President ’08

The Mirror Speaks, the Reflection Lies

By Justin Katz | October 26, 2008 |

Mark Levin is concerned that media brazenness and the various vague endorsements of Obama indicate that “this election will show a majority of the voters susceptible to the appeal of a charismatic demagogue”: I’ve been thinking this for a while so I might as well air it here. I honestly never thought we’d see such…

Not Knowing What They’re Doing

By Justin Katz | October 25, 2008 |

It’s becoming unremarkable to remark upon the lack of substance in the latest round of Obama endorsements. Saying he’ll bring “change” or be “transformative” means little. As Thomas Sowell points out, recent pages of history have their share of stories about transformation toward something worse. Of course, as Sowell notes elsewhere, a con man’s “job…

Suspending Disbelief on Tax Policy

By Justin Katz | October 24, 2008 |

Bill Clinton’s state of the union speeches encouraged running tallies of impossible promises. Everybody got more, at no cost to anybody. Obama’s tax policy has that feel. There are so many ways to massage the numbers that the various claims are almost as impossible to assess as the likelihood that the candidate will actually follow…

Dressing Up the Spin

By Justin Katz | October 23, 2008 |

In case anybody’s wondering, Clothing-gate is a non-story. Governor Palin didn’t hit the streets of New York on a Pretty Woman shopping spree. The campaign sent out aids to outfit a sudden candidate who had an Alaskan wardrobe for a whirlwind tour of the country in an environment in which campaigning has become showbiz. Rich…

Leaving Obama in the Impulse Rack

By Justin Katz | October 23, 2008 |

In the comments to “The Passive Vitriol of the ‘Intellectual’ Left,” Joe Bernstein gives a personal weight to a phenomenon that many of us have observed: Maybe they’ll continue using the “racist” taunt until they get the reaction they weren’t expecting. It wouldn’t be a bad thing if the US DID elect an Afro-American president.It…

The Passive Vitriol of the “Intellectual” Left

By Justin Katz | October 22, 2008 |

This MClatchy “report” by David Lightman is really too much: An ugly line has been crossed in this presidential campaign, one in which some people don’t mind calling Barack Obama a dangerous Muslim, a terrorist and worse. “To me, this all feels much worse than we’ve seen in some time,” said Kathryn Kolbert, the president…

Changing Toward Decline

By Justin Katz | October 22, 2008 |

It’s not quite comprehensive, but this multimedia review of some of the arguments against Barack Obama is certainly extensive. There’s been an inclination, with Obama, to hope against reality, but it isn’t enough to recycle the candidate’s slogans as justification for giving him your vote.

The Worst of the Campus in the White House

By Justin Katz | October 21, 2008 |

In a chilling piece, yesterday, Andy McCarthy argues — I would phrase it — that Barack Obama is the fruit of the leftist lunacy that has flourished on American campuses: For Obama, that society is an ineradicably racist “white world.” He is more opaque than mentors like Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers, who mince no…

“… we’re going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy”

By Monique Chartier | October 21, 2008 |

Setting aside for a moment matters of substance as well as my own preference in the presidential race, Senator Obama has to be saying to himself right about now, “Why didn’t someone tell me about this guy’s mouth?” Enter Joe Biden. Yesterday, the Republican camp was trying to score some points from speeches the Delaware…

Powell Latest to Endorse the Obama Aesthetic

By Marc Comtois | October 20, 2008 |

Progressives are excited by Colin Powell’s endorsement of Sen. Obama for President. It will be interesting to see how some will square it with their anger at the then-Secretary of State for purportedly helping the Bush Administration lie us into war, etc. (Though some liberals haven’t forgotten). Hey, maybe they were right after all and…