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Sunday, October 26, 2008
‘The country I grew up in will be no more’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Efforts to rally the Republican base, even in the face of daunting news from polls, continued this weekend in Georgia. Sadie Fields, chairman of the Georgia Christian Alliance, sent out a passionate plea — which she urged conservative Christians to print out and distribute at church today.
It includes this line: “Combine a President Obama, a Democrat-controlled Congress, and appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court — the country I grew up in will be no more.”
Read her entire message on the jump, and discuss.
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The fervor of many and the rush to elect a man who has little to recommend him to the highest office in this country is beyond my understanding. Why would anyone — especially those who classify themselves as Christian conservatives —or just conservative - would vote for a candidate who:
— Opposes strict constructionist judges for U. S. Supreme Court;
— Would repeal laws against abortion; (Obama voted more than once while serving in the IL State Senate to deny babies medical care born-alive after a botched abortion):
— Opposes a Constitutional amendment to prohibit same sex marriage;
— Opposes voluntary prayer in schools;
— Supports raising taxes on those who are productive - to give to those who are not;
— Opposes drilling on the continental shelf;
— Supports civil (not military) trials for terrorists.
While we have failed in many ways to preserve the vision of our Founders, if Obama is elected their vision of this wonderful “experiment in ordered liberty” will truly disappear. He will be aided and abetted in his pursuit of socialism by the likes of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, William Ayers - an unrepentant terrorist - and Pastor Jeremiah Wright - a blatant racist who said from his pulpit “God d_ America.”
America will go the way of other once-great countries - and what was the most wonderful “experiment in ordered liberty,” the world has ever seen - will become just another country that winds up on the “ash heap of history.”
If Obama wins the Democrats will be in control of all three chambers. There will be no “check and balance” as the Founders intended. Obama and others he will put in positions of power will bring about a liberal tsunami that will sweep this nation clean of any pretense of a free and sovereign nation. The dream of many Americans to make their lives better through hard work and perseverance will be just that - a dream.
The damage done under an Obama regime will be undoable in years to come.
Combine a President Obama, a Democrat-controlled Congress, and appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court — the country I grew up in will be no more.
Redistribution of the wealth, same sex marriage, universal health care, gun control, and every other off-the-wall, socialistic idea will become reality.
Obama and his liberal elite friends will wreak havoc on this country.
Over the last several decades, the U. S. Supreme Court - the “black robed masters” — have insinuated their political and social agenda into the lives of ordinary Americans.
They have declared abortion to be the law of the land, defended the rights of terrorists to have the same justice afforded to American citizens, [and] defended the right of Muslims to pray five times a day while stopping Christian prayer before a football game.
Obama may have two - possibly three — appointments to the U. S. Supreme Court. Those appointments will be of the same ilk as Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who has stated, “The U. S. judicial system will be the poorer, I believe, if we do not both share our experience with, and learn from, legal systems (international laws) with values and a commitment to democracy similar to our own.”
Justice Ginsberg has little or no respect for the Constitution, which is supposed to be her guideline. She would rather look to other countries when handing down decisions that will affect our lives - the lives of our children and grandchildren for years to come. Our Founding Fathers must be turning over in their graves.
If you have not yet cast your vote, I plead with you to look closely at the candidates and where they stand on matters of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; on matters of individual freedom and individual responsibility.
As Ronald Reagan said in 1964, “You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children’s children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done.”
Oh, yeah — Bill Clinton was in Atlanta on Saturday
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Democratic blogger Amy Morton provided one of the few accounts of Saturday night’s private fund-raiser in Atlanta for Democrat Jim Martin in the U.S. Senate race, headlined by former President Bill Clinton:
The Martin campaign brought in some serious cash tonight as President Clinton energized the crowd, reminding anyone who might’ve forgotten what [Republican incumbent Saxby] Chambliss did to his friend of 20 years, Max Cleland. (To laughter, Clinton pointed out that he and Max were friends long before anyone thought either would amount to what they ultimately became.
Morton said 450 people attended. And she took pictures.
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The U.S. Senate race, and the case for a Georgia visit from Barack Obama
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A scenario is quickly unfolding in which you’re likely to see much more of Barack Obama in Georgia.
Not now, not before next Tuesday.
We’re talking afterwards, when the U.S. Senate race in Georgia becomes the only important, unresolved contest in the nation.
Late last week, three separate statewide polls showed the three-man race headed for an extra 28 days of campaigning between Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss and Democrat Jim Martin.
Libertarian Allen Buckley, though he holds an important sliver of support, is headed for elimination.
In such a situation, Las Vegas odds-makers would normally make Chambliss a heavy favorite. Republican voters, mostly white and typically older, can be counted to plow through holiday distractions and make it back to the polls in early December.
Democratic voters, largely African-American and younger, have a poor reputation for follow-up.
But should Obama take the White House on Nov. 4, as appears more and more likely, those assumptions go by the boards.
Georgia is the only state in the Union in which a senatorial victory is defined as 50 percent plus one vote. Which means that, in an America suffering through the worst political hangover in its history, we could find ourselves serving up the hair of the dog that bit it.
Whether Democrats reach a filibuster-proof 60 seats in nine days makes no difference. A Georgia Senate run-off would not only be the final act of the nation’s 2008 political season, but would provide a first political test for a President-elect Obama — if he should accept the challenge.
Democratic insiders here and in Washington say there’s no doubt that Obama would make Martin’s cause his own. Support would include personal appearances in the state — a combination victory tour and get-out-the-vote effort intended to erase the traditional Republican advantage in cash and reliable voting base.
African-Americans in Georgia might not turn out a second time for the less-than-charismatic Martin, one strategist told us. But they would walk across hot coals if President-elect Obama personally asked them to.
Republicans, of course, would be forced to give a Georgia runoff the same priority — especially should a high-flying Obama involve himself. The opportunity to take the next resident of the White House down a peg or two before he’s sworn in would be irresistible.
It is possible that the title of senator from Georgia has become snake-bit.
We trade in our senators like we once recycled the family station wagon: A chromed Ford, then a finned Chevy, then a Ford again, in an endless cycle of buyer’s enchantment and remorse.
Herman Talmadge, a Democrat, was replaced in 1980 by Republican Mack Mattingly, who was subbed out in 1986 by Democrat Wyche Flower, who was beaten in 1992 by Republican Paul Coverdell. Coverdell won two elections, but died shortly after the second, and was replaced for four years by the nominally Democratic Zell Miller, who was traded in for a 2004 model Republican Johnny Isakson.
Sam Nunn, a Democrat, was the last Georgia senator to serve out multiple terms. He retired in 1996, to be replaced by Max Cleland, another Democrat — who was promptly beaten by Chambliss in 2002. You may now consider yourself up-to-date.
Following Fowler’s defeat in ‘92 — a Libertarian threw the race into a run-off held two days before Thanksgiving — Democrats tried to put a damper on the turnover by lowering the bar of victory to 45 percent plus one vote.
Republicans howled heresy. And years later, at the same time it passed a measure to require voters to produce photographic ID, a Republican-conquered Legislature restored the rule of “50 percent plus one.”
Republicans have already expressed regret for their approval of early voting in Georgia, which the local Obama campaign has mastered with astounding efficiency.
So there is a tendency to wonder whether Republicans are victims of the law of unintended consequences when it comes to the “50 percent plus one” rule as well.
Not so, one plugged-in Republican state lawmaker said on Friday. There’s every chance, he allowed, that the 50 percent rule will preserve the Chambliss campaign and permit it to fight another day.
That’s right. In a world suddenly turned upside down by Barack Obama and Wall Street, some Georgia Republicans are conceding that Chambliss — who only months ago was considered unassailable — could finish behind a relatively unknown Democrat next Tuesday.
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A major DSCC attack on Chambliss uses Bush, the economy — and the Wall Street rescue
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Over the weekend, the U.S. Senate race in Georgia shifted from a parochial affair to a national contest, with both parties pouring in money from their Washington committees and 527s spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on the Democratic and Republican sides.
Late last night, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee was up with a very tough ad attacking Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss on the economy. We don’t have a video link yet, but here’s the script:
Narrator: What’s Saxby Chambliss been up to in Washington? Supporting George Bush’s economic policies, every step of the way. That gave us higher food prices, a $10 trillion national debt, and a $700 billion Wall Street bailout.
And while Georgia lost 173,000 manufacturing jobs, Saxby supported tax breaks for companies that shipped our jobs overseas. Saxby economics. Haven’t we had enough?”
The DSCC’s first TV attack on Chambliss, issued last week, was over his support of the Fair Tax. Now, the organization has apparently gotten over any qualms it has over beating up Chambliss over his vote for a Wall Street rescue plan that passed Congress on the backs of Democrats.
Jim Martin, Chambliss’ Democratic opponent, says he would have voted no on the bailout — because it didn’t do enough to help homeowners or enough to regulate the sinners on Wall Street. Libertarian Allen Buckley has said he opposes any tax dollars going directly to salvage financial institutions.
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‘SNL’ takes a Democratic turn, sending up Biden, Murtha
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For once, “Saturday Night Live” focused on Democrats in its opening — specifically, the Barack Obama campaign’s two gaffemasters, vice presidential nominee Joe Biden and U.S. Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.).
This from Murtha (Darrell Hammond): “I want to clear the air about something I said last week, when I suggested that the good people here in western Pennsylvania here are racists. That’s not what I meant to say. It’s more that they’re ignorant. They don’t know any better, especially your older ones. They’re just bone ignorant. It’s like someone said early in the campaign — I don’t know who — they cling to guns and religion because they feel threatened. And that’s so true.”
A lamer skit followed — “The Barack Obama Variety Half-Hour,” featuring Jeremiah Wright accompanied by Bill Ayers, singing “White Devils Be Devils.” But rich target material isn’t enough. Fred Armisen’s Obama far too safe to be compared to Tina Fey’s Sarah Palin.
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