Conservatives are talking about the issues and Leftists are talking about personalities

So what else is new? Some thoughts below excerpted from Jonah. See the original for links

One thing we're learning from this election: These really are different parties. First, look at the Democrats. Listen to the discussion about their strategies: Hillary Clinton needs to win more blacks and men. Barack Obama must capture more Hispanics and peel away more white women. Both need to fight for "the youth."

Now look at the Republicans and how we talk about them. Can John McCain win over conservatives? Should he apologize for his support of amnesty for illegal immigrants or his opposition to tax cuts? Will Mike Huckabee ever make inroads with economic conservatives? Were Rudy Giuliani's positions on gays, guns and abortion too liberal?

See what I'm getting at? If substance were water, the Democratic campaign would be a desert. Oh, I know, Clinton's a wonk, and Obama's got enough policy papers to fill the library at Alexandria. So what? Both insist there are no major policy differences between them, except for the war and health care.

Their disagreements on these two issues actually show how little separates them. On Iraq, Obama insists that he was right first. But both of them promise to pull troops out as fast as possible. The only argument between them is how fast that might be. It's hardly a Churchillian conversation.

Health care? Their disagreements are interesting to a few wonks and activists - she wants to mandate universal coverage, he doesn't - but it's all absurdly academic. Anybody who knows anything about how Washington works understands that presidential campaign proposals are, at best, mere discussion documents when it comes time to craft actual legislation. Just as no plan long survives actual combat, no campaign baloney survives the congressional meat grinder unscathed. And that's it. The rest of their disagreement boils down to who is a more authentic agent of "change." ...

The Republican party is a mess, absolutely. Conservatives are sorting out what they believe, what heresies they can tolerate and what principles they will not bend on. At times this argument is loud, ugly and unfortunate. But you know what? At least it's an argument about something.

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ELSEWHERE



Obama hearts a mass murderer: "As Barack Obamania heads to the next major primary, the campaign is opening offices in the barrios of Texas. And Obamaniacs are using an icon of revolutionaries to help them: Che Guevara. Well, why not? Obama is a lot like Che. His parents were elitists and maybe leftist. Sure, why not? But it is a good thing he did not campaign like this in Florida. Some Cuban-Americans might take exception to having Obamaniacs idolizing a terrorist and confidante of the dictator Fidel Castro."

Vacuous Obama rhetoric: "I was watching on television last week both Barack Obama and his wife Michelle speak about the supposedly depression-like conditions in the US, and a people strapped by students loans, near hungry, and without hope of betterment. Neither said anything of substance, though both were engaging, effective speakers. Still, never has so much talent been invested in saying so little. I have developed a bad habit up in the Sierra (Huntington Lake is hardly Tahoe) of asking strangers about their playthings-big boats, jet-skis, jacked-up four wheel-drive trucks with chrome struts that require a ladder to enter, all-terrain vehicles, recreation vehicles, racing-type snow-mobiles, etc. Most of these toys cost several thousand dollars. I am struck by the background of most that I meet who are driving them: the owners are electricians, cops, plumbers, teachers, government inspectors, etc. So far very few lawyers, doctors, and investors. In other words, the middle class that Obama assures us is bankrupt seems to have been able to afford optional consumer goods as never before"

Saudis clamp down on Valentines: "Prices for black market roses are reported to be risingReligious police in Saudi Arabia are banning the sale of Valentine's Day gifts including red roses, a local newspaper has reported. The Saudi Gazette quoted shop workers as saying that officials had warned them to remove all red items including flowers and wrapping paper. Black market prices for roses were already rising, the paper said. Saudi authorities consider Valentine's Day, along with a host of other annual celebrations, as un-Islamic."

Muslim mole finally outed: "In a stunning turn of events, a high-level Muslim military aide blamed for costing an intelligence contractor his job will step down from his own Pentagon post. Meanwhile, his rival, Maj. Stephen Coughlin, a leading authority on Islamic war doctrine, may stay in the Pentagon, moving from the office of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to the office of the secretary of defense. However, sources say a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey is trying to block his new contract. The top Pentagon aide, Egyptian-born Hesham H. Islam, came under a cloud of suspicion after reports raised doubt about his resume and contacts he had made with radical Muslims. He is expected to leave the government next month, officials say.... A senior U.S. official says the life story Islam presented now appears sketchy. "His resume didn't add up, and he knows it," the official said. "He's voluntarily leaving the government in March." ... FBI officials believe Islam is involved with the U.S. branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and is helping its front groups run "influence operations" against the U.S. government."

Psychotic delusions on the Left. This guy belongs in a funny farm: "In a McCain Regime, Cheney will be back in office with another stint as Secretary of War. Norman "Bomb-bomb-bomb-Iran" Podhoretz will be Undersecretary for Nuclear War with General John "Nuke them" Shalikashvili as his deputy. Rudy Giuliani will be the Minister of Interior in charge of Halliburton's detention centers into which will be herded all critics of war and the police state. Billy kristol will be chief White House spokesliar."

A paid vacation for government health officials? "CDC to open an office in Honolulu. Nice to know we have a balanced budget and can afford this. I'm betting there will be plenty of conferences at the newest office for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It will be at the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii. Gov. Burns is listed at Wikipedia as the father of the Democratic Party in Hawaii. My Washington bureau chief weighed in: "Last month when President Bush released his 2009 budget proposal, critics decried the $5.6 billion request for the CDC as insufficient. "Yet, just last week it was revealed that CDC has decided to open a new office in Hawaii and that an employee had no real responsibilities. Clearly, a government agency that can open a new office and hire employees to do nothing can make it by on a $5.6 million budget for a year."

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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