The Runaway O Train

A lot of what I am putting up today concerns Obama. The New Hampshire results mean that he is far from inevitable but he is still a serious threat to the good governance of the USA. The excerpt from Bob Parkes immediately below is one viewpoint about why Obama is doing as well as he is so far

It would appear, unless he commits the mother of all gaffes, Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States. Why the finality here? Because we've been there, done that.

Less than two years ago, a similar train left the station. In Massachusetts, it was the D Train. Deval Patrick carpetbagged into the state, campaigned on "Together We Can", and sought to become the first Black governor of The Bay State. There was the allure of history being made and the guilt-ridden bought it, hook, line, and sinker.

His opposition was a female Republican that, unfortunately, delivered the same old, antiquated message. We got the same old AARP-era, focus group vetted, plastic deliveries. Deval Patrick spoke from the heart, while the Republican stuck to the script. Patrick went on to a resounding victory over an opponent no one has heard from since.

When Obama takes the oath, will he be all that he promised? Deval Patrick should be in a wheelchair, considering how many times he's shot himself in the foot. The state of Massachusetts is in a financial quagmire, hemorrhaging businesses and people fleeing unchallenged liberal regulations and taxation run amok.

Barack Obama has offered mucho "change" and "hope". "Change" and "hope", when it comes to politicians, often has a hefty price tag. When history is made, the moment will be, we'll all feel special, and people move on. The D Train lost its luster, and so will the O Train.

Source

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Brookes News Update

US housing market and recession: Robert Shiller gets it wrong: Those who think a fall in the housing market will trigger a recession by cutting consumption have got it wrong. The classic bust always starts in the higher stages of production. And this is exactly what happened to the 1920s boom and the Clinton boom - and it will also happen to the Bush boom
The Great Depression and forecasting - still getting it wrong: Nearly 80 years later and our economic commentators still can't get their facts straight about the Great Depression, its causes and the lessons we should have learnt from it. Not one of our economic pundits realizes that the greatest economic disaster in history was the creation of meddling politicians totally ignorant of economics
Why Prime Minister Rudd should ignore demands for price controls: Now that we have wall-to-wall Labor Governments the question of price controls has once again been raised, particularly with respect to petrol
Consumer confidence and recessions: another economic fallacy: The idea that a fall in consumer confidence can plunge an economy into a recession is pure baloney
The global warming suicide cult: The proponents of Global Warming are creating a suicide cult, which - if followed to its logical conclusion - would lead to human extinction. This is nothing but green insanity
Revisiting a hero and another victim of communism: On 27 June 1950 Milada Horakova was hanged in Prague's Pankrac Prison on the orders of the communist regime. Horakova - a democrat, a patriot and a hero of the resistance - was another of communism's millions of victims. Her death revealed the vile face of communism that the left is still trying to whitewash
Extortion payout to the Arab Mafia!: The world is not interested in true peace in the Middle East. It is only after the terror campaign - which was unleashed by the PLO during 70s and coincided with the oil embargo imposed by the Arab countries - that the United States and Europe suddenly discovered the 'Palestinian nation'

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ELSEWHERE

I have just put up here an article by Arlene Peck titled "Tending Everyone Else's Garden" which points out that many rich Jews would rather donate to almost any charity rather than support or donate to an Israeli cause. Like the Jews of Nazi Germany, they think that if they blend into the host society, nobody will ever come for them.

Taranto has a good coverage of the current Democrat delirium about Obama.

Charlie Foxtrot has found a link between Obama and the racist Leftists of America's prewar era.

Yuk!: "Obama's appeal in part is that he incarnates the Democratic Party. He is both a highly educated member of the upper middle class and a half-minority. As one of my acquaintances put it, referring to the way Obama blends an educated articulation of policy positions with the uplifting cadences of the African-American preacher: "Who better to represent us?" Some continue: "Who better to heal our racial wounds?" When I press them on this point, explaining that I live in the most racially diverse neighborhood in the U.S. and that I'm not looking for a priestly President who can absolve me of my sins, I'm told that such absolution is a good thing-whether I want it or not."

Obama - A Clean, Well Spoken Idiot: "It's almost like the "Second Coming", but not of Martin Luther King, as Hillary notes. But to see how the MSM and a lot of America is fawning over Barak Obama is indicative of how gullible we have become. After all this is the America that celebrates third-rate, drug addicted trailer trash - such as Britney Spears, and yet still considers her a "celebrity"..... it appears that the fact that Obama, who is even more of a leftist than Hillary Clinton, who can speak well and - in the words of Joe Biden is a - "A Clean Black", is wooing everyone into submission (did I say submission?). Which is more indicative of just how stupid we have become as a nation. Forget the substance, just sit dumbly and get mesmerized by the music. Note that no one is talking about his ideas which in the case of foreign policy border on the insane, or even of his background, much of which has yet to be answered for. It's all about how he looks and talks, as if those were the only criteria. So we may have an idiot as the next president, albeit a well spoken one."

A remarkably sober comment from a Leftist: "Obama has a great deal of crossover ideological appeal, based primarily on style and mood rather than policy substance. By standard measures, Obama is on the most left-hand side of the respectable political distribution (things like ADA and ACU scores). Now, these may not be great predictors of his behavior in office. In fact, my gut tells me that he’s not highly committed to Democratic government producerist interests, and that he has a considerable libertarian streak. But there’s just no way to know, and it’s not quite clear that he even really knows, since he hasn’t had to figure out what his abstract positions mean when faced with lots of zero-sum choices between alternative courses of action (see above on experience). A considerable part of Obamania syndrome (of which I am a victim) is a tendency to project our own beliefs onto the guy. So, more moderate Democrats and even conservatives extrapolate from the fact that he is respectful toward their views, that he is sympathetic to them. Which may be true, but probably isn’t"

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, EYE ON BRITAIN and TELSTRA/BIGPOND.

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here and here.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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