CALIFORNIA YANKEE

'Black Hawk Down' pilot criticizes Obama's canceled troops visit

Retired U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer Michael Durant questioned Obama's "judgment" and "priorities" for canceling a visit to a military hospital in Germany last week:

"Over the last week, Barack Obama made time in his busy schedule to hold a rally with 200,000 Germans in Berlin, hold a press conference with French President Nicholas Sarkozy in Paris, and hold a solo press conference in front of 10 Downing Street in London. The Obama campaign had also scheduled a visit with wounded U.S. troops at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, but this stop was canceled after it became clear that campaign staff, and the traveling press corps, would not be allowed to accompany Senator Obama."

"I've spent time at Ramstein recovering from wounds received in the service of my country, and I'm sure that Senator Obama could have made no better use of his time than to meet with our men and women in uniform there. That Barack Obama believes otherwise casts serious doubt on his judgment and calls into question his priorities."

Durant was beaten and held hostage in Mogadishu, Somalia for 11 days after his Black Hawk helicopter was shot down. Durant's ordeal inspired him to write three books, "Black Hawk Down," which was made into a movie, "In the Company of Heroes" and "The Night Stalkers."

The Obama camp still can't find an acceptable way to explain away this political blunder. It's not for a lack of trying. Today, Obama adviser Robert Gibbs claimed Obama decided not to visit the wounded troops because some would characterize it as a political event:

If the story behind the story of the canceled troop visit has run its course, one question remains: Why didn’t Mr. Obama leave his aides behind, even the retired general, and make the visit by himself?

“Even him going alone would likely be characterized by some as a political event,” Mr. Gibbs said in an interview on Monday, adding, “He decided not to put the troops in that position.”

Friday, Gibbs blamed the Pentagon:

Gibbs explained the details of the planning of the visit, known as the tick tock, and suggested the Pentagon came to the Obama campaign late in the game, citing a regulation issue in making the case for the Obama campaign to cancel the visit.

The campaign would not answer whether Obama was denied outright from visiting the base.

Gibbs said Gration had been in contact with the Pentagon for three weeks during the planning of the visit. On July 15 or 16, he said the campaign received a PPR, a "prior permission required" -- which was required to land a nonmilitary aircraft (Obama's campaign plane) at an airbase in Germany.

But on Wednesday, Gibbs said, Gration received new information from the Pentagon, saying that this visit would be viewed as a campaign stop.

He said the Pentagon said Obama could visit wounded troops from Illinois in his capacity as a senator, but that was it.

Obama senior strategist David Axelrod also tried to blame the militaryThough the Rammstein visit had been long planned, Obama senior strategist David Axelrod said that the Pentagon notified Obama military advisor Scott Gration just before the visit that it could be portrayed as political. In light of that, the campaign decided to pull the eventOn Thursday, Gibbs said Obama decided it would be inappropriate to visit the wounded troops in Germany:

The senator decided out of respect for these servicemen and women that it would be inappropriate to make a stop to visit troops at a U.S. military facility as part of a trip funded by the campaign.'" (Jake Tapper, "Obama Scrubs Visit To See Troops In Germany," ABC News' "Political Punch" Blog, http://blogs.abcnews.com, Posted 7/24/08)

Sooner or later, Obama will have to admit that when confronted with the rule that campaigns are not allowed to use wounded U.S. troops as campaign props, Obama chose not to visit wounded troops. Instead, Obama chose to use the time for a visit to the gym at the Berlin Ritz Carlton -- which did provide campaign imagery, and to enjoy a martini with his campaign staff and the press at a downtown Berlin restaurant.

Rasmussen Reports Presidential Tracking Poll - 7/29

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Tuesday shows Obama’s Berlin bounce is gone:

Obama now attracts 44% of the vote while John McCain earns 42%. When "leaners" are included, it’s Obama 47% and McCain 46%. Compared to a week ago, Obama has gained a single percentage point

McCain 42%
Obama 44%

Demographic Notes:

Obama earns the vote from 78% of Democrats, McCain is supported by 86% of Republicans, and unaffiliated voters are evenly divided. McCain leads 50% to 44% among White voters and 51% to 43% among men. Obama leads 51% to 42% among women and 92% to 5% among African-Americans

.The Rasmussen Reports Daily Presidential Tracking Poll has a margin of error is plus or minus 2 percent.

Most Americans Believe in God

Callup reports that large majority of Americans (78%) say they believe in God and 15% say they don't believe in God, but do believe in a higher power.

Gallup Poll Editor in Chief, Frank Newport, summarizes the recent findings in the following video report:

Those regional and ideology breakdowns are surprising. Perhaps that is why Democrats suffer from a perceived God Gap. More surprising to me, is the finding that independents are the least likely to believe in God. Newport says it isn't surprising because those disengaged politically -- not affiliated with a party -- are likely to be disengaged in other areas of their life. I don't buy the argument that independent voters are disengaged.

Do you believe in God?

Late Night Comedians On Obama's Trip

Jay Leno:

"Barack Obama back from his big European tour. Did you see him in Europe? People were cheering him, holding up signs, blowing him kisses. And that was just the American media covering the story."

David Letterman:

Over the "last ten days," Barack Obama "was traveling overseas, campaigning in Europe and everywhere." And this trip was "so successful" that Obama "is actually thinking about campaigning here in the United States."

McCain Regains Lead

The latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds McCain ahead of Obama by 4 points among "likely" voters. A month ago, the USA TODAY/Gallup Poll had McCain behind by 6 points among "likely" voters.

According to Tom Bevan, this is McCain's first lead since May:

This is the first poll showing McCain with a lead over Obama since a May 1-3 Gallup/USA Today survey showed him with a slim 1 point lead. A Fox News poll at the end of April had McCain up 3.

With today's Rasmussen and Gallup tracking both ticking down for Obama (-2 and -1, respectively) and a new Dem Corps poll showing Obama up five, the new RCP National Average has Obama's lead over McCain dipping to 3.2%

It's just one poll, so take it with a grain of salt.

Now that we are down to the final 100 days, I will pay more attention to polls.

Hillary delegate removed over McCain support

Wisconsin Democrats ousted Debra Bartoshevich, a pledged delegate to Hillary, as a delegate to the party's national convention because she said she'd vote for Republican Senator McCain in November.

The Wisconsin party's administrative committee stated Bartoshevich violated rules requiring delegates to support the party's nominee and be faithful to the party. Last time I checked Obama is only the presumptive nominee. He can't be the nominee until he is nominated at the convention. The Wisconsin Democrats have joined the national Democrats' so-called Rules Committee in ensuring that Obama is the selected nominee.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Bartoshevich asked the committee to allow her to attend the convention as a Hillary delegate:

She noted that she had donated time and money to Clinton and still believed that the former first lady was the best candidate.

She said she had not decided whom to support and was open to backing Obama if he won her over.

Watch the following video, where the ousted Hillary delegate speaks about her experience and her support for Senator McCain:

“I’m putting my country before my party.”

After she was ousted, Bartoshevich told WisPolitics.com she was done with the Democrats:

“I’m done. I will never support the Democrat Party again, not after how they treated me,” she said. “If you don’t drink the Kool-Aid, I guess you can’t be a Democrat.”

This won't help Obama resolve his Democrat deserter problem. Even though party officials have pronounced that the hard feelings among Hillary supporters have been healed. The Union Leader reports that those hard feeling remain.

McCain Takes Obama To Task Over Troop Treatment

If it doesn't make good campaign propaganda, provide useful campaign imagery, or lend itself to raising campaign funds, Obama isn't interested.

We know Obama doesn't really care about what is happening in Afghanistan. If he did care, Obama would have conducted hearings on Afghanistan. Obama never held a single hearing on Afghanistan:

Barack Obama: "I became Chairman of this committee at the beginning of this campaign, at the beginning of 2007. So it is true that we haven't had oversight hearings on Afghanistan." (MSNBC Democratic Presidential Debate, 2/26/08)

Obama didn't visit Iraq to see the progress accomplished by the surge, until goaded into doing so by McCain and groups like Vets for Freedom. According to the New York Times, When Obama finally returned to Iraq it had been "well past 900 days," two and one half years, since Obama had made his only other visit there.

We know Obama voted against $94 billion in critical funding for U.S. troops fighting to protect us in Afghanistan and Iraq.

We know that Obama's recent so-called fact-finding trip to Afghanistan and Iraq wasn't a fact-finding trip at all. Obama made it very clear before he left that as far as he was concerned the facts were already found. Obama's trip to Afghanistan and Iraq was just for photo ops and fake interviews.

We know Obama's decision to cancel his scheduled visit with wounded troops after Obama learned his campaign photographers would not be allowed to accompany him. This incident developed into a full-blown kerfuffle between Obama and the military.

Obama senior strategist David Axelrod tried to blame the military. Axelrod said that Pentagon notified an Obama military adviser the day before the scheduled visit that Obama should not come.

The military made it clear that Axelrod's story wasn't accurate. Defense Department Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said, "Obama is more than welcome to visit Landstuhl or any other military hospital around the world. ... But he has to do so, just as any other senator has to do so, in his official capacity. It is not acceptable to do so as a candidate." Undersecretary of Defense David Chu explained that Obama would not be allowed to bring any of his campaign staff -- only one Senate staffer and security. He also would not have been able to address the media or make any campaign-related statements.

So when confronted with the rule that campaigns are not allowed to use wounded U.S. troops as campaign props, Obama chose not to visit wounded troops. Instead, Obama chose to use the time for a visit to the gym at the Berlin Ritz Carlton -- which did provide campaign imagery, and to enjoy a martini with his campaign staff and the press at a downtown Berlin restaurant.

The McCain campaign sums all this up nicely in a new ad "Troops," which you can watch below.

The Obamamessiah

Gerard Baker, writing in the Times of London, captures all the Obamania shown in the biased media's Obama orgy:

And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.

The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow.

When he was twelve years old, they found him in the temple in the City of Chicago, arguing the finer points of community organisation with the Prophet Jeremiah and the Elders. And the Elders were astonished at what they heard and said among themselves: “Verily, who is this Child that he opens our hearts and minds to the audacity of hope?”

In the great Battles of Caucus and Primary he smote the conniving Hillary, wife of the deposed King Bill the Priapic and their barbarian hordes of Working Class Whites.

And so it was, in the fullness of time, before the harvest month of the appointed year, the Child ventured forth - for the first time - to bring the light unto all the world.

He travelled fleet of foot and light of camel, with a small retinue that consisted only of his loyal disciples from the tribe of the Media. He ventured first to the land of the Hindu Kush, where theTaleban had harboured the viper of al-Qaeda in their bosom, raining terror on all the world.

This is the funniest thing I have read about this campaign. Read the whole thing.

Baker must have borrowed the idea for this article from Hillary:

McCain Meets With Dalai Lama

Senator McCain met with the Dalai Lama and urged China to address human rights concerns and free Tibetan prisoners:

"I urge the Chinese leaders to engage in talks and make progress with his Holiness' representatives in addressing the just grievances of the Tibetan people," McCain said, with the Dalai Lama at his side.

"I urge the Chinese government to release Tibetan political prisoners, account for Tibetans that have 'disappeared' since the protests in March, and engage in meaningful dialogue and genuine autonomy for Tibet."

The exiled Tibetan leader said McCain had shown "genuine concern" for human rights, democracy and environmental concerns with regards to China.

Senator McCain's meeting with the Dalai Lama demonstrates sympathy for critics of the Chinese regime at a time when the world's attention is focused on the country for the Olympics.

The Dalai Lama has become a symbol of the struggle for Tibetan autonomy and political and human rights in China.

China's government strongly objects to foreign leaders meeting with the Dalai Lama. McCain's visit with the Dali Lama draws another distinction between himself and the president, who's going to the Olympics.

Military Veterans Favor McCain

A new Rasmussen poll finds voters who have served in the U.S. military favor McCain over Obama, 56% to 37%.

Another Rasmussen survey found 63% of Americans do not believe Obama's trip to Afghanistan and Iraq made the antiwar Democratic any more qualified to be president.

Less than a third of respondents, (32%), thought Obama learned from his trip to Iraq, and 40% said Obama's mind was already made up about how to deal with the war there.