No Runny Eggs

The “consensus” thinking has been that as McCain moved into the general campaign, he would need to make overtures to We conservative folks.   The argument is that the pick of a VP may well show us that he is “listening” and “reaching out.”

All of that “thinking” held while there was concern that a general election would be a close, hard fought affair where McCain would need to not just get, but enthusiastically motivate conservatives in order to get enough turn out to win against a movment force like Obama.  

Then along comes Jeremiah Wright…..

I know a couple of days does not a trend make but….the polls have shifted hard, quickly.   There will certainly be the hard cores who believe the stuff that Wright is saying and will continue to support Obama.   However, I think there is a larger group, particularly those who consider themselves “moderates” that will find it impossible to support Obama with Wright in tow.  

If the polls continue to show McCain with a growing lead over either Democratic candidate he may not be concerned about getting the Conservative vote. I’m afraid that any hope (not the Obama kind) that conservatives had of McCain feeling motivated to “show us some love” and throw us a bone could go out the window along with Obama’s liklihood of being elected for anything more than just another lying, graft receiving Senator.

Update:    Wow!  I just discovered  a national article that cover this same concept.   Apparently  those black helicopters I keep hearing might be real after all!  

I wrote here  about the potential loss of an entire generation of Democratic voters.   I postulated at the time, that the  cause would be Hillary “stealing” the Democratic nomination and thereby crushing the hopeful acolytes of Barack Obama.   By crushing their hope I argued that Hillary would drive the 30 and under crowd out of the ’08 election.

Prescience isn’t always 20/20!

10 days later and Barack Obama creates an environment that could cause Generation Y to fore-go politics all together.
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(H/T – Michelle Malkin via Sean Hackbarth)

James P. Lucier makes a pretty good case for Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal being John McCain’s VP nominee over at The American Spectator. I will admit, he makes a very good case. However, it would be a very high-risk/high-reward combination for Jindal. If McCain wins, whoever his Vice President is would be “next in line”. I’ve pointed out a couple times that since 1956, the “next in line” has won the Republican nomination.

However, if McCain loses, whoever his Vice-Presidential nominee is will be doomed to never see the Oval Office. Over at Michelle’s place, I asked the question of who the last person (besides Walter Mondale, who was also Vice President) was that came back from being on the bottom half of a losing ticket to become a Presidential nominee on a major-party ticket. Rather than depend on somebody else to do the research, I decided to do it myself. Since 1804, when the election of Vice President was officially separated from that of President by the 12th Amendment, there have been 4 people who failed as a major-party VP nominee (Democrat-Republican, Federalist, Democrat, Whig, Republican) who came back to become a Presidential nominee:

– Rufus King (Federalist): Lost on bottom half of the Charles Pinckney/King ticket in 1804 and 1808, became the Federalist Presidential nominee in 1816, lost the election.
– Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democratic): Lost on the bottom half of James Cox/Roosevelt ticket in 1920, became the Democratic Presidential nominee in 1932, won the election and 3 more.
– Bob Dole (Republican): Lost on the bottom half of the Gerald Ford/Dole ticket in 1976, became the Republican Presidential nominee in 1996 (after Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush took their turns as “next in line” and after finishing second in the 1988 Republican nomination to secure his own “next in line” claim),
– Walter Mondale (Democratic): Lost on the bottom half of the Jimmy Carter/Mondale ticket in 1980 (was for re-election), became the Democratic Presidential nominee in 1984, lost the election.

Let’s see. Only 4 times in 204 years has a failed VP candidate become a Presidential candidate, and only once has that person become President on his own merit. I must note John Tyler did become President in 1841 after William Harrison died in office and after being one of the failed VP candidates of the Whig Party in 1836; however, he ultimately did not run for his own term as he was tossed out of the Whig Party and the Democrats didn’t want him.

I’d rather let Jindal season a bit in Louisiana and finally break the “next in line” chain in 2012.

Now that sermons from Barack’s Pastor, Jeremiah Wright, have come to surface:

"The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. The government lied."

It’s time for Obama to update his rhetoric:

…And it just reminds me that we’ve got a tragic history when it comes to race in this country. We’ve got a lot of pent-up anger and bitterness and misunderstanding. But what I continue to believe in is that this country wants to move beyond these kinds of divisions. That this country wants something different.

Becuase it’s apparent that not Everybody wants to move “beyond these kinds of divisions,” and some of those who appear most challenged are those closest to him.

"Barack knows what it means living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people," Wright said. "Hillary would never know that.

"The government gives them (African Americans) the drugs”

Jeremiah Wright

Now that it’s apparent that he can’t ignore the abhorent statements of his 20 year Pastor, Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama is attempting to find a way to escape further damage.

Finally, he has removed Wright from the African American Religious Leadership Committee, a group that was advising the Obama campaign.

In an attempt to provide some explanation for why he didn’t know about Wright’s comments earlier, Barack, in a post on the Huffington Post wrote…  “The statements that Rev. Wright made that are the cause of this controversy were not statements I personally heard him preach while I sat in the pews of Trinity or heard him utter in private conversation.”

Who is he trying to get by with that statement? If my Pastor said:

“The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.”

during a Sunday morning sermon, it wouldn’t have mattered if I was there or not. I can assure you that that statement would have sent a fire storm through our congregation and been discussed by EVERYONE as we considered whether there should be some sort of disciplinary action taken on our Pastor.

So that leads me to one of two conclusions:

A. Obama is disingenuous at best and a flat out liar at worst when he says:

When these statements first came to my attention, it was at the beginning of my presidential campaign.

How would he or Michelle have missed the hubbub a statement like that would have created?

or

B. The rhetoric that has come to light from Jeremiah Wright was common place and because it was not unusual, it didn’t stir any controversy within the congregation when he said things like the above quote. If this is the case, then whether Barack was there on any particular Sunday is irrelevant because the type of speech would have occurred regularly and Barack would have been present for some and perhaps many sermons of similar content.

I kind of hope the answer is A because I can’t even imagine what kind of regular hate filled diatribes would get a congregation, that claims to be Christian, to excuse the language and statements that have now become public.

Item #1 (H/T – Allahpundit) – The Hill reports on a very grim conversation with National Republican Senatorial Committee chair John Ensign. Selected lowlights:

– On the heels of not getting anybody for Mark Pryor’s seat in Arkansas, the NRSC had wealthy potential challengers in New Jersey and South Dakota balk.
– About half of the 49 existing Senators (which presumably includes the 5 retirements) are well behind in fundraising, with the incumbent Dems whose seats are up this year raising $1.2 million more than the incumbent Pubbies up for re-election.
– Related to that, the NRSC has less than $15 million in cash on hand, compared to the Dem counterpart’s $30 million.
– The money kicker; despite the RNC having a lot more cash on hand than the DNC, the RNC isn’t expected to help out any.
– The Virginia seat currently held by John Warner, one of those retiring, will almost certainly go to the ‘Rats.
– The only ‘Rat seat with “top-level” recruit with a realistic shot of winning is in Louisiana (seat currently held by Mary Landrieu), with the NRSC touting a long-shot in Massachusetts.

I guess the only question is, will the ‘Rats get to 60, or close enough, to not get rid of the filibuster?

Item #2 (H/T – see-dubya in the comments section of that thread, or you could look at the post before this one for Shoebox’s headline contest) – The Washington Times’ Fishwrap reports the National Republican Campaign Committee discovered its former treasurer filed fraudulent financial audits between 2001 and 2006. According to the House Republican campaign arm, Christopher J. Ward transfered several hundred thousand dollars without authorization from the NRCC to outside committees, and then transfered money from there to what appeared to be his personal and business bank accounts.

Boy, is that ever “great” timing. Of course, since the NRCC is in the business of protecting RepublicRATs like Tom Petri from even primary challenges like one being explored by Calumet County District Attorney Ken Kratz (H/T – Brad V. at Try to Focus), maybe the NRCC would be better if it were defunded.

Revisions/extensions (10:59 pm 3/13/2008) – I guess I should mention the NRSC sent over a fundraising letter today. Since see-dub wants to see the reply, I’ll dig it out of the trash, open it up, and craft a reply. Of course, since it is almost 11 pm, I’ll have to toss it over while I sleep.

R&E part 2 (11:39 pm 3/13/2008) – I don’t know what I’m still doing up, but see-dub says, “Give directly to the candidates, not the RNC/NRSC/NRCC".

Here’s a story that’s too good to pass up.   I propose we start a contest to come up with the best title/headline for this story:

WASHINGTON (AP) – The committee in charge of running House Republican campaigns said Thursday that a former treasurer “deceived and betrayed” the group, which is missing hundreds of thousands of dollars"”and possibly more"”due to fraudulent acts conducted over the past several years.

Complete story here.

Here’s a couple of headlines to start the fun:

NRCC Treasurer makes personal earmark!

or:

Deceit and Betrayal: Doing to them what they do to us.

There have been a number of recent articles suggesting that Barack Obama has reached his peak and will likely see declines in his popularity.   A review of the Rasmussen Presidential Tracking Poll seems to confirm this.

In today’s poll, Barack Obama is shown as having a favorable rating of 52%.   His rating has dropped from a high of 56% of just 3 weeks ago.   During that same time frame, John McCain’s favorability rating has remained flat or up slightly at 53%.   While these are the numbers that generally get the headlines, it’s the underlying numbers that tell me that Obama has hit his peak. (more…)