For the good of the party, time for Eagleton to go

I write this with a heavy heart. A certain presidential candidate has chosen as his VP a candidate who is woefully inadequate for the job. Since the nomination, this candidate has repeatedly proven to be not ready for prime time, making verbal gaffes on an unheard of scale, making serious foreign policy errors in statements that display a monumental ignorance of the basics, much less the fine points of representing our country on the world stage. This person has also seriously damaged the party's standard bearer by undercutting his campaign platforms in numerous areas, including gun control, energy sources and a host of others. If my advice had been asked, I would have told the standard bearer it was a mistake from the get-go to choose a VP from such a sparsely populated state, who has virtually no understanding of national and international issues. It should be obvious that someone who represents so few people is just not ready to lead our great nation.

I mean, good Lord, the state of Delaware hasn't got any more people in it than Alaska, for heaven's sake! How on earth could any reasonable person think Joe Biden is ready to be one heartbeat away from the Presidency? And has he not proven his unsuitability with his silly claims of being pro-gun because he owns two (not just one, but two!) shotguns? And how about the coal-mining states? In such a tight race, can Democrats just write off entire regions because run-off-at-the-mouth Joe says "No clean coal!"? And those whoppers Joe keeps on repeating about being shot at in Iraq and his helicopter being forced down under fire by the Taliban in Afghanistan! Does hearing a bomb go off outside his hotel in Baghdad really equate to "being shot at"?! And does landing his helicopter due to a snowstorm mean the Taliban are in charge of the weather in Afghanistan?! Hillary told one "war" whopper about snipers in Kosovo and got rode out of town on a rail. Tail-Gunner Joe tells two huge "war" whoppers and stays on the ticket?! And the last straw is that disgraceful performance in the debate. This man with 36 years of so-called experience in the Senate holding down a seat on the back row couldn't handle a hockey mom without resorting to 24 bald-faced lies responding to only 18 questions?! That's 1.5 lies per answer Joe! For the good of the party and the good of the country, step down Joe! You're just not ready for prime time.

Sarah Barracuda slobber-knocks Smirkin' Joe Biden

Sarah Barracuda slobber-knocked Smirkin' Joe Biden at the debate last night.

Memorable birthday for 2 Johns

Yesterday was my 61st birthday and I started it off online in the morning because my new work schedule has me off on Fridays. The chatter about McCain picking Sarah Palin got me really stoked. I read about her months ago (she had me at Lifetime NRA member) as a possible McCain VP choice, but she seemed to disappear in speculation quickly, so I gave up hope that McCain was that smart.

But the more I read Friday morning, the more I was convinced that this pick would happen. I was so stoked that I found the premature button at right and printed it out and made myself a paper button to wear on my t-shirt when I left about 10 for a haircut, doctor's checkup and then to go gun shopping. And when I heard on the radio that McCain had announced the pick at noon, I hollered like a banshee driving down the road. As McCain and I share the same birthday, she was a birthday present to the both of us. Woot!

To sweeten the day even more, I traded a S&W Model 21-4 .44 Special revolver at a gun shop for a pistol I've been wanting for some time but couldn't afford, a Sig Sauer P226 in .357 Sig caliber. I'll report more on that sweet deal later.

I was sitting in the doctor's waiting room about 11:30 listening to Wolf Blitzer on CNN as he speculated about the Palin pick announcement coming up shortly and he got David Gergen on to give his view. Gergen has got to be the least conservative supposed Republican in history. He served in the Nixon, Ford and Reagan administrations then topped that off with stints as advisor to Clinton and Bush I. Any so-called conservative who can work for Clinton is not the real deal.

Blitzer asked Gergen for his view on a possible Palin pick and the "expert" said it would be a terrible choice for McCain because Palin "has no foreign policy experience." I knew immediately that McCain would indeed pick Palin as she had just passed "the Gergen test."

As usual, Gergen was full of bull. He could have said Obama has no foreign policy experience and therefore picked Biden because he supposedly does. But being a liberal in conservative clothing, Gergen reliably mouthed the anti-Palin sentiment that was all he could come up with quickly.

I read a recent interview with Steve Schmidt, McCain's campaign manager, where he said when the campaign is undecided on an issue, they apply the Gergen test. Find out what Gergen has said about it and then do the opposite.

In this case, the obvious brilliance of the Palin pick was the last thing Gergen would admit. She puts into play all those Hillary voters and I suspect will corral a goodly portion of that 18 million away from Obama. Plus she brings the entire social conservative wing of the GOP, which is the heart and soul of the party, safely back under the McCain-Palin banner. Dr. James Dobson makes that clear with his endorsement of McCain-Palin on Dennis Prager's radio show. This influential Christian leader had previously said he just could not vote for John McCain.

And all those bitter, backwoods rednecks clinging to their guns and God who occupy the middle of the political spectrum can get excited about lifetime NRA member Palin, who hunts, fishes and packs her own heat. Palin is also an extremely strong advocate of drilling for oil right here in the good ol' USA, including the "pristine" ANWAR site in Alaska, which McCain has declared off limits. She obviously knows a lot more about ANWAR than McCain does as governor of Alaska, so I wouldn't be surprised at all if she convinces McCain to change his view on that crucial issue.

In fact, I would say that energy might just be the biggest issue in this campaign. It certainly is the issue that offers the clearest contrast between the two opposing camps, McCain and the GOP who say Drill Here, Drill Now! and Obama, Pelosi and Reid who tout windmills and hot air.

BTW, if you haven't joined the 1,465,146 Americans who have signed the Drill Here, Drill Now! petition, do it now.

With a united GOP behind McCain and a significant splinter of the Democrat Party longing for Hillary, Obama may end up with the only reliably Democrat elements left in November, unions, NAACP blacks, Code Pink, gay rights, university ivory tower elitists and assorted nutroots.

That leaves everything from the middle to the right for McCain-Palin. This may be a Mondale-type landslide. When Mondale kicked off his run against Reagan with an outright pledge to raise taxes, all he ended up with was his home state of Minnesota. This race is still up for grabs, but the Palin pick does change everything. It could all break away from Obama and towards McCain from this point forward. Or not.

Mark Steyn, a Canadian, offers a very succinct comparison of Obama-Biden vs. McCain-Palin.

First, Governor Palin is not merely, as Jay describes her, "all-American", but hyper-American. What other country in the developed world produces beauty queens who hunt caribou and serve up a terrific moose stew? As an immigrant, I'm not saying I came to the United States purely to meet chicks like that, but it was certainly high on my list of priorities. And for the gun-totin' Miss Wasilla then to go on to become Governor while having five kids makes it an even more uniquely American story. Next to her resume, a guy who's done nothing but serve in the phony-baloney job of "community organizer" and write multiple autobiographies looks like just another creepily self-absorbed lifelong member of the full-time political class that infests every advanced democracy....

Third, real people don't define "experience" as appearing on unwatched Sunday-morning talk shows every week for 35 years and having been around long enough to have got both the War on Terror and the Cold War wrong. (On the first point, at the Gun Owners of New Hampshire dinner in the 2000 campaign, I remember Orrin Hatch telling me sadly that he was stunned to discover how few Granite State voters knew who he was.) Sarah Palin and Barack Obama are more or less the same age, but Governor Palin has run a state and a town and a commercial fishing operation, whereas (to reprise a famous line on the Rev Jackson) Senator Obama ain't run nothin' but his mouth. She's done the stuff he's merely a poseur about. Post-partisan? She took on her own party's corrupt political culture directly while Obama was sucking up to Wright and Ayers and being just another get-along Chicago machine pol (see his campaign's thuggish attempt to throttle Stanley Kurtz and Milt Rosenberg on WGN the other night).

Mark Steyn is persona non grata in his own way-too-PC country and plain talk like this is why. I hope he moves here permanently because we need more voices like his to be heard. Unless this becomes Obama Land. Then God help Mark and all of us if it does.

Joe Biden on Barack Obama

Mr. Not-Quite-Ready-For-Primetime proves it yet again. Joe Biden? Even Biden says that Obama ain't ready for the big show. And Obama proves it for sure by picking Biden. Is he nuts? Or is the strategy that Biden doesn't make him look quite as much an amateur as picking Hillary would? Well, I guess now Biden's going to have up with something better to say about Obama than he's "clean."

I suspect there's a party going on over in McCain HQ today. Keep your eye on the ball, Big John.

Amanda Carpenter at Townhall.com has the first blush from media on the Biden pick.

Here's a roundup of media reaction to the Biden pick. It's not pretty:

The AP's Ron Fournier says the pick shows "lack of confidence."
Time examines "six key" unflattering moments
The San Diego Union Tribune highlights his gaffes, like "I exaggerate when I'm angry."
Politico headline here is: A Statesman Known for the Slip of the Tongue

I wasn't on Obama's VP text message list, but Amanda Carpenter was and she says hers didn't come through until well after CNN had announced the Biben pick.

This guy can't even announce his VP smoothly (you know what I am going to say next) How can he run a country?

PUMA sharpening claws

Rick Moran at American Thinker says Obama’s short list of VP candidates has been whittled down to finalists and It ain't gonna be Hillary

Hillary followers are now pretty much resigned to the fact that she will not make history as the first female Vice President. But it angers some of them that the honor may go to another woman…

…there is a strong and growing movement made up of Hillary supporters - PUMA -PAC - that is refusing to support Obama and continues to push Hillary's candidacy at the same time threatening to support McCain over Obama in November.

If Obama were to pick another woman for the ticket, it just might drive the PUMAs over the edge and see them landing in McCain's lap. It's hard to imagine that most of those Democrats would vote for McCain but there is little doubt that a sizable percentage of them would.

That might spell trouble for the messiah in November...

In case you haven’t heard, PUMA PAC was formed by a group of die-hard Hillary supporters. It stands for Party Unity My Ass!

We’ll find out in Denver during the party convention whether PUMA will be willing to take no for an answer. Don’t you just love a cat fight?

Robert Stacy McCain at the American Spectator Blog also says not picking Hillary won’t go over well with Democrat voters in the election.

These voters quite naturally assume that, after such a close-fought contest, Hillary has earned the right to be on the ticket. They haven't noticed Obama's comments and furious vetting efforts that show he's seeking an ABC ("Anyone But Clinton") running mate, with most speculation centering on Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine. And when it is finally announced that Hillary won't be on the ticket, it's going to be a huge jolt, one that many will perceive as a purposeful insult to the former First Lady.

Jennifer Rubin at Pajamas Media reports Hillary Supporters Are Mad and They’re Not Going to Take It Anymore!

Rubin spoke with the founder of Puma PAC, Darragh Murphy, who says they realize the Democratic Convention will nominate Obama.

And what will the Puma members do after the Convention? Murphy concedes, “We’re realists. … We know the DNC is committed to the path of nominating their chosen candidate.” In November she explains, “We are protesting the election.” Members will sit home, write in Hillary’s name or vote for John McCain. She explains, “That up to them. That’s part of our whole philosophy.”

I gotta confess I joined Rush's Operation Chaos and became a temporary Democrat to vote for Hillary here in the N.C. Primary. So far, it looks like Rush's plan is still working like a charm.