And all the people said . . . “Amen!”

(LvDonald)

An interesting take on the McCain calls re a pro-abortion running mate:

Oh, I have no doubt McCain is considering a pro-choicer, but that person isn’t Ridge. (Just a ploy to gauge activist reaction.) I think it’s actually former eBay CEO Meg Whitman , the person McCain mentioned at the Saddleback forum—in response to a question he apparently had in advance—as one of the wise persons he would consult with as president. Superstar CEO, technology/Internet leader, globalization expert, woman, a different kind of Republican, fly fisherman (!), young (just turned 52)–Margaret Cushing Whitman ticks a lot of boxes, folks. Plus, the Romney people inside the McCain campaign like her, though perhaps not as much as their old boss. But it would be a risky move for a candidate just a few points back in the polls. Yet if Obama chooses Joe Biden , as insiders expect, that would present an interesting opportunity for McCain to make a historic pick. 

David Limbaugh says what so many of us are thinking:

We don’t need exit polling data — only the powers of observation, experience and common sense — to know that many pro-lifers are either single-issue voters or consider abortion to be by far the most important issue.

You can be sure that they won’t vote for McCain if he picks a pro-abortionist running mate. They will not have that blood on their hands; and you can bank on that.

Damn right. If McCain picks a proabort running mate, then I am done with him. The only thing worse than an Obama presidency is sending a signal to the GOP that having proabortion politicians as leaders of our party will be tolerated by the prolife community. And if it takes four years in the wilderness to teach the GOP elite this hard lesson, then so be it. They tried to screw us with Rudy, and now they’re pushing to have Ridge on the ticket.  These New York and D.C. folks need to understand that while they may run the party, we control it. And we’re perfectly willing to burn the ship on principle.

Over at the Corner at National Review Online there is this post, which is not good news

NR has learned that the McCain campaign has been calling key state GOP officials around the country the last couple of days and sounding them out about the consequences of a pro-choice VP pick. The campaign is asking about the reaction of conservative grass-roots activists to such a pick and whether a pro-choicer can be sold to them. This is an indication that the McCain campaign is serious about the possibility of a pro-choice VP nominee and that McCain leaving the door open to Tom Ridge last week may not have been merely a friendly nod to a longtime supporter. In this scenario, McCain’s emphatic pro-life statements Saturday night and his pledge that he’ll run a “pro-life administration” would have been partly an attempt to reassure conservatives in the event of a pro-choice pick. Here is NR’s take today on why going with a pro-choicer would be a mistake for McCain.

My only hope is that the fact that the calls are even being made is a recognition of the problems that this will cause and that the calls will result in Senator McCain not going down this road.

You can watch it here, and comment here.

There is a great article by Fred Thompson about the recent crisis in Georgia and the response of the 2 candidates for President at the Townhall website.  I love the last line:

This crisis half a world away confirms what I’ve been saying for a while: This election cycle, the traffic in the world is very heavy …and dangerous; it’s no time to give a kid with barely a learner’s permit the keys to the car.

Another thoughtful post by Professor Rick Garnett.

LifeSite News has the details.

Good question.

And what in the heck was my man Brownback doing endorsing Kline’s opponent?

That’s the word on the street.

If this is indeed the case, then it’s a brilliant decision, and I am confident that Gov. Jindal will give an excellent speech.

Heck, I’ll be there to liveblog it.

And so it begins.

This is actually pretty clever:

(LvJoe)

Please vote for Phil Kline today.

There are several reasons why Kline should be retained as your district attorney, but number one on my list is that he had the guts to take on Murder, Inc. And Lord knows that he has paid a significant price for having done so.

Please reward Kline’s courage by reelecting him to be your district attorney.  As the former attorney general of Kansas, he is certainly more than qualified for the position.  

You can view his campaign website here.

It’s not pretty, folks.

Is it any wonder that Senator Obama is afraid of debating Senator McCain in a town-hall format?

(LvEE)

I could be wrong, but I strongly suspect this going to be another close presidential election.

Rod Dreher has penned some good observations on the latest dust-up in the race contest for the presidency. You can read it here. I published these comments in the combox:

(more…)

Play the race card.

It’s nice to see that the real Obama is finally coming out to play.

News Flash to the Kool-aid Drinkers: Obama is no different than any other politician. It’s the same ol’ same ol’ with slick marketing. And before this election is over, Obamamessiah is going to exposed as the fraud he truly is.

Things are finally starting to gel for Team McCain. And just in the nick of time.

My co-blogger at RedState, Dan McLaughlin (aka The Baseball Crank), emailed me the following thoughts on the righting of the U.S.S. McCain, which he has kindly agreed to allow me to publish here at SA:

Damn the torpedoes!
 
I agree that at this point, McCain’s best argument is simplicity.  If McCain talks about national security and energy 7 days a week, it becomes very hard to change the subject on him.  And that’s where McCain’s 25 years in Congress help - he can talk about just a few issues without people thinking he’s unfamiliar with the others.  He can play defense on lots of fronts, but these are Obama’s most poorly defended terrain, and that’s where our forces should swarm, overwhelm his defenses, bayonet the survivors and run up our standard over their rotting corpses.

Amen to that, brother! You could say that ten thousand times, and it still wouldn’t be enough. Shake and bake, baby!

The first half of this video is really funny:

Hysterical satire of the 2008 presidential race by the folks at JibJab:

(h/t RedState)

First, I  have not seen any polling since the primary.  Second, I have not had the time I would have liked to have had to make some calls.  All of that being said, I am predicting that Senator Harri Anne Smith will narrowly win the run-off tomorrow.  The George Jones ad which I previously mentioned along with her illegal immigration ad and ad discussing Rep. Jay Love’s vote on a bill which would have raised taxes on certain oil companies were all very effective.  Second, I think that Rep. Love’s support in Montgomery is not as strong as many would think.  Love has been repeatedly linked to the ASEA (the state employee’s union) and many of the GOP Faithful in the Montgomery area are not real big ASEA fans.  Plus, I have been told that Love has had some short term memory problems when it comes to remembering the folks who got him elected in the first place and is viewed as quickly going from an outsider who was going to fight for change to an insider who is more interested in winning the next election.  Regardless of whether this perception is correct, it will likely costs Love votes he has to get in order to win. 

I have been a bit busy of late with work and family and have not been able to spend all of the time I would like detailing the run-off between Senator Harri Anne Smith and Rep. Jay Love.  With a week to go before the run-off, things are getting interesting - such as this radio adby George Jones.  (Only in Alabama are you likely to see country music, economic development, gambling and politics intertwine like this.)   This story will explain the basis for this ad.   This link will give you a pretty good run down of what has been happening.  I suspect that the 11th Commandment of Republican Politics is about to be broken repeatedly between now and next Tuesday.  I’ll make my prediction on the outcome next Monday. 

Courtesy of Reasoned Audacity.

The ultimate flip-flopper: Obamamessiah.

Very interesting.

David Brody (as usual) has the scoop. Here’s the gist of Burress’s endorsement of McCain:

For me this election is primarily about the next Supreme Court appointments, even though McCain is with us on many other issues as well. Watching him, looking at his broken body and thinking about the price he paid as a POW was overwhelming. When he reached to scratch his eyebrow he had to take his right hand to lift his left to do so. I understand the difference between respecting this man as a war veteran, and working for him as candidate for president of the United States.

But I must say that it is men like this that guarantee us our freedom. I also understand those who say they will not vote for him and I respect their principled position.

Yesterday, though, I saw and listened to a man who likewise is principled. John McCain, unlike most politicians, will not be bullied, threatened, paid off or pressured into changing his position. That was refreshing. I was once one of those people who said “no way” to Senator John McCain as President. No longer. The stakes are too high. And if Obama wins I need to able to get up on November 5th, look at myself in the mirror, and when I pray, say, “Lord, I did all that I could.”

A solid post by Professor Althouse.

An excellent piece by Ryan T. Anderson in the latest Weekly Standard. Here’s a taste:

Yet Obama’s troubles winning actual Catholic voters in the Democratic primaries suggest he might have problems in the general election–unsurprising, perhaps, given what Nat Hentoff has described as Obama’s “extremism” on the abortion issue. Obama has opposed every effort to protect unborn human life, including the Supreme Court’s upholding of the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act. Obama even voted against an anti-infanticide bill to protect the lives of babies who survive an abortion and are born alive . . . .