On His Six, But Frozen At The Controls

Last Thursday we saw McCain's campaign suspension and trip to Washington as a maneuver to get inside Obama's OODA Loop again. The only problem is that, once you've gotten on the other guy's "6", you need to fire your Sidewinders, John. So far I'm seeing a lot of flying and zero firing. How tough is this, Senator? 75-80% of the public knows that the Bush/ Reid/ Pelosi/ Dodd/ Frank/ Paulson bailout bill is a dog's breakfast. Get specific about who created the sub-prime mess: Fannie, Freddie and the Democrat affirmative action lending machine. Show the connections Obama has to that mess. You're on his "6", pilot. Quit with the bipartisanship fetish and FIRE!

No Controlling Legal Authority, Part 2?

The Barack of Obama has raised lots of money. More than 11,500 donations totaling nearly $34 Million were sent in from foreign countries. These donors could be American citizens living abroad making legal contributions, but it appears that the FEC can't tell because the Obama campaign didn't ask for the proper documentation. Expect the FEC investigation to find out that the Obama campaign took illegal foreign donations totaling millions of dollars. Expect that finding to be announced after inauguration day in 2009. Newsmax is on it:

Excerpt:
And then there are the overseas donations — at least, the ones that we know about.
The FEC has compiled a separate database of potentially questionable overseas donations that contains more than 11,500 contributions totaling $33.8 million. More than 520 listed their “state” as “IR,” often an abbreviation for Iran. Another 63 listed it as “UK,” the United Kingdom.
More than 1,400 of the overseas entries clearly were U.S. diplomats or military personnel, who gave an APO address overseas. Their total contributions came to just $201,680.
But others came from places as far afield as Abu Dhabi, Addis Ababa, Beijing, Fallujah, Florence, Italy, and a wide selection of towns and cities in France.
Until recently, the Obama Web site allowed a contributor to select the country where he resided from the entire membership of the United Nations, including such friendly places as North Korea and the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Tony Rezko Clears His Throat

Is Tony Rezko, a political "fixer" for the Chicago Democrat Machine and close Obama buddy, starting to sing like a canary? The AP thinks maybe so according to the Chicago Tribune:

"Convicted political fixer Antoin "Tony" Rezko has been quietly visiting Chicago's federal courthouse, setting off speculation that he may be spilling secrets to prosecutors in return for a lenient sentence... 'Jail is horrible and Tony Rezko has just two options,' says Jay Stewart, executive director of the Better Government Association. 'One option is to do nothing and get a full sentence. The other is to cooperate with prosecutors.' "

The Bull Is Alive, But Wary

While the brilliant minds in Washington DC contemplated how much ketchup could make their "crap sandwich" palatable, I decided to go out looking for the lost bull of Wall Street this weekend. I found him. He was a two and a half hour drive west of Monkeydart Plantation. He'd clearly lost weight and didn't have the same brassy sheen he sported earlier-- but it was him. I caught up with him Sunday afternoon and asked him when he was coming back.

"Are you kidding? When Citi is buying Wachovia I should come back? When Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, friggin' Frankendodd, are now running a Soviet-style command and control economy, I should come back? There are polls and reporters pushing Obama into the White House and you want to know when I'm coming back?" he asked.

"Citi's buying Wachovia?" I asked.

"You'll find out tomorrow." he said.

"Wow. More Yankees moving into the neighborhood. But... are you really letting Frankendodd scare you away? Those two are pretty, um, wimpy." I said.

"Listen, I'll be back. I always come back. But this market bull knows he's never safe when the Congress critters are piling up the bullshit this deep. Relax, I'll be back. Buddy, they created this whole problem with their Fannies and their Freddies and their Sarbanes-Oxley rules and mark-to-market accounting. It's so obvious even that dumb bear saw it and started to feed and growl and prowl. They created the problem and now they're going to get $1 Trillion to 'solve' it? I should hang around and watch that? But, some day I'll be back," The Bull said.

"Could you let me know when?" I asked.

He snorted and trotted away.

UPDATE: The "crap sandwich" needs more seasoning it would seem.

A Friday For The Ages?

There they are, the three stooges of the housing apocalypse: Barney "Fannie & Freddie" Frank, Chris "Countrywide" Dodd and Upchuck Schumer. Why exactly would we put these three in charge of solving the problem they created?

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford weighs in today on the pages of the Washington Post:

Excerpts:

It seems that each new crisis is met with a new answer from the government. After Hurricane Katrina, the federal government assumed roles traditionally handled by state and local governments. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the government federalized 25,000 workers through the Transportation Security Administration. The example of security-focused countries such as Israel, which elects to have that function handled by the private sector, did not matter. Now, our federal government is likely to commit three-quarters of a trillion dollars -- more than last year's Pentagon budget -- to a bailout based on what happened in the credit markets last week.

An ever-expanding scope of federal commitment and power is not what made this country great. Expanded power in one place comes at a cost in other places. American cornerstones such as individual initiative and an entrepreneurial spirit -- born in free and open societies with private property rights and the rule of law -- have never fit particularly well within the context of an ever-growing federal government.
...

If Congress passes the proposed bailout, we will be destined to have far greater problems in time, leaving those who are prudent in their finances to foot the bill for those who are not.

... Whether (Paulson's) proposals are right or wrong is less the issue than the question of where we are, as a society, in terms of having government in the business of protecting people from their own financial decisions. Last week's events were rooted in distressed mortgage securities whose optimistic values were facilitated by quasi-governmental entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The investment banking capital write-downs were turbocharged by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which did what too many laws do -- it fixed yesterday's problem. The amazing expansion of credit was fueled by a Federal Reserve offering an easy-money policy that led us right into a credit bubble. All this was made worse by the government enabling some people's tendency to want more house than they can afford.
With that bubble popped, we will now go through a major financial de-leveraging. It will be painful. Yet to preserve what has made this country great, we need to be on guard against Washington offering endless cures to our ills.

...each of us as taxpayers must admonish those in Washington to get their own financial house in order. Washington is the master of creative and unsustainable finance, with $50 trillion in unfunded promises.
We will be told of bailouts that "won't cost anything." We should caution policymakers that this has never been the history of bailouts, and remind them of Milton Friedman's suggestion that the capitalist system never works without loss. ...

We should remind our leaders of Ronald Reagan's words that the closest thing to eternal life is a government program.
We will be told "trust us" on pricing assets, and we should not -- because no matter how pure one's intentions, no one watches your money like you do. This makes transparency and open bidding incredibly important.

The whole column is here.

On OODA Loops

The schematic above is something I've hung onto for years. It's a graphic depiction of John Boyd's OODA Loop. OODA is short for: Observe, Orient, Decide, Act. Boyd is describing here how people logically make decisions. Most people who make clear, logical, decisions proceed through the stages of OODA. There are some people who end up at the Act stage in knee-jerk reactions at the drop of a hair plug, er, hat. Those people don't make consistent decisions and are of little good consequence over time. They are entertaining though, as their undisciplined approach to life and endless pontificating often reveals their weak mental training.



OODA Loop. So what? Well, if you understand the OODA Loop, you can also figure out how to disrupt an opponent's decision-making. The applications of this are seen in warfare and business quite often but they also work in most every human interaction including politics and sports. Take sports for an easy example. The center snaps the ball to the QB and he drops back Observing. He Orients himself to where his receivers and the defenders guarding them are while also noting the pass rush. He Decides where to throw and then he Acts. Easy.



But what if the defensive coordinator devises a scheme that gets inside the QB's OODA Loop. Let's say he calls for a blitzing pass rush scheme that doesn't reveal itself as a blitz until the snap. As the QB drops back he Observes, then Orients... but the blitz is coming so he has to Observe and Re- Orient... now he sees a rusher coming from an other direction... that causes another Observe re-loop... and so he tries to Orient again... the next thing he Observes is the turf as he is buried under his opponents. He never could get to Decision and the only Act he gets to make is picking himself up off the carpet. What happened? The defensive team got inside his OODA Loop and caused him to get stuck at O-O-O-O-O-O-O. Also known as "Oh, Oh!"



An excellent columnist, Jack Kelly, wrote on September 13th that "Mr. McCain is so far inside Mr. Obama’s OODA loop that I almost feel sorry for the senator from Illinois." Kelly was referring to how the choice of Governor Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate had knocked the smooth, auto-pilot gliding Obama campaign into a turbulent tailspin. Remember that the closely guarded naming of Palin came the morning after the grossly over-the-top Denver stadium speech. Jack Kelly was exactly right. By the way, the Palin pick also got inside the OODA loop of the mainstream media. They expect to be leaked key news early. McCain didn't court them and seek their wise council. The beltway media likes guys like Biden who they've chatted with at countless Georgetown cocktail parties for decades. In fact, as long as McCain was bashing Republicans they liked him too. But this Alaskan Governor move-- well, the legacy media has not found their bearings yet and, in fact, by attacking Governor Palin personally day after day they are not only hurting their favored candidate but damaging their own soiled brand names irreparably (see: NBC and New York Times).



Michael Barone also noted last week how McCain got inside the Obama/Axelrod OODA Loop. He quotes John Boyd's biographer:

Robert Coram describes what can happen when one player gets inside another's OODA loop. "If someone truly understands how to create menace and uncertainty and mistrust, then how to exploit and magnify the presence of these disconcerting elements, the loop can be vicious, a terribly destructive force, virtually unstoppable in causing panic and confusion and — Boyd's phrase is best — 'unraveling the competition.' ... The most amazing aspect of the OODA loop is that the losing side rarely understands what happened."



So, how does McCain stay inside the Obama OODA Loop creating "menace" and "uncertainty"? Well, for example, 48 hours before a huge debate on Foreign Policy he could abruptly say that it's time for all good men to come to the aid of their country and do their day job, US Senator, to help solve the economic problems of the day. So far the reaction from Obama/Axelrod and the Democrat handmaiden media shows them panicked, confused, and unraveling-- in the words of Robert Coram. They expected McCain to lose gracefully. To be a Bob Michel, Bob Dole type of Washington DC Republican. They are spinning and in danger of augering in.



Why did John Boyd come up with the loop? To help train fighter pilots to succeed in dogfights. John McCain: Navy fighter pilot. I don't think they teach the OODA Loop at Ivy League schools or in the street organizer/ agitator handbook.

Sorry. No Gas.

Eleven days ago we pointed out how hurricane Ike could cause gasoline shortages in our corner of the world. In the last 24 hours it came to pass. All over the Charlotte, NC metro area there are now gas stations without fuel. As the day rolled on Wednesday reports were being broadcast locally about people following tank trucks to stations, of lines of 50 or so cars at some locations, and general distress over a lack of gasoline.

Our own search for gasoline yesterday found the following along the trail away from our driveway. Shell: NO GAS, Texaco: NO GAS, Texaco: NO GAS, The Gate: NO GAS, Sunoco: NO GAS, Texaco: NO GAS, BP: NO GAS, Country Grocery Store with 2 pumps: BAGGING PUMPS AS WE DRIVE BY, Shell: GAS! with 2 dozen cars waiting. We drive by and try one more stop, a Kangaroo convenience store that has two pump islands. They had regular. We bought 15 and a half gallons.

Similar supply problems are happening from Charlotte west to Asheville. Nashville and Atlanta are apparently having some shortages too. Here in South Carolina we actually aren't having much trouble statewide, but in our county we get lots of folks crossing the border from NC to buy gas here because our taxes are 15 cents a gallon lower. What we learned is that the farther away we go from the NC border the easier it is to find fuel.

Ramirez Sez...

Michael Ramirez in IBD.

Drill Baby Drill? In Brazil Anyway

Don't look now but the lame duck in the White House may be chalking up an incremental victory in the battle to open up America's coastline to drilling next Tuesday. Democrats in Congress are surrendering on the issue. This does NOT mean drilling begins tomorrow, but it does mean one huge impediment is removed. Of course, an Obama/ Reid/ Pelosi Washington DC would try to reverse the progress.

Meanwhile, in Brazil, they are amped up today because there has been an enormous new offshore find. 110 Billion barrels-- more in this one find than all of Venezuela's proven reserves. The US is rare indeed. Our elected officials refuse to use our own abundant resources to the fullest. How many times in history has a thriving republic refused to exploit her resource advantages? It seems quite bizarre. Clearly Brazil isn't in the grip of petrophobia.

The Only Thing We Have To Fear Is Joe Himself

The latest Biden gaffe being highlighted today is his chiding of his own campaign for the "McCain doesn't e-mail" ads. But in that same interview with someone named Couric from CBS, Slow Joe says something truly remarkable:

"When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the princes of greed. He said, 'Look, here's what happened.'"

Just when I think Ol' Slow Joe can't top himself he does this! Just for the record, the 1929 crash predated both the FDR presidency and TV as a means for a US President to address the nation. Yes, it's a Two For Tuesday gaffe from Slow Joe, The Gaffe-o-matic, Biden.


Ben Smith has the details.

Club For Growth

The Club For Growth issued this statement about the $1 Trillion bailout.



Club for Growth Condemns Federal BailoutGovernment Intervention is not the Answer
Washington – The Club for Growth condemned the massive government bailout proposed by the Treasury and the Bush administration as unnecessary, unfair to taxpayers, and fraught with serious costs to the American economy.

Eighteen months into the credit crunch, many largely capitalized financial services firms are experiencing serious difficulties but the overall economy continues to grow. GDP growth over the past 12 months was 2.25 percent and 3.5 percent when excluding the drag imposed by the housing sector. Even within the financial sector, many banks are doing well. Regional bank indices had risen significantly since the lows of last July—prior to the bailout announcement—and thousands of community banks are thriving. It is extraordinary that a massive government intervention in the economy is considered inevitable when the economy is not even in a recession.

At the same time, socializing economic risks come at a great cost to the American economy by misallocating capital, inviting political manipulation, and putting taxpayers on the hook for possibly a trillion dollars. Such a large takeover by the government will surely be accompanied by adverse, unintended consequences. Already, other companies and industries are lining up at government’s door asking for their own bailout. And if the government incurs $700 billion in debt to finance the purchase of bad bank assets, the danger that it will eventually monetize that debt and trigger dramatic inflation is very worrisome.

“The Treasury’s bailout proposal will likely cause more harm than good,” said Club for Growth President Pat Toomey. “Instead of launching the largest government bailout since the Great Depression, the government should be implementing policies to stimulate the economy. These include, at a minimum, cutting the tax on capital gains, cutting corporate taxes, reviewing and considering repeal of FAS 57 which requires banks to mark-to-market most securities, and emphasizing the need for a strong dollar.”

“Finally, many politicians are using the current struggle to make free-market capitalism the scapegoat for the economy’s troubles, when in fact, government played a major role in getting us into this mess in the first place. Free-market capitalism is alive and well, and we should be embracing its tenets, not rejecting them.”

DeMint Has Decided

"After reviewing the Administration's proposed bailout plan, I believe it is completely unacceptable."

-Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, September 22, 2008

His position is firm, clear and blistering. Likely, his position will not prevail.

The whole statement is here. Not a lot of fuzzy wording. Not a bunch of DC doubletalk. Senator DeMint will be voting "NAY."

(That's Senator DeMint in blue in the picture.)

Who's Your Landlord?

IBD, in the first of a multi-part series of front page articles, begins to lay out the roots of the current crisis.

Excerpt:

It all started, innocently enough, in 1994 with President Clinton's rewrite of the Carter-era Community Reinvestment Act.
Ostensibly intended to help deserving minority families afford homes — a noble idea — it instead led to a reckless surge in mortgage lending that has pushed our financial system to the brink of chaos.
Subprime's Mentors
Fannie and Freddie, the main vehicle for Clinton's multicultural housing policy, drove the explosion of the subprime housing market by buying up literally hundreds of billions of dollars in substandard loans — funding loans that ordinarily wouldn't have been made based on such time-honored notions as putting money down, having sufficient income, and maintaining a payment record indicating creditworthiness.
With all the old rules out the window, Fannie and Freddie gobbled up the market. Using extraordinary leverage, they eventually controlled 90% of the secondary market mortgages. Their total portfolio of loans topped $5.4 trillion — half of all U.S. mortgage lending. They borrowed $1.5 trillion from U.S. capital markets with — wink, wink — an "implicit" government guarantee of the debts.
This created the problem we are having today.
As we noted a week ago, subprime lending surged from around $35 billion in 1994 to nearly $1 trillion last year — for total growth of 2,757% as of last year.
No real market grows that fast for that long without being fixed.

Imagine President Obama's Treasury Secretary working out the spending of the $1 Trillion honey pot in conjunction with Barney Frank and Chris Dodd with Biden, Reid and Pelosi looking on. If that doesn't cause you to shudder you aren't paying attention.

Darkness On The Edge of Town

Brian Wesbury gets it right on the current crisis. A few rules changes likely would have allowed private enterprise to solve this problem which began with government demands to lend money to people with no documented income and no down payment.

But I'm not hopeful that cooler heads will prevail. The ever-expanding federal government has the scent of a fresh kill in its nostrils. There likely will be no stopping this gigantic takeover of the private sector. In fact, look for it to expand to other areas in the next administration. The calculus will be, "if Wall Street can get a taxpayer bailout then why can't citizens get their health insurance paid for by the federal government" and more.

The lies about how this fiscal distress was caused by "deregulation" are enough to make one puke. We are up to our necks in regulation-- what we lack is freedom. While Democrats predictably find this to all be the worst thing to happen in America since 1929 while taking on none of the responsibility, McCain doesn't wrap himself in any glory when he calls it the worst crisis since the end of World War II. Pure populist baloney. But, in these times, it might just work. And the federal leviathan gains in size and clout while new, dreadful precedents are set.

UPDATE: Newt smacks it out of the park! Before DC Gets Our Money, It Owes Us Some Answers. This is must read materail.

60,000 to 2,000? Say It Ain't So, Joe!

I have been immersed in financial news for days and just now saw that Governor Palin drew a crowd of 60,000 to a speech near Orlando, FL yesterday.

----

THE VILLAGES, Fla. — Governor Sarah Palin, on her first trip as John McCain’s running mate to the battleground state of Florida, drew a massive crowd of 60,000 people.
She was welcomed like a star, with tens of thousands cramming into a plaza and nearby streets in this enormous retirement community about an hour north of Orlando. Some waited more than five hours in 92-degree heat to see her speak for 23 minutes.
Palin arrived in Florida on Friday and had no public events Saturday, though she told the crowd her daughters Piper and Willow got to go to Disney World.

After some jokes about the difference between golfing in Florida and Alaska, her remarks hit most of the same points she’s made since McCain chose her as the first woman to run as a Republican vice presidential nominee. She did, however, update the stump speech to reflect last week’s turmoil in the financial markets.
“We need serious reform on Wall Street. We need better regulation. It’s like Senator McCain said just yesterday — we don’t need a dozen federal agencies doing the job badly, we need the best agencies doing the job right,” she said.
She said McCain had warned about the problems affecting financial institutions, and attacked Democrat Barack Obama on the issue.
“This week when the economic crisis threatened the livelihood of millions of Americans, John McCain took a clear stand and he offered his own recovery plan. Our opponent refused to even take a stand on the position,” Palin said.

The visit drew a few contrasts between Palin and Obama running mate Joe Biden.
The largest was the crowd — an estimated 60,000 according to the fire chief. Some people had to wait in line about 90 minutes just to park their cars. Biden’s largest crowd during a visit earlier this month was about 2,000.
Palin had star power. One teenage girl held up a sign that read, “When I grow up, I want to be Sarah Palin.” Another sign read, “This chick supports Sarah Palin.” Many said they didn’t even know who Palin was until last month.
“I knew absolutely nothing,” said Tyler Deeds, 19, who made the drive from Auburndale 90 miles away and waited more than 5 hours to see Palin. “I couldn’t even tell you who the governor of Alaska was.”
But Deeds, who plans to enter the Navy soon, said he “tends to cling to my guns and religion” and he quickly grew excited about Palin’s candidacy.
Joan Guay, 81, dabbed bottled water on her arms as she waited for Palin in the broiling heat. She said she previously supported Democrat Hillary Clinton.
“This country needs a woman up there,” Guay said. “I like her background, I like her family. It’s a family that does things together. And I like her work in the community.”

According to a Palin campaign aide, this Wednesday in separate meetings Palin will meet with Iraqi President Talabani, President of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvelli; President of the Ukraine, Victor Yuschenko; Pakistani President Zardari, and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
She will also meet with rock star and humanitarian, Bono on Wednesday.
As previously reported, on Tuesday she will meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, and Dr. Kissinger in separate meetings.
The meetings will be in New York and coincide with the United Nations’ General Assembly which attracts leaders from all over the world.

-taken from an AP report via FOXNews, edited to eliminate bias

Thanks for Noticing, Pal

"Now there's a guy who ruined his life. But what an athlete."

-Sen. Joe Biden, looking at a bust of O.J. Simpson at the Pro Football Hall of Fame Sept. 18, 2008

Not So Fast, Sweetheart

Much was made this week of Obama/Biden supposedly regaining momentum against the McCain/Palin ticket. This discussion was driven by just one polling organization, Gallup. Some supporters of McCain freaked out a bit. Most of the national media, AKA: Team Obama, cheered.

As goofy old Lee Corso would say on College Gameday, "Not so fast, sweetheart!" The supposed momentum was due entirely to data massage-- not to the actual responses of voters polled. WizBang dug into the data and figured it out:

So, put it all together, and in the past week Obama has stayed steady or lost support in every party identification group, yet Gallup says his overall support went up four points. And McCain stayed steady or went up in every party identification group, yet we are supposed to accept the claim that his overall support went down by four points? Anyone have an answer for how that is even possible?

Well, actually I do. There is one, and only one, possible way that such a thing can happen mathematically. And that way, is that Gallup made major changes to the political affiliation weighting from the last week to now. Gallup has significantly increased the proportional weight of Democrat response and reduced the weight of Republican response.

The only poll that counts is, of course, the election day poll. Until that time polls like Gallup can be used to build a storyline favorable to a candidate. Be careful out there.

McCain: Spare Us The Lectures, Senator Obama

Senator McCain looked across the troubled financial landscape and the first thing I heard (not to be confused with the first thing he actually said) out of him was a call to fire Chris Cox. I've met Chris Cox. He's a brilliant fellow. I found Sen. McCain's attack idiotic and disheartening. Even worse, I saw no forgiveable political calculation in it. This kind of culture-of-victimhood populism is best left to the loons of the left, Senator.

But then I saw the McCain campaign's ad that links Obama to the federal quasi-government home loan debacle and I felt a little bit better.

To me, the right approach politically is to attack hard those links between Obama, Biden, and the incredibly unpopular Pelosi/Reid congress with these front-burner problems. I read through McCain's remarks on the economy this morning in Green Bay, WI and, amidst too much populist goo, too many big government solutions, there were some good lines:

Clear answers are hard to come by in Washington. As Senator Obama's leader in Congress memorably put it the other day — and I quote — "no one knows what to do." Perhaps given that reaction, it shouldn't surprise us that the Congressional leaders of this do-nothing Congress also said that they weren't going to take action until after the election, claiming that it wasn't their fault.

............

The financial crisis we're living through today started with the corruption and manipulation of our home mortgage system. At the center of the problem were the lobbyists, politicians, and bureaucrats who succeeded in persuading Congress and the administration to ignore the festering problems at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. These quasi-public corporations lead our housing system down a path where quick profit was placed before sound finance. They institutionalized a system that rewarded forcing mortgages on people who couldn't afford them, while turning around and selling those bad mortgages to the banks that are now going bankrupt. Using money and influence, they prevented reforms that would have curbed their power and limited their ability to damage our economy. And now, as ever, the American taxpayers are left to pay the price for Washington's failure.

Two years ago, I called for reform of this corruption at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Congress did nothing. The Administration did nothing. Senator Obama did nothing, and actually profited from this system of abuse and scandal. While Fannie and Freddie were working to keep Congress away from their house of cards, Senator Obama was taking their money. He got more, in fact, than any other member of Congress, except for the Democratic chairmen of the committee that oversees them. And while Fannie Mae was betraying the public trust, somehow its former CEO had managed to gain my opponent's trust to the point that Senator Obama actually put him in charge of his vice presidential search.

This CEO, Mr. Johnson, walked off with tens of millions of dollars in salary and bonuses for services rendered to Fannie Mae, even after authorities discovered accounting improprieties that padded his compensation. Another CEO for Fannie Mae, Mr. Raines, has been advising Senator Obama on housing policy. This even after Fannie Mae was found to have committed quote "extensive financial fraud" under his leadership. Like Mr. Johnson, Mr. Raines walked away with tens of millions of dollars.

..........

My friends, this is the problem with Washington. People like Senator Obama have been too busy gaming the system and haven't ever done a thing to actually challenge the system.
We've heard a lot of words from Senator Obama over the course of this campaign. But maybe just this once he could spare us the lectures, and admit to his own poor judgment in contributing to these problems. The crisis on Wall Street started in the Washington culture of lobbying and influence peddling, and he was square in the middle of it.

..........

But to get through this tough time for America, and to come out stronger, we need a strategy of economic growth. And the massive new tax burden that my opponent plans for the American economy is exactly the wrong answer. His tax increase — along with the enormous new federal programs he proposes — are the surest way to turn a recession into a depression. In every respect, the Obama tax hikes would make things even worse for the working people of this country.

..........

Business taxes will be cut from the second highest in the world at 35 percent to 25 percent. Tax incentives will spur investment in new plants and equipment. Research and development incentives will keep companies on the cutting edge of their industries. Healthcare costs will diminish. Companies will stop sending jobs overseas to low-cost, low-tax countries and start creating jobs here in America.
I will expand markets for our goods and services. And one in five of all jobs in this country are linked to world trade. In five states alone Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Colorado over 5 million jobs depend on trade. My economic recovery plan will create millions of jobs in America instead of driving them overseas.
I will adopt an "all of the above" energy policy which expands our use of oil, natural gas, clean coal and nuclear facilities. We will embark on a national mission to build an alternative energy base, creating millions of new jobs. We will create the most diversified energy economy in the world. And, I will return to the American economy the $700 billion dollars we send overseas every year to buy oil.
My opponent offers a very different economic future. He has continuously shifted his position on taxes. At the beginning of this campaign he promised to raise taxes on your savings and investments. He said he won't raise taxes for most people but he has voted 94 times in his short Senate career for tax increases and against tax cuts. He said he would only tax the rich, but he voted this year to raise taxes on those making just $42,000. Senator Obama has simply not given Americans good reason to trust him with your tax dollars.
My opponent is against lowering taxes on businesses which are the second highest in the world. He will impose mandated health insurance on businesses that would cost up to $12,000 per employee. He opposes free trade. He also wants to take away the fundamental right of workers to have a secret ballot when voting to be part of a union.

........

The entire text is available at The Corner.

Tread Lightly

How does one best cause a massive short-covering rally in the stock market?

One outlaws short-selling. For ten days. What happens when shorting is no longer banned? Guess.

Blind Pig Finds Acorn

Harry Reid inadvertently did the right thing. He punted. Many folks have criticized the Sad Sack Senator from Searchlight but I'm here to praise the thin Reid. When he said, "no one knows what to do'' he meant he and Speaker Pelosi don't have a clue and Congress should get out of the way. Exactly right.

Well done, Harry. Now, go away and stay away.

Drooling Hyenas

The FBI & Secret Service are investigating an extraordinary invasion of Governor Palin's privacy. It's clear that the drooling hyenas of the left will stop at absolutely nothing to destroy her. I am lukewarm at best about John McCain-- but these dark forces must be stopped in their quest for power at all costs. The AP couldn't care less. People who normally fret about hacked e-mail don't think it matters so much when it's Governor Palin. Isn't one of the Rules for Radicals espoused by Saul Alinsky, "clear the field" of competitors?* It's easier than running for President of the United States on Marxist positions.

*RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.

Slow Joe Questions Our Patriotism

Biden calls paying higher taxes a patriotic act- AP Headline 9-18-2008

To paraphrase the great 20th century philosopher Ronald Wayne Van Zant, "Well, I hope Slow Joe will remember, the taxpayin' man don't need him around anyhow."

The Obama-Biden team likes to pretend that raising taxes on "the other" will result in prosperity for the rest of America. The fact that things never actually happen that way doesn't disuade them, of course. Same old class warfare playbook from the Dems. But, for all those devout followers of The Barack of Obama and his comic relief running mate, let me just say that the federal government allows you to show your patriotism. If you believe that Biden is right and paying higher taxes is patriotic, note the following:

From the U.S. Treasury http://fms.treas.gov/faq/moretopics_gifts.html Web site:

Citizens who wish to make a general donation to the U.S. government may send contributions to a specific account called "Gifts to the United States." This account was established in 1843 to accept gifts, such as bequests, from individuals wishing to express their patriotism to the United States. Money deposited into this account is for general use by the federal government and can be available for budget needs. These contributions are considered an unconditional gift to the government.

Financial gifts can be made by check or money order payable to the United States Treasury and mailed to the address below.

Gifts to the United States

U.S. Department of the Treasury

Credit Accounting Branch

3700 East-West Highway, Room 6D17

Hyattsville, MD 20782

What? You meant raising MY TAXES is patriotic? Oh. Go pound sand, pal.

Russia Shutters Financial Operations

While America's attention is on the re-ordering of some large financial concerns that were operating with broken business models, the Russian Czar has closed that nation's stock market for a second day. In fact, Russia says their financial markets are "closed indefinitely." Not much notice is being paid outside Russia, mainly because this is a direct outcome from Putin's aggression against Georgia and the Western press never quite figured out if Czar Putin was the "bad guy" there. After all, he was angry at George Bush's Rotten America and that usually is a good thing to our press. It's all so confusing for the valiant scribes out there trying to promote Barack Obama's efforts to improve America's prestige in the world. Report news events? That's so pre-Woodward/Bernstein, you fool!

The fact is that lots of folks around the world who had invested in Russian businesses began to take their money out after seeing the Russian tanks roll into a sovereign neighbor. The provocative alignment with Hugo Chavez has given investors pause as well. And, of course, it doesn't help Czar Putin that his major source of ongoing wealth, crude oil, has dropped in value by 40% in just a couple months. Like a silk-stocking brokerage house that collapses under the weight of new economic realities, Russia is suddenly struggling with a new investment calculus.

Biden's Brave Little Toaster

“Our tax plan would take that tax cut of another $130 billion that John wants to give to people making over $250,000 next year, not let it go forward and give it to the middle class — the very people who desperately need it to stay in their homes, to buy food, to take care of the gas, to fill up their tank, to be able to go out and buy a toaster, to employ people.”

-Senator Joe Biden, NBC September 16, 2008

Not even in the stream-of-consciousness babble that makes up Slow Joe's oratory did I expect to find this incredible nugget. Joe truly is a gift. And I mean that, pal.

But wait! That's not all!!

The Today Show hostess, somebody named Meredith Vieira, asked Joe the toaster pusher about raising taxes:

VIEIRA: “Senator, you and Senator Obama are calling for tax increases on the wealthy. And there are many economists who say that that would hurt the economy even more.”
BIDEN: “I don't know any economists who are saying that.”

Not only is that idiotic on its face, it is not the current, operable Obama talking point. Yes, the Barack of Obama his own self has stated that his huge tax increases would be delayed if the economy is weak when he and Slow Joe slide into those big comfy executive branch chairs. Wow, Joe, get up to speed, my friend. My close personal friend.

What Are You So Afraid Of?

One of my many problems with John McCain was his long crusade with Russ Feingold to limit political speech. That bipartisan assault on the first amendment is one of the saddest chapters in Senator McCain's legislative career. It's just the kind of trouble "reaching across the aisle" can bring us all. But I don't doubt for a minute that Senator Obama, product of the Chicago Daley Machine, loves those restrictions on free speech and would try to silence the people even more given half a chance. Many of his allies, including SanFranNan Pelosi, are on the record supporting legislation to silence free speech on the public airwaves.

WGN radio in Senator Obama's home town has been on the receiving end of the sort of mob-rule anti- first amendment position the Obama team endorses.

Chicago radio station WGN-AM is again coming under attack from the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama for offering airtime to a controversial author.
It is the second time in recent weeks the station has been the target of an "Obama Action Wire" alert to supporters of the Illinois Democrat.
Monday night's target was David Freddoso.

....

The Tribune-owned station was flooded with calls and e-mails about an hour before an Aug. 27 interview with Stanley Kurtz, a conservative writer who examined Obama's ties to former 1960s radical William Ayers.

Certainly, unfettered criticism of The Barack of Obama shall not be allowed. Peace Be Unto Him.

Of course, there's another way to keep people quiet. Kill 'em.

Slow Joe Show Hits Bank City

Hey now! Slow Joe Biden was in the neighborhood yesterday. He raised a few bucks, spoke to several hundred people at a rally in Charlotte, and seemed oblivious to the fact that polls have shown North Carolina firmly in the McCain-Palin camp. The Obama campaign, prior to the conventions and the unveiling of Secret Weapon Sarah, promoted to an adoring press the odd notion that both NC and GA were "in play" this cycle. If "in play" means that Obama-Biden is only 17-20 points behind then, well yeah, sure.

Perhaps this will be Slow Joe's role now in the sputtering, rudderless Obama campaign-- send him off to states where he can't screw up a close race. You know, put him out there to talk to "the bitter clingers"-- the morons so stooopid they don't realize that the New York Times and a guy named Charlie at ABC think Governor Palin isn't a good idea for America's next Vice President. Hey, maybe Ol' Slow Joe will bring 'em around! Just look how he dazzled 'em in Charlotte last night while all sane folks were celebrating the Panthers come from behind victory over the Bears at Bank of America (Merrill Lynch too! WooHoo!!) Stadium in Uptown:

-- Biden called Senator McCain's criticisms of Barack Obama's tax policy “a bunch of malarkey.”
In fact, Senator Joe argued that McCain “Just doesn't get it.” Good insight there: malarkey and a hackneyed phrase. Excellent ripostes, sir. I salute you.

-- He bragged about his physical endurance when he stated “I could walk from here to Greensboro!” That's a 92 mile walk. I guess he's trying to show that, although he was already warming a chair in the US Senate way back in January 1973, 35+ years ago, he's still a vigorous hard-chargin' dynamo. He also claimed that along the way he would not run into any McCain/Palin supporters on economic issues. Now, that's a bold claim, Joe. Hyperbole from Biden? Never!

-- Earlier in the day Joe attended a fundraiser at the fashionable south Charlotte home of Crandall Bowles, the former CEO of Springs Global. Springs Global is a textile giant. Let's just say that their corporate policy vis-a-vis manufacturing locales does not square with the broad anti-trade, union-friendly, populist message from Democrats these days. But one would have to be paying attention to appreciate the scene of committed Clintonistas like Erskine and Crandall Bowles now holding fundraisers for Obama. Party first, I reckon.

-- Joe told the friendly crowd that “John McCain and Sarah Palin, they apparently don't think we have any obligation … to retrain and re-educate people who've been displaced by a modern economy.” He apparently offered no examples to buttress this incorrect claim-- but nobody cared. It's delicious to watch Slow Joe go from a fundraiser held by the former CEO of a textile company that (wisely) moved thousands of US manufacturing jobs to South America, China, Mexico etc. and on to criticize the (imagined) McCain/Palin position on displaced jobs, education and training.

-- Democrats enjoy the obligatory "parade of victims" moment. Last night was no exception. After the presentation of someone whose child is not being covered by their health insurance company for a pre-existing condition Biden pledged that the American taxpayer would cover insuring everyone in an Obama/ Biden administration. At least I think that's what he was saying. Maybe Obama-Biden will still allow private health insurance, but it will be regulated even more than today and some bureaucrat I guess, a commissar of some sort, will tell those "private" companies how to run their business or else. Here's what Slow Joe said, “I absolutely commit to you, I guarantee you, that under the Barack Obama-Joe Biden health care plan, no insurance company will be able to deny you because of a pre-existing condition.… It will not happen.” We assume he meant "deny you coverage."

Now that can't be malarkey because Joe Biden eschews malarkey.

The McClatchy newspaper covered the whole exciting day... sort of.

UPDATE! : I just heard a soundbite from Michigan where Slow Joe said he could "walk from here to Lansing..." Who knew US Senators had such a hard time gettin' a lift?

On Pencils and Gasoline

George Will read an interesting book and gives it a glowing review here.

It would be a good thing if the folks charging gas station operators with gouging this morning understood the way a market system allocates goods, but that's probably too much to ask. Hereabouts we are almost totally dependent on a single gasoline pipeline to supply our fuel. That pipeline can be full but if nothing goes into it from the gulf coast area refineries nothing will come out up here. Many stations in our area are already out of gasoline in their underground tanks. Nothing is coming out of the Colonial pipeline because the refineries are shut down half way across America. Originally it was said that the refiners would be operating by today or tomorrow. Now, however, that might be a tad optimistic. So, there's a good possibility there won't be any gasoline at any price around here soon. And the condition could last for quite a while.

For more than 30 years we've been blocked from building oil refineries in this country by the green lobby. Heck, it goes back to the time when the environment was called the ecology. I'm sure that the enviros will find a way to blame Buscheneypalinmccain for our fuel problems this week. Will the electorate ask for more tree-hugging energy policy in the US Congress and White House come November? Not if they understand that "No one can make a pencil"... or a gallon of gasoline at their local station for that matter. I will not hold my breath.

The Ike Spike and Gators! Vewwy, Vewwy, Scawwy.

We've been drifting along paying $3.38/ gallon for gasoline hereabouts as crude oil futures have dropped to $100/ bbl -- a fall of 30% from recent highs. Yesterday the local stations were trading regular gasoline by the gallon for $3.57 a unit. I considered their offer and decided to stick with the $3.38 gasoline I had in the tank of my truck. Others however, more in tune with the fears of the day, began to top their tanks in fear of Hurricane Ike's effect on our ability to get gasoline from the refineries in the gulf region. This run on the gasoline supplies in the underground tanks at the petrol stations caused some chains to limit customers to 10 gallons at a time.

This morning it's The Ike Spike! The stations have boosted to 3.79+ already and some have gone over $4. One old boy even said his delivery driver told him that he heard that the next delivery will be $6/ gallon wholesale. This immediately became "ground truth." I'm just glad that my morning and afternoon commute involves moving from the upstairs bedroom to the first floor office. With frequent roundtrips to the coffee pot and refrigerator.

But high gas prices are nothing. Nothing! The real story in our state today is that we now have so many alligators that the first gator hunting season in 50 years opens tomorrow. One gator per hunter please. Now that's some yeehaw, bud.

Patriot Day 2008

"Nemo me impune lacesset" = "No one will provoke me with impunity"

The yellow Gadsden Flag is named for Christopher Gadsden, an American patriot who led the Sons of Liberty in South Carolina starting in 1765.

Now It Can Be Told

Slow Joe Biden has now disclosed that he has sought help.

Yes, in order to prepare for his debate with Governor Palin, Joe will spend four days huddling with Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm. That should work out well-- for Granholm. In fact, I'm pretty sure the highlight of her resume will read:

>Pretended I was Gov. Sarah Palin for four days with some old Senator who was running for something or other.

Pictured: Gov. Granholm (D-MI) overreacting to a modest gift from a child.

Hey, Slow Joe! What's Your IQ?

Very good, Joe. That's right! Eleven. It's "one more."

Slow Joe Biden, who was already warming a chair in the US Senate when John McCain was still in the Hanoi Hilton, said this afternoon that Governor Sarah Palin's policies are "obviously a backwards step for women."

Thanks Joe. You are truly the gift that keeps on giving. By the way, your team's position on life hasn't exactly been a big step forward for at least 20 million girls in the US.

Futures Markets Moving to McCain

Last Thursday night I was asked what the political futures markets were saying about the McCain v. Obama election now that Governor Palin had been introduced. I replied that nothing had changed much-- yet. In fact, on the day Gov. Palin gave her speech, September 3rd, Obama futures were trading at 62 and McCain futures were at 38 (in round numbers).

So, what about this morning? Well, Obama futures have dropped to 52.8 and McCain futures have risen to 47.8. The USA Today poll showing an 11 point swing to McCain/Palin is likely driving this new assessment by traders along with other pollsters saying that the race has narrowed. Among likely voters that same poll shows McCain/Palin with a 10 point lead, 54-44.

In a somewhat related move... equity market futures are soaring today. This is largely due to the moves out of the Treasury Department. However, one should also ponder that the increasing prospects for a McCain/Palin victory, almost certainly meaning split government in Washington, is a positive for financial markets. And, Obama, over the weekend, admitted again that supply-side economic theory is correct. I'm not sure he knows he did... but he did.

UPDATE: Just before 10AM ET Monday 9/8 and futures are now... Obama 50.2, McCain 49.0

I Get The Feeling That...

... everywhere she goes people will be giving Governor Palin hockey stuff. All I want is an autographed puck. But it has to be autographed by VICE PRESIDENT Sarah Palin.

Good Luck

Once it was clear the nominees this year would be Obama and McCain I was disheartened. I always vote. I haven't voted for a Democrat for anything meaningful in more than 30 years, but that doesn't mean I always vote for Republicans either. McCain was just the sort of Republican I have rejected in the past. Suddenly the election shaped up to be 1976 all over again with Obama as Carter and McCain as Ford. National politics in the 70's were almost universally awful and the culmination of that horrible decade, for me, wasn't Watergate but the election of 1976.

With the choice of Gov. Palin for VP I got on the train for McCain. Well, not really. I got on the Sarah Palin bus and the only way I can vote for her is to vote for McCain. Last night I didn't watch John's speech. I was busy having root canal surgery without anesthesia instead. But from the clips I've seen this morning I can tell that the 1976 comparison still largely holds true, despite the Pontiac Game Changing Moment of adding Gov. Palin to the mix. In '76 there was a fellow who energized the crowd at the Republican convention. He wasn't the candidate. Ford would go on to lose narrowly to Carter. Carter would turn in the worst performance of a US President in the 20th century and in 1980 Ronald Reagan would sweep to victory.

I do not mean to say that Palin is Reagan as others have started doing since her Wednesday night speech. It is not fair to Sarah Palin to be compared to the greatest US president of the last century. But, it could be the start of a very important national political career and that is where the 1976 analogy breaks down. In '76 Reagan could afford to lose to Ford and then come back and defeat an unpopular incumbent. Sarah Palin can't do that from a position on the ticket. For her to usher in a new era of Republicanism (with a small "l" libertarian streak a mile wide a la Reagan, by the way) in Washington she has to win the Vice Presidency. There are already plenty of Republicans waiting for 2012-- Romney and Huckabee to name two. No, she has to win this election. And then, hopefully, with other great young figures like Governor Jindal she can help put the Republican Party firmly on what President Reagan called the four pillars of freedom: Individual Liberty, Economic Opportunity, Global Democracy and National Pride.

So, I'll vote for McCain/Palin. But don't make me listen to him talk about reaching across the aisle in the spirit of bipartisanship to "get things done", OK? Bipartisanship means, "get out your wallet, taxpayer." Bipartisanship means, "here's another dumb idea for more government that got enough votes to pass."

And here's a little thing about Reagan's 4 Pillars of Freedom, Senator McCain.

Obama/Biden/Pelosi and Reid don't like much of that stuff.

Roger That, Governor

“I might add that in small towns, we don’t quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they are listening, and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren’t listening. We tend to prefer candidates who don’t talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.”

-Gov. Sarah Palin, September 3, 2008

Slow Joe A No Go

As the Democrat handmaiden media enters day five of their attempt to destroy Gov. Palin, just one of the many unintended consequences of their smear campaign has been to keep their candidates out of the news. I'm sure that the media cheerleaders never envisioned the prospect that their slender young hero would stand in his fabulous Denver acropolis, deliver his boilerplate speech, and then have virtually nothing reported about him for a solid week. When your guy is THE ONE he's not supposed to be off the front pages day after day.

About the only thing I've heard about the two droning senators running on the D team in the past week was when human gaffe machine Joe Biden made a demeaning comment about Gov. Palin's appearance. Now I didn't watch a minute of the Democrat's convention. Listening to Democrat politicians or their in-the-tank media is as interesting to me as staying up late at night waiting to hear the latest Pakistani cricket scores. But I heard that Slow Joe bragged twice in his speech about beating people up. Apparently his parents thought Joe should bust people in the mouth a lot. Whatever floats your boat, Joey. So when I heard that Joe dismissed Sarah Palin like that my first thought was, tell that one to Todd Palin 1 on 1, pal. (Joe likes to call people he doesn't actually like, "pal" or "buddy" so I'm returning the favor.) My second thought was that Todd wouldn't need to do anything. Sarah will kick Joe's ass all by herself.

The picture above shows how the Obama handlers have decided to get their loose cannon Biden under control. Apparently they are making him stuff his motor mouth with ice cream until his face turns red.

In A World Without A Hero

The greatest voice talent in the English-speaking world is gone. Don LaFontaine, dead at 68.

Bring It

The last 24 hours have shown us that Gov. Sarah Palin's children will not be afforded the same respect that was given to Chelsea Clinton for 8 years or even the Bush twins for most of their father's presidency. The reason for this is clear. Like Clarence Thomas and Condi Rice, Gov. Palin is attempting to take one of the highest positions in the federal government and in doing so she has strayed from the liberal plantation. A white man with her exact positions would be opposed strongly by the forces on the left. But, as a woman, she also adds the idea that female political figures DO NOT have to be Hillary/ Pelosi/ Boxer thinkalikes. That has to be opposed viciously by the hard core left. One could even say that a conservative-libertarian woman's national political career must be smothered to death in the crib. So, savaging 17 year old Bristol Palin? No problem. The same people have even suggested that Sarah was wrong for not killing Trig Paxson Van Palin in the womb. If they can heap venom, anger, and unbridled hatred on little baby Trig what does Bristol mean to them? Not much.

We don't find ourselves cheering Bill Kristol very often but yesterday when he got revved up as Mort Kondracke spewed the abortion activist's line on Brit Hume's "Special Report" applause broke out hereabouts. Later we found out that a CNN reporter had filed a "news" report that essentially had been written for her by an abortion activist group out of Anchorage. Our old pal Dr. Bennett spoke out from his perch as a token non-leftist on a channel we block on our satellite receiver. Was the good doctor pissed off? Oh yeah, he was.

Now we don't travel with the Focus on the Family folks nor are we members of the Southern Baptist Conference but it sure seemed to us here that their responses to the abortion activist's attacks on Sarah Palin through her 17 year old daughter Bristol were well -reasoned:

“This is the pro-life choice. The fact that people will criticize her for this shows the astounding extent to which the secular critics of the pro-life movement just don’t get it. Those who criticize the Palin family don’t understand that we don’t see babies as a punishment but as a blessing. Barack Obama said that if one of his daughters made a mistake and got pregnant out of wedlock he wouldn’t want her to be punished with a child. Pro lifers don’t see a child as punishment.”

-Dr. Richard Land, SBC

"Unfortunately, teenage pregnancy has become all too common in today's society regardless of a family's economic or social status. It is a problem that we remain committed to reducing through encouraging young people to practice abstinence.
Fortunately, Bristol is following her mother and father's example of choosing life in the midst of a difficult situation. We are committed to praying for Bristol and her husband to be and the entire Palin family as they walk through a very private matter in the eyes of the public."

-Tony Perkins, Focus on the Family

Meanwhile there is a meme out there, promoted by the Democrat handmaiden press, that Arthur B. Culvahouse did a slapdash job vetting Sarah Palin. He begs to differ. My money is on Mr. Culvahouse. His appointment to that job was not a glamour pick like Obama putting a Kennedy in the job. He heads up one of the most wired-in Washington DC law operations. Corner-cutting does not enter into their work. Fouling up a job like this would be very bad for business in the company town. Mr. Culvahouse says that in his interview with the Governor the first thing she told him about was Bristol's pregnancy. Naive is not a word to use in describing Sarah Barracuda. She stalks caribou in Alaska but she also knows that rabid jackals live in the Northeast corridor of the nation. Those drooling jackals have attacked not one but two of her babies. In fact, they've even attacked her unborn grandbaby. A stalker of big game knows just how unwise that is.

We'll leave it with this item from an article by Fred Barnes written 14 months ago:

"In the roughly three years since she quit as the state's chief regulator of the oil industry, Palin has crushed the Republican hierarchy (virtually all male) and nearly every other foe or critic. Political analysts in Alaska refer to the "body count" of Palin's rivals. "The landscape is littered with the bodies of those who crossed Sarah," says pollster Dave Dittman, who worked for her gubernatorial campaign. It includes Ruedrich, Renkes, Murkowski, gubernatorial contenders John Binkley and Andrew Halcro, the three big oil companies in Alaska, and a section of the (Anchorage) Daily News called "Voice of the Times," which was highly critical of Palin and is now defunct."

-The Weekly Standard

As for Trig? No matter what happens in an election he'll grow up knowing that Todd and Sarah love him deeply. And, that they put that Van before his last name because they like Van Halen and thought it would be pretty cool if his name was Van Palin. It could have been worse, Trig. Mom could've liked AC/DC better than VH.