CALIFORNIA YANKEE

The Liberal Media's Fickle Temperament

Michael Leahy's Washington Post temperamental hit job on Senator McCain shows just how fickle the mainstream media wing of the Democratic party can be.

Coverage of Leahy's hit job, ignores Senator Lieberman's downplaying McCain's temper and focuses instead on former senator Bob Smith's, made for television, negative campaign sound bite:

"Does he get angry? Yes," said Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, a Connecticut independent who supports McCain's presidential bid. "But it's never been enough to blur his judgment. . . . If anything, his passion and occasional bursts of anger have made him more effective."

Former senator Bob Smith, a New Hampshire Republican, expresses worries about McCain: "His temper would place this country at risk in international affairs, and the world perhaps in danger. In my mind, it should disqualify him."

It isn't until twenty-something paragraphs later that Leahy reveals that Smith admits to not liking McCain, and mentions that Smith has held a grudge against McCain from the time they both served in Vietnam, some forty years ago. Smith can obviously hold a grudge a long time.

In the following video Fox News' Carl Cameron describes the inaccuracies in Leahy's attack on McCain, highlighting Smith's allegations:

That's right, Cameron reports Smith said that what is reported in the Leahy article "never actually happened."

One has to wonder if the mainstream media, which admittedly suffers from Obamania, would even consider writing a similarly negative story about Obama. If a reporter did write such a story, would it get the same front-page treatment as Leahy's hit piece, or even worse, the New York Times' "journalism by innuendo" slanderous hatchet job on Senator McCain.

John Fund offers some thoughts that get right to the point in explaining why:

While John McCain is popular with reporters, they have clearly chafed as they see him adopt more-conservative positions on taxes and immigration in the past year. His coverage is much less favorable than it used to be.

But Mr. Obama, who sports the most liberal voting record of any senator according to the nonpartisan National Journal, has avoided much criticism of that record by implying that any conventional critique of his issue positions represent the tired politics of the past. If he had his way, questions about character and questions about issues would be off-limits.

The mainstream media only seems to take on Obama after nonpartisan fact checkers and an army of bloggers point out egregious "distortions," "rank falsehoods," "seriously misleading," statements and "outright lying" from Obama. How long will the American electorate allow the mainstream media to get away with this lack of even-handedness -- giving Obama a free ride while publishing hatchet jobs on McCain? Enough is enough.

Hillary Still Leads In Pennsylvania

A plethora of new polls find Hillary still leading Obama a day before the Democrats' long awaited Pennsylvania primary.

The new Newsmax/Zogby tracking poll found Hillary gained two points over the past 24 hours as Obama lost one point. Hillary now leads 48% to 42%, still within the poll's 4.1 percent margin of error.

John Zogby says Hillary is positioned to pull off a double digit win in Pennsylvania:

If a 10-point victory is the pundit-driven threshold she needs on Tuesday, it looks like she can do it. This does not look like a one-day anomaly—undecideds dropped to only 5% in this latest single day of polling, and they are breaking Clinton's way. As I suggested yesterday, if white and Catholic voters, who still are the biggest portion of undecideds, actually vote, Clinton will have her double-digit victory. Just today alone, she polled 53% to Obama's 38%.

"She had big pickups of support in the western region, among voters 50-65, and among women. She has tightened Obama's lead among men and she maintains her Catholic base. For the first time in our poll, Clinton climbs into double digits among African Americans."

While Obama continues to lead in eastern Pennsylvania by a 53% to 37% margin, he lost ground in the central part of the state—Clinton now leads there by 16 points, up from eight points in earlier polling late last week. Clinton also expanded her edge in western Pennsylvania, including Pittsburgh, and now leads there, 56% to 33%.

Clinton has made steady progress among Pennsylvania men, and now trails Obama among the demographic by just three points—45% to 42%. Meanwhile, she has maintained a big 53% to 40% lead among women.

A new Quinnipiac University poll of likely Pennsylvania Democratic primary voters finds Hillary with a 7% lead over Obama 51%-44%. That's up from 50%-44% in last week's Quinnipiac poll. According to Clay Richards, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, Obama can blame his "clinging" remarks for Hillary's lead:

"Sen. Obama got off message after his bitter remarks and never regained his momentum, giving Sen. Clinton the opening to fight another day in Indiana and North Carolina. She wins in Western Pennsylvania; he wins in the East. She gets Catholics, white women and blue-collar labor vote. He captures men, blacks and college grads - and enough delegates to keep his edge in the number that counts most."

A new Strategic Vision poll of likely Pennsylvania voters taken April 18-20 also finds Hillary leading Obama by 7% -- 48%-41%.

The American Research Group poll finds Hillary leading Obama 54%-41%. An ARG poll taken April 11-13  Obama leading Clinton 57%-37%.

A new Mason-Dixon poll of likely Pennsylvania Democratic primary voters finds Hillary leading Obama 48%-43%. Brad Coker, the managing partner for Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, doesn't expect Hillary to win by double digits:

"However, the lead doesn't indicate she's going to win by a large enough margin to make a serious impact on Obama's overall delegate lead."

Clinton leads among women, whites, Roman Catholics and Jews, voters older than 35, those looking for experience and those who rank Iraq, the economy or health care their top issues.

A new Suffolk University poll finds Hillary leading Obama by 10% -- 52%-42%. In another article the Washington Times, like Zogby, reports undecided voters are breaking for Hillary.

In the following video report, NBC political director Chuck Todd, discusses the Pennsylvania Democrat primary and also analyzes the undecideds:

Taken together the new polls suggest Hillary will win Pennsylvania's Democrat primary on Tuesday. The question remains, will Hillary's win be substantial enough. The two Democrat candidates' campaigns will spin the results all Tuesday night and the newspapers will decide the winner in Wednesday's headlines. To borrow a phrase from President Clinton, it's all going to come do to what the meaning of "substantial" is.

Still More 'Distortion,' 'Rank Falsehood,' 'Seriously Misleading' Statements and 'Outright Lying' From Obama

CHAPTER III

Here he goes again.

Barack Obama, after being beat up by numerous factcheckers for grossly misrepresenting Senator McCain's "100 Years" comment, finally dropped that distortion from his stump speech. Obama stopped using that line because it became obvious to all, even the admittedly Obamamania infected main stream media, that Obama's misrepresentation of McCain's comment was a "serious distortion to the point of rank falsehood."

Now Obama is distorting Senator McCain’s remarks about the economy. At a speech in Erie, Barack Obama quoted John McCain as saying, "I think if you look at the overall record and millions of jobs have been created, et cetera, et cetera, you could make an argument that there's been great progress economically over that period of time." Unfortunately, in his distorting way, Obama did not recite the second part of the statement where McCain said, "But that's no comfort. That's no comfort to families now that are facing these tremendous economic challenges."

Watch the following video, which shows that Obama once again grossly misrepresented McCain's comments:

At MSNBC’s First Read Blog, Domenico Montanaro reports that Obama continued this latest distortion yesterday:

Obama didn't let go of his attack on McCain in Williamsport yesterday afternoon, continuing to criticize the Republican nominee for a comment that he made about the economy making progress under George W. Bush.

[. . .]

"Now, that's what's going on here, but I don't need to tell you this, it’s going on all across the country. John McCain yesterday said that we are, that, that during George Bush's tenure, the economy actually made great progress. That's his quote," Obama said.

However, the attack, like the one earlier today parsed McCain's comments, quoting him on saying that the economy had grown but not including the fact that McCain acknowledged job losses and had said that the economic statistics brought "no comfort" to those suffering the most from the recent downturn.

Obama's misrepresentation of McCain's economic comments is extremely disingenuous. Obama, himself, acknowledges that the economy made progress:

"Our economy actually expanded over the last seven years, that's true," he said, before going on to talk about how the expansion was unprecedented because wages had not increased along with the rise in GDP.

The McCain campaign is pushing back:

The McCain camp, though pushed back hard against this yesterday, sending along this response: “American families are hurting and Barack Obama is being recklessly dishonest. It is clear that Barack Obama is intentionally twisting John McCain’s words completely out of context. Obama is guilty of deliberately distorting John McCain’s comments for pure political gain, which is exactly what Senator Obama was complaining about just yesterday.”

McCain's actual quote while speaking on Bloomberg TV, per the McCain camp was: "I think if you look at the overall record and millions of jobs have been created, et cetera, et cetera, you could make an argument that there’s been great progress economically over that period of time. But that’s no comfort. That’s no comfort to families now that are facing these tremendous economic challenges."

You would think Obama would be more careful after already being pummeled by factcheckers for misrepresenting what Senator McCain actually said abut Iraq, and only a week after Obama proved he was out of touch with small town America with his demeaning "clinging" remarks:

[T]hey cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

The media is no longer giving Obama a free ride when he misrepresents what Senator McCain actually says:

ABC News:

Who says Barack Obama doesn't know how to "twist the knife"? … Although Obama gets substantial mileage out of running against politics as usual, he provided a reminder on Friday that he knows how to twist with the best of them. … Obama did not tell his audience, however, that McCain's Thursday reference to economic progress was quickly followed by him adding that such progress is "no comfort" to struggling families.

Wall Street Journal:

While Obama sharply attacked free trade deals today in Erie for manufacturing job losses, just four days ago he touted the benefits of free trade in Pittsburgh, where he acknowledged that many jobs had been lost not only because of free trade deals, but because of technological advancements.

Washington Post:

The McCain campaign accused Obama of "intentionally twisting" the Arizona Republican's words. "Barack Obama is being recklessly dishonest," McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds shot back in a statement. The Republican National Committee circulated video of Obama acknowledging earlier in his Erie speech that "our economy actually expanded

FOX News:

Obama did not quote McCain's addendum, but minutes before hitting the Republican for saying there was economic progress, Obama himself admitted, "Our economy actually expanded over the last seven years, that's true."

At the Chicago Tribune's The Swamp blog:

But Obama only partially quoted McCain, who also acknowledged the struggles people are facing in a down economy. … Not surprisingly, that triggered a response from McCain's campaign.

CNN:

The McCain campaign has long argued Obama has a habit of twisting the presumptive Republican nominee's words. Referencing McCain's comments earlier this year when he said he'd be okay with some troop presence in Iraq for 100 years, Obama has said the Arizona senator "wants to continue a war in Iraq perhaps as long as 100 years." The non-partisan factcheck.org later called that characterization a "rank falsehood."

Let’s see how long it takes before Obama drops this hypocritical and distorted attack from his stump speech.

The more I see of Obama's so-called new politics, the more it seems exactly like the old kind.

In his book, The Audacity of Hope, Obama writes that voters are “tired of distortion, name-calling, and sound bite solutions to complicated problems.” This is exactly the opposite of what Obama is doing with his continuing distortions and misrepresentations about what Senator McCain actually said.

Obama promised better. As I've said before, Obama should apologize to McCain, and the nation, for his blatant dishonesty, and join Senator McCain in his call for tolerance and respect. If Obama does, perhaps we can engage in a new, civil form of politics.

Also posted at Right Side Politics and RedState.

Happy Passover

"And you shall explain to your son on that day, 'It is because of what the Lord did for me when I went free from Egypt.'"  Exodus 13:8:

Passover, begins today at sundown. For eight days, Jews celebrate freedom.

In the Book of Exodus, a simple Jewish shepherd named Moses was instructed by God to go to Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II and demand the freedom of his people.

Moses' plea to the Pharaoh to "Let my people go," was ignored.

Moses warned the pharaoh that God would severely punish the people of Egypt if the Israelites were not freed, but still the Pharaoh failed to heed Moses' plea.

According to scripture, God unleashed a series of 10 terrible plagues on the people of Egypt: blood, frogs, vermin, flies, cattle disease, boils, hail, locusts, darkness and last but not least, the slaying of all first-born children.

Moses and his people were delivered from slavery in Egypt.

Passover is celebrated with family gatherings wonderful meals called Seders, and the retelling of the story of the Israelites exodus from Egypt.

In our mixed-faith family we have developed a wonderful tradition of sharing our Seder with as many of our friends, Jews and gentiles alike, as our home can comfortably hold.

Whether you're Jewish or not, take a moment to contemplate the joys of your freedom, your responsibility to maintain it, and about those not fortunate enough to have freedom to enjoy.

Originally posted on April 23, 2005.

Obama Denies Flipping Hillary

The Obama campaign denies that Obama gave Hillary the infamous one-finger salute:

A spokesman for the presidential campaign of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama has criticized The Ticket for making a "false and childish accusation" in an item Thursday that the candidate's one-fingered gesture during a speech that day might have been the finger aimed at his Democratic Party opponent instead of an innocent finger aimed at brushing his cheek or scratching a scratch.

As displayed in a video clip, Obama was criticizing Washington for its gotcha politics in general and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton specifically as being "in her element" there. As he mentions her name, he brushes his cheek twice with the middle finger of his right hand.

The crowd certainly seemed to think that Obama used the obscene gesture. Lsten to the reaction as Obama uses his middle finger to scratch his cheek:

What do you think -- did Obama flip Hillary the bird? Go to Right Side Politics and vote.

Exploding Water Balloon At 2,000 Frames Per Second

This is really cool. At 2,000 frames per second, the water contained in an exploding water balloon holds its shape for a few thousandths of a second before it succombs tp gravity:

Via WIRED Science.

Obama's Union Thugs

Why won't Obama repudiate the union thugs who are advertising on his behalf in PA?

The Service Employee International Union (SEIU) is running a television ad in Pennsylvania, in support of Barack Obama, who is already outspending Hillary Clinton 5 to 1 on the airwaves.

The ad titled "Change," shows mostly white, working and middle-class Pennsylvanians complaining about their gas prices and then declaring their faith in Obama. The ad compliments the SEIU's extensive get-out-the-vote campaign in Pennsylvania.

Why would Obama accept the assistance of the SEIU? Just last weekend, the SEIU dispatched 700 of its thugs to disrupt a labor conference in Michigan, shoving people to the ground and inflicting a head wound on a retired woman.

In California, they are stalk nurses in a rival union by going to their homes and even post YouTube video of themselves doing it.

The SEIU stalking got so bad that a California judge issued a restraining order against SEIU:

So I repeat, why won't Obama repudiate the SEIU's violent tactics and reject the union's ads on his behalf?

Why does Obama choose to stand with the SEIU, and its track record of intimidation? A record which is rendering the union a pariah, even within organized labor.

Thanks to Matt Lewis and Flap for the tip.

The Democrats' Philadelphia Debate In 30 Seconds

The UpTake produced this clever video summarizing the Democrats' Philadelphia debate in 30 seconds:

Well done.

McCain - The GOP Comeback Kid

A new Associated Press-Yahoo news poll finds Senator McCain has managed to win the support of disgruntled Republicans, Independents and  moderate Democrats:

Of those who have moved toward McCain, about two-thirds voted for President Bush in 2004 but are now unhappy with him, including many independents who lean Republican. The remaining one-third usually support Democrats but like McCain anyway.

Also helping the Arizona senator close the gap: Peoples' opinions of Hillary Rodham Clinton have soured slightly, while their views of Barack Obama have improved though less impressively than McCain's.

The survey suggests that those switching to McCain are largely attuned to his personal qualities and McCain may be benefiting as the two Democrats snipe at each other during their prolonged nomination fight.

Tracking a group of about 2,000 people throughout the campaign, the AP-Yahoo poll reports some Republican-leaning voters who backed Bush in 2004 but lost enthusiasm for him are returning to the GOP fold — along with a significant number of Democrats who have come to dislike their party's two contenders:

The poll shows that McCain's appeal has grown since November by more than the Democrats' has dwindled. McCain gets about 10 percentage points more now than a generic Republican candidate got last fall; Obama and Clinton get about 5 points less than a nameless Democrat got then.

Underlining McCain's burgeoning popularity, in November about four in 10 considered McCain likeable, decisive, strong and honest while about half do now. Obama is seen as more likeable and stronger now but his numbers for honesty and decisiveness have remained flat, while Clinton's scores for likeability and honesty have dropped slightly.

The recent Washington Post-ABC News poll found a majority of voters now view Hillary as dishonest:

Nearly six in 10 said in the new poll that she is not honest and trustworthy. And now, compared with Obama, Clinton has a deep trust deficit among Democrats, trailing him by 23 points as the more honest, an area on which she once led both Obama and John Edwards.

Among Democrats, 63 percent called her honest, down 18 points from 2006; among independents, her trust level has dropped 13 points, to 37 percent. Republicans held Clinton in low regard on this in the past (23 percent called her honest two years ago), but it is even lower now, at 16 percent. Majorities of men and women now say the phrase does not apply to Clinton; two years ago, narrow majorities of both did.

According to the New York Times, the brawl that the battle for the democrats' nomination has devolved into is causing Democrats to question the party’s prospects in the November election. Nevertheless, that recent Washington Post-ABC News poll found "little public pressure to bring the long and increasingly heated contest to an end."

Luntz Focus Group - More Evidence Of Democrat Deserters

This Frank Luntz focus group called the Democrats' Philadelphia debate a tie. More important, at about 3:45 into the following video, a significant number of these Democrats raised their hands, on camera, to indicate they will vote for Senator McCain in November:

The Democrats are facing a serious deserter problem. In addition to the Luntz focus group, at least at least seven recent polls show that regardless of which Democrat wins the nomination, a significant number of Democrats deserters will vote for John McCain in November.