US Features
Republicans bash continent, European right hails McCain
By Frank Fuhrig and Chris Cermak Sep 4, 2008, 12:20 GMT
Republican Vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, with Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain and her family, acknowledges supporters on the floor of the Republican National Convention at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, 3 September, 2008. EPA/TANNEN MAURY
St Paul, Minnesota - Republicans celebrating their national convention have hammered Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama for his 'celebrity' tour of Europe this summer - while Europe's conservatives were in attendance to proclaim their admiration for Republican Party candidate John McCain.
Republican speakers at this week's presidential nominating pageant have delighted in ridiculing Europe as a pro-Obama home of stifling welfare states.
Obama visited the Middle East and Europe in July, meeting with the leaders of Britain, France and Germany and holding a rousing speech before an estimated 200,000 people in Berlin. Polls have shown Obama would win in a landslide if the US election was up to Europeans.
McCain would 'rather spend his time creating 200,000 jobs in America than speaking to 200,000 Germans in Berlin,' Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman quipped Wednesday.
Meanwhile, officials from the European People's Party (EPP), a centre-right coalition of national conservative parties from across Europe, were in St Paul to endorse McCain.
Former Belgian prime minister Wilfried Martens, who has served as EPP president since 1992, led the delegation. 'Despite the wave of Obama-mania in Europe, the EPP is one of the few European voices that have openly supported John McCain,' he said.
Part of their affection for McCain comes from his long involvement in the International Republican Institute, a democracy-building group. 'We got to know him as someone who is very strongly interested in trans-Atlantic relations,' Martens said.
George W Bush, US president since 2001, is remarkably unpopular in Western Europe, which 'of course is why there is so much hype around Obama,' Martens said. But the Illinois senator, with only four years in office, 'lacks the experience of John McCain.'
Already prior to the convention, Obama's Berlin speech had been derided by McCain and Republicans in commercials that painted Obama as the 'biggest celebrity in the world' and mocked Europeans for fawning over the Democratic candidate.
McCain made his own trip to Europe shortly after capturing the nomination in March. He met with continental leaders but gave no public speeches.
EPP officials cite McCain's position on climate change, which proposes an energy policy that includes renewables, as another hopeful sign for his relations with European allies, if elected.
McCain, who will accept the party's nomination Thursday night, has in the past promised a renewed focus on US allies, promising not to follow the go-it-alone strategy of the Bush administration if he wins the November 4 election and becomes president.
But his Republican colleagues on Wednesday made a forceful argument to continue the battle against terrorism, spoke little of allies and pledged to remain firm on issues that have irked many Europeans - including preventing Guantanamo Bay detainees from gaining access to US federal courts.
Former New York mayor Rudi Giuliani provoked a chorus of boos from the crowd when he spoke of Obama's support for the United Nations Security Council handling the crisis in Georgia. Giuliani ridiculed Obama's position, noting that Russia has a Security Council veto.
Former presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said: 'Barack Obama's excellent adventure to Europe took his campaign for change to hundreds of thousands of people who don't even vote or pay taxes here. But let me hasten to say, it's not what he took there that concerns me. It's what he brought back - lot's of European ideas that give the government the chance to grab even more of our liberty.'
Mitt Romney, a former venture capitalist and presidential candidate, framed Democrats as offering the opposite - 'higher taxes, bigger government' - and compared them to a rather depressing picture of the continent across the Atlantic.
'It's the same path Europe took a few decades ago. It leads to moribund growth and double-digit unemployment,' Romney said.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
Wall Street on G.O.P.(abridged)
On CNBC this week Jack Welch, GE's chief executive officer from that firm's salad days in the 1980s and 1990s, pointed out the dangers of a three-house Democratic sweep. He says it's dangerous for both the stock market and the economy. And he wants to know why the St. Paul Republicans aren't running against Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Barack Obama.
Mr. Welch made the point that the last time the Democrats had control of all three houses in Washington the Jimmy Carter administration was in charge. That was a time of economic and stock market malaise. However, when Washington was divided — as was the case when Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton were in the White House — the economy and the stock market took off.
'With Pelosi and Reid pushing him,' Mr. Welch said, 'there's no limit to the taxes [Obama will] raise.' Mitch McConnell, who joined Mr. Welch on our show, was in full agreement: 'You've got a prescription for turning America into France,' the Senate minority leader said, 'which is exactly what the Democrats want to do if they get all three [houses.]'
I agree completely. A three-house Democratic sweep is a vital issue and Senator McCain and Governor Palin should be raising it. A three-house sweep is bad for the economy and the stock market. And will someone tell me exactly why the St. Paul Republican's aren't mentioning the economy?
As of the time that I write this, there has so far been no reference to the weak economy. There has been no economic-recovery message and no growth message. There has been no reference to the populist revolt against high gas prices at the pump, which is the main cause of the economic slump.
There has been no reference to the 70% of Americans who are tired of high gas prices and want to drill for more oil as at least a short-run solution over the next five to 10 years.
There is no one connecting with the economic woes of blue-collar type working folks who are getting creamed, who worry about falling jobs and rising unemployment, and who want someone to help with the oil shock. What's going on here? What ever happened to the prosperity part of peace and prosperity?
I made many of these same points Wednesday night on the Corner, National Review Online's political Web log. To digest, Sarah Palin delivered a brilliant speech in St. Paul. So many good lines. She showed us all that she's a superb communicator — that she's even Reagan-like. I personally loved her line about the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull: lipstick.
With a smile and a great quip, she signaled to her opponents that she is tough, serious, and purposeful — that she has strong convictions and she's not going to be intimidated. I asked recently if we're not witnessing the Western frontier version of Margaret Thatcher.
Sarah Palin is just what the Republican Party needs. She connected really well with middle-class working folks, both in cultural and social terms, which is no small feat: Values matter and the Democrats are in trouble here — big-time. The more they go after Mrs. Palin culturally, as they have already, the more trouble they'll fall into.
And Mrs. Palin did mention oil and gas drilling, and she effectively connected her Alaskan natural-gas pipeline to Tsar Putin's global aim of energy blackmail. She proved that she knows a bit more about high-table geopolitics than her critics think, and that Alaskans know a lot about Russian territorial ambitions, with Russia right across the pond....
I'm not sure we could have had a Reagan withoout a Carter first.
When McCain pledges 'change' but fails to even hint what needs to be changed and how,draw your own conclusion:just hollow slogans ,read from the auto cue,written by un uninspired speech writer from some obscure public relation company hired by the GOP.Nothing more than that :empty words .What the USA needs is proper education,based on science .With Paling the door will be opened for the silly right wing creationists.Dont allow your children to be educated by people who want to bring back the dark medieval time when science was no more than what religion zealots wanted you to believe .
When McCain pledges 'change' but fails to even hint what needs to be changed and how,draw your own conclusion:just hollow slogans ,read from the auto cue,written by un uninspired speech writer from some obscure public relation company hired by the GOP.
'Real Change' w/ proof of past experience and productivity. Obama does not own this
Nothing more than that :empty words .
'Obama offers nothing but empty promises w/ tax increases'
What the USA needs is proper education,based on science .
'McCain is revolutionizinf education, by establishing a new uptodate civil rights agenda, Education w/Choice. The Obamanation missed the point.'
With Paling the door will be opened for the silly right wing creationists.
'Yes, people who respect the right of a baby to live, finally will have a voice. The abortionist's from the Obamanation willnot be silenced, but will be caught during their afternoon snacks w/the evil they do.'
Dont allow your children to be educated by people who want to bring back the dark medieval time when science was no more than what religion zealots wanted you to believe .
'Tony this is already in progress as set up and run by the education Unions. They have silenced all reasoned thinking and replaced it with a monkey model, tomorrow a fish model, and next year a bird model. Even evolutionists cannot prove fact'
page: 1
What you are being sold.Sep 4th, 2008 - 18:54:50
Abridged
When conservatives and others question the absence of any executive experience of Barack Obama and why it is that a man who has spent just over a hundred days as a United States Senator is so close to the presidency, we are to conclude those doubters are racists.
When media and Obama aides point out that Sarah Palin was a mayor of a town with a population below 10,000 and has only been a governor and commander-in-chief of the Alaskan National Guard for two years, we are to accept that she is not even close to being prepared to sit a heartbeat away from the presidency.
When the National Enquirer breaks a story about a former vice-presidential nominee and presidential candidate and, until just a few weeks ago, viable possibility for a Cabinet post - a man whose endorsement of Barack Obama literally stopped the presses and caused networks to break in to regular coverage - regarding an affair and love child, we are to ignore its sleazy, tabloid nature.
When the cover of a celebrity gossip rag owned by a monomaniacal Obama donor screams that Sarah Palin is engaging in some sort of bizarre cover-up about sex and pregnancies, it is to be taken with the utmost seriousness.
When John Kerry salutes the 2004 Democratic National Convention and declares that he is 'reporting for duty,' we are to fondly hark back to his selfless service to country and brave stand against the murderous implementers of the military-industrial complex. When the 2008 Democratic National Convention parades retired military figures supporting Obama, we are to be impressed with their considered judgment.
When during the 2008 Republican National Convention President George W. Bush speaks fondly of John McCain, and Fred Thompson delivers an introductory address on behalf of John McCain and invokes the latter's selfless service to country and brave stand against his barbaric captors, we are to nod in troubled agreement when Keith Olbermann describes this critically as 'militaristic'
When John McCain becomes the presumptive nominee for the Republican Party, we are to make jokes about his age and point out that he has been in the Senate since the 1980s, a symbol of entrenched power in Washington.
When Joe Biden, who has been in the Senate since 1972, is announced as Barack Obama's running mate, we are to applaud Biden's so-called experience in foreign policy while ignoring the Obama campaign theme of 'Change.'
When we learn how Sarah Palin has truly fought corruption in government, we are to again scoff that it's just Alaska and there is nothing up there but Eskimos and moose.
When we learn that Barack Obama's political career was launched in the living room of unrepentant terrorists, that he has attained every political position he has gained through the cesspool that is the Daley Machine, patronized and drew inspiration from an anti-Semite, anti-white 'pastor,' we are to ignore it and channel all of our white guilt about being such horrible racists into membership in a messianic cult of personality.
When a journalist and scholar has to appeal to the public to open files regarding Barack Obama's experience with the Chicago Annenberg Project housed at a public university, we are to not only avert our eyes at the rest of the media's lack of outrage but we are to parrot talking points from the Obama campaign in attempt to harangue a radio station to force that journalist off the air.
When Jimmy Carter calls Barack Obama a 'black boy,' we are to remember that Jimmy Carter is a humanitarian and peacemaker.
When Hillary Clinton was running for president, we were to applaud the immense progress of women in politics and cheer every crack she made in the glass ceiling.
When Sarah Palin is nominated to be the vice presidential nominee of the Republican Party, we are to suddenly transform into misogynists.
When members of the media are seen cheering Barack Obama's speech at the Democratic National Convention, we are to remember how inspiring a figure Obama truly is, and that he has the imprimatur of the Kennedy family and remember that everyone in America loves the princes of Hyannis Port.
When members of the media ask delegates to the Republican National Convention how anyone should take seriously Sarah Palin's experience when compared to Obama's, we are to applaud such hard-hitting, objective journalism.
When a citizen votes for John McCain in November he will be a racist.
When a citizen votes for Barack Obama in November he is tolerant and will not be at all a sexist or ageist.
Are you not glad we cleared that up?
www.americanthinker.com/2008/09/just_so_were_clear.html
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