Abu Hatem أبو حاتم

I am thinking about purchasing both of these, courtesy Liberty Stickers:

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Courtesy antiwar right-wing radio host Scott Horton’s great blog Stress:

America should have minded her own business and stayed out of the World War. If you hadn’t entered the war the Allies would have made peace with Germany in the Spring of 1917. Had we made peace then there would have been no collapse in Russia followed by Communism, no breakdown in Italy followed by Fascism, and Germany would not have signed the Versailles Treaty, which has enthroned Nazism in Germany. If America had stayed out of the war, all these ‘isms’ wouldn’t to-day be sweeping the continent of Europe and breaking down parliamentary government, and if England had made peace early in 1917, it would have saved over one million British, French, American, and other lives.” - Winston Churchill 1936

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I personally thought it was brilliant, Obama went head-on with McCain and unlike Kerry didn’t shy away from his positions or excessively flip-flop.  Obama, to put it simply, was brave.  He wasn’t afraid of McCain, he hit him head on so much so that McCain’s people didn’t know how to respond.  Yet I did not like the Greek columns and 80,000 people, like Berlin it established the whole “cult of personality” image.  Rhetorical orators usually can easily build a cult following and support.  Woe to those who actually believed his call for statism and distrust of the market which is so easy to accomplish when people are disaffected (80% believe we are on the wrong track).  I hear FDR’s horrendous New Deal all over again.Buchanan thought he beat Kennedy last night on MSNBC.  This is how you know it must have been a good speech, if Pat Buchanan, the most right-wing guy on TV, is praising it: 

 “I stand with Obama! It was a genuinely outstanding speech, it was magnificent. I saw Cuomo’s speech, I saw Kennedy in ‘80, I even saw Douglas MacArthur, I saw MLK; this is the greatest convention speech and probably the most important because unlike Cuomo and the others, this was an acceptance speech, this came out of the heart of America, and he went right at the heart of America. This wasn’t a liberal speech at all. This is a deeply, deeply centrist speech. It had wit, it had humor, and when he used the needle on McCain, he stuck it into McCain and it was funny. It was Kennedy’s speech in ‘80. I laughed with Kennedy when he was needling Ronald Reagan.”

Here are Buchanan’s comments on video: 

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then you know she’s not that bad.  Krauthammer, author of the 2004 speech/book Democratic Realism which supports invading preemptive war against undemocratic nations to pacify the world in a liberal order, and a central media and intellectual supporter of the Iraq war, calls the Palin pick “suicidal” because of her lack of foreign policy “experience” and “readiness.”

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Palin shared her opposition to the GOP’s roster of presidential candidates, in January 2007 she said before Alaska’s republican primary:

“A lot of us are sitting back and waiting to see if there will be new players in there,” “That’s probably why that box that says ‘none of the above’ is so popular right now.”

 Although as stated earlier, she praised Ron Paul as a “good guy” and “cool.”

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Ron Paul writes in the first few pages of his excellent book The Revolution, that whenever you hear a candidate discuss the “bridge to no where” then know that they do not really want to talk about actual important issues.  To paraphrase Dr. Paul, “Thats .000015% of federal spending, what are you going to do about the remaining 99.999985%?”  Palin today noted that she was in charge of stopping the “bridge to no where,” good to know, Sarah.

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Judy Woodruff of PBS’ Newshour interviewed three Alaskans familiar with Palin today and they all agreed in describing her as moderate, with problems with “super conservatives.”  She also apparently used the budget surplus to fund subsidies to buy gasoline, definitely not fiscally conservative.  Indeed, NYTimes’ David Brooks called Palin “not wed to Reagan” and said she was “progressive on gay and lesbian issues” and noted his high praise for her preoccupation with global warming.

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Right now the coalition of Ron Paul supporters on the blogosphere, both libertarians and traditionally minded antiwar conservatives, seem to be praising the Palin pick.  And apparently, Palin gave an interview to MTV News in February praising Ron Paul:

He’s a good guy, he’s so independent, independent of the party machine.  I’m like “Right on, so am I.”

Lew Rockwell’s blog, the former congressional Chief of Staff to Ron Paul says the following on Palin:

Sarah Palin is smart, articulate, attractive, pro-life, and pro-gun, and was even a Buchananite in 1996. Her political career has been based on fighting Republican corruption. Her ratings as Alaska governor are very high. She has a compelling life story, as they say. Her husband is one-quarter Yupik Eskimo. They have five children, including one with Down’s syndrome, whom they refused to abort. Palin will bring the whole Republican base home, and some Independent and Democratic women.

Pat Buchanan said on MSNBC that she was his favorite pick although she was a risky choice for McCain.  In fact, Buchana told journalists at The Nation“It’s great for the base. I’m pretty sure she’s a Buchananite!”  (Although he also said “she just isn’t ready to be commander-in-cheif” as well as “this is the biggest political gamble in U.S. history).  The Daily Paul blog even recommended her as a potential running mate for Ron Paul last September.The American Conservative, my favorite magazine, does not seem to be so pleased with her however.  Michael Dougherty, on The American Conservative’s blog writes:

Like Bobby Jindal or Mark Sanford, I considered Sarah Palin a promisingly conservative, likable, and reform-minded governor. I wished desperately to spare her (and them) from association with the bellicose and ideological foreign policy of Bush-McCain.

Very conservative (and antiwar) Taki’s Magazine’s Sniper Tower blog also shows signs of giving Palin a chance:

I must say that my first impression of Palin is very positive–she’s from outside the Beltway and looks like a straight shooter. I’m going to start reading up on her, and I’m very much inclined to give her a chance.

The Liberty Maven a pro-Ron Paul (and now Libertarian Party candidate Bob Barr) blog also gives some lukewarm - but cautious - praise of Palin:

McCain and his expert campaigners have selected someone who the Ron Paul faithful singled out as a potential running mate for Dr. Paul should he magically win the GOP nomination. She has a great conservative record of cutting spending and demanding ethics in government although she is no stranger to alleged ethics violations herself.. When the Alaskan legislature voted to not fund the implementation of REAL ID Act, Governor Palin acquiesced by not vetoing nor signing the bill. The effect being that Alaska has now rejected the federally mandated REAL ID. TheACLU even praised Palin for her inaction. McCain is a vocal supporter of REAL ID and an assortment of  federal legislation that pretends there is no 10th amendment to the Constitution.

While Liberty Maven laments over the fact that Palin will now endorse the overtly militant and interventionist policy of McCain, he does see some good over Palin’s selection:

However, there is some potential good with her selection. It arguably could demonstrate that McCain has seen the kind of support Ron Paul received and is trying to move more to the “Old Right” (or more towards libertarianism ever so slightly). Perhaps he is trying to mitigate Bob Barr’s spoiler potential. These arguments are quite a bit of a reach. Palin is no libertarian, but she certainly has a history of supporting more libertarian notions than McCain. I suspect her future statements will reveal her as straying further from the libertarian mindset.

What’s more, the Politico reports that Palin’s husband and son are independents and NOT republicans.However, neoconservatives seem to be extremely happy with the McCain selection - meaning that whatever good Palin might have on domestic policy is nullified on her soon-to-be overtly militant foreign policy.  Bill Kristol has praised the pick, the blogs over at Commentary Magazine are ecstatic over it, and so is the National Review.  Paraphrasing Bill Kauffman you cannot be a social conservative and support a war which tears apart families and leads to deaths of innocent people.  And to paraphrase Ron Paul, you can’t be a fiscal conservative and support war spending which increases taxes, unbalances budgets, and hence destroys the economy.  I am skeptical about this Palin pick, but no matter how good she might be - the fact is McCain is horrible, and thus I am still hoping for an Obama victory in November (not sure if I will actually vote for him however).

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Some thoughts:

• She’s better for the GOP than a socially liberal, fiscally liberal, foreign policy militant democratic imperialist like Joe Lieberman.
• She’s better than a former socially liberal, economically moderate, foreign policy militant like Mitt Romney.
• I know she is supposed to be a “Buchananite” but I don’t see what Pat Buchanan sees in her.
• Her contention that John McCain is the best solution to the republican party shows how “traditional” she is.
• I know she is his VP, but any true traditionalist conservative does not endorse McCain.
• She praised her son’s army service.  I am very pro-defense well.  However, being pro-defense doesn’t mean being pro-offense, and that is what our army is being used on today.
• She truly is pro-life it appears, and she is pro-family and opposes same sex marriage.  I don’t know if her strong anti-abortion stance will truly win her over with Hillary voters.  It doesn’t win over pro-lifers like me because I can’t be pro-life and vote for John McCain who doesn’t respect the sanctity of life in Iraq.
• She’s been governor for 1 year and 8 months.  Before that she was a mayor for a very short period and actually put “City Council” and “PVA” on her resume in her speech today.  That wins over people like me who hate people with “experience” in Washington - but the McCain camp now can’t keep pulling the experience card on Obama - and Obama is going to fight back when they attack him on foreign policy experience.  Obama’s campaign’s argument will sound something like this: McCain said that his VP was going to be primarily someone who was qualified to be President - Sarah Palin has less experience both in government and in foreign policy than I do - thus I have sufficient experience to be commander in chief.
• Palin’s emphasis on her ability to be a “reformer” and not be “bound to the GOP” kills two birds with one stone.  To Christian conservatives and others on the socially conservative Right she is arguing that she is not bound to the GOP’s corruption and loss of principle concerning the original Reaganite message.  To average Americans watching at home including Hillary voters and independents it is saying “Although John McCain voted with Bush 90% of the time - I am a maverick and an independent and not bound by my party.”  Yet this is a fundamental contradiction - she can’t be all things to all people - and one wonders what she truly is?
• Chuck Todd on MSNBC said that Joe Biden will not be able to pounce on her now during the VP debates, thus McCain has effectively neutralized everything good about Biden.  If Biden gangs up on her during the VP debate it will appear like he is bullying since Palin is a woman.

In all, I have to agree with David Beito the Independent Institute’s the Beacon blog on this one:

Truth in adversting.  I despise nearly everything McCain stands for and hope he loses.  Having said that, unless the media finds skeletons in her closet, the  Palin pick is a very smart move on his part.  It reinforces his conservative base and helps him with women and independent voters.    He might just win this?! A depressing thought.

Obama’s choice of Biden, by contrast, was completely uninspired.   Biden. as the ultimate insider, only serves to  undermine Obama’s “change” message.

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Dick Morris, former Clinton adviser and a Republican, wrote last week that Obama’s snub of Hillary would be deadly if McCain picked a woman.  McCain’s pick of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin - an actual conservative unlike himself - as his running mate (and Pat Buchanan’s favorite pick as she once worked on his presidential campaign - he has called her a “Buchananite” before) is going to help him out a lot.

This is very unfortunate for people like me who are more anti-McCain than anti-Obama.  Sarah Pallin was a much smarter pick than Joe Biden.  She is a governor, a new face, and will take away some Hillary votes from Obama - especially hurting Obama in Ohio and the heartland.

Obama is going to have to paint Pallin as an extremist and Biden is going to have to beat her in the VP debates if he wants to counter this one.

McCain is up 1.4 points on the prediction markets after this pick.  Too early for national polls, but national polls don’t tell us anything.

I don’t know enough about Sarah Pallin right now to form a political judgment about her.

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