AFTERNOON POST:  JUNE 15,  2008

Posted at 6:16 p.m. ET

TRACKERS

We posted the Rasmussen tracker on our Snippets page earlier in the day, and now Gallup is out with their poll.

Rasmussen still has Obama up six over McCain.

However, Gallup shows Obama up only two.

Average those leads, and Obama is probably up by about four.  That is a very small lead in what is presumed to be a Democratic year.  But I fear that lead will grow unless McCain comes out swinging and nails Obama when he should be nailed. 

We reported earlier today an extraordinarily rough comment by Obama about the combat of the upcoming campaign:  "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun."  Have you ever heard a presidential candidate speak that way?  McCain should be broadcasting that quote all over the place, and denouncing it.  He should be demanding an apology from Obama.  He should be reminding Obama that he's a role model for kids.  Instead, the McCain campaign put out a meek little statement, and that was that.  And that won't do.

By the way, my courageous Iranian dissident friend, Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi, refers me to a Gateway Pundit piece that exposes Obama's line as a piece of artful plagiarism. It was used on a poster in the U.K. promoting a new novel.  The poster was removed from display at a railroad station because of the epidemic of armed violence plaguing Britain.  Gateway quotes another source saying the line came from "The Untouchables."

Banafsheh makes the point that it's incredible that an African-American would be so casual about guns and knives, considering the tragedies in the black community. 

And reader Sue Stein writes:  "There is a very large crime wave going on in the South Side of Chicago.  An unprecedented number of Chicago school children have been killed this year.  More Americans are killed in Chicago each month than in Iraq.  And no one asks Obama about what he would do to solve this problem in his own backyard (as his biggest resume point is that he is 'a community organizer')."

Come on, Senator McCain.  Get on that Obama quote.  Grind it in.  In 1968, George Romney, the father of Mitt Romney, one of your competitors for this year's presidential nomination, was politically destroyed when he said he was "brainwashed" by officials over the Vietnam War.  He was laughed out of the presidential race.  One quote can say a great deal about a candidate.  Obama has fumbled.  Grab the ball, McCain.

June 15, 2008.      Permalink          

SUNDAY:  JUNE 15,  2008

Posted at 6:28 a.m. ET

ALARM BELLS

While our mainstream media digs up all it can on John McCain, and explores new ways to exalt Barack Obama, serious people are doing serious things about serious subjects.  It turns out that the spread of nuclear information may be more extensive, and more deadly, than we've previously thought:

An international smuggling ring that sold bomb-related parts to Libya, Iran and North Korea also managed to acquire blueprints for an advanced nuclear weapon, according to a draft report by a former top U.N. arms inspector that suggests the plans could have been shared secretly with any number of countries or rogue groups.

The drawings, discovered in 2006 on computers owned by Swiss businessmen, included essential details for building a compact nuclear device that could be fitted on a type of ballistic missile used by Iran and more than a dozen developing countries, the report states.

The computer contents -- among more than 1,000 gigabytes of data seized -- were recently destroyed by Swiss authorities under the supervision of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, which is investigating the now-defunct smuggling ring previously led by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.

But U.N. officials cannot rule out the possibility that the blueprints were shared with others before their discovery, said the report's author, David Albright, a prominent nuclear weapons expert who spent four years researching the smuggling network.

"These advanced nuclear weapons designs may have long ago been sold off to some of the most treacherous regimes in the world," Albright wrote in a draft report about the blueprint's discovery.

Hey, Happy Father's Day. 

This problem will only get worse as more and more nations, based either on espionage or on their own research, learn how to make and use nuclear weapons.  Sooner or later, some rogue leader will decide to light one of those candles and make quite a name for himself.  Just as significant, the nuclear weapon provides a nation with a blackmail capability that is unequalled. 

Interesting years ahead.  Who would you trust to lead us through them?

June 15, 2008.      Permalink          

HE'LL BRING A WHAT?

Barack Obama has promised us a new kind of politics.  And you know, the man delivers.  What other candidate has promised to bring firepower into the campaign?  Read on:

Barack Obama is warning supporters that the general election fight between him and John McCain may get ugly, but the Illinois senator is vowing not to back down.

"If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun," Obama said at a fundraiser in Philadelphia Friday, according to pool reports.

"We don't have a choice but to win," Obama said, joking that he has heard "folks in Philly like a good brawl. I've seen Eagles games."

Obama again said that the GOP will make try to make him look "scary" to voters.

Obama pledging to swing back at the GOP drew much applause from the crowd.

Republican National Committee spokesman Alex Conant said Obama's rhetoric abandons Obama's campaign themes of hope and change.

"In the last 24 hours, he’s completely abandoned his campaign’s call for ‘new politics’, equating the election to a ‘brawl’ and promising to ‘bring a gun,’" Conant said.

No, this is a new kind of politics.  Now, I assume Obama has the proper licenses, and has undergone a background check.  And I must assume that he's taken the NRA safety course.  No?  Oh, that's a problem.

But he wants to run the campaign on his level, and I suspect voters are becoming increasingly fearful of where that level is.

June 15, 2008.      Permalink