Drew McKissick's blog

As the Barack Obama World Tour continues, we're treated to another first.  This time, we have an American presidential candidate, holding what amounts to a campaign rally in a foreign country, and distributing campaign flyers to folks in that country in a foreign language.

Of course I'm talking about the upcoming Obamafest in Berlin, and the fact that it amounts to a campaign rally w/the good people of the Fatherland as props.

I'm quite sure that the over-arching message that the Obama campaign will be pushing as a result of the rally is, "see, the Europeans love OUR guy...they just hate America right now because Bush is President".  And, no doubt, the press will do their best to drive the message home.

Outside the Beltway take a look at polls that show Barry "running away" with the Euro vote.

Meanwhile, the RNC is doing a little counter-programming...running radio ads in Berlin that point out Obama voted against funding for our troops.  Good to see our guys take some initiative. 

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More: Next Right - Stop the ACLU - Instapundit

This really gets on my nerves:

If anyone could lay claim totheir state's Republican Party, it's Deborah Burstion-Donbraye of Cleveland. The 53-year-old international business consultant is the former outreach director for the Ohio Republican Party, for starters. She helped deliver the swing state to President Bush in his 2004 re-election bid in which he garnered 16 percent of the black vote. ...

During the 2008 primary season, Mrs. Burstion-Donbraye cast her conservative lot with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. She staunchly opposes abortion.

"But there's been an 'Obama' sign on my lawn since Super Tuesday," she readily admits about her unusual support for the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Sen. Barack Obama. ...

Mrs. Burstion-Donbraye can be counted among the growing number of high-profile black Republicans, including Gen. Colin L.Powell, commentator Armstrong Williams and former congressman J.C. Watts, who say they might not vote for the Republican candidate this fall.

These black Republicans are struggling with the historic significance of the Obama candidacy. Their conflict is just one example of the ways in which race will affect the outcome of the general election between Mr. Obama and Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.

I'm sorry, but if your conservatism is truly that shallow and easily abandoned based on skin color, then everyone has a right to question what you really truly believed to begin with...or what your motivations were for professing those beliefs.

They deserve any derision they receive.

That's what Bob Novak is saying...  From his latest:

Sources close to Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign are suggesting he will reveal the name of his vice presidential selection this week while Sen. Barack Obama is getting the headlines on his foreign trip. The name of McCain's running mate has not been disclosed, but Mitt Romney has led the speculation recently.

I hate to predict against Novak, but I'm a little doubtful.  This is about the biggest PR arrow McCain has in his quiver right now, and I think it's much better used either to step on Obama's convention bounce next month, (ie. announce it the day after Obama's convention speech)...or during the week of the GOP convention, to increase the attention paid to his own nomination.  But we'll see.

More: Next Right

The issue of gay marriage just got a boost, courtesy of the Massachusetts Senate yesterday. 

BOSTON (AP) — Gay couples from across the country are one step closer to a Massachusetts wedding.

The state Senate voted Tuesday to repeal a 1913 law used to bar out-of-state gay couples from marrying in the state. The law prohibits couples from obtaining marriage licenses if they couldn't legally wed in their home states.

The House is expected to vote on the repeal later this week. Gov. Deval Patrick, whose 18-year-old daughter announced publicly last month that she is a lesbian, would have 10 days to sign it.

Just another step down the slippery slope.  But I do think it increases the chances of this becoming a "real" issue in the presidential campaign.  Remember, traditional marriage amendments on are on the ballot in both California and Florida this year.  Now you've got Massachusetts about to open its doors to gay marriage tourism...sending newly married gays back to their home states to start filing lawsuits.

Thiis AP headling made me laugh this morning: 

Bill Clinton warns of growing polarization
(AP) -

AP - Former President Bill Clinton warned Saturday that the country is becoming increasingly polarized despite the historic nature of the Democratic primary.

So Bubba's warning the rest of US about "polarization"...that would be as opposed to "triangulation", I suppose.

You really have to hand it to the guy.  In a twisted kind of way, it's almost awe inspiring to watch a guy operate that has absolutely no shame whatsoever.  Something he's usually displaying anytime he wags his finger and moves his mouth at the same time.

I wondered how long it would be before we got another dose of how the likes of Jesse Jackson (and other black "leaders") feel about Obama.  Last year we had Jackson saying things like Obama was "acting white", guys like Sharpton indicating that he didn't have "real" black roots, etc..  Well now, thanks to an open mic at Fox News, we've got this from Jackson:

In a shocking blast at Barack Obama that was caught on tape, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said, “I wanna cut his nuts out.”

He made the astonishingly vulgar remark as he accused the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee of giving moral lectures to African-Americans.
“See, Barack [has] been talking down to black people . . . I wanna cut his nuts out,” Jackson said.

His whispered comments - accompanied by his hand-miming a cutting motion - were picked up by a live mike before an interview on health care in Fox News Channel’s Chicago studio Sunday.

In an effort to blunt the controversy, Jackson apologized publicly at a news conference before the tape aired last night on Bill O’Reilly’s “The Factor” show on Fox News Channel.

Also, Jackson had not plans to even admit that it was true (despite being on tape) until he learned Fox planned to air the comments.

Some are saying that this helps Obama...because he's being dissed by Jackson for saying things that should be said to the black community.  But I disagree.  This just reveals what we've already known was there.  Dissention.  Yes, the Jacksons and Sharptons will salute when needed, if just to maintain their credibility, but how hard will they work this fall?  How hard wiill Jesse work the Rainbow-PUSH coalition when it comes to voter turnout for a guy that, should he win, obviates the need for guys like himself and Sharpton?  I don't see it.

In the meantime, Obama's not making his peace treaty with Hillary any easier to maintain...

NEW YORK - It was all part of a careful arrangement: Democrat Barack Obama would get fundraising help from his erstwhile rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, in exchange for his help retiring about $10 million of her campaign debt.

But Obama momentarily forgot his part of the deal at a major New York fundraiser Wednesday night, forcing him to retake the stage after he had concluded the event and said goodnight to the audience. ...

The Democratic nominee-in-waiting then wrapped up his speech and thanked the audience, moving to shake hands along a rope line.

After a minute or so, the music was cut short and Obama returned to the stage.

"This is not the speech part, but it is important," he said sheepishly, urging the group to reassemble.

"Senator Clinton still has some debt, and I could have had some debt if I hadn't won. So I know the drill," Obama said, encouraging donors to use the forms under their seats to make a contribution to help her.

"It's very important to us, and obviously Senator Clinton will be grateful as well," Obama said.

Don't think that slight went un-noticed by the Clinton folks.  And don't forget, she's not the only one he has to make happy here, by helping her retire a multi-million dollar debt.  And not just the hold-out Clinton supporters who "just don't like him"...  But he's got to figure out what to do with the Clinton elite.  The folks who've been running the Democrat party's power structure for the past twelve years.  So far, they haven't been trhown a bone and don't have a spot in the Obamasphere.

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More: Michelle Malkin - Ace 

There's no excuse for this...unless you really just don't like making it easy for anyone and everyone to have a better idea of what you're up to.

The Majority on the Committee on House Administration is later today proposing new rules which would severely restrict constituent access to their Member of Congress and limit the ability of those Members to adopt new technologies. ...

this Rule shows a clear misunderstanding of the access which the Internet provides to constituents and Members of Congress to have a very real, open, level and honest relationship at a minimal/if any cost to the American taxpayer.

Absolutely.  But, apparently, the House Democrats think there's too much sunlight out there.

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More at Next Right

Given that we're about to celebrate our Country's birthday, it's fitting to note that a great number of Democrats, in fact half of Obama's supporters, don't support the Constitution "as-is". 

So often conservatives get laughed at when we suggest that Democrats/liberals want to change the Constitution.  Well, now Rasmussen has polling evidence to back up that belief.

Democrats favor minor revisions to the Constitution far more than Republican voters—51% of Barack Obama’s party say that either minor (41%) or major (10%) changes are needed. Just 23% of Republicans see the need for even minor changes. Overall, 76% of Republicans say the document is fine as is. Forty-seven percent (47%) of Democrats agree.

So when we talk about liberal activist judges, re-writing the Constitution from the bench - and the Democrats who support them - now you know where we're coming from.  In other words, liberal judicial activism is more likely to result in changes to how the Constitution is applied by virtue of the fact that most liberals/Democrats support such changes to begin with.

Well, it seems now that Obama's doing a little backpedaling on the gay marriage thing.  After having tripped up the other day by trying to woo evangelicals with talk about faith-based programs at the same time it came out that he sent a letter opposing the marriage amendment in California, his spokesperson is in full spin-mode.  From the NY Times:  

Mr. Obama made his position public in a letter he sent last week to the Alice B. Toklas L.G.B.T. Democratic Club, a San Francisco gay rights group.

“I oppose the divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the California Constitution, and similar efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution or those of other states,” wrote Mr. Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

Well, that's pretty clear.  We can disagree, but at least we know where he stands, right?  Uh-huh.  Read on.

But his campaign said that Mr. Obama’s opposition to the initiative, which will appear on the state’s November ballot, did not signal a change in position. He remains opposed to same-sex marriage, but supports civil unions and domestic partnerships.

Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for the campaign, said that Mr. Obama took the stance because “as we have seen in some states, enshrining a definition of marriage into the constitution can allow states to roll back the civil rights and benefits that are provided in domestic partnerships and civil unions.”

So he's opposed to same-sex marriage, but opposes making keeping it against the law.  Opposing a state being able to keep it's current definition of marriage from being redefined by a one vote court majority.

Perhaps then Obama, or his spokesman, would be so kind as to provide some proposed text of a traditional marriage law that wouldn't "roll back civil rights", whatever that means.

The truth is that he wants to play that cagey liberal game of being for something without having to admit your for it.  Meaning he'll say he's "for" gay civil unions/domestic partnerships which have all the same rights and benefits of marriage...so long as we don't call it a "marriage" yet and upset some of those "bitter" middle class voters who's votes he'll need in a few swing states in the American heartland. 

He's hoping that they don't catch on before Election Day.

This is just too good to be true.  From Dave Brody:

Barack Obama may be talking up his Christian faith like he's doing today in Ohio and trying his best to appeal to Evangelicals with a “new kind of politics”, but he’s got a problem. Many of his positions are the same liberal positions that have turned off Evangelicals for years.

Obama delivered another speech about faith Tuesday. He’s done a few of these concerning his faith and how it shapes his public policy. But Sunday his campaign and the Democratic Party were handing out pro-gay rights flyers at the Pride Festival in St. Louis. How is that going to play in the heartland?

I'll tell you how, "not good".  Check these out:

Note how they managed to work the rainbow flag into the Obama logo in place of the American flag.

But more important, check out the details.  He's for overturning the Defense of Marriage Act, overruling the military on allowing open homosexuals by repealing "don't ask, don't tell", wants federal funding for drug needle exchanges, oposes constitutional amendments that define marriage as "one man and one woman", (which have passed in 30 states with an average 70% of the vote), and wants anti-discrimination laws that not only cover "sexual preference" but "gender identity".

Not enough for you?  Take a look at the "Pride" section of Obama's website.  "Change we can believe in" allright.

And keep in mind that overturning the Defense of Marriage Act means each state could then be forced to recognize a gay marriage performed in another state, in effect allowing one state to redefine marriage for the entire country. 

And now his wife's out there saying basically the same thing:

Speaking to the Democratic National Committee's Gay and Lesbian Leadership Committee last Thursday in New York City, Michelle Obama said her husband supports "a world where federal laws don't discriminate against same-sex relationships, including equal treatment for any relationship recognized under state law."

"That is why he supports robust civil unions," she said. "That is why he has said the federal government should not stand in the way of states that want to decide for themselves how best to pursue equality for gay and lesbian couples -- whether that means a domestic partnership, a civil union or a civil marriage."

Of course he's NOT in favor of them deciding whether or not they want to define marriage as it's been defined since before the birth of the country...  And pay no mind that doing what she suggests puts people of faith, to say nothing of religious institutions at risk of lawsuits for continuing to run their lives and businesses in accordance with their faith.

This kind of stuff doesn't play in the heartland.  He can make all the moves he wants towards evangelical voters but, in the end, they vote on the basis of issues which are rooted in their faith.  And the list outlined above - plus his pro-abortion stance - will trump anything else he can say or do.