CALIFORNIA YANKEE

Hillary's Double Talk At Drexel University Debate

It was Hilary's devious, insincere refusals to give straight answers which caused me to declare her the loser of the Democratic debate at Drexel University. Watch the video and hear it in her own words.

Obama Wins Debate

Senator Barack Obama outperformed six other Democratic presidential wannabes at last night's debate at Drexel University in Philadelphia.

An unscientific OpenVote poll found Drexel students selected Obama as the debate winner:

Currently, with over 600 votes cast, Obama has sustained the lead with 46 percent.

I didn't see it quite that way. I thought Hillary took a lot of damage from Dodd, Edwards and Obama. I think Edwards came out on top.

Regardless of who won, the loser was Hillary. She was pounded for her vote for a resolution supporting the designation of 's Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization, and comparisons to her vote to authorize military action against Iraq. Hillary also took a hit for her inconsistency on Social Security:

Earlier, when Clinton was asked whether she had made one statement on Social Security publicly and a conflicting answer privately, she ducked the question, saying she believed in “fiscal responsibility.”

She came across as devious, insincere and waffling on access to records about her activities while First Lady. Hillary similarly refused to give a straight answer regarding New York Governor Eliott Spitzer's very unpopular plan to issue drivers licenses to illegal aliens.

Florida Dems Unhappy With Chairman Dean

More than 2,000 of the most active Democratic activists in the largest swing state in the country held a convention a year before the election without a single major Democratic presidential candidate. All the first- and second-tier Democratic candidates are refusing to campaign in Florida because the national Democratic Party doesn't want to anger voters in early voting Iowa and New Hampshire. Instead the national party is upsetting Florida Democrats:

"There is a lot of residual anger that I personally feel against the candidates. The state of Florida is too important to ignore," said Ann Zucker, president of Broward's Council of Democratic Club Presidents. "I'm furious that we're pandering to far smaller states."

In August, National Democratic Party officials decided to disenfranchise Florida voters because Florida Democratic party decided to hold the Democratic Presidential Primary on January 29, 2008. Democratic Party rules allow only Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, and South Carolina to hold 2008 primary contests before February 5.

Image courtesy of the St. Petersburg Times' blog, The Buzz. Click for a larger image.

Rudy Right Enough

In the Washington Post, David Greenberg writes that Rudy is a confirmed right-winger:

On issues such as free speech and religion, secrecy and due process, civil rights and civil liberties, pornography and democracy, this moralist and self-styled lawman has exhibited all the key hallmarks of Bush-era conservatism.

[. . .]

The case for Giuliani's moderation rests mainly on three overblown issues -- guns, gay rights and abortion -- and even in those cases, his deviation from conservative orthodoxy is far milder than is usually suggested.

The "social" and "cultural" issues that divide Americans encompass much more than guns, gay rights and abortion. They include state support of religion; the legitimacy of dissenting speech; the president's right to keep information secret; the place of fair procedures in dispensing justice. The Bush administration's hard-line stands on these matters have polarized the nation as much as the Iraq war has. And on these issues, Giuliani is just as hard-line as the man he'd like to succeed.

Greenberg relies upon Rudy's attempt to censor an art exhibit featuring a painting of the Virgin Mary that used clumps of elephant dung; his plan to fund parochial schools with city money; His directive that police confiscate the cars of people charged with drunken driving; and his efforts to remain mayor beyond his term.

Greenberg claims that Rudy's positions on guns, gay rights and abortion don't render Giuliani a liberal or a moderate, but merely an occasional dissenter from the GOP line. This claim seems to be supported by the fact that despite the many blog posts, YouTube videos, and newspaper articles rehashing Rudy's "liberal" or "moderate" positions, Rudy still remains the front runner. On the other hand, the beauty contest polling at this stage isn't a reliable indicator. Just ask Howard Dean.

Nevertheless, for more and more of the Republican-leaning voters I talk with, Rudy may not the confirmed right-winger Greenberg sees, but Rudy is right enough. What is more important, is those voters perceive Rudy as mainstream.

Fred's Lazy - Whatever

At the Orlando Republican presidential candidate debate Fred Thompson was asked about the criticism that he is lazy. Fred listed some of his achievements, then said:

If a man can do all that and be lazy, I recommend it to everybody. [The transcript of the exchange is posted below]

That exchange inspired comedian Jimmy Kimmel to come up with a "campaign ad" to contradict charge that Fred is lazy:

From the debate transcript:

GOLER: Senator Thompson, reporters on your campaign say your stumbles on the Terry Schiavo case and on the issue of oil drilling in the Everglades show that you don't do your homework.

The week after, though -- you took a week off after the last debate. Speech yesterday was about five minutes long. Some people say you're lazy, sir.

How do you deal with that?

(LAUGHTER)

THOMPSON: Well -- no, it's OK. Let me answer that.

I was a father at the age of 17 and a husband at the age of 17. I got started working in a factory. I borrowed and worked my way through. My folks did what they could to help. They were country folks -- came in off the farm.

I was able to be an assistant U.S. attorney when I was 28, prosecuting most of the major federal crimes in middle Tennessee -- most of the major ones.

THOMPSON: Howard Baker selected me to go to Washington and be his counsel on the Watergate Committee at the age of 30.

I came back, took on a corrupt state administration, and won against them. I went to the United States Senate, got elected twice by 20 points in a state that Bill Clinton carried twice.

Condoleezza Rice called upon me to head up an international security advisory board to advise her on international security matters. President Bush called me to help shepherd Chief Justice -- now-Chief Justice John Roberts' nomination through the Judiciary Committee.

If a man can do all that and be lazy, I recommend it to everybody.

(LAUGHTER) (APPLAUSE)

HUME: And that is it for us tonight. Our thanks to the candidates.

THOMPSON: And I should add, the most important -- the most important part is I'm a proud father of five; two of them are under the age of four. So let me add that to the list.

Thanks to Orlando at Fort Hard Knox for the tip.

The Global Warming Debate Isn't Over Yet

Pushing Ron Paul

The New York Times is hyping Ron Paul's media push:

In the last two weeks, Mr. Paul — a Republican presidential candidate — has spent nearly a half-million dollars on radio advertisements in four early primary states, the first major media investment of his campaign. On Tuesday night, he will take a seat opposite Jay Leno.

And on Monday, a campaign spokesman said, he will roll out his first major television advertising campaign, spending $1.1 million on five new commercials to be shown in the New Hampshire market for the next six weeks.

The media push is intended to introduce the antiwar, anti-abortion, anti-Drug-Enforcement-Administration, anti-Medicare Texas Republican Congressman to New Hampshire voters.

This is a dramatic change in strategy for a campaign that until now has relied primarily upon an enthusiastic band of volunteers and more than annoying online supporters.

A new poll by the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College in Manchester, found Dr. Paul in fourth place in New Hampshire with 7 percent of the vote, behind McCain of Arizona (15 percent), Giuliani (22 percent) and Romney (32 percent).

There is no denying that Mr. Paul has a certain appeal. Unfortunately for the Paul presidential campaign, his supporters include not only Libertarians, Independents and socially conservative Democrats, but also white supremacists and 9/11 conspiracy theorists.

Even the leader of a Pasadena Ron Paul Meetup group, complains about the fact that the Paul campaign attracts both the antigovernment activists of the right and the antiwar activists of the left:

“We’re in a difficult position of working on a campaign that draws supporters from laterally opposing points of view, and we have the added bonus of attracting every wacko fringe group in the country. And in a Ron Paul Meetup many people will consider each other ‘wackos’ for their beliefs whether that is simply because they’re liberal, conspiracy theorists, neo-Nazis, evangelical Christian, etc. . . . We absolutely must focus on Ron’s message only and put aside all other agendas, which anyone can save for the next ‘Star Trek’ convention or whatever.”

So I push Ron Paul to save his money for his next Quixotic campaign and exit stage right, or stage left. I'll save my "libertarian" tendencies for someone more mainstream.

California Burning

New satellite images of the California wildfires, illustrate the immense scale of the fires. Twelve large, uncontained fires have burned more than 335,000 acres in Southern California.

These new NASA satellite images of the wildfires show the area between Los Angeles and San Diego, California. Fire activity is denoted with red pixels. Vast plumes of thick smoke can be seen blowing out over the Pacific Ocean.

Image Credit: NASA - The first image was captured by NASA’s Terra satellite at 2:25 p.m. EST on October 23, 2007. The second image was acquired by NASA’s Aqua satellite at 5:40 p.m. EST, just over three hours later. Click for larger images.

Democratic Nomination More Settled

Gallup finds Hillary is in a stronger position than Rudy.

Stark Apologizes

That didn't have to be so hard:

California Democratic liberal-progressive loudmouth Fortney "Pete" Stark of California finally apologized for his more than abusive comments, which impugned the president's and Congress' motives and dishonored our troops.

Stark's outrageous comments suggested President Bush was sending troops to Iraq to get their "heads blown off for his amusement."

It took a resolution introduced by House Minority Leader John Boehner censuring Stark to get the loudmouth to apologize:

The resolution quoted Stark and then concluded that "Mr. Stark, by his despicable conduct, has dishonored himself and brought discredit to the House and merits the censure of the House for the same. Resolved, that the member from California, Mr. Stark, is hereby so censured."

After the House voted along party lines 196-173, to table the resolution, Stark offered the apology that should have been made last week.

"I want to apologize first of all to my colleagues, many of whom I have offended, to the president. his family, to the troops that may have found (offense) in my remarks as were suggested in the motion that we just voted on, and I do apologize. ... With this apology I will become as insignificant as I should be and we can return to the issues that do divide us but that we can resolve," Stark said to applause.

You can watch Stark's apology here.

More at Captain's Quarters, Michelle Malkin and Vodkapundit.