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Debate: No gaffes, next round September 27, 2008

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If you liked John McCain or Barack Obama going into last night’s debate, you still do today. The undecideds may not be any closer to choosing who to back, but there are two more debates, so a hasty decision is not demanded. Plus, the VP candidates will spar on Thursday. That may be most interesting since we’re not sure how Sarah Palin will look (here’s hoping keeping her under wraps and rehearsing will help) and we hope Joe Biden will come up with more of those “FDR went on TV during the Depression” quotes that make him so entertaining, but hopelessly useless, to Democrats.

The only thing I took away from the debate that was in any way “new” was Obama talking like a hawk about tracking terrorists down in Pakistan with or without the assist of its government. If you forget about his record to the contrary, and his belief that we should sit down with people like Iran’s Ahmadinejad without pre-condition, it is certainly something I’m glad to hear from him. Unfortunately, it simply doesn’t square with who the man really is by any stretch of the imagination. In short, I don’t believe him. I have no evidence that it’s a credible statement coming from him.

And, Obama pointed out that McCain said in the past something along the line of wanting to vaporize North Korea. However brazen that sounds, I have about another half-dozen nations that should be on that list, too. Political correctness be damned! Obama, again, is uncredible when talking about the world affairs and, as McCain pointed out, both naive and dangerous.

Other than that, I figure we all heard what we wanted to hear. There were no gaffes to speak of and so we go to round two. My hope is that the Dems will be digging themselves out of another hole after the VP debate suffering from a Joe Biden riff or two that brings them down a couple of notches.

Defining Moment: This Presidential Election September 23, 2008

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Over the past two and half centuries there have been many defining moments in our nation. Some of them have been presidential elections. In my lifetime, there have been three: Kennedy vs. Nixon, Carter vs. Reagan, and the one we are presently engaged in, Obama vs. McCain. We can argue Gore vs. Bush should be included since it went to the electoral college and whether or not the post-9/11 approaches would have differed between those men, but it’s really too fresh to think about it in this context.

This election was supposed to be Carter vs. Ford. The Republicans had so botched the job that there was no way a Republican was going to be elected. Why, even a Georgia peanut farmer would do a better job! Simply put, this was the year the Democrats were going to re-take the White House, no matter who they put up. Plus, Hillary Clinton was the heir to the throne. She would be unbeatable as a true liberal dressed in moderate clothing. She would have no trouble handling whatever candidate the GOP laid down before her. In brief, this was her election to lose.

Well, she lost it. And, today, it is not certain that the Democrats, led by Barack Obama and Joe Biden, two of the most liberal senators in that chamber, will be able to convince the American electorate that they are clearly the better choice. Add to this that challenger John McCain has a record as a moderate, reaching across the aisle consistently to produce legislation, and has been ahead of his opponents on everything from the military, national security and the economy, and that sure thing, like 1976, has evaporated quickly for Democrats.

All of that is bad news enough for the Democrats, then McCain picks Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Who saw that coming? Even conservatives were surprised! But, since her selection, the conservative base of the GOP has been energized. All of those lukewarm McCain supporters who did not feel at all sure about him (me for one), forgave him quickly and jumped on board. A 44-year-old mother of five and conservative, gun-toting, moose-hunting hockey mom? God does work in mysterious ways! In this case, it might not have just saved the McCain candidacy, but the nation, as well.

Conservatives seem harsh and unforgiving to liberals and many in the cold gray middle. After all, we see good and evil, right and wrong, heaven and hell. We don’t spend alot of time contemplating the middle. There are moments in history, however, that call for such an approach. 1980 was one, 2008 is another. If you for one moment doubt that Reagan would have pushed “the button” if Iran had not released our hostages, you are mistaken. He didn’t call the Soviet Union the “evil empire” for nothing, and he saw the Berlin Wall come down as tribute to his efforts. The stakes are even higher now, and the outcome must be, as Reagan said, “We win. They lose.”

My liberal friends don’t want to hear that. They believe, that due to our strength, we should negotiate without condition. They believe talk will move us to common ground. Nothing could be further from the truth. Syria, Iran, Russia, China, North Korea, and Venezuela, to name a few, will only understand complete destruction, rapid and permanent. They only want to talk while they prepare for our destruction. We must be first to strike. Obama will not do that if he’s president. His world view is too skewed by academics and gadflies to seriously consider this course under any circumstance. In contrast, McCain and Palin fully understand what is at stake and, I believe, will use every measure that their disposal to be sure “we win, they lose.”

That’s why it’s not a Democrat cake walk this year. It should have been 1976 all over again. Put up anybody against the Republican and you win! Something is happening on the way to the coronation.

The patriotism feared by liberals September 20, 2008

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I didn’t write it but it must be read so here it its:

“The patriotism feared by liberals isn’t the standard American-flag-pinned-on-your-lapel-patriotism (hardly anyone other than Barack Obama is against that). The kind they are afraid of is that which was stirred in us by the attacks on Pearl Harbor and again on 9/11—the kind that motivated Americans of all races and political persuasions to pull together in the duty of our common citizenship and the common cause of enduring American ideals. Liberals are threatened by such patriotism because they worry that their position—their belief that they, rather than we as free people, are the better rulers of our lives—will be usurped by a rebirth of Thomas Jefferson’s understanding of self-reliance and independence. They also worry that an increase in such patriotism will continually motivate men from all walks of life… to join our military and fight for the preservation of this great nation. It’s hard to convince men who are risking their lives in service to this nation that this nation isn’t as good as it once was or that we need to turn the reins of our government over to Democrats so they can rescue us from ourselves by ‘the audacity of hope’.” —A.W.R. Hawkins, columnist for HUMAN EVENTS

Quoting in context (2): WP gets it right! September 20, 2008

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A Washington Post (say what?!?) editorial of September 19 gets it right and gives it to you straight (at least, this time). Here’s what it said, in part:

“TO LISTEN to Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. John McCain is a Johnny-come-lately to the cause of regulating financial markets. “He has consistently opposed the sorts of common-sense regulations that might have lessened the current crisis,” Mr. Obama said in New Mexico yesterday. “When I was warning about the danger ahead on Wall Street months ago because of the lack of oversight, Senator McCain was telling the Wall Street Journal — and I quote — ‘I’m always for less regulation.’ ”

“But the full quotation from Mr. McCain’s March interview with the Journal’s editorial board belies Mr. Obama’s one-sided rendition. The Republican candidate went on to say, “But I am aware of the view that there is a need for government oversight. I think we found this in the subprime lending crisis — that there are people that game the system and if not outright broke the law, they certainly engaged in unethical conduct which made this problem worse. So I do believe that there is role for oversight.”

“…when it comes to regulating financial institutions and corporate misconduct, Mr. McCain’s record is more in keeping with his current rhetoric. In the aftermath of the Enron collapse and other accounting scandals, he was a leader, with Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), in pushing to require that companies treat stock options granted to employees as expenses on their balance sheets. “I have long opposed unnecessary regulation of business activity, mindful that the heavy hand of government can discourage innovation,” he wrote in a July 2002 op-ed in the New York Times. “But in the current climate only a restoration of the system of checks and balances that once protected the American investor — and that has seriously deteriorated over the past 10 years — can restore the confidence that makes financial markets work.”

“Mr. McCain was an early voice calling for the resignation of Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Harvey Pitt, charging that he “seems to prefer industry self-policing to necessary lawmaking. Government’s demands for corporate accountability are only credible if government executives are held accountable as well.”

“In 2006, he pushed for stronger regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — while Mr. Obama was notably silent. “If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole,” Mr. McCain warned at the time.”

“One element of the Obama campaign’s brief against Mr. McCain is that he supported repeal of the law separating commercial banks from investment banks. “He’s spent decades in Washington supporting financial institutions instead of their customers,” Mr. Obama said yesterday. “Phil Gramm, one of the architects of the deregulation in Washington that led directly to this mess on Wall Street, is also the architect of John McCain’s economic plan.” Would it be churlish to point out that another author of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley law is former congressman Jim Leach, a founder of Republicans for Obama? Or that Obama advisers Lawrence H. Summers and Robert E. Rubin supported the repeal — which was signed by President Bill Clinton?”

“It’s a reasonable question which candidate has been more attentive to the brewing problems on Wall Street and which has a better prescription for them. But Mr. Obama’s attack does not give a fair reading of the McCain record.”

Again, the audacity of Obama’s hope and change lies in, well, lies! When your media allies, like the Washington Post, start catching (more than reasonable) fabrications in your positions, you’re on the slippery slope Hillary Clinton slid down earlier this year and your enemies are closer than you think.

Quoting in context: social engineering results apparent September 18, 2008

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“Let’s be clear,” Mr. Obama said sternly. “What we’ve seen the last few days is nothing less than the final verdict on an economic philosophy that has completely failed.” – New York Times, Sep 17, 2008

“Stern” indeed, from the leader of the political party that helped create the situation, as we are reminded:

“[Barack] Obama… blamed the shocking new round of subprime-related bankruptcies on the free-market system, and specifically the ‘trickle-down’ economics of the Bush administration, which he tried to gig opponent John McCain for wanting to extend. But it was the Clinton administration, obsessed with multiculturalism, that dictated where mortgage lenders could lend, and originally helped create the market for the high-risk subprime loans now infecting like a retrovirus the balance sheets of many of Wall Street’s most revered institutions. Tough new regulations forced lenders into high-risk areas where they had no choice but to lower lending standards to make the loans that sound business practices had previously guarded against making. It was either that or face stiff government penalties. The untold story in this whole national crisis is that President Clinton put on steroids the Community Redevelopment Act, a well-intended Carter-era law designed to encourage minority homeownership. And in so doing, he helped create the market for the risky subprime loans that he and Democrats now decry as not only greedy but ‘predatory.’ Yes, the market was fueled by greed and overleveraging in the secondary market for subprimes, vis-a-vis mortgaged-backed securities traded on Wall Street. But the seed was planted in the ‘90s by Clinton and his social engineers.”
—Investor’s Business Daily

I could spend time to indict Obama and Democrats on this topic, but let the man do the job himself:

“Instead of offering up concrete plans to solve these issues, Senator McCain offered up the oldest Washington stunt in the book: you pass the buck to a commission to study the problem,” Mr. Obama said. “But here’s the thing — this isn’t 9/11. We know how we got into this mess. What we need now is leadership that gets us out.” – New York Times, Sep 17. 2008

We know how, indeed! And the Clintonian/Obamanation “leadership” is not the answer.

“It’s the economy, stupid!” (Recalling Clintonian Yell) September 16, 2008

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I’m one of the fortunate ones, I guess. I don’t have the kind of money that is ravaged by the malfeasance of investment bankers. The company I work for is privately held so it might feel a bump, but otherwise, the hiring has been frozen and the travel budgets slashed months ago, so I feel nothing. Some of my clients that are leveraged or heavily invested in the Wall Street menagerie will likely feel something, some soon, some later, but most will weather it just fine. So, John McCain is right, as far as I can tell, the fundamentals of the economy are sound. What’s wrong on Wall Street may trickle down to Main Street in some sectors or regions, but the rest of us will be little more than uncomfortable, and that only when we talk to friends who are impacted by it.

The good news is that Barack Obama and Joe Biden can only throw liberal bromides at the situation. “The big bad companies gone wild” approach to dismantling all that is good with capitalism to punish a minority of abusers. Obama is now beginning to hope he can claim the ground Bill Clinton did to help win in 1992: “It’s the economy, stupid!” By the way, Clinton and Obama both direct that “stupid” at you and me…the great unwashed in the hinterlands outside the original 13 colonies. They know better than we do, just get over it, is the message.

Clinton was fortunate to have Ross Perot steal the conservatives from George HW Bush in 1992. Otherwise, HW would have gotten his second term. McCain pre-empted that situation with Sarah Palin. Obama has no cover since he is wedded to another like-minded liberal and, holy cow, a senator! So far, so good with Palin.

The bottom line is reforming the economic mess on Wall Street and ceasing bailing out private business with taxpayer funds (e.g, GM, Freddie, Fannie) is not a task for beginners. For whatever John McCain and Sarah Palin are, they aren’t beginners. I give them a 75% chance to address this situation forcefully and effectively, if elected. Obama wouldn’t get out of the gate on this, or most other issues, in four years.

If it’s the economy, then you’d be stupid to elect Obama. And Bill knows it, too.

Just Sit September 11, 2008

Posted by vsap in Poetry, Uncategorized.
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I waved off the server, no dessert tonight.
Deciding it was better to move outside, light a cigarette, and sit.
Just sit.
That’s not allowed anymore, really,
even in the throes of a slacker nation,
mere sitting is equal to laziness or inactivity, and
God forbid, taking a handful of moments and deciding to sit,
it’s just so careless.
And so it is in the era of cutting back and conservation
in the face of so many who urge me on to a new age liberality.
My cigarette and I are not conflicted
as we mindlessly burn, glowing hot but softly.
I can speculate on the nature of this,
I know the pundits and bloggers will even if I don’t,
there’s too many voids to fill, too many noises to make,
too much to be made of the mundane to let anything pass.
It could make me a star, if the time is right,
if I’m seen at the right moment by the right people
as they scan, cinematic eyes, glassy and gleaming.
I’m not tired or in the midst of some intense emotional storm,
I decided just to sit.
Something that will likely be criminal in that not-too-distant
Terminator-Blade Runner-Escape From New York future
we’ve been told for decades to prepare for.
Sometimes there is no preparation.
No amount of practice can prepare us for certain things.
So, take a moment, or a handful of moments,
and just sit.

Reflecting on September 11, 2001 September 10, 2008

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I was eleven days out of work in suburban Chicago on September 11, 2001. My daughter’s first week away at college as a freshman. My son off to grade school and my wife off to work. I was shuffling through resumes while I waited for my dial-up AOL service to give me the news of the day. Michael Jordan coming out of retirement again? Winners never know WHEN to quit, I thought to myself.

Spreading papers on the floor to try to get my focus on my job search I was distracted for a few minutes. I refreshed the news page out of habit, I guess, and there was a photo of some kind of explosion at the World Trade Center in New York.

As I was looking at the page, the phone rang. My wife asking urgently, “Are you watching this?” I wasn’t so I went over to the bedroom and turned on the TV. What could I think? I told her to sit tight and I would call her back when I could sort it out. As if it was in my power as a husband to fix this. Not five minutes passed when the phone rang again. My daughter. Nearly panicked, she asked more urgently than my wife, “What’s going on daddy? Are we all going to die?” As calmly as I could I explained the small town where she was sitting wasn’t a likely target for terror, if that was what this was. It still wasn’t clear to me. I told her just to sit tight and pray. I would call her back shortly. It took less than an hour for it to begin to sink in. By 11 am it was abundantly clear.

As we sit here seven years later, we all know what happened. Well, all of us but the handful who still believe George Bush or “the government” did it. It was a moment when our nation was presented the face and grip of evil like never before. It was obvious. Today, it doesn’t seem as obvious anymore to many who’d rather believe in the basic goodness of humanity instead of its basic depravity. How could it take such a short time to stray back to the former path that led to this disaster?

One reason could be that not enough of us have visited that field in Pennsylvania, the Pentagon or the Twin Towers site, with the goal of re-visiting those essential feelings. I did that with my son in April 2007 on a visit to New York City. It was an uncharacteristically cool and rainy period in the city but it didn’t stop us from doing all the tourist stuff we set out to do. We arrived about mid-morning in a light rain. Emerging from the subway and walking over to the site, I felt the bitterness of sadness underpinned with an unspeakable anger. As we arrived at the side with all the memorials of people who died, I cried, more deeply and mournfully than I thought possible. My son put his hand on my shoulder and I remember clenching my teeth and saying, “Kill them all. Damn them. Kill them all.” After I calmed down I didn’t apologize to anyone for what I said. I meant it. The rain wouldn’t cleanse this wound. Divine retribution would be the only solution. As God had planned it, that power was not mine so the feeling passed harmlessly enough, or so it seemed.

Seven years later I harbor the same feeling. I don’t breakdown and cry as often as I might if I saw the places frequently, but I still don’t seek forgiveness or absolution for this thing. I consider it righteous indignation. I have discovered that there are times when healing doesn’t come. I have discovered that there are times when there is no closure, no peace. I have come to believe that it is put there to steel my resolve, strengthen my heart for the loose ends this fallen world leaves us with from time to time. So, I won’t forget September 11, 2001, even if I was a thousand miles away and didn’t lose anyone directly associated with me. That’s a loose end that won’t be tied.

Did I find a job? Yes, in November 2001 in Virginia, about 50 miles from DC. It was just in time to endure the DC Sniper, but that’s a story for another time.

God is back in the mix! September 10, 2008

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“When liberals start acting like they’re opposed to pre-marital sex and mothers having careers, you know McCain’s vice presidential choice has knocked them back on their heels.” – Ann Coulter

I’m not here to adore Ann Coulter. Today I want to give space to Peggy Noonan. Whose open mic situation on MSNBC notwithstanding, has shown to be a reasonable columnist for the Wall Street Journal and author of some renown. As an observer she recently stated:

“Let me say of myself and almost everyone I know in the press, all the chattering classes and political strategists and inside dopesters of the Amtrak Acela Line: We live in a bubble and have around us bubble people. We are Bubbleheads… And when you forget you’re a Bubblehead you get in trouble, you misjudge things. For one thing, you assume evangelical Christians will be appalled and left agitated by the circumstances of Mrs. Palin’s daughter. But modern American evangelicals are among the last people who’d judge her harshly. It is the left that is about to go crazy with Puritan judgments; it is the right that is about to show what mellow looks like. Religious conservatives know something’s wrong with us, that man’s a mess. They are not left dazed by the latest applications of this fact. ‘This just in—there’s a lot of sinning going on out there’ is not a headline they’d understand to be news. So the media’s going to wait for the Christian right to rise up and condemn Mrs. Palin, and they’re not going to do it because it’s not their way, and in any case her problems are their problems. Christians lived through the second half of the 20th century, and the first years of the 21st. They weren’t immune from the culture, they just eventually broke from it, or came to hold themselves in some ways apart from it. I think the media will explain the lack of condemnation as ‘Republican loyalty’ and ‘talking points.’ But that’s not what it will be. Another Bubblehead blind spot. I’m bumping into a lot of critics who do not buy the legitimacy of small town mayorship… and executive as opposed to legislative experience. But executives, even of small towns, run something. There are 262 cities in this country with a population of 100,000 or more. But there are close to a hundred thousand small towns with ten thousand people or less. ‘You do the math,’ the conservative pollster Kellyanne Conway told me. ‘We are a nation of Wasillas, not Chicagos’.”- Peggy Noonan

Coulter may have said in two sentences what Noonan arrived at, but the latter did a necessary exercise in the delineation of the two forces at work in this election: the secular-driven community and the faith-based community. God is at the center of one and “this world” (all you can see, feel and touch) is the center of the other. I am a Christian and I do see the world as black and white, good and evil. Liberals like to harp on the “holier-than-thou” attitude of some of us and the “narrow gate” theology we believe in. It’s understandable, if you’ve intellectually accepted that there is no God, that you believe there is no place for this type of spiritual fabrication in the public discourse. So, you begin to dismantle any reference to God, and, over the course of the 20th Century, you are famously successful in doing so. What this has lead to is the slow, painful cancer-like process of literally burning the soul out of the nation. It is disingenuous to wonder why people don’t seem to care “anymore” when, if you simply gaze into the mirror, you are the perfect reflection of the failed liberal path we have chosen.

Noonan is correct to observe that we have decided to stand apart. However, this decision was made farther back than she might care to admit. It is an odd thing that God will sometimes allow us humans to dive deep into our excesses before pulling us out. In the Old Testament, Israel and Judah earned much of God’s wrath. And, while we’re a New Testament people, saved and forgiven, it doesn’t mean we are free from the responsibility of our excesses. Ultimately, then, we will be punished not because we aren’t saved, but because we were neither hot nor cold in the century past and the liberals were able to allow evil to achieve a foothold it could never have earned on its own. All as we watched.

Sarah Palin, with all her flaws, appears to be an offer of redemption of sorts. “If we can elect this godly woman to top office, maybe all isn’t lost for us!” At least, some of us think that. Coming from a humble place, the Savior could see life like the Pharisees, Rabbis, and Romans could not. They didn’t take kindly to His way. How could a boy born of a lowly carpenter speak with such authority? But so it has been through the ages, those not of “the manor born” can’t possibly be fit to lead. Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, lead? Impossible. Improbable. And, as far as I’m concerned, it’s fine that the liberals or secular humanists disbelieve in the audacity of hope that has unfolded in front of them in the form of Sarah Palin.

It’s true. For the moment we’ve set aside our differences with John McCain. Even better, we’ve pretty much set aside B. Hussein Obama and Joe Biden. But there will be other battles for other days in this war for the soul of America. If Palin has put the topic (soul of America) back on the table, and it has to be reckoned with at least within each of us if not publicly, then God will be delighted with the angst it brings.

Newsweek: weak as water, listing left September 8, 2008

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Newsweek’s Andrew Romano in “The Perfect Palin Response?” gives a segway to Dems on handling the problem of Palin…

“Today in Green Bay, Biden effectively dismantled this notion. Noting that “it’s 2008″ and not some sort of “time warp,” the Democratic No. 2 reminded his audience that “there are an awful lot of very, very accomplished women holding office that I debate, and we beat up each other every day in the United States Senate.” He continued: “Try debating Barbara Mikulski. Try debating Barbara Boxer. Try debating Olympia Snowe. So the idea that there’s a woman and somehow we go, ‘Oh, my God, I don’t know how to deal with this’ … the only guys who think that way have never been around strong women.” He’ll assume, he said, that Palin is “as smart as I am, as thorough as I am, and knows as much as I do”–and that’s that. “She’s going to have to answer questions,” he added. By tackling the specter of sexism head on, Biden has cleverly reframed the debate. It’s not “sexist” to hit Palin hard, he’s saying.”

Of course, the problem for Newsweek is the problem of MSNBC: blatant cheerleading for the Dems. For the latter, it cost Chris Matthews and Keith “Overthetop” those coveted anchor chairs for the balance of the campaign. NBC discovered, too late to save itself, that these two goofs had no business occupying seats of authority, anywhere under any circumstance. For Romano, he’s the only one who seems to think that Biden “cleverly reframed the debate” on sexism. You see, there was none from the outset. It simply shows when you have nothing, you fabricate, and then you find a quote to support your supposition. If this is journalism, or even critical analysis, then it’s just a half-notch above blogger status. The only difference being that Romano gets his check from a formerly reliable news magazine and a blogger does not.

Jim Acosta from CNN reports another angle from Joe Biden’s Green Bay ramblings…

“Sarah Palin has made a couple really good political speeches. She makes a very strong and confident impression. But Sarah Palin eventually is going to have to do what I do,” Biden said Monday during a campaign rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin. “She’s going to have to answer questions. She’s going to have to say where she wants to take America and she’s going to have to say what her record was and defend her record,” he said.

Bully for you, Joe! That’ll get her shakin’ in her fur-lined boots! If Biden has bothered to watch the gubernatorial debate between Palin and Democrat Tony Knowles, then he already knows she will have answers. What he doesn’t know how to do is run a city or a state. Long-winded intellectual diatribes on foreign and domestic policy do not win voters over…ask John Kerry. The northeasterners penchant for superiority does not impress midwesterners or westerners very much. Barack Obama may be a senator from Illinois but he’s as Illinois as Hillary Clinton is Arkansas. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, et al, haughtiness can have a very negative impact on us great unwashed outside the original 13 colonies, clutching to our guns and religion as bitterly as we do.

Acosta finishes with…

“It’s an old political adage that people don’t vote for the bottom of the ticket, but Biden versus Palin at this year’s vice-presidential debate may be one of the hottest political events of the year.”

He’s right. And if Joe is as good as he thinks he is and he destroys Palin in debate, we might need to re-group and assess the failure. But if she holds her own, which I suspect she will, with or without all the “answers” (as liberals define them), then Barack and Joe will lose much ground. The kid from Scranton will have been bloodied by the hockey mom from Wasilla. That would be joy!