The Russia-Georgia Affair Helps McCain & Hurts The Rookie

It's as if Russia started a shooting war with Georgia over it's province of Ossetia just to help John McCain's candidacy.

Judging from remarks from both US Presidential candidates, this event has handed McCain the kind of issue that he can ride to the Oval Office.

While the rookie Senator from Illinois, on vacation, mouthed meaningless platitudes about talking, McCain threatened exiling Russia from the G8. Which is exactly the type of action required.

And the type of action which will alert the American voters to the looming danger of Russia in the energy markets- both financial and physical.

McCain's military background of discipline and familiarity with combat gives one the reassurance that he does not take invasions, or the necessary reactions, lightly.

One imagines Obama suing for peace with the Russians at whatever cost- probably using the UN as his negotiator.

With the Russian invasion of Ossetia in the news this month, it looks like McCain has some major tailwinds for his campaign now.

John Edwards' Little Campaign Spending Problem

Someone bought John Edwards' mistress (and her baby) and her baby's reputed father expensive, multi-million dollar homes in Santa Barbara.

Where did the money come from? Who paid, and why?


It looks like Federal campaign finance laws have been violated by Edwards' moves to hush up this scandal over the past two years.

From what I've read and heard so far, Edwards' campaign finance chief wrote the checks for these homes from the campaign's funds.

Unfortunately for John-boy, that makes the purchases of those homes a potential violation of Federal campaign finance laws, because no campaign activity was performed pursuant to the purchases.

It's not a big stretch to imagine the deal Edwards offered his mistress. It may have been something like,

'I'll get you out of North Carolina and buy a very nice home for you and your/my/our baby, plus provide you with a form of regular child support. In return, you are never to take a paternity test for the baby. If you do, the deal is off, and will be unwound.'

The other home? Probably to provide plausible evidence for the cover story that a campaign aide fathered the mistress' child.

But Edwards has a problem, if this is remotely close to the truth. If his mistress did have a paternity test taken, and the baby proved to be Edwards', then pulling the trigger on the arrangement makes him look heartless. He'd be putting his own child out on the curb in Santa Barbara.

On the other hand, if his mistress had the test administered, and it was negative for Edwards, then he might renege on the deal, as he bore substantially less public ignominy if he was clearly not the woman's baby's father.

Suffice to say, John Edwards' web of deceit is growing more and more tangled and potentially dangerous to him by the day.

But for prominent members and Presidential candidates of the Democratic party, it seems to be pretty much par for their behavior.

The $10Billion Question: Why Are Conservatives Always More Optimistic Than Liberals?

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal featured a fascinating editorial "on how to best allocate scarce resources to solve the world's problems."

Piggybacking on a recent piece by noted environmental issues expert Bjorn Lomborg in the Journal, Newt Gingrich and Jerry "Governor Moonbeam" Brown each provided their responses to the question of how to spend $10 billion of US resources over the next four years to "help improve the state of the world."

Here are the salient points in their replies. First, Gingrich's list:

Here are seven prizes, the first three at $2 billion tax free and the last four at $1 billion each tax free (tax free because not paying taxes makes these prizes psychologically worth much more):

1) A low-cost vaccine or preventive intervention for malaria -- possibly the single biggest potential improvement in the quality of life in poor tropical countries.
2) A modestly priced, mass-manufacturable hydrogen engine for cars, which would be the biggest single contribution to reducing carbon loading of the atmosphere and reducing subsidies through high oil prices to dictatorships.
3) A cheap method for turning large quantities of seawater into fresh water.
4) A reusable system that could get people into space at 10% of the current cost, thus enabling genuine space tourism and launching an age of exploration.
5) The first privately financed permanent lunar base.
6) A method for reusing nuclear waste to make Yucca Mountain, Nevada unnecessary as a repository.
7) A method of learning math and science that kids like, and that enables us to leapfrog India and China by breaking out of our unionized, bureaucratic curriculum. This would enable us to replace "No Child Left Behind" with a more effective education model that could be called "Every American Gets Ahead."

Then, "Moonbeam" Brown's:

I propose that we take the $10 billion and invest it in curbing our energy appetite through efficiency programs and incentives. The efficiency I envision would allow us to enhance our quality of life, but do so in ways that reduce the huge quantities of oil, gas and coal that we now consume.

California has kept its per capita electrical consumption flat for the past 25 years -- in significant part through appliance and buildings standards and incentives to adopt ways that get more work out of less energy. I am not talking about some collective hair shirt, but rather about a wide variety of new technologies and designs.

The world is facing a triple threat of unprecedented dimensions: First, the loss of cheap and easily discovered oil; second, explosive energy demand from China, India and other emerging countries as they rapidly improve their standard of living; and third, the climate disruptions caused by CO2 and other greenhouse gases. None of the three will go away. In fact, each will get progressively worse unless we take decisive action, without delay. America must take the lead in dealing with global energy and climate challenges, and at the same time vastly strengthen its own economy and security.

The next president should engage the appliance and equipment manufacturers and provide the kind of leadership that has so far been totally lacking.

Next, the federal government should establish a financial grant program, encouraging the states to craft efficiency standards for new buildings. Again, the example of California is instructive. Its detailed and regional building standards have saved Californians tens of billions of dollars in lower energy bills. A significant part of the proposed $10 billion could be spent on this type of effort. Each state would be asked to craft their own rules in response to the differing conditions found in various regions of the country.

A third type of program could be modeled on California's current system of rebates, tax credits and other incentives that encourage businesses and consumers to adopt efficiency measures that exceed the mandatory standards. This program is financed through the investor-owned utilities and established under the authority of the state utilities commission.

America is at a crossroads. Total U.S. financial and nonfinancial debt rose to $44.7 trillion in 2006, from $2.4 trillion in 1974. This does not even count longer-term liabilities such as Social Security and Medicare. Oil and gas are consuming more and more of our national wealth. It is time for our political and business leaders to tap into America's unspent creativity and entrepreneurial genius. Many times $10 billion will be needed. But it can be done. It must be done.

The first thing I notice about the two different replies is that Gingrich, as a typical conservative, optimistically believes that, given sufficient motivation, individuals will solve a wide range of problems which directly affect people living in the third world. This stems directly from Lomborg's earlier editorial and work with global leaders which demonstrated that the biggest 'bang for the buck' in improving life on our planet is to bring the poorest humans up on the socio-economic ladder, not to focus on rich country 'problems.'

In contrast, Moonbeam Brown immediately inserted his own liberal agenda into the situation. And, being a typical liberal, Brown sees disaster and 'crossroads' everywhere.

Ignoring his state's slide into economic chaos in the past decade, Brown mistakenly promotes California as the model which the rest of the planet should emulate.

Further, Brown, who is not an economist, engages in completely erroneous 'logic' to declare that, because Americans spend a lot on energy to generate economic value- more than any other country on the planet- energy must, therefore, be a 'problem.' A commodity whose usage must be curbed!

Viewed from a step back, it's clear that Brown's agenda is fraught with the usual liberal hand-wringing over imminent disasters from which we will only be saved by government intervention.

Yes, a bunch of unmotivated, retired-in-place civil servants who can't cut it in the private sector will be rescuing us from global environmental disaster.

Instead of this pipe dream, Gingrich wisely offers prizes which the most motivated, intelligent and creative humans may claim by simply solving the problems described.

Quite a stark, simple contrast between the optimistic conservative viewpoint, and the gloomy, distrustful liberal one, when it comes to life and human nature and creativity.

John Edwards' Lies & Infidelity

This week's confession by John Edwards that he has lied about his extra-marital affair for over two years has import way beyond his own personal situation.

Of course, as quickly as possible, every liberal media pundit and Democratic politician declared that Edwards' admission of being an adulterer, liar, hypocrite and narcissist was only his personal business, and did not belong in the press. Further, they all solemnly assured each other that Edwards' behavior will have absolutely no effect on the Presidential aspirations of Illinois' freshman Senator.

In my opinion, those pundits and Democratic politicians are entirely wrong. Here's why.

First, Edwards' lies about his affair stand in direct contrast to John McCain's immediate counterattacks when the New York Times slandered and smeared him earlier this year with similar allegations. Unproven and unsubstantiated allegations.

Edwards, by comparison, refused to address the matter since it became a story several years ago. Now, having given one interview to a liberal-friendly network, ABC, he has stoically announced he will not address the issue again.

This kind of behavior has to give voters cause for concern with Obama, too. Both Edwards and Obama were single-term Senators when they ran for the Oval Office. Neither has had any substantive legislative accomplishments to his credit.

Both are basically shallow, opportunistic politicians trading on youth, sudden popularity, a glib tongue, and image.

I'm not saying Obama, too, has a scandalous skeleton in his closet. Actually, several of his are already out of the closet- Jeremiah Wright being one of the more notable, along with the South Chicago slumlord who is Obama's backer.

Rather, I think that voters will see the similarity of shallowness, refusal to submit himself to the full examination of the media and people, and the tendency to begin to believe his own press, in Obama, that we now know brought Edwards down.

Another troubling aspect of the Edwards affair for Obama is the degree to which the major media clearly ignored an important story about a public figure, a candidate for the White House, caught in a very obvious lie.

This same media has been 'in the tank' for Obama. And now everyone understands the degree to which the networks- ABC, NBC, and CBS- plus major print media- the New York Times and Time Magazine- will also turn a blind eye to anything that they feel would reflect badly on the rookie Senator from the Land of Lincoln.

Also, Edwards' reputation as a glad-handing, on-the-make, superficial politician who believed his own press is now solidified. And that is precisely the image that Obama has been recently cultivating.

in Edwards' admission of guilt, he provided some detail about how he began to believe he was above normal codes of behavior, and became more 'narcissistic.'

Does this not sound like someone else we all know?

Edwards came, or was still coming, extremely close to consideration as a VP candidate, or for a Democratic cabinet position. Perhaps even Attorney General.

Yet we now know that Edwards lied to his own wife and family for some time in the past, and continued to lie to campaign contributors, workers, and supporters in this last primary campaign.

Sure, he's finished politically. But he came very close to being included in any prospective new Democratic administration.

Having dragged out his poor, humble beginnings, and traded on his wife's cancer, Edwards deserves to have this latest development in his life aired just as fully.

Everyone should know the details of his lies and infidelity. For such character is what Edwards would have brought to the Presidency.

And the Black Adder is not so far removed from the rags-to-riches story of Edwards. And, one can surmise, the same feelings of privilege, immunity from criticism or investigation, and 'narcissism.'

John Edwards' outrageous behavior in lying to his family and the country about his explicit breach of promises to his own wife will, I believe, continue to hang heavily in the air this summer as the Democrats attempt to push one of their own into the White House.

Slick Willie's promised appearance at the Democratic convention in Denver will, no doubt, now remind voters of another unfaithful, lying candidate for President.

The same party culture that spawned Edwards and propelled him so close to the Presidency, and propelled the lying and unfaithful Bill Clinton, is at work for Obama, as well.

Obama Plays The Race Card In Desperation

The freshman Senator from Illinois must be getting scared of John McCain, because last week, Obama played the 'reverse' race card.

In a rambling, off-the-cuff patter at some campaign function, he alleged that 'they' would tell voters not to support him because he is 'different' than previously-elected Presidents.

In the Black Adder's own words,



Amazing, isn't it? What, precisely, do you think the rookie Senator means when he says 'those Presidents on the one and five and other dollar bills?'

That he doesn't wear a wig or have long hair? Wear outdated clothing?

And what, by the way, does George Bush have to do with anything? He's not running.

Or doesn't Obama realize this yet?

No. He is clearly attempting to paint any critic as a racist.

Rather than simply admit he has no relevant experience to even run for President, Obama is already playing the race card, in reverse.

So this is 'post-racial' politics, eh?

Sounds like desperate measures by an inexperienced, flash-in-the-pan candidate.

Obama's FlipFlop On Coastal Drilling

It looks like the junior Illinois Senator's inexperience and focus on himself is finally catching up with him.

Amidst the general clamor of the American voting public for Congress to do something about the country's energy policy and, if possible, oil prices, Obama finally swung around to vaguely stating that he might be for some drilling off the US continental shelf.

Fox News has been playing clips of Obama steadfastly declaring earlier this year, in just the past few months, that no new drilling for oil in America was necessary. That this would be the wrong solution, and, in his opinion, no solution at all.

Suddenly, as McCain has drawn even with and, by some polls, ahead of the Black Adder, Obama is sensitive to most Americans' opinion that we should drill for oil everywhere we can in this country. Including our deeper-water areas off the coasts.

As is typical of Obama, he abandons his so-called principles as soon as it looks like he's lost touch with the polls.

Maybe he should be considering the master of that game, Slick Willie, as a possible running mate?

The Arrogant One

It's hard to overstate just how arrogant the freshman Senator from Illinois has become.

Did you see the video coverage recently of him declaring, as if he has already won the November election,

'This is our moment?'

As if anyone not on his side is not going to have a say. Disgusting......

Then, in response, we have this recent Letterman 'Top 10' lampoon of the rookie Senator.



When popular media begin to lampoon Obama's arrogance, you know it's now a mainstream, recognized and acknowledged fact.

McCain may not be the perfect candidate. But with the Black Adder already trying to take victory laps before his own party's convention, I think he's looking better and better to more and more voters.