The Opinionated Bastard

His speech seems to have been a litmus test.

If you liked it, your from the right.

If you laughed, but didn’t take it too seriously, you’re centrist.

If you hated it, and are now vehemently bitching about it, you’re lost to the left.

From ScrappleFace:

Bush Campaign Shift: Now, It’s a One-Man Race

So the Kerry campaign is calling for Karl Rove’s Resignation

Which is just funny. Kerry is now threatened by what a campaign worker said? What a pussy. They made Rove a celebrity with their conspiracy theories.

For the record, here’s what he said:

“It was a period of intense feeling on both sides for and against the war, but I think that was painting with far too broad a brush to tarnish the records and service of people who were defending our country and fighting communism and doing what they thought was right,”

But he also said this:

Rove also said Kerry “served with valor” in Vietnam.

Here’s a link: abc news

More amateur hour at the Kerry campaign. I wouldn’t even had known Rove said this if they hadn’t brought it up.

Here’s some comeback:

Well it’s sort of sad and I knew there was something weird when he started getting up on stages and invoking my name and taking a couple of whacks at me. I can’t imagine that this President ever standing up and invoking the name of an operative from the Kerry campaign. I think it’s sad and demeaning. I also think that it is a sign of something deeper and I hate to be personal about it, but Senator Kerry stood up on a stage in Pittsburgh and attacked me saying that I’d gone to great lengths to avoid service in Vietnam and then on the flight between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia at his next rally, a reporter asked him what do you know about Karl Rove’s draft status and he said I don’t know anything. So, here he stood up and took my good name as a cheap campaign ploy and knocked me around a little bit and admitted that he didn’t have a bit of evidence or knowledge how old I was or where I was during the Vietnam . . when he was in Vietnam, I was in high school.

This is a must read by Ginsberg documenting the Democrat connections to MoveOn.org vs. his relatively minor connection to the swift vets>

From the Washington Post

Which kind of bums me out.

Then the Kerry campaign responded positively, or rather Edwards did.

Except its Kerry who’s running, not Edwards.

From Here:

While I’m (sort of) on this topic, why doesn’t the United States address the Afghan opium trade by just buying the stuff up? Presumably, farmers would be just as happy to sell their poppies to us, and that would keep them off the market, as well as depriving bad guys of a revenue source. Am I missing something here?

Yes Glenn, you are. In a capitalist society, you have to watch out what you reward. If we started buying the poppies, that would just drive up the price, but the poppies are cheap. If the price rose more farmers would start growing poppies instead of say, food. In other words, in a capitalist society, if you start rewarding something, you get more of it.

You’re obviously not a professor of economics. :-)

I wish the Democrats would learn this simple fact. Paying money to single moms leads to more single moms.

Because the Kerry campaign is so badly run.

While I see the right side of the blogosphere agonizing over whether it was over the top or not, I see the left side of the blogosphere frothing at the mouth.

While the Bush campaign will be negative for a day, the Kerry campaign is going to be negative for all of September.

Outside the Beltway quotes the London News Review:

If there is a hell, and most likely Zell Miller believes in such a thing, then Democratic Senator Zell Miller is going to burn in it. Spin hotly on a giant griddle. For something close to eternity.

Oh yes, siree. He is going to burn in hell.

If hell exists; which one can only hope that it does, because if God exists then he’s no kind of God unless he creates a hell for Democrat Senator Zell Miller to burn in. In fact, even if the universe exists without a God, as many would contend, then it may still be within the inarticulate power of this vast mass of galaxies, nebulae and planets to create - within itself - a dark and steaming corner of itself where Mr. Zell Miller can dwell, for eternity, in unspeakable pain. We can call it hell or we can call it Georgia. Just so long as Senator Zell Miller suffers in it.

The discussion on the Kerry blog was similar.

Kerry, thinking 0 moves ahead since 2003.

Economy-Ohio

Negative. Negative economic ads really bug me for a couple of reasons.

1. Negative economic messages always bug me because they can be self fulfilling prophecies. Every time Kerry runs this ad, someone gets laid off.
2. It doesn’t tell me anything about the candidate.

Time

About as positive as Kerry gets. Vague promises of what he’ll do. Bread and circuses.

Guiliani asked both the R's and the D's to have their convention in New York. The R's agreed immediately, the D's refused as long as the R's were having their convention their.

Which party is the most partisan?

NCLB has been getting trashed a lot, and pretty unfairly, so lets talk about what NCLB is really about.

It’s about using phonics to teach reading.

It seems that there are two camps in education: the phonics camp, which is pretty much how everyone in the world actually learned to read: Sounding out words.

Then there is the whole language camp, which basically consists of putting books under kids pillows and hoping they learn how to read.

You’re probably assuming that I’m rabidly partisan in the phonics camp. Nope, I’m not.

More stupidity at the Kerry Campaign:

Which party presented an agenda for the future at its convention? Below is a topic-by-topic comparison between John Kerry’s remarks on July 29 with Vice President Cheney’s speech on September 1.

This is just stupid, because Kerry has to compare himself to Bush, the President, not Cheney, the Vice-President. But I guess he’s too much of a lightweight to compare himself to Bush. But that means he’s too much of a lightweight to be President…

Nails the DNC:

It’s kind of like Chinese food. It filled up people for about a day and then everybody was hungry and just John Kerry doesn’t compare well next to the President.

Read about it here:

Endorses him for fighting terrorism.

Wow.

Zell pushed Kerry off the deep end. He felt he had to have a “post midnight” campaign speech. All politicians with class usually don’t bother to respond to the acceptance speech. Kerry seems to be class-challenged. Perhaps we can have a government program for him?

Isreal. Kerry didn’t.

George W. Bush

John Kerry

Extra credit:

1. Count the number of times Kerry feels he has to slam Bush.

   1. Add up the cost of the Kerry proposals vs. the Bush proposals.

   2. Count the number of graphs in the Kerry document vs. Bush.

I thought it was funny earlier that the Bush campaign felt the best way to discredit Kerry was to stream his acceptance speech. Here I am discrediting Kerry by linking to his platform.

Kerry: All hat, no Cambodia.

Bush calls his platform an Agenda for America

A list or program of things to be done or considered

Kerry calls his platform his Plan for America

A scheme, program, or method worked out beforehand for the accomplishment of an objective: a plan of attack.

Ok, I know I’m being biased/silly. But Kerry seems more Stalinist.

Well, its 263 pages vs. Bush’s 49, but about 90% of what Kerry is talking about is stuff Bush is already doing. In other words, its the status quo.

Ex:

We will:

Make security of vulnerable nuclear material in the former Soviet Union a central issue in U.S.-Russian relations so that we can break through bureaucratic logjams and secure these dangerous materials within four years.

Yeah, yeah, Bush has been working on that for awhile now. and helped push through the initiative where we’re helping the Russians with nuclear security. Kerry devotes a bunch of pages talking about the Medicare prescription drug thing that Bush pushed through.

Also, only the first 100 pages are policy, then there are 20 pages of photos, and the other pages are excerpts from speeches.

Funny, typical political thing: Anything Kerry doesn’t like, “Bush did”. Anything he does like, “Congress enacted”.

Here’s a weird one:

A new $250,000 gratuity for families of service members killed in a combat zone,

A gratuity you mean a tip? Elitist snob. Sorry someone died, here’s a tip. Perhaps our soldiers can go around with tip jars. Ugh. I know, I know its just a word. But gratuity?

So with 60 days left in the election, we have a great speech, and a real agenda from Bush.

From Kerry? Reiterations of what Bush has already done, no cohesive plan, and the new things he does propose (having the government run health insurance) are just a disaster in the making.

PIctures not for the faint of heart

This is so sad. For those who don’t believe in moral absolutes, I tell you.

There is true evil in the world, and those who would purposefully harm children are evil.

I’ve seen a lot of comments on Bush’s speech saying that he was short on details.

They don’t get it, or they missed the line that said “for the details go to www.georgewbush.com”. Its the new media guys, you have to download the booklet. Its no longer the press release or pre-release of the speech that matters it the website.

So Kerry is going to “fight back” now huh?

Bah. I’ve been reading both of their websites and campaign blogs and its Kerry who’s been the most negative. Stupidly negative too, if Bush said the sky was blue, Kerry would say it wasn’t.

Bush has been ignoring Kerry more then he’s been talking about him. I think the Bush election strategists have decided that the best way to beat Kerry is to motivate the current Bush voters to get the polls, and you do that by going positive.

By going negative, Kerry might rile up his current crop, but the more he responds, the more he’s going to fracture his base as:

1. The anti-war Kerry voters realize he would have gone into Iraq too.

2. He becomes more incoherent and alienates everyone else.

It’s audio

This is by the guy who wrote Losing Bin Laden. He makes the point that most of the guys on Kerry’s team are the same guys from the Clinton administration who dropped the ball for 8 years.

Actually, there are 2 million more people employed in the US then when Bush took office.

Read it and Weep, Kerry

So Time and Newsweek are now reporting poll numbers showing Bush leading by 10-11 points, which are huge numbers. Even the conservative bloggers are skeptical.

I’m not.

If I have one overriding criticism of W, its that he takes that cowboy thing of don’t talk, do, a bit too far. For the President, sometimes, talking is the doing. While I think it would be a waste of his time to answer every pointless negative charge aimed at him, I really wish he would give the American people a status report once/month. Not an interview with a journalist because they ask stupid questions, but a briefing.

One of the things I noticed watching the Republican convention was how it seemed like every speaker took the opportunity to thank our troops. I didn’t remember that happening at the Democratic convention. Well, I just checked, and the only mention they had of any soldiers besides John Kerry was in a closing prayer. I think a hidden theme at the Republican convention was definitely a big thank you to our troops.

For comparison, here’s what I found looking for “troops”, “soldier” or “thank” on both websites.

Jay Reding says much the same thing

It's official, the terrorists are morons

The Russians are now going to ally with Israel. First they pissed off the French:

only now they want money

Now they've pissed of the Russians, who are going to get advised by Israel.

You know, it didn't really matter that Bush left the Europeans behind, it looks like they're going to catch up.

In the Boston Globe

It's all about how/why Kerry chose to make Vietnam the centerpiece of his campaign. For some perspective on that, when I talked to my wife about the Swift Vets thing, she was pretty underwhelmed. I think the voting public has been pretty well immunized against negative attacks.

However, she said "Kerry was only in Vietnam for 4 months?"

The effect of the swift vets ad may not have been what all the blog writers think. I suspect many people are ignoring it, but they would have expected to hear more from Kerry by now. Since they haven't, there's this assumption that he must have been this really incredible war hero. He wasn't on say, the Patton, Powell, or Eisenhower level. He was an ensign, and he only saw 4 months of combat. Intense combat, sure, and he gets points for that. But we require our Presidents to have more then just a one-line resume.

So now the Kerry Campaign is trying to regroup

The problem is, they were never "grouped" in the first place.

In an expansive conversation, Mr. Clinton, who is awaiting heart surgery, told Mr. Kerry that he should move away from talking about Vietnam

The problem for Kerry will be that reading that the Campaign is on the rocks is probably worse for him then any of the Swift Boats stuff. Well, not the problem, _a problem.

The problem for Kerry is that none of his platform makes sense. He's going to provide health care for every American by getting the government into the health insurance business? Please. One of the reforms Bush did for Medicare (which has only partially taken affect) was that Medicare was willing to pay for a $29,000 operation, but not $5 worth of preventative care. Not even HMO's are that stupid.

States that have implemented medical tort reform have had their health care costs rise 10-15% vs. the 44% for states without tort reform. If you do the math, medical costs are high because of John Edwards. So Kerry can't fix the real problem, which is to kill all the lawyers.

Now he's claiming Bush is a liar because Medicare went up by $12/month. Maybe Bush could lower it if he took the $60M Edwards made suing doctors and gave it seniors.

Here's Kerry on Foreign Policy: If I Were President—Addressing the Democratic Deficit

Americans’ security depends on helping the people of the Middle East see and act on a legitimate vision of peace.

Yeah, we should have democracy in the middle east so that can happen! Oh, wait, that's Bush.

Read the whole thing here

Positive Highlights:

“George W. Bush’s Foreign Policy Is Revolutionary”

No Bush’s goals of sustaining a democratic peace and disseminating America’s core values resonate with the most traditional themes in U.S. history.

“The Bush Doctrine of Preemptive War Is Unprecedented"

Wrong Preemptive strikes to eliminate threats are a strategy nearly as old as the United States.

“Bush’s Policies Are a Radical Departure from Clinton’s”

Lovely nostalgia. What is striking about President Bill Clinton’s foreign policy is that it actually increased U.S. military preponderance vis-à-vis the rest of the world.

Some negatives too, which I don't agree with, but still an interesting article.

I often fantasize about what would happen if I was the questioner at the Presidential Debates…

Gallup has the best history

Not as much fun as 11 percentage points, but still, its pretty significant. No wonder the Kerry camp is freaking out.

Hat tip to California Yankee

From FindLaw a legal website.

Here are some choice bits:

14-year-old girl rendered quadriplegic from neck injury resulting from improperly supervised dive into shallow end of defendants’ pool.

Ok, don’t allow other peoples kids to swim in your pool, because Edwards might sue you.

Infant born with cerebral palsy after breech birth via vaginal delivery, rather than cesarean.

Which is pretty much why doctors try to talk all their patients into cesareans now even when its unnecessary.

38-year-old female committed suicide after psychiatrist discontinued suicide watch.

Oh, yeah, clearly it wasn’t her fault for being suicidal, it was the psychiatrist’s fault.

There are some very anti-Edwards links at the bottom of the page. FindLaw’s analysis is positive, but they’re lawyers, so they think its good to drive people out of business.

but not quite how they thought…

From The Corner:

Volunteering at the convention, I spoke with numerous police officers, one of whom spelled it out for me very succinctly. “I’m 16 hours deep in a 20 hour shift, and I spent the first half of it being harassed, cursed at, and attacked by protesters over on Eighth Ave. One of them bit me on my hand, so I got sent back here to wat ch over the delegates for the second half of my shift. Since I showed up, I’ve gotten nothing but smiles, thank yous, and salutes from these delegates. One of my friends just offered to relieve me, but I told him I didn’t mind staying around for a while longer. I voted for Gore last time, and Clinton before him, but I’m voting for Bush this time, without a doubt.” Hearing that made up for all of the vitriol I’ve had to deal with being a Conservative at NYU.

Ok, it was a cheap shot. but I thought it was funny, and that’s what matters.

Godwin’s Law:

As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one. There is a tradition in many Usenet newsgroups that once such a comparison is made in a thread the thread is over, and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever argument was in progress.

Which means the left has lost the election! Atrios and Kos can stop blogging! Yahoo!

Not even a soldier, but some working for an NGO: Inside View From Iraq

Hat tip: pawigo