Wink again, Barack

A nice rebuttal from a pro-Sarah Palin independent group.

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2008 election, Barack Obama, Bill Ayers, corruption, Illinois, John McCain, liberals, Sarah Palin

Zell: "...24/7 content and information provider"

Here's what Tribune Corporation (Owner of L.A. Times) chieftan Sam Zell said about his newspaper business:

"We are a 24/7 content and information provider that prints once a day for the record."

Except, apparently, when the content could be harmful to a favored presidential candidate. Why, when everyone, including Zell, has recognized that online content is the paper's only hope for the future, would the L.A. Times refuse to release a videotape that would generate huge web traffic?

The L.A. Times belated excuse that it is protecting a source isn't believable.

Technorati Tags:
2008 election, Barack Obama, Bill Ayers, Illinois, John McCain, journalism, liberals

Murtha is on road to defeat

Democratic Congressman John Murtha of Pennsylvania is in deep trouble. He pandered to the liberal media just as John Kerry did after Vietnam. Both made false charges against troops. This ad is devastating.

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2008 election, al-Qaeda, Iraq, liberals, terror

Land of Lincoln degraded again

Barack Obama's Illinois: Even the head of the Abe Lincoln library and museum is a crook.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich fired the head of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum today following revelations that the executive director shoplifted in Springfield.

Rick Beard, 61, has not worked in his $150,000-a-year job running the Lincoln complex since last week, when word emerged of police cases against him, said David Blanchette, a museum spokesman.

Security guards at a Springfield Target store claimed Beard tried to steal a $39.99 DVD box set of Season 4 of the TV series "House."

It's not easy to get fired by soon-to-be indicted Blagojevich, who carries a heady 13 percent approval rating including relatives.

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2008 election, Barack Obama, corruption, Illinois, Rod Blagojevich

McCain gets to the point

John McCain's new TV ad. Simple and effective. As a tool of persuasion, one of his best.

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2008 election, Barack Obama, John McCain, journalism, Sarah Palin

Who's the dope?

Certain liberal journalists have preened in print about Sarah Palin's alleged lack of intelligence. One called her a "Grade A Dope." Others have been even harsher. None, of course, have stood toe-to-toe with a veteran U.S. Senator and held their own in a debate, or flawlessly delivered a brilliant convention speech. Here's what the former editor-in-chief of Ms. magazine, who has spent hours with Palin recently, said about her:

Now by "smart," I don't refer to a person who is wily or calculating or nimble in the way of certain talented athletes who we admire but suspect don't really have serious brains in their skulls. I mean, instead, a mind that is thoughtful, curious, with a discernable pattern of associative thinking and insight. Palin asks questions, and probes linkages and logic that bring to mind a quirky law professor I once had. Palin is more than a "quick study"; I'd heard rumors around the campaign of her photographic memory and, frankly, I watched it in action. She sees. She processes. She questions, and only then, she acts. What is often called her "confidence" is actually a rarity in national politics: I saw a woman who knows exactly who she is.

She went even further.

For all those old enough to remember Senator Sam Ervin, the brilliant strict constitutional constructionist and chairman of the Senate Watergate Committee whose patois included "I'm just a country lawyer"… Yup, Palin is that smart.

Palin will be a formidable force in national politics for years to come, if she chooses to pursue that path.

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2008 election, Barack Obama, John McCain, journalism, liberals, Sarah Palin

Gifted writer passes away

Dean Barnett died today of cystic fibrosis at the age of 41. He was one of the best writers on the internet. I discovered him a couple of years ago and exchanged emails a few times. He wrote with an amazing clarity and optimistic introspection about his illness and joyfully about politics and baseball. I'd recommend perusing those writings at his original blog, Soxblog. He later wrote for Hugh Hewitt's blog and for the Weekly Standard. May he rest in peace.

Technorati Tags:
2008 election, baseball, journalism

Why I think Bill Ayers baby-sat Barack's kids

This rumor has been floating around the internet and I'm going to wade in because I have direct knowledge of this one. A credible person was told this directly by unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers in late 2006, a few months before Barack Obama announced his candidacy for president.

Ayers bragged about how close he was to the Obamas and said he even baby-sat their children.

At least three major media outlets know about this and two that I know of have talked to the person. He is declining to go public because he wants to protect his family. He wants no part of the Joe the Plumber treatment Obama's lapdog protectors in the press gave him. So, in this case, Obama's thugs have won because like mobsters or terrorists they have chilled honest people from coming forward.

I've talked to one of the major media reporters and he said he absolutely believes the man's tale. But, he said his organization will not go forward unless the person goes on the record or other corroboration can be found.

Of course, the truth is that media organizations, particularly in Chicago, are not trying at all to advance the Ayers story. They probably could corroborate this in half a day. If indeed Ayers and or his co-terrorist wife Bernardine Dohrn baby-sat the Obama children, there's bound to be people in the neighborhood who know this.

Why does it matter? Because it would prove that Obama's characterization of his relationship with Ayers is a lie. A lie that a man who might be eight days from being elected president told repeatedly to the American people.

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2008 election, Barack Obama, Bill Ayers, Illinois, John McCain, journalism, liberals

The Obama stories you aren't seeing

The provocative stories the media is sitting on, according to one blog.

Of course this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are plenty of other stories the press has decided we don't need to know about this election cycle. Barney Frank's Boyfriend at Fannie Mae comes to mind. Or how about the PR firm that created an astroturf campaign against Sarah Palin. Turns out they had direct connections to David Axelrod, Obama's campaign manager and, coincidentally, the king of astroturfing. Non-story.

He forgot the federal criminal grand jury subpoena related to Barack Obama's house purchase.

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2008 election, Barack Obama, Bill Ayers, corruption, Illinois, John McCain, journalism, liberals, Sarah Palin, Tony Rezko

"A baboon-like level of discourse"

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Malpractice by Chicago newspapers

Newsweek today reported that a new lawsuit reveals for the first time that U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is interested in the same day house and lot purchase by Barack Obama and convicted felon Tony Rezko.

A recent lawsuit filed by Kenneth J. Conner, a former real estate analyst, against Mutual Bank of Harvey, Ill., for wrongful termination, includes an exhibit indicating for the first time that loan records of the Rezkos' purchase of the vacant lot next door to Obama has come up in Fitzgerald's investigation. The exhibit is an Oct. 19, 2006, e-mail distributed among bank executives referring to a "grand jury subpoena" for "Rita Rezko's loan" for the property at 5050 S. Greenwood Avenue—the lot adjacent to the Obamas

This is a highly newsworthy revelation that neither the Chicago Tribune or Chicago Sun-Times has seen fit to publish in its newspapers. Would those newspapers fail to note the existence of a federal criminal grand jury subpoena in Alaska if it was directly related to Sarah Palin's house purchase?

Here's the McCain campaign's latest web video on the subject.

Technorati Tags:
2008 election, Barack Obama, Bill Ayers, Chris Kelly, corruption, Illinois, John McCain, journalism, liberals, Sarah Palin, Tony Rezko

Obama's multi-million dollar fraud machine

Here's another blockbuster the MSM (D-Obama) is ignoring. Apparently, the Barack Obama online campaign fundraising operation is accepting tens of millions from small donors—many of them illegally!

The Obama campaign has turned off address verification features on its online donation form—meaning it will accept money from anyone, foreigners, maxed out donors, convicted felons. The McCain campaign screens these donations and kicks back those whose credit card number do not match the correct address.

Recently, across the blogosphere, conservatives are proving this is true by putting in fake donations in the name of Tony Rezko, Bill Ayers, Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, etc. The donations were processed, accepted and debited against the card number provided.

This means, theoretically, that al Qaeda could be flooding Obama's coffers with small donations and the American public wouldn't know about it.

A good explanation here.

Vote fraud, donation fraud, Bill Ayers, Tony Rezko, Rashid Khalidi. Is there any anti-Obama story the MSM will cover?

Technorati Tags:
2008 election, al-Qaeda, Barack Obama, Bill Ayers, John McCain, journalism, liberals, Tony Rezko

Ayers calls the cops

Unrepentant domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, whose radical organization bombed a police station and was involved in a New York robbery where law enforcement officers were killed, calls the cops on a cable TV stalker.

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2008 election, Barack Obama, Bill Ayers, corruption, Illinois, John McCain, journalism, liberals

One honest journalist comes forward

An ABC.com journalist has a scathing takedown of the blatant bias of his profession during this election. He says, "I'm deeply ashamed right now to be called a journalist."

Now, don't get me wrong.  I'm not one of those people who think the media has been too hard on, say, Gov. Palin, by rushing reportorial SWAT teams to Alaska to rifle through her garbage.  This is the Big Leagues, and if she wants to suit up and take the field, then Gov. Palin better be ready to play.  The few instances where I think the press has gone too far - such as the Times reporter talking to Cindy McCain's daughter's MySpace friends - can easily be solved with a few newsroom smackdowns and temporary repostings to the Omaha Bureau.

No, what I object to (and I think most other Americans do as well) is the lack of equivalent hardball coverage of the other side - or worse, actively serving as attack dogs for Senators Obama and Biden.  If the current polls are correct, we are about to elect as President of the United States a man who is essentially a cipher, who has left almost no paper trail, seems to have few friends (that at least will talk) and has entire years missing out of his biography.  That isn't Sen. Obama's fault:  his job is to put his best face forward.  No, it is the traditional media's fault, for it alone (unlike the alternative media) has had the resources to cover this story properly, and has systematically refused to do so.

Why, for example to quote McCain's lawyer, haven't we seen an interview with Sen. Obama's grad school drug dealer - when we know all about Mrs. McCain's addiction?  Are Bill Ayers and Tony Rezko that hard to interview?  All those phony voter registrations that hard to scrutinize?  And why are Senator Biden's endless gaffes almost always covered up, or rationalized, by the traditional media?

This is a must read. I wonder if any other journalists are honest enough to see what this person sees.

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2008 election, Barack Obama, corruption, Illinois, John McCain, journalism, Sarah Palin

Obama campaign stunned by real questions

This is hilarious. Joe Biden was being interviewed by an Orlando, Florida TV reporter and got the same type of tough questions John McCain and Sarah Palin get every day from network anchors.

He didn't like it. And the Obama campaign afterwards canceled an interview with Jill Biden and put out a crazy statement, filled with the trademark Obama red herring arguments.

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2008 election, Barack Obama, John McCain, journalism, liberals, Sarah Palin

Obama ranted about 'Christian right' in 1995

More contempt from Barack Obama for the religious heartland, this from a 1995 interview in the Chicago Reader, an ultraliberal free publication.

The right wing, the Christian right, has done a good job of building these organizations of accountability, much better than the left or progressive forces have. But it's always easier to organize around intolerance, narrow-mindedness, and false nostalgia.

Clinging to their guns and religion. I'm sure this quote will play well in western Pennsylvania.

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2008 election, Barack Obama, Illinois, John McCain, journalism, liberals

LA Times holding back damaging Obama video

The Tribune Corp. (L.A. Times) is refusing to release a 2003 video showing Barack Obama toasting a man widely disliked in the Jewish community, former PLO spokesman Rashid Khalidi.



And in Chicago, the Tribune Corp. is helping Obama by refusing to report on Khalidi's close friend, unrepentant domestic terrorist Bill Ayers.

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2008 election, Barack Obama, Bill Ayers, Illinois, John McCain, journalism, liberals

Pravda in America

Newt Gingrich unloads on the news media:

NEWT GINGRICH (R), FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Well, I think the elite media's attack on Governor Palin again and again has been factually wrong, intellectually dishonest, totally biased, worthy of the Polish state news media attacking Lech Walesa back in the 1980s. I mean, this is a kind of deliberate, vicious, dishonest, total distortion of who Governor Palin is, including, by the way, the "Saturday Night Live" skits, some of which I think were slander and were worthy of a lawsuit.

And I think that the American people should realize that the elite media on the left is so desperate to elect Barack Obama that the view they're giving you of Governor Palin is fundamentally a falsehood. And the one you saw from CNN is so outrageous that they owe her an absolute apology. But frankly, Katie Couric misquoted Henry Kissinger. Earlier than that, ABC News misquoted the Bush doctrine. Again and again, you've seen elite reporters do things that were false in order to try to make Governor Palin look bad.

While the MSM lies, the public is noticing.

Technorati Tags:
2008 election, Barack Obama, John McCain, journalism, liberals

25 million more reasons to vote McCain

Just another fella from the hood.

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2008 election, Barack Obama, Bill Ayers, Illinois, John McCain, journalism, liberals

Time for conservatives to start own media

UPDATE--Wow. MSNBC is teaming up with ACORN and an all-star lineup of left-wing groups on election day. Why stop there? Might as well have staffers drive people to the polls for Obama.

A new Pew study of stories from the conventions through the debates:

Percent negative:
Barack Obama—29 percent
John McCain—57 percent.

There is no longer any doubt the MSM is trying to drag Obama across the finish line. The solution for conservatives? John Hinderaker has an idea.

But the mainstream media--which is to say, most reporters and editors who work for "mainstream" news organizations--have no honor and are not interested in truth. They are, as Card says, "the public relations machine of the Democratic Party." It's time to accept that fact and move on. Our existing news organizations--the New York Times, the Associated Press, NBC, CNN, CBS, and so on--can't be reformed, they can only be ignored. It is time for conservatives, libertarians, moderates, and normal citizens who are interested in straightforward reporting of the news to build their own news organizations in competition with the corrupt ones that now exist.

I think he's right.

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2008 election, Barack Obama, journalism, liberals

AP and its transparent priorities

Associated Press, which refuses to even mention that the Rezko-Obama house sale is under federal scrutiny, devoted massive resources to this "blockbuster."

Who says journalists don't investigate any more?  The AP is getting to the bottom of Sarah Palin's children traveling with her on state business.  No news yet on Barack Obama's dealings with Rezko or Ayers, or how his wife nearly tripled her six figure income  at a hospital when became a US Senator and then got earmarks for it.  But first things first, I'm sure.

The AP report has three names in the byline: Brett J. Blackledge, Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo.  From the story's timeline, the AP had requested her expense reports prior to August 6.  Brett, Adam and Matt must have been part of that army of lawyers and journalists who descended on Wasilla within days of McCain announcing Sarah as his VP pick.

Their story is comprehensive, if you go by word count.  My computer says its over 1,400 words.  If you can wade through the article, they seem to describe every single trip any of Sarah's kids took with her -- juicy stuff.  In all, we're talking $21,012.  Twenty one thousand dollars!  Michelle Obama would have to do community outreach for three or four weeks to haul in that much cash.

Here are the resources AP expended to get a story that alleges spending that almost certainly is legal.

Let's see, their investigation started before August 6. Their story ran October 21. Three reporters, 11 weeks? That's over 1300 man-hours plus air-fare, lodging and per diem, if they were full time on that. How much did that cost? Over $21,012? (I easily estimate three times that, but maybe they weren't all full time.)

And now that AP is done with that big probe?

In the meantime, it's nice to know that Brett, Adam and Matt are now getting freed up from that intensive dive into the darkest secrets of Sarah's past so they can get back to the Rezko, Ayers, wife's job investigations thingies they must have been pulled from temporarily.

I'm sure that's coming next. As in next year or next decade.

Technorati Tags:
2008 election, Barack Obama, corruption, Illinois, John McCain, journalism, liberals, Tony Rezko

Obama Nation

A glimpse of the future?

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2008 election, Barack Obama, John McCain, journalism, liberals

Don't trust the polls?

Something is fishy about the polls. Most are showing Barack Obama with a lead of 5 to 10 points. The respected Battleground poll, however, shows the lead at 1 point.

Another interesting dynamic is that John McCain is spending lots of time in Pennsylvania, where some of the polls show a double-digit Obama lead. Yet an Obama internal poll reportedly shows the margin at 2 points.

The polling organizations traditionally overestimate Democratic support in presidential elections. This year, they are using inflated turnout and party ID models that might be too inflated. This conservative blogger with a good track record on analyzing polls thinks so.

I'm not sure one way or another. The polls I trust the most generally have the smaller margins. McCain may be a lot closer to Obama than is believed and a late surge could prove decisive.

Technorati Tags:
2008 election, Barack Obama, Illinois, John McCain, journalism, liberals, Sarah Palin

Feds subpoena Rezko-Obama house records

That's the headline you'll never see in your Chicago newspapers—or any other for that matter. But that's exactly what was revealed in this Chicago Tribune Friday evening blog dump, a story that never graced the print edition.

There's no excuse for this blackout. It is inarguably a news story: Never before has the press revealed that the feds subpoenaed records related to the same day house and lot purchase in 2005 by Barack Obama and convicted felon Tony Rezko.

In my days as a reporter it was always news when a new subpoena was discovered in a high profile criminal investigation. And add in that the Chicago-based presidential candidate participated in the joint purchase, it is malpractice not to highly publicize this revelation.

I discussed the blackout this week with a top Chicago reporter. He offered feeble arguments against publishing the story—it's only two weeks until the election, there's no evidence that Obama is a target of the feds, etc. All are points that could be pointed out in the story to provide context.

But to not publish? This election has deeply eroded the news media's credibility. The scorn on the campaign trail for MSM outlets is richly deserved.

Technorati Tags:
2008 election, Barack Obama, Illinois, John McCain, journalism

Matt Lauer's idea of an interview

The Matt Lauer interview of Barack Obama this morning. To call this a puffball interview would be insulting puffballs. This is how the MSM "vettes" Obama.

MATT LAUER: Now to "Today on the Trail," and an exclusive interview with Barack Obama. On Sunday I caught up with him in the battleground state of North Carolina and I started by asking him about Colin Powell's endorsement and if the General had any advice or given him any advance notice.

LAUER: Do you then say, "Secretary Powell it would be great to see you out on the campaign trail over these next 16 days?"

LAUER: Did you ask him?

LAUER: He told Tim Russert back in 2007 he really didn't have any intention of getting back into politics, at least in, for an elected office.

LAUER: But he said, "I've always got my ear open-

LAUER: -for the call to serve."

LAUER: Which also begs the question would you like to find a role for him if you're lucky enough to be elected?

LAUER: Let me ask you about another recent endorsement. The Washington Post in endorsing you, they were very tough on John McCain saying, "Anyone who talks about national security and says he feels as deeply about it couldn't have chosen Sarah Palin as someone who is a heartbeat away from the presidency." And I know you've been asked it, but Senator I've never heard you come right out and say, is she qualified to be president today?

LAUER: Even the Chicago Tribune, historically a very conservative paper from your hometown-

LAUER: -in endorsing you-

LAUER: -was critical of McCain, saying, "Sarah Palin is not ready."

LAUER: Let's talk about Iraq. Iraqi officials and U.S. officials are negotiating a deal, and they're pretty close apparently, where U.S. troops would be withdrawn from Iraq at the end of 2011.

LAUER: You've already said you want 2010-

LAUER: -as a date. So does that piece of paper, if it's formalized, become meaningless if there's a Barack Obama presidency?

LAUER: The Washington Post, again, in endorsing you, did say that your call for defined time lines to get the troops out was, perhaps, a critical flaw. And, and that it could cost us the security that has been hard fought over this last year.

LAUER: When you and the smart people in your campaign get together on the plane or wherever and you crunch the numbers and you look not only at the national polls but state-by-state in the battleground states, do you see a path to victory for John McCain?

LAUER TO OBAMA ON ESCALATOR: There are political strategists out there who say, "You know what you should be doing right now? You should get on a bus, you should go across the country, simply waving out the window. You should avoid interviews with guys like me. You should avoid any spontaneous interaction-

LAUER OFF-SCREEN: With just over two weeks until Election Day, on the trail, Senator Obama says his campaign is still making it's case to voters and hasn't forgotten a lesson from the primaries.

LAUER: Senator Barack Obama on the campaign trail in North Carolina. We're gonna have more of that interview in our next half-hour, including what kind of sacrifices Americans will have to make if and when he's elected.

LAUER TEASING SEGMENT: Coming up I'm gonna ask Senator Obama what sacrifice, specific sacrifice he might ask the American people to make if he's elected based on these tough economic times. Plus he'll talk about his emotional state, just two weeks now, before the nation chooses the next president.

MATT LAUER: But first let's have more of this exclusive interview with Barack Obama. On Sunday I sat down with the Democratic nominee on the campaign trail in North Carolina and with the nation caught in an economic tailspin and in fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan I asked the senator what he would expect of all Americans if he's elected. Could you give me one concrete sacrifice, that as president, you would look to the American people and say, "you must make this sacrifice."

LAUER: You declared you're running for President, February 10th, 2007. Since then, Senator, the country and the world have changed dramatically. Perhaps Iraq is, is the best news. But Afghanistan is less stable. The economy is in disastrous straits. You've got housing problems, energy problems, unemployment problems. Pakistan, Iran. A resurgent Russia. Is this still the same job that you signed on for?

LAUER: This idea that you are, "The One," Oprah's words.

LAUER: Yeah, yeah "That one," John McCain's words. People have called you "The Savior," "The Messiah," "The Messenger of Change." The expectations have been raised to such a level. Some people say you're partly responsible because of your confident attitude. If you are, as you just say, lucky enough to be elected the next president are you going to have to consciously manage expectations, during the first several months of your administration?

LAUER: Right now with two weeks to go, where are you emotionally?

LAUER: He says when he lies in bed at night he allows himself to daydream about both possible outcomes - winning and losing.

Technorati Tags:
2008 election, Barack Obama, journalism, Sarah Palin

Powell on Ayers

Colin Powell's endorsement of Barack Obama tells us something about the homestretch of the election. These endorsements are an opportunity for Obama's people to give Powell talking points. Interestingly, Powell chose to talk about unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers, calling the topic not appropriate in this campaign.

Translation: Obama's camp remains worried about Ayers. And, do you really believe Powell is that blase about a man who bombed a building (Pentagon) he used to work in?

Technorati Tags:
2008 election, Barack Obama, Bill Ayers, Illinois, journalism, liberals, Tony Rezko

Vallas blasts Obama, Ayers

Because the Chicago newspapers have gone to sleep on covering Barack Obama, we'll have to rely on a New York paper to perform basic reporting tasks.

The Chicago Tribune didn't even know or care that Obama's only executive experience was at the helm of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a "school reform" foundation founded by unrepetentant terrorist Bill Ayers.

The New York Post contacted Paul Vallas about the foundation and he blistered the Obama-Ayers led group.

"There was a total lack of accountability. If you went back and asked, you'd be hard-pressed to find out how the money was spent," said Paul Vallas, the city's school superintendent when Obama chaired the Chicago Annenberg Foundation from 1995 to 1999.

Annenberg spent $49.5 million, mostly on grants to 211 public schools that partnered with community-based groups. But despite collecting millions, those schools performed no better than other public schools, a study found.

Ayers, a professor of education at the University of Illinois and an ex-Weather Underground bomber, wrote the grant that won the Windy City funding from the national Annenberg Challenge. He was a key adviser to the Chicago Annenberg board.

He also said Obama and company were trying to roll back academic reforms.

Most frustrating, Vallas said, was that Annenberg under Obama and Ayers funded groups that fought his mission, under Mayor Richard Daley, to impose uniform standards and stricter accountability in low-performing schools.

Many of Vallas' goals were later adopted by Mayor Bloomberg in Big Apple schools.

"Many of the school-reform groups viewed greater accountability as an infringement of local control. Some opposed ending social promotion and grade retention," Vallas said.

Either the Tribune or Sun-Times could have picked up the phone and got the same story if they weren't in Obama's pocket.

Technorati Tags:
2008 election, Barack Obama, Bill Ayers, Illinois, John McCain, journalism, liberals

Trib endorses Obama, stuffs investigation story

UPDATE: A very useful backgrounder on the Obama, Rezko, Blagojevich connection to Mutual Bank.

The Chicago Tribune, on the day it announced an endorsement for Barack Obama, quietly slipped a potential bombshell story about The One on its Swamp blog as the day was ending.

Just weeks before Election Day, a former banker has filed a lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court claiming he was fired for reporting to his bosses that there had been some shenanigans with the paperwork on a loan involving the purchase of Barack Obama's South Side home and its neighboring lot.

Kenneth Conner claims in the suit that an appraisal found the vacant lot purchased by Obama fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko was worth $125,000 less than the bank's first appraisal. The Republican National Committee was peddling the suit today with the apparent hope that Conner's allegation would lend credence to the suggestion Obama needed Rezko's help to finance the purchase of the Kenwood home--something Obama has denied.

The suit also includes this intriguing assertion: The Rezko loan file was subpoenaed by a federal grand jury in Chicago, and when the bank responded to the subpoena the lower appraisal wasn't included in the papers sent to federal investigators.

Note that the Tribune was quick to tell readers this story was being "peddled" by the Republican National Committee as a signal to Obama that it was forced to write this negative story.

The Tribune also tried to downplay the story by saying, absurdly, that that a federal grand jury subpoena on the Rezko loan records was issued before the paper first revealed the same day Obama house and Rezko side yard purchase. I guess the Tribune believes that the feds never look into criminality until it is published in its paper.

This story appears to be further evidence that Obama received a de facto gift from Rezko totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars, allowing him to afford his house. A gift that would violate Senate ethics rules and could very well be illegal.

But, seriously, MSM, keep looking at Joe the Plumber's tax liens.

Technorati Tags:
2008 election, Barack Obama, Illinois, journalism, Tony Rezko

Palling around with a plumber

This afternoon, the mainstream media expended more collective energy investigating Joe the Plumber compared to the previous two years "vetting" Barack Obama's association with unrepetentant terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.

Only in America is it a greater sin to embarrass Obama than to target America with a series of bombs and revolutionary intent.

Obama continues to dodge the question of his alliance with Ayers and the MSM continues to allow the deception.

Here's his answer last night at the debate:

So let's get the record straight. Bill Ayers is a professor of education in Chicago.

Forty years ago, when I was 8 years old, he engaged in despicable acts with a radical domestic group. I have roundly condemned those acts. Ten years ago he served and I served on a school reform board that was funded by one of Ronald Reagan's former ambassadors and close friends, Mr. Annenberg.

Other members on that board were the presidents of the University of Illinois, the president of Northwestern University, who happens to be a Republican, the president of The Chicago Tribune, a Republican- leaning newspaper.

Mr. Ayers is not involved in my campaign. He has never been involved in this campaign. And he will not advise me in the White House. So that's Mr. Ayers.

That's a nakedly non-responsive answer. His age at the time of bombings is not the issue. Walter Annenberg's political affiliation is irrelevant. The other members of the board, likewise. No one said he was involved in your campaign or that he will advise you in the White House.

Then, after McCain pointed out Obama launched his political career in Ayers living room, Obama denied it. Here's what a liberal blogger who was at the event said in 2005.

When I first met Barack Obama, he was giving a standard, innocuous little talk in the livingroom of those two legends-in-their-own-minds, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. They were launching him--introducing him to the Hyde Park community as the best thing since sliced bread. His "bright eyes and easy smile" struck me as contrived and calculated--maybe because I was supporting another candidate. Since then, I've never heard him say anything new or earthshaking, or support anything that would require the courage of his convictions. I only voted for him in this last race--because his opponent was a pinhead. And I've been mostly alone in my views. But maybe that's changing.

Maybe after they finish their dumpster diving in Alaska and their pipe cleaning of Joe the Plumber's background, mainstream media reporters will start their reporting of the Obama-Ayers association, a topic that remains unexplored.

Technorati Tags:
2008 election, Barack Obama, Bill Ayers, John McCain, journalism, liberals

Doing the MSM's job

The MSM fell on its face and never examined Barack Obama's stint as board chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a $160 million foundation founded by unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers.

Stanley Kurtz, contributing editor at National Review, has picked up the pieces and looked at the records. Here's his latest conclusion:

However he may seek to deny it, all evidence points to the fact that, from his position as board chair of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, Barack Obama knowingly and persistently funded an educational project that shared the extremist and anti-American philosophy of Jeremiah Wright. The Wright affair was no fluke. It's time for McCain to say so.

Read the entire article.

Technorati Tags:
2008 election, Barack Obama, Bill Ayers, Illinois, John McCain, journalism, liberals, Sarah Palin

Dissemble, play victim, blame others....

.....It's the Barack Obama formula. All those elements in one answer about nationwide vote fraud and ACORN.

Technorati Tags:
2008 election, Barack Obama, John McCain, liberals

Ayers excuse factory working overtime

Liberal columnist Eric Zorn at the Chicago Tribune is working around the clock to come up with excuses not to do any original reporting on the Barack Obama connection to unrepentant domestic terrorist Bill Ayers.

Zorn has debated whether Ayers was or still is a terrorist, cited fact checks that say the Obama-Ayers alliance is overstated when no journalist has seriously tried to answer that question, and, in a new twist, is suggesting that since the Tribune didn't note any critics of Ayers during the 1990s, the story now is invalid. So, when a newspaper ignores a story it goes down in history as a non-story? That's some circular logic you can believe in.

Zorn and his fellow Chicago journalists should put their Obama pom pons down for a few weeks and require Obama and Ayers to provide real answers to legitimate questions voters have outside the Hyde Park-Chicago journalism cabal.

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2008 election, Barack Obama, Bill Ayers, Illinois, John McCain, journalism, liberals, Sarah Palin

How is this not socialism?

Take more taxes from a real-life plumber and give it to someone who doesn't even pay taxes. That's Barack-o-nomics. Or, as Bill Ayers would say, a good start toward "small c Communism."

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2008 election, Barack Obama, Bill Ayers, Illinois, John McCain, journalism, liberals, Sarah Palin

Where is the news stakeout of Bill Ayers?

Every two-bit news subject of the moment is hounded by Chicago TV reporters. Why don't they go find Bill Ayers? I guess the answer is, with the exception of John Kass, the Chicago media is in the Barack Obama-Mayor Daley-Bill Ayers tank.

Here's the latest RNC video.

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2008 election, Barack Obama, Bill Ayers, John McCain, liberals, Sarah Palin

Media in final push to drag Obama across line

The mainstream press (D-Obama) has now decided that ALL criticisms of Barack Obama are either racist, distractions, or mean-spirited. That allows the press an excuse to ignore, among other issues, Obama's grossly under explained alliance with unrepentant domestic terrorist Bill Ayers.

Instead of checking out the vague and changing answers from Obama on the relationship, the media is writing apology speeches for McCain to deliver, doing fact sheets on Ayers without any reporting, and publishing dishonest fact checks on McCain ads that swallow Obama talking points whole.

Meanwhile, while the press passes its time as Obama's press agents instead of gathering facts, the following questions remain unanswered:

1. When did Ayers and his equally unrepentant terrorist wife Bernardine Dohrn first meet? Obama's campaign says 1995. But their paths crossed many times almost a decade prior.

2. What is the nature of the relationship between the Ayers and Obamas? Did they socialize? Remember that Obama for months downplayed his relationship with convicted felon Tony Rezko and, when finally pressed, said he regularly dined with the Rezkos and once visited their vacation home.

3. Why is Obama refusing to give a straight answer on the relationship? He has given vague and distortive answers and his aides are giving a new explanation almost daily. If there was nothing sinister or wrong with the relationship, why not spell it out truthfully?

4. Does Obama agree with Ayers extreme left wing views on education and American society in general? Ayers writings and interviews over the years make it quite clear where he stands.

5. Why is Ayers allowed to remain silent? Tax dollars are paying his salary at the University of Illinois-Chicago. He can't be made to talk but I don't see the media giving it much of an effort. Media stakeouts are used all the time to flush out news villains. In this case, we have further proof the media doesn't consider him a bad guy at all.

The racket: Refuse to cover a legitimate story and then criticize those who try to force it out over the blockage.

Technorati Tags:
2008 election, Barack Obama, Bill Ayers, John McCain, journalism, liberals, Sarah Palin

Another guy in the neighborhood

Just another guy knocking around Barack Obama's neighborhood.

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2008 election, Barack Obama, Bill Ayers, journalism, liberals, terror

Did Obama contradict his spokesman on Ayers?

Today, Barack Obama decided to try out a few new answers about his alliance with unrepetent domestic terrorist Bill Ayers and may have contradicted his own chief spokesman.

First, he told ABC anchor Charlie Gibson (D-Obama):

"Why don't we just clear it up right now I'll repeat again what I've said many times. This is a guy who engaged in some despicable acts 40 years ago when I was eight years old. By the time I met him, 10 or 15 years ago, he was a college professor of education at the University of Illinois . . . And the notion that somehow he has been involved in my campaign, that he is an adviser of mine, that . . . I've ‘palled around with a terrorist', all these statements are made simply to try to score cheap political points."

Nobody said he was involved in your campaign or an advisor. Those are red herrings. And, we are trying to determine how much he palled around with Ayers. That is unknown because to date Barack and Ayers haven't answered it.

On a radio interview, Obama tried a new approach:

"The gentleman in question, Bill Ayers, is a college professor, teaches education at the University of Illinois," he said. "That's how i met him -- working on a school reform project that was funded by an ambassador and very close friend of Ronald Reagan's" along with "a bunch of conservative businessmen and civic leaders."

"Ultimately, I ended up learning about the fact that he had engaged in this reprehensible act 40 years ago, but I was eight years old at the time and I assumed that he had been rehabilitated," Obama said.

Rehabilitated? This might contradict what his spokesman, David Axelrod said earlier in the week. He claimed Obama didn't know about Ayers' past when he met him. If the word "ultimately" is his dodge here, then the answer still makes no sense because there were articles in Chicago papers throughout the late 1980s stating that Ayers and his terrorist cohort wife Bernardine Dohrn were still unrepentant and not "rehabilitated" to many people, including the New York State Bar Association.

This is getting more bizarre. Why can't anyone in the media get a straight answer from Obama? Why hasn't the Obama campaign pumped out a lengthy timeline on their alliance that would make this go away?

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2008 election, Barack Obama, Illinois, John McCain, journalism, liberals, Sarah Palin, Bill Ayers

Ayers raid: MSM report for duty

Now that the John McCain campaign has taken on the Barack Obama-Bill Ayers alliance frontally in a new ad, the MSM is scrambling for its battle stations. There's finally work to do: Discredit this ad to protect Barack.

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2008 election, Barack Obama, Illinois, John McCain, journalism, liberals, terror

Hey Trib, you're missing a good election!

In my old baseball days, we'd yell out at a bad ump: "Hey blue, you're missing a good game!" Somebody ought to shout that to the Chicago Tribune about the election they are looking at but not covering.

The Tribune, as the largest media outlet in Chicago, has a special duty to be the paper of record about the life and career of Barack Obama. But many months ago, the Tribune stopped reporting on Obama's past, unless it was trying correct or comment on others' coverage of the hometown candidate.

I already commented here about the Trib's journalistic malpractice in completely missing Obama's board chairmanship starting in 1995 of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC), a $160 million "education reform" foundation that amounts to Obama's only executive experience.

Whether the Trib was incompetent or was ignoring the chapter because it involved Obama's association with unrepetent terrorist Bill Ayers is unknown. But as some other journalists and researchers outside Chicago started reporting about CAC, the Trib simply slipped mentions of CAC in short articles it wrote later lamely throwing cold water on the Ayers association.

Now, as the story continues to advance, the Tribune continues to watch from the sidelines.

Instead of simply taking the Obama camp's version of events, CNN did some basic reporting and found that Obama's contention that he barely knew Ayers was demonstrably false. It also found that a previously reported fact—that former state senator Alice Palmer took Obama to Ayers house in 1995 to kick off his first political campaign—might be false. Palmer told CNN that she attended the event but didn't arrange Obama's appearance. That suggests more strongly that Obama and Ayers knew each other before the 1995 event.

The Tribune also stood idly on the sideline when Obama's chief advisor, Chicagoan David Axelrod told national reporters that Obama was not aware of Ayers' past when he met him in 1995. That assertion is undeniably a lie. Yet the Tribune just dutifully takes down Axelrod's words on its political blogs and doesn't dare question the massive howler. I grew up in Missouri and I knew who Bill Ayers was. Obama, who admits he's enthralled with 60's dissent, hung around radicals his entire life, and was a community organizer in Ayers general neighborhood, didn't know he was the famous Weather Underground bomber?

The Tribune also is not curious about where Obama steered the $160 million from the CAC. Researchers have found that some of it went to groups affiliated with Ayers and his unrepetent terrorist wife, Bernardine Dohrn.

Bloggers on the internet also have found that Obama was a member of the Marxist New Party for a time in the 1990s—another part of Obama's past the Tribune failed to find or mention.

Instead, the Tribune is curious about Wasilla city council minutes and about debating whether it is fair to call Ayers and Dohrn domestic "terrorists." If the Trib concludes that a group that bombed the Pentagon, U.S. Capitol, a judge's home, several other public buildings and plotted to plant a shrapnel bomb next to an army barracks is not a terrorist organization, I'll be interested in reading the "new age" explanation.

Instead of twiddling its thumbs, the Tribune could send its reporters out to Hyde Park and get to the bottom of the Ayers-Obama alliance instead of waiting for others to report the story. They know Alice Palmer. They know David Axelrod. They can get the story if they want to participate in the election as journalists. That would be the bomb.

Technorati Tags:
2008 election, Barack Obama, corruption, Illinois, John McCain, journalism, liberals, Sarah Palin

Ayers/Dohrn stories that Barack missed

The Barack Obama campaign is saying that its candidate didn't know about Bill Ayers' radical past when they met in 1995. That is almost impossible because in left-wing circles, Ayers, his wife Bernardine Dohrn, and their group the Weather Underground is legendary.

When Dohrn made an appearance in Chicago in 1988, a newspaper reporter said activists came to see a "mythic figure."

Here are a few stories I found in Chicago papers in the 1980s that I guess Obama didn't notice while he was organizing communities in Chicago at the time.

1. Ex-radical defends new life - But Dohrn says it's vital to keep '60s spirit alive
Chicago Sun-Times - August 12, 1988
Author: Richard Roeper
In 1969, Bernardine Dohrn was a self-professed "revolutionary Communist" and a key player in Chicago's Days of Rage riots that caused hundreds of thousands of dollars' damage to North Side and Loop businesses.

Today, while Dohrn hasn't exactly become an American Express card-carrying yuppie, you might call her an "ernie" - an ex-radical now involved in the establishment.

Dohrn, a former Weather Underground leader who once was on the FBI's most-wanted list, is now a 46-year-old mother of three who recently worked for one of the nation's largest law firms, Sidley & Austin.

2. BIT-SUBDUED RADICAL RE-EMERGES TO TAKE AUDIENCE BACK TO `60S
Chicago Tribune - August 12, 1988
Author: Robert Davis.
One of the dangers of changing from an iconoclast to an icon is that
someone might ask you, in front of a jam-packed auditorium, in all
seriousness, why you aren`t in jail.
And that`s just what happened Thursday to Bernardine Dohrn, militant
symbol of the `60s, leader of the Weather Underground, member of the FBI`s``10 Most Wanted`` list, as she stood before more than 300 people in the theater of the Chicago Public Library`s Cultural Center to share her memories of those turbulent times.
``I outlasted them by staying underground so long,`` said Dohrn, now 46, smiling and shrugging off the latent hostility in the question.
Dohrn spent about 11 years underground through the 1970s, hiding out after her militant Weatherman branch of the Students for a Democratic Society turned to bombings, robberies and murder, in their protest of the war in Vietnam and other governmental policies.
When she surfaced in 1981 to surrender herself, the hostilities of the
past seemed ``ridiculous,`` in her words, and she willingly pleaded guilty to a disorderly conduct misdemeanor charge. She was placed on 3 years` probation and fined $1,500.
Her companion, Bill Ayers -the father of her three children and later her
husband, and the son of Thomas Ayers, former Commonwealth Edison Co. president-surrendered at the same time and found that no charges were pending against him.
Since then, Dohrn and her family have been trying, with varying degrees of success, to work within the system they once rejected totally. A graduate of the University of Chicago law school, Dohrn failed in her attempt to convince the New York Bar Association that she was worthy of entering the bar, though she had worked for several months as a legal aide in the prestigious and even staid law firm of Sidley & Austin in its New York office.

3. BAR A BARRIER TO `60S RADICAL
Chicago Tribune - August 27, 1985
Author: United Press International.
Bernardine Dohrn, a former leader of the Weather Underground charged with bombings and other crimes during the 1960s antiwar movement and now a lawyer, wants to be a member of the New York Bar Association, her attorney said Monday. Dohrn, 43, passed the bar exam a year ago and has been an associate at Sidley and Austin, a ``conservative, establishment`` corporate law firm based in Chicago, since October 1, 1984, said her friend, civil rights lawyer William Kunstler.
But now Dohrn wants to become a member of the New York bar and must be found of ``good moral character`` by a bar association committee, said her attorney, Don Reuben.
Dohrn, once called ``the most militant of all the Weathermen`` and who lived underground for more than 10 years,is a changed woman now, even``dull,`` Reuben said.
What has changed her? ``Life, children, living, the law,`` Reuben said.
Dohrn, a 1967 graduate of the University of Chicago Law School,
surrendered to authorities in 1980 and pleaded guilty to two counts of
aggravated battery and two counts of bail-jumping. She was fined $1,500 and put on probation for 3 years.
Dohrn is married to a former Weatherman, William Ayers , now a teacher, and has three sons.

I wonder if Obama attended the Dohrn speech.

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2008 election, Barack Obama, corruption, Illinois, John McCain, journalism, liberals, Sarah Palin

CNN concludes Obama deceived us on Ayers

I've said in the past that while CNN is largely a pro-Obama network, Anderson Cooper's show has shown the capacity to play stories straight occasionally. Here's a story from investigative reporter Drew Griffin, who also has shown the capacity to put politics aside and just gather facts.

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2008 election, Barack Obama, Illinois, John McCain, journalism, liberals, Sarah Palin

More Ayers of omission

The protection racket known as the MSM (D-Obama) couldn't prevent the Bill Ayers story from emerging after Sarah Palin included it in an aggressive speech over the weekend.

Obama's campaign went into full damage control mode and even pointed to the ancient "Keating 5" scandal in John McCain's past. But the biggest news of the day was the big mistake by Obama advisor David Axelrod, who, for the first time, offered the defense that Obama didn't know about Ayers' and Bernadine Dohrn's terrorism past when he appeared at their house to launch his political career in 2005.

That undoubtedly is not true. Anyone who follows history and is Obama's age knows who Ayers and Dohrn are. So why did Axelrod say this? Patterico believes the Obama camp is worried.

Meanwhile, here's some background on the Weather Underground.

Technorati Tags:
2008 election, Barack Obama, Illinois, John McCain, journalism, liberals, Sarah Palin

Associated Press hits new low

Associated Press is supposed to be a neutral news organization, dispensing dispatches to newspapers and radio stations throughout the country. Tonight, it demonstrated it is both dishonorable and a Barack Obama propaganda agency.

In a "news story" describing Sarah Palin's speech today criticizing Obama for his association with unrepetent domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, AP only waited until the third paragragh to hyperventilate in its attempt to protect Obama. Here is its ridiculous bit of flackery.

While it is known that Obama and Ayers live in the same Chicago neighborhood, served on a charity board together and had a fleeting political connection, there is no evidence that they ever palled around. And it's simply wrong to suggest that they were associated while Ayers was committing terrorist acts.

The whole paragraph is wrong. Obama and Ayers served on two boards together and one where Ayers was the founder and Obama the chairman of the board. They had more than a fleeting political connection. Obama launched his political career at Ayers house. He also took a political donation from him. And we don't know the extent of the relationship because Obama has barely been asked and when he has answered the question, he has dissembled.

The last sentence is the killer. Nowhere in Palin's speech or anywhere else for that matter is anyone suggesting Obama was associating with Ayers when he was committing terrorist acts. So AP created a fictitious premise to knock down to make Palin look like she was making a disingenuous statement.

Nonetheless, Palin made the comments at three appearances in separate states.

Shameful. Then AP throws this piece of garbage into the story.

Palin's remarks come as e-mails circulate on the Internet with suggestions that the Democratic candidate is secretly a radical, foreign-born Muslim with designs against the U.S. Obama is a native of Hawaii who lived in Indonesia as boy. He is a Christian.

I'm on a lot of email distribution lists and haven't seen anything like that. And, ironically, it is the mainstream press that is picking up smears against Palin and her family and passing it off as legitimate news.

All in all, one of the worst pieces of journalism I've ever seen. And that's says a lot.

Technorati Tags:
2008 election, Barack Obama, John McCain, journalism, liberals, Sarah Palin

Ayers of deception

A quarterback looks out over the defense to see telltale signs. In a presidential election, keep an eye on the NY Times. Today, they published a story minimizing the contact between Barack Obama and unrepetent domestic terrorist Bill Ayers.

The Times knows attacks are coming at Obama on Ayers so it is laying down a protective shield. Already, today, other mainstream press is using the Times report to defend Obama.

The problem is the Times report is a shoddy piece of work that essentially says that Obama and Ayers only "crossed paths" since their introduction in 1995. The overall characterization of their relationship and the year of their meeting are almost certainly false. A couple of convincing takedowns of the NY Times story can be found here and here. A good roundup can be found at JustOneMinute blog. A compilation of relevant articles can be found here.

Just like with Tony Rezko, the Obama campaign has issued a series of incomplete and false characterizations of the Obama-Ayers relationship. Considering the rolling disclosures made in the Rezko relationship, why should believe the slow answers we are getting now? We still don't have good answers from Obama on questions such as:

1. Why would you associate with an unrepetent terrorist who posed for a picture in Chicago Magazine standing on an American flag? The Obama campaign has not denied contacts between 2001 and 2005.

2. Have you and Michelle socialized with Ayers and his terrorist cohort/wife Bernadine Dohrn? Dinner? Been to each others' homes? We know that Michelle and Dohrn both worked at Sidley & Austin law firm in 1988. We know that Michelle organized a panel on juvenile justice that included her husband and Ayers.

3. Why does your campaign insist that Ayers, who founded the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a $160 million education grant program, had nothing to do with recommending Obama for chairmanship of the organization's board. The Obama campaign has answered few questions about the relationship in general but has specifically said the board chairmanship was recommended by someone else. It is simply implausible that Ayers had no role in picking Obama chairman. Which leads to the next question: Why?

4. Has David Axelrod been in contact with Ayers?

5. When is the candidate himself going to answer these questions instead of his spokesman?

6. Why is the Chicago Tribune completely uninterested in this story. Instead, it is examining Wasilla, Alaska board minutes for some of the silliest and most irrelevant stories of the campaign season.

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2008 election, Barack Obama, corruption, Illinois, John McCain, journalism, liberals, Tony Rezko

Ticking time bomb for Dems

Below, the RNCC shortened the popular 10-minute "Burning Down the House" video that explains the origins of the financial meltdown. And here's an interview the maker of the video, which has been viewed more than 2 million times.

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2008 election, Barack Obama, corruption, Illinois, journalism, liberals, Sarah Palin

Palin defeats pundits again

After 10 days of ridicule from the liberal high choir, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin showed once again they are not to be trusted as reliable brokers of information. The previous 10 days of reporting and commentary simply did not square with her superb debate performance.

Palin outdebated the three other members of the national ticket, all members of the world's most famous debating club, the U.S. Senate.

Morning shows conducted by the MSM are grudgingly reporting Palin "did well." They are rationalizing this by saying it doesn't matter, it is a one-day story, she was reciting talking points, she didn't answer questions, etc. They are reciting dubious "snap polls" without describing the methodology of those notoriously unreliable surveys. The same pundits who said Barack Obama won his debate over John McCain on style and tone and not substance are proclaiming that Biden won this one on substance. Whatever.

The media elite like to say Barack Obama and Joe Biden have "nimble minds" but all I'm hearing from the Democratic duo is the same talking point: John McCain is another George W. Bush. I guess when liberal politicians repeat talking points endlessly that's called strategy and when a conservative does it, it's called "programmed" or "recitation."

What I saw last night was a confident communicator who was effective at times in piercing the Obama-Biden narrative. She got off the best lines of the night, was the most likable, and by far the most authentic. Biden talks about the middle class in a wooden, phony way. Palin is the middle class. If she stays on the national political scene, she is a deadly threat to Democrats and thus will continue to be savaged by that party's surrogate partner, the MSM.

Biden made a string of false and untrue statements last night, including misstating the U.S. Constitution. Palin made far fewer mistakes. But don't expect to see the MSM dwell on the mistake gap—it doesn't fit the narrative. Remember, Palin is the dumb one.

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2008 election, Barack Obama, John McCain, journalism, liberals, Sarah Palin