The fix is in

During the 2008 presidential election cycle, I wrote over 60 posts — including extensive analysis of the primaries and conventions — at my personal blog, The Vulture Lurks (recommended by 4 out of 5 curmudgeons). So far this election cycle I’ve written a handful of minor posts. Why the drop-off? That’s easy. This isn’t an election we’re witnessing. It’s a coronation, at least on the Team Elephant side of the ledger.

Why would I call it a coronation? How could I call it a coronation when there is no clear front-runner and the first primary hasn’t even occurred yet? Follow along as I read the tea leaves.

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Conservative media: Fox News (“fair” and “balanced”) is in the tank for Romney. Big time. Some of Fox’s so-called analysts are so far up Romney’s butt that they taste his lunch mere seconds after he does.

Fox has proclaimed Romney winner of nearly all of the debates. Yet after one of the debates, Michele Bachmann surged into the lead in the polls. After another, it was Herman Cain. After yet another, it was Newt Gingrich. You should be getting the idea by now. No matter Romney’s showing, he’s the winner.

Every time Fox gets on the subject of the “Primary front runners”, Romney’s name is first on their lips. No matter where he is in the latest polling, first, second, even FOURTH, he is always “a front runner”. Meanwhile, if he is first or second, NO ONE beyond second place gets a mention. Hell, when he was in fourth place in an Iowa poll recently, the candidate ahead of him, Ron Paul, was omitted from mention in the front runners discussion. But not Mitt.

Talk radio isn’t quite as blatant; in fact, many talk show hosts are reluctant to be seen as endorsing anyone, such is the general distaste for Romney among the listening public. But almost without fail, all talk show hosts assert that no matter who the Republican nominee is, no matter how much they might deviate from conservative principles, we HAVE TO vote for them – ANYONE but Obama. Never mind that a vote for Romney is a vote for “Obama-lite”. You gotta do it!

Columnists of various stripes have wandered hither and yon regarding Romney. But two powerhouse conservative pundits have lined up foursquare behind him: Ann Coulter and Charles Krauthammer. Both of these two alleged conservatives have shelved principle and gone with “electable” as be-all/end-all for their candidate. Never mind that it was said of Ronald Reagan in 1980 that he was unelectable. This is different.

Bang the war drums: Every candidate still in the race, with the exception of Ron Paul, is obsessed with proving their warrior bona fides. “I would go to war with Iran NOW!”, one after another will thunder. The audience (God help us!) eats that shit up. It would appear that so-called conservatives have bought into the propaganda that never-ending pre-emptive war is “defense”. Again, God help us!

One is left in amazement that a candidate can spew vitriol with regards to all of the wasteful spending in Washington, and yet opine that the military, estimated to hit around $1.4 TRILLION in spending in 2012, needs to be beefed up. We’re drowning in debt, but without war-without-end and the trillions of dollars it requires, we’re going to be overrun by cave-dwelling terrorists, and conquered.

The military-industrial complex lives and thrives.

The Team Elephant elite: They’ve made it clear for over a year – Romney is their guy. I suppose they’d settle for Gingrich in a pinch (much as they settled for McCommie last cycle, when Rudy Giuliani was their preference). But they’re adamant. It WILL be Romney or an equally conviction-free statist. Period.

Do you really think the attacks on Governor Perry Gardacil, Herman Cain, and Michele Bachmann happened because Big Media (the BM for short) hates “real” conservatives and wanted to destroy them? Those attacks were friendly fire. Those attacks were orchestrated. Don’t be surprised if Newt succumbs to something similar to what happened to Cain between now and mid-January.

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“Okay, Vulture. You believe there’s a coronation afoot. What do you say we do about it, smart guy?”

What CAN we do? Truthfully, we in the West have gone so far down the slippery slope to ruin that I don’t think it matters any more who we elect.We might crash and burn and start to recover sooner with one candidate over another.

But crash and burn we shall.

A Picture Says A Thousand Words

I present to you something which should be official campaign publications for McCain-Palin 2008, delivered to me from the truly excellent Captain Heinrichs.

Go Palin!

Sarah Palin riding her official vehicle

WA Goes To The Polls… And NSW Should

The great Australian State of Western Australia goes to the polls today to either re-elect the current Premier of Western Australia, Mr. Alan Carpenter, or to elect the Opposition into Government.

This election is going to be watched with close attention all across Australia, namely because it’s the first time that a Labor State Government may lose power in more than a decade. This election could result in a shift in political climate if the Liberals win, because they will now hold a position higher than Lord Mayor of Brisbane, the highest position held by a Liberal ever since the Liberals lost federal government in November last year.

The Greens are doing fairly well in the polls, but polls aren’t terribly reliable, and I’m taking the polls in WA with at least a jar of salt. The Greens stand against many of the activities that actually give WA money to run the State, such as mining and drilling, and WA is currently doing enough of both to not only run WA, but to subsidise the less-wealthy States such as Victoria and New South Wales.

WA is the only State wise enough to go to an election, although the only reason it’s going to an election this week is because the previous Liberal leader resigned, due to an overwhelming media campaign after he rather creepily sniffed womens’ seats after they’d gotten up. An election is a good idea, however WA isn’t the State I would have chosen the first election to have been in. I would have chosen NSW.

New South Wales would have been my first choice. I say this because NSW has a government allegedly entrenched in corruption, of which the Treasurer was yesterday fired, the Premier yesterday resigned, the Deputy Premier retires next Monday, and the Education Minister doesn’t look too clean either. All of this, and the NSW electorate doesn’t get to decide who will lead the State from now on, the Australian Labor Party (NSW Division) does, and it’s not looking like they have much to choose from. That’s not a fair and equitable democracy. Bring on an election!

Andrew Bolt, as usual, has a concise analysis.

Sarah Palin: All The Right Wing Cred McCain Can Get

The choice of Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin as John McCain’s Vice Presidential nominee is an absolute masterstroke. It truly is, and for a number of reasons.

Palin has been quoted as being tenacious. The senior pastor (Ed Kalnins) at Palin’s church, the Assembly of God, said of Palin: “Once she understands a truth, she bites down on it and won’t let go of the truth.” This tells me that a) she’ll research what she’s talking about, b) form her decision on the subject, and c) she’ll stick to her beliefs until step a) reveals more information, then she’ll re-evaluate. The United States could very well deal with that kind of skill and decision making, particularly as it’s something many on the Left side of politics say that neither the current President nor the current Vice President are capable of.

Palin is also unafraid to not pull the Republican party line. While mayor of Wasilla and later Governor of Alaska, she was unafraid to propose new projects and different ways of resolving issues facing her communities which were in contradiction of the proposals put forward by other Republicans in the party, and her stance on ethics was a major contributor to her being elected to Governor in a landslide against previous Republican Governor Frank Murkowski. While she has had her moments of being rather divisive, she also has a lot of talent for working in a team.

Reasons why McCain is still doing OK

Say hello to Sergeant Schmidt.

Pajamas.

The Ad Hillary Should Be Running

Hillary should definitely have run this ad in Pennsylvania.

Again, this is via Instapundit.

Zimbabwe: Court Denies Election Appeal

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) – Zimbabwe’s High Court rejected an appeal Monday for the immediate release of presidential election results, dashing hopes for an end to a paralyzing political crisis and prompting the opposition to call a nationwide strike.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai says he won the March 29 election outright and has accused President Robert Mugabe of holding back the results to try to maintain his 28-year grip in power. Independent tallies show Tsvangirai won, but did not receive enough votes to prevent a runoff.

Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change had hoped the court—though stacked with Mugabe loyalists—would force the election commission to release the results after a 16-day wait. The commission, which published results for parliamentary and local elections within several days of the election, said it can’t release the presidential results until it investigates electoral anomalies.

Breitbart

Mugabe out of power, would be like Christmas without Santa. Wait, the Left is trying that one.

Mugabe Makes First Public Appearance Since Zimbabwe’s Election, Expects to Win Runoff

No…Really? What led to this turnaround, shots to the back would be my guess.

Thursday made his first public appearance since Zimbabwe’s Saturday elections, Reuters reports.

Mugabe was shown on state television ZTV meeting with the head of the African Union election observer mission, the former Sierra Leonne president, Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, at his official State House residence in Harare, Reuters reports.

Reuters also reports that Zimbabwe’s ruling party expects a runoff election and is confident Mugabe will retain power, according to Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga.

“From ZANU-PF’s perspective, we are very confident that we’ve got the numbers, when it comes to a re-run, we’re ready for that second round, and we are confident that President Robert Mugabe will win this time,” Matonga told Reuters.

Fox News

Just can’t keep a good guy down, unless you have him shot, of course.

UPDATE:

Riot Police Surround Zimbabwe Hotel Hosting Foreign Journalists

UPDATE:

‘Crackdown’ in Zimbabwe as Police Raid Hotels

OK, Bob. How ’bout you give it up and become Hussein Obama’s new spiritual advisor? Speaking of which. Anybody heard what Rev. Wright, or his pal Hussein have had to say about this? Wait, I apologize…Forgot…These are Blacks.

My guess would be…Here are the keys, my dear friends. We are here for “change”.

“I am not sure why it seems surprising that Senator Barack Obama’s church has embraced Palestinian rejectionists. First the church newsletter reprinted an editorial by Hamas’s deputy political bureau chief, and then there was the “Open Letter to Oprah from Ali Baghdadi on her visit to Palestine,” where Baghdadi recommends the talk show hostess make a visit to the birthplace of Mary’s “beautiful Palestinian baby” (aka, Jesus), and describes an “ethnic bomb” Israel was developing in tandem with South Africa that would kill only “blacks and Arabs.”

“The essential contours of the Islamist worldview are hardly alien to Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s flock. There’s the knee-jerk anti-Americanism (the Islamists’s “Death to America” and Reverend Wright’s “God Damn America”), and Wright’s use of the Arab world’s chestnut that America brought 9/11 on itself with its support of Israel. And the historical revisionism holding that the Jewish child of Jewish parents (and a Jewish God) is actually a “Palestinian” is consistent with the identity politics of Black Liberation theology.”

“But what’s really telling are the flights of paranoid fancy — like how Wright said that FDR knew about Pearl Harbor, that Bush was going to plant WMD in Iraq just like the Los Angeles Police Department frames suspects, and, most notoriously, that the U.S. government created HIV to kill “colored people.” The idea that the Jews were working on an “ethnic bomb” partakes of a genre that combines historical fiction with sci-fi fantasy. “But Daddy,” an alert sixth-grade biology student might query her well-educated father, “my teacher says you can’t build a weapon that only targets one kind of person.” Never mind the science, honey, we’re here for the sermon.”

“Conspiracy theories, along with anti-Semitism, are the defining characteristic of contemporary Islamist discourse. Consider this passage from the Hamas Covenant holding Zionists responsible for all of modernity’s evils:”

When Obama “Talks to Our Enemies,” What Will He Say?

Finally, Mugabe is finished.

It had to happen.

Going, going…

In a new ad, Obama says, “I don’t take money from oil companies.”

Obama’s Oil Spill

 Hey DUDE! How are your two spiritual advisors?

OH and the ever lovely Michelle, I haven’t seen her around lately. Anything wrong with our potential new First Lady?

Clinton likens herself to ‘Rocky’. This has gone from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Not just Hillary’s…Hussein’s as well. Just keep your head low, McCain. Brush up on rhetorical mysticism, and how to counteract it, just in case Hussein the Messiah wins this thing for the donkeys (a more fitting animal, could not have been picked).

This ‘thing‘ will go down in history, as THE low point of America, not our fighting for others freedoms, but this asinine Democrat, saying campaign would give the word, campaign, a bad name….Spectacle, is more apt.

PHILADELPHIA – Perhaps the analogy was inevitable: Hillary Rodham Clinton as Rocky Balboa, the scrappy underdog boxer from Philadelphia memorably depicted in the 1976 Oscar-winning film. Even if Rocky did lose his first big fight. Addressing a meeting of the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO Tuesday, the former first lady and New York senator said that she, like Rocky, wasn’t a quitter.

Yahoo

Deal ‘close’ for Mugabe to leave. Well gosh, at least he’s a baseball fan, huh? Maybe it’s a golf cap.

President Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980

The outline of a deal has almost been reached for Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe to step down, opposition sources have told the BBC.

They say representatives of Mr Mugabe, military chiefs and the opposition have held meetings chaired by South Africa since Saturday’s elections.

The sources said Mr Mugabe would make the announcement on television, but his aides have denied the reports.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai said he was prepared to wait.

In his first public appearance since the election, Mr Tsvangirai did not confirm the reported deal.

BBC

I mean…all that killing, rape, pillaging. It gets old. Come on Bob, take it easy…retire, play some golf. Hey, Persia would love to have you. They have some great golf courses. Careful though, they may make you glow.

Who knows, if that’s a baseball cap…You may even talk Ahmadinejad to start a league. Two divisons…The Quds and The Slaves…Wow.

Obama’s Other Problematic Pastor

Reverend James T. Meeks is a Democratic member of the Illinois State Senate, and presides over The Salem Baptist Church of Chicago. The church describes itself on its website as “a beacon of peace and hope for countless thousands in Chicago’s Roseland community.” They claim membership of over 22,000. Reverend Meeks is also a pledged delegate to, and a personal friend of, Barack Obama, campaigning for him in his 2004 U.S. Senate run as well as being a vocal supporter of his presidential campaign. They’re so close, in fact, that after Obama secured the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senator, Obama stopped by Meeks’ church for “Wednesday-night Bible study”. Meeks recalls he was a priority for Obama: “The night after the election, he was the hottest thing going from Galesburg to Rockford. He did all the TV shows, and all the morning news, but his last stop at night was for church. He came by to say thank you, and he came by for prayer.”

Obama himself has described Meeks as an adviser whom he seeks out for spiritual counsel. What are some of Meeks’s spiritual lessons? One of his fiery sermons included this rant: “We don’t have slave masters, we got mayors. But they are still the same white people who are presiding over systems where black people are not able to be educated. You got some preachers that are house n——. You got some elected officials that are house n——. Rather than them try and break this up, they’re gonna fight you to protect that white man.” He also believes that homosexuality is something than can be spread, and that it’s Jews doing the spreading. He has accused “Hollywood Jews” of bringing us Brokeback Mountain. He has referred to homosexuality as “an evil sickness” and hosts a Halloween “Fright Night” to scare people away from being gay.

The racist, angry, conspiracy-laden language used by Meeks is reminiscent of Pastor Wright’s. Why does Obama seek out such problematic men to be his spiritual advisors?

The answer can only go two ways.

Either Obama agrees with Meeks, and with Wright, or he is bound to them by political expediency. Both are influential in the world of Chicago politics, both provided an inroad to the black community which Barack Obama lacked. For a candidate of hope and change who tries to portray himself as above these sorts of political calculations, it becomes apparent that he’s a political opportunist of the highest order.

Pajamas Media

Hussein Obama doesn’t need to seek the Presidency…he, his lovely Michelle and all of his friends need narcotics. Legally prescribed ones, like Methaqualone. He, his wife and friends are unstable.

Monorail!

Stolen from Pickles.

Blackburn on McCain’s short list? This is where John McCain, could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory

A South Carolina blog claims to have seen the five names on John McCain’s short list for Vice President: Joe Lieberman, Charlie Crist, Tim Pawlenty, Haley Barbour, and Marsha Blackburn.

Blackburn would certainly be a good choice to help consolidate some of the Talk Radio Conservative who claim that they’re going to sit out the election rather than vote for John McCain. The Tennessee Republican congressman is fiscally conservative, strong on illegal immigration, and a supporter of victory in Iraq. She is also a scrappy fighter who came to prominence as a Tennessee State Senator who spearheaded the successful fight to stop a state income tax proposed by a Republican governor, and then emerged successfully from a heated primary over two better-funded candidates to win her first term in Congress in 2002. Blackburn is also a darling of Talk Radio Conservatives and frequent guest on their shows.

The blog claims that the McCain campaign is also considering a “secure the center” strategy which would allegedly put 27 states, instead of the usual 12 to 14, into play for Republicans in November.

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McCain’s VP choice is crucial…and while Marsha Blackburn…is an attractive person…outside of Tennessee, she is an unknown. John…make it a damn good one, unless you really like the sound of President Obama, or President Clinton.

Bob Krum

Read about this yesterday, after getting home. Did I post it…OH NO…I’d rather have a few beers…or Tequila shooters.

This is a must see…

Hot Air

Were I John McCain with his friendship and trust in this man, I’d seriously ask myself and Joe Lieberman to be my Vice President.

Although I believe Lieberman would turn it down…for two reasons:

One. He could be of more use to and for the country if he remained in the U.S. Senate.

Two. It may radicalize* the more sensible, if there are, Democrats to support either of the two Leftist candidates out of anger, over them sitting on the fence about McCain, OR holding their noses voting while voting for McCain.

*asterisk explained. “Radicalize”= Islam, which many are ready NOW (which is another like the following two) to cede power to in this nation…Through the ACLU and CAIR, now. Knowing full well, that ‘they’ would never be eaten. Yeah, Right!

That little devil, Hussein Obama…..

During his first run for elected office, Barack Obama played a greater role than his aides now acknowledge in crafting liberal stands on gun control, the death penalty and abortion– positions that appear at odds with the more moderate image he’s projected during his presidential campaign.The evidence comes from an amended version of an Illinois voter group’s detailed questionnaire, filed under his name during his 1996 bid for a state Senate seat.Late last year, in response to a Politico story about Obama’s answers to the original questionnaire, his aides said he “never saw or approved” the questionnaire.They asserted the responses were filled out by a campaign aide who “unintentionally mischaracterize(d) his position.”But a Politico examination determined that Obama was actually interviewed about the issues on the questionnaire by the liberal Chicago non-profit group that issued it. And it found that Obama – the day after sitting for the interview – filed an amended version of the questionnaire, which appears to contain Obama’s own handwritten notes adding to one answer.

Politico

VIA

Instapundit

Obama would swear to protect and defend, this NATION from all enemies, foreign AND domestic…as is part of the Presidential oath.

With what, Obama, with what? Your Messianic vision? Your flair for words and half, if that, truths? The half truths were shown, concerning your ‘I know Rev. Wright is a “racist”, but I love the man, regardless’. I know my wife, Michelle is an ingrate “racist”, but I love her, regardless.

Europeans demand “the right to vote”… A CALL TO ARMS. (UPDATE)

It’s like deja-vu all over again … Once again, the Euro-weenies seem to feel that they have some sort of a right to participate in U.S. elections. The Brussels Journal reports that a 3 January 2008 editorial in the Brussels newspaper De Standaard whines, “…the world should be given the right to vote. Because the current situation is a blatant case of taxation without representation, against which the Americans rebelled in 1776.”