Welcome, dear reader, to the most intense nightly read in the ‘sphere… The Nightly Ramble….
[1]
- The Fed cut interest rates early this morning [2], to 1.5%. I’m not sure if that’s going to have the desired effect, but what else can the fed do, at this point?
- I do note the markets seemed to take off this morning, almost 500 points in the first hour, looks like.. on insane volumes… and then lost most of that again before noon. then back up by the bell, closing within shouting distance of where it started [3]. Wild ride, that…. though as I’ve been saying to Bruce of late, don’t be too quick to attrubute one factor alone, to what the market does on any given day.
- They’re going to hold hearings on Fannie and Freddie in the House [4]. You have to wonder, though, given who’s in charge, how deeply they’re going to dig.
- Speaking of that, Stan Kurtz is still out there [5] doing what reporters are supposed to do. Dig. Subject: ACORN, the Democrats, and yes, corruption. Will the house members call him to testify? The Republicans should, and will if they’ve got a brain about them. And before the election.
- Interesting… Headlines and the leftie blogs to one side, I’m interested to see a large number of people and more informal polling suggesting that McCain won last night’s debate, by wide margins. Drudge ran one as did Glenn and a few others. Each one shows McCain by a wide margin. Even accounting for ‘non-scientific polling methods’ the disparity between those polls and others, sich as Rasmissen, Zogby, etc, is not usually so wide as I’m seeing. I doubt all of it can be written off as poll stuffing by McCain supporters.
- Well, exactly, Billy… [6] which is why I mentioned it recently, and I forget where… and why I have been saying forever that Bush is not a conservative, but at best a centrist. But here’s the thing; He was the better of the two chocies. That’s also one of the reasons why, while I’ve decided McCain to be the lesser of two evils, I’ve never been overly excited about him, either. But, I said at Q&O [7] this morning;
if we regard government as a nessesary evil, and I think we should, then election have always come down to which of the chocies is the least evil.Such was the driver, for example of my choice to support W for POTUS.
He’s at best a centrist, as I have been saying forever… but his is a far less evil choice than Kerry or Gore.By the same token, McCain, while I’m not overly happy about it, is a far less evil choice than is Obama.
Let’s just say my level of ‘acceptable’ is a bit different than is yours. But don’t think for a moment I’m excited about the choice to be made.
- And as to why I’m not, it’s an issue I’ve addressed before. I’ll let Andy McCarthy [8]speak to it now, within the framework of the debate last night:
Now, as the night went along, did you get the impression that Obama comes from the radical Left? Did you sense that he funded Leftist causes to the tune of tens of millions of dollars? Would you have guessed that he’s pals with a guy who brags about bombing the Pentagon? Would you have guessed that he helped underwrite raging anti-Semites? Would you come away thinking, “Gee, he’s proposing to transfer nearly a trillion dollars of wealth to third-world dictators through the UN”?Nope. McCain didn’t want to go there. So Obama comes off as just your average Center-Left politician. Gonna raise your taxes a little, gonna negotiate reasonably with America’s enemies; gonna rely on our very talented federal courts to fight terrorists and solve most of America’s problems; gonna legalize millions of hard-working illegal immigrants.
McCain? He comes off as Center-Right .. or maybe Center-Left … but, either way, deeply respectful of Obama despite their policy quibbles.
Great. Memo to McCain Campaign: Someone is either a terrorist sympathizer or he isn’t; someone is either disqualified as a terrorist sympathizer or he’s qualified for public office. You helped portray Obama as a clealy qualified presidential candidate who would fight terrorists.
If that’s what the public thinks, good luck trying to win this thing.
Exactly so. Damn it, McCain, why are you not fighting this guy, instead of making nice-nice noises? I’m telling you, people… If McCain loses this thing, it’ll be because he lacked the globes to take on Obama properly. Peter Kirsanow agrees: [9]
Andy McCarthy’s right that it’s imperative to attack the premise that Obama’s a plausible president. Obama consorted with a terrorist who brags about planting bombs and whose organization planted hundreds of bombs. Some were meant to kill cops. Some were meant to kill soldiers. Some were meant to kill civilians.
Let’s put this quite simply: This is an abomination. This alone disqualifies Obama from being president. Even if he can heal the planet. Even if the Dow tanks to 5000. Even if he puts a unicorn in every garage. A majority of Americans will not vote for a candidate who they know has had a working relationship with a terrorist — foreign or domestic. But they must know it.
(Emph is mine) Also, I note Mark Levine [10]saying:
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With all respect, I don’t think this — “Obama is not some wild-eyed radical. He’s a normal Chicago politician. That’s the problem.” — is a fair take at all. How can anyone who actually follows this stuff, who reads Freddoso, Kurtz, and scores of other reliable sources of information, conclude that Obama is not some wild-eyed radical?
You’re quite right Mark, if they’d been folowing any of it, they couldn’t help but come to the correct conclusion. Thing is, that’s exactly the point… they have NOT been following it, for the most part. At least they’re not admitting to following it. Call it a failure of our leftist press, call it a devition to the image of Obama that precludes even exposing one’s self to anything that casts any doubts on the man, call it a combo of these factors, you call it whetever you like. Whatever, it still botom lines at they’ve not been exposed to it and that debate last night, with Neilsen reporting a 42 share for the debate, was the place to get it done. McCain was too busy being nice to get it done in anything but a half-hearted manner.
- Jeff Jacoby notes Obama has done a 180 on geneocide [11]. Too bad McCain didn’t notice. Too bad also, that Jacoby didn’t comment on Obama’s suppsoedly humanitarian positions. Obama said last night he thinks we diminish ourselves when we don’t respond to humanitarian issues such as in Darfur where he’d like to see our military… but has all kinds of problems with the equally humanitarian effort in Iraq.
- Britt Hume [12], last night:
An analysis of the presidential candidates’ tax and spending proposals shows Barack Obama would create a larger deficit than John McCain by the end of his first term.
Gee, Britt, no kidding? You woulcn’t know that, either, by McCain’s words last night.
- David Kernell….That punk brat of a Democrat state senator who hacked Sarah Palin’s E-mail has been indicted [13]. Good.
- I have a suggestion for Ahhnold, and his budget woes [14]: Allow offshore drilling. Consider the added tax income to the state. Of course those isiots will ignore it, mostly because it makes sense.
- Kenya finally deported Corsi. [15] Go ahead, tell me how this arrest and deportation is not political in motivation.
- So Chuckles Schumer is annoyed [16] with the US Chamber of Commerce? That’s OK, Chuckles, they don’t much like you, either. You score about what, 38% on their scale [17]of Busienss Policy?
Schumer distributed a chart showing the Chamber has donated $16.28 million to Republican candidates this election cycle, and only $329,000 to Democrats
Well, let’s examine this. Shall we look at political contributions from the newsrooms [18]you’ve got so well-trained, Chuckles, you snake in the grass? I guess by your lights, then, the Dinosaur Media is a “Wing of the Democrat party”? Yeah, I guess I can accept that.
- There are tourist planes for Mount Everest? Apparently so. I didn’t know that. Anyway, one of ’em crashed last night. [19]
- There seems little justice in the world. That boyfreind of the woman who was on the toilet [20]for a couple years? He just won the lottery. [21] $20 large. Don’t it figure?