SATURDAY,  JULY 25,  2009

MAY WE NOT HAVE BARBARA BOXER TO KICK AROUND ANYMORE - AT 10:55 P.M. ET:  There is political news from California, a state that, although broke, still votes:

Sen. Barbara Boxer, who has taken heat in recent months for clashes at Senate hearings, is facing a potentially tough election challenge from prominent businesswoman Carly Fiorina, who is within striking distance in a recent poll.

Fiorina, a former Hewlett-Packard CEO and top economic adviser to John McCain's presidential campaign, hasn't said yet whether she'll throw her hat in the ring against Boxer for the California Democrat's Senate seat next year. But it already could be shaping up to up be one of the most closely watched Senate contests.

A Rasmussen Reports telephone survey released July 24 shows that Fiorina is trailing by only 4 percentage points behind in a hypothetical head-to-head with the three-term incumbent. The poll put Boxer's support in such a face-off at only 45 percent, with 7 percent of survey respondents saying they're undecided.

COMMENT:  It's hard to think of anything that Barbara Boxer contributes to the Senate.  Maybe she brings nice chocolates on some days, or an orange.  But there's not much beyond that.  She's so weak that even liberal Democrats in her own delegation are afraid to let her handle one of their prime pieces of legislation, the one on alleged climate change.  She recently embarrassed herself - not the first time - by demanding that an Army general call her "senator," whereas other senators are often called mister or ms. or mrs.  President Kennedy would often get on the phone and say, "This is Mr. Kennedy."  But Barbara likes the title.

Carly Fiorina has no experience as a political candidate, and her reign at Hewlett-Packard was bumpy.  She would be running in a heavily Democratic state.  But if she could pull it off, she'd be a major national figure overnight, and give the California congressional delegation some balance.

July 25, 2009   Permalink

SARAH SAYS FAREWELL - AT 3:40 P.M. ET:  Sarah Palin is holding a series of picnics to say farewell to the people of Alaska as she leaves the governorship.  Yes, I said picnics.  Can you imagine how that goes down in the salons of Georgetown or Beverly Hills, or the real seat of our current government, Cambridge, Massachusetts, where the police are ridiculed for doing their jobs?  "My gawd, is this woman holding picnics, with unhealthy foodstuffs, without a dietician?  Is she inviting a proper number of people from igloos?"

The Politico reports on something Sarah said last night:

She told the hundreds gathered in a military “Honor Garden” that she wanted to “do something… more worthy than speaking politics” before sharing a story about a reporter who had asked her about how she handles difficult days.

“I said, ‘Oh no,’ it is not a down day – my son called this week from Iraq,” Palin recalled, referring to her son, Track, an Army enlistee. “He is safe, he is sound. It is always a good day when my son calls.”

Interrupting the applause, Palin said: “I wish that some in the media would keep things like that in perspective, what is really important in our country. And what is important is our freedoms, America’s security, our liberty.”

Later, citing military families that have lost loved ones, she again drew loud applause by saying: “Let us continue to love our country, be proud of our country, never apologize for our country.”

COMMENT:  You can hear the laughter, sneers and ridicule from the crowd that pines for the 1960s.  But words like that resonate with the great majority of Americans. 

I especially liked "...never apologize for our country."  Clearly, that was directed at President Obama.  Does that line hint at future political plans for Sarah Palin?  I don't know.  We've said here before that needs to improve some aspects of her approach - to get up to speed  on more issues, to develop a sound and appealing program.  But she has that gut appeal that can, if properly developed, move mountains.  She is ever interesting, and we'll be following her.

July 25, 2009   Permalink

OH SAVE US FROM THIS, PLEASE - AT 11:01 A.M. ET:  The saga of the arrest of Professor Henry Louis Gates of Harvard continues.  Now we have big-time escalation, the ultimate weapon, the top of the "healing" heap - an invitation to the White House.  CNN has some details:

Obama also spoke briefly with the arrested professor, Henry Louis Gates Jr., who is a friend of the president, the White House reported. He and Gates had a "positive discussion" about his call to Crowley on Friday afternoon, the White House said. Obama also invited Gates "to join him with Sgt. Crowley at the White House in the near future."

Oh, no, no.  Can you just see that White House session in the Oval Office, with the president of the United States presiding?  "Now how do you feel about this, Henry?  And you, Sergeant Stupid, I mean Crowley?  Do you both feel greater comfort with each other?  You do?  Okay, how about a big hug?"

Watch.  The next stop will be Oprah.  Another hug.  A book deal.

In an e-mail Friday to CNN's Don Lemon, Gates wrote, "I was very pleased that the president called me today, and I was pleased that he proposed that I meet with Sgt. Crowley at the White House, since I had offered to meet with him since last Monday.

"I am eager for this to be used as a teaching moment to improve racial relations in America," said the e-mail. "This is certainly not about me."

Oh really?  Then why did you say you wanted to keep the incident alive and do a documentary about it?

His attorney, Charles Ogletree, told Lemon that he applauds Obama's intervention and "I look forward to working this out with all parties amicably."

Asked if he plans to file suit, Ogletree said, "It depends on the response from everyone involved as to how we'll proceed."

Translated:  Please invite me to the White House, too.

I wonder if they'll allow wall-to-wall TV coverage of the visit.  How about a theme song?  Something, maybe, from "Law and Order."

Yuch.

July 25, 2009   Permalink

COMMENT ON THE DECLINE - AT 10:42 A.M. ET:  I've often written that some of the best commentary on American politics comes from British observers.  Nile Gardiner, a British conservative analyst based in Washington, dissects the elements of President Obama's decline, something we really hadn't expected to occur until much later:

To add to Obama’s woes, unemployment in America now stands at a staggering 9.5 percent and rising (the same level as the Euro area), compared to 7.2 per cent in the UK and 5.2 per cent in Japan, with the U.S. economy continuing to shed hundreds of thousands of jobs every month. According to figures cited by The New York Times, over 3.3 million jobs have been lost since January of this year.

They can't blame it on Bush forever.

As recent Gallup surveys have shown, the United States remains a largely conservative nation, and Obama’s brand of high spending, high taxing neo-socialism is increasingly rejected by the American public. While much of Europe, including Britain, is moving rightwards, America is the only major country in the Western world whose leadership is dramatically moving to the left. Although he ran for the presidency largely as a centrist, Obama’s government is without doubt the most left-wing administration in American history.

That nails it.  The Europeans are learning their lesson, and we're forgetting what they've learned.

If he is not careful, Barack Obama may end up as one of the least popular presidents in American history. His dream of re-making the world’s greatest power into a large-scale version of modern-day Germany - with high taxation, dominant trade unions, overbearing government bureaucracy, stifling employment regulations, low defence spending, de-nuclearisation, a naive emphasis on soft power, and a constant desire to apologise for the past – is a nightmarish vision that fortunately is opposed by a growing majority of Americans.

COMMENT:  This is clear-headed thinking, and a sharp warning to a president who spent a good chunk of his formative years being tutored by people who either don't understand the American spirit, or despise it.

Crunch time has come early for Barack Obama.  The direction he takes, and the good or bad luck he has domestically and in foreign affairs, will determine the fat of his presidency, and whether he gets that coveted second term.

July 25, 2009   Permalink

DOWNWARD, DOWNWARD - AT 9:36 A.M. ET:  To keep President Obama up at night, just give him the daily Rasmussen reports.  The trend for the president in Ras's daily tracking poll is down and down.  Today, for the second day in a row more respondents - likely voters - disapprove of presidential performance than approve.  The gap again is 51-49, negative.

Even worst for the president is what Rasmussen calls his presidential approval index - the spread between those who strongly approve and strongly disapprove.  Today that index sets a new negative record, and stands at -9.  Only 30% strongly approve, but 39% strongly disapprove.

It is extraordinary, this early in a presidency, for 39% of likely voters to strongly disapprove of a president's performance.  Now, again, we stress, as we always do, that a poll is a snapshot in time, has a margin of error, and does not predict conditions a year from today.  But the numbers cannot give Mr. Obama's political advisers a nice day.

The particular danger for Mr. Obama is not disapproval of this policy or that.  Policies can be adjusted.  But I just get the gut feeling - and at this point that's all it is - that a number of voters are starting to have negative personal feelings about the man.  Up to know, it has been Mr. Obama's personal popularity that has sustained him, even as growing numbers doubted his policies.  But his performance at his news conference this week, with constant references to himself and his appalling remarks about an arrest in Cambridge, Massachusetts, brought out some of the worst in Barack Obama, an imperious quality, president as ultimate judge and father of us all.  Some viewers may not have come in way feeling the love they'd felt on the previous date.

The president is in trouble.  But remember that other presidents have been in trouble and have bounced back.  Mr. Obama is a consummate politician.  Those around him brought an unknown African-American politician from obscurity to the White House.  And the press is too often his loyal and devoted servant.

Keep your guard up. The forces of reason, sanity and greatness still have much work to do.

July 25, 2009   Permalink 

FRIDAY,  JULY 24,  2009

OH, THIS IS MORE THAN JUICY - AT 9:39 P.M. ET:  After months of dissecting the supposed splits in the Republican Party, some in the media are discovering that the major political civil war going on today is within the Democratic Party.  The Hill reports:

House healthcare negotiations dissolved in acrimony on Friday, with Blue Dog Democrats saying they were “lied” to by their Democratic leaders.

In advance of a subsequent press conference called by House leadership, Blue Dog liaison Rep. Dennis Cardoza (D-Calif.) said the healthcare bill should be staying in committee.

"I expect the committee process to proceed," Cardoza said.

The seven Blue Dogs on the Energy and Commerce Committee stormed out of a Friday meeting with their committee chairman, Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), saying Waxman had been negotiating in bad faith over a number of provisions Blue Dogs demanded be changed in the stalled healthcare bill.

Such mutual respect and affection.  I'm moved.

Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.), the lead Blue Dog negotiator, said on Friday. “We are trying to save this bill and trying to save this party.”

COMMENT:  Ross is a man who gets it.  Unless the power of the ultra-libs can be curtailed, the Democratic Party may fall right off the deep end.  More Americans identify themselves as conservatives than as liberals.  Although it may shock the media to point it out, the ideology of America is not the same as the ideology of Manhattan, Georgetown, or Beverly Hills.

July 24, 2009   Permalink

STEYN ON THE FAMOUS ARREST - AT 8:55 P.M. ET:  The arrest of Professor Gates is now the most famous recent arrest in America.  At least the professor wasn't trying to skip town in a white Bronco.

The great Mark Steyn weighs in, stating things rather bluntly, and accurately:

The president of the United States may be reluctant to condemn Ayatollah Khamenei or Hugo Chávez or that guy in Honduras without examining all the nuances and footnotes, but sometimes there are outrages so heinous that even the famously nuanced must step up to the plate and speak truth to power. And thank God the leader of the free world had the guts to stand up and speak truth to municipal police Sgt. James Crowley.

Yes, all the righteous are relieved and grateful.  And there's this from Steyn:

As professor Gates jeered at the officers, "You don't know who you're messin' with." Did Sgt. Crowley have to arrest him? Probably not. Did he allow himself to be provoked by an obnoxious buffoon? Maybe. I dunno. I wasn't there. Neither was the president of the United States, or the governor of Massachusetts or the mayor of Cambridge. All of whom have declared themselves firmly on the side of the Ivy League bigshot. And all of whom, as it happens, are African American. A black president, a black governor and a black mayor all agree with a black Harvard professor that he was racially profiled by a white-Latino-black police team, headed by a cop who teaches courses in how to avoid racial profiling. The boundless elasticity of such endemic racism suggests that the "post-racial America" will be living with blowhard grievance-mongers like professor Gates unto the end of time.

COMMENT:  I suspect that Steyn's gut reaction pretty much parallels that of much of America, which is why the White House is trying to practice some damage control.  But the president can only go so far without upsetting his back-to-the-sixties base. 

We'll be watching tracking polls to see if this incident moves the numbers.

July 24, 2009   Permalink

OH, USE THE WORD, USE THE WORD - AT 8:14 P.M. ET:  There is commotion, there is analysis, there is major punditry being committed.  The president of the United States and all its associated territories has now "clarified" his remarks concerning the arrest in Cambridge, Massachusetts, of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. 

WASHINGTON — President Obama said Friday that he “could have calibrated” his words more carefully in the controversy over the arrest of a black Harvard professor by a white police officer, but added that there had been an “overreaction” by both sides in a case that touched off an intense discussion about race in America.

Notice there is a word missing.  Hint:  It's the A-word.

The president, who on Wednesday said that the police in Cambridge, Mass., “acted stupidly” in the arrest of Prof. Henry Louis Gates Jr., a prominent Harvard scholar of African-American history, sought to clear up the matter. He said he hoped the case could become “a teachable moment” to be used to improve relations between minorities and police officers.

Word still missing.

The president said that he conveyed his sentiment to Sgt. James Crowley in a telephone call on Friday afternoon. The call, which lasted about five minutes, came after police officials in Massachusetts and beyond accused Mr. Obama of maligning the character of Sergeant Crowley and the entire Cambridge police force.

No A-word there. 

Mr. Obama did not specifically use the word “apology,” but aides said that was the sentiment conveyed during his call with the officer.

There's the A-word.  Didn't use it, but the sentiment was there.

Use it, Mr. President.  Show a little humanity amidst the ego.  Sergeant Crowley has behaved with great dignity and strength since the incident.  Professor Gates, by contrast, has talked about keeping the incident alive and making a documentary about it.  The sergeant deserves an apology, then let an investigation take its course.

July 24, 2009   Permalink

RASMUSSEN - AT 9:41 A.M. ET:  For the first time, President Obama has dropped below 50% in overall approval.  Today's Ras report has 49% approving, 51% disapproving.  The poll was taken among likely voters.

July 24, 2009   Permalink

YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE THIS, ABSOLUTELY WILL NOT - AT 9:15 A.M. ET:  A number of commentators have noticed President Obama's appalling ignorance of history.  The gaps were on full display during his speech in Cairo to the Muslim world, in which he did some hefty rewriting of the historical facts.  He also is on record as saying they speak Austrian in Austria.

But this takes the prize.  Consider - the president of the United States on the history of World War II:

President Obama has put securing Afghanistan near the top of his foreign policy agenda, but "victory" in the war-torn country isn't necessarily the United States' goal, he said Thursday in a TV interview.

"I'm always worried about using the word 'victory,' because, you know, it invokes this notion of Emperor Hirohito coming down and signing a surrender to MacArthur," Obama told ABC News.

COMMENT:  Oh dear, oh dear.  Is there any reasonably educated adult in America who doesn't know the story of the end of World War II?  No, Mr. President, we didn't see Emperor Hirohito "coming down and signing a surrender to MacArthur."  The instrument of surrender was signed on September 2, 1945, aboard the USS Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay.  General of the Army Douglas MacArthur (temporary rank, made permanent in 1946) presided over the ceremony.  The Japanese were represented by appropriate officials.  The emperor didn't come down that day, and never surrendered to MacArthur.  He was permitted to remain on the Chrysanthemum Throne as part of the surrender agreement. 

Do you feel our national security may be in some jeopardy?

July 24, 2009   Permalink

MORE ON THE GATES CASE - AT 8:20 A.M. ET:  As we said in our first post this morning, this is growing and growing.

Now other police officers, black and white, are coming to the defense of the white cop who arrested Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., in Cambridge, Massachusetts, home of the elite of the elite of the very elite.  We're talking Harvard and MIT.

This, from the Cape Cod Times, published in another high-toned area: 

CAMBRIDGE -- Supporters say the white policeman who arrested renowned black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. in his home is a principled police officer and family man who is being unfairly described as racist.

Friends and fellow officers - black and white - say Sgt. James Crowley, who was hand-picked by a black police commissioner to teach recruits about avoiding racial profiling, is calm and reliable.

"If people are looking for a guy who's abusive or arrogant, they got the wrong guy," said Andy Meyer of Natick, Mass., who has vacationed with Crowley, coached youth sports with him and is his teammate on a men's softball team. "This is not a racist, rogue cop."

Gates accused the 11-year department veteran of being an unyielding, race-baiting authoritarian after Crowley arrested and charged him with disorderly conduct last week.

And...

For five of the past six years, Crowley has volunteered alongside a black colleague in teaching 60 cadets per year about how to avoid targeting suspects merely because of their race, and how to respond to an array of scenarios they might encounter on the beat. Thomas Fleming, director of the Lowell Police Academy, said Crowley was asked by former Cambridge police Commissioner Ronnie Watson, who is black, to be an instructor.

COMMENT:  Looks like President Obama and Professor Gates have some explaining to do.

July 24, 2009   Permalink

INTO THE FRAY - AT 8:08 A.M. ET:  Outgoing Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty has entered the national political wars.  He is considered a possible Republican candidate for president in 2012.  He is very good, very solid, and he takes on Obama on health care:

"This whole health care proposal by president Obama is really quite a joke on a number of levels," Pawlenty told Neil Cavuto. "I think he is scamming the American people. Even if you believe that it is only going to tax people over $1 million, what is known to happen is that is only going to cover about 25% of the total cost. the rest will be paid for by saving waste, fraud, and abuse. If you believe that, then I've got some January tee time in northern Minnesota."

Good.

Pawlenty warned Republicans of allowing health care to become "a political referendum on" Obama, and to instead stick to arguing the policy.

COMMENT:  He is correct.  There's an old rule in politics:  When your opponent is committing suicide, don't get in his way.  Personal attacks on the president can easily backfire.  Argue the health-care issue.  Arguing that issue has been powerfully effective for Republicans so far.  It will continue to be as Americans learn the details, or lack of them, in Democratic health plans.

July 24, 2009   Pemalink

THE MOMENT - AT 7:56 A.M. ET:  At the Angel's Corner earlier this week we examined the president's predicament - declining poll numbers, with nothing in sight that is likely to improve them.  But we cautioned that the president still remains personally popular because the public likes him.  If that likability factor declines, however, his main political armor would be seriously dented. 

Enter Mr. Obama at his press conference.

Toward the end, after a meandering, useless discussion of health care, the president waded into a controversy involving the arrest of African-American Professor Henry Louis Gates in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  The president, who was not a witness, pronounced that the Cambridge police had acted "stupidly." 

Now we have a firestorm.  It is growing.  That moment at his press conference, replying to a question from Lynn Sweet of Obama's hometown paper, the Chicago Sun-Times, may turn out to have been the moment when millions of Americans thought, "Maybe I don't like him so much."  Even in liberal Massachusetts there's a backlash. 

There are two major elements here - race and class.  Mr. Obama freely admitted that he didn't have the facts about how race might have figured in Gates's arrest, but condemned the police anyway.  It was outrageous, and the fact that the president seemed automatically to believe Gates's version was a role reversal of the old, ugly practice of some white officers automatically believing whites over blacks in criminal cases.  The fact that Gates is a personal friend compounded the offense.

But then there's class, and I argue that this might turn out to be the element that damages the president most in this expanding controversy.  Gates is a college professor.  The man who arrested him is a cop.  It turns out that he's a cop with an outstanding record, especially in race relations, but he's still "only" a cop.  There's an element in the liberal elites that believe that academics are a saintly class, above us all, and not subject to criticism.  You can imagine how that does down with the working stiffs around America, especially those, like police officers and firefighters, who put their lives on the line.  I don't really think that the anthropology department at Harvard is a high-risk area.

I happen to like academic people very much.  I have good friends who teach.  I revere the great professors I was privileged to study with at the University of Chicago and Columbia.  I was an intern for a United States senator, Paul H. Douglas, who'd been a distinguished economist and professor.  I love spending time with scholars. 

But a saintly class - no.  In fact, it's been professors themselves who've stressed to me the need to question scholars, to challenge, never simply to accept or to worship.  But in Obama's clique, worship is too often the practice.  How dare a cop challenge a full professor?  But professors are human.  They make mistakes.  Not all are noble.  They have the same failings as other mortals.  And the notion that we automatically believe Gates because he's an academic is simply unacceptable.

The controversy is hurting the president.  He is not a humble or reflective man, but he should try.  He should simply apologize - both to the public, to police officers generally, and to the officer specifically involved in Gates's arrest.  He should call that officer personally.  Steps like this would do the president a great deal of good right now, a time when his arrogance is on full display.

Will he have the sense to do it?

July 24, 2009    Permalink