I could not agree with Pat Buchanan more….
Jenny Hatch
By Patrick J. Buchanan
The risk John McCain took last Friday is comparable to the 72-year-old ex-fighter pilot knocking back two shots and flying his F-16 under the Golden Gate Bridge.
McCain’s choice of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his co-pilot was the biggest gamble in presidential history. As of now, it is paying off, big-time.

Continue reading “Pat Buchanan: McCain’s choice of Palin ‘was the biggest gamble in presidential history’” →

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Fishing permit violations. A blue-collar husband who racked up a DUI citation as a 22-year-old. An unmarried teenage daughter who is pregnant and a nasty child custody battle involving a family member.

All of this, to one degree or another, has surfaced in recent days as a result of efforts to discredit or undermine Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. But these revelations may have the opposite effect: In one sense, they could reinforce how remarkably unremarkable she is.

So far — and it is hard to tell what the future may hold for Palin’s unexpected national candidacy — the travails of the Palin family probably seem awfully familiar to many average Americans. It is this averageness that makes her such a politically promising running mate for John McCain — and such a dangerous opponent for Democrats. Many voters will find it easy to identify with her family’s struggles — a significant advantage in an election where the voting calculus is so unusually and intensely personal.

Democrats Barack Obama and Joe Biden hardly come from blue-blood backgrounds; Biden, now famously, is an Irish-Catholic son of Scranton, Pa., and Obama was raised by a single mother. But the fact that Palin, even as a governor, remains grounded in a recognizable American lifestyle — warts and all — has not gone unnoticed among Republicans, as the first wave of opposition research has been unloaded on her.

“Authenticity is the most important characteristic for someone seeking public office,” said Nick Ayers, executive director of the Republican Governors Association. “Any news that comes out about her is not going to hurt her because it reinforces the point that she is authentically one of us.”

I’m sitting here thinking, scandals? What scandals??? It’s not like she murdered anyone, had anyones life snuffed out, threatened children, suppressed evidence, ruined reputations, or used her political power to intimidate political opponents. Please review The Clinton Chronicles.
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and this documentary, Bill Clinton, His Life a movie that Katie Couric just couldn’t get the courage to report on when it showed up on the web.

The press in America is evil. Simply and pathetically partisan and evil.
Jenny Hatch

U.S. hands back security of Anbar Province
By Dexter Filkins

Iraqi security forces carrying Iraqi flags during the handover ceremony in Ramadi, Anbar Province, on Monday. (Pool photo by Wathiq Khuzaie, via Reuters)
Monday, September 1, 2008
RAMADI, Iraq: Two years ago, Anbar Province was the most lethal place for American forces in Iraq. A U.S. marine or soldier died in the province nearly every day, and the provincial capital, Ramadi, was a moonscape of rubble and ruins. Islamic extremists controlled large pieces of territory, with some so ferocious in their views that they did not even allow the baking of bread.
On Monday, U.S. commanders formally returned responsibility for keeping order in Anbar Province, once the heartland of the Sunni insurgency, to the Iraqi Army and police. The ceremony, including a parade on a freshly paved street, capped one of the most significant turnabouts in the country since the war began five and a half years ago.

Continue reading “International Herald Tribune: U.S. hands back security of Anbar Province” →