that has been set up to back presidential campaigns, Obama is running on the backs of ordinary Americans who are being forced to choose between food on their plates and an offering in Obama's collection plate.

That's why we are introducing the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Windfall Profits Tax Reform Act of 2008. The purpose of the bill is as follows:

Amends Federal Election Commission regulations to: (1) impose an excise tax on major party presidential campaigns for a percentage of the windfall profit from all excess funds raised; (2) allow an income tax rebate for all families in which at least one family member has voted in the last presidential election or current presidential primary, based upon windfall tax revenues, as determined by the FEC Commissioners; and, (3) define "windfall profit" as the excess campaign funds raised above the federal funding available.

"The relief would be delivered as quickly as possible to help families cope with the rising price of gasoline, food and other necessities." -- the Obama campaign.

Some will surely claim that this bill is nothing more than an attempt to take money from people who support Obama and allow it to end up in the hands of those who do not, even in some cases the hands of those who support John McCain.

The objection to redistributionist schemes is duly noted.

Therefore, we withdraw our bill from consideration.

FOR THE RECORD: We really don't object to Obama funding his campaign through private donations, and in fact would prefer all elections to be funded in such a manner. His lying about accepting public funding does bug us, but we've been lied to so many times by Obama, that this one is just another straw, long after the camel's back has been broken.

Obama came and went, but not until today did Hope arrive in Iraq

And Riley, too.

Sometimes the news of progress in Iraq begins here at home:

BAGHDAD (AP) — The Baghdad Zoo on Friday welcomed a pair of rare Bengal tiger cubs that were donated by a North Carolina animal sanctuary despite protests by animal rights activists.

The tigers — a male and a female named Riley and Hope — frolicked with red and blue balls in a wading pool and playfully wrestled with each other in their cage, while U.S. soldiers and journalists snapped pictures and delighted Iraqis strolled by.

The animals, which were donated by the North Carolina-based Conservators' Center, arrived Monday after being flown to Baghdad from the United States in a $66,000 trip funded by the U.S. Embassy and transported to the zoo by the U.S. military.

Like many other Iraqi institutions, the Baghdad Zoo is struggling to emerge from years of devastation amid the violence that followed the U.S. invasion in March 2003 and officials showed off the tigers as proof of progress.

"This is a good day for the tigers, the zoo and the people of Iraq," zoo director Adel Salman Mousa said at a news conference at the park in central Baghdad. [...]

The Conservators' Center, a nonprofit sanctuary and conservation breeding facility in Mebane, North Carolina, said it decided to send the tigers to Baghdad to help boost restoration efforts and education work at the zoo. [...]

Mousa also said he hoped to add more in the future to provide important educational opportunities for Iraqi youths. An elephant and a giraffe were at the top of his wish list. [...]

The zoo, which was established in 1973 and owned by Saddam's feared son, Odai, has enjoyed a revival with the recent decline in violence, boasting an average of 2,000-3,000 visitors on weekdays and 10,000 on the weekend, according to Mousa. That was up from about 120 per day in 2006, when sectarian attacks were pushing the country to the brink of civil war.

Ahmed al-Dairy, 38, brought his wife and three young sons to the zoo for the third time this year, saying it was the only decent public place to enjoy a day out in the heavily barricaded capital.

"Last year it was a very bad situation in Baghdad, but now it is good," he said, standing in front of a cage holding two lions that was adjacent to the tigers. "Still there are bombings, but we must adapt to this."

It really is all about the O

Via Extreme Mortman, this is titillatingly awesome, from the Huffington Post:

Barack Obama is inspiring us like a desert lover, a Washington Valentino. We who have felt apathetic, angry at two (likely) stolen elections, K-Street hegemony, the "pornography of the trivial"* in journalism and culture; we who are heartbroken over a war we knew was wrong, we who thought (especially after Baby Bush got in a 2nd time) that America got what it asked for; we who stopped wanting to participate 'cause it doesn't matter whether we do or don't; we have a crush. We're talking about it; we're getting involved, we're tuning in and turning out in numbers we haven't seen in ages. My musician friends and I are writing songs to inspire people and couples all over America are making love again and shouting "yes we can" as they climax!

Was it good for you?

Now, we simply can’t help but highlight this passage:

...it is quite possible that all the passion and revolutionary spirit being stoked by Senator Obama could turn into an equally powerful force of apathy and even rage. We who never felt like participating in the democratic process before (or when we did our votes were not counted), could end up feeling more disappointed and disenfranchised than ever. It's almost worse than never having cared at all. Beware the wrath of the forsaken lover.

Because we thought we had used this phrase for the last time:

“Hell hath no apathy like youthful romance scorned.”

But hey, we still like it and if the HuffPo author wants to reinforce our point,then oh yeah baby, it’s good for us.

See, that’s the beauty of the O – it really brings people together.

Obama: Free Kwame?

Obama hearts legally beleaguered Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick? Obama wearing a Free Kwame t-shirt:

Then again, this has to be fake, right? Of course it's fake. Right?

Well, we'll leave it to the digital forensicists to make the authoritative determination, and will have to be content to state our strong position for now.

But. Reaching into the not-so-wayback machine, we do know that Obama was a big fan of Kwame's. This via Hot Air is a video of Obama from last May that we get from Right Michigan:

Exxon-Obama

Via Jim Geraghty at Campaign Spot, we have this from Jake Tapper at ABC:

As we close up a week wherein Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, on the stump and in a TV ad accused rival Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., of being "in the pocket of big oil," and doing the industry's bidding -- not to mention a week during which the Democratic National Committee launched an Exxon-McCain '08 website to drive home this Democratic talking point -- the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics points out that the issue is a bit more complicated than it first would appear.

McCain has received three times more money from the oil industry in general -- $1.3 million for McCain compared to approximately $394,000 for Obama. But that said, Obama has received more campaign cash than McCain has from the employees of some of the biggest oil companies -- Exxon, Chevron and BP.

This might seem to complicate Obama's continual use of Exxon-Mobil on the stump.

Geraghty's post is titled:

Time to Create an Exxon-Obama SIte

Sorry we don't have time to create an entire site, but perhaps this will help...

What's next, we find out that Obama is a puppet of Dick Cheney?

MORE: We had an actual point to make but forgot to do so at the time, rushing to get the logo posted. So we did so in a new post.

The Young and the Restless

Guy Benson at NRO’s Media Blog updates us on recent polling concerning the whippersnappers:

A recent ABC News/Washington Post survey reveals the first nugget of alarming news for Team Obama. As Obamania reached its frenzied pinnacle in March, fully 66 percent of voters 18-29 told pollsters they were "certain" to cast ballots in November. By late July, that figure dropped by a whopping 20 percentage points, with less than half of the youth vote still vowing to go to the polls this fall.

A freshly minted Zogby poll that grabbed headlines by highlighting a dramatic McCain comeback in the overall data also features a fascinating youth vote tidbit: "McCain gained 20% and Obama lost 16% among voters ages 18-29. Obama still leads that group, 49%-38%."

Kids these days can be so fickle.

Let’s make a couple of points.

Point One: Give Tom Maguire credit for this Bold Prediction concerning the youth vote (and bonus points for continuing to pound the table for it):

Now, McCain is 113 years old, so it is not immediately apparent that he will have youth appeal. However, he will do better on that front than people expect (as Reagan did). My secret high school spy met McCain at a barbecue in New Hampshire with about forty people in attendance, and came away very impressed; I think she went with the idea that it would be like going to meet grandpa and listening politely while he rambles on about whatever, and she was surprised by how engaging McCain was.

And second, let’s let Benson continue, to help set up the second point:

Why are young voters suddenly jumping ship or tuning out?

Obama's endless parade of flip-flops — from FISA, to public financing, to offshore drilling, to handguns — may play a central role in the mass exodus. Young voters entered the 2008 election cycle desperate to reject and abandon the tired politics of bitter partisanship and cynical calculation. A naive ambition perhaps, but a pervasive desire nonetheless. They initially embraced Obama as someone who appeared to genuinely share that goal. As the weeks rolled on, though, the once-blinding luster of Obama's "new politics" has been systematically sullied and tarnished. As more young voters begin to perceive Obama as just another politician, his flowery speeches and rhetorical acrobatics are not wearing particularly well. They may even be getting a little lame.

Point Two: Give Joe Klein’s kid credit for being ahead of the curve, this back in the relative halcyon days of July:

I was a little surprised last week when my son asked me, "What's wrong with Senator Obama?" I asked why. "Because he sounds different", he says. Thinking the kid was referring to Obama's recent moves to the center on some issues I tell him every candidate for president repositions for the general election. My son gives me one of those teenage 'what planet are you on' looks and says, "never mind."

It took awhile but I realized my point about Obama's repositioning on Iraq, FISA, etc meant nothing to my kid. All he knew was that the "Obama of Summer" was somehow different than the Yes We Can "Obama of Winter" - and it bothered him. To my kid it wasn't a question of issues, but a perception that somehow Obama had changed.

Finally, we like this line from our Klein post enough to repeat it:

“Hell hath no apathy like youthful romance scorned.”

WHO ARE YOU CALLING COOL: Ann Althouse pushes the idea that nerd cool (Obama) is now cooler than rogue cool (McCain), riffing off of a Maureen Dowd column, and using as evidence the transformation of Paris Hilton from airhead celebrity to presidential candidate with the best energy plan of anyone in the race.

So maybe Obama's drop in the polls is a result of Team McCain painting Obama as an airhead celebrity, coupled with the recent stories of Obama as a muscle-bound jock, who is one of the 25 fittest men in America, leaving some kids without the nerd cool change the've been waiting for?

But polls notwithstanding, that doesn't provide an answer to the ultimate question -- who really is cooler?

Ann says Obama -- Tom says McCain.

Speak for yourself

Mitchell Bard in the Huffington Post makes an observation, leading to a question:

A new threat to Barack Obama's campaign has emerged, and it has nothing to with race, offshore drilling or the surge: Obama is losing the battle of the surrogates. Which raises a question: Is this any way to pick a president?

We will give Bard the benefit of the doubt, in the hope that he doesn’t simply see the question raised solely because his preferred candidate is on the losing end of the stick here. That is, if Obama’s surrogates were cleaning the clocks of the McCain surrogates, he would still be equally concerned with the idea that using surrogates to help determine who should be president would be equally flawed.

Hope is not dead on the un-Obama side of the aisle!

Now, after documenting several instances of Obama surrogate incompetence, Bard makes this point:

McCain's representatives are doing a far better job than Obama's proxies in these debates. And, more importantly, McCain's people are doing better than McCain himself would have done in these appearances, while Obama's surrogates have not come close to performing at the level their candidate regularly achieves.

We agree that the Obama surrogates are underperforming the McCain surrogates. But as for the candidate himself, it is not for nothing that some are referring to the Democratic candidate as Obamuh. Nor is it not for nothing that many have joked repeatedly about Obama’s self-inflicted flesh wounds when he goes off the teleprompter.

Obama in extemporaneous speaking situations? It’s not just a job, it’s an adventure!

Bard would, sensibly in our opinion, rather not have the campaign fought by surrogates:

Should we be judging the candidates by their stand-ins? Does Fiorina's and Ridge's debating skills mean that McCain would be a better president than Obama? And does the inability of Reed, Kerry, McCaskill and Pelosi to speak compellingly on television mean that Obama shouldn't be president? Even more to the point, as voters, are we served by listening to these surrogate debates? I would argue we are not.

Bard’s solution, offered because he sees no way out of the surrogate battles due to a 24/7/365 news cycle, is that Obama needs to more carefully select surrogates to represent him.

Fair enough.

But you know what else Obama could do? Obama could reduce the need for surrogate battles by giving the insatiable news cycle more fodder by … wait for this … direct candidate battles.

I don’t know, like say, a series of 10 town hall style debates where it is the two candidates taking the questions, giving their answers, articulating and defending their positions, instead of surrogates on their behalf.

But Obama avoids town halls assiduously. He uses phrases like, “anytime, anywhere” and “right here, quick draw” regarding debates, but only from a safe distance where words are never threatened with having to be backed up by deeds.

And one in particular stands out. Obama declined a military town hall on August 11th in Fort Hood, TX, due to “a scheduling conflict”. It now turns out that the conflict consists of an August 8-15 vacation to Hawaii.

But don’t worry, while on vacation, John Kerry will be holding down the news cycle fort. Or if Bard’s suggestions reach Team Obama, Joe Biden. Good luck with that.

Speech therapy

It’s coming. At this point it’s only a matter of whether McCain forces Obama to do it before the convention.

What’s that you ask? Well, the Major Speech, of course. We’ve said it before. Obama has one strategy to head off criticism and end examination of his record, positions or history:

Obama's strategy has been to orient the campaign around his greatest strength and advantage -- who could deliver the best speech -- and away from his greatest weakness -- his poor ability to answer questions about how he would deliver on any of its promises.

When Obama’s 20+ year relationship with Trinity Church and the racist, hate-monger Revered Wright blew up in his face, how did Obama respond? With the Major Speech on Race in America.

When questions about Obama’s patriotism were being escalated after flag pins and pledges of allegiance and a wife who for the first time in her adult life was proud of her country, and a long and close relationship with an unrepentant domestic terrorist, how did Obama respond? With the Major Speech on Patriotism, in Indepence, Missouri.

When questions about Obama’s foreign policy experience were elevated from Threat Level: Yellow, Distraction to Threat Level: Orange, Derailment, especially as the news from Iraq increasingly made his judgment regarding the surge come under intense scrutiny, how did Obama respond? With the Sold Out World Victory Tour culminating in the Major Speech on World Citizenry in Berlin.

Now, of course, Obama is taking a beating about the head and neck on a daily basis about being little more than a world-famous celebrity, a pop star out of his depth in the shallowness of his thinking; about being arrogant and presumptuous, about making messianic claims of supernatural powers (not to mention having followers near fainting at signs of his supernatural strength).

How will he respond?

By giving a Major Speech on Humility, of course.

Subtitled, “Why I Am More Humble Than Anyone Else On Earth, And That’s What Makes Me Great”

Oh, and we know exactly where he’ll give it, too.

ORATORICAL NOTE: Obama, please remember that when you pronounce the name of the city, the 'H' is silent.

Obama a PUMA?

We ask because he's certainly too gifted an orator for this to have been a mistake.

During the primaries, Hillary made fun of Obama as just a speechifier, and an indignant Obama fired back, "Don't tell me words don't matter!"

He's right, we think. These words matter:

"Now we’ve got ads about Britney and Paris," Obama said referencing McCain's new ad comparing his opponent to the young celebrities, Spears and Hilton. "At a time when we’ve got bigger challenges than any time in our history and you’re running ads with Hillary and er – with Britney and ah Paris in it. I mean come on. The American people deserve better."

That’s hot!

Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway

We leave today for the last leg of our summer vacation travels. Flight to Texas, pick up the family, and drive back. We are very pleased to see that gas has dropped nearly two bits per gallon, since last we roamed the open roads of America.

And yes, we already knew to keep our tires properly inflated to improve fuel efficiency. But we’ll pretend like we didn’t to make Obama feel better. He’s had a rough week.

Of course, even if his advice had changed us from not-properly-inflated-tire-people to properly-inflated-tire-people, the most we could hope to save on this 1,400 mile drive is $6.24* as a result.

Pocket change we can believe in!

This is all just a really long way of saying that posting will be light over the weekend.

MORE: Oh and the flight today has a stop in Detroit, Michigan. That’s one more state to add to the list.

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*Assuming a 3% increase in fuel efficiency (using the number from Powerline)
Tires pre-Obama: 1,400 miles / 25 mpg = 56 gallons * $3.90 = $218.40
Tires post-Obama: 1,400 miles / 25.75 mpg = 54.4 gallons * $3.90 = 212.16