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Barack Obama's Iraq Stance Recalls Eisenhower's Cold War Eloquence
Tweet Share on Facebook October 30, 2008 Comment (4)I watched Barack Obama's 30-minute infomercial last night, and one segment in particular struck a historical chord with me. There was a moment when he was speaking about the Iraq war and asked what use the money spent on Iraq could be put to at home.
It reminded me of a remarkable speech I discovered while I was writing White House Ghosts, where a president spoke about the costs of the Cold War:
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone.
It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.
The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities.
It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population.
It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway.
We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat.
We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.
This, I repeat, is the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking.
This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.
Remarkable eloquence—one might call it Kennedy-esque. Of course, one would be wrong—it comes from Dwight D. Eisenhower.
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How to Find Out Where to Vote on Election Day
Tweet Share on Facebook October 30, 2008 Comment (4)The League of Women Voters has set up a great one-stop shop for finding not only voting rules in your state—what you need to bring, etc.—but also where you can go to vote. Check out the site.
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Polls Show Barack Obama Is Competitive Against John McCain in Arizona
Tweet Share on Facebook October 30, 2008 Comment (12)The funniest/weirdest poll numbers I've seen this week are coming out of Arizona. Three polls were released this week showing that John McCain holds a single-digit lead in his home state. One poll has the lead at a mere 2 percentage points. Seriously?
Apparently so: The McCain campaign has started spending money on robo-calls in Arizona.
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Schlesinger Makes His Presidential Election Picks Between Barack Obama and John McCain
Tweet Share on Facebook October 29, 2008 Comment (18)As my Thomas Jefferson Street colleague Morgan Felchner suggested, I'll go ahead and weigh in with my Are You Smarter Than the Pros picks (though to be clear: I consider myself neither smart nor a pro). Anyway, I'm going with Obama 51, McCain 48, Other 1; Obama 306 electoral votes to McCain's 232. All right, go ahead and let me know below why I'm wrong (and not a pro, and not smart). And don't forget to try the game yourself.
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The All-Stunt McCain Campaign
Tweet Share on Facebook October 29, 2008 Comment (3)I yesterday flagged a good McCain campaign pre-mortem. Here's another one, from my friend Bree Hocking over at Robert Emmet (or as I call it, where I blog when I'm not writing here at Thomas Jefferson Street). Bree correctly characterizes the McCain campaign as a "stunt campaign":
Unfortunately, the McCain campaign does have a narrative. It just happens to be better suited to a reality TV show given its plentiful supply of shocking revelations, nifty makeovers, sweeping accusations, temper tantrums, hurt feelings, grudges, backstabbing and unbelievable (and improbable) meteoric rises.
The whole thing is worth reading.
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President Obama and a Democratic Congress? President McCain and a Republican Congress? Americans Split on Divided Government
Tweet Share on Facebook October 28, 2008 Comment (5)Americans are divided about divided government, according to a new Gallup poll. According to the survey, registered voters prefer a Republican-controlled Congress by a 48-to-47 percent margin if Barack Obama is elected president (that's within the +/-3 percent margin of error and so is a tie). But they really don't want Republicans in charge if John McCain pulls a Truman and wins—in that case, they'd prefer Democrats by a 57-to-38 percent margin.
If you haven't already, check out our debate between Paul Begala and Tom DeLay on this issue. And of course: Let us know what you think.
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John McCain Pre-Postmortem: The Maverick Couldn't Hack It as a Party Man
Tweet Share on Facebook October 28, 2008 Comment (7)If you haven't seen it, check out Rich Lowry's excellent pre-mortem of John McCain on NRO:
This is the McCain paradox: No other Republican candidate had a character and background—as a courageously independent spirit—better suited to making the presidential campaign competitive this year. But perhaps no Republican candidate was so poorly suited to the task of running a presidential race.
He goes on, pretty well dissecting the decline and fall of his Maverick-ness (due to said quality).
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Is John McCain Counting on the Bradley Effect in Pennsylvania?
Tweet Share on Facebook October 27, 2008 Comment (19)Is John McCain's presidential campaign depending on voting booth racism—the so-called Bradley effect—in Pennsylvania? How else to explain the campaign's focus on a state that virtually every poll says should be safely in the Obama column?
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Questions About Barack Obama's Online Fundraising Prowess
Tweet Share on Facebook October 27, 2008 Comment (8)The Washington Post had an interesting story Sunday looking at concerns raised by Barack Obama's absurd fundraising success. The story's good, but as Ed Morrissey points out over at Hot Air, it leaves a critical question unanswered:
What makes the Obama campaign different from online retail operations? After all, we have spent almost 15 years buying and selling products and services on the Internet, and retailers know how to protect themselves and their customers. They employ a system that compares the billing information on the order to the information in the credit-card system—and when they don't match, the sale gets denied. Credit-card companies have gone an extra step in recent years by adding a security code to protect against fraudulent use.
The McCain campaign apparently uses these systems to prevent fraud. Why doesn't Team Obama?
It's a fair—and disquieting—question.
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John McCain's Coming 'Mea Culpa'
Tweet Share on Facebook October 27, 2008 Comment (20)Jamie Stiehm over at HuffPo neatly captures something I've been wondering for a while: When will John McCain have one of his my honor dictates that I fess up for my sins? Anyone want to give an over/under? Post your thoughts below.
