Pending Announcement...McCain's Running Mate Rob Portman

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/07/24/meet-the-republican-vp-prospect-rob-portman/

Rob Portman

John McCain with former Rep. Rob Portman, right, at a campaign event in Cincinnati. (Associated Press)

Rob Portman has done plenty of training for the vice presidential debates, but this year he might get the Republican talking points. After standing in as George W. Bush’s and Dick Cheney’s debate-prep opponents in 2000 and 2004, Portman, 52 years old, may see prime-time this year in the vice presidential debate Oct. 2. Largely unknown outside his district, the former representative’s credibility as potential number two has been bolstered by nearly 20 years in national politics, high marks from the Washington Beltway crowd and the good fortune to call Ohio home.

For a low-visibility politician, Portman has seen plenty of the federal government, running the Office of Legislative Affairs for the first President Bush and the serving as U.S. trade representative and budget director for the second, in addition to a dozen years in Congress. His experience with federal budgets from both the legislative and executive sides has established his economic expertise, and his work on foreign trade has burnished his diplomatic credentials. All that, and he just broke the half-century mark, making him the rare vice-presidential contender who could bring both youth and experience to McCain’s side. On social issues meanwhile, Portman has put together a record conservative enough for the party base while generally avoiding the bitterness of the culture wars. The result has been plaudits from pundits like David Brooks and kind words from Democratic leaders like Harry Reid and Steny Hoyer, even as Portman has often been a point man for the Bush administration’s agenda in Congress.

Portman’s associations with the current administration, however, while on the Hill and in the Cabinet, may be too much of a liability for a Republican candidate trying to distance himself from Bush’s record unpopularity. Portman’s hometown paper has called him “a talking head for the Bush agenda,” and you can expect that line three dozen times before nightfall on the day he’s announced to the ticket. Also, while Ohio is a must-win state for McCain, Portman’s name recognition drops precipitously outside of the second congressional district — to “maybe 12 percent” statewide, in the words of one Republican booster. Familiarity with Nafta and Cafta, meanwhile, registers a lot closer to 100.

Bio Brief:

Age: 52

Job: Former congressman

From: Ohio

Education: Dartmouth, 1979; University of Michigan Law, 1984

Experience: Lawyer, 1984-89; President’s Office of Legislative Affairs, 1989-91; House of Representatives, 1993-2005; U.S. Trade Representative, 2005-06; President’s Budget Director, 2006-07.

Political interests: Fiscal discipline, foreign trade

Endorsed McCain: Feb. 26

Pros: Budget expertise, diverse federal experience, Ohio (Ohio…) (Ohio…)

Cons: Bush administration ties, foreign trade background, Rob who?

Obama, the Muslim Thing, And Why It Matters by Pamela Geller

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/7688



01/09/08, 7:16 PM

He knows the stakes involved.

The thing is, you can't be a leader and not know what Islam means. The average Joe pumping gas on Route 66 - okay, not on top of the issue. But there is no way you can be running for President and not know the hell being wreaked on the free and not-so-free world by Islamic jihad.

 

That said, Barack Obama went to a madrassa in Jakarta. A madrassa in a Muslim country. Whether he was devout or secular, he knows what was taught. He knows what is in the Koran. Even if he is ambiguous, he knows the stakes involved. His father was a

Every Muslim who left Islam is very definitive about leaving and why.

Muslim who took three wives (without divorcing). His stepfather and close members of his family are devout Muslims. Not an unimportant influence.

Every Muslim who left Islam is very definitive about leaving and why. They are quite vocal - Wafa Sultan, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Walid Shoebat, Elijah Abraham, etc. If he left Islam, Obama must have very definite thoughts about it. He has to, he practiced Islam. That is not benign; it's big. And even if, as inferred by big media, it was not big to him, then he can still appreciate how important it is knowing what he knows about Islam and apostasy.

Obama would have had to make a decision to reject Islam. When did he make that decision? How? Why the silence? Why the reluctance to talk about it?

Apostasy is punishable by death in Islam. Have there been calls for Obama's death? If not, why not? Islam gives no free passes.

Obama's posture on this is hard to define or understand, because it is a critical issue.

Transitional issues facing this nation and the world at large - the world at war, creeping sharia, the perversion of the rights of free men, individuals, women, etc., hang in the balance on the make up of the next president of the United States. The stakes could not be higher domestically.

On foreign policy, Europe has laid down. The political elites have capitulated to Islamists and to multiculturalists. Suicide. It seems unclear that they could hold up their end even if America did the heavy lifting.

As far as Israel is concerned, if Obama makes it to the big house, Israel is screwed. Finished.Obama's church and Jew-hating pastor, Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., makes that evident. Israel will be on its own.

Perhaps that is necessary, though, because it seems they have relinquished their sovereignty to the US and they expect the US to guarantee their security. Ain't never

If Obama makes it to the big house, Israel is screwed.

gonna' happen. No country, ever, should abdicate its role in protecting and defending itself. Ehud Olmert is on a one-way trip to nowhere. So maybe tough love is necessary, because this relationship is hurting Israel.

The recent revelations of Obama's ties to Raila Odinga in Kenya are disconcerting as well, because Odinga is behind the terrible violence in his country. It was he who instigated bloody riots and killing after he lost the election. Obama's bias for his fellow Luo was so blatant that a Kenyan government spokesman denounced Obama during his visit as Raila's "stooge." And while there are few angels in Kenya, Odinga is the source of great unrest and turmoil; and the MOU he signed with the Muslim Council to institute sharia is a foreshadowing of a dark fate for Kenya. (A Jacksonian picked up on my previous post on this and wrote a lengthy, well-researched piece on the politics and back story on Odinga.) Just how quickly will Kenya go Islamic?

We must be allowed to ask these questions. I do not embrace change for the sake of change - the impossible new buzzword on the campaign trail. Jimmy Carter was the dark horse, the new unknown, and he was an unmitigated disaster. The worst, most damaging president in US history, in my opinion.

This could be even worse. And so, I implore my fellow Americans to question, question, question. The potential damage to this country is incalculable. These are dangerous times, my friends; reckless and capricious intellectual laziness will have disastrous consequences.

The emes.

Pamela Geller is the former associate publisher of the New York Observer and the founder of the "Atlas Shrugs" website.

Jewish Dem donor joins McCain team By Alexander Bolton

Source: http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/jewish-dem-donor-joins-mccain-team-2008-06-10.html

Posted: 06/10/08 07:30 PM [ET]

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is attracting elite Jewish Democratic donors who backed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and are concerned about Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) stance toward Israel, say McCain backers who are organizing the effort to court Democrats.

McCain has already had several fundraising events with Jewish Democrats in Washington and Florida, say his supporters.

He also has the backing of Democrat-turned-Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman (Conn.), who made history as the first Jewish vice presidential candidate and has recently raised questions about Obama’s foreign policy vision for the Middle East.

Stephen Muss, the Florida developer, is the biggest Democratic donor and fundraiser to pledge his support for McCain and the Republican National Committee, said a GOP official. Muss has given tens of thousands of dollars to help Democratic candidates in recent years, including $80,000 to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in 2000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics and CQ MoneyLine.

Muss did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday afternoon.

“Many Jewish Democrats are sensing there is such an existential threat to Israel that you have to vote for an individual who strongly supports the U.S.-Israel relationship,” said Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), chairman of the GOP’s Jewish Victory Coalition.

Cantor said McCain held a fundraising breakfast with Republican and Democratic Jewish donors last week at the Hyatt Hotel in Washington, D.C.

“The playing field is wide open for John McCain as far as attracting Jewish support,” he said.

Cantor said Muss would help bring more Jewish Democratic donors in South Florida over to McCain.

“He’s an influential player,” said Cantor. “From my knowledge of his influence in South Florida, that’s significant.”

Brian Ballard, a prominent McCain fundraiser, said that several major Jewish Democratic donors have said they will join McCain’s camp.

“There are Bill Clinton folks who for the last three to six months we’ve been pushing to get involved,” said Ballard in an interview last week, referring to former President Bill Clinton. “In Florida there are a lot of people not happy with Obama’s stance with regards to Israel and regards to Cuba. We’re starting to see some significant people come over.

“Democrats who are traditional large Democratic givers are coming over to our side,” said Ballard.

Jewish support is especially important in Florida, a crucial swing state where Obama trails McCain in recent polls. Jewish voters make up about 5 percent of the electorate in that state. Florida’s Jewish community is also a lucrative source of political fundraising.

Jewish Democrats are concerned about Obama’s stance toward Israel, and many big donors from this group supported Clinton. McCain has moved aggressively in recent days to win their allegiance since Clinton dropped her White House bid.

“Her dropping out was huge in terms of potential for crossover voting and crossover support,” said Cantor.

Jewish Democrats are concerned about Obama for several reasons. While stumping in Iowa last year, Obama told Democratic activists, “Nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian people.”

Some Jewish voters interpreted the statement as a sign that Obama would be overly sympathetic to the Palestinian side in future peace negotiations with Israel. And some are concerned about a senior Obama adviser’s comments regarding the influence of American Jews on foreign policy. Merrill “Tony” McPeak, the former Air Force chief of staff, told the Portland Oregonian newspaper in 2003 that the political influence of the Jewish community had hampered efforts to negotiate peace in the Middle East.

Obama has also caused some alarm among Jewish Democrats by pledging to negotiate with leaders of nations that have taken hostile stances against Israel, such as Syria and Iran.

The growing sympathy of Jewish Democrats toward McCain is epitomized by Lieberman, a self-described independent Democrat from Connecticut.

Lieberman has launched a new bipartisan grassroots group, Citizens for McCain, to attract Democrats and independent voters to the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.

Lieberman could become a potent weapon for Republicans seeking to pick off Jewish Democrats. As the Democratic Party’s former vice presidential nominee and a former Democratic candidate for president, Lieberman is assumed to have an expansive list of Jewish Democratic donors from around the country.

“Joe Lieberman supporting McCain has gone a long way with the Democratic Jewish community,” said Stu Sandler, deputy executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

“People across the board have had trouble with Obama’s stances and some of the people he’s had around him,” said Sandler, citing McPeak.

Sandler said that McCain met with a group of 60 Jewish leaders, including “a handful” of Clinton supporters, before a conference hosted in Washington last week by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

McCain held a fundraiser with Jewish donors on Friday in Key Biscayne, Fla. Before the main event, McCain met with a roomful of Jewish Democratic donors to discuss Israel and other issues important to them.

As many as two dozen Jewish Democrats who attended the meeting gave money to McCain’s campaign at the fundraiser, which raised about $500,000, said a source close to the event’s organizers.

Prominent Democratic fundraisers, however, say they have not encountered Clinton donors who are planning to defect to McCain.

“I’ve talked to a lot of people in the past couple of days and I have not spoken to anybody who was supporting Hillary Clinton and who has indicated any likelihood of supporting McCain,” said Steve Grossman, a former co-chairman of the Democratic National Committee and a former chairman of AIPAC, who raised tens of thousands of dollars for Clinton this election cycle.

Obama under fire for comment on Palestinians

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17631015/

Iowa Democrat calls presidential hopeful’s remark ‘deeply troubling’



Associated Press
updated 3:16 p.m. ET, Thurs., March. 15, 2007

Obama under fire for Palestinian comments
March 15: Barack Obama is under fire for telling an Iowa Jewish group that "no one's suffering more than Palestinians. MSNBC-TV’s Chris Jansing and Chicago Tribune’s James Warren discuss.

DES MOINES, Iowa - A prominent Iowa Democrat says he is troubled by Sen. Barack Obama’s comment about the Palestinians and pressed the Democratic presidential candidate to clarify his remarks.

Obama, speaking to a small group of Democratic activists in Muscatine on Sunday, was quoted in the Des Moines Register as saying, “Nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian people.”

David Adelman wrote a letter Tuesday to Obama calling the comment “deeply troubling.” Adelman is a member of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which lobbies in support of a strong relationship between the United States and Israel, and the Greater Des Moines Jewish Federation.

Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for Obama, said the senator’s comments were consistent with his previous statements.

“Senator Obama has always said that the security of Israel should be America’s starting point in the Middle East,” Vietor said. “As he stated in his speech (at AIPAC) and again in Iowa, he also believes that in the end, the Palestinian people are suffering from the Hamas-led government’s refusal to renounce terrorism and join as a real partner in the peace process.”

Adelman, a Des Moines attorney, is a politically active Democrat and works as a lobbyist, but he said he has not yet made a choice on whom he will support in 2008.

Palin's Gas Pipeline Isn't Hot Air

Source: http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=303693123946167

By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Friday, August 15, 2008 4:20 PM PT

Energy: As congressional Democrats dither on a vote for oil drilling, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has pushed through a gas pipeline project to bring new supply and price relief to the lower 48.

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Read More: Energy

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On Aug. 1, the same day the call for a vote on drilling began on the House floor, the Alaska state Senate approved a package of measures to license a new natural gas pipeline. House Bill 3001 lets Palin award the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act license to TransCanada Alaska, a pipeline builder that cast a winning bid of five.

The legislature had been trying for 30 years to authorize something like this and, up until now, had blown it. Palin got it through. Getting it off the ground, the state says, will be the biggest construction project in U.S. history.

Palin considers the $26 billion project her biggest accomplishment as governor. "It was not easy," she told IBD. "Alaska has been hoping and dreaming for a natural gas pipeline for decades. What it took was getting off the dime and creating a competitive market in Alaska."

View larger image

The 1,715-mile gas line would stretch from Alaska's North Slope to Fairbanks and down to Alberta, Canada. Then it would take existing gas lines to Idaho. In 10 years, Palin says, the lower 48 states would receive 4.5 million cubic feet of natural gas a day. By 2030, according to Energy Department estimates, Alaska's annual natgas production would quintuple to 2 trillion cubic feet.

Minus a pipeline, Alaska's abundant gas largely ends up pumped back into the ground to be used to pressurize oil fields and aid in extraction. With oil production in Alaska's Prudhoe Bay region declining and Congress continuing to drag its feet on new oil drilling, one of the few things Alaska can do is sell some of the gas now.

The new supply could bring price relief to anyone who uses home heating, electricity, farm fertilizers or manufactured goods in the U.S. "Not only is this economical for all players involved; it's wildly needed," said Palin.

The pipeline does spark controversy. Two of Alaska's biggest three oil producers, BP and ConocoPhillips, think the state is too involved. They are working on a gas line project of their own called Denali.

At first glance, it would seem the more gas lines, the merrier. But neither Palin nor BP/ConocoPhillips thinks more than one multibillion dollar gas line will be profitable, based on what's known of Alaska's resources. So both sides think the projects may eventually merge.

BP/Conoco argues that its gas line will be more efficient, but Palin's project has something a little different — political viability, something that could smooth the path to production at a time when activist lawsuits and protests gum up production as badly as Congress does.

Although a package of state goodies demanded by various constituencies could add costs, it also could be a trade-off to actually getting the project off the ground.

Palin justified it this way: "We wanted this in a competitive environment and asked companies what they could offer Alaska. Alaska is going to lay down the law (and) say, 'If you want to build this line, here is what Alaska must have: protection for the environment, in-state use of resources, jobs for Alaskans.' "

The job isn't done, but Palin isn't going on vacation.

"We still have so much to do — to break ground, to build," she said. "We'll keep ramping up oil production, educating Congress to allow ANWR to be tapped and to prove we can ethically and responsibly drill so Alaska can produce for everyone. Alaska should be the head, not the tail, to the energy solution."

Small wonder, then, that Alaska has one popular governor. If only congressional Democrats could also get off the dime.

Obama and black America - Erin Aubry Kaplan & Juan Williams

Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-williams-kaplan5-2008aug05,0,6531896.story

Erin Aubry Kaplan says that although Obama's candidacy is historic, whether it will result in meaningful progress remains to be seen. Juan Williams says it isn’t fair to put the weight of civil rights history on Obama’s shoulders.

August 5, 2008

Today's question: Does Barack Obama's candidacy signify a turning point in the history of the American civil rights movement? Previously, Kaplan and Williams discussed the leadership and goals of the modern civil rights movement.

A historic candidacy, but how much progress?

Point: Erin Aubry Kaplan

There's no question that Barack Obama's bid for the presidency is historic. It's a milestone that many of us, black and white, never thought we'd hit in our lifetime. If Obama were to disappear tomorrow, I'd still be reeling from the realization that a person of color came so close to occupying the White House (an idea that's resonated with special significance this election year). Given all the problems and inequalities that still characterize much of black America and the overwhelmingly negative images of black men the media still portray, his rise is even more impressive. Obama's skills and qualifications notwithstanding, he's beating the odds in an unprecedented way.

But whether his candidacy (or presidency) is a turning point beyond the racial symbolism remains to be seen. Though Obama's politics were certainly shaped by the civil rights movement -- he was a community organizer in Chicago's South Side and taught racism and the law at the University of Chicago -- it's hard to know how much of that will inform his leadership as president should he win the election. Of course, he hasn't been campaigning as a "black" candidate, but black people don't really expect him to. As Obama supporter Amiri Baraka said recently, "He is not running for the president of the NAACP." We all know he's stumping for every American, and black people know better than anybody the fine line you have to walk to win over whites and non-blacks who resist the idea of black people representing them in any meaningful way.



That said, Obama should certainly address issues of concern to African Americans, not simply because he's one of us (though that helps) but because such issues impact all of us. The state of black people has always been a barometer of how well America is fulfilling its democratic ideals. For that reason, all presidents, not just Obama, should be held accountable for addressing and redressing "black" issues, which have been the same for a very long time: education, housing, employment and criminal justice.



Unfortunately, we have a terrible history of presidents -- and politicians in general -- even acknowledging that black issues are important American issues. After Lincoln, FDR and Lyndon Johnson, there's virtually nobody else. ( Bill Clinton was popular with black folks, but his policies didn't serve them well, to say the least). We have very few role models for this. So as much as it distresses me, it makes sense that the public today believes that a black president should not address matters of importance to black people because doing so would be a sign of racial regression, not progress.



This is totally Orwellian logic to me. But it's a product of a post-racial campaign that this country has been running for the last couple of decades, and it's been effective. We can congratulate ourselves for having a black candidate, but that candidate can't identify too much with other black people or he risks losing his appeal, magic or whatever. It's the same old game America has always played, defining the limits and qualifications of blackness to its liking and comfort level. That's not justice. I still have great hope for Obama, though probably not the same kind of hope most of his supporters have.



Erin Aubry Kaplan is a freelance writer and contributing editor to Opinion. She is a former weekly columnist for The Times and a former LA Weekly staff writer. She blogs at threebrothersandasister.blogspot.com.

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Obama is bigger than any community

Counterpoint: Juan Williams

Obama's sensational run for the White House is historic. It is a milestone in American history and politics and hopefully signals cultural sea change in the capacity of whites to see people of any color -- and especially black people -- as American leaders.



But every success for a black person is not a civil rights victory. It was a civil rights victory when President Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act, clearing the way for the federal government to protect the rights of black people to vote. That law led to an unprecedented increase in the number of black voters and has changed the political power equation in America. It is the heart of real black power.



The 1964 Civil Rights Act, also aided by federal courts, opened the doors of equal opportunity to all Americans. Combined with the power of the 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education, the 1964 legislation boosted job and educational opportunities for black people and sparked a stunning transformation of American society. The results are clear: The U.S. has a larger black middle class and people of color have more political influence in governing bodies ranging from local school boards to city halls to Congress.



The Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act and the Brown decision are the definitive civil rights victories of the last few generations.



Obama's breakthrough is partly rooted in the power of the black vote in the Democratic Party. But don't forget that Obama got his initial boost from young white voters as some African- American voices initially questioned whether he could win and whether he was authentically black. Indeed, the nearly all-white voters in the Iowa caucuses set the Obama campaign on its winning path.



Erin, you spin off into a debate far from the question of civil rights victories when you argue about the need for Obama to address black issues. He is a politician trying to win the biggest prize in American politics. To win, he will make deals, flip-flop, compromise and even turn his back on anybody dragging him down. Politicians are like that. They are not civil rights leaders operating on their conscience or appeals to justice. Obama advertises himself as a post-racial candidate who crosses ethnic boundaries to speak to issues that unify Americans. Far too many souls want to make Obama a black leader and put the weight of civil rights history on his shoulders.



When it comes to Obama and the history of the black movement in America, the most apt metaphor is that of a flower. Obama is one particularly eye-catching flower of a movement that has grown through hard Earth and vines. He has endured heels that would have crushed any hand planting a seed. His success, rooted in his impressive education, would not be possible without the civil rights victories throughout American history. But you cannot discount the host of other factors that have enabled Obama's meteoric rise, including demographic shifts, economic changes, immigration and a gradual change of heart among a large number of whites. That is why Obama is both of the black community and bigger than the black community.



Juan Williams is a senior correspondent for National Public Radio, a Fox News analyst and author of "Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America -- and What We Can Do About It."

The alternative-energy bubble by Steve Tobak

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13555_3-10007628-34.html

August 6, 2008 6:05 AM PDT

What do you get when you mix Al Gore, global warming, whacky environmentalists, skyrocketing oil prices, lots of venture funding, and irrational exuberance? An alternative-energy bubble.

What, you don't believe that there's an alternative-energy bubble? Then you're just not paying attention. It may not be the biggest bubble in the history of technology--yet. And it may not be ready to burst--yet. But it's a bubble, all right. All the signs are there.

In solar energy alone, hundreds of millions of dollars of venture funds have been poured into the likes of Nanosolar, SoloPower, OptiSolar, HelioVolt, eSolar, SolFocus, Solel, Miasole, GreenVolts, Hydro Green, Infinia, Sopogy, Cyrium, SkyFuel, BrightSource Energy--the list goes on and on.

All the usual suspects are in the game: big-name venture capital firms, investment banks, private-equity firms, energy companies, technology companies, individual investors, a new batch of investment companies focused primarily on energy, and even a hedge fund or two.

There are lots of recognizable names, as well, including Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Microsoft founder Paul Allen, and Sun Microsystems founder and ex-Kleiner Perkins partner Vinod Khosla.

Free Field Installation in Germany

(Credit: First Solar)

On the public side, shares of First Solar have seen a Google-like rise to more than $300 since the company's November 2006 IPO. That translates to a $22 billion market cap on quarterly sales of just $200 million. At least it's profitable, but the price-to-earnings ratio of 100 is stratospheric in today's market. Incidentally, members of the Walton family (of Wal-Mart fame) own roughly 49 percent of the company.

GT Solar, on the other hand, raised $500 million less than two weeks ago in the nation's biggest alternative-energy IPO to date. But the stock is floundering, and the vultures are already circling around several securities class action lawsuits.

On July 21st, GCL Silicon Technology filed a registration statement with the SEC for an even bigger $863 million public offering. The Hong Kong-based company was founded just two years ago.

Still not convinced that it's a bubble? Let me explain how this kind of thing works.

When VCs smell a hot market, they fund a bunch of companies in that space and hope one or two make it. It's a numbers game. Sometimes they hit it, most of the time, they don't, but if they spread their fund around a bit, it usually pays off.

Now multiply that model by a few dozen VCs, throw in a host of corporate, institutional, and individual investors, and voila, you've got dozens of companies that are very well funded.

But that doesn't mean the market demand will support all those companies--and all the capacity they need to bring online for their business models to work. The principals of all those alternative-energy companies know that, but that won't stop them from doing what they're doing.

Still, no matter what they say publicly, they know they have to nail their strategy and business plans, if they hope to survive an eventual shakeout.

The magnitude of the shakeout will be proportional to the gap between market demand and supply. In the case of the dot-com bubble--which also included Internet and telecommunications infrastructure, fiber optics, and communications chips--the shakeout was huge, affecting the public markets by almost a trillion dollars. The nanotech bubble, on the other hand, has been largely localized to the VC community.

As for the nature of this particular bubble, I'm not sure if my crystal ball is better than anybody else's, but my gut tells me that we're already getting way out ahead of ourselves.

As bubbles go, I think this one's going to be big. How big? You got me. But I think that global warming, alternative energy--and solar energy in particular--like Al Gore are all overblown. The energy crisis, on the other hand, is real, but nuclear energy's the answer. And that's all I'm going to say about that here.

What does all this mean to you? It depends on your risk profile. If you're young, I say you need to take risks. Should a great opportunity arise with one of these companies, by all means, go for it. But if you have a good job with a good company, or you don't have enough working years left in you to take significant risks, I wouldn't jump ship for a hot solar start-up or bet too much of your portfolio on one of these deals.

You don't want to end up like Icarus, who got a little too exuberant and flew too close to the sun. Wings melt, bubbles burst--same result.

We Could See a McCain Landslide By Rush Limbaugh

Source: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_081208/content/01125113.guest.html

August 12, 2008

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH:  See, the liberals have to blame this Russian attack on Georgia on Bush, and then, by association, McCain, otherwise Obama has no chance.  I don't think he has much of a chance, and I think the dirty little secret is that McCain could win this in a landslide.  I actually do.  I think there is so much huff and puffery here about Obama, and the bloom has long ago gone off that rose.  It happened during the Democrat primaries.  Thomas Sowell has a great column.  He once attended a course taught by John Kenneth Galbraith, the noted liberal economist, and he came in and did his first lecture to the class, and it was so good they all stood up and applauded, but every other lecture was just more and more generalities on the first lecture, and as the course went on, the class kept dwindling in size and finally people stopped showing up because there was no substance.  That's exactly what's happened to Obama.  His first speech, his first series of appearances: "Oh, man, new, unique, messiah, change, hope, future."  But now there's no substance.  You can revive the old Fritz Mondale question of Gary Hart(pence), "Where's the beef?"  And it's happening, folks.  I'm telling you, it's happening.  There are all kinds of doubts throughout the Democrat Party about this guy, 143 days in the Senate, for crying out loud.  He's a neighborhood activist; he's a street activist that they have nominated.  By the way, ladies and gentlemen, the Georgian Security Council today says it has filed a lawsuit in the International Court of Justice for alleged ethnic cleansing against Russia.  Well, there you go.  Right alongside the House Democrats' suit of OPEC for selling us oil in the first place.  Man, oh, man, the libs get exactly what they want here, take every one of these things to court? 

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: We go to Aston, Pennsylvania.  This is David. You're next on the Rush Limbaugh program.  Hi.

CALLER: (silence)

RUSH: (drumming fingers) Dee-doo-bee-doo-bee-doo.  David in Aston, Pennsylvania, are you there?

CALLER:  Yes, Rush, how are you?

RUSH:  Fine, sir.  Thank you very much.

CALLER:  Good.  Thank you very much.  Listen, this kind of has to do with Obama and the Georgian conflict and all these things.  My question was, if we were on his energy plan of we're not allowed to drill for oil, we can't do anything at all, how would we ever wage a military campaign against Russia?  Would we be having like destroyers running on sunflower oil?

RUSH:  Let me see --

CALLER:  How can we do that?

RUSH:  You miss the point.  We wouldn't need to wage military campaigns because with Obama there wouldn't be any more.

CALLER: Oh!

RUSH: He would talk everybody out of them.

CALLER:  Of course.

RUSH:  Like according to Tim Kaine, the governor of Virginia, Obama is the one who got the ceasefire in Georgia and South Ossetia because he asked the Russians to stop it, and Tim Kaine said he's happy that the Russians listened to Obama, so... I mean, that's what the Obama camp is saying.

CALLER:  Do you understand where I'm coming from?  I mean, how can he possibly think this?

RUSH:  It's called the audacity --

CALLER:  I have no idea what he's talking about.

RUSH:  It's called the audacity of audacity.  And what it is is Tim Kaine, who's trying to be selected as Obama's veep. He's just groveling. 

CALLER: Humph.
RUSH: But, no, your rhetorical question is just right on the money.  If we're not going to have our own independent sources of energy, how in the world are we going to maintain our status as a superpower?  See, this is the problem.  We've been in a jocular mood for much of the day today, but I'll tell you, I made a speech last night in Aspen, Colorado, which is why I was not here yesterday. I had to fly out there in the afternoon to get there in time for the speech, and I spoke about what we face here.  There's a war going on in our country for the definition of our country and its structure in the future. On one side of the war is us, and we want to preserve this nation as it was founded.  

On the other side are people like Obama and the leftists, who don't like this country as it was founded. They have a problem with too much individual liberty and freedom. They want bigger governments, higher taxes and more individual control over as much of the way people live as they can get. It's very, very serious, and our legislators on our side, we do not have any elected leadership in Washington. Our legislators do not understand that we're in a war.  It's like this Gang of Ten thing that happened last week. The Republican senators in that deal do not understand how they just almost took away the one winning issue Senator McCain has and that we have over the Democrats, because they believe -- mistakenly so -- that what the American people want is for Republicans and Democrats to get along.  As I told Senator Chambliss last week: That's not what the American people want.  

What the Republicans, what conservatives in this country want is to mop the floor with Democrats! We are tired of accepting their premises and then going along with them to show that somehow we're not the bad guys.  We are the good guys. We just don't have any elected leadership. So this is going to be a grassroots, a series of grassroots operations that build conservatism back.  For example, this is not a big deal, but it was announced today that three Republicans have decided to endorse Obama.  They are former Iowa Republican Congressman Jim Leach, former Rhode Island Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee, and lawyer and former White House intelligence advisor Rita Hauser.  Now, Obama is out there, and the Democrats are saying, "Woo! Wow! We've got three Republicans endorsing Obama."

But come on, Jim Leach?  Chafee stopped being a Republican a long time ago. Jim Leach was never a Republican, he was a moderate; and this Hauser babe, nobody ever heard of.  The dirty little secret about this, the way I see it, is these are exactly the kind of moderate Republicans in Name Only that, McCain courted all these years.  Jim Leach, Lincoln Chafee, Rita Hauser, why, they ought to be the first to be endorsing...McCain!  That's the exact kind of Republican he's going after.  And look, they've signed up with Obama.  It's pathetic, but it's funny at the same time.  So, we're in this war for what kind of country we're going to have and what kind of future people's children and grandchildren are going to have.  We are a nation, a great nation, at great risk in a dangerous world, with a bunch of sophists who want control.

The Democrat Party has actually nominated a neighborhood activist, a street activist, as its presidential candidate who is clueless.  The man doesn't think.  He simply is able to reiterate what he had been taught, and if you look at the people he's hung around and the people who have taught him, it's all the Blame America Crowd that you find in academia. You've got Jeremiah Wright poisoning his mind. He's got his wife. He hangs around with his wife, and she's mad every day of the week, too; and then you've got this lunatic Father Pfleger, and then you've got this terrorist guy Bill Ayers. That's why these people's associations matter. It's why their character matters. If you look at who apparently has structured the Obama character, it's...

How else do you explain this guy telling a 7-year-old kid who wants to know why he wants to be president, because my country is "not what it once was"?  Where in the hell...? When has it been better?  When has it been worse?  When's it been better, either way?  He's just mouthing these things because that's what he thinks people want to hear, he thinks people are like him.  This is the arrogance and the condescension.  He thinks most people look at their country and find immediate fault with it.  But I'm just telling you: All these people that did not vote for him in these late state primaries, these blue-collar white traditional Democrat voters? I'm going to tell you something, folks. They're not being interviewed on television; the Drive-Bys around talking about them.

But these people, I don't care if they're Republicans or Democrats or whatever. They do not want to see a rookie presidential candidate in Berlin or anywhere else in the world run down their country, especially a Democrat presidential candidate who ought to be thanking God that he is an American, that he lives in this country, and that it has provided him and his wife such a wonderful life and a great opportunity. He's running for president, for crying out loud, and he still sees fit to criticize this country! I'm just going to tell you: All of these blue-collar white Democrats, Pennsylvania, Ohio, you name it -- wherever Obama was unable to close this thing against Hillary -- they heard it, they saw it, and they don't like it.  They may not tell a pollster that, but when they get a chance to vote, I guarantee you, it is not going to be for The Messiah.

END TRANSCRIPT

Read the Background Material...

• Real Clear Politics: Obama and the Galbraith Effect - Thomas Sowell

Could 2008 Be a McCain Landslide? By Kyle-Anne Shiver

Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/07/could_2008_be_a_mccain_landsli.html

July 13, 2008

Ah yes, dear readers, this title has nailed me.  I'm an unconventional thinker, a woman who is wont to go madly against the grain, in nearly all matters.  I'm usually in the unpopular camp, the one who disdains conventional wisdom and consensus science.  I'm just too darned independent-minded for my own good sometimes. 

And 2008 is one of those times. 

John McCain, the poor dear, is being characterized as the tired, old guy, not only by the media elites and the opposition Party, but nearly just as often, by his own prospective voters.  "We're all but doomed," say the naysayers.  Even if McCain manages to squeak through the White House door on the slimmest Electoral College majority, it will be by the skin of his ancient teeth, say the analysts.

Nearly all around the globe, the media trumpets are prematurely heralding an Obama victory with a fanfare fitting for the legendary phoenix arising from the ashes.  The American Obamaphiles are gleefully fondling all their golden eggs, and busily counting their chickens, positively certain that every single one of them will hatch on November 4.

Maybe; maybe not.   

Oh my, I can nearly hear the limb beneath my feet, straining and about to break, as I shimmy out to its farthest reach on this prognostication.

The 2008 Presidential election could be a landslide victory for John McCain.

I'm basing my assessment here on 3 factors:  Time, the Anti-Obama vote and Obama's own arrogance.

Time

It's only July 13^th, folks.  There are 113 days remaining until November 4^th.  In this internet era, when news travels around the globe faster than a speeding bullet, 113 days are long enough for even the most polished, eloquent orator in American history to put both feet in his mouth dozens of times. 

And every time Obama has one of his infamous verbal slips, it's recorded for profit or just plain fun, and spun into enough YouTube entertainment to last into the next decade.  Every gaffe, every misstep, every flip-flop, turn-around and attempted take-back that the candidate utters, every single day for the next 113, will be viewed by hundreds of thousands of people, who then take their impressions to the office, the diners, the bus stops, the hairdressers and the assembly lines.  The NYT could only ever dream of such influence.

Americans tend to be a forgiving lot, but each one of us has his own personal limit to the number of take-backs he is willing to allow a single person.  I'm predicting that as Obama continues to morph into new positions nearly every day, that a great many voters are going to reach the limit, the point where they stop listening to this candidate because they simply stop trusting his word.

Trust is usually proffered generously, but once lost, disillusionment rarely permits its return, at least not within the confines of 113 days.

How many voters will still trust Obama by November 4^th?  Perhaps far less than the conventional wisdom is predicting.  Time is not on Obama's side.

The Anti-Obama Vote

Discouraged conservatives and Republicans, even those who say now that they will stay home on Election Day, are at the end of the day, responsible citizens. They will, I predict, see well in advance of November 4^th, just how much damage could be done by Obama, especially if he gets a filibuster-proof Senate majority and an even larger majority in the House of Representatives. 

The Republican anti-Obama vote, I believe, will hinge on two issues, namely, the Supreme Court and our war against IslamoFascism.  Forward thinking Republican voters will vote for treading water with McCain for 4 years over letting the whole American ship go down to defeat.

Disillusionment among loyal Democrats has already begun and is mounting rapidly.  In the wake of Hillary Clinton's concession, a great many disgruntled Democrats started a grassroots groundswell under one banner group, PUMA, which stands for:  Party Unity My A**.  There are already more than 200 separate groups that are uniting under the PUMA banner, with only one thing in common.  They vow that, no matter what, they will not support Barack Obama.  There is already "Democrats for McCain" gear and all the hoopla that goes with it. 

Add to these renegade groups the fact that Obama currently has a web mutiny on his hands, occurring on his very own networking site.  The largest of these mutinous web supporter groups only formed the last week of June and already has more than 22,800 members.  This particular group, "Please vote NO on Telecom Immunity - Get FISA right," formed over the latest Obama flip-flop, reneging on his October FISA promise to "support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies."  Obama voted for the FISA bill, with immunity still in it.

As I've said already, trust is a fragile commodity.  Once a person loses it, disillusioned followers can get mighty angry and even vindictive.  With 113 days to go, and this many folks already vowing that the Obama they see now is "not the Obama they knew," with some even demanding returns on their campaign contributions, the emotional winds that have carried Barack this far may turn on him.

And I'm predicting that they will.  By November 4^th, we could even see hurricane-force passions blowing against Obama and at McCain's waiting back.

Obama's Arrogance

There are few things in this life as satisfying to more experienced people than to see haughty pride get its comeuppance.  

How many working people in this Country have not had at least one experience with a young upstart, walking right out of college and into a position without a lick of hard knocks or humbling pragmatic necessity to be his guide?  He's the guy who's got the whole business figured out because he read a book about it, or the gal who thinks raising great kids is no harder than summarizing the mistakes of others.  And Barack Obama fits this stereotype to a perfect T.

He's 47 years old, but has spent the bulk of his adult life either coddled in an out-of-touch academia or perennially running for one office after another.  He has not even had to stare down or discipline teenage children, for goodness' sake. 

Yet, he's got it all figured out, down to the nuts and bolts of exactly why the rest of us "bitter" folks "cling to" our "religions and our guns."  His two books are little more than summations of what other people think, their motivations and their difficulties.  Reading his two autobiographical books leaves one with the uneasy impression that although Obama thinks he knows everything there is to know about us, he has yet to even figure out himself. 

So, this is the man who has all of life and everything about American politics so well mastered, that he thinks he is ready to be President?

The vast majority of American voters are over 30, and in the voting booth, a candidate gets no extra points for excitement.  No matter how thrilled some will be to vote for Barack Obama, their votes will count not one whit more than the old-fashioned, responsible votes cast for John McCain.

We've already witnessed Obama's highly fortuitous, completely unpredictable rise. 

I'm betting we may also witness his fall before November 4^th, and that his fall from grace will be every bit as phenomenal as was his rise.

Kyle-Anne Shiver is a frequent contributor to American Thinker.  She welcomes your comments at kyleanneshiver.com.