A Reality Check On ‘Change’

I am 53. I grew up in Brooklyn among Jews. For the first time in my life I must admit I think I am now Anti Semitic. These Bolsheviks trash every nation they live in.

Do you really think people who read Newsweek are stupid enough to believe your hit piece.
Maybe the people who don't read are that stupid, but they won't be reading your column.

When Bush mentioned Faith Based iniatives he was called a religious nut. But its OK if Obama embraces them. Obama has never changed a thing in his political career. His 97% Loyal Party Vote is nothing but MORE of the SAME partisan politics.

"The faith-based community organizing Obama undertook (and that Palin continues to trash) exemplifies the very idea of putting social change before selfish career. Why else take a job for a fraction of what he could have made elsewhere?" To build Obama's political career of course, starting with registering voters in his district. As far as "faith based" Obama joined Trinity to get into the political community.

The assault against McCain/Palin is the most organized effort since Normandy. And the amazing thing is the Democratic Congress has an approval rating worse than Bush, and they say they can bring change. That is really believable.

Newsweek is in the tank for Obamma too? Gee who would have thought. It seems all Newsweek/Time "articles" have turned into Oped pieces, summed up by "McCain bad, Obama good." If this was a real article, the author would have pointed out that Obama has had his own temper problems and was a NASTY enemy to have in the State Legislature and would have spent 10 minutes researching Obama's famous near fistfight on the State legistature floor. Nah, that would mean writing a real article not just another pro-Obama piece.

German philospher Immanuel Kant wrote an essay entitled "On the proverb: That may be true in theory, but is of no practical use" (1793). In this essay he explains that theory derived through the use of reason should always work in practice. However, he also says " Bettween theory and practice, no matter how compete the theory may be, a middle term that provides a connection and transition is necessary. For the concept of the understanding that contains the rule must be added an act of judgment by means of which the practitioner decides whether or not something is an instance of the rule. And since further rules cannot always be added to guide judgment in its subsumptions, there can be theoreticians who, lacking judgment, can never be practical in their lives."

He is saying that even the best theory, executed without using good judgment, will not work in practice.

Even if all of John McCain's political theory is reasonable and logical, can we really trust the judgment of an "erratic", and "hot-headed" "maverick" to ensure that the theory works in practice?

"The faith-based community organizing Obama undertook (and that Palin continues to trash) exemplifies the very idea of putting social change before selfish career. " The answer is to begin building the foundation for Obama's politcal aspirations. He used his "community organizer" role to register voters in his district, and "faiht based means he joined Trinity because it was where you met the right people.

Speaking of the right people anybody heard from the following since they mysteriously disappeared during the course of the Obama's vetted campaign:

Reverend Jeremy Wright

Toney Rezko

William Ayers

Rashid Khalidi

Emil Jones

Father Michael Pfleger

I just laugh at Alter and his "negative campaigning" for Obama. It thrills me to no end to recognize that his frustration with the winning straegy McCain has employed with Palin has worked so well that Alter has lost any objectivity. I hope his mean-spirited rants continue because the independents will then appreciate how nasty the liberal journalists are getting. Keep it up John it is working well for us!!

It should be obvious to everyone now that McCain developed a strong skill set while in captivity all those years. Those were to present false information to his captors, and to lie, deceive, misdirect, and parse. He is still using those skills, however, no longer on his Vietnamese jailor, rather on the American people.

Alveda King says Nobama due to pro-abortion position

CNN interviewed Dr. Alveda King, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s, niece, today as one African-American voter who does not support Barack Obama due to his pro-abortion position.

By David Freddoso, National Review


In 2001, Senator Barack Obama was the only member of the Illinois senate to speak against a bill that would have recognized premature abortion survivors as ???persons.??? The bill was in response to a Chicago-area hospital that was leaving such babies to die. Obama voted ???present??? on the bill after denouncing it. (In Illinois present is the same as ???no???) It passed the state Senate but died in a state house committee.



In 2003, a similar bill came before Obama???s health committee. He voted against it. But this time, the legislation was slightly different. This latter version was identical to the federal Born-Alive Infants Protection Act, which by then had already passed the U.S. Senate unanimously (with a hearty endorsement even from abortion advocate Sen. Barbara Boxer) and had been signed into law by President Bush.



Sen. Obama is currently misleading people about what he voted against, specifically claiming that the bill he voted against in his committee lacked ???neutrality??? language on Roe v. Wade. The bill did contain this language. He even participated in the unanimous vote to put it in.

But he voted against the final bill anyway.

Record and temperament... Obama has none of the former and the latter looks fine... WHEN he's winning, but when things get rough, Obama falls apart. Just look at the last few days and tell me he's not melting down... "Obama the bomb thrower", "lipstick on a pig", saying his opponent is out of touch because he is handicapped? Get real - we don't need a vacillating empath who gets analysis paralysis every time a major foreign or domestic crisis comes along.

Thank you for your thoughtful analysis of this issue. In an effort to be a responsible citizen, I find I must research such questions myself much of the time because so few members of the press are doing so. My research yielded the same outcomes.

While some of the comments about your analysis are thoughtful, I am struck by how many are merely vitriolic. They display the outcome of a public discourse that is divisive and even vicious. I would note both sides of the debate struggle with this habit.

I do support Barack Obama for president, primarily because I think he is the better person for the job. While I once respected John McCain, even considered voting for him, and felt very angry at the lies and slander he experienced in 2000, I have lost that respect as I watch him employ the same tactics with the same operatives. He has sacrificed his honor and integrity to political expedience and his apparent deep need to become president.

I already know the cynicism this view evokes. It seems we have lost our moral compass. Lies are still lies. Why are ridicule, misrepresentation, information suppression, and frank manipulation acceptable to us? Why does the press report these as if commenting on a sports event, feigning objectivity when they are simply pawns in a game of deception? Why does the press accept the deception and embrace the invitation to fixate on the trivial? I keep looking for moral outrage. There seems to be little courage. Wisdom is in short supply.

After the election, there will be post mortems where judgments will be made about inappropriate campaign behaviors. The press will bemoan this, as they now do the swiftboating of Kerry, though they were slow to act at the time. Safe to critique when it no longer ???counts???.

So, though I know you will get many responses that imply you are partisan, some that will continue the negativity and incivility that we now treat as ???normal???, I would like to congratulate you. These are serious times in our country; every time I find someone trying to grapple with the challenge, they have my congratulations.

Thank you for your thoughtful analysis. In an effort to be a responsible citizen, I find myself researching questions such as the one you analyzed because they are not being explored by most members of the press. My analysis concluded with the same outcomes as yours. It seems to me that this is an important time in our history where responsible citizenship is a priority. What troubles me is our collective willingness, both press and citizens, to be manipulated and distracted by trivia. It is as if we have no moral compass. Lying actually is lying and deliberate deception is actually just that. While some comments here are thoughtful, many are simply vitriolic and unmindful. Press coverage often seems shallow, engaged in entertainment rather than carrying the burden of the "fourth estate". You are one of the few members of the press that noticed early that the "baby boomers" worldview and proprensities are shaping this process. The character and quality of what we are witnessing evokes a strong desire in me to "turn the page" simply to move to a new mode of dialog. Why are viciousness, ridicule, dishonesty, and jingoism viewed as inevitable or acceptable? Why do the press report it as if they are describing a sports event? Do they realize that they are pawns, feigning objectivity when actually they are conduits for propaganda? We are not demonstrating the "higher angels of our nature" these day, so invoking Abraham Lincoln seems unwise. Courage seems in short supply. Wisdom seems even rarer.

In the 2000 elections, I respected John McCain as a potential candidate and was deeply disturbed that the press was not more vigorous is challenging damages done to him through lies and slander. I now find myself with little or no respect for him, seeing him embrace the same tactics with the same operatives; I think he is cashing in his integrity because he wants this election so much. His choice of Governor Palin was cynical and calculating; rather than discussing the risk we would run as a country if she were to become president, we are bombarded by nonsense and goaded into divisivenss, and sadly, we comply. Post mortems on the election will discuss all of this, will potificate on what should have been, after it is safe to speak up.

Thank you for being a responsible voice of reason during these difficult times.

you're pathetic, johnny boy.

Excellent piece and so interesting to see a side-by-side comparison of Obama and McCain's achievements in the Senate. Especially when you realize that Obama successfully authored his major laws in just 4 years, whereas McCain took 22 years to author the same amount. That's very telling.

I especially appreciated reading this, having just listened to failed presidential candidate, Rudolph Guiliani, on Meet the Press misleading the American voters and spreading the GOP attack-Obama propaganda from the convention; that Obama is essentially a lightweight, an empty suit who achieved nothing as a community organizer and even less in the Senate.

I will send your article around. It's especially important right now to educate voters about the wisdom and brilliance of Obama and correct all the McCain campaign lies in their ads and constant stream of abusive statements. Now that I have read your piece, I understand even more why McCain wants to distract everyone with nonsense, BS about lipstick and disgusting ads. He doesn't want voters to focus on his limited Senate performance, after the 5 years of being a POW 30 YEARS AGO, or to have to explain how he intends to solve America's major issues and huge debts and budget deficit, left behind by 8 Republican years.

Thank you - this was very helpful

I love the "open mind" of liberals. If McCain is a clone of Bush because he is a Republican than Obama must be Jimmy Carter. McCain has done far more bipartisan work than Obama, who voted with his party 97% of the time. For God's sake McCain was endorsed by Lieberman, the vice presidental choice of the Super Lib Al Gore. I'll cry my eyes out when Obama cuts the defense budget and we are once again preyed upon by the vultures of the world.