After The Bender

WUI (Writing under the influence):

Obama supporters will be disappointed no matter what the outcome of the election. They will be crushed if he loses. If he wins, they will be drunk with joy for days, weeks, months maybe and then, when the reality hits, they will have a huge and exceptionally long (i.e., 4 years) hangover.

Stickin' With the Hockey Mom

Plenty of articles of late in praise of Sarah Palin.

Robert Stacy McCain.

The line outside the Heiges Field House at Shippensburg University was already growing long by noon, more than two hours before the doors opened for a Tuesday rally that wasn't scheduled to start until 5 p.m. And two hours after the doors opened, the line still stretched down the sidewalk, around the Luhrs Performing Arts Center, all the way along Cumberland Drive past the baseball field and uphill to Grove Stadium....

Michael Novak.

Many "superior" persons in America today speak of Sarah Palin with the same sophisticated disdain with which their forebears once spoke of the rough, raw Abraham Lincoln, who strayed into their midst as presidential candidate from the hickdom of central Illinois. These forebears also mocked his accent, his lack of learnin', and his way of speaking. They failed to discern his inner moral compass, and they underestimated his resolve and his toughness....

Larry Thornberry.

Pollsters and most of the left-stream media may think the race is over (you can look up the numbers yourself), and that Obama has only to put the finishing touches on his inaugural address and choose a collection of lefties for his cabinet. (Bill Ayers for Secretary of Education?) But the Sunday bunch in Tampa still believes the race is on. They gave up a big cheer and some hoots when Palin said that she and Obama had both played basketball, "but you have to win the game before you cut down the net." These guys are enthusiastic McCain/Palin boosters, and they know why....

They're not giving up on Sarah Barracuda, and neither am I.

Empty Of Meaning

Melanie Phillips:

Those who see a racist in every non-Obama voter are themselves the people for whom Obama's race is his defining characteristic. They say in terms that his race is the reason we must vote for him. They are the people who, by smearing every conceivable criticism of Obama or revelation of his unsavoury associations as 'racist', have emptied the term of its meaning.

If 'socialist' is a code word for 'black' then 'racist' is a code word for 'conservative'.

Share The Wealth

Stolen from Cowboy Blob.

Startlingly Unexpected

T. Coddington Van Voorhees VII endorses Barack Obama for President.

Food Stamp Mortgages

Matthew Vadum in The American Spectator.

With wanton disregard for the economic well being of America, a decade ago the social justice entrepreneurs of the ultra-leftist Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) let Americans know their strategy for bringing equality of result to the housing market -- at all costs.

In a circa 1999 document, "To Each Their Home: Success Stories from the ACORN Housing Corporation," the ACORN affiliate called the American Dream a sham and bragged about undermining banks' underwriting standards.

ACORN and Obama. First they cause the problem, then they offer to fix it.

Wishing On Bad Luck

AP:

The Commerce Department reported that the nation's economic output was the weakest since the third quarter of 2001, but it wasn't as bad a showing as Wall Street had feared. The department said the gross domestic product, the measure of all goods and services produced within the U.S., fell at a 0.3 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter, rather than 0.5 percent as expected.

The generally accepted definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of decline. We won't know if this is the beginning of a recession until January, but if it is, so far it's been an extremely shallow one.

Perhaps President McCain will make the point that when Senator Obama said we were in the "worst economy since the Great Depression," what he really meant to say was the tenth or fifteenth worst economy since the Great Depression.

Not Over Yet, Not At All

Veteran poll monger Dick Morris says there are signs of hope.

The double-digit leads Barack Obama held last week have evaporated, as all three of the top tracking polls (the most current and reliable measurements out there) show McCain hot on Obama's heels.

Zogby had Obama ahead by 12 points last week — now it's down to four. His margin in the Rasmussen poll has dropped from eight points to three in the last few days. Gallup shows only a two-point difference.

In each news cycle, Obama is on the defensive — staving off accusations of closet socialism and trying to wriggle out of his once overt advocacy of income redistribution. "Spreading the wealth around" has become the anti-Obama slogan — and might become the epitaph for his candidacy, just as "brainwashed" was for George Romney and "Where's the beef?" was for Gary Hart.

And, as we head to Halloween, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's image is returning to haunt Obama. [see below]...

High turnout may also be a wild card. On the surface, it seems sure to bolster Obama's chances as large numbers of poorer, less educated, younger and minority voters turn out to vote for the first time.

But the swelling turnout may have gone beyond this social outreach. And, as it does, it can help McCain. After all, white voters back McCain by double digits. If the contest inspires them all to vote, Obama will lose.

The Ad That Could Have Been

No voice-over. No shouting. Just acoustic guitar and a clear, forceful point.

Via The Weekly Standard Blog.

Barack Obama: Red Diaper Baby

A little background from Andrew Walden.

Must Watch Video: Fox News

Whew!

Bill Burton, designated whipping boy for the Obama campaign, gets lashed by Megyn Kelly of Fox News. Eight minutes of merciless beating. Thanks to Instapundit and TigerHawk, and probably Lucianne before that, I've watched it twice now: instant classic.

TigerHawk recommends her for the next White House Press Secretary. That, in my opinion, would be a demotion. She's doing fine now.

This is what we want but will never get from a presidential debate. We won't get this from a news conference either because Barack Obama is too much of a coward to meet with Megyn Kelly. Think Michelle scares him? He ain't seen nothin' yet.

Hello, This Is Abu?

The AP photo caption:

Palestinian Ibrahim Abu Jayab, 24, is seen next to his computer, in his family house in Nusayrat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2008. A young Palestinian in a Gaza refugee camp is doing his part to get out the vote for Barack Obama. With a little help from the Internet, 24-year-old Ibrahim Abu Jayab is cold calling random American families from his parent's home imploring them to vote Obama.

Yeah, right. That'll do it.

Imagine getting a phone call from someone with a Middle Eastern accent begging you to vote for Obama. That would clinch the deal right away, wouldn't it?

Hype-notic

Columbus, Ohio:

Readers of newspapers in swing states Ohio, Florida and Nevada are finding an anti-Barack Obama DVD in editions this week, days before the presidential election....

The group said it planned to spend more than $1 million to distribute about 1.25 million copies of "Hype: The Obama Effect."

80¢ a copy for a 90-minute DVD. You don't even have to watch it. Just put it up there on the shelf, next to Tom Brokaw. He starts to bore you, pop in in the player. You don't even have to watch it.

New media riding like a parasite down the legacy media's distribution channel.

Tired of reading? Just pop it in the player. You don't even have to listen to it. Just pop it in the DVD. Play me. Play me. Play me.

Giving The Game Away?

Thomas Lifson is just curious. What's with the red star?

Tote bag from the Victory Store, $15.95.

Why The Polls Are Wrong

I still expect McCain to pull it off, but then, I'm probably in a complete state of denial.

Iowahawk, of all people, has an astute mathematical explanation of why the polls are wrong, as does Steyn in The Corner.

Obama and the Arabs

Mona Charen:

I've heard from some American Jews that they do not believe Obama is sincere in his leftism. They believe/hope that the anti-Israel sentiments and associations of his past were purely opportunistic; that once in the White House he will shed them like yesterday's fashions. That's quite a leap of faith.

Amir Taheri:

While radical Arabs, including the Hamas leadership, favor Obama, most Arab officials are wary of him. They fear his inexperience and leftist connections might destroy all that has been gained in Iraq, provoke a bigger mess in Afghanistan, trigger a war with Pakistan and open the way for Khomeinist hegemony in the region.

Barak Ravid:

[French President Nicolas] Sarkozy has made his criticisms only in closed forums in France. But according to a senior Israeli government source, the reports reaching Israel indicate that Sarkozy views the Democratic candidate's stance on Iran as "utterly immature" and comprised of "formulations empty of all content."

Sarkozy's the optimist here.

Stevens Should Resign Now

The Wall Street Journal:

Facing Alaska's voters only days after this conviction, Senator Stevens almost surely will now cost his party a Senate seat in a year when it desperately needs it to preserve the power to filibuster next year. Especially at age 84, he could have resigned his seat on indictment and let another Republican win it, but his politics has always been essentially about himself. He could mitigate this legacy by resigning now and letting Alaska's GOP Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell run as a write-in next Tuesday against the Democratic candidate, Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich.

I Won!

Cowboy Blob's Weekend Caption/Photoshop Contest.

Piper! How many times have I told you? Leave the stupid Democrats alone!

Thanks, Blob! Now I'll be FAMOUS for a whole week!

Undecided? Then It's McCain

Arnon A. Mishkin calls it The Obama Effect.

With Obama outspending McCain by upwards of 4 to 1, getting enormous traction with newspaper editorial boards, generating the enthusiasm to bring out crowds measured in the tens of thousands, and with Palin treated as more of a punch line than a candidate by the press--it seems likely that if voters are not ready to tell a pollster that they are with Obama, they are unlikely to get there.

Get that? If they won't say it now, they never will.

Barackumentary

I don't know if this will change any votes, but it's definitely entertaining.

I went ahead and ordered my copy of the free DVD. If McCain wins, it's a piece of history. If Obama wins, it's a highly-prized piece of rebel contraband.

Help! Police!

Victor Davis Hanson:

I don't like dry-gulching journalism, but there was a strange scene when the Fox reporter caught up to Bill Ayers and stuck a microphone in his face as he went up the sidewalk of his rather impressive home: Ayers, with a bright red star on his T-shirt, shoos away the reporter with the apparent mumble "this is private property" before the police arrive. How strange that an advocate for communalism and an erstwhile attacker of police stations reverts to the notion of property rights and police to protect him from an intrusive reporter. Right out of Thucydides Book III and the strife on Corfu, when the historian warns that those who destroy the protocols of civilization may well one day wish to rely on them.

Link to the video above thanks to Snowflakes in Hell.

Would You Buy A Used Car From This Man?

The Democrats For Principle Before Party are asking.

You know, it's not really fair to compare Obama to Nixon. Not fair to Nixon, I mean.

Leading The News

On The Hill:

Illinois political insiders say Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who defended Barack Obama after his father famously threatened to castrate him, is the favorite to replace the Democratic nominee in the Senate.

This is funny, we assume unintentionally.

Digital Conversion PSA

Will this make Jack Benny come back?

Via Lucianne.

If She Loses...

Alaska wins. Alaska wins either way.

This photo of Sarah Palin, with her daughter Willow holding her son Trig, in Henderson, Nevada, on Tuesday, October 21st, 2008, is from the fan site We Love Gov. Sarah Barracuda Palin!

I'm a little too depressed by the news of the day. Not that I believe everything I read, but if it's true, it's not good, and if it's not true, you have to wonder what has happened to the free press in America.

So, until tomorrow, which is always another day, I leave you with this sunny picture from the Great American Desert. Once you leave Las Vegas, it's all red counties, as far as the eye can see.

No Merci, Beaucoup

Via Gateway Pundit.

Still We Hope

William Kristol in The Weekly Standard.

It's always darkest before it goes totally black. This is one of John McCain's favorite remarks, ascribed (apocryphally, it seems) to Chairman Mao. Well, with 10 days to go before the election, it's getting pretty dark out there.

Still, we hope for a McCain-Palin victory, for the sake of the country. And also for the pleasure of seeing the dejection of the mainstream media, the incredulity of the leftwing triumphalists, and the humiliation of the pathetically opportunistic "conservatives" who've been desperately clambering on board the Obama juggernaut. We're proud to stay off that juggernaut. We're proud, in our modest way, to stand with John McCain and Sarah Palin against it.

Neck and Neck In The Backstretch

The Plank, mag blog of The New Republic, reviews the daily polls.

Strategic Vision has McCain narrowly ahead in both Florida and Ohio, and gaining ground in Pennslyvania. Strategic Vision is a Republican polling firm, and indeed has had a 2-3 point Republican lean this cycle, but nevertheless, these represent significant improvements for McCain in all three states from Strategic Vision's last set of polling. Rasmussen, meanwhile, has him narrowly ahead in North Carolina -- actually the first North Carolina poll that he's led in some time -- and closing his difference with Obama in New Hampshire, where his taxation message may be selling well.

Eleven days to go. It ain't over yet.

Capital Punishment

Investor's Business Daily:

Obama has described his plan to hike taxes as "neighborliness," "patriotism" and "justice." In fact, it's the widest-ranging assault on capital — and those who create it — in at least a generation, possibly longer.

Look at just a few of the things he and congressional Democrats have in mind: Higher taxes on successful entrepreneurs (anyone earning over $250,000), higher taxes on capital gains, higher taxes on dividends, a possible raid on Americans' 401(k)s, a takeover of America's private health care industry, strict new limits on what CEOs can make, and the reimposition of the death tax.

Add it up, and Obama will usher in a new era in America — one where capital, the engine of our economic growth and success, is punished severely through the tax code. If Democrats win a filibuster-proof majority in Congress, it'll be the only form of capital punishment their party will support.

The Bishops Speak

Most Reverend Joseph F. Martino, Bishop of Scranton:

Being "right" on taxes, education, health care, immigration, and the economy fails to make up for the error of disregarding the value of a human life. Consider this: the finest health and education systems, the fairest immigration laws, and the soundest economy do nothing for the child who never sees the light of day. It is a tragic irony that "pro-choice" candidates have come to support homicide — the gravest injustice a society can tolerate — in the name of "social justice."

Most Reverend Paul S. Loverde, Bishop of Arlington:

Equipped with the Church's timeless truths, it is the responsibility of each individual to make the best voting decisions that he or she can, with the recognition that we live in a culture that does not fully embrace our values and are faced with flawed party platforms and candidates who do not share all of our policy goals.

Archbishop Charles Chaput, Archdiocese of Denver:

Raising a child with disabilities does not by itself qualify (or disqualify) anyone for public office. But it does demand a quiet kind of strength, wisdom, character, patience, self-sacrifice, trust in God and inconspicuous heroism. The many parents of children with special needs whom I know have discovered something important about what it means to be human....

Most Reverend Kevin J. Farrell, Bishop of Dallas, and
Most Reverend Kevin W. Vann, Bishop of Fort Worth:

As Catholics, we must treat our political choices with appropriate moral gravity and in doing so, realize our continuing and unavoidable obligation to be a voice for the voiceless unborn, whose destruction by legal abortion is the preeminent intrinsic evil of our day.

The Mark Of The One

Last night in Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love, a brother espied a young woman using an ATM machine. He presented her with a knife and asked for money. She gave him $60. He then noticed a McCain-Palin sticker on her car and said he would teach her a lesson for supporting John McCain. He punched her and kicked her and used his knife to carve a "B" on her cheek.

It is probably racist of me to mention that the man was described as a dark-skinned African-American about six feet four inches tall.

If you want details, Google for it, but do so soon, before it has been "forgotten."

Update: Police are now reporting that she has confessed to making the story up, and that the injuries are "self-inflicted."

Desk Clearing Time

Like the box in the top of the old lady's closet labeled "pieces of string too short to save," we just can't bear to throw these out.

Obama Assembles U.S.'s 'Largest Law Firm' for Voting

The Republicans need an army of lawyers to press charges of vote fraud while the Democrats need an army of lawyers to defend against them. Odd that it never goes the other way.

Stealing the Presidency: An Obama/ACORN Primer

We'll return to this after the election, whether it's stolen or not.

What Independent Voters Want: They tend to be fiscally conservative and strong on security.

This is not news, but it bears repeating.

"Peggy Noonan had to cough up her Sarah Palin fur ball sometime, I suppose."

Best opening line. Ever. Jan LaRue smacks Peggy Noonan upside the head. She had it coming.

Palin: A Gift To East Coast Comics

Nathalie Rothschild in Spiked:

Of course, it's not surprising that comedians have jumped on Palin — she hands it to them on a plate, with a folksy wink and a side serving of cheesy one-liners. She's easy to imitate and easy to mock. But mocking Republicans is hardly risqué or controversial after eight years of Bush. A real challenge would be to take the piss out of Barack Obama.

That's a challenge they're not up to.

Schedule Ahead

Greg:

I'm also very amused by Drudge's links to the preparations for the coronation of the messiah underway. And all the police departments staffing up for riots. You mean there'll be riots if McCain loses?

Yeah, I can see it now. All these Republican guys going to their bosses and asking for time off so they can do a little looting, raise hell, whatever. "Gee, I don't know, Jones. What about the sales meeting?"

Testing... Testing... Testing...

Iowahawk reports on Biden's latest gaffe.

"I'm not going to lie to you — it doesn't take a weatherman to know that hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, a hard rain is gonna fall, all along the watchtower," said the Delaware Senator, strumming on a pantomime guitar. "There will be a point — maybe one week, maybe two weeks after the inauguration — when the opinion polls will look bad. Really horribly bad. Despite our best efforts, a couple of mid-size cities will inevitably be vaporized. People will be complaining. 'Why are you nationalizing the Safeway?' 'When is Omaha going to stop glowing?' 'Why do the Chinese soldiers keep asking for my papers?' When this happens, we will need you to keep supporting us because, trust me, you really won't want to be observed not supporting us."

Of course truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction, after all, has to make sense. Unless it's Iowahawk.

What Obama Can't Change

John McWhorter in The New Republic:

For 40 years, black America has been misled by a claim that we can only be our best with the total eclipse of racist bias. Few put it in so many words, but the obsession with things like tabulating ever-finer shades of racism and calling for a "national conversation" on race in which whites would listen to blacks talk about racism are based on an assumption: that the descendants of African slaves in the United States are the only group of humans in history whose problems will vanish with a "level playing field," something no other group has ever supposed could be a reality.

Jason L. Riley in The Wall Street Journal:

If elected, Mr. Obama may well turn out to be a competent president, even an admirable one. But history gives us no indication that his political success will translate into black upward mobility. And given Mr. Obama's liberal leanings, there's every reason to believe that current obstacles to black progress will remain in place.

Zombietime: The Left's Big Blunder

Illustrating his points with such forgotten psychological investigations a Clever Hans the Calculating Horse and The Solomon Asch Conformity Experiments, the subject (or more accurately, victim) of which is at center in the photo above and beginning to doubt his own senses, anonymous blogger Zombietime argues that the Obama campaign's over-the-top efforts to create the illusion of their candidate's inevitability almost certainly will backfire.

This paper is must reading. Print it out, take your time, and enjoy it. It's worth every minute.

“I said no I wanted to vote for McCain”

Albany, Georgia (WALB):

There are allegations of voter fraud, as a Dougherty County family claims the vote of a mentally challenged relative was stolen.

They say the adult day rehab program where Jack Justice attends took him to vote, without the family's permission. What's worse is Justice says the person helping him wouldn't cast the ballot for his choice for President.

Jack Justice has been voting since he turned 18. Typically his family takes him to their neighborhood precinct. This time Primus Industries, his adult day rehab program, took him to vote. His family was shocked, but what shocked them more was that Jack claims that his aide commandeered his vote.

"They told me to vote for Obama, I said no I wanted to vote for McCain," said Jack Justice, a voter.

Jack Justice says the person helping him, selected Obama's name. His sister says the family is often asked to sign a permission slips for trips, but for this they were never notified.

"No permission slips, no nothing, he just came home and said he had gone," said Nancy Justice, Jack's sister.

Hell, he's just a retard. He don't know enough to vote for The One.

McCain for President

So says The San Diego Union-Tribune:

Obama touts his economic policies as providing tax cuts for 95 percent of Americans. In truth, he would achieve this only by refunding the Social Security taxes of the millions of Americans who don't make enough to pay income taxes, while imposing even higher rates on wage earners who already pay a disproportionate share of income taxes. Thus, Obama's "share the wealth" thrust would penalize the most productive, job-creating elements of society in order to reward the least productive. This is a political gambit, not sound economic policy. Which is why a joint statement from 100 leading economists, including five Nobel laureates, declares that Obama's plans "defy both economic reason and economic experience."...

On Election Day, Americans historically have voted their pocketbooks. This innate common sense is more important than ever in stormy economic times. At this critical moment, America needs John McCain in the Oval Office.

Instalanche!

Not the woof, but Oregon's own Polish Immigrant, Krystof Zmudzinski, who blogs at WUI (Writing under the influence).

Go pile on!

Hunger For (Real) News

Sarah Palin's appearance on Saturday Night Live brought the show its highest viewership in fourteen years.

Two days ago John McCain's appearance on Letterman brought him the highest viewership in nearly three years.

What this says to me is that TV audiences are curious about Obama's opponents and they're not getting the information they need from the nightly news.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has the Palin SNL skits, if you're interested.

The Little House On Brownlee Avenue

Jill Riepenhoff in The Columbus Dispatch:

About 200,000 newly registered Ohio voters have been flagged by the secretary of state because their names, addresses, driver's-license numbers, and/or Social Security numbers don't match other state or federal records.

Likely among them are the 12 people who have registered to vote since August using the address of the 1,175-square-foot Brownlee Avenue house.

Some of them already have voted. Others requested absentee ballots but have yet to return them to the Franklin County Board of Elections.

None of them, however, seems to have ties to Ohio -- no close relatives, no public-records trail, no obvious intention to stay in the state past the election....

All 13 are under investigation by Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien.

Here's a partial enumeration, also from the Dispatch.

• Marc Gustafson, 31, registered to vote Aug. 18 and has requested an absentee ballot using the Brownlee Avenue address.
  
  Gustafson lived in New York City as recently as September. He is a registered voter in New York, where he last voted in June 2007. In the past 11 years, he has lived in several East Coast and Southern states; he has no apparent ties to Ohio. He currently is studying in England.
  
  
• Heather L. Halstead, 34, registered Sept. 4 and asked for an absentee ballot. It has not been returned.
  
  Halstead is married to Gustafson and shares his New York City address. She, too, voted in the New York primary in February, is a native of the state, and has no apparent family ties to Ohio.
  
  
• Daniel Jacob Hemel, 23, registered at Veterans Memorial and immediately voted.
  
  He is studying at the University of Oxford in England. He uses his parents' Scarsdale, N.Y., home as his address. He is a native of New York, where he also is registered to vote.
  
  
• Jennifer B. Kyle, 22, registered Sept. 27 and asked for a ballot.
  
  She works for a consulting firm in Chicago. Before that, she lived and worked in Washington, D.C. She appears to be related to MichaelAnne Kyle and Tania Brenna Kyle [also registered at the house].
  
  
• Gregory T. Nolan, 23, registered to vote Oct. 6. He has not requested a ballot.
  
  In September, he was listed as living in Pensacola, Fla. He is registered to vote in Florida and has a Florida driver's license and Florida plates on his car.
  
  
• Roxanne Genevieve Quist, 24, registered Sept. 4 and asked for an absentee ballot. It has not been returned.
  
  Quist has lived in California since at least 2005. She has relatives in Vermont and Georgia, where she was born, and has no known ties to Ohio. She also is studying in England.

Looks like they're having a good time. I hope they do hard time.

What Would Milton Friedman Say?

Peter Robinson asked the question over at Forbes.com.

What would Milton have said if he were still with us today? Friedman spent his final three decades at the Hoover Institution--my office was just two doors down the hall from his--and earlier this week I sat down with two of my Hoover colleagues, economists Thomas MaCurdy and Jay Bhattacharya, both close students of Milton, to decide what questions we would have asked him--and how he might have replied.

Brian M. Carney at The Wall Street Journal went one better and interviewed Anna Schwartz.

Most people now living have never seen a credit crunch like the one we are currently enduring. Ms. Schwartz, 92 years old, is one of the exceptions. She's not only old enough to remember the period from 1929 to 1933, she may know more about monetary history and banking than anyone alive. She co-authored, with Milton Friedman, "A Monetary History of the United States" (1963).

I waded through that tome in college. It's on my bookshelf still, but I probably won't re-read it.

For the layman, I still recommend Free to Choose, either the paperback or the 1980 PBS series, now free for the watching at miltonfriedman.blogspot.com.

The Great Pumpkin

Charlie got some magic seeds from his Uncle Grant last spring and grew this 122 pound monster.

Actual —As Opposed to Theoretical—Conservatism

Steyn on the "conservative cocoon."

Whatever one feels about what Ross Douthat calls the "conservative cocoon", it elects conservative mayors, conservative school boards, conservative road agents, conservative state reps, and conservative governors: it's the only place to go to experience conservatism as applied in practice....

If it weren't for small towns, suburbs and rural districts, there would be no conservative government at all. With a few exceptions (such as Vermont), "blue states" mostly turn out to be red states with a couple of big blue cities (Pennsylvania, for example, or even California). Almost by definition, an effective conservative executive — the kind you might want in the White House — can only come from flyover country.

So, when a conservative pundit mocks Wasilla, he's mocking conservatism as it's actually lived, as opposed to conservatism as a theoretical fantasy playground for the purposes of cocktail-party banter.

It's just a Corner post now. I expect by Sunday it will be a full-fledged essay. Watch this space!

The Buckley Apostasy

J.R. Dunn looks at his "reasoning."

Once more, we're confronted with the fact that Palin, the McCain campaign, and every other given reason for the great conservative bugout of this season is a facade. This is not about ability, or competence, or anything else. It's about the elite circling their wagons to oppose an eruption from the lower depths. An eruption that may be represented by Sarah Palin but which includes you, me, and every other reader of this site.

They didn't care much for that "amiable dunce" Ronald Reagan either.

Who Won The Al Smith Dinner?

Drudge had all the YouTube links. Judge for yourself.

McCain Part One
McCain Part Two
Obama Part One
Obama Part Two

Fifteen minutes each, no holds barred comedy.

Communist, Pure and Simple

James Pethokoukis in U.S. News & World Report:

A while back I chatted with a University of Chicago professor who was a frequent lunch companion of Obama's. This professor said that Obama was as close to a full-out Marxist as anyone who has ever run for president of the United States.

Professor Laura Hollis in Townhall:

I am tired of all the dancing around the subject with respect to Barack Obama's political, social, and economic views. He's not a "liberal," or a "Democrat," or a "progressive," or even a "socialist." Let's call it what it is, shall we? It's time to use the "C" word. His policies are communist, pure and simple.

Why This Election Will Be Close

Father Jonathan Morris is used to hearing confessions, but...

In recent weeks I have spent a good amount of time crisscrossing the country.

Something very unusual is taking place.

From Seattle to San Diego, from Burlington, Vermont to New York City, from New Orleans to Texas and Midwest towns like Cleveland, I am hearing hushed admissions of a terrible sin: ""Father, I'm not going to vote for Obama."?

Then I look at the polls. Nationally and in battleground States, Senator Obama is thrashing Senator McCain.

So what gives?

Hear him out.

Heh

McCain to Letterman:

"Now is not the time to raise anyone's taxes except yours. And I guarantee you, when I get to Washington, I'll do it!"

More Vote Fraud News

Washington (AP):

The FBI is investigating whether the community activist group ACORN helped foster voter registration fraud around the nation before the presidential election.

Not sure if that's a good thing. The FBI's almost as good at cover-ups as investigations—even when they know the difference.

Seattle (KIROTV):

24,000 Felons Getting Ballots, Despite Eligibility Questions

That's overkill. Democrat Christine Gregoire stole the last election with less than a thousand bogus votes.

Columbus (Ohio.com):

Ohio's top elections chief has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in a dispute over whether the state is required to do more to help counties verify voter eligibility, a spokesman for her office said Thursday.

My prediction: they won't.

This story is huge and growing. If you thought 2000 was contentions, you haven't seen nothing yet.

Fixing The Election

Kevin O'Brien in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now — one of the prime sponsors of the mortgage meltdown that's throttling the economy — is big into the elections biz. It started off this presidential campaign with the goal of getting a Democrat into the White House, and it's particularly keen to do so now that the Democrat with a chance is its old pal and former lawyer, Barack Obama. Plus, his campaign is paying an ACORN subgroup $832,000 for a get-out-the-vote effort.

For the last couple of years, in the service of its Democratic (as opposed to democratic) ideals, ACORN has worked hard to ensure that vote fraud is possible.

That's how Freddie Johnson became famous this week. After filling out 72 voter registration cards shoved under his nose by ACORN, he's national news.

When Johnson testified before the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, the reactions were interesting.

Democratic board member Sandy McNair observed that ACORN did a poor job of carrying out its business plan. Republican colleague Rob Frost said, "I wouldn't want there to be widespread fear that what ACORN has caused will lead to widespread fraud."

Well, here's the deal: ACORN in Cleveland has followed its business plan to the letter. It has turned in almost 72,000 registration cards just this year. More than 10 percent of them have obvious problems. If others have less-obvious problems, well, that's the idea.

I believe Instapundit linked to this first.

A Solid Win for McCain

Quin Hillyer, quoted yesterday calling John McCain an SOB, thinks he won the debate.

It wasn't a knockout by any means. McCain missed some opportunities. He didn't hit Obama's lack of experience. He didn't hit the divided government issue. He didn't QUITE close the deal entirely on judges or on abortion, although he did well on both. But he won. Oh yes, John McCain won. He was real; Obama was a politician so deliberately unflappable that the unflappability for hte first time looked fake, like a put-on. McCain was on the offense without being offensive; Obama was on the defensive without being entirely convincing. McCain said some memorable things while Obama said nothing memorable. McCain scored big hits on vouchers and on spending and on accountability and on taxes. Obama sounded like a guy getting lost in the details rather than using details to make a clear point.

And a few more points. Read this to counter the MSM's "but of course Obama won" crap. Reasonable people can differ.

One Of Them

Dick Morris:

What makes ACORN particularly embarrassing for Obama is that he used to be one of them. He served as general counsel for ACORN in Illinois, channeled millions to the organization from the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (whose funds he distributed) and has lately spent $800,000 of his campaign money to subsidize the group's activities. For this emolument, ACORN has registered voters 15 times over, canvassed the graveyards for votes and prepared to commit electoral fraud on a massive scale.

Obama's ACORN Friends

McCain finally broached the subject of Obama's ACORN connections, training, advocacy, and funding in tonight's debate.

This is a winning issue, a non-ideological, bi-partisan outrage. Everyone wants their vote to count. McCain should hammer this one from now 'till Christmas.

Jim Hoft at Pajamas Media has posted The Complete Guide to ACORN Voter Fraud. It's a start.

Who Won?

McCain won.

I predict, however, that MSM polls will conclude that Obama won 75-25% whereas RedState, Drudge, and Instapundit polls will conclude that McCain won 75-25%.

It's the polls on November 4th that matter, though.

Debate Note Two

McCain brought up ACORN and Obama just grinned.

Debate Note

The split screen on NBC is working great for McCain.

The Odd Man Hypothesis

Quin Hillyer in The American Spectator.

John McCain is an SOB. He has fits of rage for no good reason. He takes umbrage for no good reason. He holds grudges for no good reason. He creates scapegoats for no good reason. He picks fights for no good reason. He plays everything by gut instinct and appears never to do long-term planning"...yes, for no good reason. And sometimes he completely breaks. And yet"... and yet, the man ain't dead. He has run the worst Republican presidential campaign since 1964 -- far worse than Bob Dole's oddly valiant effort, and even worse than the pathetic 1992 race of the elder Bush -- and yet he actually still has a chance, with less than three weeks to go, if only he can gain some traction.

Over already? Hell, no. When Ronald Reagan debated Jimmy Carter one week before the 1980 Election Day, the two men were essentially tied in the polls. Reagan won by 10 points, and garnered 489 electoral votes to Carter's 49. Repeat that: ten points in just one week. John McCain has three weeks....

Stickin' It To The Man

Dr. William C. Ayers, on line to become the next U.S. Secretary of Education, has penned a new textbook for his "Racism in AmeriKKKa" course, soon to be mandatory in all eighth-grade classrooms in the new, soon to be compulsory, public school system.

Reserve yours at Amazon now.

Massive Voter Fraud

You know it's reached the point of ridiculous when the MSM rise up out of their padded chairs to report it.

Via Instapundit: When Glenn Reynolds says it's news, by Allah, it's news.

For a complete enumeration of articles about the ACORN fraud, refer to NW Republican.

Slacker Incentive Program

Should you work longer hours? Do the math.

Because Mr. Obama's tax credits are phased out as incomes rise, they impose a huge "marginal" tax rate increase on low-income workers. The marginal tax rate refers to the rate on the next dollar of income earned. As the nearby chart illustrates, the marginal rate for millions of low- and middle-income workers would spike as they earn more income.

Some families with an income of $40,000 could lose up to 40 cents in vanishing credits for every additional dollar earned from working overtime or taking a new job. As public policy, this is contradictory. The tax credits are sold in the name of "making work pay," but in practice they can be a disincentive to working harder, especially if you're a lower-income couple getting raises of $1,000 or $2,000 a year.

It's the American Dream in reverse!

Work The American MSM Won't Do

Melanie Phillips of the Daily Mail tackles stories her American counterparts won't touch.

Obama is twisting and turning over his relationship with unreprentant Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers, trying to pretend it didn't amount to anything other than a chance acquaintance. But his story becomes ever more preposterous.

On Saturday she took on Troopergate:

What is really astounding, however, is the hue and cry over this non-event in Alaska while a raft of disturbing evidence about Senator Obama's connections is being either glossed over or not reported at all.

This may come as a shock to most people, but Obama is at the centre of a network of radical associations which he has tried to conceal.

My Electoral Vote Prediction

From my rather extended list of nineteen "battleground states" (which includes, of all things, Oregon) I predict that McCain-Palin will win Florida, Ohio, North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, Missouri, Indiana, Colorado, Iowa, Nevada, and West Virginia.

Obama-Biden, bless their hearts, will win Pennsylvania, Michigan, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Oregon, New Mexico, and New Hampshire.

Which yields a total of 281 electoral votes for the Republican ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin and a narrow victory for the forces of freedom and light.

I should note that no psephologist of any stature at this time agrees with me.

The Obama Thugocracy

Michael Barone, normally a pretty level-headed guy.

In this campaign, we have seen the coming of the Obama thugocracy, suppressing free speech, and we may see its flourishing in the four or eight years ahead.

Four years—if it happens at all—before the rebellion.

Why Michael Reagan Doesn't Matter

By Mark Steyn.

The ladies weren't exactly covering their eyes and going, "Neee- neeee- na- na, can't hear you," but the other cutie did begin waving at me her Obama sticker — the one with the giant blue-frosted O embedded in a manicured candy-striped upland — like the villain in the movie trying to hypnotize you with his pocketwatch. I began frantically looking around in hopes that a passing Hare Krishna or Scientologist type could get me out of there. But, no: Gaze into the giant zero of the Obama logo, the hole in the star-spangled donut, the vast fathomless nullity that is the gaping keyhole to the door of utopia. To a sad shriveled Republican cynic, there's nothing there but the wide open spaces of Obama's blank resume. But a believer will see therein the healing of the planet and the receding of the oceans. The black hole of Obama will suck you in through the awesome power of its totally cool suckiness.

Why Ayers Matters

By Michael Reagan.

If the truth becomes better known -- and it will if the Ayers issue is doggedly pursued -- it will be clear that Obama was not only deeply immersed the fetid swamp of Chicago's far-left political scene, but was from the very beginning of his career carefully groomed by the city's socialist left to follow the path he's on now in his quest for the presidency of the United States.

Of course, he would say that.

Why Ayers Doesn't Matter

Professor Paul Kengor explains.

Of all the lectures that I do around the country, none seem to rivet the audience as much as my discourse on the horrors of communism. In these lectures, which are usually connected to my books on Ronald Reagan, I do a 10-15 minute backgrounder on the crimes of communists — from their militant attacks on private property, on members of all religious faiths, and on basic civil liberties, to their total death toll of over 100 million bloodied, emaciated corpses in the 20th century.

As I do these presentations, the young people, especially on college campuses, are locked in, amazed at what they are hearing....

... As the young people in my audience are fully engaged, hands in the air with question after question — obviously hearing all of these things for the first time in their lives, from K-12 to college, as they are eager to inform me after my talk — the professors often stare at me with contempt. In one case, a British professor, who could not step sighing, squirming, and rolling her eyes as I quoted the most heinous assessments of religion by Marx and Lenin, got up and stormed out of the room.

In other words, no one under thirty knows who the communists were or why it should matter. Ancient history, man.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it," the historian Santayana is said to have said. I heard it a little differently from my history professor. "Those who do not learn the lessons of history are condemned to repeat them," he quoted—
In the sense of flunking second grade, and having to take it again.

I hope we don't spend the next four years in a remedial history class. I don't see why I should be held back because the rest of you are stupid.

The Ayers-Obama Connection

On YouTube. Send the link to your friends:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONfJ7YSXE5w

A Little Background

John M. Murtagh's article in City Journal.

During the April 16 debate between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, moderator George Stephanopoulos brought up "a gentleman named William Ayers," who "was part of the Weather Underground in the 1970s. They bombed the Pentagon, the Capitol, and other buildings. He's never apologized for that." Stephanopoulos then asked Obama to explain his relationship with Ayers. Obama's answer: "The notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was eight years old, somehow reflects on me and my values, doesn't make much sense, George." Obama was indeed only eight in early 1970. I was only nine then, the year Ayers's Weathermen tried to murder me.

Who Wrote Dreams From My Father?

Jack Cashill does a little literary sleuthing.

Prior to 1990, when Barack Obama contracted to write Dreams From My Father, he had written very close to nothing. Then, five years later, this untested 33 year-old produced what Time Magazine has called -- with a straight face -- "the best-written memoir ever produced by an American politician."

The public is asked to believe Obama wrote Dreams From My Father on his own, almost as though he were some sort of literary idiot savant. I do not buy this canard for a minute, not at all. Writing is as much a craft as, say, golf. To put this in perspective, imagine if a friend played a few rounds in the high 90s and then a few years later, without further practice, made the PGA Tour. It doesn't happen.

So who wrote it?

Obama's memoir was published in June 1995. Earlier that year, Ayers helped Obama, then a junior lawyer at a minor law firm, get appointed chairman of the multi-million dollar Chicago Annenberg Challenge grant. In the fall of that same year, 1995, Ayers and his wife, Weatherwoman Bernardine Dohrn, helped blaze Obama's path to political power with a fundraiser in their Chicago home.

In short, Ayers had the means, the motive, the time, the place and the literary ability to jumpstart Obama's career.

There's a lot more evidence than that, and all of it, of course, literary and conjectural. But Cashill keeps piling it up until you have to admit it makes a pretty good case.

I'd like to see some statistical-textual analyses of Dreams vs. Fugitive Days, of the whole text, that is, not isolated sentences. Better yet, of course, I'd like to ask Obama about it, and hear his answer for myself.

Update: Evidence mounts.

Update: He never said he wrote it.

Meet Christopher Barkley

Barkley estimated he'd registered to vote "10 to 15" times after canvassers for ACORN, whose political wing has endorsed Barack Obama, relentlessly pursued him and others.

Claims such as his have sparked election officials to probe ACORN.

"I kept getting approached by folks who asked me to register," Barkley said. "They'd ask me if I was registered. I'd say yes, and they'd ask me to do it [register] again.

"Some of them were getting paid to collect names. That was their sob story, and I bought it," he said.

Story in the New York Post.

Obama's Machine

IBD Editorials has more on the stolen election.

In Missouri, one ACORN registrant named Monica Rays showed up on no less than eight forms, all bearing the same signature.

Suspicious election officials sent letters to some 5,000 ACORN registrants in St. Louis, asking the letter recipients to contact them.

Fewer than 40 reponded.

In Kansas City, 15,000 registrations have been questioned, and last year four ACORN employees were indicted for fraud.

In addition, ACORN officials have also been indicted in Wisconsin and Colorado. Investigations against others are active in Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.

ACORN has also been registering convicted felons — including inmates — in Florida and other battleground states. ACORN boasts registering a record 1.5 million new voters so far this election.

What does all this have to do with Obama, besides the fact that he'd be the beneficiary of most, if not all, of these new votes?

For starters, Obama paid ACORN, which has endorsed him for president, $800,000 to register new voters, payments his campaign failed to accurately report....

Victory in November, bought and paid for by the Obama campaign.

Vote Dead In Ohio

This is the first song that Mark Slaymaker taught me when I joined his band in 1973. I seem to remember the lyrics being slightly different but the feeling of barely controlled rage is still there.

Via the Founding Bloggers.

Puts the BO in BOAC

CBS News' Dean Reynolds has spent time with both campaigns.

The McCain campaign plane is better than Obama's, which is cramped, uncomfortable and smells terrible most of the time. Somehow the McCain folks manage to keep their charter clean, even where the press is seated.

The other day in Albuquerque, N.M., the reporters were given almost no time to file their reports after McCain spoke. It was an important, aggressive speech, lambasting Obama's past associations. When we asked for more time to write up his remarks and prepare our reports, the campaign readily agreed to it. They understood.

Similar requests are often denied or ignored by the Obama campaign aides, apparently terrified that the candidate may have to wait 20 minutes to allow reporters to chronicle what he's just said. It's made all the more maddening when we are rushed to our buses only to sit and wait for 30 minutes or more because nobody seems to know when Obama is actually on the move.

Maybe none of this means much. Maybe a front-running campaign like Obama's that is focused solely on victory doesn't have the time to do the mundane things like print up schedules or attend to the needs of reporters.

But in politics, everything that goes around comes around.

Via Drudge, who always did have a nose for news.

Let's Get This Straight

I'm not voting for McCain.

If McCain Had Done It

Mark R. Levin wonders...

If John McCain had belonged to a church for 20 years and that church advocated white supremacy and the pastor of the church spewed racist propaganda wrapped in Biblical verses — much of which was caught on video-tape — what would we say?

If McCain's good friends included people involved in blowing up abortion clinics instead of the Capitol Building, the Pentagon, and police stations, what would we say?

If McCain was socially close to a professor with ties to neo-Nazi groups in Berlin, as opposed to a professor who had ties to the PLO, what would we say?

If McCain spent his formative years schooled in fascism as opposed to Marxism, what would we say?

CNN Is On The Bill Ayers Story

And that's news in itself.

Glenn Reynolds has the report and the video.

Go. Watch. Learn.

It's Really Quite Simple.

British comedians John Bird and John Fortune explain the financial crisis.

McCain Is Right On Health Care

David Gratzer in The Wall Street Journal.

Mr. McCain recognizes that a large part of the problem is that the tax code favors employer-funded health insurance. The system, which began as a response to FDR's wage and price controls, is built on tax breaks that allow employers to buy health insurance with pretax dollars.

Mr. McCain doesn't want to scrap employer-based insurance. He would keep part of the tax deduction in place. But he wants to fundamentally change the way the system works and instead give the self-employed and individuals a tax break for buying their own insurance. There are several advantages to this approach:

• Choice. About half of those with employer-financed health insurance have a choice of exactly one plan -- and that plan is often designed to suit the needs of the employer, not the employee. In contrast, under the McCain proposal, families could opt out and join another plan -- perhaps offered by their church, union or trade association -- if it better suited their needs.
• Portability. Presently, changing jobs means changing health plans and, often, family doctors. It also means that if a worker loses his job, he can also lose his health insurance. Under Mr. McCain's plan, job status wouldn't necessarily affect health coverage.
• Labor mobility. By freeing workers of the need to stay in a job to keep their health insurance, Mr. McCain's plan would help create a more flexible workforce. A study by University of Wisconsin economist Scott Adams found that 20% to 30% of nonelderly men worry enough about losing their health benefits that they stay in jobs they would otherwise leave.

"The right prescription for what ails our system."

Read the whole thing.

The McCain Campaign's Latest Ad

Yes. That's better. Now, hit him again. And again.

Barack O Bomber

John McCain's friends stand on principle. Barack Obama's friends stand on the flag.

This photo of William Ayers, the former Weather Underground terrorist, was taken in 2001. At that time he and Barack Obama had been friends, associates, and allies in the cause of radical education reform for at least six years.

Today the Obama campaign claimed that Barack Obama was not aware of William Ayers' background when they first met. That's not poor judgment. That's not ignorance. That's just a lie.

Shelly Mandell Endorses Sarah Palin

Shelly Mandell, president of the Los Angeles chapter of NOW, introduced and endorsed—as an individual, that is, not officially—Sarah Palin at yesterday's rally in Carson, California. This was met by the MSM with embarrassed silence. I googled in vain for a transcript, or even a news article. Nothing.

Since I couldn't find a transcript of Shelly Mandell's remarks I made my own. This is taken directly from the YouTube video of the event.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. I promise to be short and sweet.

I want to thank you, and I want to reiterate that I am Shelly Mandell, the president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women. Now I'm happy to be here, and I'm here today speaking not on behalf of NOW, but speaking as an individual, as a women's rights activist for thirty years who has worked for all those years to see this day.

Let me share with you where I've been and why I'm here. I was there in 1977 for IWY, that was the International Women's Year, in Texas. I was there in 1978 when we campaigned hard all over the west for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, working right alongside my dear friend Maureen Reagan. I was there in 1984 when we worked so hard to get Geraldine Ferraro on the ticket, and then to support her historical place in that election.

And I'm here today proud to support Sarah Palin, a woman who will fight for women's rights, a woman who will fight for the middle class, a woman who will--Lord knows--shake things up.

Now, make no mistake. I'm a life-long Democrat. I don't agree, I've got to tell you, I don't agree with Governor Palin on several issues. Hey, she's going to work on persuading John McCain on ANWR; well I'm going to try persuading her on things of my own.

But... But I know Sarah Palin cares about women's rights, she cares about equality, she cares about equal pay, and as Vice President she will fight for it.

She cares about our children and she cares about women's lives. She's an athlete and she knows what Title IX did for girls like her.

Change must come to Washington, and Sarah Palin has what it takes to lead that charge. I believe she is courageous, I believe she has integrity, and I know that Sarah Palin is a reformer who will break up the old boy network, buck the system, and get Washington back on our side.

It is an honor to call her sister.

America, this is what a feminist looks like: Governor Sarah Palin.

Thanks to Instapundit and Wizbang for reporting this, and for Greta Van Susteren of Fox News, alone among the MSM, for following up.

Put The Field Sign Up

Right on 234, coming into town. You can't miss it.

I don't know that field and yard signs have ever changed anybody's mind, but I figure it will irritate the Obamanoids and put a smile on the face of the McCainiacs.

And do that twice a day for most of them. This is the only road between Sams Valley and I-5. It gets a lot of traffic.

Not Ready And He Knows It

East Lansing:

Barack Obama said he doesn't lose sleep over losing the presidential election.

"What keeps me up at night is winning the election," he told the Free Press on Thursday.

Comeback

Fred Barnes liked her.

The moment when Sarah Palin knew she was winning last night's debate with her vice presidential opponent Joe Biden came after the subject had turned to nuclear weapons. Palin had talked about nukes as a deterrent and said it was important to keep them out of the hands of dictators who are enemies of America. Then she turned to moderator Gwen Ifill and asked, "Can we talk about Afghanistan real quick?"...

But by that point in the debate--two-thirds the way through--Palin was brimming with self-confidence. She knew she could handle any issue likely to be thrown at her by Ifill. She knew Biden would not outmatch her. So she purposely tackled an issue on which he was expected to have an advantage.

He didn't....

Nothing Surprises Joe Biden

Prior to the debate I commented to Greg that if Sarah Palin was planning to eviscerate Joe Biden it would be best if she stunned him with a nice clean shot in the first round so that he didn't suffer unnecessarily.

He did have a stunned look to him. It was almost as if all the muscles in his forehead were dead. He couldn't lift his eyebrows, and he couldn't wrinkle his brow, except way out at the corners. The middle was smooth and inert; kind of anti-Klingon. Weird.

Dead from the eyebrows up. It's a shame. He wasn't always like that.

I'm sure of it.

Jules Crittenden Live Blogged It

Here's what he expected to see:

Here's what he saw:

Palin, darting around in a cute little coupe, handles all the foreign policy curves nicely and even negotiates that gay marriage oil spill, gets the checkered flag. Approximately one zillion American viewers who have been told for the past two weeks she's a tongue-tied ignoramous are now wondering why they ever paid any attention to that MSM that Palin and most other Americans love to hate. Biden's Oldsmobile spun out at the starting line, never quite got that engine chugging on all eight cylinders, took his turns a little wide but managed to avoid the rail. No crash, but then again, turns out she didn't need him to.

What A Way To Go

The wreckage of Steve Fossett's plane, and possibly his remains, have been found.

Fossett, the 63-year-old thrill-seeker, vanished on a solo flight 13 months ago. The mangled debris of his single-engine Bellanca was spotted from the air late Wednesday near the town of Mammoth Lakes and was identified by its tail number. Investigators said the plane had slammed straight into a mountainside.

"It was a hard-impact crash, and he would've died instantly," said Jeff Page, emergency management coordinator for Lyon County, Nev., who assisted in the search.

NTSB investigators went into the mountains Thursday to figure out what caused the plane to go down. Most of the fuselage disintegrated on impact, and the engine was found several hundred feet away at an elevation of 9,700 feet, authorities said.

Nuclear

It's nu-kyuh-ler, I tell you, NU-KYUH-LER. Stop pronouncing it nu-klee-er.

By golly, if it was good enough for Ronald Reagan, it's good enough for me.

On Sarah Palin

John Derbyshire:

We're not electing a philosopher-king, we're electing an administrator, someone with good common sense and sound judgment. We've tried Wonder Boys in the presidency, and they didn't work out too well. Herbert Hoover, anybody? ... Or how about Jimmy Carter, an exceptionally clever, capable, and accomplished man? On the other side there is Harry Truman, who was scoffed at in much the sames terms Harris uses against Palin.

The question who will, and who will not, make a good president is more mysterious than the disposition of souls in the afterlife. The poor voter can do little better than go with the candidate whose broad outlook on public affairs matches his own. As to intelligence, education, and ability — well, so long as my candidate, thus selected, doesn't actually drool or fall down in public, I'll rest my hopes in him/her doing at least better than Hoover and Carter, perhaps even as well as Truman.

Most Dependable Voters

IBD Editorials has an interesting graphic this evening, showing the percentage of the population in each state of that most dependable of voting blocs, the sixty-five and over crowd. Note their presence in the battleground states of Iowa, Pennsylvania, and of course Florida. That, I believe, will work for McCain this year.

I predict that the over-sixty-fours will turn out as reliably as always, but not as reliably Democrat as in the past.

Why the polls show otherwise I don't know. As I've said before, the polls are not nearly as accurate as they purport to be—and especially this year.

How Will Sarah Do?

Joel Millman of The Wall Street Journal looks at how she's done.

There are two things people here remember about Sarah Palin's debating style during her race for governor two years ago.

One is the stack of color-coded cue cards she took to the podium for help whenever she was asked a policy question. The other is how quickly she was able to shuck those props, master the thrust-and-parry of jousting with her opponents and inquisitors, and project confidence to an audience of television viewers watching from home.

"That's the Sarah Palin I remember from the 2006 debates: positive, confident and upbeat," recalls Libby Casey, an Alaska public-radio reporter who served as a debate moderator on two occasions that year.

Millman illustrates his points with video clips from those debates. Watch them for a preview of Thursday's battle.

On Repealing Glass-Steagall

Bill Clinton thinks it was a good idea.

“I have really thought about this a lot. I don't see that signing that bill had anything to do with the current crisis. Indeed, one of the things that has helped stabilize the current situation as much as it has is the purchase of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America, which was much smoother than it would have been if I hadn't signed that bill.”