Political Republican Opinion

Political Republican Opinion:

The city of Chicago has already started preparations for the Obama victory celebration in downtown Chicago’s Grant Park. The cost of the event – a cool $2 million. If Barack Obama wins, it will be quite a party; if he doesn’t, it may very well be the world’s largest riot!

The Obama campaign will be footing the bill, drawing out the massive sum from contributions made for his election since the city, according to Mayor Richard Daley, cannot “in this financial crisis … afford $2 million on this.” The city of Chicago still will be in charge of spending the money that donors had earmarked for the Obama campaign, however.

Daley said that he would have preferred the event to be held indoors at the United Center, where the celebration tab would be cheaper, but will bow to Barack Obama’s wishes.

“Could you see me saying no to Sen. Obama?” Daley told reporters yesterday. “Give me a break; I’m not that dumb!”

People who live in Chicago and know the “connections” that mayor daily (allegedly) has, should find this statement particularly disturbing. If he’s scared of saying “no” to Barack Obama, I cannot imagine what a lesser-connected person should be feeling! Apparently, denying Obama would be worse than refusing Tony Soprano!

The Obama campaign said that it could not have used the United Center if it wanted to; a concert by Celine Dion is scheduled for that night in the venue. Ironically, Dion’s song, “You and I,” was the theme song of the Hillary Clinton campaign.

Both John McCain and Sarah Palin say they are comfortable in the underdog role but they warn that the election is not over.

“My opponent’s looking pretty confident … these days,” McCain said. “He’ll be addressing the nation soon. He’s got another of those big stadium spectacles in the works. But acting like the election is over; it won’t let him take away your chance to have the final say in this election.”

Speaking at a Virginia Beach rally on October 13^th, McCain continued, “The national media has written us off. Senator Obama is measuring the drapes, and planning with Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid to raise taxes, increase spending, take away your right to vote by secret ballot in labor elections, and concede defeat in Iraq. But they forgot to let you decide. My friends, we’ve got them just where we want them.”

McCain then went on to compare Barack Obama to President Herbert Hoover, an “intellectual,” who believed in government intervention and that there was a technical solution for every social and economic problem.

A Brief History Lesson:

Herbert Hoover believed that he could improve the conditions for all Americans by increased regulation and by encouraging volunteerism. Hoover expanded the size of the federal government by encouraging civil servants in federal positions, cancelled private oil leases on government lands, advocated tax reductions for low-income Americans and closed tax loopholes for the wealthy (Hmmm … Does this sound familiar?).

He proposed federal loans for urban slum clearances, proposed a Federal Department of Education and chaired a White House conference on home ownership (Does this sound even more familiar? If not, check out this Stanley Kurtz article!).

President Hoover went on a seven-week “goodwill” tour of Latin America (like the Obama World Tour, perhaps?), where an assassination attempt by Argentine anarchists was made on his life. He looked the other way, however, and praised the country for its hospitality. He also withdrew US troops from Nicaragua and Haiti, proposed an arms embargo on Latin America and advocated a one-third reduction of the world’s naval power. (Substitute “nuclear arms” for “naval power” and this should sound really, really familiar! Obama believes we can totally eliminate all nuclear weapons!)

Oh, yeah … Herbert Hoover was also the President during the Great Depression. After the stock market crashed on October 29, 1929, President Hoover tried various things to turn the economy around. He restricted free trade by imposing tariffs on imported goods in a move to help alleviate the massive federal budget deficit. This resulted in a world-wide Depression. Foreign nations retaliated, imposing their own high tariffs on American goods which only worsened the situation in the United States. (Doesn’t Obama want to “renegotiate” the free trade agreement?)

Hoover then formed a consortium of the nation’s largest banks, calling it the National Credit Corporation, in an attempt to make money available to smaller banks. This, too, failed and more than 5,000 banks went under.

In a final attempt to unburden the federal government from the massive budget deficit it had incurred from increased social program spending, the Congress passed and President Hoover signed into law, the Revenue act of 1932. This Act increased taxes progressively on individuals as their incomes went up and implemented higher corporate taxes. This resulted in the highest unemployment rate in the history of the United States; nearly 25% of the country became unemployed. (I thought that taking money away from “the rich people” and increasing corporate taxes was supposed to be a good thing! The United States already has the second highest corporate tax rate in the world, which has led to companies moving operations - and jobs - overseas and reductions in foreign investment in US companies.)

It is important to note that Herbert Hoover was a “Republican” and that he became President during one of the most robust periods of economic growth in this country’s history. It just goes to show that policies, not Party affiliations, are what can bring a nation and the world to its knees!

Let’s see now … where was I? Oh, yes; I remember! … McCain was comparing Barack Obama to President Hoover …

“They say those who don’t learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them. Well, my friends, I know my history lessons, and I sure won’t make the mistakes Senator Obama will,” McCain said.

John McCain then took a shot at the Democratic presidential candidate’s huge spending proposals, saying that they cannot possibly be funded without raisng taxes and by further increasing the national debt.

“Raising taxes makes a bad economy much worse. Keeping taxes low creates jobs, keeps money in your hands and strengthens our economy. What America needs in this hour is a fighter; someone who puts all his cards on the table and trusts the judgment of the American people,” McCain said. “I come from a long line of McCains who believed that to love America, is to fight for her.”

“If I’m elected President,” McCain continued, “I will fight to take America in a new direction from my first day in office until my last. I’m not afraid of the fight, I’m ready for it.”

McCain then reiterated his pledge to freeze federal spending, renegotiate distressed mortgages to help middle class homeowners, and cut taxes.

Yes, the larger-than-before Greek Columns are already being erected in Grant Park, the champagne is already on ice and Michelle Obama has most certainly already decided upon another lobster and caviar victory meal. What a bacchanal it will be!

But wait! What was it that the esteemed Reverend Jeremiah Wright said? Something like, “Don’t count your chickens, before they come home to roost,” I think.

Political Republican Opinion Quote of the Day: “It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error.” – Thomas Paine

Technorati Tags: barack obama, Chicago celebration, John McCain, McCain, obama, Obama victory party, Obama $2 million party, Obama victory celebration, Palin, political opinion, Political Republican, Political Republican Opinion, republican opinion, Sarah Palin, us presidential election

Political Republican Opinion:

Today, I will do something unprecedented on The Political Republican Opinion Blog; I will post a Barack Obama-approved ad that is negative about John McCain. Specifically, Obama attacks McCain on his position regarding equal pay for women.

Obama’s attacks didn’t just stop at John McCain, however. On August 31, in Toledo, Ohio, Barack Obama said of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin’s Republican vice-presidential nomination, “[Palin] seems like a very engaging person, but I’ve got to say, she’s opposed - like John McCain is - to equal pay for equal work. That doesn’t make much sense to me.”

Here’s the attack ad:

Wow, quite a damning statement piece. Barack Obama clearly is a stronger supporter of women’s equal pay rights than John McCain is, right? Well … not so fast!

Once again, we need to look at the two candidates’ deeds versus their words. There is no better way that I can think of, than to look at each man’s own Senate office staff.

Barack Obama: According to publicly available data on Legistorm.com, Barack Obama’s Senate office employs 60 people, half men and half women.

• The average annual salary for male employees in Barack Obama’s Senate office was $54,379.16. Female employees earned an average salary of $45,152.57. That means men in Obama’s office earn an average of $9,226.49 more per year than women or, to put it another way, women are only worth 83 cents on the dollar compared to men.
  
• Only one of the five highest paid employees in the Obama Senate office is a woman.

• Only 7 of the top 20 staff salaries in Barack Obama’s office are earned by women.

John McCain: According to publicly available data on Legistorm.com, John McCain’s Senate office employs 54 people, half men and half women.

• The average annual salary for male employees in John McCain’s Senate office was $53,936.15. Female employees earned an average salary of $55,878.36. That means that men in McCain’s office earn an average of $1,942.21 less than women or, to put it differently, women make an average of $1.04 for every dollar that men make.

• Three of the top five highest paid employees in the McCain Senate office are women.

• 13 of the top 20 staff salaries in John McCain’s office are earned by women.

In an Op-Ed piece in the Seattle Post-Intelligence, Deroy Murdock wrote, “In short, these statistics suggest that John McCain is more than fair with his female employees, while Barack Obama - at the expense of the women who work for him - quietly perpetuates the very same pay-equity divide that he loudly denounces. Of all people, the Democratic standard bearer should understand that equal pay begins at home.”

As has been the case repeatedly in the campaign of Barack Obama, his words are empty and his promises are suspect. His words just don’t match his actions.

The Political Republican Opinion Blog Quote of the Day: “Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.” - Benjamin Franklin

Technorati Tags: barack obama, gender inequity, John McCain, McCain, obama, Palin, Political Republican, Political Republican Opinion, Sarah Palin, us presidential politics

Political Republican Opinion:

Multi talented producer/musician, Lorenzo, dropped a bomb on the Liberal world when he posted the following YouTube video. Abortion, welfare, tax cuts, the 2nd Ammendment, traditional marriage; Zo covers it all. In fact, I couldn’t say it better myself!

Technorati Tags: Alonzo, Alonzo Ferguson, barack obama, John McCain, McCain, obama, Palin, Political Republican, Political Republican Opinion, Sarah Palin, us presidential election, Zo

Political Republican Opinion:

With less than a month left before the November 2, 2008 election, it appears that the McCain campaign will finally be taking the gloves off. John McCain has said that he does not believe in negative campaign ads; but, with Obama now leading by seven to eight points in recent polls and the constant lies being told by the Obama campaign in their attack ads on John McCain, it would appear a change of course has been ordered.

Sarah Palin took the first shots today, accusing Barack Obama of associating with terrorists. While at a private airport, the Associated Press reports that Sarah Palin said, “Our opponent … is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country. She added, “This is not a man who sees America as you see America and as I see America.”

Governor Palin said that donors in a greeting line had encouraged her and McCain to get tougher on Obama. The vice presidential running mate of John McCain said an aide told her, “Sarah, the gloves are off, the heels are on; go get them.” The AP goes on to suggest that McCain-Palin attacks will coincide with 527 organization ads which will focus on questioning Obama’s ties to Ayers, convicted former Obama fundraiser Antoin “Tony” Rezko and Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Palin’s reference was to domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, one of the founders of the Weather Underground. The radical 60’s group that first surfaced in Chicago, Barack Obama’s home town, took credit for several bombings, including explosions at the Pentagon, the U.S. Capitol, the Harry S. Truman Building (which housed the US State Department), several banks and police stations.

Bill Ayers, who is now a professor at the University of Chicago, has never apologized for his involvement with the Weather Underground and has, in fact, stated that he wished they could have done more than they did. (He said this immediately after the 9-11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.) He and Obama live in the same Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood, where Ayers held a meet-the-candidate event at his home for Obama when Obama first ran for office in the mid-1990s.

Barack Obama and Bill Ayers served together on the board of the Woods Fund, a Chicago-based charity that develops community groups to help the poor. Obama was also the first chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a school-reform group of which Ayers was a founder.

Although Barack Obama dismisses his relationship with Bill Ayers as just “a guy who lives in my neighborhood,” and “not somebody who I exchange ideas with on a regular basis,” Ayers refuses to discuss his relationship with Obama. When National Review Online contributing editor Stanley Kurtz tried to delve further into the real relationship between the two by asking to peruse internal documents of the Chicago Annenburg Challenge at the University of Chicago’s Richard Daley Library, he ran into a brick wall. Kurtz’s article, “Chicago Annenburg Challenge Shutdown? - A cover up in the making?” is well worth a read!

Recently, during the emergency sessions of Congress that led to the “Wall Street Bailout Bill,” McCain said that “now is not the time” to engage in the blame game. He said that it was more important to put the country ahead of politics during a moment of crisis. Now that the bill has passed in both Houses of Congress and been signed by President Bush, let’s hope that we get to see John McCain the pit bull and Sarah Palin the wildcat. It was nice for awhile; but, I’ve grown tired of watching the puppy and the kitten playing.

Technorati Tags: barack obama, John McCain, McCain, Palin, Political Republican, Political Republican Opinion, Sarah Palin, us presidential election

Political Republican Opinion:

It must be great to be part of the Obama-Biden ticket. Both Barack Obama and now, Joe Biden can say anything and get away with it. Whenever either of them has been confronted with statements they have made in the past that contradict their current positions, they simply deny ever saying it. They know that they can get away with it because the mainstream Liberal media is in their back pocket.

During Thursday night’s Sarah Palin-Joe Biden debate, Joe Biden told more than a dozen bold face lies. I guarantee you that you will not hear about any of them on any of the major networks, CNN, or CNBC. Instead, it is up to the blogosphere, talk radio and Fox News to do the real news reporting in this country. Following, are the most poignant of the lies from the debate that Joe Biden will surely get away with:

1. Joe Biden said that John McCain voted the same way as Barack Obama on a budget resolution procedural vote to raise taxes on American individuals that made as little as $42,000 per year. As usual, Republicans and Democrats voted essentially down Party lines with Obama in favor of the tax increase. Many blogs are incorrectly stating that John McCain voted against the tax increase. In actuality, John McCain was one of five senators who did not vote at all on that particular roll call vote. (see Congress.org)

2. Joe Biden claimed that John McCain said that he “wouldn’t even sit down” with the government of Spain. When asked three separate times during an interview on Miami’s Radio Caracol if he would sit down with Spain’s President Zapatero, John McCain never committed either way. Liberal blogs and now Joe Biden have distorted this fact, however. His actual answer was “I am willing to meet with any leader who is dedicated to the same principles and philosophies that we are for human rights, democracy and freedom.” (An audio recording of the oft-misrepresented radio interview can be found here. For those of you who don’t feel like listening to the whole thing, the questions regarding Spain start precisely at minute number three of the interview.)

3. When Biden claimed that Barack Obama never said that he would sit down unconditionally with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, he was clearly lying. Obama specifically stated that he would sit down with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea without any preconditions, and Joe Biden attacked him for it during the Democratic Presidential Primaries (see video here).

4. Joe Biden claimed that a comment he made about not supporting clean coal while in a rope line was taken out of context. In the rope line, he specifically states “We’re not supporting clean coal” and “No coal plants here in America!” (see the video here).

5. Joe Biden is exaggerating when he states that John McCain voted against alternative energy 20 times. He actually voted against it 11 times. This was long before oil prices climbed to the astronomical levels that they are at now and before the technology was even close to offering an alternative that did not cost more than it produced. In the other instances that Joe Biden presumably used to arrive at his inflated figure, McCain voted against mandatory use of alternative energy sources or he voted in favor of allowing exemptions from mandates.

6. Joe Biden claimed that John McCain wanted to deregulate the health care industry, stating, “John recently wrote an article in a ‘major magazine’ saying that [what] he wants to do for the health care industry [is] deregulate it and let the free market move like he did for the banking industry.” This is a misrepresentation of the facts. In a magazine called “Contingencies,” John McCain discussed allowing people to buy health care across state lines stating, “Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.”

7. Joe Biden claimed on numerous occasions that John McCain’s tax plan would give oil companies a $4 billion tax cut. This is a very deceptive way of spinning McCain’s actual tax plan. In it, he would lower the corporate tax rate on all companies from 35% to 25% - not just the oil industry. The $4 billion figure is a guess, dreamed up by the Democratic Party’s team of economic “experts.”

8. Joe Biden said that the Iraqi government “has an $80 billion surplus.” Actually, some analysts have previously projected that the Iraqi government could have “as much as” $79 billion by the end of the year. These projections were made before the Iraqi government approved a $21 billion spending bill. The figure that the government now has in the bank is closer to $21 billion.

Now, to be fair, Sarah Palin misrepresented a few facts as well. Most of hers were a little less blatant and were probably due to an inability to correctly recall names and figures crammed during the crash course of her recent rise into the Washington political scene. For example, Sarah Palin called General David D. McKiernan “General McClellan” and misstated that the amount of troops in Iraq were at pre-surge levels. (There are currently 6,000 more troops in Iraq than there were before the surge, but they should be at pre-surge levels before the November election.) The Political Repblican Opinion Blog is sure you will hear about each and every one of Sarah Palin’s debate missteps. It’s too bad that our “free press” won’t be so free as to point out Joe Biden’s!

Technorati Tags: barack obama, Biden, debate, Joe Biden, John McCain, Liberal Media, liberal media bias, McCain, Media Bias, obama, Palin, Political Republican, Political Republican Opinion, Sarah Palin, us presidential election

Political Republican Opinion:

As I was in the process of finishing up my National Defense Issue post in the Comparing McCain and Obama Series, I became distracted by an article that appeared on The Washington Times online. The article explores the possibility that the 2008 presidential contest could finish in an Electoral College 269-269 tie.

Think it can’t happen? “Take the 2004 map and switch Iowa, New Mexico and Colorado into the Blue column, which is what the poll numbers indicate. Then, take New Hampshire and give it to McCain, which is what two recent polls suggest is going to happen. There is your tie,” the article states. Another possible scenario offereded in The Washington Times article is, “if … John McCain wins Ohio, Virginia, New Hampshire and Indiana - not at all far-fetched - and Mr. Obama takes reliably Democratic states Pennsylvania and Michigan, and flips Colorado (in which he holds a slight poll lead), with the two splitting New Mexico and Nevada, the electoral vote would be tied at 269.” Then, what would happen?

Well, according to the article, things get pretty dicey as far as the U.S. Constitution is concerned. The framers of the Constitution were fairly vague in their wording of the procedures that would follow. The confusion all centers on whether the currently sitting Congress would determine the tie-breaker or whether the newly elected Congress would.

The Constitution states that the House of Representatives “shall immediately” choose by ballot, the new President. Because the Electoral College ballots are counted in December, some argue that the outgoing Congress would be in charge of making the decision.

Others argue that operative - and decisive - verbiage was set out in U.S. Code Title 3, Chapter 1, Section 15, in 1934. It states that “”Congress shall be in session on the sixth day of January succeeding every meeting of the electors. The Senate and House of Representatives shall meet in the Hall of the House of Representatives at the hour of 1 o’clock in the afternoon on that day.”

The Constitution further provides that the Senate would choose the Vice President in such a scenario. This means that we could have an Obama-Palin White House or a McCain-Biden one. The possibility exists that Dick Cheney may be responsible for selecting the next Vice President, as well!

Other possible scenarios?

The newly elected House is unable to come up with a majority in which case, the burden falls upon the newly elected Senate to choose an acting President until the House can break the deadlock. The Washington Times article assumes in this scenario, that a Democrat-controlled Senate may choose Joe Biden as the acting President, should the House be unable to break the tie by noon on January 20, 2009 – inauguration day.

In another equally far-fetched scenario, neither the House nor the Senate is able to come up with a majority for the President or Vice President by January 20th. In this case, the Speaker of the House, currently Nancy Pelosi, would become the acting President until the whole mess is settled.

Regardless of which scenario you choose, The Political Republican Opinion Blog feels there would be a lengthy series of legal challenges that might leave the office of the President of the United States legally “vacant” for years. If precedent is any indicator, however, the same issue was decided in 1800, when Thomas Jefferson was appointed President by the newly elected House of Representatives in February after an Electoral College tie with Raymond Burr.

A fun read, all-in-all! See the complete article here: 269 tie: An electoral college ‘doomsday’? Oh … and I’m almost done with the previously mentioned National Defense Issue post, coming soon to a computer near you …

Technorati Tags: Biden, electoral college, Joe Biden, John McCain, McCain, nancy pelosi, Palin, pelosi, Political Republican Opinion, Sarah Palin, us constitution, us presidential election

Political Republican Opinion:

Today, The Political Republican Opinion Blog offers a little bit of this and a little bit of that. We have a news executive worried about Barack Obama’s policies turning the world even further against America, a crazy, panicked Democrat on a radio talk show and the latest whimsical look at politics from our good ole’ boys at the Red State Update.

First up: Rupert Murdoch is interviewed by Neil Cavuto. In the interview, Murdoch, who many Democratic bloggers have been touting as Obama supporter, states that Obama is going to increase American and worldwide inflation, cause unemployment to soar and ruin what exists of our relationships with the rest of the world. See the video here:

Next, The Political Republican Opinion Blog has found a deranged caller on the John Gibson radio show. She calls Sarah Palin trailer park trash, claims that there are only 5,000 people who live in Alaska and I lost count of how many times she calls Sarah Palin a bitch. Other highlights include a caller who derides Palin for “birthing retarded babies” and the always intelligent discourse, “eat shit and die!” Clearly, the Democrats are the Party of Intellects. Check it out here:

And finally, our friends at the Red State Update offer their views on the latest disrespect that is being shown by celebrity Democrats to Sarah Palin. Featured are Oprah Winfrey, Matt Damon, Lindsay Lohan, Barbara Walters and Meg Ryan. You may view their perspective, below:

Even on a slow day, The Political Republican Opinion Blog scours the web to find you the finest in political commentary. Got any of your own? Reply, below:

Technorati Tags: barack obama, barbara walters, lindsay lohan, matt damon, meg ryan, obama, Palin, Political Republican, red state update, rupert murdoch, Sarah Palin

Political Republican Opinion:

As promised, The Political Republican Opinion blog is posting a side-by-side comparison of Charlie Gibson’s first interview with Sarah Palin and his first interview with Barack Obama. Obama’s initial interview was on November 1, 2007. Part one of Palin’s interview was on September 11, 2008. I originally intended to post parts one through four of the Gibson-Palin interview and compare them with the Gibson-Obama interview but I only needed part one to make my point. Below, you will see the questions Charlie Gibson asked Sarah Palin in red and the questions Gibson asked Barack Obama in blue. The questions appear in the order in which they were asked:

• “Governor, let me start by asking you a question that I asked John McCain about you, and it is really the central question. Can you look the country in the eye and say “I have the experience and I have the ability to be not just vice president, but perhaps president of the United States of America?”

• “Today, in our ‘Who Is?’ series, a Democrat relatively new to national politics; Senator Barack Obama. Your mom comes from the Pacific Northwest, migrates to Hawaii, goes to college there, right away, meets a dashing young Kenyan, gets pregnant and the result [is] you.” (Voiceover) His father got a fellowship to study on the mainland and never came back. “Obama’s mother would remarry and take her son to Indonesia for five years. Only once again did he ever see his father, that, when Obama was 10, he didn’t care enough to stay. How did you internalize that?”

• “And you didn’t say to yourself, “Am I experienced enough? Am I ready? Do I know enough about international affairs? Do I — will I feel comfortable enough on the national stage to do this?” … Didn’t that take some hubris?”

• “For five years out of college, he worked to pay off student loans and was a community organizer in Chicago, which led him back to school, Harvard Law School, and on a summer job, met this young woman. Did you know right away?”

• “But this is not just reforming a government. This is also running a government on the huge international stage in a very dangerous world. When I asked John McCain about your national security credentials, he cited the fact that you have commanded the Alaskan National Guard and that Alaska is close to Russia. Are those sufficient credentials?”

• “They have two daughters, Malia and Sasha. At first, Obama was intimidated by the Harvard law students, but he found he could more than hold his own, finishing first in his class and being editor of the ‘Harvard Law Review.’ He’s candid: it was at Harvard he first thought of running for President. So did you think to yourself, ‘Barack, what kind of hubris is this that I am thinking about being President?’”

• “Did you ever travel outside the country prior to your trip to Kuwait and Germany last year?”

• “You have written, ‘I learned to slip back and forth between my black and my white worlds.’ The simple question I guess is in which world do you really belong?”

[Note from The Political Republican Opinion blog: This is where Gibson ended his initial interview with Barack Obama. Sarah Palin, meanwhile, continues to get hammered …]

• “Have you ever met a foreign head of state?”

• “The administration has said we’ve got to maintain the territorial integrity of Georgia. Do you believe the United States should try to restore Georgian sovereignty over South Ossetia and Abkhazia?”

• “What insight into Russian actions, particularly in the last couple of weeks, does the proximity of the state give you?”

• “Would you favor putting Georgia and Ukraine in NATO?”

• “And under the NATO treaty, wouldn’t we then have to go to war if Russia went into Georgia?”

• “And you think it would be worth it to the United States, Georgia is worth it to the United States to go to war if Russia were to invade?”

• “Let me turn to Iran. Do you consider a nuclear Iran to be an existential threat to Israel?”

• “So what should we do about a nuclear Iran?”

• “What if Israel decided it felt threatened and needed to take out the Iranian nuclear facilities?”

• “So, if it felt necessary, if it felt the need to defend itself by taking out Iranian nuclear facilities, that would be all right?”

• “We talk on the anniversary of 9/11. Why do you think those hijackers attacked? Why did they want to hurt us?”

• “The Bush doctrine, as I understand it, is that we have the right of anticipatory self-defense, that we have the right to a preemptive strike against any other country that we think is going to attack us. Do you agree with that?”

• “Do we have the right to be making cross-border attacks into Pakistan from Afghanistan, with or without the approval of the Pakistani government?”

• “You said recently, in your old church, “Our national leaders are sending U.S. soldiers on a task that is from God.” Are we fighting a holy war?”

• “Then are you sending your son on a task form God?”

UPDATE: Many Leftists have argued that this is not a fair comparison, since Barack Obama had not won the Democratic nomination yet. Fair enough! To appease those that are still unconvinced of the Liberal media bias, I have included, below, the questions that Gibson asked Obama after winning the Democratic Primary. They are truly compelling (insert eye roll here):

• How does it feel to break a glass ceiling?
  
• How does it feel to “win”?
  
• How does your family feel about your “winning” breaking a glass ceiling?
  
• Who will be your VP?
  
• Should you choose Hillary Clinton as VP?
  
• Will you accept public finance?
  
• What issues is your campaign about?
  
• Will you visit Iraq?
  
• Will you debate McCain at a town hall?
  
• What did you think of your competitor’s [Clinton] speech?

Keep in mind, the questions that Charlie Gibson asked Sarah Palin are just part one of a four part interview. Dozens of similarly pointed questions were asked in the subsequent parts. Anybody who doesn’t see the difference is in complete denial. Gibson threw fastballs at Sarah Palin’s head. To Obama, he tossed underhanded softballs.

If there was ever a clearer example of bias in the media, I don’t know when it occurred - perhaps in some Communist country. Charlie Gibson should be ashamed of the way he conducted himself. He can no longer hold his head up and say that he is a journalist. He has slipped to the ranks of a commentator.

The Political Republican Opinion blog would like to know what you think. Leave your comments below:

Technorati Tags: barack obama, charlie gibson, Gibson, obama, Palin, political opinion, Political Republican, Political Republican Opinion, republican opinion, Sarah Palin, us presidential election

Political Republican Opinion:

It must be so easy to write a Liberal blog. Authors of these exercises in idiocy know that their audience is not industrious (a kind word) enough to check facts. Readers of the Leftist blogs follow blindly along, believing everything that is written.

I tripped over a post today that purported to have proof that Sarah Palin endorsed a budgetary cut in rape test kits while she was Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska. It used The Huffington Post as it’s “source” of information. Because the blog is obviously written by a lazy fool, I feel it would be beneath The Political Republican Opinion blog to provide a link and, therefore, any credibility to the post.

I will, however, provide a link to the ridiculous Huffington Post article. In it, the author, Jacob Alperin-Sheriff, does a cut and paste job with Sarah Palin’s signature and makes libelous claims that her signature appears on a document that proves that she had knowledge of the rape kit budget cuts. The article is titled, “New Evidence: Palin Had Direct Role In Charging Rape Victims For Exams.”

For those who don’t know, the Huffington Post is the Liberal blog version of a magazine tabloid. The “facts” in their articles are frequently fabricated with the sole purpose of promoting the Far-Left, Socialist Liberal agenda. As the damning proof of Sarah Palin’s knowledge of the rape kit budget cuts, Alperin-Sheriff offers a scanned copy of the June 1999 Wasilla Annual Financial Report. He claims that Mayor Palin’s signature appears at the bottom of the document following the words “respectfully submitted” and that this offers proof that Palin not only knew about the rape kit budget cuts, but that she actually endorsed the cuts.

As usual, the Huffington Post’s article does not live up to its headline. I read the entire annual report and there is absolutely nothing in there that even references rape victims or rape kits. The author tries to imply that, because Sarah Palin signed a budget where the police department had a lower budget request than it had the year before, it means that the Mayor knew that the reason for the lower budget request was because of reductions in rape test kits. I can’t imagine rape test kits being a significant enough portion of the Wasilla Police Department’s budget to even make a dent, however. There is, of course, no line item in the budget for rape test kits and, therefore, no proof of Palin’s alleged knowledge.

As far as the statement goes, that the document is signed at the bottom by Sarah Palin preceded by the words “respectfully submitted,” it is a bold faced lie. The signature at the end of the document is the company signature of the auditor, Mikunda, Cottrell & Co.

Sarah Palin’s signature does appears twice on the 146 page report, however - once on the “Employee Organizational Chart” and another time on the “Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting” given to the city of Wasilla from the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada (GFOA). Only on this certificate, will you find the words “respectfully submitted” with Sarah Palin’s signature affixed. In this regard, I must admit that she may be guilty of signing one of the most boring award certificates ever conceived of.

This post belongs right up there with Trig really being the child of Sarah Palin’s daughter. Panic has set in at the DNC. Keep throwing mud, Democrats; every attack just results in a few more votes for the McCain-Palin ticket. If the left-wing bloggers of the world and the ultra-Liberal network media would just shut up and leave this woman alone, the Democratic Party might be able to stop the bleeding.

Watch the blogs over the next couple of days. You’ll see the statement “Palin lied about the rape test kits” repeated as “fact” time and again. If the recent past is any indication, some television network will pick up on the story and broadcast it as well (probably CNBC).

I will try to ferret out these untruths as I come across them in the blogosphere. The Democrats’ lame attempts to “dig up dirt” on Sarah Palin are getting more desperate every day. The Political Republican Opinion blog will never invent stories and facts to support its positions. To the Huffington Post, we would like to say: “Not even a nice try, Huffington Post; not even close!”

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