What If Clinton Forces Second Convention Vote on Obama?

I am not by any means an expert on political convention procedures, Republican or Democrat, but I do know that somewhere in the process, if a first vote doesn't produce a clear nominee, pledged delegates are released to vote their own minds.

What happens to the ever so well-crafted numbers that the media has been throwing at us for months now if the first vote doesn't produce a nominee? What happens if Hillary Clinton gets enough delegates in the remaining primaries to deny Barack Obama the majority he needs to claim victory?

Yes, I am aware that the Democrats use "Super" delegates who ostensibly are free to vote their consciences, and that as of today Obama was claiming that he had more than Clinton.

But a lot can happen between now and convention time and Super Delegates are in play right up to the instant they vote. So that number can change overnight, and if Obama doesn't have enough committed delegates to get the nomination on the first vote, what happens next?

At what point do the committed delegates get released from their commitments, regardless of whether they are committed to Clinton or Obama?

Based on most of the opinions I have heard from the political scene in recent weeks, Clinton will win West Virginia handily, Kentucky by a decent margin, as well as Puerto Rico, with Oregon, Montana and South Dakota up for grabs.

So essentially, we'll finish up the Democratic primary season in something near a dead heat, with Obama a tiny bit ahead in the committed delegate count, but not over the top.

That however, doesn't include the primaries in Florida and Michigan that Clinton won but the Democrats aren't counting.

And please, don't bore me with this "Obama didn't run in Michigan" nonsense. Who's fault is that? Yeah, His!

How typically Democratic in concept. The man didn't do what he needed to do to win all the states regardless of the technicalities involved, so now he is a victim of his own system?

Obama doesn't get any Michigan numbers because he wrote that state off and that is too bad. But the Democratic party is cutting its own throat by excluding the opinions of millions of voters who could care less what the bigwigs in their party did with their primary schedules.

That is not helpful to Obama, nor is his "victim" attitude.

If you include Clinton's victories in Florida and Michigan in this count, the whole picture changes.

Obama's playing the race card repeatedly isn't helping him either. He won big in North Carolina because nearly half the Democratic voters in North Carolina are black, and 90+ percent of them voted for Obama.

But nationwide, blacks account for one-eighth of the population and while it certainly is desirable to have a large voting bloc in your camp, and the voice of African-Americans certainly should be heard and heeded, that percentage can't win on its own.

Here is the dirty little secret that most political newscasters and commentators don't want to address in their unending quest for political correctness.

White people by and large are pissed at Obama. Many whites would have voted for him early on. But first his wife bad mouths a country that gave her opportunities to excel in one of the most prestigious of Ivy League schools, and an annual income that is 10 times higher than most wage earners; then Rev. Jeremiah Wright goes out rapping smack about whitey and the USAKKK.

Then we find that his other associations are less than savory, what with federal trials involving close Obama friends and supporters, and unrepentant terrorists in his circle of backers.

White people, not white liberal Democrats, or even unaffiliated left-leaning voters, but run of the mill white people, many of whom often don't vote, are angry with Obama.

I don't see this as racist either! I believe there are huge numbers of white Americans who are more than willing to vote for a qualified black person, man or woman, as well as a woman of any race.

But they want qualified people representing them. They want people who really are post-racial, not just posturing and then displaying age-old racial stereotyping in private.

A wide range of viewpoints comes into this site or my emails every day, and even when I disagree with the authors, I heed where they come from and what kind of demographic they represent.

Virtually all of them are angry with Obama. He does not have the support of the veterans, he does not have the support of the active military, he doesn't have the support of non-Democrat blue collar workers especially independents, and what with his latest shot at John McCain's age, you can bet the senior citizens aren't going to be on his side either. They're seeing him as just another upstart who wants to discount and discard their years of sacrifices, contributions and knowledge and shove them off to the side whenever their votes aren't needed.

Frankly, not only do I not see Obama getting elected, if he is nominated I wouldn't be surprised to see a backlash vote against him from many fronts, including those who don't usually vote, and thus usually aren't included in the myriad polls the pundits use to try to tell us how to think.

I don't believe I am the only person out here who sees this. I believe Hillary Clinton's camp is well aware of it, even though her advisers say otherwise, as is Obama's. Neither has the best interests of the Democratic party in mind, so neither will give up unless they are down, out and still getting stomped.

So it is conceivable that we can see this fight go right to the convention floor, and regardless of the delegate count at the moment, it all can change in the super delegate numbers. That change could occur if the Democratic convention goes beyond the first ballot.

Turn Off (NUMBERS) and Tune Out (George Carlin)

Reprinted from The Talon
http://talon.eaglesup.us/

In 1984 I attended a George Carlin comedy show and he was so funny for so long that by the time intermission rolled around my sides ached and I was afraid I would break a rib from laughing so hard.

Back then, Carlin was funny.

Seven years later I saw another of his routines in a much smaller venue. The only good thing I can say about that show was that the warm-up act was really, really good, and far outshone the main event.

What happened in between? First, Carlin dumped the long list of scatological and sexual references that had grown out of the original Seven Words You Can't Say on Television for more sophisticated, philosophical, pseudo-intellectual humor.

I realize that his previous humor had been juvenile and low brow, but it was still funny. Occasional cuts at the government or society were included and he often hit on something or another that we Americans do that seemed strange or funny if we took the time to think about it.

Then somewhere along the way Carlin started taking himself seriously. He seemed to think he had become a philosopher, wise and worth heeding. He poked fun at everything American, and everyone who was part of the mainstream. We were all foolish, myopic, brain-dead losers devoid of original thought. He was the only clear thinker among us.

Which was why his show suffered, his audience dwindled and he was playing much smaller venues.

Then, one night last week, when I was working late in my office, I turned on the television only to see Carlin doing an HBO special. He looked very old, ill in fact, stooped, and raspy. He was predictably ridiculing everything and everyone that was not him. He took shots at the president, he took shots at the Republican Party - unlike Lewis Black who hammers politicians of all stripes with equal vigor, Carlin just picks on Republicans - and he lambasted corporate America which according to him is responsible for all the world's ills.

Then, in a mere soundbite that left me both shocked and angry, Carlin ridiculed America's war dead whose remains rest in cemeteries around the world! His implication was that they had been suckered into fighting for our country, and died like so many mindless lemmings, for trumped up causes that they didn't have the sense to avoid.

Considering that most of the cemeteries for America's soldiers on foreign lands are for WWII veterans, this statement was all the more shocking. I have never heard anyone ridicule those who served in WWII as though they had a choice about where and when they would stand up to Nazis, fascists and the Japanese.

I have always believed we also did right in standing up to communists in Korea and Vietnam. They were no better than the Nazis and fascists. For some reason, the wars in Korea and Vietnam became issues of debate, while for most of the world's citizens who lived during WWII, there was little question about the where and when of fighting.

It was even more shocking that this criticism of our war dead came from a guy who has grown rich availing himself of the very freedoms that so many Americans died to preserve. Fighting against forces who, if they had prevailed, most definitely would NOT have allowed Carlin to say the things about them that he says about us.

I turned off the Carlin show because I was so outraged at him and HBO. The next non-news show I watched was on Friday night when the show NUMBERS came on at 10 p.m. That show started out as a crime drama in which two brothers, one an FBI agent, the other a brilliant college math professor, work together to solve major crimes.

Nice concept - for a while. Then, like most TV shows, the character development stretched into who was sleeping with whom, some scenes approached soft-porn, and a decided anti-military twist emerged.

The proof of this was a segment last year in which a Marine veteran of the Iraq War comes home and shoots two murderers. He takes off for Mexico, and stays there until last Friday's show when members of his unit try to track him down so he wouldn't spill the beans about all the mayhem, torture and slaughter they had engaged in against innocent civilians in Iraq.

Mortars leveling homes filled with innocent women and children, Marines shooting civilians for no reason and torturing the unfortunate until they begged for death. Oh Yeah, that's our guys all over.

I couldn't help but think back a month when Eagles Up and other pro-troop organizations stood vigil in Silver Springs Maryland as the Iraq Veterans Against the War attempted to re-create John Kerry's infamous Winter Soldier investigation from back in the 70s. That was when he and others of his ilk lied about the conduct of American soldiers in Vietnam, branding us as baby killers, murderers and worse.
Investigations later revealed that nearly all of Kerry's "witnesses" were liars, who didn't serve where and when they said they did, or at all, but that was never widely publicized.

In Maryland we demanded that the IVAW "witnesses" identify themselves by name, rank, unit, time and place in Iraq, other witnesses who saw what they said they saw, and further demanded that they agree to testify under oath to the alleged atrocities they allegedly witnessed. None would. Their event was a bust.

A bust just like the ill-conceived cases against the Haditha Marines and other members of the armed forces who have been falsely accused of war crimes in Iraq. Cases that are falling likes houses of cards. Never fear though. The left owns Hollywood and if they can't damage the American military one way, they'll do it another.

I turned off NUMBERS just as I had turned off Carlin, and I can guarantee that my family won't be watching it any more either. There are other things to do on Friday nights. We can rent a movie, or maybe even turn in early. I have several seasons worth of Magnum P.I. shows that are always worth watching that are far better entertainment than the slop CBS is offering up.

I recommend that course of action for anyone who cares about our military and our veterans. When I say No More Vietnam's, I mean no more sabotage and treachery, in the media, in the government, in politics and in the entertainment industry.

As for Carlin, he just reminds me of an irrelevant curmudgeon. And eventually he go the way we all will go and take his ill temper with him. But since Andy Rooney already has a lock on the curmudgeon identity, it looks like the only thing that will be left for Carlin's tombstone is "Irrelevant."

American Values in Morton, Ill.; Jesus Christ Appearing at the Bushnell in Hartford.

Are you are feeling a bit anxious about America's core values? Is Congress upsetting you, the news media infuriating you? Does it seem as though the end of rational thought as we know it is imminent?

Then I suggest you put down what you are doing and travel to Morton, Illinois for a refresher course in common sense and community values.

I was there this past weekend, just about as close as you can get to the Heartland of America, to participate in ceremonies and events associated with a visit from the Moving Wall, a traveling replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

I was a guest of Larry Stimeling and American Legion Post 318, and to put it as succinctly as possible, these people know how to put on an event. Larry was the point man for a four-day series of panel discussions, commentary from Vietnam Veterans, entertainment, and the opportunity for Americans from throughout the area to visit the scaled-down duplicate of the memorial in Washington.

Larry and his associates left nothing to chance, and from the moment that Jerry Agles picked me up at the Peoria Airport to take me to the Ashland Best Western in Morton I knew I was in the presence of a class event. I highly recommend staying at the Ashland Best Western if you are in the area - and check out O'Flaherty's in the hotel if you are hungry or like a wide selection of Irish beers.

Larry and Jerry, with a lot of assistance from Morton American Legion Post 318 and Lodge #352 of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, put in a yeoman's effort, and the final result was well worth it.

I have spoken at many events over the years and usually there is a core group of workers who do most of the heavy lifting to arrange things, with more helpers showing up as the event unfolds. That is not an insult to anyone, it is just a reflection of human nature.

Once the event is underway it takes a lot of hands to make sure it goes smoothly, handing chores such as transportation, meals, information assistance, helping put up and take down the wall, and filling in wherever needed.

But as I was putting final touches on the speech I was to deliver at the closing ceremonies on Sunday I looked at the back of the event program where the groups, businesses and individuals who had contributed were posted. I was amazed. The list was HUGE!

It seemed as though the entire community was in on the planning or execution in some way or another. Restaurants donated food, individuals and groups donated money, politicians from all parties were in abundance and wholly supportive - and I didn't see any of the political posturing that cynics expect at these events either. It was clear to me that Morton, Illinois represents an America that many of us yearn for, but that the mainstream media seems to be going out of its way to claim no longer exits.

Based on what I saw in Morton this past week, the media is wrong - again. How surprised are we at that?

To sum it up, I was privileged and honored to be part of a moving and important event in the nation's heartland. I hadn't been to that part of the country previously, not counting Chicago. But I made some friends there and you can bet I will be back to see them in the future.

Jesus Christ in Hartford

Do you believe in omens?

Well then, tell me what this would mean to you.

I board a plane in Peoria, Ill., to take a quick hop up to Chicago's O'Hare Airport where I will connect to another plane that will take me to Connecticut.

Just before the door of the plane closes (the one in Peoria) a passenger enters - a minister judging from his collar and the cross displayed on a chain hanging around his neck.

His assigned seat is next to mine. We exchanged pleasantries and then he went to work on his papers, maybe his next sermon, and I went to work on my crossword puzzle which is what I do when I fly.

The trip to Chicago is uneventful, we deplane, both end up on the shuttle from Concourse B to Concourse C, and all the way to my gate he keeps popping up. I'm beginning to wonder just what is going on, and then he disappears. I was only about 20 minutes away from boarding time on my next flight and I soon forgot about the last one.

I boarded the next plane, and took my window seat about two-thirds of the way toward the back of the plane, after which I started people watching, one of my all-time favorite leisure activities. After a while I noticed a group of young people, college age to mid-20s or so, heading my way.

I wasn't sure what to make of them, especially when a young man with a very deep voice who liked to sing "Yippee Ki O, Ki A," took the seat next to me. "Maybe spring breakers on their way home from somewhere," I mused. But as more and more entered the aircraft it was obvious that more and more of them knew each other, and I speculated that maybe they were a rock-n-roll band with a large entourage.

When the plane was full and everyone seated, one of the group who was behind me asked the man next to me how many performances they would be doing at their next stop.

By then my curiosity had overcome my good manners and I couldn't stop myself from asking "What are you performing."

OK, are you ready for this? Remember what I said about the first flight in the company of the minister? Well for the second part of my flight I was smack in the middle of the entire national touring company for the hit musical Jesus Christ Superstar!

Think someone is trying to tell me something?

As it turns out, my aisle mate was Darrel Whitney, a personable guy from Erie, PA, who plays the High Priest, Caiaphas.

Mary Magdalene was right in front of me, Pontius Pilate was across the aisle, the show's musical director was right behind me, and Jesus Christ, in the person of Ted Neeley who has played the role numerous times on stage and screen over thirty years, was three rows in front of me! I felt strangely ... secure, even when the ride was bumpy.

Darrel and I talked a bit and found out: he knows a lot about military aircraft which was an area of common interest; he eventually wants to teach social studies and do voice-overs as a second career; and that I studied Shakespeare in college and reviewed Jesus Christ Superstar for a Connecticut newspaper when the touring company came to the Bushnell Auditorium in the 90s.

Darrel invited me to come see the present incarnation of the show, which follows the traditional version - imagine that, Jesus Christ Superstar, now in its fourth decade, and was considered avant garde theater when it was first produced, actually has a "traditional" version.

This may seem like a lot to absorb, and I guess it is. Some people will see my journey as an omen, or at least a message, others will say it is sheer coincidence and I am making too much of it.

Nonetheless, I will be going to the Bushnell Auditorium in Hartford one evening this week to watch Jesus Christ Superstar. I'll also be taking my family, since my youngest has yet to see the stage production and I think she'll enjoy it.

Make of that what you will.

Barack Obama Does the "Side Step" on Fox News Sunday

Every once in a while when commenting on the actions of a political figure, I can't help but refer to the movie "Best Little Whorehouse in Texas."

Its stars include Burt Reynolds, Charles Durning, Dolly Parton and Dom DeLuise among others and I don't refer to it out of any connection with prostitution, but rather out of a connection with politics. ... OK, let me rephrase that.

I refer to the Best Little Whorehouse in Texas not when a politician is involved in extracurricular sexual activities, but when a politician is avoiding direct questions and trying to leave an impression that may not be real.

In the movie Charles Durning does a great number called The Side Step, that includes the lyrics, "Oooh, I love to dance a little sidestep, now they see me now they don't, I've come and gone. And ooooh I love to sweep around the wide step, cut a little swath and lead the people on."

That is exactly what Barack Obama did on his Fox News Sunday interview with Chris Wallace. Obama had ducked the interview for more than two years and finally agreed to it only when Wallace began running a time clock every week showing how many days Obama had been avoiding him. I guess with the recent criticism over Obama refusing to debate Hillary Clinton in North Carolina the Illinois senator figured he better do something a bit more aggressive.

But when he finally did the interview, Obama played it safe.

That is the best I can come up with after an interview that ran for a half-hour plus.

He is nice, non-threatening, self-assured, post-racial, genuinely concerned about the anti-white comments made by his former Pastor Jeremiah Wright, and really, really folks, far removed from any ideological association with unrepentant 1960s era radical Weather Underground member Bill Ayers, who bombed government buildings and now teaches his leftist philosophy as a professor of education at the University of Illinois. (Just makes you want to run right out and sign your kids up for that college doesn't it?)

Nope, none of that bad stuff. Barack is just as sweet as honeysuckle and concerned as a human being can possibly be about the fate of the human race.

He did do a lot of things right. He came across as honest, down to earth, even made the point that his rich upbringing makes it difficult to connect with some of the folks who have taken umbrage at his comments about guns, religion and bitterness.

In fact, Obama was so vanilla in his appearance that the panel of commentators who commentated on his interview after it was over really couldn't put their fingers on anything that was remarkable about it, except that it was unremarkable.

From a public relations standpoint you have to score big numbers for Barack's PR, media relations and communications people. Obama obviously thought this was hostile territory, otherwise he wouldn't have ducked the interview for so long.

Thus to come away from it unscathed means someone, or a team of someones, did one hell of a job preparing him for the worst so he came off looking so, well, vanilla, when he actually did the interview.

Maybe someone with more time and better electronic gear than I have can spend today rerunning the segment to see if there are any usable sound bites in it, but frankly, I think there would be far more work involved than possible rewards.

No, Obama's media and communications team did a very good job preparing for his interview with Wallace, and that is about all I can say for it. Wallace did not go easy, or loft softballs to Obama either.

He asked about Rev. Wright several times, he asked about Ayers, he asked about the Clintons, he asked about John McCain, tax cuts, and I don't know what else. Wallace ran the spectrum of Obama issues, and Obama deflected them with nothing remarkable one way or another.

There is one area that I might find some disagreement but it isn't about Obama, it is about Rev. Wright. The good Reverend did an interview Friday night in which he claimed he is being unfairly criticized for his anti-white rhetoric from the pulpit.

The Reverend claims that the media is only showing snippets and sound bites of what he really said, and is deliberately leaving a false impression.

Fox News did the responsible thing and posted one of the Reverend's sermons on the network website in its entirety, offering viewers the opportunity to watch it and decide on their own.

I watched it. I found it to be particularly offensive, in many areas hateful, un-Christian like, full of outright racism, lacking in historic perspective, and pretty much exactly as the media portrayed it.

I didn't see an effort to go forward and do better in the area of race relations, I saw an effort to keep a congregation locked in the biases of a bygone time. But, hey, that is just my impression. You don't have to take my word for it, watch the video yourself.

Barack continually referred to Rev. Wright as "my former pastor," which makes the point, and of course he (the Senator) has been seen on the news a lot lately wearing a USMC t-shirt and playing basketball. That image rebuilding video goes a long way in offsetting the dismal performance Obama did when bowling for blue-collar workers in Pennsylvania.

I guess the t-shirt is to show support for the troops, particularly Marines, unless he got it from the Utah State Motorcycle Club. We'll have to explore that in another column.

So that's it. Another sterling performance by another American politician who wants to be president of the United States but isn't too interested in the electorate seeing too much of what he is like behind the veil.

But at least Chris Wallace can get on to other things without referring to his Barama'o'meter every week. The clock stopped at 772.

On the other hand, the Juliet Huddy clock is now at 462 and ticking, even though Fox News did a 10-minute segment of The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet Saturday afternoon. Little Brother is watching.

Song birds, Juliet Huddy, and Other Rare Sightings

There comes a day every spring when I awaken to the sounds of dozens of song birds greeting the dawn.

It is a particularly nice day, predictably coming as it does at the end of winter, and proclaiming to everyone and everything in earshot that spring is at hand.

The advent of the spring songbird concert isn't sudden, it grows on you gradually. Some birds arrive early, some later on, and they just kind of show up. One day they aren't here and the next day they are. No news release, no TV promos, nothing. Birds don't exactly hire advance men to announce their arrival.

Rather, there is just an awareness that something is different and then you realize that you are not alone in the growing light of pre-dawn. It is nice to awaken this way, especially considering that the songbird melody will last for the better part of six months before they take flight to warmer climates again.

It is reassuring.

There are always birds around my house, both inside and outside, since my family and I make it a point to feed those that winter over. We provide various kinds of seeds and suet during the cold months, but we cut way back on the feeders in the spring and summer, preferring to plant seed bearing flora that attracts robins, bluebirds, finches, cardinals, orioles and many other varieties.

In addition to providing sources of food for both the seasonal and year-round residents, we are strong on organic gardening so you won't find much in the way of pesticides, herbicides or any of the other "cides" in our yard, that could harm avian reproductive processes.

We also hear from owls, hawks, eagles, turkeys and buzzards fairly regularly and we occasionally get a glimpse of a rare species.

It can get pretty noisy around here when all the species are going full tilt but I am never inclined to close my window and shut out the sounds. I guess it's because in the back of my mind I am aware that while one side of the cycle brings us life and hope, there will be a day in the future when I awaken to silence, or at best just the screech of blue jays, and I am on notice that winter is coming and I too will have to adjust my routines.

So I take what I can when I can, and appreciate the song birds, common and rare, for what they bring to my life, even if it is temporary.

Another Rare Sighting

Speaking of rare sightings, I saw Juliet Huddy on the Fox News channel about a week ago. It was a Saturday and she appeared during the afternoon with Mike Jerrick, her co-host on The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet, which airs in some markets - but not all.

The Morning Show went on the air in January, 2007 through Fox and MyNetworkTV. Huddy and Jerrick have hosted other news shows in the past, notably DaySide and Fox and Friends Weekend, both on the Fox News Channel.

In February 2007, the show was syndicated to ABC, NBC, and CBS affiliates in cities where a MyNetworkTV or FOX station doesn't carry it. On January 23, 2008 The Morning Show with Mike & Juliet was renewed for a second season.

That is all very nice if you happen to live in a market where you can see Juliet, but unfortunately I don't.

Which is why I should point out that it has been 460 days since Juliet left the fans of the Fox News network for her syndicated morning show and there still are lots of us who want her back where we can see her regularly. I did send an email to my local Fox station manager pointing out that Juliet has a fan base in his broadcast area, and he did send back a very nicely worded rejection slip. But so far, no Juliet after 460 days.

You probably are wondering why I am making this point, so I will explain myself.

First, this is not meant to disparage any other hosts or hostesses on Fox. There are some first-rate talents on that channel from early morning til late night.

That having been said, which is redundant but who cares, Juliet Huddy is one of those people with that special "something," in her case a likability and approachability that many work for but never achieve.

As I have said on this site before, I became a fan when Juliet went out on the sidewalk in downtown Manhattan when she was co-hosting a Fox & Friends show, grabbed a basketball and swished 10 straight foul shots. You watch a performance like that and you get the feeling you could hang out with this person and not feel self-conscious.

I always enjoyed her show on Fox News, and I prefer to get my news from someone with whom I connect, even if it is over the airwaves.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have never met, spoken to, done business with, exchanged phone numbers, letters, emails or had any form of communication with Juliet Huddy.

But I also should point out that more than a year ago I wrote about Juliet's shift to the syndication arena, expressing my dissatisfaction and the hope that eventually I would be able to find her show in my market, which hasn't happened yet. And please don't tell me to look for her on the networks - I don't trust the networks, and I don't watch network news.

Anyway, ever since I wrote about Juliet last year, my website analysis program tells me that she has never gone out of favor with people who view this site. In other words, when I check the Keyword category, to see what issues or people are drawing readers here, Juliet Huddy is continually listed in the top percentages - even though I haven't written about her in more than a year!

So in a way, since the purpose of writing these columns is to draw people to the site, where I hope they will be interested enough to purchase a copy of Masters of the Art, A Fighting Marine's Memoir of Vietnam, Juliet Huddy has actually been helping sell my books by proxy.

Thus the least I can do is return the favor and make a plea to Fox to either get her back on the Fox News cable shows regularly, or help get her nationwide exposure.

I don't think that is too much to ask. Obviously, if I am writing about her she has a fan base that is not being considered. And if she keeps coming up on my keyword searches, people are very interested in her and what she is doing.

So what do you say, Folks at Fox? How about paying attention to the wants and needs of your loyal viewers?

I noticed that Barack Obama is going to appear on Fox News Sunday to face up to Chris Wallace tomorrow after more than 770 days of ducking an interview on that show.

I'll point out again, that it has been 460 days since Juliet Huddy was last a regular on Fox News. Your viewers are well aware that the Fox lineup is constantly being changed, toyed with, altered and switched.

So next time you get the urge to change things around, how about working out something with Juliet so she can be back in the lineup?

And ... don't make us wait 770 days.

Chickens Roosting on a Double-Digit Smackdown; Obama's Indiana Speech Scores an Easy 'A'

It looks like the chickens came home to roost in the national Democratic Party. Right on top of Barack Obama's head.

Hillary Clinton, who was all but counted out of the Democratic race for the presidential nomination a month ago out-polled the self-anointed nominee by 10 percent in Pennsylvania's Democratic primary Tuesday and suddenly the tables have again turned.

Obama didn't wait around for the bad news. He flew off to Indiana where he gave a speech that I would have scored an easy 'A' if he had given it in one of my college classes. It was full of hope and fire, and never-give-up determination, delivered with an intensity that had the crowd all but forgetting what was going on slightly to the east.

But the reality of Tuesday night was that Hillary Clinton trounced him, and did so in many previously solid Obama demographics to boot.

There was an ocean of explanations on the news Wednesday morning, in addition to the spin from the Obama machine that "it don't mean nothing." Obama vows to recapture his momentum in North Carolina and Indiana, but that means a lot more work than he had originally thought, and a lot more money.

Obama outspent the Clinton campaign in Pennsylvania by a gazillion dollars to one, but despite his claims early in the day Tuesday, all that money did not turn the primary around. In fact there was a fair amount of evidence that some of the over spending actually hurt him.

He should have asked his advisers to take a look at the unsuccessful campaign waged against Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman when the enormously wealthy Democrat Ned Lamont spent millions of his own and other people's money in a failed attempt to oust him. Lamont kept pouring more and more into the campaign, but the gap was as wide as the Mississippi on election day.

Money helps a campaign, there is no doubt about it, in terms of getting your message out to the voters. But it also shows you can't buy all the votes. When people have made up their minds, and a candidate has done more to alienate the voters than attract them, money stops being the deciding factor.

Obama lost not because of money, and not because of race, although that's what the national Democrats want us to believe. He lost because instead of showing himself to be a collected, competent leader who happens to be black, he is instead a black man who never endured the abuses of the pre-civil rights era, but is all too willing to join in on blasting modern day white Americans for events that occurred a century before most of us were born.

Rather than being a 'post-racial' product of the United States upper middle class, Obama has shown himself to be a puppet of the race-baiting, white-guilt proponents who believe that true leadership is keeping most of their race dependent on the welfare system, caught in an endless cycle of hatred, self-loathing and economic dependence on the government.

Barack Obama could have, and should have, shown that while he is aware of past abuses, he is looking forward to a better America where equality is a real concept not just a word that politicians throw around to feel good about themselves.

But when his past associations - and yes they do matter - came back to haunt him, Obama could not let go.

Many people have a hard time with misplaced loyalty. It is difficult to walk away from what you once believed. But Obama didn't have to walk away. He could have acknowledged his past, and made the point that he has moved on, instead of trying to justify it.

His further lapses, questioning gun ownership, religion, and not jumping all over Pastor Jeremiah White's obnoxious comments about Italians, just added fuel to the fire.

I'm not sure how he thinks people in Indiana are less prone to take umbrage at his stances than people in Pennsylvania, but it will be interesting to hear. But regardless of what position or tactic he employs there is one itsy-bitsy but ever so important political concept that he should remember.

Politics is numbers, from beginning to end. You need more than the other guy and you try to build coalitions that add up to more than what your opponent can accumulate.

In the world of presidential politics, African-Americans account for one-eighth of the population, and in the general election, no more than than portion of the total vote. There are other voting blocs, and they can all help or hinder the final outcome.

But in the United States of America today, seven-eights of the electorate is NOT African-American. And in one form or another Barack Obama has managed to insult or disparage a big chunk of that non-African-American voting bloc. You can't get elected president of the United States if seven-eighths of the voters are not on your side.

Someone in his campaign should have told that to Barack Obama before he let a firebrand minister and ill-conceived prejudices do his talking for him.

No Mea Culpa For McCain. Hillary Nimrod? Barack the Whiner!

In a recent campaign appearance Republican Senator and presidential candidate John McCain was asked about his support for victory in Iraq, as opposed to the 'choose to loose, retreat to defeat' positions taken by both Democratic contenders.

McCain prefaced his answer by making the point that he abhors war. Or hates it, or detests it, or thinks it is awful, or something along those lines.

Which got me to thinking, why on earth should a man who actually fought in a war, and will bear the scars of his service for the rest of his life, have to justify himself to the media or anyone else?

Saying he supports victory in Iraq does not mean that he is a warmonger, or that he loves violence, or that he can't wait to drop the next big one. It means he wants our country to win the War on Terror everywhere we are fighting that war because to lose is simply unthinkable.

I'm not saying he should start off his answer by speaking to the glories of war. We don't need to hear a future president say "War, God I love it! You never feel more alive than when you are on the battlefield, that close to death." No we don't need that.

McCain, more than most people, and certainly more than the Democratic presidential contenders, knows from harsh, brutal personal experience what happens when vicious animals, whether they are Vietnamese communists or Islamo-fascists, get control of the government and the populace.

You either submit to slavery, or you die, but death may not come quickly or easily.

McCain was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967, and held as a prisoner-of-war in Hanoi for more than five years until the POW release of 1973. He can tell you everything you need to know about being on the receiving end of torture, brutality and total disregard for humanity.

So why does he have to preface his remarks supporting victory in the War on Terror, including in Iraq, with a disclaimer that he hates war?

Possibly because the mainstream media has done such a bang-up job of convincing America that anyone who wants our country to remain free, and does not want to submit to Islamo-fascism, must therefore be a warmonger.

I have met thousands of veterans over the years, and have been to numerous reunions of the units I served with in Vietnam, as well as other military gatherings. I can tell you from my personal experiences, that if anyone at these gatherings started talking about how much he enjoyed combat, the rest of us would have some serious suspicions about that person's claimed service, or mental acuity.

That is because if you are a veteran, you probably know someone who died in combat, and you probably would rather that person still be among the living. People who have trained for combat know that it is brutal, indiscriminate, and that those who survive are fortunate. People who have been there shouldn't have to explain themselves to people who have not.

The truly naive, no make that idiotic, point of all this carping by the Democratic candidates and the mainstream media is that if the United States ever did lose the War on Terror, including Iraq, one of the first of our assumed freedoms to go right down the drain would be freedom of the press! Think not?

Then show me one totalitarian government, whether it be a communist dictatorship, Islamo-fascist dictatorship, or the regular old, "I'm in charge 'til someone knocks me off" dictatorship, where journalism is practiced freely and without fear of repercussions. Go ahead. I've got time.

The fact is, everywhere that totalitarianism rules, journalists are an endangered species. That rule of nature would hold true in our country if we lost to the Islamo-fascists, and effete journalists who think they could go on pumping out their version of propaganda without let-up would be the first to go.

Think about it. It's true.

And the next time John McCain talks about war, and why we must win in Iraq, and everywhere that terrorism rears its ugly totalitarian head, listen to what he says instead of imposing an arbitrary and pointless rule that he has to disavow war before he can speak about victory.

HILLARY NIMROD?

NIMROD
Function: noun
1: a descendant of Ham represented in Genesis as a mighty hunter and a king of Shinar
2: not capitalized: hunter
3: not capitalized slang: idiot, jerk

Let's get it right out front that I am talking about the first two meanings of Nimrod here, capitalized or not, meaning hunter. The third probably derives from Bugs Bunny cartoons and it is not my intent to imply anything from the slang version of the word nimrod. We are talking hunter, nothing else.

I am bringing this up because Hillary Clinton, who is not exactly seen as a friend of Second Amendment proponents - the right to keep and bear arms - now claims that she actually is an accomplished hunter.

Not necessarily experienced, because I can only find two references to her actually going out hunting, but accomplished because she says on one of her outings she shot a "banded" duck.

To most people familiar with ducks that is not a breed. In environmental circles a "banded" duck is one that has a band placed on it after it has been captured in one location, and wildlife experts in other locations keep track of its migrating habits by registering the band number when it shows up somewhere else.

Unless someone shoots it on the way from one place to another. Someone like Hillary Clinton.

I personally have never heard of a species called a "banded duck," and can't find reference to one either. It could be a local colloquialism, possibly referring to ring-necked ducks, but we don't get any help here from Mrs. Clinton's comments.

I was drawn to her story because while I once raised ducks, I am neither experienced nor accomplished as a duck hunter.

In fact, I only went duck hunting once in my life, in the fall of the year I returned from Vietnam. I went with my brother and some of his friends, using a borrowed 12-gauge shotgun.

We got up very, very early, went out to a spot on a river where ducks were known to congregate, and waited in near blackness for dawn. The other guys did this a lot and they had decoys and duck calls and all the associated gear.

I had just come from an environment where hunters and hunted changed places on a second-by-second basis, but to make things even for me, the Marine Corps had issued me an M-2, .50-caliber machine gun, which shot about 500-600 rounds per minute, so you got lots of second chances if you missed with the first shot. In fact, flying into a hot zone in a helicopter, shooting from a side window, which was my job, meant you had to deal with constantly changing angles, speeds and elevations, pretty much ensuring that you would use multiple shots on one target.

That doesn't happen much in hunting because often, if you miss on the first shot, the target heads for safety immediately.

Did I tell you that you aren't supposed to shoot ducks if they are sitting on the water? Did I tell you that they fly very, very fast?

So, in my one time at duck hunting I wait for hours until it gets light, then sunup, then well into daylight, until finally, one lone duck comes into sight, circles the decoys, adjusts for the crosswind and starts to come in for a landing. I was given first shot, which I took ... and missed.

The duck in question hit the afterburner, accelerated like a jet fighter, and crossed right in front of a row of hunters all of whom also opened up, all of whom also missed! Remember that scene in Dances with Wolves where Kevin Costner rides his horse down the line of shooting soldiers and they all miss? Yeah, just like that.

Score Duck 1, Nimrods 0.

So to hear that Mrs. Clinton whacked a duck on her first shot when she had little to no experience ... that is pretty remarkable.

Don't take my word for it. Here are hers:

"I've hunted. My father taught me how to hunt. I went duck hunting in Arkansas. I remember standing in that cold water, so cold, at first light. I was with a bunch of my friends, all men. The sun's up, the ducks are flying and they are playing a trick on me. They said, 'we're not going to shoot, you shoot.' They wanted to embarrass me. The pressure was on. So I shot, and I shot a banded duck and they were as surprised as I was."

I also found a passage on the Internet that says it was:

"Around Christmas, 1988, I went duck hunting with Dr. Frank Kumpuris, a distinguished surgeon and good friend of mine, who invited me to join him, his two doctor sons, Drew and Dean, and a few other buddies at their hunting cabin. I hadn't shot much since my days at Lake Winola with my dad, but I thought it would be fun. That's how I found myself standing hip deep in freezing water, waiting for dawn in eastern Arkansas."

I am not going to fall into a male chauvinism trap here and try to discredit Mrs. Clinton's hunting story just because she got a duck and I didn't. But, to hear this story, you get the impression that she thinks a banded duck is a species, not a migration issue.

I'd like to hear more about it. What kind of shotgun did she use, what size shell - meaning the load, not the gauge - and what kind of duck was it? Please, don't say banded. Was the duck on the fly, or had it landed? Did she use a retriever, or go get it in a boat? Did she field dress the duck on the spot herself? Or did she hand it to one of the men she was with, asking them to do the dirty work for her?

These are the kinds of things hunters talk about when they are successful, so a few simple questions and answers would be very helpful here.

The mainstream media probably would have asked those questions already if they didn't have such an anti-firearms and hunting bias that they wouldn't know the stock from the barrel.

But then again, maybe Barack is right, maybe Hillary is this century's Annie Oakley!

WHINING BARACK!

Since I just spent several paragraphs questioning Mrs. Clinton, I should at least give her a few kudos where they are warranted.

By all accounts she trounced Barack Obama in their debate on ABC television Wednesday night.

I didn't see it because I was watching Kristy Lee Cook getting booted off of American Idol, which means I won't be watching that show for the rest of the season. There were at least three other contestants on that stage who can't hold a candle to her ability, and that means I don't need to watch the show anymore because from here on out it will be less than it could have been.

Anyway, while I was engaged in that venue, Mrs. Clinton was slamming Barack on his background and his associations. The commentators also didn't hold back, and finally asked some questions that should have been asked months ago, not that they got any credit for doing their jobs.

I think it is 'Hillaryous' that the left, left, left-wing media is ripping the ABC moderators because they didn't do the usual job of tossing softballs. What a hoot! A candidate for president actually had to explain his points of view, his background, and why he thinks hanging with terrorists is cool!

The next day, Barack responded to his beating by whining that the debate wasn't fair because it went on for 45 minutes before he was asked any substantive questions that "the American people" want discussed.

Oh, really? Well, speaking just for myself, I want to see reruns of the debate, because if I am going to spend my night watching that kind of show, I'd prefer to see the fur fly! We can get stroking and pit-a-pat any day on the afternoon TV shows, like Oprah.

Debates should be a blood sport. And I am being absolutely non-partisan here.

I'd sure want to know it if John McCain was drinking buddies with Timothy McVeigh.

But we are not supposed to question Barack Obama's association with a member of the 60s Weather Underground who bombed government facilities and people and teaches college students today that his only regret is not doing more? I thought equality meant "equal."

Note to Obama: quit whining. For God's sake man, get yourself a backbone. I realize you come from an upper-class background and don't have much of a handle on how to deal with a real fight. But the fact is, even heavyweight champs lose a round or two on the way to winning the title.

Get back up on your feet and get in there. Stop with the "It's not fair," nonsense.

Life isn't fair. The world isn't fair. If you think the terrorists, the communists, the Russians, or any other potential enemies are going to play "fair" you are definitely in the wrong business.

Whining is not becoming. Keep this up and people are going to start thinking that your dismal display of bowling prowess was more reflective of your true capabilities than we first believed.

Suck it up and hit back, or go home.