The Democratic Party has become the “Party of Pluerism.”  In other words, they are acting like children.

The Gallup report issued earlier this week says that unemployment is now at 10.1% and that underemployment is at 18.8%.  It also predicted that the administration would understate the true unemployment numbers.  There will be no more economic reports before the election:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/143426/Gallup-Finds-Unemployment-September.aspx

What, you say, could make this worse?   Easy.  Obama was on the radio today and obviously off TelePrompTer.   The following is from an article in the LA Times:

“Everybody in the barbershops, the beauty shops, and at work — everybody’s got to understand: This is a huge election,” he said. “If we turn out in strong numbers, then we will do fine. If we do not, if we are depressed and decide, well, you know, Barack’s not running right now, so I’m just going to stay home, then I’m going to have my hands full up here on Capitol Hill.”Republicans have demonstrated.

Days before the release of a key jobs report, Obama said most of the job losses his administration gets blamed for occurred before “any of my economic plans were put into place,” and that the country is still “experiencing the hangover from the misguided policies” of the last decade.

Obama said a big voter turnout was vital, both to counter millions of dollars being spent by outside groups and the enthusiasm

“They are fired up. They are mobilized. They see an opportunity to take back the House, maybe take back the Senate,” he said. “If they’re successful in doing that, they’ve already said they’re going to go back to the same policies that were in place during the Bush administration. That means that we are going to have just hand-to-hand combat up here on Capitol Hill.”

With Obama is it always just about him.  He has already decided that if Democrats lose, it is only because he is not on the ballot.  What is really pathetic is that he probably believes that.  We are dealing with someone who is incapable of even recognizing reality.  When Bill Clinton got walloped during the 1994 mid-term election, he just adopted some of the Republican ideas and took credit for them.

But Obama is unlikely to do that.  Instead he will blame the loss on everything and everyone but himself.  He will first blame everything on Bush, just like he did above.  He will blame Republicans for obstructing his agenda.  He will blame a biased media that didn’t give his administration enough credit.  He will blame Democrats for running scared from Republican lies and distortions.  Finally, he will blame the American people because not enough of his supporters showed up to vote.  The only person he will not blame is himself, other than his failure to explain more effectively why he is right.

This means that while Republicans are now very likely to run the table on November 2, 2010, that will not solve the problem.  Obama is likely to veto any attempt to overturn his program and to implement as much of his program as he can through executive order, ignoring both congress and the courts.  In addition, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are likely to try and jam through as much as possible during a lame duck session.  (They will fail).

I do not think Obama will succeed, but unfortunately we may be facing the most significant constitutional crisis in our nation’s history.  The following article, from Real Clear Politics, shows that a lot of people are very concerned with regard to this topic. 

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/10/08/which_obama_will_emerge_after_the_storm_2010_midterm_after_republican_landslide_clinton_107489.html

We already have an important clue.  Jim Jones is resigning as National Security Director.  His replacement will be Tom Donilon.  His resume is as follows:

http://www.whorunsgov.com/Profiles/Thomas_Donilon

In other words Obama is turning over the top position on National Security to a politic hack that helped run Fannie Mae into the ground.  He has zero military experience and Woodward reported that both Jones and Gates loath him.  In other words he is just like Obama, a naïve, inexperienced, incompetent radical.  I feel warm all over.

 TDM

No amount of spin or pleas for patience can cover up the undeniable incompetence of this administration.   Democrats were already in serious trouble before the week began.  Unfortunately for them, when things start going bad they tend to get worse.  Following is a list of things that happened just this week:

IT’S OFFICIAL – OBAMA ADMINISTRATION BOTCHES BP SPILL

The National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling issued a scathing report regarding the Obama administrations’ handling of the BP oil spill: 

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/10/06/101697/white-house-squelched-release.html#ixzz11clGiTNn

The following quote from the report is very strong:

The staff paper said that underestimating the flow rates “undermined public confidence in the federal government’s response” by creating the impression that the government was either incompetent or untrustworthy. The paper said that the loss of trust “fuels public fears.”

Perhaps the best analysis of this situation is on the following link to the yidwithlid:

 http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com/2010/10/bp-spill-investigators-administration.html

MORE JOBS ARE LOST IN SEPTEMBER

Then the September Jobs Report was released and it is terrible:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Private-sector-sheds-39000-rb-1277482169.html?x=0&.v=1

The administration was preparing to explain why only 20,000 jobs were created when it turns out 39,000 jobs were lost.   This is really bad economic news and it cannot be ignored.

LATIN AMERICAN GOVERNMENTS JOIN SUIT AGAINST ARIZONA

Then the 9^th Circuit Court decided to allow foreign Latin American governments to file briefs supporting the Obama administrations’ opposition to the Arizona immigration law:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1010/43199.html

People are already angry about the opposition to this law, they will be furious that we are allowing foreign governments to interfere in our domestic affairs.

JUDGE THROWS OUT KEY EVIDENCE AGAINST TERRORIST SUSPECT

This is enough bad news for any administration, but it gets worse.  Today a judge threw out the most important  evidence against the terrorist who participated in bombing two U.S. Embassies:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-06/witness-in-ghailani-embassy-bombing-trial-barred-by-u-s-judge-in-new-york.html

The decision was because of alleged “torture.”  This is exactly why it was a really stupid idea to move these trials to federal court in New York.  What makes this worse is that the judge who made the ruling added the following comment:

“His status as an ‘enemy combatant’ probably would permit his detention as something akin to a prisoner of war until hostilities between the United States and al-Qaeda and the Taliban end even if he were found not guilty in this case,” Kaplan wrote.

This is just plain nonsense.  We bring this yahoo to New York, so we can prove he will get a fair trial, and then the judge throws out most of the evidence, but writes that we’re going to keep him locked up anyway, even if he is found not guilty.  Who, exactly, is that supposed to impress?

OBAMA PLANS TRIP TO INDIA

How bad is it?  Easy.  The President has already planned a trip to India starting the day after the election.  Regardless of the reason for this trip, it sure looks like he is deliberately scheduling himself out of town so he doesn’t have to answer any questions about the election results. 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6694694.cms’

This has been a really bad week, and it’s only Wednesday.  Wow!

Finally, for those worried about another 4 years of Governor Moonbeam:

JERRY BROWN HANGS OUT WITH CASTRO, WITH THE HELP OF CONVICTED SPY PHILIP AGEE

The following article, from the Daily Beast, shows that this story is about to go viral.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-10-05/jerry-browns-castro-trouble-on-2000-cuba-trip/

Hmmm.. People in glass houses?????

TDM

We do not know how many seats Republicans win this November but we will do know for certain who will not be in control of congress after this election.  The recent Gallup Poll shows Republican with a 53 to 40 edge, if there is high turnout and 56 to 38 if there is low turnout:

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/house-races/122439-vulnerable-house-democrats-run-away-from-partys-legislative-record

Larry Sabato did an outstanding job of showing the statistical significant of this poll:

http://www.centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/aia2010091601/

Of course Gallup says Democrats may do better by increasing enthusiasm.  The primary reason they are saying that is because current Republican enthusiasm is so high and Democratic enthusiasm is so low that they assume Democrats have no place to go but up.

But that ignores the reality of momentum.  For example, imagine yourself at a Kings game when the home team is leading by 10 points with two minutes to go.  The crowd is going nuts.   No one considers leaving.  Then imagine yourself at a Kings game when the home team is losing by 30 points with two minutes to go.  The few remaining fans are silently sitting on their hands.  Republicans have the momentum, they think they are going to win and their enthusiasm is like to increase.  Democrats know they are in trouble, they think they are going to lose and their enthusiasm is likely to decrease.

But, the simple reality is that Nancy Pelosi has already lost control of the House.  There are currently 256 Democrats in the House and 179 Republicans.  But, in the last vote, 39 Democrats joined the Republicans in voting against adjournment.  If Mary Fallin from Oklahoma had not missed the vote, Boehner’s motion to vote on extending the Bush Tax cuts would have passed:

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/house-races/122439-vulnerable-house-democrats-run-away-from-partys-legislative-record

If the election was held today and every incumbent was re-elected, Nancy Pelosi would still lose control of the House.  No one is predicting that.  The lowest prediction I have seen shows the Republicans picking up 20 to 25 seats.  In any case Pelosi has lost too much support within the Democratic congress to control the legislative agenda.  She was voted out of power when those 39 Democrats joined with Republicans.  The only remaining question is the strength of the mandate that Republicans will get from this election.  We do not know whether or not Republicans will win control of the Senate, but we sure know who has lost control of the House.  The fat lady is warming up in the wings and she already knows the tune!

 TDM

Following, courtesy of Newbusters.org, are two pictures.  The first is of the “One Nation Working Together” rally held yesterday.  There was a massive effort by every liberal left-wing organization in the country, along with funding and organizational help from the unions to respond to the Glenn Beck “Restoring Honor” rally held on August 28, 2010.  If you have any doubts over what is really happening in this country, just look at these two pictures:

Things were so bad that CSPAN got caught running a picture of the “Restoring Honor” rally and pretending it was from the “One Nation Working Together” rally.  The following link from gatewaypundit.firstthings.com

http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/10/figures-cspan-uses-tea-party-rally-shot-for-leftist-one-nation-rally/

Lately liberals have been getting it handed to them on the air. Conservative commentators are feeling the wind at their back and they are just destroying the desperate attempts by the liberal left to put a good spin on this. 

Brit Hume handed it to Juan Williams. 

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2010/10/03/brit-hume-battles-juan-williams-over-congress-adjourning-tax-cut-vote

Monica Crowley crushed Eleanor Cliff

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2010/10/03/monica-crowley-smacks-down-eleanor-clift-over-gop-being-extreme

Greta VanSustren destroyed Gloria Allred. 

 http://www.lucianne.com/Article/?pageid=van_susteren_destroys_allred

Pretty easy to see which way the wind is blowing.

TDM

In November of 2008, the election was a picnic for Democrats.  It would have been hard for a Democrat to lose an election anywhere.  Now, just 23 months later, the picnic has morphed into panic.   Democrats have panicked and they are making major mistakes.  For example Alan Grayson ran a really disgusting ad in his House race that has backfired big time:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42818.html

While Grayson is a certified scumbag, well known for outrageous personal attacks on political opponents, this ad was really stupid.  This ad shows that he is absolutely desperate.  The same is true of Jerry Brown in California.  No one is surprised by the classic: “you hired an illegal alien” attack on Meg Whitman, but running it now was a huge mistake.  Jerry Brown is an experienced politician and he knows that ad should have been saved until the Friday before the election.  But, he panicked and ran it now.  Once again, the only plausible explanation is panic.  By running it now he just gave Meg Whitman more time to respond and this is likely to hurt him more than help him.

There are currently 259 seats up for election that are currently occupied by Democrats.  There are 176 seats currently held by Republicans.  Obviously, the Republicans need to take 42 seats away from Democrats in order to win the House.  Virtually all political pundits are now predicting that to happen.

It appears that Republicans are leading in something like 70 races.  In fact, the Republicans are leading in almost every race where the pollsters thought would be competitive.  But, there are a lot of other races out there where no one is even running polls.  Democrats are very concerned.  For example Barney Franks is so worried that he asked Bill Clinton to campaign for him.  Frank is the Chairman of House Financial Services Committee, one of the most powerful positions in congress.  He is running in a “safe” Democratic district in Massachusetts, the most Democratic state in the country.  Wow!   John Dingell has won re-election 28 straight times, but his seat is considered to be in jeopardy.  He is pleading for campaign contributions to help him get re-elected in one of the safest congressional districts for Democrats in the country:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/42191.html

These are just some of the well-known prominent Democrats who are in trouble.  There are lesser known Democrats all over the country where no one is even polling.  If people like Frank and Dingell are in trouble, everyone is in trouble.

The solution, for Democrats, is to make this a lot of local elections.  Democrats are trying to do just that.   A lot of them don’t even admit they are Democrats and I haven’t found any Democrats who are running for re-election based on their record.  Instead they are running smear campaign trying to scare voters into voting against their opponent.

But, President Obama is the gift that keeps on giving.  He is oblivious to the political damage he is causing to the Democratic Party, so he is out there telling Democrats to buck up and take more credit for doing a great job.  Each day he tries to find a new person to blame, since his previous tactic of blaming everything on George Bush clearly isn’t working.   He is incredibly thin skinned and he constantly whines about how Republicans are picking on him.  That makes him look weak and defensive.

He is unlikely to help a single Democrat gain any votes, but he is managing to help Republicans make this a national election.  If the Republicans keep a national election, that is very bad for Democrats.

I used to think that if Republicans had a super good wonderful day they would win about 75 seats.  I now think they are likely to win 100 seats and could win more than that.  We may wake up on November 3 with a whole country full of Democratic incumbents standing there with a glazed look in their eyes wondering what happened while a whole bunch of newcomers are celebrating.   If Democrats don’t find a way to stop the panic, this is going to get worse, a lot worse. 

The only good news for Democrats is that congress has adjourned, so neither Pelosi nor Reid is capable of pushing through more dumb legislation before the election.  But, as Yogi Berra used to say, “it is getting late early.”  Obviously the economy is not going to turn around before the election.  In addition, Obama is unlikely to give a great speech that suddenly makes everyone love him again.  In fact, most of the things that could happen in the next four weeks, that could impact the election, would be bad for Democrats.  The economy won’t recover, but the stock market could easily crash.  We won’t win the war in Afghanistan, but things could quickly deteriorate.  If there are no terrorist attacks, it won’t help Democrats, but if there is a terrorist attack it will really hurt Obama.

There are sure to be some October surprises by Democrats who are famous for last minute smear campaigns.  Think of the DUI story that was released on George Bush the Friday before the 2000 election.  That probably cost Bush the lead in the popular vote.  But, while some Republicans candidates will fall victim to these kinds of tactics, it will not impact the nationwide trend. 

There are more and more signs of a huge political storm poised to sweep across this country.  Democrats know that, which is why they have panicked.  But panic, in the face of disaster, only makes things worse.   I now think the Republicans win more seats in the House than anyone can even imagine.  I also think they win the Senate and it won’t even be close.   Republicans are always capable of blowing any individual election, but even the traditional Republican arrogance and incompetence cannot slow down this political storm.

The left wing wacko’s were stunned with the Glenn Beck rally in Washington, D.C.  Although they tried to down play the size of the crowd, there were clearly several hundred thousand people there.  So, they are desperate to hold the “One Nation Working Together” rally:

They are promising to have hundreds of thousands of people show up to one-up Glenn Beck.  Let’s see, Glenn Beck invites people to come and doesn’t even bother to publish an agenda.   He even tells people to not bring any signs and they are traveling at their own expense.  He makes no prediction on crowd size, but hundreds of thousands show up anyway. 

The contrast between the two events could not be starker.   The following link shows all the “announced sponsors.”

http://www.onenationworkingtogether.org/partners

Notice that just about every left-wing wacko organization in the country is involved.  The plan is to show the “real face” of America. 

Just think about it, all these organizations are putting together a massive effort to generate enough people to compete with one man, Glenn Beck.  This clearly involves massive amount of time, effort and major funding.   Expect people to arrive by planes, trains and automobiles, all funded by unions, from all over the country. Many of these people will be paid to show up and won’t even know what the event is about.  Expect professional mass produced signs, organized chants and thousands of matching shirts. 

This is all designed to push back against the alleged hatred and intolerance demonstrated by the Glenn Beck rally. (Some of those babies did get loud)   Instead, it will end up embarrassing Democrats.  This could literally push the few independents that harbor some residual respect for the Democratic Party over the edge. 

I predict the following:

There will probably be fewer people here than at the Beck Rally, but the media will claim it is much larger.

The main stream media will give this front page coverage.

There will be civil disobedience and possibly violence.

Speaker after speaker will scream hatred toward Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, George Bush and all Republicans, pleading for people to stand up against hate speech and intolerance.

They will leave the Capital Mall a total mess.

Some of it will be fun to watch.

Frankly, if I were a Democrat, with some remaining brain cells still functioning, up  for re-election in this political climate, I would not want anything to do with a rally with sponsors like the following:

http://www.nycsocialist.org/2010/02/oct-2-one-nation-rally-in-dc-join.html

At a time when these people should be organizing for a grass roots effort to head off a disastrous election, they are wasting value funds and resources on a meaningless political stunt.  While the left wing media and the paid participants will be duly inspired, the vast majority of Americans will find this disgusting.

If they do get hundreds of thousands of people to show up, which is likely since they are paying to make this happen, it will have no impact.  But, if the crowd is obviously smaller than Glenn Beck’s rally, it will be the height of embarrassment.  I suspect the liberal left knows that, which is why they are so desperately trying to jack up the turnout. 

If I had to name this rally, I would call it the:

The Catachresis of the Clueless  🙂

TDM

The Sacramento Bee published a field poll today that showed Boxer ahead of Fiorina by 47% to 41%.  However, I looked into the internals and this poll is extremely misleading.  Here is how they arrived at that number:

They interviewed 599 likely voters.  They assumed that 44% of people who will vote in California will be Democrats, 35 percent will be Republicans and the rest will be independents.  This means they probably surveyed 264 Democrats, 210 Republicans and 125 independents.  With that kind of sampling, one would expect Boxer to end up with more than 50% of the vote because it is so heavily skewed toward Democrats.  (Almost all field polls use this same technique, which is why they so often underestimate actual Republican vote totals).  This poll is actually very bad news for Boxer, because in spite of oversampling Democrats, she still only gets 47%.

Republican voter enthusiasm is at least 50% higher than Democratic enthusiasm in any poll and Republican voter turnout is often double what it was in 2008.  If that happens in California and this poll is accurate, Boxer is doomed.  Even if Republicans are only 30% more likely to vote than Democrats, Boxer loses in a close election.  In addition, independents are moving away from the Democratic party in droves.

Barbara Boxer cannot get over 47% in any poll.  Her unfavorable rating is 48%, which is extremely high.  She has outspent Fiorina about 12 to 1 so far.  While she has driven Fiorina’s negatives higher, they still top out at 38%, 10 points lower than Boxer.

When an incumbent polls below 50%, this close to an election, they almost always lose.   Boxer has taken her best shot and missed.  Now Fiorina is going to start spending money and she is going to take on Boxer.  Her first ad shows Boxer dishing the General for daring to call her Ma’am, rather than Senator. 

Even if Boxer was really ahead 47% to 41% there would be a good chance that Fiorina wins, since most undecideds go toward the opponent.  If people aren’t already convinced to vote for an incumbent, they are unlikely to change their mind between now and the election.  I suspect Democrats know that, which is why Obama is out here doing all those fund raisers.  They know that if Boxer loses in California, the Democrats have a very hard time holding the Senate.   When an incumbent like Boxer in a blue State like California feels the need to outspend her opponent by a 12 to 1 margin it is a sign of absolute desperation.

The bottom line is never take a poll at face value, particularly if it is a California Field Poll.  My personal prediction is that Boxer goes all down hill from here and people will be shocked by how badly Fiorina beats her in the General Election.   This is one Boxer Rebellion that could be a very good thing.

TDM

Larry Summers, Rahm Emmanuel and David Axelrod are all leaving the White House.  There are only two possibilities here.  Either Obama fired them, or they deserted him.  I cannot recall another time when so many high level administration officials left office just before the mid-term elections.  Even if they hate it, they usually leave several months before the elections or just after the elections.  The reason is that this kind of turnover can result in an enormous leadership vacuum.

It sure appears as if the ship of state is sinking and the people closest to the President are desperate for a way out.  Although this probably puts the final nail in the Democrats coffin this fall, it may be devastating for the country.  It is becoming increasingly obvious that Obama is incompetent.  He also shows signed of being incapable of accepting reality.   In Obama’s world, the only mistake he has ever made was failing to explain to people why he is right and more importantly, why everything is Bush’s fault.  Even today Obama blamed the obvious failure of health care reform on his “inability to do a better job of explaining it to the American people.”  Then, the man who has attended church 3 days in two years asked religious leaders to help convince the American people that his health care reform is good for them.  That is not just wrong, that is delusional. 

 The following article, from the American Thinker, suggests that Obama is an extreme narcissist.  At a minimum, it is thought provoking:

 http://www.americanthinker.com/2009/09/is_obama_a_narcissist.html

If this article is accurate, then Obama may not respond well to this crisis.  According to this article, he has a life long history of responding poorly to rejection.  The following paragraph is chilling:

 And yet deep down, I believe that Obama is still the wounded, angry little boy whose parents abandoned him and.   Rather than resent and mourn them, he’s turned his rage on a more convenient target — the entire United States system — even though it’s that very same system of largely White Americans who elected him President.

Is there anything more to Obama et al. than their righteous indignation? Their seething anger?  Their leftist dogma?

 These are crucial questions because “People of the Lie” eat, sleep, and drink rage.  They are dangerous people because they are soulless, and the soul is where love, forgiveness, and truth live.  They’re like fallen angels; there is no there there. 

Even though this article was written over a year ago, nothing Obama has done in the last year is inconsistent with what this author described.  Now Obama’s world is rapidly falling apart and at some point even he will no longer be able to ignore that.  There are rumors that Michelle’s disastrous trip to Spain was specifically intended to thumb her nose at Obama.   Was there any significance to him showing up at a press conference without his wedding ring?  To make things worse, it appears that some of his few remaining confidants are deserting him in the middle of the storm.  Every Democrat running for election is distancing themselves as far as possible from Obama.  Every Republican is running on an Obama rejection platform.  Then today he gets heckled…by the far left.  Soon, there may be no one left at all.  Ironically the man who’s character was probably formed by being abandoned as a child is experiencing abandonment again, on a unprecedented scale. 

He still seems to be in a state of denial.  He is still trying to blame everything on someone or something else.  But perhaps the real question is not whether or not he will continue to be in denial, but more importantly,  how on earth will he respond if he forced to accept the cruel reality of such complete rejection?  Probably the only sure bet is that he will not respond well.

I really think we should all say a prayer for Obama.  Not only does he need it, so does the country.

 TDM

Bob Woodward’s new book is out.  It will be officially released on Monday, and it is devastating for the Obama administration:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/21/AR2010092106706.html

Here is the problem:  Obama looked the American people straight in the eye, and lied. 

On August 18, 2009, in a speech given at the Veterans of Foreign Wars conference, he said the following:

 “This is not a war of choice. This is a war of necessity; those who attacked America on 9/11 are plotting to do so again. If left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which Al Qaeda would plot to kill more Americans.“

Yet, according to Woodward’s book, in the fall of 2009, Obama made it clear that his only plan for Afghanistan was to leave.  All of his military advisors warned him that they needed more troops to win the war.  Here is how Woodward quotes Obama:

“This needs to be a plan about how we’re going to hand it off and get out of Afghanistan,” Obama is quoted as telling White House aides as he laid out his reasons for adding 30,000 troops in a short-term escalation. “Everything we’re doing has to be focused on how we’re going to get to the point where we can reduce our footprint. It’s in our national security interest. There cannot be any wiggle room.“

The following is crystal clear.

First, in spite of telling the American people that Afghanistan was a war of necessity, Obama was only concerned about how it impacted him politically.  There was not even a mention of the national security risk to the United States that he acknowledged in August, just a couple of months earlier.  He was primarily concerned over how it would affect his support within the Democratic Party.

Second, both Secretary Gates and General Petraeus have had it with the Obama Administration.  I think we are dealing with two genuine patriots who think the country’s only chance to survive an Obama Administration is if someone within the administration is advocating on behalf of national security.  It is now obvious that they virulently disagree with this administration, but felt the country had a better chance with them in the administration than with whoever Obama would choose to replace them.

Third, this is about to explode.  According to Woodward: “Petraeus told his own staffers that the administration was ‘[expletive deleted]’ with the wrong guy.”  He goes on to say that Gates was tempted to walk out of an Oval Office meeting after being offended by comments made by Deputy National Security Advisor Thomas E. Donilon about an unnamed General.   Could this be General McChrystal?

 What could Petraeus do?  The following article answers that question:

 http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/i-wont-be-rushed-out-of-afghanistan-says-general-david-petraeus/story-e6frg6so-1225928174075

 The following quote, given to an overseas paper, so that it would be sure to be printed, was literally a public warning to Obama:

General David Petraeus told The Times that Mr Obama’s deadline of July 2011 for the start of a drawdown would in fact be the start of a “process”, and and described a major policy review ordered by President Obama as little more than a “mid-course assessment”.

“It is not a date when we rush for the exit and reach for the light switch to turn it out before leaving the room,” as he reserved the right to set his own timetable based on conditions on the ground.

We now know the ugly truth about Afghanistan, and it is indeed ugly.  It was Obama who personally devised the strategy to send in less troops than ANY qualified military person said was required, and it was Obama who demanded the new rules of engagement. 

President Obama told General Petraeus that we are leaving in July of 2011, end of conversation.  General Petraeus just told the world that “HE” reserved the right to set his own timetable, based on conditions on the ground. 

Perhaps the biggest shocker of all is that the White House, and CBS news, apparently thinks this article presents a positive picture of Obama:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20017327-503544.html

However, virtually everyone else is drawing the exact opposite conclusion. 

Obama has a huge problem at the worst possible time for Democrats.  If he fires General Petraeus, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Secretary Gates and Admiral McMullen follow him out the door.  Admiral McMullen already challenged Obama with regard to the repeal of don’t ask don’t tell.  He basically said this is a really dumb idea, but we do our best to follow orders, even dumb orders, and will somehow make it work:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/24/mullen-working-on-dont-as_n_207175.html

These top military commanders are very serious and capable people who are not intimidated by anyone.  Here we have a Commander in Chief, with no military experience, no executive experience and a record of jamming through one stupid idea after another with the only common ingredient being abject failure.  Unless the real Obama, behind closed doors, is secretly the brilliant leader worshiped by the Kool-Aid drinkers in the main stream media, these guys have to be seething.  What would you do if you were General Petraeus, and you were being given orders that were getting your troops killed unnecessarily, without adequate support, by a President whose only concern is how it will affect himself politically?  Maybe, just maybe, you would have a little conversation with the Australian press to make sure the right people get the message.

Guiliani obviously got the message and fired the first shot.  Watch for John McCain.  Perhaps more than any other member of congress John McCain may take this on.  McCain is third-generation navy, and duty, honor, country is part of his DNA.  He may be a RINO, but he also is a genuine war hero who always puts the country first with regard to national security.  If my interpretation of this article is accurate, then it is hard to imagine McCain remaining silent. 

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-giuliani-woodward-20100923,0,4073680.story

Several news agencies are reporting that the threat of an attack from al Qaeda is the highest since 9-11.  If, after the book written by Woodward, al Qaeda launches a successful major attack on the U.S., Obama will be lucky to escape impeachment.

TDM

At first the following pictures made me snicker.  These have got to be the worst pictures of Hillary Clinton ever published.  But then, after careful reflection, I began to suspect there is something else going on here.  These pictures are so bad that it would appear that Hillary has just given up.  How else do you explain her showing up in public, at the UN of all places, looking like this?  What staff person let her do this to herself?  This is the way someone looks when they just don’t give a damn any more.  Obviously, I have zero facts, other than a couple of really bad pictures, to support this observation.  I just find it hard to understand how this could happen to someone surrounded by professional staff whose primary mission in life is to make Hillary Clinton look good.    

This will impress Ahmadinejad (It does make a case for the burka)

Can a Camera Operator qualify for the "Courageous Restraint" medal?

TDM