Sarah Palin rocked the Republican National Convention, altered the fundamentals of the presidential campaign, and is now the most popular politician on the American national stage. And that's despite the concerted efforts of the national media to sink her.
I predict a lot of straight-talkin' moms running for office all over America in the coming years.
In related news, Palin's acceptance speech drew nearly the same number of viewers as Barack Obama's - more than 40 million people.
Given that Obama has been the subject of intense media coverage for more than a year now, while Palin was a complete to most every American other than Alaskans, I'd bet that most of Obama's viewers were already predisposed to support him before the speech, while Palin's audience likely included millions of undecided voters. What does that mean? It may mean that Palin had a much bigger upside potential for impacting the presidential race poll numbers.
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen says the results of the Tennessee Highway Patrol's self-investigation of a politically-connected trooper's unauthorized background checks on hundreds of Tennesseans proves the agency can police itself. (Tennessean story here.)
Bredesen doesn't get it. Even if the THP investigation was fair and complete, it has no credibility. There is no foundation on which to rest belief in its results. The political ties between the trooper, the THP and the Bredesen administration, are too numerous, too complex and too corrupt.
The governor told us there were 182 victims of the unauthorized snooping. How do we know that's true? The governor told us the troopers' actions were not political - we know that's false given the fact that the trooper investigated a reporter who was investigating the administration's various THP-related scandals, and also investigated a fellow trooper who was suing the THP alleging his career path was hampered by political discrimination within the THP.
Until there is an outside probe, there is not one single fact asserted by the THP or by the governor in this scandal which has any credibility. Not one.
Update: More proof the dirt-digging by the Bredesen administration's favorite trooper wasn't political.
Update: Stacey Campfield isn't satisfied
September 4, 2008
Welcome to the Future
American music critic, manager and record producer Jon Landau once famously declared that he had seen the future of rock and roll and its name was Bruce Springsteen. Well, I have seen the future of the Republican Party tonight, and its name is Sarah Palin.
Comment from Lorie Byrd: "How stupid must Democrats feel right now? Who decided it would be a good strategy to kick a Mama Bear?"
In fact, her performance was even better than it first appeared.
The next Ronald Reagan wears heels.
...read more
September 2, 2008
Twice as Nice in the Twin Cities
Just arrived in Minneapolis-St. Paul for the Republican National Convention - and while I've not made it to the convention hall yet, I have made it to the hotel, in mere minutes. I don't know how they do it at the airport here, but by the time I walked/rode the moving sidewalks from gate to the baggage claim are, not only was my bag already there, but all the bags from the nearly-full flight were already there. The sign listed the flight and said delivery of the bags was "completed." The conveyor had stopped turning. I was off the plane, had my bags, and was checked into the hotel (a short shuttle ride away) in under an hour.
The Twin Cities airport is probably twice the size of Nashville's and they got the bags off the plane in half the time. Not sure if it was a fluke or not, but if its typical, the folks who run the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport are to be commended. Or the folks who engineered and designed the baggage-delivery system. Or both.
Nice going, Minneapolis-St. Paul.
Fred Thompson's speaking at the convention as I write this... and sounding great.
Say Uncle knows why the Left hates Sara Palin. And why the Right loves her. Obama's distaste for small-town Americans who "cling" to their guns and religion is coming back to bite him.
Wes Vernon explains why Gov. Sarah Palin was a brilliant pick. He's right on the money. Vernon's also got some comments on Barack Obama's terrorist friends.
August 30, 2008
Hurricaine
Unlike the Democrats' favorite filmmaker, Michael Moore, who is hoping God slams New Orleans with a Category 5 hurricane in order to hurt Republicans politically, I'm praying for divine intervention so that Hurricane Gustav doesn't hit a populated area anywhere along the Gulf coast. But if it does hit, I will be honored and humbled to participate in what the McCain campaign is planning to turn next week's Republican National Convention into - a massive relief effort for the victims of the hurricane.
UPDATE: A contributor to RedState overheard former Democratic National Committee Chairman Don Fowler, on an airplane back to South Carolina from Denver, laughing that Hurricane Gustav is going to hit New Orleans at the start of the GOP Convention and therefore God must be with the Democrats.
"Everything is cool," he tells Congressman John Spratt (D-SC), seated next to him. They both laugh it up.How do we know that's what Fowler said? Because the RedState contributor had his video camera running. Fowler didn't know he was being taped.
It's not just Michael Moore who thinks it would be good for Democrats if Gustav slammed into New Orleans - a mainstream Democrat like a former DNC chairman explicitly said so too.
Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting.
Why isn't this all over the maistream teevee news?
Update: Saw it on a crawl on one of the cable news nets - not sure if it was FOX, MSNBC or CNN. It's also a top line on Drudge, so it looks poised to get some serious attention, as it should.
I just finished watching a lengthy interview of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin - John McCain's vice presidential running mate - by CNBC's Maria Bartiromo, taped a few days before McCain's announcement today. (Here's a part of it.) If the Obama campaign and the Democrats believe Palin is a lightweight, they're mistaken.
Update: A commenter points out that in 1973 Joe Biden voted against authorizing construction of the Trans Alaska Pipeline - which since its creation has transported 15 billion barrels of oil and generated much of the state of Alaska's economic growth and state tax revenue. Indeed that is true.
Today, Biden opposes increased domestic offshore drilling for oil. He hasn't changed in his opposition to America increasing its supply of domestically produced oil.
Biden: Wrong on energy since 1973. Wrong on energy today. Wrong for America's future.
August 29, 2008
Brilliant
You have to laugh at the Obama campaign's initial reaction to John McCain's selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate - they attacked her for having zero foreign policy experience.
Obama has zero foreign policy experience. He also has zero executive experience - Palin has two successful years as governor of a state, including passing tough ethics reforms, and has a deep understanding of the extremely important energy issue.
The sum total of Obama's achievements in public office amount to writing two best-selling books about himself, and running for the next job.
Palin is a game-changing pick. With Obama having no real achievements to back his empty rhetoric of hope and change, and his veep choice a Washington insider who helped build the status quo that has given Congress a 9 percent approval rating, the Republican ticket includes two people with real and impressive records of reform.
You want change in Washington? McCain-Palin. You want a president who will rubber-stamp the extreme liberal agenda of the most unpopular Congress in history? Obama-Biden.
Update: The Palin pick is generating a big positive reaction. Here at the TN GOP office we're seeing a big surge in calls, emails and sign-ups on our website for "Women for McCain" and other coalitions, plus walk-in traffic seeking McCain-Palin bumper stickers and yard signs. Some of the callers and visitors are saying the Palin pick has shifted them solidly into the McCain camp.
August 28, 2008
Patriotism at the DNC
Redstate went looking for American flags at the Democrat National Convention. You'll never guess where they found 'em.
The court hearing scheduled for Friday on the city of Nashville's attempt to take a Music Row business woman's property has been postponed. Kay Brooks has the details.
Regarding Barack Obama's "surprise" visit to the stage after vice presidential nominee Joe Biden's speech Wednesday night: Presidential nominees typically leave the Wednesday night spotlight to their veep pick, but Obama, ever the narcissist, couldn't resist the temptation to show up and upstage Biden.
Obama Campaign Ramps Up Efforts to Downplay His Connections to Known Terrorist
The Obama campaign tries to intimidate a Chicago radio station over the Bill Ayers story. It's part of the Obama campaign's widespread coordinated effort to intimidate the media into ignoring the Bill Ayers story.
Related: Investor's Business Daily wants to know: Why is Obama trying to hard to conceal his past?
August 27, 2008
I Want One of Each
Nikon and Canon have both recently released or announced new digital S.L.R. models - Canon the 15-megapixel 50D and Nikon the 12.3-megapixel D90. I recently sold my 6.3-megapixel Digital Rebel and am currently digital camera-less - and likely to stay that for awhile unless Canon or Nikon decide to send me one to test and review and blog about here, or about 100 of my most loyal readers each go drop $15 in the PayPal tip jar.
So... if you get a Canon 50D or a Nikon D90 and you want to send me your review of it, feel free to do so. I'd be glad to publish a round-up of such reviews...
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen apparently has seen the polls showing Barack Obama hurtling toward a crushing defeat in Tennessee in November, trailing John McCain by 24 points in the Volunteer State, and he's decided that while he has to be a good soldier and back Obama, it makes political sense for him here in Tennessee to be seen criticizing the Democrat presidential nominee. How else to explain Bredesen's machine-gun mouth firing verbal bullets at Obama's celebrity image and his lack of ability to connect to the common man?
Bredesen was at it again in an interview with The Politico, published late Wednesday night. Here are some parts of that article:
enior Democratic officials are expressing serious concerns about the political risks posed by Barack Obama's acceptance speech at Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium Thursday evening.By the way, you might recall that when the DNC first announced the plan to move Obama's acceptance speech from the Pepsi Center indoor arena to the much-larger Invesco Field where the Denver Broncos play, I commented on it in a very short blog post that said, "It has been said that pride goeth before the fall."From the elaborate stagecraft to the teeming crowd of 80,000 cheering partisans, the vagaries of the weather to the unpredictable audience reaction, the optics surrounding the stadium event have heightened worries that the Obama campaign is engaging in a high-risk endeavor in an uncontrollable environment.
A common concern: that the stadium appearance plays against Obama's convention goal of lowering his star wattage and connecting with average Americans and that it gives Republicans a chance to drive home their message that the Democratic nominee is a narcissistic celebrity candidate.
"We already know he is a rock star, we already know he can bring 85,000 people together in a stadium. He has done it multiple times. He needs to talk to people who haven't made up their minds yet," said Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen. ... ."I would love to see him out showing a certain kind of humility, being in touch with people who go to breakfast at the Waffle House, sending a message."
The BlogHer conference, an event for women bloggers, is coming to Nashville in October, just three years and five months after I and the Media Bloggers Association organized the BlogNashville conference that attracted some 300 bloggers and new-media types from all over America. The blogging scene in Nashville and Tennessee has grown significantly since then - I suspect we could hold the same event now and limit attendance to just people from Tennessee and still come close to 300.
The Institute for Justice emails that the battle to save a Nashville businesswoman's property from theft-by-eminent domain abuse at the hands of the city of Nashville, which would than turn the property over to a private developer, is not over.
On Friday, August 29, at 9 a.m., Joy Ford will appear in court for the first time, along with her lawyers from the Institute for Justice, to fight to save her small country music recording and publishing business from an illegal and unconstitutional eminent domain action.Whatever you think of what ought to happen with Joy Ford's property, you have to agree that allowing the city to win an eminent domain case by muzzling the property owner goes against every standard of fair play and equal justice for all that America stands for.In June 2008, Nashville's redevelopment agency, Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency (MDHA), filed a condemnation petition against Country International Records located on storied Music Row. MDHA wants to give the property to a Houston-based private developer to put up a generic office building.
Now, in an audacious and unfounded move, MDHA's lawyers - who are being paid by the private developer that will benefit from the condemnation - have filed a "motion for judgment on the pleadings," asking the court to hand over Ford's property on the basis of the four-page condemnation petition filed by the agency. MDHA seeks to deny Ford any discovery in the case and wants the judge to order possession immediately rather than hold a trial and hear evidence.
"If MDHA gets its way, it will become impossible for any home or small business owner in Tennessee to prevail against an abuse of eminent domain," said Scott Bullock, a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice, a national non-profit, public interest law firm located in Arlington, Va., that serves as the nation's leading legal advocate against eminent domain abuse.
Bullock added, "Courts should actually review evidence in eminent domain cases rather than merely rubber-stamping what the agency wants. We are confident MDHA's motion will fail." Bullock argued the Kelo v. New London eminent domain case before the U.S. Supreme Court and was co-counsel in the first post-Kelo state supreme court case that ended eminent domain for private gain in Ohio.
The hearing is scheduled for the courtroom of Judge Barbara Haynes, Room 510, 3rd Circuit Court, Metropolitan Courthouse, 1 Public Square, Nashville, Tennessee 37201. If you can spare a few hours Friday morning to go and support Joy Ford, please do so.
Thursday Update: Postponed.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol now says it won't release the list of 182 targets of the unauthorized criminal background checks run by Lt Ronnie Shirley, the trooper with ties to the Bredesen administration. The THP's rationale: it claims the list is "evidence" in a possible criminal case.
That's absurd. The list of names isn't evidence, it is a list of the victims of Lt. Shirley's unauthorized and probably illegal searches. The THP is determined to keep the list secret - and the Bredesen administration won't challenge them on it.
Why? Are there names on the list the revelation of which would undermine the governor's claim that Lt. Shirley's activities were not political? Well, yes, actually, there are.
We know that because despite the efforts by the THP, the administration and now a Democrat district attorney to conceal the list, the public haslearned of the identities of two people on the list. The first - a Republican state trooper who is currently suing the THP alleging that the THP hampered his career because he is a Republican. This is the same THP, after all, in which scores of officers received promotions as a reward for their donations to the gubernatorial campaign of Democrat Bredesen, a "pay-for-promotions" scheme masterminded by then-Deputy Gov. Dave Cooley. And when Cooley needed a speeding ticket fixed, who fixed it?
Lt. Ronnie Shirley.
The second name on the list that has been revealed: Tennessean reporter Brad Schrade, who has written many of the paper's stories exposing various facets of the political corruption involving the THP and the Bredesen administration.
Two names. Two connections to politics and the Bredesen administration.
But I'm sure that has nothing to do with why they don't want to release the rest of the names on the list.
If you are one of the 80 people on the list that the THP says it has already interrogated intimidated interviewed, please contact me at bill-at-billhobbs.com or by phone at my office.
August 26, 2008
Not Enough Know Enough Yet
More than 100,000 people have viewed "Know Enough?" - the American Issues Project's excellent and undeniably accurate- ad regarding Barack Obama's longstanding political ties to an unrepentant American terrorist named Bill Ayers. That's a good start, but it's only a start - for comparison, the TN GOP's "Proud" video has been viewed more than 787,000 times, and John McCain's "The One" has been viewed on YouTube more than 1.3 million times.
If you believe the American people need to know the truth about Barack Obama, please send everyone you know the link to the American Issues Project's ad - the ad that the Obama campaign is trying to keep Americans from seeing.
