Happy Reformation Day!  Yay Protestants!

It has been interesting to observe the public debate over Barack Obama’s associations with individuals whose personal histories can only be categorized as radical.  Bill Ayers is a former terrorist.  Jeremiah Wright preaches race adversarialism.  For the most part, Obama’s friendships with these men has been water off a duck’s back for the electorate.

Imagine a different scenario.  There is an evangelical candidate.  He is the best evangelical candidate ever.  A Rhodes Scholar, a distinguished lawyer who has argued before the Supreme Court, astoundingly eloquent, you get the idea.  This candidate is a conservative, but answers all questions in such a way as to avoid making anyone uncomfortable.  He hits all the right chords.

Further imagine that the record shows this man was once heavily involved with Christian reconstructionists who believe stoning should be re-instituted for adultery.  He went to a church for two decades where a Christian reconstructionist preached each Sunday.  One of his mentors was part of a group that bombed abortion clinics.

Where would that candidate be right now?  And how different would that candidate be in terms of associations from one Barack Obama?

Well,  the GOP might be in for a nightmarish night next Tuesday, but that’s fine with me if paves the way for people like Thaddeus McCotter to become the party’s next leaders.

Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry has endorsed John McCain.

I especially liked this statement:

“I’ve been a hardcore Republican my whole life,” he told the Herald. “My mother and father drilled into me from the very start that if you work hard and be positive, you’ll get what you’re working for. I guess I’m living proof of that.”

Well said.

Hat tip to Jonah Goldberg at The Corner.

This woman is exceptionally brave. When one considers how the Obama Campaign, as well as the mainstream media, has treated apostates from the church of the Obamessiah one has to appreciate the courage this act of honesty represents.

I think she hits the nail on the head with this:

I can no longer justify what this party has done and can’t dismiss the treatment of women and working people as just part of the new kind of politics. It’s wrong and someone has to say that. And also say that the Democratic Party’s talking points—that Senator John McCain is just four more years of the same and that he’s President Bush—are now just hooker lines that fit a very effective and perhaps wave-winning political argument…doesn’t mean they’re true. After all, he is the only one who’s worked in a bipartisan way on big challenges.

Heed this woman’s warning. Obama does not represent some new age transformational change, he represents the bare knuckled politics of the past and an uncompromising lurch to left wing collectivism.

Just received this. Before voting next Tuesday, Catholics should take this very seriously:

Catholics Urged to Consider Obama Record Weekend Before Election
Urgent Memo Released to Catholics Nationwide

CHICAGO – CatholicVote.com has released an urgent national memo addressed to all American Catholics urging them to consider the record of Sen. Barack Obama as they head toward the final weekend before the Election Day. The memo outlines a series of statements and facts taken from Obama’s public record dealing with the issues of life and marriage. (more…)

At NRO today, Ed Whelan does a brilliant job explaining what’s at stake for the courts in this election. Do read it.

There are some good signs this morning on the polling front. The gap between Obama and McCain in the Gallup tracking poll (traditional*) has narrowed to two points. Reportedly, this was mirrored in the Rasmussen tracking poll, which now shows only a three point gap. Make no mistake; McCain is still behind. However, these results indicate that he’s well within striking distance even this late in the game.

* I disregard the “expanded” Gallup tracking poll, which gives an edge to Obama, because it fails to consider past voting behavior. It almost seems designed to inflate Obama’s numbers.

In keeping with my motivational poster theme, I thought I would offerer another perspective on what change can mean, especially the change offered by the Dali Bama.

See the whole line at Despair Inc.

It has been several years since I have given a talk at Biola University in La Mirada, California. It is an institution that has a number of my friends on the faculty including Craig Hazen, John Mark Reynolds, J. P. Moreland, and Scott B. Rae. So I am very much looking forward to this Thursday, when I return to Biola as a speaker in its Distinguished Speaker Lecture Series for Christianity and Culture.

Scheduled for October 30 at 6 pm in Biola’s Calvary Chapel, I will be delivering a lecture on the topic of abortion and American politics. After the lecture I’ll be meeting for an informal Q & A at the Philosophy House of Talbot School of Theology (Biola’s seminary) with some students in the school’s M.A. program in philosophy of religion and ethics.

If you are in southern California, feel free to attend. The lecture is open to the public.

(cross-posted)

Another fun motivational poster concerning the Obamessiah’s most recent supporter.

Hat tip to Blackfive.

Liberal Democrats won’t understand either the truth or humor in the above picture. Unfortunately, many Americans will after Obama, Pelosi, and Reid begin running the country into the ground.

Hat tip to the Corner.

An apt description of what Megyn Kelly does to Obama spokesman Bill Burton in this video clip:

(h/t Newsbusters.org)

In the Journal today Pete DuPont provides a quick sketch of an Obama Presidency.

Update:  Thinking along the same lines is the NRO editorial board.

In this column on NRO, Bill Whittle provides a transcript of the most important passages in the video Feddie blogged at 8:05 this morning, below.

On Uncommon Knowledge — a new installment every day this week!  The overall topic is Sowell’s distinction between the “constrained” and “unconstrained” views of human nature, especially as reflected in political activity.  Especially if you haven’t read or heard Sowell on this topic before, you’re in for a treat.

Ladies and Gentleman, I give you the man who may soon be making Supreme Court nominations:

Is Iowahawk.

8-0 ROLL TIDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just savor it, boys.

Thomas Sowell, to Peter Robinson in Forbes.

The title of a new horror movie?  Nope.  That’s the title on the cover of the November issue of the ABA Journal.  It reveals more about how the ABA understands American democracy than the editors, perhaps, intended.  At any rate, you can see their predictions online, here.

I’m inspired by Feddie’s post about his physical location.  I’ll be in Pine Mountain, GA speaking to the students of the Impact 360 program for three days Nov. 3-5.  It’s right next to Callaway Gardens.  The next two days, I’ll be visiting Atlanta.  If any of the readers would like a guy to come talk with them or their group of friends about the importance of Christian higher education while I’m there, I can probably find a way to do it.

This story is why I hate having to use an absentee ballot when I am deployed.

Fairfax general registrar Rokey Suleman said Thursday that he has had to reject some of the ballots because of a Virginia law passed in 2002. That law — then called Senate Bill 113, sponsored by then state Sen. Bill Bolling — requires that when an overseas citizen wants to request an absentee ballot and cast a vote with the same paperwork, it requires not only a witness signature but also the current address of the witness.

The McCain campaign said there’s not even a space for the witness to list an address. Suleman agreed; he said the federal document was changed in recent years and the space for the witness address was removed. But the Virginia law hasn’t changed.

In case you think the Democrat official in this story is just doing his job check out this story about how Virginia officials are loosening Virginia election laws to help college students vote.

This makes me mad as hell. Some low level Democrat bureaucrat is throwing out the ballots of deployed servicemen and women on a ridiculous technicality while other Virginia bureaucrats are cutting legal corners help college students vote.

It is not like this hasn’t happened before.

Yet another reason I hate the Democrat Party. It does everything it can to suppress the voice of those that defend this country.

Two days ago I had published this column about why DoJ is not enforcing the HAVA voting control act in Ohio. It turns out that I UNDERestimated the DoJ bias in favor of Obama. See this new report from OpenSecrets. Wow. So much for the establishment media image of “career employees” as being somehow neutral, disinterested defenders of the public good.

Some very, very confused people.  Especially Mr. “Pro-Life”.

Earlier this month Gertrude Himmelfarb gave a lecture at AEI on Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France.  Audio and video are now available here.

In today’s WSJ, courtesy of Carnegie-Mellon economist Adam Lerrick.

In today’s NY Post Ralph Peters consults his crystal ball and, oddly enough, what he sees is roughly the same as what Sen. Biden described yesterday at an appearance in Seattle.

It would be nice if the press were to report Biden’s remarks extensively, but I’m not going to hold my breath.

I interrupt SA’s normal campaign-related blogging to ask what will seem like a completely arcane historical question: was the Louisiana Purchase constitutional?  After having read a quite a lot about the deal, I still remain somewhat unsure about the answer to that question.  Jefferson seemed to think it was unconstitutional, but went ahead with it when he thought the deal would fall through if he delayed too long in trying to push for a constitutional amendement.

So, I put the question to you, the Southern Appeal readership.