Georgeo Xavier Pulikkathara's Photo Blog

Dear Supporter,

Our campaign just released a new web video detailing the ties between Senator Barack Obama and ACORN, the organization currently under investigation for massive voter fraud in a number of battleground states.
Please follow this link to watch "ACORN."

As a result of Senator Obama's blind ambition, he has a long history with the group. Barack Obama trained members of the Chicago ACORN staff, and his campaign has paid more than $800,000 for "voter registration" to an ACORN front group.
We're asking you to take a few minutes this evening to watch the ad and learn more about the relationship between Senator Barack Obama and ACORN.
After watching the video, please forward along to at least five others. It's up to us to hold Senator Obama accountable for his questionable judgment and blind ambition.

Thank you,
The McCain-Palin 2008 Team

//from http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/10/obamas_magic.html

By Kimberley Strassel

And now, America, we introduce the Great Obama! The world's most gifted political magician! A thing of wonder. A thing of awe. Just watch him defy politics, economics, even gravity! (And hold your applause until the end, please.)

To kick off our show tonight, Mr. Obama will give 95% of American working families a tax cut, even though 40% of Americans today don't pay income taxes! How can our star enact such mathemagic? How can he "cut" zero? Abracadabra! It's called a "refundable tax credit." It involves the federal government taking money from those who do pay taxes, and writing checks to those who don't. Yes, yes, in the real world this is known as "welfare," but please try not to ruin the show.

For his next trick, the Great Obama will jumpstart the economy, and he'll do it by raising taxes on the very businesses that are today adrift in a financial tsunami! That will include all those among the top 1% of taxpayers who are in fact small-business owners, and the nation's biggest employers who currently pay some of the highest corporate tax rates in the developed world. Mr. Obama will, with a flick of his fingers, show them how to create more jobs with less money. It's simple, really. He has a wand.

Next up, Mr. Obama will re-regulate the economy, with no ill effects whatsoever! You may have heard that for the past 40 years most politicians believed deregulation was good for the U.S. economy. You might have even heard that much of today's financial mess tracks to loose money policy, or Fannie and Freddie excesses. Our magician will show the fault was instead with our failure to clamp down on innovation and risk-taking, and will fix this with new, all-encompassing rules. Presto!

Did someone in the audience just shout "Sarbanes Oxley?" Usher, can you remove that man? Thank you. Mr. Obama will now demonstrate how he gives Americans the "choice" of a "voluntary" government health plan, designed in such a way as to crowd out the private market and eliminate all other choice! Don't worry people: You won't have to join, until you do. Mr. Obama will follow this with a demonstration of how his plan will differ from our failing Medicare program. Oops, sorry, folks. The Great Obama just reminded me it is time for an intermission. Maybe we'll get to that marvel later.

We're back now. And just watch the Great Obama perform a feat never yet managed in all history. He will create that enormous new government health program, spend billions to transform our energy economy, provide financial assistance to former Soviet satellites, invest in infrastructure, increase education spending, provide job training assistance, and give 95% of Americans a tax (ahem) cut -- all without raising the deficit a single penny! And he'll do it in the middle of a financial crisis. And with falling tax revenues! Voila!

Moving along to a little ventriloquism. Study his mouth carefully, folks: It looks like he's saying "I'll stop the special interests," when in fact the words coming out are "Welcome to Washington, friends!" Wind and solar companies, ethanol makers, tort lawyers, unions, community organizers -- all are welcome to feed at the public trough and to request special favors. From now on "special interests" will only refer to universally despised, if utterly crucial, economic players. Say, oil companies. Hocus Pocus!

And for tonight's finale, the Great Obama will uphold America's "moral" obligation to "stop genocide" by abandoning Iraq! While teleported to the region, he will simultaneously convince Iranian leaders to peacefully abandon their nuclear pursuits (even as he does not sit down with them), fix Afghanistan with a strategy that does not resemble the Iraqi surge, and (drumroll!) pull Osama bin Laden out of his hat!

Tada!

You can clap now. (Applause. Cheers.) We'd like to thank a few people in the audience. Namely, Republican presidential nominee John McCain, who has so admirably restrained himself from running up on stage to debunk any of these illusions and spoil everyone's fun.

We know he's in a bit of a box, having initially blamed today's financial crisis on corporate "greed," and thus made it that much harder to call for a corporate tax cut, or warn against excessive regulation. Still, there were some pretty big openings up here this evening, and he let them alone! We'd also like to thank Mr. McCain for keeping all the focus on himself these past weeks. It has helped the Great Obama to just get on with the show.

As for that show, we'd love to invite you all back for next week's performance, when the Great Obama will thrill with new, amazing exploits. He will respect your Second Amendment rights even as he regulates firearms! He will renegotiate Nafta, even as he supports free trade! He will.

Ms. Strassel is a member of The Wall Street Journal's editorial board.

//from http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/10/obamas_magic.html

From a friend, the original 1999 New York Times story:

Be careful who you blame for current economic shortfalls.  It's easy to blame Bush and the Republicans for everything, but...

Note the date of this article.

Fannie Mae Eases Credit To Aid Mortgage Lending

By STEVEN A. HOLMES

Published: September 30, 1999

In a move that could help increase home ownership rates among minorities and low-income consumers, the Fannie Mae Corporation is easing the credit requirements on loans that it will purchase from banks and other lenders.

The action, which will begin as a pilot program involving 24 banks in 15 markets -- including the  New York metropolitan region -- will encourage those banks to extend home mortgages to individuals whose credit is generally not good enough to qualify for conventional loans. Fannie Mae officials say they hope to make it a nationwide program by next spring.

Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, has been under increasing pressure from the Clinton Administration to expand mortgage loans among low and moderate income people and felt pressure from stock holders to maintain its phenomenal growth in profits.

In addition, banks, thrift institutions and mortgage companies have been pressing Fannie Mae to help them make more loans to so-called subprime borrowers. These borrowers whose incomes, credit ratings and savings are not good enough to qualify for conventional loans, can only get loans from finance companies that charge much higher interest rates -- anywhere from three to four percentage points higher than conventional loans.

''Fannie Mae has expanded home ownership for millions of families in the 1990's by reducing down payment requirements,'' said Franklin D. Raines, Fannie Mae's chairman and chief executive officer. ''Yet there remain too many borrowers whose credit is just a notch below what our underwriting has required who have been relegated to paying significantly higher mortgage rates in the so-called subprime market.''

Demographic information on these borrowers is sketchy. But at least one study indicates that 18 percent of the loans in the subprime market went to black borrowers, compared to 5 per cent of loans in the conventional loan market.

In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980's.

''From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,'' said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ''If they fail, the government will have to   step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.''

Under Fannie Mae's pilot program, consumers who qualify can secure a mortgage with an interest rate one percentage point above that of a conventional, 30-year fixed rate mortgage of less than $240,000 -- a rate that currently averages about 7.76 per cent. If the borrower makes his or her monthly payments on time for two years, the one percentage point premium is dropped.

Fannie Mae, the nation's biggest underwriter of home mortgages, does not lend money directly to consumers. Instead, it purchases loans that banks make on what is called the secondary market. By expanding the type of loans that it will buy, Fannie Mae is hoping to spur banks to make more loans to people with less-than-stellar credit ratings.

Fannie Mae officials stress that the new mortgages will be extended to all potential borrowers who can qualify for a mortgage. But they add that the move is intended in part to increase the number of minority and low income home owners who tend to have worse credit ratings than non-Hispanic whites.

Home ownership has, in fact, exploded among minorities during the economic boom of the 1990's. The number of mortgages extended to Hispanic applicants jumped by 87.2 per cent from 1993 to 1998, according to  Harvard  University's  Joint  Center for Housing Studies. During that same period the number of African Americans who got mortgages to buy a home increased by 71.9 per cent and the number of Asian Americans by 46.3 per cent.

In contrast, the number of non-Hispanic whites who received loans for homes increased by 31.2 per cent.

Despite these gains, home ownership rates for minorities continue to lag behind non-Hispanic whites, in part because blacks and Hispanics in particular tend to have on average worse credit ratings.

In July, the Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed that by the year 2001, 50 percent of Fannie Mae's and Freddie Mac's portfolio be made up of loans to low and moderate-income borrowers. Last year, 44 percent of the loans Fannie Mae purchased were from these groups.

The change in policy also comes at the same time that HUD is investigating allegations of racial discrimination in the automated underwriting systems used by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to determine the credit-worthiness of credit applicants.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE7DB153EF933A0575AC0A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1

// from http://www.rove.com/uploads/0000/0039/McCain-Obama_10_08_08.pdf

Today I mailed in my absentee ballot today. When I walk the green ramp again to begin my military tour of duty in Iraq, I'll know that I got a chance to vote in the Presidential election of 2008. And yes, I voted for John McCain and Sarah Palin to lead our country.

I'm sure you already know about this. It was shown over and over on TV, right?

OK, so maybe it wasn't shown over and over, but surely it was shown on TV at least one time, wasn't it ?

·

This was the largest re-enlistment ceremony ever held in military history.The ceremony was held on the 4th of July, 2008 at Al Faw Palace, Baghdad, Iraq . General David Petraeus officiated. This amazing story was ignored by the 'mainstream' media.

For those who have been in the Al Faw Palace, you'll have a better appreciation of the number of people crammed around the rotunda supporting the re-enlisting soldiers.

American men and women volunteering to stay longer in Iraq, so that when we leave, the new democracy will have a chance of surviving, is the exact opposite of what the media wants you to think about Iraq.  If only a bomb had killed 5 civilians in a marketplace - now that's the kind of news the media is eager to tell you about.

A pizzeria in Chicago donated 2000 pizzas that were made and shipped to Baghdad , and were delivered on the 4th.

The media did report that 2000 pizzas were sent to Iraq on July 4th... The only part they left out of the report was the event for which the pizzas were sent.

I can't help but wonder...

What would the opinion of Americans be if they weren't getting such obviously biased 'news?'

//from the Weekly Standard //

Here’s Obama in Flint, MI today, obviously rejecting David Axelrod’s command that he’s not running against Sarah Palin:

Well, how about Gov. Palin? She's you know, an up and comer from Alaska. She - they're starting to run an ad now saying she opposed the bridge to nowhere. Well now, let's get the facts clear here. When she was mayor, she hired a Washington lobbyist to get earmarks - pork barrel spending - all the things that John McCain says is bad, she lobbied to get! And got a whole lot of it. When it came to the bridge to nowhere, she was for it until everybody started raising a fuss about it and she started running for governor and then suddenly she was against it!

You remember that? For it before you were against it? I mean you can't just make stuff up. You can't just recreate yourself. You can't just reinvent yourself. The American people aren't stupid.

No, the American people aren’t stupid. And they won’t tolerate this kind of gratutious attack on a genuine American hero, especially from a guy like Senator Obama who sought $740 million worth of earmarks of his own during a very short stint in the United States senate. Yes, my dear Obamaphiles, it’s true – during his time as a senator, Barack Obama has requested more than $1million/day for each day the senate has been in session.

In case you’re keeping score at home, John McCain has never requested a single earmark during his lengthy senate career.

View article...

//from the Weekly Standard //

My brother got to shake hands with General Patraeus in Iraq.

I got a chance to listen to Sarah's speech during the Republican Convention, and I was deeply touched by her empathy and passion for taking care of Americans for a change. Sarah is the real thing, and she’s a candidate who is from the people for the people. She's not a Washington insider, or an elitist. Sarah has real accomplishments and can show her real self to the American People.

Sarah knows the American people are suffering and she’s going to put a stop to it. I’m glad that we have Senator McCain and Governor Palin running for the white house. I can sleep better at night knowing that they’re going to fix the mess that Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Congress have made of our energy situation. Leave it to the Republicans to put a woman in as the Vice President of the United States and hopefully as the next President of the United States after President John McCain.

// From Fox News //

Barack Obama contends that he is more experienced in executive matters than Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin because he has managed his presidential campaign for the past 18 months.

Speaking on a cable news channel Monday night, the Democratic presidential nominee said he is better prepared to handle a disaster like Hurricane Gustav because of his pursuit of the White House.

“Well, my understanding is that Governor Palin’s town of Wasilla has, I think, 50 employees. We’ve got 2,500 in this campaign. I think their budget is maybe $12 million a year. You know, we have a budget of about three times that just for the month. So I think that our ability to manage large systems and to execute I think has been made clear over the last couple of years,” Obama said.

John McCain’s spokesman called the suggestion “laughable.”

“For Barack Obama to argue that he’s experienced enough to be president because he’s running for president is desperate circular logic and its laughable. It is a testament to Barack Obama’s inexperience and failing qualifications that he would stoop to passing off his candidacy as comparable to Governor Sarah Palin’s executive experience managing a budget of over $10 billion and more than 24,000 employees,” said spokesman Tucker Bounds.

I would think even democrats are cringing on this one!

// From Fox News //

American Issues Project exposes ties to Barack Obama and William "Bill" Ayers. William Ayers Was The Co-Founder Of The Radical Left-Wing Weather Underground Group, who were responsible for bombing the US Capitol and the Pentagon in the 1970's.

Plus, click here (PDF) to review a shocking timeline of events for Weather Underground. It begins in 1969 as a faction of the Students for a Democratic Society organized the "Days of Rage" in Chicago. Follow news media accounts of the horrific sequence of events that ensued in the 1970s as William Ayers and Weather Underground resorted to radical tactics and extreme violence.

If you haven't seen this video, you need to see it before Obama's attack dogs shut it down. They've already sent a letter to the Department of Justice(DOJ) to get the ad of the air. They were not successful, and have sent forth a second letter.

American Issues Project(AIP) is responsible for this ad, and they have responded to it. AIP responds:

“Having failed in its attempts to get our legal, factual and fully-supported ad off the air, Barack Obama’s campaign now wants to put our donors in prison for exercising their right to free speech,” said Ed Martin, American Issues Project’s president. “These over-the-top bullying tactics are reminiscent of the kind of censorship one would see in a Stalinist dictatorship, with the only difference being that those guys generally had to wait until they were in power to throw people who disagreed with them into jail.”

In addition to two letters sent to the Department of Justice asking the government to investigate American Issues Project, its officers, board of directors, and donors, the Obama campaign has been contacting stations running American Issues Project’s ad in an unsuccessful attempt to compel them to pull the spot. With no success on either front, the campaign has also begun running its own ad in response. Notably, this ad fails to dispute a single fact in the American Issues Project’s initial ad.

American Issues Project is a 501(c)4 organization, similar in structure to NARAL and the League of Conservation Voters, two liberal organizations that have claimed status as “qualified nonprofit corporations” for two decades. In accordance with federal law, American Issues Project only solicits and accepts contributions from individuals and not from any business corporation. The FEC also sets out specific regulations for the activities of a qualified nonprofit corporation, which American Issues Project follows.

The American Issues Project’s ad began airing Thursday, August 21, and will continue through the Democratic Convention. An electronic version of the ad and full documentation of all statements made are available at American Issues Project’s website: www.americanissuesproject.org.

Yes, this is the same Nancy Pelosi that decided to do her own talking and visited Syria, a nation that is listed as a state sponsor of terror and is home to the terrorist group, Hezbollah. Madam Speaker made the trip to Syria, in defiance of President Bush, who discouraged her from making the trip. She should have listened. Then she wouldn't have to worry about her like boorish and culturally insensitive act of crossing herself in a Syrian Mosque. Not to mention the way she made up facts and conveyed messages from world leaders that was never stated.

// From Sweetness & Light //

From the wire services:

U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, looks at the tomb containing the head of St. John the Baptist inside the historic Ommayad Mosque, during her tour at a popular market in downtown Damascus, Syria, Tuesday April 3, 2007.

If this had been President Bush or any other Republican this would be described as a terrible faux pas. A sure sign of boorish cultural insensitivity.

Our watchdog media and of course the Islamic world would be screaming bloody murder. (And probably some people would suffer the fate of John the Baptist.)

But all the rules are different for Democrats.

// From Sweetness & Light //

//From Politico.com //

August 26, 2008

Categories: Bad behavior

Pelosi to protesters: "Can we drill your brains?"

House Democratic leaders and protesters waving McCain signs had a war of words Tuesday at a press event outside an old train station. The demonstrators interrupted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with chants of “Drill here! Drill now!”
Pelosi paused and asked the group, “Right here?”
Seeming to enjoy the back and forth, she followed with another question: “Can we drill your brains?”
She went on to refer to the protesters, who continued to chant sporadically, as “handmaidens of Big Oil.” Arguing that increased offshore drilling would reduce gas prices by only a couple of pennies a decade from now, she referred to the demonstrators as the “2-cents-in-10-years-crowd.”
Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer swiped at the demonstrators, too, saying that “sophomoric chanting” won’t solve the energy crisis and that “all thinking Americans know” — stressing the word "thinking" and looking at the crowd — that America doesn’t have a quarter of the word’s fossil fuels yet uses a quarter of the world’s energy.

By Ryan Grim 02:24 PM

//From Politico.com //

//from The Seattle Times //

Mayor Nickels holds off on Seattle gun ban

By Sharon Pian Chan, Seattle Times staff reporter

As summer began, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels said he was taking steps to prohibit guns on all city-owned property after three people were injured in a shooting at Northwest Folklife. But as Bumbershoot approaches this weekend, no prohibition has taken effect.

As summer began, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels said he was taking steps to prohibit guns on all city-owned property after three people were injured in a shooting at Seattle Center's Northwest Folklife festival.

But as the Center's summer festival season concludes with Bumbershoot this weekend, no prohibition has taken effect.

"It's very complex. The city owns numerous properties citywide and in some areas outside of the city," said Regina LaBelle, legal counsel for the mayor. "We are going through all of those properties and developing a legally defensible rule."

In the state Legislature, representatives and senators have asked state Attorney General Rob McKenna to issue an informal legal opinion on whether state law pre-empts Nickels' executive order. That opinion may be ready by the end of September.

McKenna's office says such nonbinding opinions have historically been given great weight by the courts.

Also, the Second Amendment Foundation and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, both based in Bellevue, have notified Nickels they intend to mount a legal challenge to the executive order.

On Memorial Day weekend, Clinton Chad Grainger, a Snohomish man with a history of drug addiction and schizophrenia, fired a gun during a fight at the music festival, wounding three other people. Grainger, who this month pleaded guilty to two counts of third-degree assault, had a concealed-weapon permit.

Two weeks after the shooting, Nickels signed an executive order directing city departments to report back within 30 days with a plan on how to make city facilities — parks, Seattle Center, community centers, buildings — gun free. They have reported back, and the mayor's office is now drafting an administrative rule.

The mayor said the city eventually would post signs prohibiting guns, which has yet to happen. The city wouldn't be able to arrest people for violating the policy, but it could charge violators with trespassing. Law-enforcement officials would be exempt.

Many immediately questioned whether the city could pre-empt state law governing firearms. In Washington state, cities cannot go beyond state law restricting firearms.

Nickels believes the door for exceptions was opened by a 2006 state Supreme Court ruling case involving the city of Sequim. The court ruled that Sequim could regulate gun sales at a show held at a city-owned miniconvention center.

State Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim, is one of the legislators requesting the opinion from the attorney general.

"It's not like we're picking at Seattle, but I think we would have numerous jurisdictions having numerous different rules and it would create great confusion," he said.

In his district, Van De Wege said, the city of Montesano in Grays Harbor County tried to pass a local law restricting firearms, which was vetoed by the mayor there.

LaBelle said the city plans to hold a public hearing on the issue, but no date has been set.

"We're trying to ensure the safety of the residents of the city and visitors to the city," she said. "We're taking what we believe are common-sense steps to do that."

Sharon Pian Chan: 206-464-2958 or schan@seattletimes.com

//from The Seattle Times //

Governor Palin would make an awesome Vice President of the United States. Check out the clip below.

//From the Weekly Standard Blog//

Remember on Saturday when the DNC reported taking in more money in July than the RNC? Turns out that's untrue. Although an e-mail Saturday from Karen Finney, the DNC’s director of communications, said Democratic National Committee raised $27.7 million, FEC reports show that the Democrats only took in $19.9 million, or nearly $8 million less than it claimed, compared to the RNC's $25.8 million.

Looking at contributions or cash on hand, the disparity grows even wider. The RNC received $16,422,000 in contributions while the DNC only took in $7,348,000 -- less than half the RNC's total. The RNC has $75 million cash on hand to the DNC's puny $7 million. The media loved reporting that Obama took in nearly twice McCain's sum in July, but how many will now report the RNC took in more than twice the DNC in contributions?

View article...

//From the Weekly Standard Blog//

I'm a big fan of Peggy Noonan. Peggy has a way of cutting through all the BS and getting to the heart of the matter. Agree or disagree( I agree with Peggy), you need to read Peggy's writings.

//From the Wall Street Journal, by Peggy Noonan //

DECLARATIONS

By PEGGY NOONAN

They're Paying Attention Now
August 22, 2008

Why is it a real race now, with John McCain rising in the polls and Barack Obama falling? There are many answers, but here I think is an essential one: The American people have begun paying attention.

It's hard for our political class to remember that Mr. Obama has been famous in America only since the winter of '08. America met him barely six months ago! The political class first interviewed him, or read the interview, in 2003 or '04, when he was a rising star. They know him. Everyone else is still absorbing.

This is what they see:

An attractive, intelligent man, interesting, but—he's hard to categorize. Is he Gen. Obama? No, no military background. Brilliant Businessman Obama? No, he never worked in business. Famous Name Obama? No, it's a new name, an unusual one. Longtime Southern Governor Obama? No. He's a community organizer (what's that?), then a lawyer (boo), then a state legislator (so what, so's my cousin), then U.S. senator (less than four years!).

There is no pre-existing category for him.

Add to that the wear and tear of Jeremiah Wright, secret Muslim rumors, media darling and, this week, abortion.

It took a toll, which led to a readjustment. His uniqueness, once his great power, is now his great problem.

And over there is Mr. McCain, and—well, we know him. He's POW/senator/prickly, irritating John McCain.

* * *

The Rick Warren debate mattered. Why? It took place at exactly the moment America was starting to pay attention. This is what it looked like by the end of the night: Mr. McCain, normal. Mr. Obama, not normal. You've seen this discussed elsewhere. Mr. McCain was direct and clear, Mr. Obama both more careful and more scattered. But on abortion in particular, Mr. McCain seemed old-time conservative, which is something we all understand, whether we like such a stance or not, and Mr. Obama seemed either radical or dodgy. He is "in … favor of limits" on late-term abortions, though some would consider those limits "inadequate." (In the past week much legal parsing on emanations of penumbras as to the viability of Roe v. Wade followed.)

As I watched I thought: How about "Let the baby live"? Don't parse it. Just "Let the baby live."

As to the question when human life begins, the answer to which is above Mr. Obama's pay grade, oh, let's go on a little tear. You know why they call it birth control? Because it's meant to stop a birth from happening nine months later. We know when life begins. Everyone who ever bought a pack of condoms knows when life begins.

To put it another way, with conception something begins. What do you think it is? A car? A 1948 Buick?

If you want to argue whether legal abortion is morally defensible, have at it and go to it, but Mr. Obama's answers here seemed to me strange and disturbing.

Mr. Obama's upcoming convention speech will be good. All Obama speeches are good. Not as interesting as he is—he is more compelling as a person than his words tend to be in text. But the speech will be good, and just in case it isn't good, people will still come away with an impression that it must have been, because the media is going to say it was, because they expect it to be, and what they expect is what they will see.

Will Mr. Obama dig deep as to meaning? As to political predicates? During the primary campaigns Republicans were always saying, "This is what I'll do." Mr. Obama has a greater tendency to say, "This is how we'll feel." Republicans talk to their base with, "If we pass this bill, which the Democrats irresponsibly oppose, we'll solve this problem." Democrats are more inclined toward, "If we bring a new attitude of hopefulness and respect for the world, we'll make the seas higher and the fish more numerous." Will Mr. Obama be, in terms of programs and plans, specific? And will his specifics be grounded in something that appears to amount to a political philosophy?

I suspect everyone has the convention speeches wrong. Everyone expects Mr. Obama to rouse, but the speech I'd watch is Mr. McCain's.

He's the one with the real opportunity, because no one expects anything. He's never been especially good at making speeches. (The number of men who've made it to the top of the GOP who don't particularly like making speeches, both Bushes and Mr. McCain, is astonishing, and at odds with the presumed requirements of the media age. The first Bush saw speeches as show biz, part of the weary requirement of leadership, and the second's approach reflects a sense that words, though interesting, were not his friend.)

But Mr. McCain provided, in 2004, one of the most exciting and certainly the most charged moment of the Republican Convention, when he looked up at Michael Moore in the press stands and said, "Our choice wasn't between a benign status quo and the bloodshed of war, it was between war and a greater threat. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. . . . And certainly not a disingenuous filmmaker who would have us believe that Saddam's Iraq was an oasis of peace." It blew the roof off. And the smile he gave Mr. Moore was one of pure, delighted malice. When Mr. McCain comes to play, he comes to play.

Look for a certain populist stance. He signaled it this week in Politico. He called lobbyists "birds of prey" in pursuit of "their share of the spoils." Great stuff. (Boy, will he have trouble staffing his White House.)

* * *

I still think a one-term pledge could win it for him, because it would allow America to punt. It would make the 2008 choice seem less fateful. People don't mind the chance to defer a choice when they're not at all sure about the product. It would give bitter Democrats a chance to regroup, and it would give those who like Obama but consider him a little half-baked to vote against him guiltlessly while he becomes fully baked. (Imagine the Q&A when Sen. Obama announces his second presidential run in 2011: "Well, Brian, I think, looking back, there is something to be said for the idea that I will be a better president now than frankly I would have been four years ago. Experience, if you allow it, is still the best of all teachers.") More, it would allow Mr. McCain to say he means to face the tough problems ahead with a uniquely bipartisan attitude and without having to care a fig for re-election. That itself would give him a new power, one that would make up for the lost juice of lame duckdom. It would also serve to separate him from the hyperpolitical operating styles of the Clinton-Bush years, from the constant campaign.

And Mr. McCain would still have what he always wanted, the presidency, perhaps a serious and respectable one that accrued special respect because it involved some sacrifice on his part.

A move that would help him win doubtful voters, win disaffected Democrats, allow some Republicans to not have to get drunk to vote for him, and that could possibly yield real results for his country. This seems to me such a potentially electrifying idea that he'd likely walk out of his convention as the future president.

Mr. McCain told Politico on Wednesday that he's not considering a one-term pledge.

Why would he not? Such modesty of intent is at odds with the political personality. The thing that makes them want to rule America is the thing that stops them from thinking of prudent limits. This mindset crosses all political categories.

See all of today's editorials and op-eds, plus video commentary, on Opinion Journal.

And add your comments to the Opinion Journal forum.

//From the Wall Street Journal, by Peggy Noonan //

Go to http://www.rove.com/maps/overtime to see Electoral College Projections Since March 2008. If you're a Obama supporter, you may not like it, but you've only got your candidate's election platform to blame.

http://macsmind.com/wordpress/2008/02/27/obama-plans-to-disarm-america/

http://pumaparty.com/blog/1-puma-party

Puma party member, N. Lee, writes,

"N. Lee, on June 12th, 2008 at 6:37 pm Said:

Be sure to check out Karl Rove's website at www.rove.com. Mr. Rove discusses all things the election2008 events to date and what McCain should do next. Good stuff.

Check out Riverdaughter's blogpost called Normalizing Hillary: Connect the Vote Dots.

http://riverdaughter.wordpress.com/

Laura and I both can now take a break. Laura's fence is now finally complete. Not bad work for a dentist, a cardiologist, a cabinet maker, and a Microsoftie. Be sure to check out the pictures of the fence here.