The media have been working overtime to publish specious allegations and personal attacks against Governor Palin, her daughter, her husband, her Pastor and her local church.

The Chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party Carolyn Fowler, wife of Representative Don Fowler, said today that Governor Palin’s…

…primary qualification seems to be that she hasn’t had an abortion.

Barack Obama appeared on the Letterman show to explain, yet again, what he meant by the lipstick on a pig remark.  He said criticism of his remark was just a sign of a “silly season in politics.”  But he can’t seem to shrug off the silliness and focus on the serious.  He told Letterman:

“Keep in mind, technically, had I meant it this way, [Palin] would be the lipstick. The failed policies of John McCain would be the pig, just following the logic of this illogical situation.”

About the time Senator Obama was taping his appearance on the Letterman show Rep. Steve Cohen (Democrat, Tennessee) was holding forth on the floor of the House of Representatives, claiming that Jesus was a community organizer like Obama, while Pontius Pilate the appointed Roman Satrap who believed Jesus was innocent of any crime but sentenced him to death anyway was, like Sarah Palin, “a governor.”  (Video below.)

Earlier, at a rally in New Hampshire, Vice Presidential Nominee Joe Biden, whose media coverage has completely dried up since Sarah Palin emerged opined that he might not have been the best VP candidate for the party.

Hillary Clinton is as qualified or more qualified than I am to be Vice President of the United States of America…she’s easily qualified to be vice president and quite frankly, may have been a better pick than me.

Perhaps Biden, who’s been in politics longer than almost anyone, has determined the Obama campaign is sinking.  Perhaps he’d rather not spend the next 55 days campaigning for a lost cause.  Perhaps he’d rather go back to the Senate and his daily pilgrimage on the taxpayer subsidized Amtrak.   Let Hillary go down with the Obama ship.

with a convincing argument that he’s

not prepared to run for the Presidency.

.

For once, the media seem to be right. For better or worse, the party is now stuck with Barrack Obama.

The American Idol of politics, Senator Obama has rocketed from obscure, under-achieving State Senator to Presidential Nominee in just over three years. He has campaigned as the hip, new pop-culture celebrity with no resume or biography other than his own self-serving speeches and books.

Democrats shudder in fear of further eruptions from Reverend Wright, and more revelations of dirty business with Tony Rezko, Obama’s mentor and patron, whose trashy corruption trial in Chicago is nearing a verdict. It’s likely that new stink bombs will emerge to further taint his deliberately hyped public image.

But party leaders don’t dare allow the Clintons to bump this high risk candidate from the top of the ticket for two compelling reasons:

1. If Obama isn’t the nominee, a quarter of the party’s most enthusiastic, voters, including African-Americans and the emotion-driven young, will become dispirited and will boycott the election in November.
   
2. Obama raises more money than any other politician in America.

The Clintons know its too late to depose Obama, yet they both continue to campaign vigorously, agitate for favorable “resolution” of the Florida and Michigan controversies, and to make public statements insinuating that Obama can’t win because of race.

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The Florida-Michigan Matter

These two states were warned by the DNC that their delegates would be locked out of the Presidential nominating convention if they scheduled their primaries before Super Tuesday (February 5). They defied the DNC and scheduled early primaries, anyway.

Nine months ago, when all this happened, the Clintons appeared to have a lock and party elites expected a perfunctory primary campaign with an early coronation of Hillary. They didn’t think Florida and Michigan would natter to the nomination, one way or the other. Apparently they didn’t think the voters of Michigan and Florida would hold a grudge that might effect the final outcome in November.

All the Democrat candidates promised not to campaign in those states. But the Clintons broke the promise and thus “won” more of the locked out delegates than Obama. Since then, Hillary has made speeches in Michigan characterizing the situation as a de facto denial of voting rights. Democrats who believed the party’s hype in 2000, that Bush stole the Presidency from Al Gore by preventing thousands of legitimate Florida ballots from being counted, were already touchy about “counting all the votes.” But, as it now stands, the votes of Democrats in Florida and Michigan don’t count, and those states’ delegates are locked out.

The Florida-Michigan matter has become an open, festering wound, afflicting senior party bosses. If they allow the delegates into the convention to vote, it will be a boost to Hillary. The additional delegates would not be enough for her to win but they would add to the rancor between the party’s two factions. If they don’t seat the delegates they risk alienating their base voters in two states that could turn out to be must-win in November.

The Clintons actions so far have served to inflame resentments rather than unify the party behind Obama.

Provactive Remarks About Race:

Hillary told reporters at USA Today, that…

“I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on…Obama’s support among working – hard-working – Americans, White Americans, is weakening again…There’s a pattern emerging here. These are the people you have to win if you’re a Democrat in sufficient numbers to actually win the election. Everybody knows that.”

Hillary’s campaign adviser added,

“The Democratic Party can’t win with just eggheads and African-Americans…”

So what are they up to, these Clintons? It’s risky trying to guess what’s inside the mind of a politician but we think we have the answer: The 2012 Clinton Presidential campaign began this week.

The first step in setting the table for 2012 is to throw sand in the gears of Obama’s campaign. The best outcome for the Clintons would be a McCain win this year. President McCain would be 76 years old when the campaign for 2012 begins. Odds are he wouldn’t seek a second term. Even if Obama wins, Clinton mischief now could contribute to his first term being a failure, making him vulnerable in the primary campaign of ’12.

Peggy Noonan said it best,

“[Hillary] appears to believe that any act that benefits Clintons is a virtuous act, because Clintons are good and deserve to be benefited.”

There is no limit to the treachery the Clintons will employ to benefit themselves, regardless of the consequences. They’ll and deal with the consequences as they always have, with new acts of treachery and deception.

Readers Comments 

The federal gas tax is 18.3¢ per gallon. Based on national averages, the typical driver consumes about 50 gallons a month, and thus pays about $9.00 gas tax per month.

Hillary, ever the queen of chutzpa, hopes voters forget that in 1993, the Clintons’ highest priority for their new administration was an assortment of tax increases, including a 4.3¢ increase in the gas tax. At 50 gallons per month since 1993, the typical driver has paid about $360 additional gas tax, thanks to the first Bill & Hillary administration.

Senator McCain should use high gas prices as an opportunity to point out the harm done by emotionally-driven, populist politics. One of the Left’s populist themes has been the myth that gasoline is somehow immune to the market forces of supply and demand, that greedy oil companies can and do set prices as high as they wish, and hapless consumers will continue to buy the same number of gallons.

In reality oil companies, like most businesses always seek to maximize profits. But they are always subject to the constraints of the market forces of supply and demand. Consumers do react predictably, by buying less when prices are higher and more when prices are lower. This week, the price of gas is about $3.60 because that’s the price at which consumers will buy all the product the oil companies can deliver this week. If the companies set the price at $4.00, or $5.00 or $10.00, consumers would buy less and a surplus of unsold gasoline would build up, reducing profits. If they set the price at $3.00 or $2.60 or 99¢, consumers would buy more, and supplies would run out before all consumers bought as much as they wanted, and again, profits would be reduced.

What would actually happen if the 18¢ tax were suspended? The oil companies would have two options:

1. reduce the price by 18¢. Consumers would buy more and supplies would run out before all consumers bought as much as they wanted. There would be a “shortage.”Or,

2. if the oil companies wanted to prevent a shortage they could hold the price at $3.60, and the 18¢ would become additional profit.

Either way, Democrats would embark on one of their emotional, logic-free rampages and a lot of voters would be persuaded that Oil-Co “greed” had undermined the “hard work” of Senators and Congressmen to “help” the people. Legislation would be introduced to whack the oil companies with new taxes that would, as always, be passed on to consumers.

Senator Obama gets half-credit for pointing out that the tax reduction would be insignificant, while not honestly discussing – or not understanding – what would actually result from suspending the tax.

None of the candidates has addressed the ways government has helped cause high gas prices.

1. The supply of gasoline is less than it could be because there is not enough gasoline refining capacity, because legal and regulatory restrictions have prevented construction of any new refineries for three decades. All existing refineries run at 100% of capacity, all the time. When a refinery must shut down for maintenance or repairs retail prices spike up immediately.

2. The supply of crude oil is less than it would be if the government had not barred the oil companies from drilling and expanding domestic production for several decades.