What Is This World Coming To?

Since CNBC’s Rick Santelli first suggested a Chicago Tea Party to protest President Obama’s plans to “stimulate” the economy and bailout homeowners through unrestrained government spending, organized demonstrations have been occurring across the fruited plain.

In fact, as Glenn Reynolds reported moments ago, there’s one happening today in Cincinnati.

Unfortunately, unless you frequent conservative websites, you’d have no idea that such events were being staged.

via Obama Protests aka Tea Parties Largely Ignored by Media | NewsBusters.org.

The standard playbook for new members of Congress includes this time-honored piece of advice: Lay low, focus on constituent service and avoid drawing too much attention to yourself.

But Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) hasn’t paid much attention to the old adage about being seen and not heard. Just two months into his first term, he’s already making a name for himself with a shoot-from-the-lip style and an ideological edge that some argue is ill-suited for the competitive, suburban Orlando seat that he represents.

On Wednesday, Grayson weighed in on the dispute between the Obama administration and Rush Limbaugh, calling the conservative talk show host “a sorry excuse for a human being.” In January, he referred to Limbaugh as a “has-been hypocrite loser” who “was more lucid when he was a drug addict.”

via Rep. Grayson won’t hold his tongue - Josh Kraushaar - POLITICO.com.

It is impossible to imagine that the liberal network news could be more clumsy in its efforts to manipulate the results of the general election than it has been in its efforts to paint Sarah Palin as some kind of moose-hunting rube.

Indeed, in ABC’s own coverage of the interview, they continued the assault:

“Palin has no previous foreign policy experience and her comments hewed closely to the McCain camp’s established foreign policy positions on former Soviet nations joining NATO, and the threats posed from Islamic terrorists and a nuclear Iran.

When asked if Georgia joined NATO, whether the United States should go to war if the country was again invaded by Russia, Palin responded: “Perhaps so. I mean, that is the agreement when you are a NATO ally, is if another country is attacked, you’re going to be expected to be called upon and help.”

Palin — whose military experience is limited to her gubernatorial role as commander-in-chief of the Alaska National Guard, an organization with fewer members than there are citizens in the town of which she was mayor — tried to tout her energy expertise in lieu of her lack of national security policy. . . .”

Palin may not have the experience in national security policy of an ABC news reporter, but she was right when she says that NATO treaty obligations include treating an attack on one member nation as an attack on them all.

In fairness, since ABC didn’t, I should point out that Barack Obama’s foreign policy experience (and he is the top of the ticket) is limited to the 173 days he’s served in the Senate, almost all of which were as a presidential candidate.

Palin, 44, whose political career began with the PTA and a city-council seat in Wasilla and who obtained her first passport last year, told Gibson that she was up to the challenge of being Sen. John McCain’s vice president.

I’m waiting to read an ABC account that includes, “Obama, 46, whose political career began as a community organizer who has never even visted Russia or Canada, the two countries that border Alaska, feels his months in the US Senate qualify him to be the most powerful man in the world. . . . “  but I won’t hold my breath.

But I hear a lot fewer people are getting their news from ABC News than from any other source. . . .

While the rest of us ponder Obama’s brilliant energy strategy proposals (who knew the incredible energy savings to be derived from properly inflated tires?)  Obama’s new campaign plane is a mirror of the candidate himself; elegant, ostentatious, a gas-guzzling monster fit to carry The One along his road to the White House.

His Boeing 757 was retrofitted to install four individual chairs that resemble La-Z-Boys. They are free-standing and made of plush leather with pockets on the sides. There is also a booth which seats four for a meeting or a meal.

His chair has his name and campaign logo embroidered on the back top — “Obama ‘08” on one line and “President” underneath. To one side is a small table stacked with newspapers ready for the candidate’s arrival. The table of the booth is always covered in snacks and cheese and is where Obama spends most of his time during flights meeting with staff and sitting for the occasional interview.

The next two sections are outfitted with expansive business class seats for senior and junior level staff including Obama’s media team, which films all of the candidate’s events for promotional purposes. Politico’s Mike Allen said that by comparison, Air Force One seems ‘claustrophic.’

But, he is The One. We should be grateful he deigns to come to the people, for if not, the people would surely come to him, to at least touch the hem of his garment, if nothing else.

O-Force One may not be a flaming chariot in the sky, but for the True Believers, it will have to do. For now.

by L. Brent Bozell

John McCain has figured out that one way to build enthusiasm among conservatives is to confront his former best friends in the liberal media. As the media glorify Barack Obama the “statesman” on his trip abroad, with the three network anchors lining up for interviews like a gaggle of smitten fan-club presidents, the McCain campaign suddenly acquired a surprising “Annoy The Media” flavor. Read the rest of this entry »