John McCain has changed. He said, famously, apropos the Republican debacle post-1994, “We came to Washington to change it, and Washington changed us.” This campaign has changed John McCain. It has made him inauthentic. A once-first class temperament has become irascible and snarly; his positions change, and lack coherence; he makes unrealistic promises, such as balancing the federal budget “by the end of my first term.” Who, really, believes that? Then there was the self-dramatizing and feckless suspension of his campaign over the financial crisis. His ninth-inning attack ads are mean-spirited and pointless. And finally, not to belabor it, there was the Palin nomination. What on earth can he have been thinking?

 

All this is genuinely saddening, and for the country is perhaps even tragic, for America ought, really, to be governed by men like John McCain—who have spent their entire lives in its service, even willing to give the last full measure of their devotion to it. If he goes out losing ugly, it will be beyond tragic, graffiti on a marble bust.

Unfortunately, I can't concur with Buckley's optimistic hope that, "having a first-class temperament and a first-class intellect, President Obama will (I pray, secularly) surely understand that traditional left-politics aren’t going to get us out of this pit we’ve dug for ourselves." This is far from "sure" for me.

What, exactly, is the conservative case for Obama, as the title of the article indicates?

Post Edited (Corey) : 10/11/2008 12:44:47 PM (GMT-5)

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Hmmm...trying to put the proverbial genie back in the bottle won't work.  It's too late for that.  People have BEEN thinking this kind of thing.  It's significantly his BASE. 

Again, this VERY THING is why I'm focussing on McCain and Palin.  This is an outcome of SPECIFIC TACTICS to woo conservative Christian evangelicals over with the whole culture war thing.

Post Edited (One Love) : 10/12/2008 6:37:02 AM (GMT-5)

In other words...she lied about it.  Her story has changed about Monegan's dismissal at LEAST twice before the actual meeting of the Council.

And about that Matthew 18 thing...she's refusing to admit any wrong doing, regardless of WHO'S asking her to ante up (Democrats OR Republicans).  She's not taking ANY advice on this, it seems...so...

Post Edited (One Love) : 10/12/2008 6:42:40 AM (GMT-5)

Still praying for Palin as I write this right now...

Palin Makes Troopergate Assertions that Are Flatly False
ABC News

She is RAPIDLY loosing any chance of political recovery.  She's demonstrating herself to be a compulsive, unrepentant liar on easily falsifiable things.  (Some people really DO think she may have some kind of emotional problem!)  I PRAY that she starts making better decisions.  Seriously. 

Still praying for you and Tom as well, Corey...

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"Governor," asked a reporter with the Anchorage Daily News, "finding Number One on the report was that you abused your power by violating state law. Do you think you did anything wrong at all in this Troopergate case?"

"Not at all and I’ll tell you, it, I think that you’re always going to ruffle feathers as you do what you believe is in the best interest of the people whom you are serving," Palin said. "In this case I knew that I had to have the right people in the right position at the right time in this cabinet to best serve Alaskans, and Walt Monegan was not the right person at the right time to meet the goals that we had set out in our administration. So no, not having done anything wrong, and again very much appreciating being cleared of any legal wrongdoing or unethical activity at all."

Again, not true.

She was NOT cleared, certainly not of "unethical activity."

In Altoona, Pa., at the flagship Sheetz gas station, Palin was asked to elaborate about her assertion that there was nothing "unethical or unlawful that was done."

"I'm thankful that the report has shown that, that there was no illegal or unethical activity there in my choice to replace our commissioner, so, now we look forward to working with the personnel board that the entity that is charged with looking into any activity of a governor, the lieutenant governor, or an attorney general," Palin said.

That came closer to the truth. The report did in fact conclude that Palin had the power to fire Monegan.

"Governor, if I can follow up," a reporter said, "the report says that you did abuse your authority in trying to get Officer Wooten fired. How do you respond to that charge?"

"There was no abuse of authority at all in trying to get Officer Wooten fired," Palin said.

If she was stating that as her opinion, fine, but if she was stating that as the conclusion of the report, that's false.

"In fact, remember, Officer Wooten is still an Alaska state trooper, which is up to the commissioner, top brass in the department of public safety to decide who is worthy of wearing a badge and carrying a gun in the state of Alaska," Palin said. "And if they think that Trooper Wooten is worthy of that, that's their decision. I don't micromanage my commissioners and ask them to hire or fire anyone, and thankfully the truth was revealed there in that report, that showed that there was no unlawful nor unethical activity on my part."

Again, not true.

Post Edited (One Love) : 10/12/2008 6:44:39 PM (GMT-5)

here...

Post Edited (One Love) : 10/13/2008 11:51:04 AM (GMT-5)

* On "To Kill a Mockingbird" from wiki...

To Kill a Mockingbird is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. It was instantly successful and has become a classic of modern American fiction. The novel is loosely based on the author's observations of her family and neighbors, as well as on an event that occurred near her hometown in 1936, when she was 10 years old.

The novel is renowned for its warmth and humor, despite dealing with serious issues of rape and racial inequality. The narrator's father, Atticus Finch, has served as a moral hero for many readers and as a model of integrity for lawyers. One critic explained the novel's impact by writing, "In the twentieth century, To Kill a Mockingbird is probably the most widely read book dealing with race in America, and its protagonist, Atticus Finch, the most enduring fictional image of racial heroism."^[

Post Edited (One Love) : 10/25/2008 9:46:37 AM (GMT-5)