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While checking out the Huffington Post today, couldn’t help but notice they seem to have posted high school love note from a woman named Lisa Gans to Barack Obama. What’s scary isn’t the fact that the author of a piece entitled “Why I think Obama is the Best Candidate on Foreign Policy” isn’t actually a high school student, but an international human rights lawyer, but the cult-like worship and future accomplishments she has assigned to Obama without one single fact to back them up.

Recently, I survived a large-scale attack by the Taliban on a hotel in Kabul, so my sense of urgency about national security and the safety of Americans abroad is based on a very real understanding of the dangers we face. I plan to return to Kabul shortly, and I know I will feel safer and more confident of success in Afghanistan if Barack Obama is in the White House.

How? Why? What about Obama makes her think the Taliban will just give up because he’s President? Doesn’t matter, she knows she’ll “feel safer.” And that, after all, is what matters, right? Feeling safer, not actually being.

Yet another magical power she assigns to Obama is this:

Barack Obama has the ability to deal both with American’s (sic) allies and its enemies.

Why? Because she says so! She can feel it, like a strange disturbance in The Force!

She continues:

Right now, in Afghanistan and around the world, the U.S. needs the support of its friends. Not only does Obama have the skills necessary to reach out to those we have alienated, he has expressed a willingness to do so.

First off, the US needs the support of its own citizens, something liberals have been undercutting for political purposes for the last 6 years. Second, what skills? As Senator, not only has Barack Obama essentially accomplished nothing, he has only worked with people on “the other side of the aisle” once! And that was on Coburn-Obama, a tap in putt bill about government transparency. Where is this mystical skill to reach out to people been demonstrated anywhere?

This hero/savior worship is a boon to Republicans for one simple reason - No one, absolutely no one, can live up to these expectations, especially someone as untested, unchallenged and unaccomplished as Barack Obama is. When it comes, and it will, his fall will be fast and furious, and fun to watch.

Unless you’re visually impaired, not that there’s anything wrong with that, you’ll notice a slightly new look for the Derby this afternoon. It’s a bit sleeker, cleaner, and makes better use of space. We hope you agree. We also hope the Derby will continue to bring you the pure joy, guilty pleasure, and life-altering fulfillment that it brings to our team of contributors.

Speaking of contributors, longtime Derby fans know that attrition is a sad part of life. We’ve lost a few good writers in the last year or two and our ranks have grown a bit thin. So if you’d like to be considered for a coveted spot as a PD Contributor, send us a sample and show off your stuff. Send a paragraph or two to writers[at]politicalderby.com

Though contributors are not paid, they do receive such valuable perks as: David Kaiser’s social security number and DOB, Stephen’s secret high school nickname, and the crown jewel… An 8×10 of Phillip’s McCracken.

New York Times: Bloomberg Says He Won’t Run but Will Be Active

Bringing an end to a long flirtation with a bid for the White House, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has officially closed the door on a presidential candidacy this year.

In an Op-Ed article published in Thursday’s New York Times, Mr. Bloomberg wrote that he still believed that a nonpartisan approach was needed to solve the country’s problems and that an independent candidate could win. But he will not run, he said.

I’m still not a McCain fan by any stretch of the imagination. And as much as I enjoy watching the Clinton machine implode before our eyes, and watching the media turn on them, and watching Bill finally get the blame for something, and watching Hillary change strategies everyday and have NONE of them work… but I digress. The truth is Hillary is less scary than Barack only because she is not so naïve.

To be honest, I’ve seen some logic in letting the Democrats mess things up for 4 years in hopes of a conservative revolution in 2012. But if you look at the video the esteemed Mr. McCracken has in his post below, in four years we may not have just a mess, our very lives could be in peril. And, if you look at Barack’s fiscal and healthcare policies, he’s as off base as he is on defense.

Hillary appears to be all but done, cooked, stick a fork in her. So it’s down to Obama or JMac. McCain will at least defend the US and won’t gut the military and weapon development. I won’t love him on much else, but maybe his military stance warrants a vote on its own. What do you think?

There doesn’t seem to be much Barack Obama wouldn’t do as President to disarm this country and make sure the next generation of military weapons are developed by other nations, both friend and foe, rather than here. He seems oblivious to the fact that national defence is the President’s main job, not feel good pap that will harm the economy.

Watch this 52 second video where he explains what he would do.

As for his claim that missile defence systems are “unproven,” maybe this was recorded before we shot down a satellite. But that doesn’t change the fact that Liberals are fast becoming the “No we can’t” party. They seem to have faith in nothing but themselves. Anything with which they disagree can come to pass, so they’ll simply stop it from progressing.

Thank God none of the Liberals around today were around at the time of our nation’s founding or we’d be paying taxes to the Queen.

Thought I’d try a live thread as I watch the debate tonight.

On to the debate…

From the Who The Heck Cares Dept.: Dodd endorses Obama

From the Understatement of the Year Spokesman, Bill Richardson: “I just have felt that an endorsement by me, I don’t think it is that significant.”

And finally, from the grassroots lobbying group dubbed: “Please Don’t Leave Anne Heche” comes this gem: “The (Clinton) campaign had a light moment Monday night when comedian and television host Ellen DeGeneres popped up via satellite at a Clinton fundraiser for a few minutes of upbeat banter with the candidate that is to be aired on DeGeneres’ show this week.”

By now you’ve all heard or read about Clinton’s campaign allegedly circulating a photo of Obama dressed as a Somali elder. Rumors that Obama is somehow a “closet Muslim” have been circulating since the day he announced his candidacy. (In the interest of being “Fair and Balanced”, rumors have also plagued Hillary that she’s a “closet Lesbian”, an alien from one of Jupiter’s many moon, and that she once had her Costco Executive Club Membership revoked for eating too many samples.)

Whether her campaign actually circulated the photo or not, you have to give credit to Clinton’s camp for winning the post game spin. Get a load of these dueling quotes:

FROM TEAM OBAMA: “On the very day that Senator Clinton is giving a speech about restoring respect for America in the world, her campaign has engaged in the most shameful, offensive fear-mongering we’ve seen from either party in this election. This is part of a disturbing pattern that led her county chairs to resign in Iowa, her campaign chairman to resign in New Hampshire, and it’s exactly the kind of divisive politics that turns away Americans of all parties and diminishes respect for America in the world.”

For the love of Miracle Whip why would you suggest this is “fear mongering” and “shameful”? It’s a picture of your candidate in another country doing what countless politicians and even private citizens have done. Good grief, I even have photos of me wearing a giant mouse head at Chuck E. Cheese. That’s just what you do.

Here’s what their statement should have said: “I don’t know exactly what the Clinton campaign is trying to accomplish here, but Senator Obama is proud of that photo and his time spent in Africa meeting people who struggle every day with challenges beyond what most of us could ever imagine. He feels very blessed to be an American, but he also honors the history, culture, and freedom of other countries just as much. Clinton should be ashamed if she somehow thought this photo was a smear. It’s anything but.”

So how did the Clinton campaign respond?

FROM TEAM CLINTON: “Enough. If Barack Obama’s campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him wearing traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamed. Hillary Clinton has worn the traditional clothing of countries she has visited and had those photos published widely.

I doubt it will have any significant impact on the race, but for the first time in a long time, Clinton outmaneuvered Obama.

Apparently there’s going to be an election after all. Despite reports that the eventual DNC nominee will wipe the floors with McCain the DNC is putting out attacks early. According to The Hill:

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) will file a complaint against Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) Monday, charging that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee is breaking the law by trying to get out of a public financing agreement. In a Sunday afternoon conference call with reporters, DNC chairman Howard Dean said McCain’s attempt to withdraw from a loan agreement that hinged on an acceptance of public financing speaks directly to McCain’s “integrity.”

On the call, Dean repeatedly criticized McCain for allegedly violating a law he helped reform with the Bipartisan Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002 — generally referred to as McCain-Feingold. “They might as well just call it the Feingold law,” Dean said.

For the record, I agree. I wish it was only called the Feingold law. Maybe it never would have passed.

My lips are still pink from downing a bottle of Pepto-bismol after reading this story. Ralph Nader, the man many Democrats hold responsible for two terms of Dubbya, has entered the Presidential race as an independent.

Asked why he should be president, the longtime consumer advocate said, “Because I got things done.”

The only thing I can think that Nader got done in the last 10 years is get George W Bush into the White House. This guy turns my stomach more than just about anyone who could enter the race, I think his vanity runs so far and so deep, Carly Simon may have actually wrote that song about him.

Of course I am familiar with his record as a consumer advocate and will give him credit for that, but that credit is about as good as a sub-prime mortgage these days in my view. More spew from Nader:

“In the last few years, big money and the closing down of Washington against citizen groups prevent us from trying to improve our country. And I want everybody to have the right and opportunity to improve their country,” he told reporters after an appearance announcing his candidacy on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Gah, I have to run to the store for another bottle of Pepto.

Yes, I’m taking another not-so-thinly veiled shot at Mitt Romney. In an interview today on a Texas radio station, Mike Huckabee readily admitted that his only hope at winning the nomination is a “deadlocked convention”. He believes winning Texas would alter the dynamics of the race enough to give him a prayer when delegates gather in August to make their pick official.

Listen, I’m not sure I’d call Texas a long shot, it’s more like a 99-yard Hail Mary when your quarterback is Joey Harrington and your receiver is my four-year-old, Kason. But at least he’s still in the game.

And save your comments about me coming around on HokeyBee. I still have serious issues with him and would have a tough time supporting him in the general election, but this little ditty from his interview sums up my problem with Romney quitting before he needed to:

“You don’t engage in battles only because you anticipate you’re going to win them,” he said. “You engage in your battles because you believe that they’re right.”

Amen, Pastor. Amen.

AP: Many Blacks Worry About Obama’s Safety

Should they?