Joshua Micah Marshall is very serious about paybacks:

So please keep an eye out for references to Obama's presumptuousness, arrogance, etc., from John King and other reporters. Let us know when you see them and send us in examples -- in text or video. McCain gets to run the campaign he wants. Remember, he hired the operative who put together the Ford/Bimbo ad. But I want to keep tabs on which reporters are helping him retail the message.

JMM must be trying out for the Sidney Blumenthal office in the Obama West Wing.

(HT: Jake Tapper.)

UPDATE: Ace and Slublog make JJM's list.

I was traveling when Jon Voight published his op-ed on Obama.

No punches pulled here.

Voight has spent a lot of time with wounded troops in the past few years, and it shows.  The Oscar-winner knows an actor when he sees one, and his contempt for Obama is complete:

If Mr. Obama had his way, he would have pulled our troops from Iraq years ago and initiated an unprecedented bloodbath, turning over that country to the barbarianism of our enemies. With what he has openly stated about his plans for our military, and his lack of understanding about the true nature of our enemies, there's not a cell in my body that can accept the idea that Mr. Obama can keep us safe from the terrorists around the world, and from Iran, which is making great strides toward getting the atomic bomb. And while a misleading portrait of Mr. Obama is being perpetrated by a media controlled by the Democrats, the Obama camp has sent out people to attack the greatness of Sen. John McCain, whose suffering and courage in a Hanoi prison camp is an American legend.

From Karl Rove's op-ed this morning:

Mr. Obama also created a problem by canceling a visit to U.S. soldiers who were wounded in Iraq and are now recuperating at Landstuhl hospital in Germany. His campaign has offered a welter of explanations. What's the real one? My rule is that when in doubt, see what a candidate said at the time and judge his candor. In a July 26 London news conference, Mr. Obama explained: "I was going to be accompanied by one of my advisers, a former military officer. And we got notice that he would be treated as a campaign person, and it would therefore be perceived as political because he had endorsed my candidacy, but he wasn't on the Senate staff."

The solution was obvious. Leave the campaign adviser behind and visit the wounded troops. Mr. Obama's decision to work out in the hotel gym instead adds to his growing reputation for arrogance.

Obama supporters are furious that the public is angry with the wonder candidate over this callousness.  But the public knows that character is best on display when candidates don't think anyone will notice. 

There's a close Senate race in Colorado, pitting Republican Bob Schaffer against Democrat Mark Udall.

Udall, a classic Boulder liberal, had tried to impress Rocky Mountain voters with a pledge to keep Congress in session until it acted on an energy bill.

Yesterday Udall missed the vote on recess, and Congress went home.

That's going to leave a mark on Mark.  Colorado is a common sense state, and talking large and acting small doesn't sit well with voters.

Politico notes that Obama's arrogance is catching up with him.

The Los Angeles Times notes about the polls after Europe:  "No bounce. Not even a roll."  Reasons:

Maybe Obama's flips -- his outspoken opposition to denouncing the Rev. Jeremiah Wright until he did, his promise to take public campaign financing, since broken, his eagerness to debate McCain in townhalls, now abandoned, his apparent unwillingness to see progress in the Iraq troop surge, which he opposed and predicted would worsen sectarian violence?

Is there a simmering concern over arrogance by the Ivy League lawyer and mere candidate who so blithely patted the French president on the back for a well-done news conference? Asked the other day if he ever doubted himself, Obama replied smartly, "Never!" And grinned broadly. Sounded more like a 20-year-old than someone about to turn 47 next week.

Timesman Andrew Malcolm adds:

What's Obama done for D.C. change since arriving? What's Obama done for reform back home within the historically monolithic and corrupt Chicago Democratic machine, where some up-and-comers are sent off to Congress for seasoning before advancing to the big-time of City Council?

Inquiring minds already know the answer: Nothing.

And Powerline's John Hinderaker essays on Obama's howler about inflating-our-tires-to-energy independence:

[I]t would take only 11,308 years of proper tire inflation to equal "all the oil that they're talking about getting off drilling."

Obama is a curious case. He gives the impression of being an intelligent guy, but through his unscripted comments we have learned that he knows little about history, science or mathematics. He also seems rather shockingly short on common sense, as this most recent gaffe illustrates.

Empty suit huge ego = falling poll numbers.

The voters might roll the dice in wartime on an untried, risky smooth-talking rookie propped up by an adoring MSM, but signs that they are waking up are all around.  Watch for the Hillary '12 signs any day now.

The New Republic's Yossi Klein Halevi on the long goodbye of Ehud Olmert.

The president's statement from this morning:

THE PRESIDENT:  Good morning.  This has been a month of encouraging news from Iraq.  Violence is down to its lowest level since the spring of 2004, and we're now in our third consecutive month with reduced violence levels holding steady.  General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker caution that the progress is still reversible, but they report that there now appears to be a "degree of durability" to the gains we have made.

A significant reason for this sustained progress is the success of the surge.  Another is the increasing capability of the Iraqi forces.  Iraqi forces now have 192 combat battalions in the fight -- and more than 110 of these battalions are taking the lead in combat operations against terrorists and extremists. 

We saw the capability of those forces earlier this year, when the Iraqi government launched successful military operations against Shia extremist groups in Basra, Amarah, and the Sadr City area of Baghdad.  Because of these operations, extremists who once terrorized the citizens of these communities have been driven from their strongholds.  As a result, our Ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, was able to walk the streets of Sadr City last Wednesday, as something that would not have been possible just a few months ago.

This week, the Iraqi government is launching a new offensive in parts of the Diyala province that contain some of al Qaeda's few remaining safe havens in the country.  This operation is Iraqi-led; our forces are playing a supporting role.  And in the moments -- in the months ahead, the Iraqis will continue taking the lead in more military operations across the country.

As security in Iraq has improved, the Iraqi government has made political progress as well.  The Iraqi Council of Representatives has passed several major pieces of legislation this year, and Iraqi leaders are preparing for provincial elections.  And Prime Minister Maliki recently returned from a successful visit to Europe, where he held important diplomatic discussions with Chancellor Merkel, Prime Minister Berlusconi, and His Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI.

The progress in Iraq has allowed us to continue our policy of "return on success."  We now have brought home all five of the combat brigades and the three Marine units that were sent to Iraq as part of the surge.  The last of these surge brigades returned home this month.  And later this year, General Petraeus will present me his recommendations on future troop levels -- including further reductions in our combat forces as conditions permit.

As part of the "return on success" policy, we are also reducing the length of combat tours in Iraq.  Beginning tomorrow, troops deploying to Iraq will serve 12-month tours instead of 15-month tours.  This will ease the burden on our forces -- and it will make life easier for our wonderful military families. 

We're also making progress in our discussion with Prime Minister Maliki's government on a strategic framework agreement.  This agreement will serve as the foundation for America's presence in Iraq once the United Nations resolution authorizing the multinational forces there expires on December the 31st.

We remain a nation at war.  Al Qaeda is on the run in Iraq -- but the terrorists remain dangerous, and they are determined to strike our country and our allies again.  In this time of war, America is grateful to all the men and women who have stepped forward to defend us.  They understand that we have no greater responsibility than to stop the terrorists before they launch another attack on our homeland.  And every day they make great sacrifices to keep the American people safe here at home.  We owe our thanks to all those who wear the uniform -- and their families who support them in their vital work.  And the best way to honor them is to support their mission -- and bring them home with victory.

Thank you very much.

JWC was listening very closely.

The transcript is here. The podcast is in three parts.  Part 1 is here.  Part 2 is here. Part 3 is here. Aspiring writers should pay very close attention to Silva's discipline.

Silva is a very entertaining, yet very serious writer who is also an artist, capable of making the thriller into a vehicle for important lessons.  Do yourself a favor, and order all of the Allon novels, and begin at the beginning with The Kill Artist.  The order in which to read them:

2000 The Kill Artist

2002 The English Assassin

2003 The Confessor

2004 A Death in Vienna

2005 Prince of Fire

2006 The Messenger

2007 The Secret Servant

2008 Moscow Rules

Liberals often claim their NGOs or advocates or community organizers or environmentalists are benign -- just doing good -- not involved in the same "political" interest group game as their opponents but just working for the "public interest."

In yesterday's Investor's Business Daily op-ed by Walter Williams, "A Country at Mercy of Environmentalists," he takes on the erroneous presumption that liberal policies are driven by the "average" citizen and the perception that liberal "public interest" organizations are beyond the political game:

"Let's face it. The average individual American has little or no clout with Congress and can be safely ignored. But it's a different story with groups such as the Environmental Defense Fund, Sierra Club and Nature Conservancy.  . . . . [T]hey are well organized, loaded with cash and well positioned . . . Their political and economic success has been a near disaster for our nation."

For a longer discussion of law and economics, public choice theory, and why we shouldn't treat environmental or human rights organizations any differently from corporate lobbyists, download this article:

Donald J. Kochan, The Political Economy of the Production of Customary International Law: The Role of NGOs and United States Courts, 21 Berkeley J. Int'l L. 240 (2004).

Really.  Here's what the Dalibama said today:

There's things that you can do individually though to save energy.  Making sure your tires are properly inflated. Simple thing.  But we could save all the oil they are talking about getting off drilling if everybody was just inflating their tires.  And getting regular tune-ups.  You could actually save just as much.

Fact-free campaigning, but don't expect MSM to actually do much to call attention to this prat-fall, just as Obama's demand for "deeds" on reparations vanished without comment.

This article from Monday's Honolulu Star Bulletin is a keeper in that it reports Obama's commitment to reparations in the course of a general display of a leftist's understanding of history:

"There's no doubt that when it comes to our treatment of Native Americans as well as other persons of color in this country, we've got some very sad and difficult things to account for," Obama told hundreds of attendees of UNITY '08, a convention of four minority journalism associations....

"I personally would want to see our tragic history, or the tragic elements of our history, acknowledged," the Democratic presidential hopeful said.

"I consistently believe that when it comes to whether it's Native Americans or African-American issues or reparations, the most important thing for the U.S. government to do is not just offer words, but offer deeds."

The other noteworthy aspect of the report is its candid coverage of MSM's embrace of the Dalibama:

When Obama walked on stage at the McCormick Center, many journalists in the audience leapt to their feet and applauded enthusiastically after being told not to do so. During a two-minute break halfway through the event, which was broadcast live on CNN, journalists ran to the stage to snap photos of Obama.

Bravo to the honest journalists willing to display their Obama-love openly.  "Being told not to do so" is the great give-away.  The grey beards know they aren't supposed to be cheering the hardest left major party presidential candidate in history, but, hey, reporters and editors have been waiting a long time for someone as far left as they are to run for the presidency.

Obama's understanding of American history  --his need to deplore trumps any instinct to elevate and celebrate every time-- frames the choice between McCain and Obama.

A McCain presidency would be grounded on the firm conviction of American greatness and exceptionalism, as well as the uniqueness of the American mission in the world.

Obama's would be built on the "mature" understanding of America's many past sins, its enormous greed and grasping, its unfair use of vast quantities of resources and its need to respect world opinion and world institutions even when those opinions and institutions are at cross-purposes with American national interests.
 
Is American greatness the engine of the world, or American guilt an explanation for it?

Obama is rightly getting hammered for skipping a meeting with wounded American warriors in German  --the WaPo tries to give Obama some cover, but the only fact that matters is that Obama committed to going and then he didn't go-- but the real story of the past ten days is his full unveiling as Europe's candidate for the presidency, with an attitude and a platform indistinguishable from the standard critique America has been receiving for fifty years from the people it rescued sixty years ago. 

The rapidly spreading understanding of Obama as an arrogant elitist with an enormous sense of entitlement combined with an awesome contempt for America as it has been in the post World War II era accounts for the air escaping from the Obama boomlet.  Tromping through Europe to the wild applause of the anti-America left is a big flare for most voters.  "Who is this guy, and why isn't he lecturing Europe on its gratitude gap?"

The risky nature of a vote for Obama became more palpable last week, and Monday's pda for him from the MSM, minority journalists division, reminds us that we haven't been given the whole story on Obama, that the Manhattan-Beltway media elite is blocking for him in extraordinary ways.

 

Obama's statements and actions continuously show a socialistic color.

From the editorial "Obama's Global Tax" posted at Investor's Business Daily yesterday:

"We are citizens of the world, Sen. Obama told thousands of nonvoting Germans during his recent tour of the Middle East and Europe. And if the Global Poverty Act (S. 2433) he has sponsored becomes law, which is almost certain if he wins in November, we're also going to be taxpayers of the world.. . . Obama's Global Poverty Act offers us a global socialist destiny we do not want, one that challenges America's very sovereignty. . . . Obama would give them all a fish without teaching them how to fish. Pledging to cut global poverty in half on the backs of U.S. taxpayers is a ridiculous and impossible goal. . . . In an Obama White House, American sovereignty will become an endangered species. The Global Poverty Act is the first toe in the water of global socialism."


Read More...

You can tell when it's a relatively slow news day.  A moderate earthquake strikes a remote area of Southern California, and the news channels are going wall to wall as if Katrina struck again.  What's maddening in their quest to find damage anywhere is that out of one side of their mouth, they're pleading repeatedly with people to stay off their cell phone unless it's an emergency to keep the cell system from jamming up.  But the media's exaggerated over-coverage of the story is causing people all over the country to jam the cell system with calls to relatives and friends in the "Hot Zone" to make sure they're all right.

Here is what you need to know.  Yes, we all felt it.  As the amusement park commercials go, it was a nice 30 second ride - Six Flags - More Flags, More Fun.  Yes, we are all fine, thanks for asking.  No, nothing broke, unless you happen to live right above where it struck in Chino Hills.  For those dairy farmers that inhabit much of Chino Hills, plates might make a fine Christmas gift.  Yes, the cows are fine, too. No, we're not moving because we're suddenly terrified by earthquakes.  No, it wasn't global warming's fault.  No, Barack Obama won't be able to suddenly convince me this was the moment when all our buildings became retrofitted against earthquake damage.  No, John McCain should probably not announce Tim Pawlenty as his Veep today.  No, Hugh didn't feel it at 35,000 feet over the Atlantic.  

And most importantly, no, we're not going to do three hours of earthquake talk on the program tonight.  Carol Platt Liebau will fill in for Hugh and bring you all the other news that Quakestorm 2008: Chino Hills prevented you from hearing today.   

My vacation ends tomorrow with a long travel day, and I will be back on air live on Wednesday.  Thanks to Dean Barnett and Carol Platt Liebau for filling in so ably.

Thanks as well to the many e-mailers with kind comments on "Letter to a Young Obama Supporter."  Requests for multiple copies have been sufficiently numerous for Townhall to offer a special premium:  Three copies of the letter with every subscription to Townhall Magazine.  I think the Obama bubble has begun to burst, and pratfalls like skipping out on a meeting with the troops may open the young Obama supporters in your circle to some new arguments for voting for Senator McCain.

Before I left for Italy, I taped a special show with novelist Daniel Silva, whose latest is Moscow Rules.  The show airs Monday, and the transcript will be here and the podcast here Monday night.  If you have read even one of Silva's series that features the secret servants of Israeli intelligence, I know you won't miss the program.  If you haven't yet tried Silva, he is the successor to le Carre and others from the very best of the espionage genre.  Our conversation covers the many contemporary conflicts his novels explore as well as the craft of the spy novel.



And if you are planning on coming to Venice or have loved a past trip here, be sure to sample the writing of our guide here, Sally Spector.  There are dozens of books about Venice, but Sally has lived in Venice for the past quarter century, and she provides the perfect welcome to the city.  (If possible, see if she is available to guide you on your travels here: salvenezia@libero.it) The new edition of her much loved Venice and Food has just been issued in a new edition, and it is the perfect way for a new or return visitor to prep for the trip.