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SEPTEMBER 24,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:56 P.M. ET:

HILLARY'S DESCENT – From Breitbart:  A new CNN/WMUR poll of New Hampshire Democrats finds Vermont socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) opening his biggest lead against presumptive frontrunner Hillary Clinton. Sanders has the backing of 46 percent of the state’s Democrat voters, while Clinton has just 30 percent. Vice President Joe Biden has the backing of 14 percent of Democrats in the Granite State.  It gets worse and worse for Hillary in every poll, and the FBI investigation is just gathering steam.  Maybe she'd like a nice retirement cottage by the sea.

MAJOR NATIONAL PROBLEM ADDRESSED – From Fox:  Syracuse University is considering kissing its kiss cam goodbye after a fan suggested it sends the wrong message at a time when colleges are fighting against campus sexual violence.  A regular feature at sports venues, the kiss cam frames unsuspecting couples in a heart on the Jumbotron while the game crowd cheers for them to kiss.  The future of civilization may rest on defeating this threat. 

CARLY ROMPS – From the Washington Times:  Carly Fiorina tops Hillary Rodham Clinton in a head-to-head general election matchup, according to the latest Quinnipiac University Poll released Thursday morning that also found the former Hewlett-Packard CEO easily outperformed GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump in last week’s debate.  Carly is rising, but is also coming under increasing scrutiny.  She is a superb debater, but at times appears somewhat fanatical and mechanical.  We'll be watching how she responds to the criticism.  The real story ultimately might be the slow rise of Marco Rubio.

September 24, 2015       Permalink 

OUR IRANIAN FRIENDS, HAPPY AT LAST – AT 8:46 A.M. ET:   Iran is making it clear that it has contempt for us, for the civilized world, and for the agreement we just made with them.  Anyone surprised?  From the Washington Free Beacon: 

Multiple senior Iranian officials have vowed in recent weeks to violate the recently inked nuclear accord that aims to constrain the Islamic Republic’s contested nuclear enrichment program, according to multiple comments by top Iranian leaders.

Iranian leaders, including President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, have said that the country has “no intention” of abiding by a United Nations Security Council Resolution that encompasses the deal and other restrictions on Tehran’s rogue activities, according to these comments.

These officials said that Iran views the recent Iranian nuclear deal secured in Vienna as separate from the resolution endorsing the deal and further prohibiting Iran from developing advanced ballistic missiles and purchasing other types of arms, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI, which issued a report compiling recent statements by Iran.

The agreement, which was made earlier this year, is a non-binding set of resolutions focused on Iran’s nuclear program. The deal was transferred to the United Nations and officially endorsed as UNSRC 2231.

The accord itself “is not a contract between Iran and the P5+1 countries as a group or any single one of them, and hence no document was signed,” MEMRI noted.

COMMENT:  What a farce.  But, of course, Field Marshal Obama won't be in the White House when it all comes crashing down.  He'll be making millions writing his memoirs and announcing his saintliness.

September 24, 2015       Permalink 

MARCO – AT 8:20 A.M. ET:  With Scott Walker out of the GOP presidential race, Chris Christie and Bobby Jindal not getting traction, and some others treading water, attention is turning to those survivors who keep making progress.   Donald Trump.  Carly Fiorina.  Marco Rubio.  From the Politico: 

Shining debate performances. Good press. Better poll numbers. And the implosion of a rival candidate.

Marco Rubio is having a moment in the GOP presidential campaign. Again.

But if it’s like Rubio’s other moments — rising to second in May after his official campaign announcement, wall-to-wall press criticizing President Barack Obama’s new Cuba policy in December — the confluence of his rise in the polls and the luck of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s early exit from the race probably won’t produce much more than a modest dose of momentum and a few favorable headlines.

Due to Rubio’s relentlessly on-message, penny-pinching campaign style, he’s reluctant to boast about his turn of fortune — or to spend freely targeting his rivals now.

Terry Sullivan, Rubio’s campaign manager, said he expects plenty of other candidates won't last.
“We need everybody not named Marco to fizzle. That is the plan. We need everybody to slowly fizzle out, and we think they will,” Sullivan said Monday, just as the news of Walker’s withdrawal broke, during a “Meet the Campaign Managers” event sponsored by Google, National Review and YouTube.

Long term, however, Walker’s abrupt departure could pay big dividends for Rubio, who immediately welcomed nine top Walker grass-roots activists and campaign staffers from three early states. At least two top Walker donors have chosen the Florida senator as well, sources said. Bush’s campaign said it had as many or more Walker alums, but declined to give a full list.

COMMENT:  It's been clear for a while that Rubio's strategy is to pace himself, stay among the top contenders, then surge at the right moment.  It's risky, but the payoff could be the GOP nomination, if Rubio plays his situation with skill. 

September 24, 2015       Permalink

PRIDE GOETH BEFORE THE FALL – AT 8:12 A.M. ET:  The president of Volkswagen has resigned after disclosures that his company installed software in its cars designed to get around emissions standards.  It is considered a major scandal in a country, Germany, that has tried to portray itself as a great moral leader.  From The New York Times:

BERLIN — As Germany has emerged as the dominant actor in Europe, it has lectured Greece and other debtor nations on the virtues of thrift and lately wagged its finger at countries that balk at receiving a share of refugees from the killing fields of Syria. Its right to lead, based on a narrative of self-sacrifice and obedience to rules, was generally acknowledged.

That is one reason the Volkswagen scandal has shaken the country’s very core. More than just a tale of corporate misdeeds, the disclosure of systematic cheating by one of Germany’s most iconic companies has delivered a sharp blow to its conception of itself as an orderly nation and tarnished its claim to moral leadership of the Continent.

It was perhaps inevitable that Volkswagen’s chief executive, Martin Winterkorn, would quickly step aside on Wednesday after disclosures that the company deceived regulators over emissions from its diesel cars. But the effects on Germany are likely to play out for some time, even as it copes with a huge influx of migrants attracted by its reputation as Europe’s beacon of opportunity and as it continues to find its footing as an often-ambivalent global power.

Further, the timing puts Germany in an awkward spot ahead of the global climate conference in Paris in December, where it had hoped to hold out its transformation as an industrial power reliant on a lower-carbon energy system as a model to the world.

COMMENT:  Always suspect those who are holier than thou.  We've also seen the ugly picture recently of German officials rushing to Tehran to grovel before the murderers to get business contracts. 

September 24, 2015       Permalink

SOUTH AFRICA – THE UNTOLD STORY – AT 8:02 A.M. ET:  If you judge by the liberal press, you'd think that the only story of importance in the history of South Africa was apartheid and the fight against it.  But what has happened in South Africa in the years after apartheid?  Why is the media so silent?  Maybe it's because the place is a disgrace to humanity.

This is an important piece.  It's about South Africa today, but, unintentionally, it tells us much about the cynicism of the press.  From, of all places, The New York Times:

LONDON — Most first-time visitors to Cape Town are mesmerized by the majesty of Table Mountain, and wowed by the vivacity of the Victorian-era waterfront. As a new visitor myself last month, I was captivated by both. But what has lodged most in my memory is something very different.

Driving from the international airport, I was struck by the sheer wretchedness of Cape Flats: the series of black townships, comprising mostly shacks with corrugated steel roofs, that stretch from the highway almost to the horizon. Few people — tourists or locals — want to talk about the Cape Flats. But there is no better starting point for a discussion of the state of contemporary South Africa.

I was shocked by the degree to which the predominant emotions, 21 years after the end of apartheid, are not of hope and expectation, but of fear and despair.

“It’s not rosy,” a leader of the United Front opposition political movement in the eastern Cape city of East London told me, “but it’s not yet totally bleak.” That was about the most optimistic view I heard.

COMMENT:  Please read the whole thing and send it to your friends.  We're told that journalism is history's first rough draft.  We have a right to ask, "Where's the second draft?"  I'm still waiting for the second draft on the Vietnam War. 

September 24,  2015     Permalink

SEPTEMBER 23,  2015

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 8:15 P.M. ET:

BIDEN TAKES THE OATH – From Newsmax:  Joe Biden has made the standard statement, written with dignity, that many believers take when about to run for public office.  From Newsmax:  Vice President Joe Biden says he agrees with Catholic teaching that life begins at conception and that abortion is always wrong, but added in an interview that he wouldn't impose that view as a government official.  "I'm prepared to accept that at the moment of conception there's human life and being," Biden told the Jesuit magazine America in a sit-down interview. "But I'm not prepared to say that to other God-fearing, non-God-fearing people that have a different view."  I doubt very much if Biden would have felt compelled to make that perfectly proper statement just to hear himself speak.  It would seem to indicate that he's about to run for the presidency.

CNN TAKE NOTE – Job Bush has made a good statement on multiculturalism that may well get him in trouble with the thought police at CNN.  From AP:   CEDAR FALLS, Iowa (AP) -- Republican presidential candidate Job Bush said Tuesday that multiculturalism is bad for the United States, adding that immigrants who close themselves off from American culture deny themselves access to economic rewards.  The former governor of Florida, who speaks fluent Spanish and often touts his success winning Latino votes in a party that badly needs them, addressed the issue in a packed northern Iowa diner as he met people in the crowd.  A young woman approached the candidate and asked how the federal government could help refugees better incorporate into U.S. society.  "We should not have a multicultural society," Bush said, before beginning a longer explanation of his views of what comprises culture in the U.S.  "When you create pockets of isolation - and in some places the process of assimilation has been retarded because they've slowed down - it's wrong," he added. "It limits people's aspirations."  I'd imagine that the liberal press is now parsing every word so it can accuse Bush of 1) racism, 2) nativism, 3) bigotry, and 4) xenophobia.  Every Republican candidate hits those charges sometime, so why not now?  Bush is correct, of course.

NOBODY KNOW THE TROUBLE SHE'S SEEN – From the Washington Times:  Objections from the Clinton Foundation have failed to assuage concerns of a charity watchdog group that says potential donors should think twice before giving money to the foundation, which has come under scrutiny for donations from foreign governments and tax reporting issues.  A spokeswoman for Charity Navigator confirmed Tuesday that the Clinton Foundation remains on the group’s “watch list” after being placed on it earlier in the year.  In the section designating the foundation as a member of its “watch list,” CN’s website cited news reports of donations from foreign governments and the refiling of annual tax returns after reporting errors.  “Basically, it is a way of calling attention to an issue of concern that donors should consider before supporting a charity,” Sandra Minutia, vice president of marketing, said in an email.  Our Hillary?  On a watch list?  Why I can't believe that.  You know, these right wingers never stop, do they?

September 23, 2015      Permalink

HILLARY TUMBLES MORE – AT 11:58 A.M. ET:  Joe Biden is coming up.  Hillary is even below 35%.   From Bloomberg:   

One quarter of Americans who are registered Democrats or lean that way say Vice President Joe Biden is now their top choice for president. The findings of a national Bloomberg Politics poll released Wednesday represent a notable achievement for an as-yet undeclared candidate, suggest concerns about Hillary Clinton's candidacy, and raise the prospect of a competitive three-way race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Clinton, once the prohibitive front-runner, is now the top choice of 33 percent of registered Democrats and those who lean Democrat, the poll shows. Biden places second with 25 percent and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is at 24 percent. The other three Democratic candidates combined are the top choice for less than 4 percent of that base.

Recent polls in states that will host the earliest contests of the presidential campaign, Iowa and New Hampshire, have shown Sanders closing in on and, in some cases, surpassing Clinton, with Biden in a more distant third place. As Clinton's numbers have dropped, the vice president has been openly mulling a late entry into the race. But he is delaying a decision to allow himself and his family an opportunity to grieve the death of his son Beau to brain cancer.

The latest Bloomberg survey shows the vice president at par with Sanders in terms of Democratic support nationally. Adding to the good news for the vice president: His favorability ratings are on the rise. Since the last Bloomberg poll in April, Clinton's favorability ratings have dropped 10 points, from 48 percent to 38 percent. Biden's 49 percent favorable score represents a 3-point uptick. He was the only one of a dozen national political figures and entities whose approval rating improved over the summer.

COMMENT:   How does Hillary overcome this?  If she were at 48 percent, that's one thing.  But at 33% she'd have to gain 18 points to have a majority.  If Biden stays out, they may be a possibility.  But if he gets in, where do her votes come from? 

Unexpected high drama on the Democratic side.

September 23, 2015       Permalink

MARCO SURGES IN FLORIDA – AT 10:15 A.M. ET:   A new poll shows Senator Marco Rubio of Florida surging in his own home state against former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.  Yet, both still trail Donald Trump.  From Newsmax: 

Sen. Marco Rubio has pulled ahead of Jeb Bush in their home state of Florida following the GOP debate earlier this month, according to a new Florida Atlantic University poll that puts the senator in second place behind part-time Floridian Donald Trump.

Bush, a former governor and political mentor of Rubio's, placed third in the poll, reports the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

The numbers break down as follows:
Trump, 31.5 percent
Rubio, 19.2 percent
Bush, 11.3 percent
Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who lives in West Palm Beach, Fla., 10.3 percent
Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, 8.3 percent

The survey was conducted by the Florida Atlantic University Business and Economics Polling Initiative in the College of Business between Sept. 17- 20.

And...

Also in the poll, Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton remained on top, with 59.5 percent of likely voters from her party. Vice President Joe Biden, who has not yet announced his candidacy, netted 15.9 percent, followed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, with 15.2 percent. The remaining candidates received less than 2 percent of those polled.

In matchups between the Republican candidates and Clinton, though, she came in behind the GOP frontrunners:

Carson had 51.7 percent of the Florida vote to Clinton's 39.5 percent
Rubio had 50.4 percent to Clinton's 42.2 percent
Bush beat Clinton, 49.1 percent to 40.9 percent
Trump and Clinton were tied, with 45.9 percent for him and 44.5 percent for her

And...

Clinton also marked a negative favorability rating in the poll, which showed she was viewed unfavorably by 53.7 percent of Florida voters and favorably by 40.7 percent, giving her a negative net rating of 13 percentage points.

COMMENT:  Clinton's weakness is stunning.  Florida is a must-win for Democrats.  But the polls of today will be ancient history in a month.  Don't underestimate the ability of the liberal media to shape the election and influence the result substantially.  They've done it before.

September 23, 2015       Permalink 

GOOD ANALYSIS FROM PETRAEUS – AT 9:32 A.M. ET:  I'm glad to see that David Petraeus is being listened to again.  He made some serious personal errors of judgment that ended his career in government and the military, but there must be forgiveness for a man who wants to continue to serve, and has something to contribute.  After all, look at the way the left forgives Hillary and forgave Bill.  Oh, but that's a different story, isn't it?  From CNN:

Washington (CNN) One of America's top former generals compared the situation in Syria Tuesday to a historic nuclear disaster, implicitly criticizing the U.S. for allowing it to worsen, and accused Russia's President of trying to re-establish an empire.

Retired Gen. David Petraeus, testifying before the Senate Armed Service Committee, also recommended that the U.S. establish safe zones for Sunnis inside Syria and potentially put American boots on the grounds in Iraq to stop the spread of ISIS.

The former commanding general of U.S. forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan equated the situation in Syria today with one of the most deadly nuclear accidents in history.

Syria "is a geopolitical Chernobyl -- spewing instability and extremism over the region and the rest of the world," Petraeus told the Senate Armed Services Committee, referencing the 1986 nuclear meltdown in the former Soviet Union. "Like a nuclear disaster, the fallout from the meltdown of Syria threatens to be with us for decades, and the longer it is permitted to continue, the more severe the damage will be."

Part of the solution to stabilizing the situation inside Syria would entail helping to protect large swaths of the Sunni population from bombing by the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in order to bring in more willing partners to fight ISIS.

"They are not going to be willing to be supported by us if we're not going to support them when they're under attack by Bashar, as well as when they're under attack by ISIS (or) Jabhat al-Nusra," and other al Qaeda-sponsored groups in Syria, Petraeus said.

Barrel bombing by the al-Assad regime, rather than ISIS, "has been the primary source of civilian casualties; it has also been a principal driver of the radicalization fueling ISIS and the refugee crisis," he said.

Petraeus, who led the so-called surge in Iraq in 2007 that brought disenfranchised Sunnis into the fight against al Qaeda in Iraq, said Sunni involvement in both Iraq and Syria will be necessary to turn the tide against ISIS.

COMMENT:  Whether you agree or disagree, that is advice from a knowledgeable, experienced man, not the kind of clowns surrounding Field Marshal Obama and Grand Admiral Kerry.

I have always believed, by the way, that the government went after Petraeus so viciously not because of any offense he had committed – although he certainly had to pay a price – but in order to destroy him so he could not challenge Obama for the presidency in 2012.  That is my belief.  I cannot prove it, but it's entirely logical, considering the manner of the Obama administration.

September 23, 2015       Permalink

PASSING – AT 8:32 A.M. ET:  When I was a kid I rooted for the One True Faith in baseball, the Brooklyn Dodgers.  We were aware that, across town, there was a team that wore capitalistic pinstripes and played in the largest stadium of the major leagues.   The team was called the "Yankees," or, as we called it, the best team money could buy. 

We despised them.  It wasn't right that they should have this big ballfield, and players like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio.  Just wasn't right.  And they won too much.  They must have owned the umpires,a too.

But we reserved some of our pure affection for some of their players.  And no one won more grudging affection than their catcher, Yogi Berra.  Even the name demanded affection.  And his Yogi-isms like "It isn't over until it's over," and "If you come to a fork in the road, take it," made us feel that, deep down, he had a bit of Brooklyn in him. 

Yogi Berra has died at 90.  He was one of the last survivors of a time when baseball was a game, not just an industry, when a family could go to the ball park without mortgaging its children, and a kid could wait after the game and see players picked up by their wives, not limousines.  From The New York Times:

Yogi Berra, one of baseball’s greatest catchers and characters, who as a player was a mainstay of 10 Yankee championship teams and as a manager led both the Yankees and Mets to the World Series — but who may be more widely known as an ungainly but lovable cultural figure, inspiring a cartoon character and issuing a seemingly limitless supply of unwittingly witty epigrams known as Yogi-isms — died on Tuesday. He was 90.

His death was reported by the Yankees and by the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center in Little Falls, N.J. Before moving to an assisted living facility in nearby West Caldwell, in 2012, Berra had lived for many years in neighboring Montclair.

In 1949, early in Berra’s Yankee career, his manager assessed him this way in an interview in The Sporting News: “Mr. Berra,” Casey Stengel said, “is a very strange fellow of very remarkable abilities.”

And so he was, and so he proved to be. Universally known simply as Yogi, probably the second most recognizable nickname in sports — even Yogi was not the Babe — Berra was not exactly an unlikely hero, but he was often portrayed as one: an All-Star for 15 consecutive seasons whose skills were routinely underestimated; a well-built, appealingly open-faced man whose physical appearance was often belittled; and a prolific winner — not to mention a successful leader — whose intellect was a target of humor if not outright derision.

COMMENT:  We always felt we knew him, that he could be the guy next door.  And yet I can still hear the revered Yankee announcer, Mel Allen, exclaiming when Yogi made a great play, "How about that?"

We'll remember Yogi, and the game and era he symbolized.  We'll recall how he crouched behind the plate when Ted Williams of the Red Sox was batting, after Williams returned from a second stint as a Marine Corps pilot.

A little different today, I'm sorry to say.

September 23,  2015     Permalink