April 11-15, 2008
Apr 11 01:54 The Dam Is Breaking Apr 11 07:43 State Starts Investigation Into TIZA Charter School Apr 12 09:52 Another Pelosi Foreign Policy Blunder Apr 12 11:57 CentraCare Doesn't Heart HF 3391 Apr 14 22:40 The Hidden Obama Appears Apr 15 02:02 Swanson Your Turn Apr 15 13:58 Trouble Looming for Obama?
The Dam Is Breaking
Thanks to the hard work of Kit Lange and Tim Harrington, the truth is starting to come out about the railroading that the Pendleton 8 got and that was planned for the Haditha Marines. Fortunately, the media is picking up on what several people have known for awhile now. Kit Lange's article in the Salem News lays out a story that should get every justice-loving American irate:
Two years ago the nation was shocked to hear of Marines coming home from the battlefield in shackles. This is not how we treat our heroes, not when they are highly decorated, highly trained, and even more experienced. It was preposterous, we said, to charge Marines with murder for shooting the enemy.People inside and outside the Pentagon should be worried. Check the timeline for why there's cause for more than concern over the military's actions and motives. This part of the timeline doesn't cast the Pentagon in a good light:
Isn't that what we train them to do?
"Yet that is exactly what we did; and the seven Marines, together with their Navy corpsman, became known as the Pendleton 8. For the last two years, these men have seen their families disintegrate, their careers vaporized, and their freedoms taken, all because their government decided to turn its back on the men who fight to preserve it.
Now at last the real story is available. Over the next few weeks, I will tell you the real story of what happened that day in Hamdania. I will show you the autopsy reports, combat logs and diaries that prove them innocent (and that were barred from the trial!), and the tactics the government used to keep it all under wraps. What's more, I'll tell you what they were trying so hard to hide.
1. "According to accounts given by Hashim's neighbors and members of his family, and apparently supported by photographs, the Marines went to Hashim's home, took the 52-year-old disabled Iraqi outside and shot him four times in the face. The assault rifle and shovel next to his body had been planted by the Marines, who had borrowed them from a villager, family members and other residents said."The timeline is must reading. The information contained in the timeline should've exonerated these American heroes. Instead, they were prosecuted. Some were convicted.
2. "The Marines grabbed Hashim by the front of his cotton robe as soon as he came to the door, pulling him from the house, said one of his sons, Nadir, 26, an arts student in Iraq,Less than an hour later, we heard shooting."
Note: The prosecution charged that the Marines took Awad out of the home, marched him down the road to the hole, bound him and shot him. Family members and neighbors said Awad was shot in the face four times when he came to the door. One of Awad's sons said he was pulled from the house and they heard shots less than an hour later. The Iraqis apparently couldn't get 'their' version straight. How did the prosecution arrive at its version; toss a coin?
It seems that a conviction shouldn't have been possible considering the conflicting testimony available. The question that must be posed to the presiding officer is why these men were brought to trial. Anything less than a straightforward, on-point answer simply isn't acceptable. Here's more conflicting testimony:
3. "The Post also obtained photos of a dead man, identified by the family andWhy did the "NCIS, prosecution, judges at the hearings" accept such conflicting testimony as irrefutable fact? I'd submit that these soldiers couldn't be convicted of these crimes in a civilian court. In fact, I'd submit that a civilian judge might issue a ruling that the prosecution hadn't met its burden of proof.
Iraqi authorities as Hashim, wrapped in a plastic sheeting in a wooden casket. What appeared to be at least four bullet holes could be seen in the photo-two in one cheek, one in the chin, and one in the lip."
Awad's brother stated, "And it was clear a bullet had been shot into the mouth and broke part of his bottom teeth." "At daylight, the family found a wide hole in the dirt road about 500 yards from their home, wet with bloodstains and littered with discarded plastic gloves."
"Going in search of Hashim, family members were told that Marines had brought his body to a local police station, Nasir said.
Note: On October, 2006, five months after NCIS' investigation, Navy Corpsman Bacos' testimony, given during the investigation in May 2006, conflicts with Iraqi testimony.
Bacos said, "I witnessed Sgt. Hutchins dead check the man and fire three rounds into the man's [head]. [Then] Cpl. Thomas fired 7 to 10 rounds into the man's [head]."
Bacos' testimony conflicts with Iraqi testimony, with squad members, and with Thomas, himself. Cpl. Thomas, NCIS Agent James Connolly, and Lt. Col. Furness all said Sgt. Hutchins fired 3 rounds into the man's head to put him out of his misery after Thomas shot him. Yet Bacos says Sgt. Hutchins performed a dead check then "Thomas fired 7 to 10 rounds into the man's [head]." For Bacos to be believed, the deceased would now have a minimum of 10 holes in his head; performing the first military 10- to 13-hole (dual) (consecutive) dead check.
Bacos contradicts testimony by the other squad members (including Thomas).
CPL Trent Thomas shot 7 to 10 rounds into the man's torso. NCIS and the prosecution couldn't even get the men who made plea deals to corroborate one another. NCIS, the prosecution, judges at the hearings and courts-martial for the accused, blindly accepted Bacos' word. Then again, it was NCIS, after all, who gave the prosecution its version.
Note: Both, NCIS agent Connolly and Lt. Col. Furness, later, testified again in court that Sgt. Hutchins performed a dead-check to put the man out of his misery.
Let's hope that Ms. Lange's reporting and Mr. Harrington's investigation bring the truth to light so that these American heroes can get the justice they deserve. Likewise, let's hope that this exposes the need for reforms so that these are the last soldiers that get railroaded ever again.
Posted Friday, April 11, 2008 1:56 AM
No comments.
State Starts Investigation Into TIZA Charter School
KSTP-TV is reporting that the Minnesota Department of Education is starting an investigation into the TIZA charter school. Tiza was first highlighted by Strib columnist Katherine Kersten in this column . Here's what KSTP is reporting:
A Star Tribune newspaper column has prompted a state investigation into a charter school. A substitute teacher said a school in Inver Grove Heights is blurring the line of separation of church and state.Substitute teacher Amanda Getz thinks otherwise:
Being a charter school Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, or TIZA, is supported by tax dollars. The teacher told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS the presence of religion she observed at the school took her by surprise.
TIZA Executive Director Azad Zaman insisted the school follows with state and federal laws. "TIZA does not endorse any religion," he said.
"I've been in a lot of schools and I've never been in a school where they had washing rituals, or they had prayer, or where they had a room where you had to take your shoes off," Getz said.Of course, Imam Zaman denies Ms. Getz's allegations:
"It is most likely that this substitute teacher was sadly mistaken," said Zaman. He said the school follows state and federal guidelines when it comes to religion. "We're required under the federal guidelines to allow students to pray when they wish to do so. And as Muslim students, they're allowed to pray around 1:30 p.m., so we allow them to do that," Zaman explained.With all due respect to Imam Zaman, I don't think that Ms. Getz is "most likely...sadly mistaken" with this much specificity :
Arriving on a Friday, the Muslim holy day, she says she was told that the day's schedule included a "school assembly" in the gym after lunch. Before the assembly, she says she was told, her duties would include taking her fifth-grade students to the bathroom, four at a time, to perform "their ritual washing."The notion that "TIZA does not endorse any religion" is laughable on several levels. They share the building the Minnesota chapter of the Muslim American Society, which has its headquarters there. There's also a mosque housed inside the building. Let's remember that MAS-MN is an anti-Semitic organization . Here's some of the content on its webpage:
Afterward, Getz said, "teachers led the kids into the gym, where a man dressed in white with a white cap, who had been at the school all day," was preparing to lead prayer. Beside him, another man "was prostrating himself in prayer on a carpet as the students entered. The prayer I saw was not voluntary," Getz said. "The kids were corralled by adults and required to go to the assembly where prayer occurred."
The following statements are found on the MAS-Minnesota site, www.masmn.org:
- "The Holy Prophet (and through him the Muslims) has been reassured that he should not mind the enmity, the evil designs and the machinations of the Jews..."
- "In view of the degenerate moral condition of the Jews and the Christians, the Believers have been warned not to make them their friends and confidants."
- "If you gain victory over the men of Jews, kill them."
- "The Hour will not be established until you fight with the Jews, and the stone behind which a Jew will be hiding will say, 'O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, so kill him.'"
- " May Allah destroy the Jews, because they used the graves of their prophets as places of worship."
- "A Muslim must always worship Allah and wage jihad until death in order to reach his ultimate goal, Regularly make the intention to go on jihad with the ambition to die as a martyr."
"Muslims...must work on reforming their government so that it may become a truly Islamic government. , By Islamic government I mean a government whose officers are Muslims who perform the obligatory duties of Islam, who do not make public their disobedience, and who enforce the rules and teachings of Islam.It takes alot of audacity to claim that this isn't a religious school. If given the facts, I can't imagine how the Minnesota Department of Education can't rule that it's a religious school that shouldn't get state funding. In fact, the Minnesota Department of Education should rule that any state funding paid to the school should be repaid, including the building of the school.
It's the only reasonable thing to do.
UPDATE: I just got word that the building TIZA is housed in is owned by MAS-MN.
Posted Friday, April 11, 2008 9:26 AM
Comment 1 by skep41 at 11-Apr-08 09:44 AM
Dont you realize that its only Christianity, and not The Religion Of Peace, whose doctrines are illegal? Any anti-American ideology is more than welcome to a huge dollop of taxpayer cash. If the Christians would take their cue from Rev Wright and start screaming GD America at the top of their lungs they might get their hands on a little more slop from the public trough, like Trinity Baptist and these gentle Muslims do.
Comment 2 by Ryan at 19-May-08 11:06 PM
I'm a liberal (don't throw things at me!) and heard about this school after they attacked the KSTP cameraman. I can't understand how they can get tax money and be a public school. If one were to do this with a christian school, it would be closed. Who do we wrtie to protest this?
Comment 3 by Gary Gross at 19-May-08 11:40 PM
Ryan, Thanks for asking. The best way to protest this is to organize your own protest, which I would protest in front of the school & at the Dept. of Education bldg.
Also, I'm pretty disgusted with MAS-MN's anti-Semitism. If you want to learn more about the school's 'sponsor', check out Joe Kaufman's columns on FrontPageMag.
PS- Thoughtful liberals are ALWAYS welcome here.
Comment 4 by Tom at 23-May-08 12:02 PM
I'm a thoughtful liberal but I can't find any anti-Semitic material on the masmn.org web site. Could you post a link to that material, please.
Comment 5 by Gary Gross at 23-May-08 01:27 PM
Tom, I noticed last night that the MAS-MN website had their anti-semitic statements scrubbed clean. Fortunately, a screenshot of these anti-semitic statements is available here.
Another Pelosi Foreign Policy Blunder
President Bush blasted Speaker Pelosi with both barrels over her refusal to call the Colombian Free Trade Agreement up for a vote. Here's the money quote:
"The message Democrats sent today," a bitter Bush warned after Thursday's vote, "is that no matter how steadfastly you stand with us, we will turn our backs on you when it is politically convenient."It's disgusting that Ms. Pelosi changed the fast-track rules so that she didn't have to deal with this agreement. For that matter, rank-and-file Democrats shouldn't be protected from their votes either since they voted to destabilize US-Colombian relations, too. This is the most disgraceful foreign policy action that House Democrats have taken since taking control in January, 2007. This is worse than Pelosi's telling Syria's Bashar Assad that Israel was willing to reopen talks.
President Bush is exactly right in saying that this tells other nations that House Democrats will subvert US foreign policy if their special interest supporters tell them to. The House leadership isn't a profile in courage in standing up against their special interest group allies. In fact, they're spineless in that respect.
Here's the potential impact Pelosi's stunt might have in South America:
Pelosi's move leaves Colombia, an ally, in limbo and uncertainty. She may think her clever maneuver was done in a vacuum, but it wasn't. In Venezuela's capital of Caracas, where Hugo Chavez holds forth, and in the jungles of Colombia, where drug terrorists hide out, Pelosi's move was watched closely.Ms. Pelosi would do well to leave foreign policy to the adults.
Indeed, within hours of the vote, Latin American media already were calling Pelosi's maneuver the "Chavez Rule."
The Venezuelan dictator is no doubt fascinated at how Pelosi could do this to America's best ally in Latin America, punishing a vibrant democracy by isolating it from all the other nations that have sought and won free trade.
We can't afford having US foreign policy subverted by childish spoiled brats like her.
Posted Saturday, April 12, 2008 9:53 AM
Comment 1 by TwoPuttTommy at 15-Apr-08 09:38 AM
Wah, wah, wah. Want some cheese with that whine??!?
"It's disgusting that Ms. Pelosi changed the fast-track rules..."
But you have no problemo with President Bush's "signing statements"??!?
It's hard to believe that you, who wrote such a thoughful piece for the St. Cloud Times, wrote this bitch 'n moan piece.
Perhaps it's because your readership of Usual Suspects won't read a newspaper, so your reputation as a knucle dragger is safe.
CentraCare Doesn't Heart HF 3391
My 'adopted' state representative Steve Gottwalt talked about CentraCare's opinion on HF 3391 Thursday night. Here's CentraCare's letter:
"We are writing to...ask you not to support the bill when it is considered later this week. We do not make this request lightly...We do understand that significant effort has gone into crafting this legislation, but it is our belief that the underlying process was flawed because it specifically failed to include individuals with actual experience in health care from Greater Minnesota. In addition, it has been moved through the legislative process without adequate time to fully study the implications of many of the initiatives included in the bill. There are parts of the bill that do have merit...There are, however, many parts of the bill that are problematic, and we fear will destabilize health care delivery in rural Minnesota. We urge you to work to eliminate the potentially harmful aspects of the bill or, failing that, oppose adoption of the entire bill until such time as these issues can be addressed. HF 3391 includes many initiatives which we believe have been poorly designed. Many of these issues could have been addressed if health care providers, especially those from Greater Minnesota, had been allowed to participate in the design of meaningful health care reform legislation.
After careful analysis of HF 3391, we have identified the following concerns:These commissions (and the staff that will serve them in the legislature) will add additional cost/administrative burdens to the health care system as well as the state.
- Budget neutrality, which is simply not reasonable when attempting to increase the number of persons covered under MinnesotaCare.
- Creation of numerous new state commissions to collect data, design benefits sets, monitor quality and restrict access to new technologies.
Implementation timelines that are far too short to allow thoughtful design and implementation of initiatives.
Most importantly, this bill fails to address the importance of the ever increasing consumer demand for health care services as a driver of escalating health care costs. In fact, the increasing utilization of medical services is, along with cost shifting due to inadequate compensation for Medicare and Medicaid services, among the most significant drivers of increasing health care costs for government, businesses and consumers...The cost of providing Medicaid services does not go away. When the state cuts reimbursement, those costs must simply be shifted.
- This bill fails to address the rising cost of health care insurance in Minnesota.
- The bill requires transparency of health care providers but fails to require similar transparency from medical device manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, medical equipment manufacturers and suppliers or insurance companies. All of these are major cost drivers for providers.
Minnesotans are already served by some of the most innovative, lowest cost and highest quality health care providers in the nation. Minnesota providers are recognized collectively and individually across the nation for the value they provide for Minnesotans in health care. We must not jeopardize those successes."
-[signed by the presidents of CentraCare Health System]
While CentraCare's statement had a serious tone to it, the Taxpayers League's statement had a more sarcastic tone to it:
Last night the House passed their version of the health care reform bill. While less bad than the Senate's version (which carries with it a $40 million tax increase to pay for all kinds of programs designed to save us from ourselves), the House bill doesn't bring us any closer to the kinds of free market reforms our health care system needs. Aside from the tax increase, the other reason why the House bill could be considered an improvement over the Senate's version is the Senate's creation of a politburo-style Health Care Transformation Commission. In the Senate's bill, the HCTC would be responsible for passing judgment on and implementing new rules and regulations for hospitals and health care plans. At least the House decided not to abrogate their oversight responsibility and require that all new rules must get legislative approval. But what the hey, right? Why not give a small, unelected body control over 1/6 of our state's economy? What could possibly go wrong with that? So it's off to the conference committee for the two bills.
And what comes out nobody knows.
Posted Saturday, April 12, 2008 3:30 PM
No comments.
The Hidden Obama Appears
NRO's Andrew McCarthy column introduces America to the Barack Obama that's kept tucked in the closet.The picture he paints with Obama's decisions isn't pretty. The first glimpse into Sen. Obama's beliefs is through his wife Michelle:
After four years at one of America's most esteemed academic institutions, Michelle recoiled at the thought of "further integration and/or assimilation into a white cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society; never becoming a full participant." That the sky has been the limit for her, that she has managed to ride the "periphery" from Princeton to Harvard Law School, to one of the country's top law firms, and to a plethora of prestigious institutional positions, has not much altered her perspective. Through the windows of her mansion on Chicago's south side, American society still appears as a caste system.The first question that I'd ask Michelle Obama would be about the belief system that's required to ignore the realities that she's ignored. She's lived in a world that few are privileged to enter yet she's utterly jaded. Why? What justification does she have for maintaining that mindset? It's downright scary that a woman of that much privilege can think that way.
As scary as that is, it pales in comparison to Jeremiah Wright. Sen. Obama once called Pastor J-Wright his spiritual mentor. We also learned that Pastor J-Wright believed in something called Black Theology. Here's the heart of Black Theology:
Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill Gods who do not belong to the black community...Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love.As an evangelical Christian, I'll confidently tell you that this 'theology' goes against the central teachings of the Bible. The Bible says that God isn't "willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." That's directly at odds with Black Theology. Black Theology is the polar opposite of the Great Commandment,too, part of which says that we are to love our neighbor as ourself.
Here's a little something that the Agenda Media hasn't talked about:
After many lectures like this, Obama decided to take a second look at Wright's church. Older pastors warned him that Trinity was for "Buppies", black urban professionals, and didn't have enough street cred. But Wright was a former Muslim and black nationalist who had studied at Howard and Chicago, and Trinity's guiding principles, what the church calls the "Black Value System", included a "Disavowal of the Pursuit of Middleclassness.'"It's telling that Pastor J-Wright subscribes to this 'theology' of hatred and that Sen. Obama called Pastor J-Wright his spiritual mentor, If you take Sen. Obama at his word, then it isn't a stretch to think that Sen. Obama either agrees with Pastor J-Wright or that he isn't willing to make the difficult decisions that presidents are forced to make. He's either a pacifist or a racist.
Either way, that isn't a flattering portrait of Sen. Obama.
I'm a little curious to find out if Sen. Obama ever talked with Oprah about why she left TUCC back in the mid-1990s :
At least one member of Rev. Wright's church apparently had her fill of [his] rhetoric. Oprah Winfrey, a staunch backer of Mr. Obama, began attending the church in 1984. But sometime in the mid-1990s, Christianity Today reports the superstar abruptly stopped going.After Oprah left, Rev. Wright didn't mince words what he thought about her:
Wright mentioned Oprah as an example of African Americans who forget their roots in the church after finding success. "A lot of us do not even like the word faith anymore," he wrote [in the column]. "We prefer the more chic-sounding word, spirituality! We are caught up in an Oprah-generated mentality and a 12-step vocabulary that prevents us from using the very words and the very bridge that 'brought us over!'"The more I learn about Obama, the more unappealing he becomes. Larry Sabato's use of the term tabula rasa is spot on. Despite the fact Obama has been the delegate leader from the opening bell, the fact is that he's still essentially a blank slate. When people were asked why they were voting for Obama, they usually gave vague answers. Now information is filtering in about what Obama believes and it isn't flattering. Frankly, he's lost whatever momentum he had with his self-inflicted wounds.
He still hasn't learned the first principle of holes, namely, if you're in a hole, stop digging. He's never been in a race of this magnatude. He still hasn't figured it out that the adoring press during his Senate run was nothing like the scrutiny that he's currently facing. He still likely thinks that he can get away with the things he's saying.
Rest assured that his elitist statements, coupled with Pastor J-Wright's anti-American diatribes, are turning people off to him. I still doubt that those things will prevent him from being the Democratic nominee. I'm just as certain, though, that this will hurt his chances of winning in November.
That's alright with me. We don't need an elitist whose spiritual mentor is a race-baiting radical.
Posted Monday, April 14, 2008 10:41 PM
Comment 1 by Mike in NYC at 15-Apr-08 11:07 AM
"Conservatives" may rail against Michelle Obama's complex-ridden grievance mentality, and Wright's in-your-face anti-White vitriol, but they're still nothing more than a controlled opposition in the eternal "blame whitey" game.
Have any of them pulled their heads out of their collars and told blacks, flat-out, to stop blaming whites for all their pathologies (which, far too often, spill over violently into non-black society)?
Have any of them ever cited interracial crime statistics, which show 90% of such crimes are committed against whites? Or the specific numbers on interracial rape, which are even more asymmetrical?
Have any pointed out that the 70%+ illegitimacy rate among blacks, by far the major cause of black social and cultural decay, cannot possibly be blamed on anything whites have done?
Conservatism has often been defined as dealing with the world as it is, not as you wish it to be. If past performance is an indicator of future behavior, today's "conservatives" will continue to take the same cringing, cowardly path, all the while deluding themselves that they are the "opposition."
Swanson Your Turn
The St. Cloud Times has published my editorial on Lori Swanson.follow this link to the editorial. I want to thank Randy Krebs, the Times' editorial page editor, for running this important editorial. The Times is now one of the few newspapers in Minnesota that's actually let this story see the light of day.
Posted Tuesday, April 15, 2008 2:02 AM
No comments.
Trouble Looming for Obama?
Yesterday, I read Richard Baehr's article for the American Thinker website about the electoral race. I found his thinking compelling. Today, TNR's John Judis has penned a similar article . First, let's read the heart of Mr. Judis' article:
To win in November, a Democratic presidential candidate has to carry most of the industrial heartland states that stretch from Pennsylvania to Missouri. That becomes even more imperative if a Democrat can't carry Florida--and because of his relative weakness in South Florida, Obama is unlikely to do so against McCain. Ruy Teixeira and I have calculated that in the heartland states, a Democratic presidential candidate has to win from 45 to 48 percent of the white working class vote. In some states, like West Virginia and Kentucky, the percentage is well over a majority.Let's compare that with Mr. Baehr's observations :
Some Democrats insist that Obama need not worry about these states because he will be able to make up for a defeat in Ohio or even Pennsylvania with a victory in Virginia or Colorado. But in Virginia, McCain will be able to draw upon coastal suburbanites closely tied to the military. These voters backed Democrats like Chuck Robb and Jim Webb, who are both veterans, but they may not go for Obama. And in the Southwest, McCain will be able to challenge Obama among Hispanics. So to win in November, Obama will have to win almost all of these heartland states. Which is a problem, because even before he uttered his infamous words about these voters "clinging" to guns, religion, abortion, and fears about free trade, Obama looked vulnerable in the region. A look at the white working class's relationship with earlier Democratic candidates underscores the various reasons why.
The Electoral math looks this way: if Florida and Ohio are safe for McCain, and Virginia and Missouri are too, as they now all appear to be, then McCain has a base of 260 Electoral College votes of the 270 he needs to win. He would need to only win 10 from among the states Bush won last time that are in play this year: Colorado (currently tied), New Mexico (3 point Obama lead), Iowa (4 point Obama lead) and Nevada (4 point Obama lead), and several tempting blue states in which McCain is currently competitive: Michigan (18), Pennsylvania (21), New Jersey (15) Wisconsin (10), Minnesota (10), Oregon (7), and New Hampshire (4), among them.Going into this election cycle, I worried about Democrats picking off Ohio, Virginia and Colorado. I also figured that McCain would regain New Hampshire but lose Iowa. That would've been more than enough to get the Democratic candidate to 270. Because of McCain's strength within the military, Virginia has effectively been taken off the map. I'm also feeling optimistic about Michigan and Pennsylvania because Obama's elitism won't play well with the blue collar Reagan Democrats.
McCain currently is narrowly ahead of Obama in New Hampshire, New Jersey, Wisconsin and Michigan, and behind in the others. A Marist survey last week shocked many by showing McCain ahead of Obama by 2% in New York State (an 18% Kerry win in 2004). If McCain is within 10% of winning in New York in November, he will not need the state to win the election, for he likely will have won most or all of the blue states on his target list above.
I've long maintained that the general election is where the Pastor J-Writght issue will hurt Obama the most. Based on this information, I see nothing to change my opinion.
Originally posted Tuesday, April 15, 2008, revised 16-Apr 12:13 PM
Comment 1 by Walter hanson at 15-Apr-08 07:57 PM
a couple of other good things about the look of the map right now.
* Mccain who has conducted the 2007 campaign year on limited resources has his campaign geared better to run on limited resources. Thus better able to focus resources.
* The map is a dream. Mccain gets to play offense and go after blue states which Obama (or Clinton) will need to win. Obama will have to defend blue states which Democrats thought were safe and have less time for important states. Keep in mind Bush down the stretch in 2004 spent at least part of every day in Ohio.
* A fear that I had the Democrat candidate will have such a commanding lead they could spend the month of October trying to sweep in Democrat candidates. The luster of Obama sweeping to a large landslide victory is dead! Keep in mind the states mentioned (New Mexico, Colorado, Virginia, New Hampshire, Minnesota) all have important Senate races not to mention some house races that might get influenced by the presidential election.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
Comment 2 by Gary Gross at 15-Apr-08 09:57 PM
All legitimate points, Walter. Totally legitimate.
