David Brooks has been one of my favorite commentators and columnists for about five years. I commend to you his column describing the campaign McCain wanted to run and the campaign he has been forced to run.

Some old McCain hands are dismayed. John Weaver, the former staff member who helped run the old McCain operation, argues that this campaign does not do justice to the man. The current advisers say they have no choice. They didn’t choose the circumstances of this race. Their job is to cope with them.

And the inescapable fact is: It is working. Everyone said McCain would be down by double digits at this point. He’s nearly even. Everyone said he’d be vastly outspent. That hasn’t happened. A long-shot candidacy now seems entirely plausible.

As the McCain’s campaign has become more conventional, his political prospects have soared. Both he and Obama had visions of upending the system. Maybe in office, one of them will still be able to do that. But at least on the campaign trail, the system is winning.

Okay, I think Timbo caught me greatly up to speed on the BAIPA issue. I still don't have all the pieces but I feel like I understand it well enough to converse about it. It was constructed to provide the same rights to aborted non-viable living infants as would be provided to a viable living infant. The law in place protected a viable living infant born through an abortion method or otherwise. If there was a potential for a child to live some extended amount of time they had to be cared for.

Am I right then that the crux of the issue was, how will we care for living aborted babies while they die? There was already a protection if the child was viable, which would by age be at least 24 weeks but almost definitely not until 26 weeks gestation.

Here is my question to Tim, Micah, or any other who has been active and passionate about this issue. Why does this make you so angry? Why have I heard terms like infanticide or near-infanticide? If this provision could only apply to a dying child, why does the degree of care for that child bring such consternation? From my perspective, I would like a dying child to be cared for with more dignity and mercy than the nurse's testimony described. There is a fire and a passion around this issue, though, that appears to surpass dignity and mercy for the dying. What is it?

Lets see if we can get bring this topic to this site. This is not something Obama has campaigned on. We heard him speak at Saddleback tonight. He did not have much to say about the topic, but was asked the question in an Evangelical setting. There have been distant rumblings about the issue, but today as Christians on the left began bringing up McCain's marital failures, Christians on the right have been bringing Obama's abortion record to the fore.

I invite Micah and Tim to please bring the case. Let us hear it all. In particular, I would like to know about the action that has so incensed people. I will excerpt from Tim's comment here:

I think you are overlooking the facts surrounding Obama's votes and views on the Born Alive Infants Protection Act. It is a fact that the left and the right agreed to extend legal protection to all babies alive outside the womb. It is also a fact that Obama voted to kill a state version of BAIPA in 2003. It is also a fact that, when pressed about his opposition to the state version of BAIPA, Obama claimed (1) he voted against it because it did not include language which protected Roe v. Wade, and (2) he would have voted in favor of the state version of BAIPA if it had had language similar to that of the unopposed, bipartisan federal BAIPA, which protected Roe v. Wade. These are irrefutable facts.

However, it is also a fact that the state version of BAIPA actually did have explicit language, which had been adapted from the federal BAIPA, yet Obama nevertheless voted in the negative, meaning that he failed to extend legal protection to the most vulnerable among us ("the least of these") even though it included the explicit language which Obama claims was not there.

Assume as a moderate that I have heard little about this case other than a couple lines of print of Obama responding to the issue. What was BAIPA? Who was it protecting? What is the evidence that these protections were needed? What was at stake in Obama supporting or not supporting it?

Redstate's perspectives are often so different from mine that I don't agree with many of the suppositions behind their arguments. I don't have much to quibble about with this article, though, about the Clinton's lack of support for Obama and their role in the convention.

This ad makes me uncomfortable. I agree with its premise that Obama's treatment of his family reflects on his character. My discomfort comes from the fact that every speaker seems to be talking about McCain rather than Obama. It may be that I just can't avoid the contrast knowing that McCain had an affair, left his wife and married his mistress. Political ads are parsed for tone and implication, and it is clear to me that the Matthew 25 group who put out this ad is not saying people should support Obama because he is a family man, they are saying we should not support McCain because he was unfaithful to his wife. Perhaps they were not as subtle as they think they were. Perhaps this was the balance of directness/indirectness they were seeking.



In tandem with this release is this from an article by Johnathan Martin of Politico.com.

Per ABC, Kirbyjon Caldwell, who is a close friend of the Bush family and officiated at Jenna Bush's wedding earlier this year, used a conference call organized by a new left-leaning Christian group to go there:

"His marital history has been duly recorded," said Caldwell, referring to McCain, "and as recently as yesterday I think it is, our pastor from Saddleback, Rick Warren indicated that he would not feel comfortable voting for an adulterer and I don't know exactly to whom he was referring but I think the data speaks for itself, and again, at the end of the day, and I really appreciate you raising this because, at the end of the day again I think the American public deserves full revelation of the candidate's character and competency. Character and competency. So, whatever questions that should be asked that would give the voting public an indication as to who they are and what they've done should be fair game."

Asked by ABC's Tapper if he would have compunctions about voting for someone who had cheated on his wife, Warren said Thursday, "Absolutely I would. Absolutely I would. Because if you can’t keep your faith to your most sacred vow — 'til death do us part' — how in the world can I trust you to lead my family? My government? My nation? ... Absolutely I would. I think people first need to ask forgiveness and then earn trust back over time. Can trust be re-earned? Absolutely, but it takes time."

This appears to be a party reversal. From Yahoo News:

Troops serving abroad have given nearly six times as much money to Obama's presidential campaign as they have to McCain's, the Center for Responsive Politics said.

[update 10:20pm]
Also, the most interesting question I have heard in a political ad yet. Do you support George Bush today more than you did four years ago?


And then, Chris Wallace skewers Mr. Davis, a spokesman for McCain regarding his maverick ad and his record of voting with Bush.

The Obama campaign has written a 40 page refutation of the claims in Corsi's Obama Nation. I encourage you to read, or at least skim Unfit for Publication(pdf), particularly if you have any inkling you might pick up "Obama Nation".

Corsi's "errors" are aweful. His book appears to be an ignorant bucket of slime. "Obama Nation" is published by Threshold Editions, a division of Simon & Schuster that is run by Mary Matalin, the former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney. Matalin calls this book ‘a piece of scholarship, and a good one at that.' I invite anyone to read the 40 pages of refutations of Corsi's factual errors, like Obamas wedding date (off by three years) and suggest that this is an act of scholarship. There is more than I can helpfully summarize, I encourage you to download it and skim the headlines if not the content of the refutations.

Corsi is a fruitcake

If I don't excerpt anything else from this document, I will share these assertions. I understand this is an ad hominem attack. It think it is worth knowing who it is who is making the claims in Obama Nation.

CORSI IS A 9/11 TRUTH BELIEVER—THAT AIRPLANES WERE NOT TRULY TO BLAME FOR DESTRUCTION OF WORLD TRADE TOWERS

Corsi: Minnesota Bridge Collapse Cause By “NAFTA Superhighway.”

Corsi Wrote a Book Saying Bush’s “Globalist Agenda” Is Leading to a North American Union.

Conservative Human Events Writer: Corsi Isn’t “Any More Worthy Of Being Taken Seriously Than Those Who Think Jews Rule The World Or The ‘Truthers’ Who Think President Bush Is Responsible For 9/11.”

Corsi Wrote a Book Disagreeing With Most Scientists That There is a Limit to Oil.

Corsi Wrote a Book Claiming Democrats Were Being Corrupted by Iranian Funding and Helping Iranians Get Nukes.

Corsi Quotes:

CATHOLICS AND THE POPE
• “Boy buggering in both Islam and Catholicism is okay with the Pope as long as it isn’t reported by the liberal press.”
• “So this is what the last days of the Catholic Church are going to look like. Buggering boys undermines the moral base and the laywyers rip the gold off the Vatican altars. We may get one more Pope, when this senile one dies, but that’s probably about it.”

ON ISLAM
• “Let’s see exactly why it isn’t the case that Islam is a worthless, dangerous Satanic religion? Where’s theproof to the contrary?”
• “Islam is like a virus -- it affects the mind -- maybe even better as an analogy -- it is a cancer that destroys the body it infects.”
• “Islam is a peaceful religion as long as the women are beaten, the boys buggered, and the infidels killed.”
• “Think the liberal press will ever let out that these 2 were lovers -- typical Islamic boy-buggering -- older man, younger man -- black Muslims? I doubt it. Not a pretty picture, but one certain to be hidden by PC media.”
• “RAGHEADS are Boy-Bumpers as clearly as they are Women- Haters -- it all goes together.”

KERRY
• “First let’s undermine the US in Vietnam. Then we can go for gay marriage. When you get to be Pres. JFK-lite, there will be no end to how much of America we can destroy.”
• “Just don’t let anybody put a tablet with the Ten Commandments in front of the school where that girl wants to wear a Muslim scarf -- OH, No --- then the RATS would complain. Anti- Christian, Anti-American -- just like their Presidential Candidate -- Jean Francois Kerrie.”
• “After he married TerRAHsa, didn’t John Kerry begin practicing Judiasm? He also has paternal gradparents that were Jewish. What religion is John Kerry?”
• “Kerry has a long history of Communist supporters.”
• “Kerry offers a clear choice. Anti-American hatred.”
• “John F-ing Commie Kerry and Commie Ted discuss their plan to hand America over to our nation’s enemies.”

PRESIDENT CLINTON
• “When is this guy going to admit he’s simply an anti- American communist? Won’t he and his leftist wife simply go away???? Enough already.”
• “Hey, Bill, didn’t you steal enough when you had the chance?”
• “Clinton doesn’t get it. Afganistan, and other Moslim countries, are not poor because they lack money. The culture itself is anti-modern. But then, maybe Slick did get it and he just wants to create another bork
barrel from which he and his wife can draw slop.”
• “Clinton was more interested in gays in the military than going after OBL. Clinton had Janet Rhino pushing the FBI to deport a child to Castro’s nondemocratic Cuba, not searching out OBL sleepers in the
USA. Clinton was too busy getting BJs in the Oval Office to do more than Wag the Dog after the Cole was hit.”

I find the acrimony regarding the Chinese Women's Gymnastics team's age unseemly. It is a shame that what makes the headlines regarding the US team's reactions to China's victory are accusations about age and complaints about icing their captain before her beam rotation, rather than a warm congratulations to a fierce competitor. Both teams had struggles and made mistakes. Both teams had moments of astonishing skill. China won the gold.

I think rules should be followed. Once the team has been set, though, I would rather have a competition, rather than complain after we lose that people should be disqualified.

All that said, David Flumenbaum at the Huffington Post has collected published documents indicating that gymnist He Kexin's is 14 years old.

Talking Points Memo, an overtly leftist activist site, raises the question, will Edwards draw attention to McCain's marital past the way Bill Clinton's drew attention unearthing GOP legislators? McCain is very tight lipped about the Edwards affair. "I am not going to comment on that," exactly. I expect any hint of GOP criticism for Edwards could turn an unflattering light his direction.

Some may recall my post earlier this year about the Obama-is-the-antiChrist meme. Those who believe it are fanatic about it. Some visited my site to argue that he absolutely was the antiChrist.

So, I started seeing internet chatter within an hour of McCain's "The One" ad mocking Obama as a religious figure. The first time I saw the ad I saw the way it would play to this strange little group. After a few days, the Main Stream Media has started looking into the story. Here is Time's article on it.

Sapp knows that the phrasing and images could just be dismissed as a peculiar coincidence. After all, it was Oprah Winfrey who told an Iowa crowd that Obama was "the one!" But, he insists, "the frequency of these images and references don't make any sense unless you're trying to send the message that Obama could be the Antichrist." Mara Vanderslice, another Democratic consultant, who handled religious outreach for the 2004 Kerry campaign, agrees. "If they wanted to be funny, if they really wanted to play up the idea that Obama thinks he's the Second Coming, there were better ways to do it," she says. "Why use these awkward lines like, 'And the world will receive his blessings'?"