Remarks by the President to the Republican National Convention
Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/09/20080902-11.html
Via Satellite
9:54 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Laura. Good evening. As you know, my duties have me here in Washington tonight to oversee the federal government's efforts to help citizens recover from Hurricane Gustav. We are thankful that the damage in New Orleans and across the Gulf Coast was less than many had feared.
I commend the governors of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas for their sure-handed response and seamless coordination with the federal government. I thank all the wonderful volunteers who stepped forward to help their brothers and sisters in need. We know that there is still risk even after the storm has passed. So I ask citizens across the region to listen closely to local officials and follow their instructions before returning to their homes. All of us are keeping the people of the Gulf Coast in our thoughts and our prayers.
As you gather tonight in St. Paul, I want to share some thoughts about our nominee -- a great American, and the next President of the United States, John McCain. (Applause.)
Before I do so, I want to say hello to two people in the hall with you tonight. I could have no finer examples of character, decency, and integrity than my mom and dad. And I love you a lot. (Applause.)
I know what it takes to be President. In these past eight years, I've sat at the Resolute desk and reviewed the daily intelligence briefings, the threat assessments, and reports from our commanders on the front lines. I've stood in the ruins of buildings knocked down by killers, and promised the survivors I would never let them down. I know the hard choices that fall solely to a President. John McCain's life has prepared him to make those choices. He is ready to lead this nation. (Applause.)
From the day of his commissioning, John McCain was a respected naval officer who made decisions on which the lives of others depended. As an elected public servant, he earned the respect of colleagues in both parties as a man to follow when there's a tough call to make.
John McCain's life is a story of service above self. Forty years ago in an enemy prison camp, Lieutenant Commander McCain was offered release ahead of others who had been held longer. His wounds were so severe that anyone would have understood if he'd accepted. John refused. For that selfless decision, he suffered nearly five more years of beatings and isolation. When he was released, his arms had been broken -- but not his honor. (Applause.)
Fellow citizens: If the Hanoi Hilton could not break John McCain's resolve to do what is best for his country, you can be sure the angry left never will. (Applause.)
As the father of seven sons and daughters, John has the heart of a protector. He and his wonderful wife, Cindy, are adoptive parents. John is a leader who knows that human life is fragile, that human life is precious, that human life must be defended. (Applause.)
We've seen John McCain's commitment to principle in our Nation's Capital. John is a steadfast opponent of wasteful spending. As President, he will stand up to the high tax crowd in Congress, and make the tax relief permanent. He will invest in the energy technologies of tomorrow -- and lift the ban on drilling for America's offshore oil today. (Applause.)
John is an independent man who thinks for himself. He's not afraid to tell you when he disagrees. Believe me, I know. (Laughter.) No matter what the issue, this man is honest and speaks straight from the heart.
Last year, John McCain's independence and character helped change history. The Democrats had taken control of Congress and were threatening to cut off funds for our troops. In the face of calls for retreat, I ordered a surge of forces into Iraq. Many in Congress said it had no chance of working. Yet one Senator above all had faith in our troops and the importance of their mission -- and that was John McCain. (Applause.) Some told him that his early and consistent call for more troops would put his presidential campaign at risk. He told them he would rather lose an election than see his country lose a war. That is the kind of courage and vision we need in our next Commander-in-Chief. (Applause.)
My fellow citizens, we live in a dangerous world. And we need a President who understands the lessons of September the 11th, 2001: that to protect America, we must stay on the offense, stop attacks before they happen, and not wait to be hit again. The man we need is John McCain. (Applause.)
When he takes office next January, John will have an outstanding leader at his side. America will have a strong and principled Vice President in the Governor of the great state of Alaska, Sarah Palin. (Applause.)
In the time the Oval Office has been in my trust, I've kept near my desk reminders of America's character -- including a painting of a West Texas mountain lit by the morning sun. It reminds me that Americans have always lived on the sunrise side of the mountain. We're a nation that looks to the new day with confidence and optimism. And I'm optimistic about our future, because I believe in the goodness and wisdom of the American people. I'm optimistic because I have faith in freedom's power to lift up all of God's children, and lead this world to a future of peace.
And I'm optimistic about something else: When the debates have ended, and all the ads have run, and it is time to vote, Americans will look closely at the judgment, the experience, and the policies of the candidates -- and they will cast their ballots for the McCain-Palin ticket. (Applause.)
While I am not with you in the Twin Cities on this wonderful night for our party, with Laura Bush speaking, you have clearly traded up. (Laughter.) I am so proud the American people have come to know her gracious presence, her determined spirit, and her loving heart. Laura has been a fantastic First Lady. (Applause.)
Thank you, Laura -- and thanks to all of you in the hall tonight. God bless you, and God bless America.
END 10:02 P.M. EDT
Remarks As Prepared for Delivery: Former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson
Source: http://portal.gopconvention2008.com/speech/details.aspx?id=32
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Tonight our thoughts are still with our friends and fellow citizens in the Gulf Coast area, and our thanks go to those who have worked so hard to keep them safe. There can be no more important work than this.
But what we are doing at this convention is also important to our country.
We are going to nominate the next President and Vice President of the United States of America.
We do so while taking a different view of our country than that of the other party.
Listening to them you'd think that we were in the middle of a great depression; that we are down, disrespected and incapable of prevailing against challenges facing us.
We know that we have challenges ... always have, always will.
But we also know that we live in the freest, strongest, most generous and prosperous nation in the history of the world and we are thankful.
Speaking of the vice presidential nominee, what a breath of fresh air Governor Sarah Palin is.
She is from a small town, with small town values, but that's not good enough for those folks who are attacking her and her family.
Some Washington pundits and media big shots are in a frenzy over the selection of a woman who has actually governed rather than just talked a good game on the Sunday talk shows and hit the Washington cocktail circuit. Well, give me a tough Alaskan Governor who has taken on the political establishment in the largest state in the Union -- and won -- over the beltway business-as-usual crowd any day of the week.
Let's be clear ... the selection of Governor Palin has the other side and their friends in the media in a state of panic. She is a courageous, successful, reformer, who is not afraid to take on the establishment.
Sound like anyone else we know?
She has run a municipality and she has run a state.
And I can say without fear of contradiction that she is the only nominee in the history of either party who knows how to properly field dress a moose ... with the possible exception of Teddy Roosevelt.
She and John McCain are not going to care how much the alligators get irritated when they get to Washington, they're going to drain that swamp.
But tonight, I'd like to talk to you about the remarkable story of John McCain.
It's a story about character.
John McCain's character has been tested like no other presidential candidate in the history of this nation.
He comes from a military family whose service to our country goes back to the Revolutionary War.
The tradition continues.
As I speak, John and Cindy McCain have one son who's just finished his first tour in Iraq.
Another son is putting "Country First" and is attending the Naval Academy. We have a number of McCains in the audience tonight.
Also here tonight is John's 96-year-old mother, Roberta. All I've got to say is that if Roberta McCain had been the McCain captured by the North Vietnamese, they would have surrendered.
Now, John's father was a bit of a rebel, too.
In his first two semesters at the Naval Academy, he managed to earn 333 demerits.
Unfortunately, John later saw that as a record to be beaten.
A rebellious mother and a rebellious father - I guess you can see where this is going.
In high school and the Naval Academy, he earned a reputation as a troublemaker.
But as John points out, he wasn't just a troublemaker. He was the leader of the troublemakers.
Although loaded with demerits like his father, John was principled even in rebellion.
He never violated the honor code.
However, in flight school in Pensacola, he did drive a Corvette and date a girl who worked in a bar as an exotic dancer under the name of Marie, the Flame of Florida.
And the reason I'm telling you these things, is that, apparently, this mixture of rebellion and honor helped John McCain survive the next chapter of his life:
John McCain was preparing to take off from the USS Forrestal for his sixth mission over Vietnam, when a missile from another plane accidentally fired and hit his plane.
The flight deck burst into a fireball of jet fuel.
John's flight suit caught fire.
He was hit by shrapnel.
It was a scene of horrible human devastation.
Men sacrificed their lives to save others that day. One kid, who John couldn't identify because he was burned beyond recognition, called out to John to ask if a certain pilot was OK.
John replied that, yes, he was.
The young sailor said, "Thank God"... and then he died.
These are the kind of men John McCain served with.
These are the men and women John McCain knows and understands and loves.
If you want to know who John McCain is, if you want to know what John McCain values, look to the men and women who wear America's uniform today.
The fire on the Forrestal burned for two days.
20 planes were destroyed.
134 sailors died.
John himself barely dodged death in the inferno and could've returned to the States with his ship.
Instead, he volunteered for combat on another carrier that was undermanned from losing so many pilots.
Stepping up.
Putting his "Country First."
Three months later John McCain was a Prisoner of War.
On October 26, 1967, on his 23rd mission over North Vietnam, a surface-to-air missile slammed into John's A-4 Skyhawk jet, blowing it out of the sky.
When John ejected, part of the plane hit him -- breaking his right knee, his left arm, his right arm in three places.
An angry mob got to him.
A rifle butt broke his shoulder.
A bayonet pierced his ankle and his groin.
They took him to the Hanoi Hilton, where he lapsed in and out of consciousness for days. He was offered medical care for his injuries if he would give up military information in return.
John McCain said "No".
After days of neglect, covered in grime, lying in his own waste in a filthy room, a doctor attempted to set John's right arm without success ... and without anesthesia.
His other broken bones and injuries were not treated. John developed a high fever, dysentery. He weighed barely a hundred pounds.
Expecting him to die, his captors placed him in a cell with two other POWs who also expected him to die.
But with their help, John McCain fought on.
He persevered.
So then they put him in solitary confinement...for over two years.
Isolation ... incredible heat beating on a tin roof. A light bulb in his cell burning 24 hours a day.
Boarded-up cell windows blocking any breath of fresh air.
The oppressive heat causing boils the size of baseballs under his arms.
The outside world limited to what he could see through a crack in a door.
We hear a lot of talk about hope.
John McCain knows about hope. That's all he had to survive on. For propaganda purposes, his captors offered to let him go home.
John McCain refused.
He refused to leave ahead of men who'd been there longer.
He refused to abandon his conscience and his honor, even for his freedom.
He refused, even though his captors warned him, "It will be very bad for you."
They were right.
It was.
The guards cracked ribs, broke teeth off at the gums. They cinched a rope around his arms and painfully drew his shoulders back.
Over four days, every two to three hours, the beatings resumed. During one especially fierce beating, he fell, again breaking his arm.
John was beaten for communicating with other prisoners.
He was beaten for NOT communicating with so-called "peace delegations."
He was beaten for not giving information during interrogations.
When his captors wanted the names of other pilots in his squadron, John gave them the names of the offensive line of the Green Bay Packers.
Whenever John was returned to his cell -- walking if he could, dragged if he couldn't -- as he passed his fellow POWs, he would call out to them.
He'd smile ... and give them a thumbs-up.
For five-and-a-half years this went on.
John McCain's bones may have been broken but his spirit never was.
Now, being a POW certainly doesn't qualify anyone to be President.
But it does reveal character.
This is the kind of character that civilizations from the beginning of history have sought in their leaders.
Strength.
Courage.
Humility.
Wisdom.
Duty.
Honor.
It's pretty clear there are two questions we will never have to ask ourselves, "Who is this man?" and "Can we trust this man with the Presidency?"
He has been to Iraq eight times since 2003.
He went seeking truth, not publicity.
When he travels abroad, he prefers quietly speaking to the troops amidst the heat and hardship of their daily lives.
And the same character that marked John McCain's military career has also marked his political career.
This man, John McCain is not intimidated by what the polls say or by what is politically safe or popular.
At a point when the war in Iraq was going badly and the public lost confidence, John stood up and called for more troops.
And now we are winning.
Ronald Reagan was John McCain's hero.
And President Reagan admired John tremendously.
But when the President proposed putting U.S. troops in Beirut, John McCain, a freshman Congressman, stood up and cast a vote against his hero because he thought the deployment was a mistake.
My friends ... that is character you can believe in.
For years, members of Congress, Republican and Democrat alike, have gouged the taxpayer with secret earmark spending.
Well, he has never sought an earmark.
I've experienced John's character first hand.
In 1993, when I was thinking of running for the Senate, I went to John for advice. He convinced me I could help make a difference for our country.
I won that election, and with Republican control of Congress, we reformed welfare.
We balanced the budget.
And we began rebuilding our military.
What I remember most about those years is sitting next to John on the Senate floor as he led battle after battle to change the acrimonious, pork barreling, self serving ways of Washington.
The Senate has always had more than its share of smooth talkers.
And big talkers.
It still has.
But while others were talking reform, John McCain led the effort to make reform happen -- always pressing, always moving for what he believed was right and necessary to restore the people's faith in their government.
Confronting when necessary, reaching across the aisle when possible, John personified why we came to Washington in the first place.
It didn't always set too well with some of his colleagues.
Some of those fights were losing efforts.
Some were not.
But a man who never quits is never defeated.
Because John McCain stood up our country is better off.
The respect he is given around the world is not because of a teleprompter speech designed to appeal to American critics abroad, but because of decades of clearly demonstrated character and statesmanship.
There has been no time in our nation's history, since we first pledged allegiance to the American flag, when the character, judgment and leadership of our President was more important.
Terrorists, rogue nations developing nuclear weapons, an increasingly belligerent Russia.
Intensifying competition from China.
Spending at home that threatens to bankrupt future generations. For decades an expanding government ... increasingly wasteful and too often incompetent.
To deal with these challenges the Democrats present a history making nominee for president.
History making in that he is the most liberal, most inexperienced nominee to ever run for President. Apparently they believe that he would match up well with the history making, Democrat controlled Congress. History making because it's the least accomplished and most unpopular Congress in our nation's history.
Together, they would take on these urgent challenges with protectionism, higher taxes and an even bigger bureaucracy.
And a Supreme Court that could be lost to liberalism for a generation.
This is not reform.
And it's certainly not change.
It is basically the same old stuff they've been peddling for years. America needs a President who understands the nature of the world we live in.
A President who feels no need to apologize for the United States of America.
We need a President who understands that you don't make citizens prosperous by making Washington richer, and you don't lift an economic downturn by imposing one of the largest tax increases in American history.
Now our opponents tell you not to worry about their tax increases.
They tell you they are not going to tax your family.
No, they're just going to tax "businesses"! So unless you buy something from a "business", like groceries or clothes or gasoline ... or unless you get a paycheck from a big or a small "business", don't worry ... it's not going to affect you.
They say they are not going to take any water out of your side of the bucket, just the "other" side of the bucket! That's their idea of tax reform.
My friends, we need a leader who stands on principle.
We need a President, and Vice President, who will take the federal bureaucracy by the scruff of the neck and give it a good shaking.
And we need a President who doesn't think that the protection of the unborn or a newly born baby is above his pay grade.
The man who will be that President is John McCain.
In the days ahead at this convention, you will hear much more about what John will do as president -- what he will do on the economy, on energy, on health care, the environment... It is not my role tonight to explain that vision.
My role is to help remind you of the man behind the vision. Because tonight our country is calling to all of us to step up, stand up, and put "Country First" with John McCain.
Tonight we are being called upon to do what is right for our country.
Tonight we are being called upon to stand up for a strong military ... a mature foreign policy ... a free and growing economy and for the values that bind us together and keep our nation free.
Tonight, we are being called upon to step up and stand up with John just as he has stood up for our country.
Our country is calling.
John McCain cannot raise his arms above his shoulders.
He cannot salute the flag of the country for which he sacrificed so much. Tonight, as we begin this convention week, yes, we stand with him.
And we salute him.
We salute his character and his courage.
His spirit of independence, and his drive for reform.
His vision to bring security and peace in our time, and continued prosperity for America and all her citizens.
For our own good and our children's, let us celebrate that vision, that belief, that faith so we can keep America the greatest country the world has ever seen.
God bless John McCain and God bless America.
Remarks As Prepared for Delivery: U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman
Source: http://portal.gopconvention2008.com/speech/details.aspx?id=33
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Thank you for that warm welcome. I am honored to be here.
We meet tonight in the wake of a terrible storm that has hit the Gulf Coast but that hurts all of us, because we are all members of our larger American family.
At times like this, we set aside all that divides us, and we come together to help our fellow citizens in need.
What matters is certainly not whether we are Democrats or Republicans, but that we are all Americans.
The truth is, it shouldn’t take a hurricane to bring us together like this.
Every day, across our country, millions of our fellow citizens are facing huge problems.
They are worried about their homes, their jobs, and their businesses; they are worried about the outrageous cost of gas and of health insurance; and they are worried about the threats from our enemies abroad.
But when they look to Washington, all too often they do not see their leaders coming together to tackle these problems.
Instead they see Democrats and Republicans fighting each other, rather than fighting for the American people.
Our founding fathers foresaw the danger of this kind of senseless partisanship. George Washington himself -- in his Farewell Address to our country -- warned that the "spirit of party" is "the worst enemy" of our democracy and "enfeebles" our government’s ability to do its job.
George Washington was absolutely right. The sad truth is -- today we are living through his worst nightmare, in the capital city that bears his name.
And that brings me directly to why I am here tonight. What, after all, is a Democrat like me doing at a Republican convention like this?
The answer is simple.
I’m here to support John McCain because country matters more than party.
I'm here tonight because John McCain is the best choice to bring our country together and lead our country forward.
I’m here because John McCain’s whole life testifies to a great truth: being a Democrat or a Republican is important.
But it is not more important than being an American.
Both presidential candidates this year talk about changing the culture of Washington, about breaking through the partisan gridlock and special interests that are poisoning our politics.
But only one of them has actually done it.
Only one leader has shown the courage and the capability to rise above the smallness of our politics to get big things done for our country and our people.
And that leader is John McCain!
John understands that it shouldn’t take a natural disaster like Hurricane Gustav to get us to take off our partisan blinders and work together to get things done.
It shouldn’t take a natural disaster to teach us that the American people don’t care much if you have an "R" or a "D" after your name.
What they care about is, are we solving the problems they are up against every day?
What you can expect from John McCain as President is precisely what he has done this week: which is to put country first. That is the code by which he has lived his entire life, and that is the code he will carry with him into the White House.
I have personally seen John, over and over again, bring people together from both parties to tackle our toughest problems we face --to reform our campaign finance, lobbying and ethics laws, to create the 9/11 Commission and pass its critical national security reforms, and to end the partisan paralysis over judicial confirmations.
My Democratic friends know all about John’s record of independence and accomplishment.
Maybe that’s why some of them are spending so much time and so much money trying to convince voters that John McCain is someone else.
I’m here, as a Democrat myself, to tell you: Don’t be fooled.
God only made one John McCain, and he is his own man.
If John McCain was just another go-along partisan politician, he never would have taken on corrupt Republican lobbyists, or big corporations that were cheating the American people, or powerful colleagues in Congress who were wasting taxpayer money.
But he did!
If John McCain was just another go-along partisan politician, he never would have led the fight to fix our broken immigration system or to do something about global warming.
But he did!
As a matter of fact, if John McCain is just another partisan Republican, then I'm Michael Moore’s favorite Democrat.
And I'm not.
Senator Obama is a gifted and eloquent young man who can do great things for our country in the years ahead. But eloquence is no substitute for a record -- not in these tough times.
In the Senate he has not reached across party lines to get anything significant done, nor has he been willing to take on powerful interest groups in the Democratic Party.
Contrast that to John McCain’s record, or the record of the last Democratic President, Bill Clinton, who stood up to some of those same Democratic interest groups and worked with Republicans to get important things done like welfare reform, free trade agreements, and a balanced budget.
Governor Sarah Palin, like John McCain, is a reformer who has taken on the special interests and reached across party lines. She is a leader we can count on to help John shake up Washington.
That’s why the McCain-Palin ticket is the real ticket for change this year.
The Washington bureaucrats and power brokers can’t build a pen strong enough to hold these two mavericks.
And together, you can count on John McCain and Sarah Palin to fight for America and to fight for you! And that’s what our country needs most right now.
What we need most is not more party unity in America but more national unity!
Especially at a time of war, we need a President we can count on to fight for what’s right for our country -- not only when it is easy, but when it is hard.
When others were silent, John McCain had the judgment to sound the alarm about the mistakes we were making in Iraq. When others wanted to retreat in defeat from the field of battle, when Barack Obama was voting to cut off funding for our troops on the ground,
John McCain had the courage to stand against the tide of public opinion and support the surge, and because of that, today, our troops are at last beginning to come home, not in failure, but in honor!
Before I conclude, I ask the indulgence of those in this hall tonight, as I want to speak directly to my fellow Democrats and Independents who are watching.
I know many of you are angry and frustrated by our government and our politics and for good reason.
You may be thinking of voting for John McCain but you’re not sure. Some of you have never voted for a Republican before and in an ordinary election, you probably wouldn’t.
But this is no ordinary election, because these are not ordinary times, and John McCain is no ordinary candidate. You may not agree with John McCain on every issue.
But you can always count on him to be straight with you about where he stands, and to stand for what he thinks is right regardless of politics.
As President, you can count on John McCain to be a restless reformer, who will clean up Washington and get our government working again for you!
So tonight, I ask you whether you are an Independent, a Reagan Democrat or a Clinton Democrat, or just a Democrat: This year, when you vote for President, vote for the person you believe is best for the country, not for the party you happen to belong to.
Vote for the leader who, since the age of 17, when he raised his hand and took an oath to defend and protect our Constitution, has always put our country first.
So, let's come together to make a great American patriot our next great President!
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
Republican National Convention - September 2, 2008 Highlights
She Is Woman, Hear Her Roar
Source: http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=305247469109725
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Tuesday, September 02, 2008 4:20 PM PT
Election '08: The attacks on John McCain's bold veep pick have begun. But if the critics think Sarah Palin is an easy target, they'd better think again. She can fire back. Working moms of the world, unite.
Read More: Election 2008
"There's a gigantic difference between John McCain and Barack Obama and between me and I suspect my vice-presidential opponent," Joe Biden said while campaigning in Toledo Sunday. "She's good-looking." It's a dismissive put-down we would expect from Biden, one a Republican couldn't get away with.
Obama spokesman Bill Burton was more direct, saying that McCain had irresponsibly put "the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency." This said while he's trying to elect a former Illinois state senator who voted "present" 135 times and who spent just 143 business days in the Senate before deciding he was ready to lead the free world.
This is a reminder of Obama's similarly dismissive remark about bitter, small town Pennsylvanians who cling to their guns and their Bibles. Well, Sarah Palin has a Bible she reads regularly and is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association who can fire a gun.
Her more than 12 years of executive experience actually making decisions that affect the lives of real people certainly stack up against the meager record of Geraldine Ferraro who in 1984 "made history" by bringing her six years in Congress nearly a heartbeat away from the presidency.
Sarah Palin has more executive experience actually running a government than Barack Obama and Joe Biden combined. Those who dismiss her as an adviser to McCain forget she is a sitting governor of an energy-rich state in a world in which energy is both an economic and national security issue.
She knows her stuff on energy. Barack Obama makes incredibly dumb statements about inflating our tires saving an equivalent amount of oil as is to be found in the Outer Continental Shelf. Governor Palin builds a $40 billion pipeline to bring Alaskan natural gas to the lower 48 states. Her steelworker husband works in the North Slope oil fields and she is the only candidate on either ticket who has actually been to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Maureen Dowd of the New York Times calls her "Vice In Go-Go Boots" and calls Governor Palin "a cute, cool unknown from Alaska who has never even been on 'Meet the Press.' " We wonder if she makes MSNBC's Chris Matthews' legs tingle like he said Barack Obama does. Those boots were made for campaigning and they walked all over the corrupt good-ole-boy network in Alaska.
Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post says: "McCain runs the risk that Palin will turn out to be Dan Quayle with an up-do — except with less experience." She can not only spell "potato" but this union member can also fire an AK-15. Democrats run the risk of dismissing this working mother of five as a "Dan Quayle" with an up-do at their peril. Remember those 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling.
The Associated Press in a photo caption described her as "the so-called 'hockey mom' credited with reforms of her tiny, out-of-the-way state." This "tiny" state is 10 times the size of Obama's Illinois and over 250 times the size of Biden's Delaware. This "out-of-the-way" state produces 20% of our domestic energy, and could produce much more.
She actually runs her "tiny" state, unlike Delaware's Joe Biden, who rides the taxpayer-subsidized Amtrak to his job bloviating on the major issues of the day. Biden is said to have infinitely more foreign policy experience. Perhaps he can tell Obama that Iran is not a "tiny" country that poses no threat.
Governor Palin has been to Iraq. She is commander of the Alaska National Guard, units of which are serving in Iraq. Her son is going there to serve in an infantry brigade on Sept. 11.
For working moms across America, that may be the only experience she needs.
Unfit To Lead On Oil
Source: http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=305247780230161
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Tuesday, September 02, 2008 4:20 PM PT
Congress: If anyone still thinks Democrats can provide leadership on the No. 1 issue of the day — energy — then Harry Reid's remarks to their party's convention last week should dispel the notion for good.
Read More: Energy
Last month's invasion by Russia of neighboring Georgia showed the utter bankruptcy of the Democrats' energy policies. With its attack, Russia seized control of the main non-Russian pipeline from the energy-rich Caspian to Europe, giving it a stranglehold over nearly a third of Europe's energy supplies.
So what do the Democrats have to do with this?
Plenty. By refusing to let companies drill for energy on U.S. soil and pursuing policies that keep oil prices above $100 a barrel, the Democratic Congress, in effect, is helping Russia to finance its aggression against Europe — a kind of Marshall Plan in reverse.
Yet, listening to Reid, you'd never suspect this was the case.
Start with his defense of Jimmy Carter as an energy prophet who "proposed real solutions — conservation, fuel efficiency and alternative fuels — to what he correctly named the 'moral equivalent of war.' " Remember soaring oil prices? Gas lines? Rationing? Russia's invasion of Afghanistan? If so, you know Carter lost his "war."
The Senate's Democratic leader also lamented "an era of oil industry dominance" that began in 1980. Funny, but oil prices plunged 60% during Reagan's time in office. That's "dominance"?
Nevada's Reid then claims President Bush slept as "oil shortages worsened, oil prices soared and dollars by the ton were delivered to terrorists' banks in Iran, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela."
Wrong. That's what Congress did — refusing to drill for more oil as petrotyrants like Putin threaten America's national security and its allies. It's a shameful, dishonest policy.
"The simple fact," Reid stumbles on, "is that the promise of more oil isn't part of the solution; it's part of the problem."
Actually, the "simple fact" is more oil is the solution. Private and government estimates all agree oil will make up 75% to 80% of our energy needs for the next 50 years at least. To refuse to drill for the 136 billion barrels we have available borders on criminal.
More oil means lower prices. If we can get oil down to $80 a barrel or so it will work like a huge tax cut, especially for the poor who've been hit hardest by the Democrats' failed energy policies. Lower oil prices will stimulate the economy, weaken inflation and make us and our allies around the world more secure.
Reid's poisonous words do nothing to move the country forward. But they do give voters an idea of what's to come if Democrats keep Congress and win the White House.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Bristol Palin chooses life. Now leave her alone. By Michelle Malkin
Source: http://michellemalkin.com/2008/09/01/bristol-palin-chooses-life-now-leave-her-alone/
September 1, 2008 01:22 PM
Photoshop: David Lunde
The Palin family values the sanctity of life. They talk the talk and walk the walk. It is driving the Left absolutely insane beyond the farthest reaches of unhingedness. Now comes the news that 17-year-old daughter Bristol is pregnant. “News” that wouldn’t be news but for the nutroots P.D.S. conspiracy theories that won’t die.
The 17-year-old daughter of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is pregnant, Palin said on Monday in an announcement intended to knock down rumors by liberal bloggers that Palin faked her own pregnancy to cover up for her child.
Bristol Palin, one of Alaska Gov. Palin’s five children with her husband, Todd, is about five months pregnant and is going to keep the child and marry the father, the Palins said in a statement released by the campaign of Republican presidential candidate John McCain.
The official family statement on the McCain website:
“We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us. Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support.
“Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the love and support of our entire family. We ask the media to respect our daughter and Levi’s privacy as has always been the tradition of children of candidates.”
What will the bottom-feeders do next? Investigate their dating history? Hound them during their pre-natal visits a la Alan Colmes?
***
We know what Obama and company think she should have done. Remember?
“Look, I got two daughters — 9 years old and 6 years old,” he said. “I am going to teach them first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.
One ticket sees this as a blessing. The other sees it as a curse. Could the core differences between the two be any starker?
***
Ed Morrissey shares his experience: “We have walked in the Palins’ shoes.”
Joe Biden's Mythical Blue-Collar Roots By Steve Chapman
Source: http://townhall.com/Columnists/SteveChapman/2008/08/31/joe_bidens_mythical_blue-collar_roots?page=full&comments=true
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Joe Biden once got in trouble for plagiarizing a speech and inflating his academic record. So it will not surprise you to find that his famous working-class background turns out to be mythical. But it may surprise you to learn that Biden isn't the one who has trouble with the facts.
In his Wednesday night speech at the Democratic convention, Biden referred to "those of us who grew up in middle-class neighborhoods like Scranton and Wilmington." In the video preceding his address, he said that the people he knew as a boy didn't regard themselves as working class but as middle class.
So what did the news media report? "Sen. Joseph R. Biden accepted the vice presidential nomination of the Democratic Party with a speech that harkened back to his working-class roots in Scranton," said The Washington Post. The Wall Street Journal informed readers that "Sen. Joe Biden showcased his working-class upbringing." The New York Times said he "spoke frequently, and earnestly, of his blue-collar background."
No, he didn't. In fact, he did just the opposite. Anyone paying attention would have noticed as much. But the legend of Joe Biden, born in a welding shop, dies hard with political reporters, who find it easier to romanticize a gritty, hardscrabble childhood than a conventionally comfortable one.
The facts are there for anyone who wants to look at them. When Joe Biden Sr. died in 2002, his obituary in the News-Journal of Wilmington reported that when he married in 1941, "he was working as a sales representative for Amoco Oil Co. in Harrisburg."
It went on, "Biden also was an executive in a Boston-based company that supplied waterproof sealant for U.S. merchant marine ships built during World War II. After the war, he co-owned an airport and crop-dusting service on Long Island." Upon moving his family to Delaware, the News-Journal said, Biden "worked in the state first as a sales manager for auto dealerships and later in real-estate condominium sales."
Executive, co-owner and manager? Those titles identify the jobholder as solidly middle class, if not better. They fall in the category of white-collar occupations, not blue-collar.
And Biden Sr. clearly knew the difference. In his book, "Promises to Keep," Biden writes that his father was "the most elegantly dressed, perfectly manicured, perfectly tailored car sales manager Wilmington, Del., had ever seen."
Biden notes that he himself could have gone to the best public high school in Delaware. Instead, he enrolled at Archmere Academy, a Catholic prep school that made him think he had "died and gone to Yale." He took a summer job to help pay the steep tuition, which today amounts to $18,450 a year.
That doesn't mean the Bidens never had financial trouble. Biden says they had to move in with his mother's parents after one setback, and he remembers "when the electric company would send a collector to the house."
For nearly a year, the father was reduced to cleaning boilers for a heating company. But middle-class people are not immune to unemployment and bad business deals, and the Bidens regained their footing before long.
So where did he get his working-class reputation? Partly it comes from Biden's streetwise demeanor and his preoccupation with the fact that his family wasn't as well-off as some of the people he knew -- which seems to have given him a permanent chip on his shoulder. Partly it comes from his frequent tributes to blue-collar folks, such as the firefighters who took him to the hospital when he suffered an aneurysm.
But mostly it reflects journalists' weakness for simple, vivid narratives. It's easy to write about a statesman who worked his way up from a log cabin. It's easy to write about a leader who came from great wealth. But someone growing up the son of a sales manager is a bit lacking in color and drama.
The errors about Biden bring to mind the recent satirical report from humorist Andy Borowitz: "A member of the U.S. Olympic diving team was disqualified from competition today when it was learned that he did not have a sufficiently compelling human story line to exploit on the NBC telecast of the worldwide sporting event."
Biden just didn't have a sufficiently compelling human story line for a presidential campaign. Luckily, he does now.
Steve Chapman is a columnist and editorial writer for the Chicago Tribune.
Sarah Palin and Israel By Thomas Lifson
Source: http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2008/09/sarah_palin_and_israel.html
Of the many smears against Governor Palin now being circulated by left-wing bloggers and amplified by the national media, only one seems to have been directly picked up by the Obama campaign and its surrogates--that Governor Palin was once a supporter of Pat Buchanan, and that she is therefore a Nazi sympathizer.The first attack came from Obama surrogate Rep. Robert Wexler, the co-chair of Obama's campaign in Florida. Wexler, badly mangling his facts, accused Governor Palin of supporting Pat Buchanan in the 2000 Alaska primary. Based on this he asserted that Governor Palin had "aligned herself with a leading anti-Israel voice in American politics," while finding space to invoke the name of Adolph Hitler and the phrase "Nazi sympathizer." Only it wasn't true--Palin was an official on the Forbes campaign in 2000. Wexler never apologized or retracted his statement.Then an official Obama spokesman picked up the charge in a statement to the Miami Herald:"Palin was a supporter of [MSNBC analyst] Pat Buchanan, a right-winger or as many Jews call him: a Nazi sympathizer,'' Obama spokesman Mark Bubriski wrote in an email.Governor Palin has never supported Pat Buchanan and every responsible magazine or blog that made the charge has since corrected the record, leaving only the Obama campaign peddling this smear. How is it that the media, so committed to fighting the smears against the Obama campaign, is more than happy to allow this one to fester?
Eagle-eyed Doug Ross spotted an Israeli flag in her office, in a photo published last February by an Alaska blog titled, Hike of the Week Urban Hike with Sarah Palin
It is on the right hand side, next to the window:
Israpundit spotted the same Israeli flag in a video shot in her office, and what looks like a little lapel pin, too. There is actually a video available in Israpundit, but here is a still photo with helpful arrows added:
Note to moonbats: Governor Palin has full-size American and Alaskan flags in floor stands. Don't start with the Israel-first nonsense. She is a woman who appears to understand the stakes and supports Israel because it is good for America and good for the world.
Well what about Joe Biden? Although formerly identified as a friend of Israel, Biden has recently given some disturbing signs, the Begin Center reports.
Hat tip: Mark Roth, Ed Lasky
Cirque De Obama
Source: http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=304903697363358
By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Friday, August 29, 2008 4:20 PM PT
Election '08: Barack Obama says we can't afford four more years like the last eight. What, exactly, is bad about winning a war on terror, keeping Americans alive and free, and letting us keep more of what we earn?
Read More: Election 2008
We weren't expecting Sen. Obama to thank President Bush for keeping America and its citizens safe from terrorist attack since 9/11, or for winning the war in Iraq and bringing democracy to the heart of the Middle East.
But we hoped for more from The One than a proclamation that he had come to lift us out of the bondage of the Republican Dark Ages.
Delivered in a stadium with a corporate logo and built with capitalist profits, Obama's acceptance speech was workmanlike as promised, albeit staged on what looked like a movie set left over from the World War II propaganda film, "Triumph Of The Will."
Still, Obama's performance was enough to move Oprah Winfrey to tears. "I cried my eyelashes off," she said. It was enough to make us cry, too.
On Iraq, he said he'd "end this war responsibly." John McCain would end it in victory. Obama hid the fact that he opposed the surge that defeated the jihadist insurgency.
In January of 2007, Obama introduced legislation in the Senate to have all U.S. troops out of Iraq six months ago. Had we listened to him, there would no free and democratic Iraq today. We'd have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, as Democrats forced us to do in Vietnam, and the jihadist victory would have rivaled the killing fields of Cambodia. Our troops would already be home, their sacrifice in vain.
Obama pledged to "finish the fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban," forgetting it was President Bush who took the fight to the enemy with Obama in opposition. The fight in Afghanistan isn't over. But Obama failed to explain why, as chairman of a subcommittee having jurisdiction, he held not a single hearing on a theater of operations he now deems critical.
On the economy, he said: "Unlike John McCain, I will stop giving tax breaks to corporations that ship our jobs overseas, and I will start giving them to companies that create good jobs right here in America." Yet he once proposed doubling the capital gains tax to punish the very risk-takers he now purports to champion.
When it was pointed out during a primary debate that higher capital gains taxes can generate less revenue and discourage economic activity, Obama mumbled something about "fairness." Thursday night, the code words were "mutual responsibility." But it's all about redistributing income.
We need more, not fewer, tax breaks. The average combined federal and state tax rate on corporations is now 50% higher than the average of our international competitors. At 39.3%, it's second only to Japan's. In some states, including California and Pennsylvania, it's the highest in the world.
The average European nation has tax rates on corporate income some 10 percentage points lower than ours. Ireland has a corporate rate of 12.5%. If you were a businessman, where would you locate?
"I will cut taxes — cut taxes — for 95% of all working families," Obama said, "because in an economy like this, the last thing we should do is raise taxes on the middle class." Apparently Obama thinks you are "working" only if you produce perspiration, not inspiration. The fact is, he'll raise taxes on everything and everyone, directly and indirectly, open and hidden.
According to a study by the Heritage Foundation, letting the Bush tax cuts expire, as Obama intends, will reduce our annual GDP by $100 billion with the loss of up to 900,000 jobs. Over 10 years, taxes would increase by some $1.7 trillion. For the 116 million Americans paying taxes, that's an annual tax hike of about $1,800 a year.
Last year, Heritage analyzed the effect of eliminating the Social Security earnings cap, as Obama has also proposed. In the first year alone, the take-home pay of 10.3 million workers would be reduced by an average of $5,650. Taxes would also be raised on four million workers over the age of 50.
Taxes would also be raised on 3 million small-business owners. By 2015, the number of job opportunities lost would exceed 865,000 and personal savings would decline by more than $55 billion.
And if you think this would raise taxes only on the "rich," think again. According to Heritage, taxes would be raised for 97,065 carpenters, 110,908 police officers, 254,992 nurses, 208,562 post-secondary teachers and 237,000 dentists.
Eliminating the earnings cap would raise taxes for many middle-class families, impose a huge burden on small business, slow the economy and cost jobs. You don't help the people riding the wagon by punishing the people pulling it.
On energy, Obama said that "in 10 years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East" and that he "will tap our natural gas reserves." Yet he opposes drilling where huge amounts of oil and natural gas are to be found — in locked-up areas such as ANWR, the Outer Continental Shelf and in federal lands out West.
He also said he will "find ways to safely harness nuclear power." But we already know the ways countries like France safely store and reprocess nuclear waste. John McCain wants to build 45 new nuclear power plants nationwide by 2030 to meet a demand for electricity that is expected to grow 25% by then.
"Sen. Obama has said that expanding our nuclear power plants 'doesn't make sense for America,' " McCain says. "He also says no to nuclear storage and reprocessing. I couldn't disagree more. I have proposed a plan to build additional nuclear plants. That means new jobs, and that means new energy.
"If we want to enable the technologies of tomorrow like plug-in electric cars, we need electricity to plug into," McCain said recently at Michigan's Fermi II nuclear power plant.
Obama also proved once again how wrong he is on foreign policy, taxes, the economy and energy.
"On Nov. 4," he said, "we must stand up and say, 'Eight is enough.' " But as far as we're concerned, it's just a start. Under a President McCain, the Obamas would be safer and more prosperous than if they themselves occupied the White House.
Concerned Women For America Applauds McCain For Chosing Palin
Source: http://www.cwalac.org/article_751.shtml
Press Release: Sarah Palin Will Make History
August 29, 2008
Washington, D.C. — Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee (CWALAC), released the following statement in response to Senator John McCain's choice of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate:
"Governor Palin will change the dynamics of the entire presidential race. Her admirable record of confronting corruption and living her pro-life convictions shows she is a doer, not just a talker. Sarah Palin will make history as a vice presidential candidate - and not simply because she's a woman, but because she's a woman of substance and character."
Janice Shaw Crouse, CWALAC spokesman, said,
"It is particularly significant that a conservative woman was nominated for the nation's second highest office. For years the feminist movement has acknowledged for leadership only those women who embrace a radical agenda. How refreshing that now we have a woman who reflects the values of mainstream American women. Sarah Palin is pro-life, pro-marriage and pro-family. She is a woman who is balancing the personal and professional in admirable ways. She is an outstanding woman who will be an excellent role model for the nation's young people. Sarah Palin is chief among equals with American professional women; she brings the kind of balance that characterizes the high-achieving women of today. She will bring to the forefront of our cultural conversations an intelligent, realistic, well-grounded woman's perspective."
Crouse concluded: "Take that feminists -- here is a woman of accomplishment who brings a fresh face to traditional values and models the type of woman most girls want to become."
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
NATALIE BELL
(202) 488-7000, ext. 126
Outdated Left-Wing Feminist Group Shamefully Slams McCain, Emboldens Attacks On Palin
Source: http://www.now.org/press/08-08/08-29.html
Not Every Woman Supports Women's Rights
August 29, 2008
Statement of NOW PAC Chair Kim Gandy on the Selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain's Vice Presidential Pick
Sen. John McCain's choice of Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate is a cynical effort to appeal to disappointed Hillary Clinton voters and get them to vote, ultimately, against their own self-interest.
Gov. Palin may be the second woman vice-presidential candidate on a major party ticket, but she is not the right woman. Sadly, she is a woman who opposes women's rights, just like John McCain.
The fact that Palin is a mother of five who has a 4-month-old baby, a woman who is juggling work and family responsibilities, will speak to many women. But will Palin speak FOR women? Based on her record and her stated positions, the answer is clearly No.
In a gubernatorial debate, Palin stated emphatically that her opposition to abortion was so great, so total, that even if her teenage daughter was impregnated by a rapist, she would "choose life" -- meaning apparently that she would not permit her daughter to have an abortion.
Palin also had to withdraw her appointment of a top public safety commissioner who had been reprimanded for sexual harassment, although Palin had been warned about his background through letters by the sexual harassment complainant.
What McCain does not understand is that women supported Hillary Clinton not just because she was a woman, but because she was a champion on their issues. They will surely not find Sarah Palin to be an advocate for women.
Sen. Joe Biden is the VP candidate who appeals to women, with his authorship and championing of landmark domestic violence legislation, support for pay equity, and advocacy for women around the world.
Finally, as the chair of NOW's Political Action Committee, I am frequently asked whether NOW supports women candidates just because they are women. This gives me an opportunity to once again answer that question with an emphatic 'No.' We recognize the importance of having women's rights supporters at every level but, like Sarah Palin, not every woman supports women's rights.
###
For Immediate Release
Contact: Mai Shiozaki, 202-628-8669, ext. 116; cell 202-641-1906
