Oh, wait. I'm sorry.

That wasn't her focus at all . . . my bad!

Posted by: Attila Girl at 08:03 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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. . . on the cover of the Rolling Stone.

Via Ed Driscoll, via Glenn.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 06:49 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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. . . so I'll quote his editorial in today's WaPo:

Mr. Obama, in his first national TV ad rolled out Friday, claims credit for having "extended health care for wounded troops," citing the 2008 defense authorization. That bill passed 91-3—but Mr. Obama was one of only six senators who didn't show up to vote. This brazen claim underscores the candidate's thin résumé and, again, his chutzpah.

Mr. Obama has now also played the race card, twice suggesting in recent weeks that Republicans will draw attention to the fact that he's black. Who is unaware of that? Americans overwhelmingly find it a hopeful, optimistic sign that the country could elect an African-American president. But they rightly want to know what kind of leader he might be. They may well reject as cynical any maneuver to discourage close examination of him by suggesting any criticism is racially motivated.

The candidate's self-centeredness has been on display before. Having effectively sewed up the Democratic nomination, he could have agreed to seat the Florida and Michigan delegations (states Hillary Clinton had carried). While reducing his lead by 50 to 55 delegates, it would not have altered the outcome. But Mr. Obama supported cutting these battleground-state delegations in half. At a time when magnanimity was called for, the candidate decided he'd strut.

Mr. Obama's alpha-male attitude was evident even as he stumbled towards and over the primary finish line. First, his campaign announced in May it was talking to Patti Solis Doyle after Sen. Clinton fired her as campaign manager. This served only to pour salt in the Clintons' wounds.

Then, after the primaries ended June 3, Mr. Obama's campaign leaked word that Leon Panetta (a Clinton supporter who'd apparently angered the Clintons by persistent criticism of their performance) and Ms. Doyle would conduct its outreach to the Clinton camp. Ms. Doyle was named chief of staff to the as-yet-to-be-chosen vice presidential running mate. All this was pointless, but reveals a disposition certain to manifest itself in other ways.

Mr. McCain will be helped if he uses Mr. Obama's actions to paint his opponent as someone driven by an all-powerful instinct to look out only for himself. In a contest over who is willing to put principle above personal ambition and self-interest, John McCain, a war hero and a former POW, wins hands down. That may not be the most important issue to voters in electing a president, but it's something they will rightly take into account.

Read the whole thing; it's freakin' beautiful—the more so because Our Dark Lord tends to prefer understatement, but couldn't help getting a few jabs at Senator Hubris.

Via the Memesters.

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Barack Obama criticized Ralph Nader fpr "talking like a far-left, out-of-touch loon."

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"In a minute there is time for decisions and revisions that a minute will reverse.

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Like, in that Dr. Amalfi way from The Sopranos.

Apparently, she's getting hot in that other way, too—as in, mad. Apparently, it's tiresome to watch the economy of one's state get screwed over so that dictators can become more powerful and one's own nation can be weakened.

Who knew?

Posted by: Attila Girl at 06:22 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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It turns out, Barack Obama is black. No, really. He is.

I was skeptical, too, but Cassandra dug up the proof:

Turns out, he's just as black as a . . . as a person who's black. Why didn't this come out earlier? Shouldn't his tax returns have shown low expenditures on sunblock?

I definitely suspect a coverup. Cassie goes on:

I don't know. Could you work the words "fear", "afraid", "scary", and "black" in there just a few more times, Barry? Because I'm "afraid" voters might miss the point.

You know, that you're... like, totally ... black. And the bad, scary Republicans want us to be afraid of you. Because you're so ... black. Even though you're half white. Which we're not supposed to talk about, because that would be focusing on race and you were so hoping we could get beyond that, I know. Damned Republicans. If only they'd quit bringing up the fact.

That you're black. And we should fear you.

Cassandra concludes: "Obama: healing racial and partisan divides by accusing his opponents before they attack him!"

Juliette chimes in:

This is just pathetic.

[Quoting a news account that begins with Obama's own words] "[The Republicans are] going to try to make you afraid of me. 'He's young and inexperienced and he's got a funny name. And did I mention he's black?'

[SNIP]

That old stuff just divides us," he said.

Obama, born to a white mother from Kansas and a black father from Kenya, has cast himself as a candidate who can bridge divides within the country, including those involving race.

[And Baldilocks replies:]

Most people couldn't care less about your name and your color, Senator Obama. They fear being led by you because you have no substantive legislative record, you're a chronic liar, and, after explicitly stating that you choose your friends carefully, you have repeatedly and systematically made friends with people who hate this country.

You would "bridge the divide," Senator, by burning that bridge.

Folks, don't let this Sower of Discord shut you up.

I think Baldilocks is trying to make me afraid.

Back to Cassie, whose comments section on the above-linked post overflows with gems like the following, in her own words:

It has taken me a very long time to confront the Ugly Truth: as a person who was not raised in a multicultural environment I cannot look at Barack Obama without subconsciously seeing a cop killing gansta rapper (you know, something on the order of John Forbes Kerry). It's the tragic legacy of a lifetime of unearned white privilege. The menace just oozes from every polysyllabic word he utters in that mellifluous voice of his.

Perhaps therapy will help.

Nice Deb notes that he's just trying to innoculate the country against any negative information that might come out about him whatsoever:

Yeah, Republicans are so well known for their fear of blacks. That’s why the Republicans keep appointing them to ground breaking positions….to keep them “placated." [Editor's note: that's also why the GOP legislators voted for the Civil Rights Act in greater proportions than the Dems did. It was a trick!]

Never mind that McCain has made clear that he is not interested in doing any negative campaigning at all, not even when warranted.

Never mind that the only real race-baiting took place on the Democratic side during the Democrat primaries.

This is merely Obama’s way of tainting any attempts on the Republican side to bring up Obama’s genuinely scary radical and Commie associations as “racist” allegations. But a clear eyed look at the man’s biography is enough to send shivers down even a few “progressive’s” spines.

It’s also his way of preparing his followers for what lies ahead. (There will be scurrilous, ‘untrue’, nasty things said about him, and it will all be because he’s black).

Fausta's also got a crazy salad of Obamania, including some remarks about that weird-ass quasi-Presidential seal.

(Is anyone else obsessing about that James Thurber cartoon in the New Yorker? "Okay, okay—have it your way: you heard a seal bark!")

Posted by: Attila Girl at 10:12 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Michelle Malkin.

(And, yes—if I got their linking system right, that's Mary Katherine Ham's new venue at the Examiner. If I didn't, it isn't my fault, and I shall have to sack my webmaster . . . again.)

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>Ed Morrissey

“If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” Obama said. “Because from what I understand folks in Philly like a good brawl. I’ve seen Eagles fans.”

They put one of yours in the hospital, you put one of theirs in the morgue, Sean Connery said when he completed that thought in the stylized (read: fictional) account of Eliot NessÂ’ efforts against Al Capone. The difference between ConneryÂ’s character in The Untouchables and Barack Obama is that Connery was prepared to confront his opponents anywhere at any time. Obama not only doesnÂ’t like a good brawl, he canÂ’t even take an open-forum debate unless it takes place on the Home & Garden Channel at 2 am on a holiday weekend.

Ouch; that was downright tart. Almost more like AllahP than Ed.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 12:39 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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. . . or, er . . . something.

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If Obama is political Viagra, the media are at that stage in the ad where the announcer warns that, if leg tingles persist for over six months, see your doctor.

Out there in the voting booths, however, Democrat legs stayed admirably unthrilled. The more the media told Hillary she was toast and she should get the hell out of it and let Obama romp to victory, the more Democrats insisted on voting for her. The more the media insisted Barack was inevitable, the less inclined the voters were to get with the program. On the strength of Chris Matthews’s vibrating calves, Sen. Obama raised a ton of money — over $300 million — and massively outspent Senator Clinton, but he didn’t really get any bang for his buck. In the end, he crawled over the finish line. The Obama Express came a-hurtlin’ down the track at two miles an hour.

But what does he care? Sen. Obama has learned an old trick of Bill ClintonÂ’s: If you behave like a star, youÂ’ll get treated as one. So, even as his numbers weakened, his rhetoric soared.

It's over at NRO; read the whole thing.

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Barack Obama is my hero.

Via Glenn, who notes that some of the antisemitic material is being "disappeared" from Obama's official site. I'd be happier if it hadn't been allowed up there in the first place.

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In case you hadn't seen this one, Goldfarb speaks here as part of the McCain campaign, here, about Senator Clinton's withdrawal:

It was interesting that she barely touched on foreign policy in her concession speech today. She mentioned Iraq only twice, she mentioned terrorism only once, and she didn't mention Iran at all. After all, her serious approach to each of these issues proved [a] liability in the Democratic primary. She spent years building a strong record on national security, and in the end her party opted for a candidate with no national security experience at all.

Senator Clinton also didn't mention John McCain once during her speech. This came as something of a surprise over here, and a pleasant one at that. But it's clear that John McCain and Hillary Clinton respect each other -- and there is a genuine affection for her here at McCain HQ.

My emphasis.

Yeah; it's been a year of surprises. Like the fact that despite my decision to vote for John McCain, I've found so much to agree with Ann Coulter about lately; you will recall that this has not always been the case. Anyway, here's Ann on how "our plucky Hillary" got shortchanged:

Every time Hillary breathes a word about her victory in the popular vote, TV hosts respond with sneering contempt at her gaucherie for even mentioning it. (Of course, if popularity mattered, networks like MSNBC wouldn't exist. That's a station that depends entirely on "superviewers.")

After nearly eight years of having to listen to liberals crow that Bush was "selected, not elected," this is a shocking about-face. Apparently unaware of the new party line that the popular vote amounts to nothing more than warm spit, just last week HBO ran its movie Recount, about the 2000 Florida election, the premise of which is that sneaky Republicans stole the presidency from popular vote champion Al Gore. (Despite massive publicity, the movie bombed, with only about one million viewers, so now HBO is demanding a "recount.")

Ann points out that Hillary's case now is much stronger than Gore's was in 2000, since the Electoral College is enshrined in the Constitution, and Party Primary rules are not.

Of course, I am not a member of the Democratic Party. (I'm not much of a member of any party, to tell you the truth). So they can structure their rules as they like. But disenfranchising people in the primary may not be the best strategy for ensuring turnout in the general.

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But was she sincere about it?

I just don't think her heart was really in it.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 09:16 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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it's that intellectualism and leadership don't.

I like brains as much as the next girl, but a lot of people get a bit weighed down by same.

I think Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter may have been the smartest guys to occupy the White House during my lifetime. Clinton is certainly a brilliant politician.

At the end of the day, what did that do for us? One person's intuition might be worth a lot more than another's certified left-brain, genuinely rigorous analysis. Remember what professor Sowell used to say?—that the type of intelligence many black men seem to possess is suited to split-second, extemporaneous decisions?

I want a jazz musician in the White House, not a policy wonk. A running back, not an attorney.

Bottom line: Obama just isn't black enough for me.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 08:26 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I can think of no better reason to vote against Obama than the prospect of an administration where any criticism of the President is treated as racism.

Yes, indeed.

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stick with the facts.

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Robert Novak mentions the Jindal buzz in the New York Post: Jindal-mania naturally has my friends in Louisiana concerned that a national Presidential campaign will spirit the state's new Governor away.

Much as I despise a "bean counting" approach to ethnic/gender diversity, I do believe that—all things being equal—the McCain campaign would be better off placing an ethnic minority and/or a woman on the ticket. (Also, the person should be bright, vibrant, and apparently ready to be involved in the administration in a Cheney-esque fashion [that is, to be a sort of uber-Chief-of-Staff, as Cheney has been to President Bush]. That would answer the unspoken (and spoken) fears about McCain's age.

Novak also addresses some of the job being discussed for Senator Clinton in an Obama Presidency. I'm a good deal less horrified by the idea of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State than I feel I ought to be, but the idea of making her a Supreme Court Justice makes me want to throw up—all day, every day. I'd almost rather have Harriet Miers.

Of course, for Clinton to get either of those jobs would imply that Obama has won the Presidency; his qualifications for same are every bit as lightweight as Miers's were for the Court. Obama is terribly liberal, and terribly young, and terribly naive on foreign policy, the trickiest (and most critical) issue of our day.

(X-posted at Right Wing News.)

Posted by: Attila Girl at 10:35 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I'm sure Obama was waiting to hear from you, wondering what you thought. I know I was.

You're pretty much the go-to guy for political insights, foreign-policy recommendations . . . nearly any subject having to do with American governance and statesmanship. We seek your opinion because of your track rec . . . oops. I meant to say that we actively solicit your input because we know that you mean well, and that's all that's really important.

Truly. You're a wonderful guy. There, there. Think good thoughts. And thanks for all your hel . . . thanks for trying. Look at it this way: every President is special.

h/t: Memeorandum.

Posted by: Attila Girl at 10:03 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Is that difficult?

Is it like baking, wherein the proportion of ingredients is key?

Or is it more like a soup, in which one has to tend to the balance of flavors, one against another?

Perhaps history is like a pie: the filling is easy, but the crust will fuck you up.

If history is like a stir-fry, then it's all in remembering which vegetables cook most quickly, and adding them in inverse proportion.

Come on, people: history occurs when time passes. History makes itself, without any special help from us.

Okay, okay: there was a time when I had plenty of team spirit. I was even happy when William Jefferson Clinton appointed the first female attorney general.

You see where this is going, right? Down to Texas, to the small town where Janet Reno made her mark.

These days I don't give anyone points for having ovaries. Nor for having a good suntan from birth.

And history will bury its dead.

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