Centerfield

Lone Wolf comments by Jihadists..... Becareful of your neighbors.

Any construction questions, ask Jon. My new web sitw will be up by January.

A New Thread (you can move it if you want Jon. I thought this might deliver the current links faster than email.)

Reflections On A Possibly Self-Defeating Campaign

Hillary Clinton appears to be taking the expected political shots as the front-runner. Everyone is jumping in as Democrats fall for Novak’s piling on. This is a crucial moment for Democrats if they want to capitalize on present polling in 2008. Yes, it is hard to imagine they could lose, but it grows possible given Democratic primary behavior and unfolding events in the world. In the realm of zombish American politics, Obama has been able to exploit Clinton’s negatives through the “honesty issue”. He has managed to connect her “triangulation” with the distain from the Far Left and the rabid hatred for Clinton on the Far Right. There are two issues here;

1.Obama’s tact spells major trouble for Democrats in the general election by creating a false picture of Clinton’s “honesty” and further erodes her support in the general election.
2.This claim is hypocrisy by Obama who promised a different campaign.

Read More……

The first item should be obvious, but Hoyer puts it in perspective. The Republicans will capitalize on Democratic mischaracterization of Clinton formulated by The Far Left. Sometimes this is helpful to a Democratic candidate’s appeal to the Independents. Clinton took the lead based largely on experience and policy that is more centrist. Clinton has always managed to run right of Obama while infuriating the anti-war crowd as her numbers rose. The Left’s rhetoric combined with image problems are likely to mix with Republican attacks in the general election, despite the Far Left being muzzled once the general campaign begins. Wonder what they will think of Obama’s lies at that pointshould he be the nominee or accept Veep.

The second claim is the real issue now. I suggest that Obama has blatantly flip-flopped on several issues as he panders and even promotes a foreign policy position that deliberately mischaracterizes present global situations and the likely consequence of his proposed “solutions”. One can only speculate why Obama does this, but the odds are he is pandering to his perceived base to win the nomination while trying at the same moment to sound reasonable and tough. Despite Clinton having more centrist policies and record, Obama focuses on issues that the Far Left believe are true and in his effort to paint Clinton Republican on Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Israel, Healthcare, Immigration, Social Security, he manages to build the Left’s impression that Clinton lies to them . Because of this political tactic and that somehow the administration has illiberally used force and unconstitutional security policies, Democratic voters question Clinton’s truthfulness as she says one thing to the Far Left and presents a different face to Independents. Many understand why she does this, but see it as a form of lying. From the Left, this is horrible because it spells trouble with Clinton carrying out their policy.

One could argue that Obama is doing exactly the same thing and that at least Clinton’s voting record and policy positions are far more centrist and reassuring to Independents in the general election. Her difficulties are greater in the primaries by maintaining such a centrist position, as are Rudy’s in sticking to some of his more Liberal values. What Hoyer and others Like Ford Jr. are saying is that for pandering front runners to be so hypocritical and playing this "ruthless" game to mischaracterize Clinton, they hurt the Democrats. Does Obama care? Well, it appears he wants to win. Rather than admit he has taken contradictory positions on immigration and has misspoken repeatedly about Pakistan, he wants to make issue with Clinton’s honesty. Obama is essentially accusing Clinton of not being truthful to the Far Left, while Obama either is lying to the Left and Independents or is doing exactly what Clinton is doing, but with the emphasis on his more Left base. One could speculate that Obama is more Left, but the totality of statements suggest he is hardly as Left his supporters think he is and certainly not as centrist as Clinton. Essentially, in a general election, Obama would have to pander far more than Clinton and thus lie to far more people. Much of the media is slanted against Clinton. Here is just one blog that puts forward false characterizations while promoting Obama. Hillary did not say NAFTA was wrong. She has said repeatedly that we should take a “time out” to find fixes. Obama did not talk of repealing NAFTA. He offered the smart idea to have inspectors in exporting countries. That is one good idea to fashion during a time out. Another would be how to create a way to ensure environmental and labor policies do not put the US and the world at risk. The way media spins it, Obama is honest and Clinton is lying. Again, Bill Clinton NEVER said to make legal exceptions for 24 hour-like torture. He has repeated his explanation several times. It would up to a jury to decide if any “reasonable” torture had merit and defied other candidates to swear they would not use aggressive means to obtain information if a WMD was in play. WAPO shows the problem with polls built upon a media matrix. Lost in the discussion of Clinton’s low honesty rating is where this is coming from. The NYT has not been very fair to their Senator, nor have many in entertainment and the media in general. I hope Independents understand the unique battle Clinton is fighting. She is, as Bush said recently, the most centrist of the Democratic candidates. She is fighting a rather pro-Left media and the opposition from the Right. But on to Obama’s less than honest positions or shear lack of understanding. I assume the former is true, which is my general point. In this sense, his dishonesty is far greater a danger to the Democrats than Clinton's triangulating battle with Kossaks and the Dark Side.

1.Obama offered an Admendment to the Amnesty bill restricting employers from clarifying worker status. He told the unions in a debate in Illinois that he was for tough immigration enforcement, which drew applause. He then said enforcement was for fair wages and insurance, which drew more applause apparently confirming his crowd, was in the house. Unions do not, in general, support any wages and insurance for undocumented workers. In the last debate Obama said enforcement was to punish those who hire undocumented workers. After two weeks of blasting Clinton on driver licenses, he fumbled the question when asked of him. How is Obama not lying?

2.He was wrong about US rules to pursue AQ from Afghanistan into Pakistan, He fumbled what exactly he would do north of the Kyber, He blasted bombing as murdering civilians while eventually advocating bombing SWAT. He warned of loose nukes but ignored reports that the US is watching Pakistan’s nukes. He characterizes the protests for liberty in Pakistan as a majority’s inclination, knowing full well the majority are Islamists. He attacks Bush Central Asian policy, but one wonders what he actually knows about it. Again, he had no response to Clinton’s support of the recent Israeli attack on Syrian nuclear facility and mentions nothing of the role NK played. The site this report is from hails Senator Lugar who Obama says supports Obama’s position on proliferation.

3.He gave tough speeches on Iran in 2004 and supported preventing Iran from getting the bomb. Now his plan is to negotiate and he reject claims that Iran has any intention to destabilize Iraq. He believes Iran is years away from a nuke. He doesn’t support the notion Quds is a terrorist group and missed the vote that designated it as one. He also missed the vote on Petraeus. Obama calls Clinton’s support of sanctions talking like Republicans and comes close to parroting Ahmadinejad. Republicans will replay this come election time whereas they won’t have as good an argument against Clinton. Obama declared Human Rights trump our own national security, but has said little about Ahmadinejad or even the plight of women in Iran or the Middle East. He gave a tough speech at AIPAC and has said little about Ahmadinejad’s threat to wipe Israel off the map, nor has he spoken of Iranian efforts in Lebanon, Sudan or even murder in Argentina. When asked what he would do if we were attacked, he essentially said he would call the fire department.

4.He has ignored progress in NK, nuclear facilities in Syria, any progress in Iraq, threats by Turkey as well as their help in Afghanistan. He was silent on the Armenian resolution. He speaks little about Darfur or Mynmar yet implies some similarity to Kennedy and Lincoln. He speaks of fixing the Middle East as Israel approves of Russian armored vehicles for Abbas as the Palestinians fight it out to determine who will negotiate with Israel. He says nothing about the UN failing to disarm Hizb”allah or the students protesting in Venezuela to keep Chavez from becoming a dangerous dictator.
.
5.After Obama set such a high bar for himself to run a different campaign, aren’t these issues above indicative of either ideological blindness/stupidity or pandering to the Left to get elected? And then to accuse Clinton of lying, knowing full well what the Right considers Clinton’s lying has been about, is astonishing. If for some reason Obama actually wins the nomination, he will not likely win the Presidency. The very global positions he has taken will be refuted in the year to come. Pakistan will have elections and the nukes will still be guarded. Pressure will grow against Iran and Syria and our retreat will embolden them and actually hurt any negotiations. The signal he sends to Israel is “you're on your own” and his high sounding polciy positions will not be seen by many as making us stronger. Iraq will continue to improve and the Iraqi army stand up. Turkey will continue to assist in Afghanistan as France and others will continue to show the US more support. The world will be more vocal about Human Rights abuses. The voters will get to hear Obama's primary pandering over and over and over...

The characterizations and solutions Obama paints now, will be his undoing. He has played to those who think Human Rights means protecting Muslims in the US who claim hate crime against them is rocketing. The facts, portray instead the demagoguery on the Left that have increased hater crimes against Jews. If he wins the primaries, perhaps Novak then might suggest on Fox that it was actually Obama’s camp pretending to be Clinton’s camp that told someone who then told Novak that Clinton had some dirt on Obama……….

P.S. there is an "f" before the "h" in http of the link provided for "force". Click on link and then just erase the "f" before http and the link will show up highlighting the use of American force from 1789 to the present.

Sorry about that.....

www.investwork.com [url=http://www.investwork.com/scuttle/]www.investwork.com[/url]

Thank you!