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The Georgia vs Russia war does not appear to be going away any time soon. While Russia appears to be withdrawing, it also appears to be building permanent checkpoints within Georgia proper. And they are definitely not leaving South Ossetia.

Since then things have escalated elsewhere. Poland has signed a defense agreement with the US. Syria has signed one with Russia. Poland is harboring interceptor missiles and Ukraine appears to be willing to do the same. NATO has broken relations with Russia. Whether this does lead to a renewed Cold War is yet to be seen, but at the very least it has all the signs that it might.

This alone makes foreign relations and military experience worth three times their weight in gold as far as the presidential election goes. These two areas are also Obama’s weakest traits….to the point of being non-existant. And they are also among McCain’s strongest points. These are also not traits that can be compensated for by skillful debate or a particularly well done advertisement. It just is.

If McCain wins the presidency he can likely attribute this just as much to the worsening situation with Russia, as anything else.

Ok everyone is talking about it, or at least will be soon.  So consider this my response to the issue.

Yeah, they found Obama’s half-brother living in absolute poverty in Nairobi.  If you really need more information, there’s the link.

That said, let that be the end of it.  This just isn’t an appropriate issue, even if you want to fling mud.  To a certain extent it does reflect on his character and personality, but it’s also an personal issue.  When family members inject themselves into the public debate (read: Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama) then fine they are fair game.  But this is clearly not the issue here.

A guy cheating on his wife is one thing, a guy’s relationship with a blood relative seems quite a different issue.

So let’s leave it at that.

Topic Ended.

Congressional District 2 has been the home of stalwart conservative Rep. John Kline since 2003, and if this election’s opponent continues like he is, it’s going to be for another two years as well. Now sure CD2 is a relatively red district. So one would expect the DFL to put up a sacrificial lamb to challenge Kline, but you would have at least thought that they’d pick one smart enough to know the lions are hungry.

Sarvi appears to have come into this race pretty clueless, and despite a recent change in a campaign manager I’m not sure much has changed. First he had to change stories on his military record and hope nobody noticed. Then he made a real rookie boneheaded mistake by allowing the results of an internal poll to get out, a poll that showed him a full 20 points behind Kline. Which probably explains why he can’t even afford his own parade entry fees. Perhaps he should just skip them since he can’t pull together a decent level of support in his own hometown. Now apparently he can’t figure out something as simple as a lawnsign.

Driving home this afternoon, I noticed some additional signs were up in the area. It took awhile to figure out whose they were because they are perhaps the worst political signs I’ve ever seen. Cluttered, busy, and with his name written so small you could barely read it…even if you picked it out of all the background noise. And what’s worse was the size. I guess I didn’t realize they had a size category of “bar napkin” for campaign signs but apparently they do. Four of them slapped together were little bigger than the next smallest campaign sign at the intersections.

Granted he’s got a new campaign manager now, so maybe he can turn things around. But more and more I get the sense that Sarvi just isn’t ready for prime time. Kline has won his previous races by 16+ points. I wonder if he’s going for an even 20 points this time around??

[Crossposted at True North]

[Edited at 2:12 CT to fix grammar/spelling errors.]

According to the gang at The Corner, it’s all right for me to still be resistant to McCain and bitterly wishing for Fred Thompson. But I also have permission to tell McCain to get bent and just write in Reagan instead.

Which is nice because that was kinda the angle I was planning on going anyway. McCain won’t win Minnesota anyway, plus I’m still a little bitter I never was old enough to cast a vote for Reagan.

Heh neat!  A McCain ad that doesn’t piss me off and/or make my want to disembowel my laptop with an icepick.

Remember women, children and spineless politicians first.

Republican Senate leaders have given their member permission to vote whichever way they think will get them re-elected. Basically Republicans are free to abandon conservatism and vote like liberals. Of course, there are many that will claim they’ve been doing that for years….but apparently now it will get worse.

Of course, Republicans forget that the reason their popularity has plummeted is that Republicans stopped acting like conservatives and started abandoning their principals. Even when Republicans do try to make a stand nobody believe them anymore. They so extensively and repeatedly abandoned their principles, that they’ve lost their brand. Nobody associates Republicans with low taxes and low spending any more.

With that all in mind, how could Republican leadership possibly believe by doing more of what lost them their popularity, they’ll gain popularity?? Besides, if the public really wanted liberal positions, they will almost certainly vote for the candidate that votes that way all the time, rather than just occasionally.

Sadely enough, this is what passes for leadership in the Senate these days.

…apparently they are more self-loving. At least according to the master of non-scripted remarks Barack Obama

“Let me be absolutely clear,” Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, said today at a press conference in Amman, Jordan. “Israel is a strong friend of Israel’s. It will be a strong friend of Israel’s under a McCain…administration. It will be a strong friend of Israel’s under an Obama administration. So that policy is not going to change.”

Yeah, ok so if you’re a little confused, let me help you out with this simple graph explaining it. It’s really rather easy once you see it in visual form.

I don’t think a presidential candidate has more clearly framed themselves as clearly out of touch with working class America. First you have Barack Obama, inquiring if some rural farmers in Iowa have seen the cost of Arugula in Whole Foods. Despite the fact that there is no Whole Foods (a upscale grocery story for yuppies) in Iowa and what the hell is arugula???

Now Michelle Obama is complaining that the $600 stimulus check was only enough to buy a pair of earrings.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s wife, Michelle, complained the government’s $600 economic stimulus check was only enough to buy “a pair of earrings” while stumping for her husband.

“You’re getting $600 - what can you do with that?” Mrs. Obama said in Pontiac, Michigan last week. “Not to be ungrateful or anything, but maybe it pays down a bill, but it doesn’t pay down every bill every month. The short-term quick fix kinda stuff sounds good, and it may even feel good that first month when you get that check, and then you go out and you buy a pair of earrings.”

$600 for a pair of earrings??? I think I bought a car for that once. I think that’s roughly what I paid for the TV I’m watching right now. I know one person who used their check to buy a new air conditioner for their house. But yeah, you sure do connect with the working folk.

Although I include the second paragraph because it does mirror one of the complaints I had about the stimulus checks. It’s a one-shot deal. It won’t change spending habits. It won’t convince people to invest more or build something. It’s a temporary benefit. Which she clearly states above.

So I have to ask Michelle, does that mean you’d be in favor of massive across the board tax cuts?? I mean that would certainly help pay down those bills every month. It wouldn’t be a short-term quick fix. It would change spending habits.

Or let me guess, you’re against them because well….if you’re buying $600 earrings, do you really care what the tax rate is?

The New Yorker, hardly the pinnacle of right wing thought, created a cover that liberals, conservatives, McCain, Obama everyone has condemned, and rightly so in my opinion. But what’s more amazing is the New Yorkers rationale for the “artwork”

The July 21 cover, titled “The Politics of Fear,” is intended to be a parody, an attempt to show how “scare tactics and misinformation” are being used to try to derail Barack Obama’s campaign, says cover artist Barry Blitt.

“I think the idea that the Obamas are branded as unpatriotic [let alone as terrorists] in certain sectors is preposterous,” Blitt wrote in an e-mail to the Huffington Post. “It seemed to me that depicting the concept would show it as the fear-mongering ridiculousness that it is.”

Ahhh, so it’s supposed to be a parody of how the right treats Obama? Yeah see, one problem with that. It’s been almost exclusively the left that has pursued this angle, most notably the Clinton camp in a desperate attempt to knock the Messiah off his pedestal. It’s also the left that has spread photos of Obama in his “native dress”. Mention of this story line by conservatives have largely been restricted to conservatives giggling in barely restrained glee from watching liberals eat their own.

And I might note that even if conservatives were the one pushing this angle, it’s nothing compared to the disgusting representations of President Bush, Condi Rice and Laura Bush over the years.

It’s a shame really, because the article that went with the cover is a pretty damn looking at Obama’s past, as detailed quite extensively by Capt Ed.

Who ever created this is my hero….the possibilities are endless.

Here are just a few of my creations. Create your own, trade with your friends, collect the whole set!

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