The Opinion Blog

Don't they have birth control up in Alaska?

Ripped from the wires ... Froma Harrop wonders why John McCain would pick a running mate who jerks the focus of his campaign away from national security and foreign policy:

By FROMA HARROP

I had dinner last night with a Republican-leaning independent who was despondent over John McCain's choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. She had been looking forward to supporting McCain as a fiscal conservative with a deep understanding of foreign relations. But all she could now see was that picture of Palin's pregnant 17-year-old looking defiant and stupid as she held mom's fifth baby.

You expect me to keep track of ALL my homes?

From the afternoon e-mail ... Barack Obama's S.C. campaign gigs McCain for a memory lapse earlier this week, illustrating that the Democrats are still the undisputed masters of the politics of resentment:

McCain Can’t Remember How Many Homes He Owns – Can You?

COLUMBIA – This morning (Aug. 21), Barack Obama’s Campaign for Change is asking South Carolinians if they, like John McCain, have so many homes that they just can’t keep track of the number. 

Seize control of the presidential campaign, candidates

Ripped from the wires ... Conservative columnist Cal Thomas proposes a way to dispel the partisan cynicism that thus far has ruined the presidential campaign:

By Cal Thomas

Last Monday at a trade show for people who are part of the Florida tourist industry, I asked the 750 assembled for lunch how many were happy with the tone of modern politics? Not a hand was raised.

Treat black audiences with greater respect, Mr. Obama

Ripped from the wires ... Kevin Alexander Gray takes Barack Obama to task for using people of color as props:

By Kevin Alexander Gray

Sen. Barack Obama must stop using people of color as props. For blacks or Muslim Americans, that's what we've been reduced to.

Addressing a congregation at the Apostolic Church of God, one of Chicago's largest black churches, on Father's Day, Obama said:

"Too many fathers are M.I.A., too many fathers are AWOL, missing from too many lives and too many homes. They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men.''

Democrats disband circular firing squad at last

Ripped from the wires ... Bob Herbert notes that the Democrats have done more harm to their presidential chances than the Republican could ever have done:

By BOB HERBERT

Talk about self-inflicted wounds.

The Democrats may finally be stepping away from their circular firing squad. It took them long enough.

There are so many things that the Democrats need to do to have any chance of winning the White House in November, and it's awfully late in the game to begin doing them.

Where are you, Ross, when we really need you?

Ripped from the wires ... Bill Clinton's former budget director and her colleague explain that what the nation really needs is a third-party presidential candidate focused on the deficit.

By Alice M. Rivlin and Michael O'Hanlon

We hear that Ralph Nader is running again, but the third-party candidate we need is Ross Perot. In 1992, with his squeaky voice and endless charts, Perot focused attention on the rising federal deficit. His warnings helped keep the major-party candidates from talking budgetary nonsense.

For all of their impressive qualities, this year's presidential candidates are woefully short on fiscal prudence. And the next president will face two daunting budget problems. The winner will inherit a large deficit resulting from a weak economy, an expensive war and the persistent political inclination to spend more and tax less. The bigger challenge? Promises made to the growing population of retirees as health-care spending continues to soar.

Ignoramus humiliates himself in Obama attack

Ripped from the wires ... Leonard Pitts Jr. bemoans the rise of unthoughtful conservatism in modern political discourse, using a hapless LA radio talk-show host as an example.

By Leonard Pitts Jr.

Don't read this column yet.

First, I want you to do something. Google "Chris Matthews + Kevin James.'' This will bring up video of the latter, a conservative L.A. radio pundit, being questioned by the former last week on MSNBC's "Hardball.'' You "must'' see this video. (link is below: dc)

For the Internet deprived, here's a recap: James goes on "Hardball'' to comment on a speech President Bush gave before the Israeli Knesset in which he accused unnamed politicians -- read: Sen. Barack Obama -- of a policy of appeasement toward terrorists. Bush evoked the memory of Neville Chamberlain, the British prime minister whose attempted appeasement of Adolf Hitler made him one of the more thoroughly discredited figures of the 20th century.

Embrace nukes for energy salvation

Ripped from the wires ... Fox News talk show host Bill O'Reilly contends that both parties, but especially the Democratic presidential candidates, have let us down on energy policy.

BY BILL O'REILLY

So now we have the presidential candidates running around telling voters that they will help solve the problem of high gas prices. Well, if you believe that, you'll believe that Hugo Chavez drives a Yugo. It's just bull.

Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are calling for "investigations'' into "price gouging'' by American oil companies. Good. There's plenty of price manipulation going on and, under Presidents Bush and Clinton, little federal oversight. If a big oil company wants to tighten supply, for example, it's a snap. Just slow down the refinery process by ordering extra "maintenance'' or something.

But who is going to investigate Sens. Obama and Clinton on their opposition to oil drilling? The Democratic Party has consistently opposed new drilling and nuclear energy, as well. Even the dedicated liberal governments in France and Sweden bought into nuclear. But not the American left, no way.

Democrats err in fighting Colombia free-trade pact

Ripped from the wires ... Another in my long series of tutorials on the merits of free trade. This one, which deals with the proposal to expand the free-trade agreement with Colombia, comes from Nicholas Kristof, a New York Times columnist.

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

BOGOTA, Colombia -- For seven years, Democrats have rightfully complained that President Bush has gratuitously antagonized the world, exasperating our allies and eroding America's standing and influence.

But now the Democrats are doing the same thing on trade. In Latin America, it is Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton who are seen as the go-it-alone cowboys, by opposing the United States' free-trade agreement with Colombia.

Some Democrats claim that they are against the pact because Colombia has abused human rights.

Those concerns are legitimate -- but they shouldn't be used to punish people like Norma Reynosa, a 35-year-old woman who just may snip the flowers that go into the Mother's Day bouquet that you buy.

Why do the Republicans think they can sell McCain?

Ripped from the wires ... Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post argues that once the Democrats have settled their self-destructive Obama-Clinton fight for the presidential nomination, John McCain will be a hard sell for the GOP.

By EUGENE ROBINSON

How on earth is the Republican Party going to sell John McCain? Once the Democrats stop doing the job, I mean.

Image consultants could try to portray McCain as a latter-day Dwight Eisenhower. I've actually heard Republicans try to make the comparison, but it doesn't work without rounding up and destroying all the history books. McCain served his country courageously, getting shot down over Vietnam and spending years as a prisoner of war. All that Ike did was, um, save the world. I'm seeing a slight imbalance here.

Republicans certainly can't sell McCain to the American public as a sure-handed pilot to steer the economy through dangerous straits.