The Pink Flamingo :: Dems May Reap What GOP Sewed?

Once again the voices of doom are declaring the GOP dead and buried. According to the most recent WSJ poll, evidently the GOP isn’t well favored by voters this year – or are they? The eternals are here. This is a poll for Registered Voters and not Likely Voters.

Cindy McCain is not being treated decently by the liberal media, I think. So what if she is rich. John Kerry’s wife was worth a fortune and the liberal press ignored it. This woman, worthy of being a First Lady, is being treated horribly by liberal bloggers.

“…While Obama's wife has been hating America, complaining about the war and undermining our troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, McCain's wife has been worrying about her sons who actually are fighting or planning to fight in the war on terror. One, in fact, was until a few months ago deployed in Iraq during some of the worst violence.

You don't hear the McCains talk about it, but their 19-year-old Marine, Jimmy, is preparing for his second tour of duty. Their 21-year-old son, Jack, is poised to graduate from Annapolis and also could join the Marines as a second lieutenant. The couple made the decision not to draw attention to their sons out of respect for other families with sons and daughters in harm's way.

Cindy also says she doesn't want to risk falling apart on the campaign trail talking about Jimmy — who was so young when he enlisted she had to sign consent forms for his medical tests before he could report for duty — and potentially upsetting parents of soldiers who are serving or have been killed.

The McCains want to make sure their boys get no special treatment. Same goes for their five other children, including a daughter they adopted from Bangladesh. During a visit to Mother Teresa's orphanage there, Cindy noticed a dying baby. The orphanage could not provide the medical care needed to save her life. So she brought the child home to America for the surgery she desperately needed. The baby is now their healthy, 16-year-old daughter, Bridget.

Though all seven McCain children — including two Sen. McCain adopted from his first marriage — are supportive of their father, they prefer their privacy to the glare of the campaign trail. Another daughter, Meghan, 23, helps him behind the scenes.
Cindy McCain not only cherishes her children, but also her country, which in an election year filled with America-bashing, is a refreshing novelty. She seethed when she heard Michelle Obama's unpatriotic remarks that she only recently grew proud of America. "I am very proud of my country," Mrs. McCain asserted.

She also may be tougher than the other women in the race. While Hillary thinks she's come under sniper fire on mission trips abroad, Cindy has actually seen violence. She witnessed a boy get blown up by a mine in Kuwait during a trip with an international group that removes land mines from war-torn countries.

Mrs. McCain also is a hands-on philanthropist. She sits on the board of Operation Smile, which arranges for plastic surgeons to fix cleft palates and other birth defects. She also has helped organize relief missions to Micronesia….”

The NY Sun has a piece about the “McCain Brand”

“…So while Senators Clinton and Obama continue their slugfest, Mr. McCain can address these issues. If Mr. McCain continues to energize and mobilize the Republican base while winning over moderate voters, he just might become the 44th president of America….”

A CRADLE EPISCOPALIAN
Leave it to Karl Rove

“…Another story I heard over dinner with the Days involved Mr. McCain serving as one of the three chaplains for his fellow prisoners. At one point, after being shuttled among different prisons, Mr. Day had found himself as the most senior officer at the Hanoi Hilton. So he tapped Mr. McCain to help administer religious services to the other prisoners.

Today, Mr. Day, a very active 83, still vividly recalls Mr. McCain's sermons. "He remembered the Episcopal liturgy," Mr. Day says, "and sounded like a bona fide preacher." One of Mr. McCain's first sermons took as its text Luke 20:25 and Matthew 22:21, "render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's." Mr. McCain said he and his fellow prisoners shouldn't ask God to free them, but to help them become the best people they could be while serving as POWs. It was Caesar who put them in prison and Caesar who would get them out. Their task was to act with honor.

Another McCain story, somewhat better known, is about the Vietnamese practice of torturing him by tying his head between his ankles with his arms behind him, and then leaving him for hours. The torture so badly busted up his shoulders that to this day Mr. McCain can't raise his arms over his head.

One night, a Vietnamese guard loosened his bonds, returning at the end of his watch to tighten them again so no one would notice. Shortly after, on Christmas Day, the same guard stood beside Mr. McCain in the prison yard and drew a cross in the sand before erasing it. Mr. McCain later said that when he returned to Vietnam for the first time after the war, the only person he really wanted to meet was that guard….”

NOT ATTACKING BIG MAC
Leave it so someone in Iowa to ask the question no one else had bad matters to ask. Did John McCain actually use “that word” with his wife? The Secret Service gently removed the man who said he just wanted to question McCain’s character and his temperament. Well, character in question did not have an explosive explosion. Macsmind has more.

ENDING ETHANOL WELFARE
Did you happen to catch Michael Reagan today? He was rather humorous about the frantic actions of the Dems, trying to undo all that Earth saving bio-fuel. So Chuck Schumer is trying to rush in like superman and undo all those bio-fuel supporters those nice little mid-west farmers are getting. Nancy Pelosi and her little friends are planning to cut all those beautiful welfare programs for ethanol.

“…The new U.S. farm law would reduce the tax credit for corn-based ethanol while giving nutrition programs such as food stamps a $10.4 billion increase, House and Senate negotiators said on Friday. "A significant increase in nutrition is really required by what is happening in the market," said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, one of the negotiators. "It is ... a reflection of reality." Sen. Tom Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, who oversees the negotiations, said a tentative agreement on the omnibus $600 billion bill was within reach now that revenues were identified to pay for a $10 billion spending increase.

Food prices are forecast to rise by 4 percent this year, the same as in 2007. High food price inflation is forecast for two more years. Antihunger groups say food stamp benefits have lost 5 percent of their purchasing power since last summer.
In talks this week, negotiators added nearly $900 million to nutrition programs from an earlier agreement for a $9.5 billion increase over 10 years. Land stewardship programs would gain $4 billion, specialty crops $1.35 billion and biofuel development $900 million.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and New York Democrat Charles Rangel, chairman of the House tax committee, insisted on more nutrition funding to offset the $361 million cost of tax breaks to timber companies and owners of racehorses.
The 51-cent-a-gallon tax credit for corn-based ethanol would drop to 45 cents, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson, said in describing the ongoing discussions. The Minnesota Democrat said a tax credit would be created for ethanol derived from cellulose, found in grasses, woody plants and crop debris….”

According to Michael Reagan, the Dems are going to be forced to undo the 2005 financial incentives the GOP passed. In other words, he sees it as the best of both worlds. The GOP gets credit for helping the farmers in 2005 (not that it helped them a year later). Then, the GOP gets the credit when the Dems cut off all that lovely ethanol welfare!

Dick Durbin is hysterical, as usual.

The big question, according to Reagan, is if the Dems succeed in cutting off the ethanol welfare, are farmers in the Midwest going to turn on them – right about election time?

A BOTTOM LINE
I am not in the mood to blog this evening. I know this is a disjointed post, but I guess I’m trying to say something. There should be no logical reason for John McCain to be out ahead. If it weren’t the economy, gas prices, or the war, it would be the MSM treating him like dirt. But, we hear he is gaining with independents. The liberal bloggers are treating Cindy McCain like dirt. They don’t do that to Dem’s wives, and we don’t treat Dem’s wives they way the Dems treat us. Funny, isn’t it.

Maybe this is John McCain’s year, finally.

Now, let’s go out and start working on coat-tails.