Department of not getting it department

So I was listening to the local talk radio on the way to the store for extra bacon for the pig candy and there is this fellow - a serious lefty lawyer who gets a couple hours of rebuttal time on Saturdays to balance the Medved/Prager/Ingraham blabfest from the rest of the week.

He was one of the "Bush -worst- president- in the- history- of- the -U.S." sort of people and all that implies, and he's livid- sputtering, and stomping his little feet over the Palin pick. From what I could gather - between bouts of spittle-flecked microphone biting, he felt that MaCain chose the Alaska Governor in a cynical, underhanded attempt to turn the simple country folk, what with their cow milking and hay making, against their dazzling urbanite betters and thus drive a wedge between these heretofore natural allies in the battle against the Darth Vadars of the Republican party. He was shocked that a political organization would stoop so low as to pander to different demographic groups. Any political organization other than the democrats that is.

Apparently, his thinking goes, if the party of Lincoln wins with a strategy like that, it puts at risk gender norming, race-based college admissions, minority only business enterprise zones, taxing the successful to ease life for the stupid, hate crimes legislation, and sending global warming deniers to re-education camps - you know, the things that bring us all together in one big warm hopey-changey group hug.

With all due deference to anecdote not being data and all, I would beg to differ.

I do not have many acquaintances amongst the Bumpkin-American sector, but my travels to today's gun show did reveal a surprising number of people who were excited about the prospects of a Palin/McCain administration (yeah, I know she's not supposed to get top billing) ... old guys.

I hear your objection. I was at a gun show, and gunnies are a target audience for the republicans, but I was paying attention to the people who were visibly, and volubly happy; people who would go out of their way to bring up their love of the vice presidential nominee, and the ones who stood out from the crowd were the codgers.

One guy - a wrinkled, gray haired vet, was telling everybody who came to look at his wares that he was switching from Bob Barr to McCain because of Sarah Palin, another (full disclosure: father of a friend of mine) who could best described as a 77 year old anti-authoritarian populist who wasn't going to bother voting this year, sees her Governorship as a Harry Trumanesque figure. Hell, even Breda's 80 year old uncle (more than one purple heart from Korea) is dancing little jigs because Sarah Palin reminds him of his own wife.

I can't believe this represents any kind if intent on the part of McCain, but I think it does show there's votes to be won in the unlikeliest of places, and if this till now marginalized constituency
has become energized- there's no telling who else the democrats - a party who practically specialize in sneering condescension - have pushed past the point of no return.

Funny thing happened on the way to the coronation.

Now where was I? Oh yes, McCain, Palin, Biden, Obama, and Sun Tzu. Old Sunny was hell on wheels in his day, so much so, that a lot of modern folk think he has the skinny on winning at any endeavor from hostile takeovers of companies to getting the girl of your dreams to go out with you instead of Bob down in accounting.

I've read "The Art of War" and it contains much good, hard common sense distilled down to easy to apply aphorisms, the whole thing larded with a healthy dose of fortune-cookie pablum. But like the Greeks with logic, Sun Tzu gets credit for thinking of it first, and creating what is THE baby step, must read, start here, study of strategy.

The most famous of his dictates reads more or less, "know yourself and know your enemy and you will never know defeat". This is true as far as it goes, so long as one ignores luck and happenstance - having the high ground, the best army, and best plan is for naught if god decides to drop a piano on you before the fight starts.

Nonetheless, if you can apply the rule (there's the rub), your chances for victory go right up.

I'm sure there is also a political version of the book - Machiavelli wrote one, but unless one has the option of putting enemy's heads on stakes, it's not too useful for practical politics in 21st century America. Still, if there some version of "The Art of political War" available, recent events show the democrats haven't read it, because, boy did they get caught flat footed.

Our brethren on the left are running around in circles and screaming to any sympathetic ear the the filthy republicans are actually trying to win the election, that they don't understand the rules, they're... they're... fighting back.

Uh, guys it's an election contest - if only one side tries to win, the whole competition idea goes out the window.

And herein lies a little insight into the mind of the democratic party (know your enemy... remember) - they are so confident of their own rectitude they cannot conceive of someone not wanting what they are selling. It flummoxes them that given their natural superiority in this contest, that the other side would would actually even want to go through with it. They are great, they are pure, they are destiny's children, they do not know their enemy.

If failure to know thy enemy is a dangerous conceit, failure to know yourself is a fatal one. And here again the democrats fall into a trap of their own making. It is difficult to have a clear sense of self when everybody from the New York Times editorial page to the flakes at MSNBC is telling you how great you are. Barack Obama is a nancy-boy, metrosexual amalgam of white guilt and black sense of entitlement, and to call Joe Biden dumber than a box of hammers is to risk insulting the intellect of of blunt objects, yet the watch poodles of the media have convinced a good portion of the voting public that these two are the god-like harbingers of a new politics. Worse still, it seems they have convinced Obama and Biden of this too.

Now, if the Palin pick is analogous to the battles of Lexington and Concord, where the British learned the colonists would indeed fight, I would suggest the next stage should be a good old Trenton sneak attack: Send every organizer, and speaker to the innerest of the inner cities with pictures showing the fully one in ten democratic convention delegates who are NEA members; arm them with lots of quotes from education folk saying that if the people are given school choice, they won't choose the public schools, and then ask how the democratic party thing is working out for their kid's futures.

Will it change any minds in urban America? Doubtful, but howls, and screams of the Obama campaign, at even the merest possibility he could loose the hold over his people, certainly might push some of the undecideds to McCain.

And, besides as a spectacle, watching the wheels come the Obama bus would take some beating.

9-7-08 Update: I wrote the above before I found this from Caroline Glick - I'm some kind of psychic apparently.

This Just Might Be Interesting

We were in the backyard yesterday, celebrating my birthday with Full Sail Pale Ale (their slogan is "Ridiculously Tasty" - they ain't kidding), and some turtle watching, when Breda says she can't wait for the democratic coronat... er... I mean convention in Denver.

Personally, I prefer something less scripted, like pro wrestling or a Soviet show trial, so I asked why.

"For the fireworks, the protests, the blood in the streets, Chicago 1968 all over again" she answered (approximately).

"But", I countered, "these are democrats - you know, all marching in lock step. A vast sea of identical diversity worshipers all demanding freedom for themselves and people who believe exactly what they believe - why would they eat their young like that? Especially since they are this close to ultimate power, to having the means to build a kinder, more caring world where their enemies can be ruthlessly crushed and their heads placed on pikes in a kindly, gentle manner."

In reply she spoke but a single word... "Hillary."

I have my doubts, but they are not as absolute as they once were. For today I found via Instapundit, via Slate... a last ditch Hillary site.

I don't know what is going on here, or if these folk are serious, or influential or what. But it's enough to give a reactionary troglodyte such as myself a good case of the schadenfreude giggles.

Here is a sample from the schedule of events

Beautiful Protest and Rise,

Cheesman Park, 4-10pmIn Commemoration of Hillary Clinton’s Historic Presidential Campaign! What makes this historical event special, isn’t just that it’s named after the Maya Angelou’s famous poem “Rise,” but that it will also close with the lighting of candles to pay tribute to Hillary and all of her achievements, while also symbolically reigniting the flame to America’s great Democracy and Lady Liberty’s torch. Hundreds of participants are expected to attend, and candles are planned to Rise across the nation, community by community, in one harmonious gesture of participation. There is no doubt that this will be a marvelous occasion for everyone who has worked on behalf of Hillary Clinton, as well as all her supporters/fans who just believe and appreciate our Liberty and Democracy will all have an opportunity to come together and enjoy an afternoon and evening of festivities. This is a free event and all Hillary supporters/fans are welcome. PumaPac activities in the park will begin at 4p.m. and run until 6 p.m. The Rise speakers and entertainment will begin at 7 p.m. and end at 10 p.m., with the national “Rise” candle salute to Hillary, Democracy and Lady Liberty to Kickoff in Cheesman Park at exactly 9:45 MDT.

She might not get the White House, but she gets the "national candle salute"?

I just might participate in that... I'll have my own lovely librarian figure out what 9:45 MDT works out to in flyover country, and go outside and point something in the air in a Hillary-ward direction to express my true feelings too.

Pretty Girls

I'm long out of high school, but after listening to Barrack Obama for a couple of months, all I can think of is Pretty Girl Disease. You know the blond cheerleader who got her books carried home, and test answers slipped to her, and every door opened by a willing suitor. She may have ended up in the big house with the pool and the convertible, but unless she was a person of the highest character, she is also shallow, self-centered, ungrateful, and endowed with a colossal sense of entitlement.

And, frankly, much as I dislike McCain, I can at least sense some character there - Obama, nothing.

His entire life, the guy has been graded on the curve by people who saw in him validation of their own beliefs... "He's good-looking, glib, and fashionably dark, and he's going places! Oh boy aren't we just the grandest for supporting programs that made him possible."

And the press, and worshipful followers, are like the ugly kids who flock around the pretty ones hoping some of the glamor will rub off.

I hope I'm not naive, and I know you search the closets of any politician at your peril, and character is not the sole criterion for casting a vote, but when one candidate has some and the other guy has none, it becomes difficult to ignore.

Why I Read Ace Everyday

Because the folks who write there are capable of insight and recognize real irony. I feel a little happier for having read this.

In My Darker Moments

I'm looking for suggestions. After the little explosion of last week, I spent some time sorting through my thoughts, and I couldn't make the needle swing to the positive side. It's hard to watch the Mayor of DC acting like any old Jim Crow loving good old boy defying the Supreme Court, American terrorists offering the standard rationalizations their crimes, all while the news media want us to pretend not to notice they have given up all pretense of objectivity.

Now Sebastian writes that he has some doubts about the legality of putting his political opinions down on paper and handing them out.

In America for God's sake, you now have to be afraid that it might be against the law to publish an opinion.

I'm looking for glad tidings, and not finding too many.

So, I'm asking for suggestions - what candle do you light? What star do you steer by? And which way do you turn to scent something good on the wind?

It's The Guns

The next time some slimeball politician spews the old "more guns leads to more crime" canard, send the S.O.B. a copy of this story out of Albany, New York and found at Of Arms and the Law.

Short version: Woman accuses the police of misconduct, and in order to prove her wrong, and charge her with the misdemeanor of filing a false statement, the prosecutor offers a violent felon a plea deal to reduce his 15 year armed robbery sentence to 3 years if he will testify against her.

In 4 years when the now free felon kills, or beats, or rapes someone, at least the victim's family can take comfort in the fact that the cops drawing the chalk outline around the body have untarnished reputations.

More guns don't lead to more crime; giving light sentences to violent felons for selfish reasons leads to more crime.

P.S. I wonder if they would offer the same deal to a guy to testify against the police should the situation warrant it.