Daniel J. Summers » Charter Member of the VRWC

Wow - last night’s speech was the best TV I’ve seen all year. To quote John McCain…

Don’t you think we made the right choice for the next vice president of the United States!

Yep - you did. One reason that this allays some of my fears regarding McCain is that this gives us the first indication of the type of person he will choose to help him run his administration. Had he chosen Lieberman, or another one of the names on his “short list,” there would have been little to assure conservatives that his administration would govern and nominate conservatively.

And, just for fun, some memorable moments from the Honorable (notice how few stories use that title?) Sarah Palin’s speech…

You know, they say the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick.

Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown. And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involved. I guess — I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities.

I might add that, in small towns, we don’t quite know what to make of a candidate who lavishes praise on working people when they’re listening and then talks about how bitterly they cling to their religion and guns when those people aren’t listening. No, we tend to prefer candidates who don’t talk about us one way in Scranton and another way in San Francisco.

While I was at it, I got rid of a few things in the governor’s office that I didn’t believe our citizens should have to pay for. That luxury jet was over-the-top. I put it on eBay. I love to drive myself to work. And I thought we could muddle through without the governor’s personal chef, although I got to admit that sometimes my kids sure miss her.

Our opponents say again and again that drilling will not solve all of America’s energy problems, as if we didn’t know that already. But the fact that drilling, though, won’t solve every problem is no excuse to do nothing at all.

We need American sources of resources. We need American energy brought to you by American ingenuity and produced by American workers.

(After that applause break, I was waiting for her to come back and say “legal American workers” - but alas, it was not to be…)

(speaking of Obama) But listening to him speak, it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or even a reform, not even in the State Senate. This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting and never use the word “victory,” except when he’s talking about his own campaign. But when the cloud of rhetoric has passed, when the roar of the crowd fades away, when the stadium lights go out, and those Styrofoam Greek columns are hauled back to some studio lot … when that happens, what exactly is our opponent’s plan? What does he actually seek to accomplish after he’s done turning back the waters and healing the planet?

America needs more energy; our opponent is against producing it. Victory in Iraq is finally in sight, and he wants to forfeit. Terrorist states are seeking nuclear weapons without delay; he wants to meet them without preconditions. Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America, and he’s worried that someone won’t read them their rights.

Here’s how I look at the choice Americans face in this election: In politics, there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers, and then there are those, like John McCain, who use their careers to promote change. They are the ones whose names appear on laws and landmark reforms, not just on buttons and banners or on self-designed presidential seals.

Harry Reid, the majority of the current do-nothing Senate, he not long ago summed up his feelings about our nominee. He said, quote, “I can’t stand John McCain.” Ladies and gentlemen, perhaps no accolade we hear this week is better proof that we’ve chosen the right man.

My fellow citizens, the American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of personal discovery.

For a season, a gifted speaker can inspire with his words. But for a lifetime, John McCain has inspired with his deeds.

It’s going to be fun between now and November…

Fred Thompson has a great column out today regarding the Russia/Georgia crisis and the upcoming election. It’s no surprise whom he feels is the better choice in November, but in closing, he write a brilliant summary of the decision.

This is no time to elect a president whose international experience is limited to speaking to adoring European crowds who want to see the United States retreat from the world … until they require our help in the next crisis that threatens them.
…
This election cycle, the traffic in the world is very heavy …and dangerous; it’s no time to give a kid with barely a learner’s permit the keys to the car.

Hear, hear, Fred.

This is absolutely hilarious…

Hat Tip: Cassy Fiano

Tony Snow, former White House press secretary and host of Fox News Sunday, passed away over the weekend, after a battle with cancer. I enjoyed watching him, and sensed that he was a great guy - but, when all you know of someone is what’s on TV, you don’t really know. Judging from the remarks below, from those who knew him and worked with him, he was.

Michelle Malkin has the announcement, the White House’s release, and an article that Tony wrote for Christianity Today. Others who have shared their memories and recollections of Tony include Susan Estrich, Juan Williams, Ellen Ratner, Cal Thomas, and Mike Gallagher (whose wife Denise succumbed to cancer two weeks ago, and had been communicating with Tony). I’m sure there will be many more tributes and memories shared as the two-days-behind syndicated column cycle passes.

We’ll miss you, Tony.

Oh, this is fun!

Hat Tip: Dr. Melissa Clouthier

There’s something about liberals.  Sure, they believe pretty much the opposite of everything I do, but the way they go about things really puzzles me, especially the public ones that get a lot of press.  Morgan K. Freeberg over at House of Eratosthenes has once again proved why he was one of the first ever “Daily Reads” I put out here.  He’s the sort of person who, once an idea takes hold, will noodle it out until he gets it.  Today, he’s analyzed the phenomenon where something we can do is declared impossible (ex. win in Iraq), while something we can’t do is declared as their goal (ex. eliminate poverty - see Matthew 26:11; the poor aren’t going anywhere).

I’d been trying to come up with a good way to illustrate the projection the liberals show (assuming that their latent feelings are the up-front feelings of their political opposites).  In fact, there is a great example in all of the hype surrounding Barack Obama’s clinching of the Democrat nomination for President.  It’s only historic to people who focus on race - and those are the same people telling us that we shouldn’t be focusing on race.  The most historic thing about Barack Obama’s nomination is that he’s the first person in history to defeat the Clinton war machine (and, to give him his due, that is a significant accomplishment).

Morgan also covers the over-compensation angle - you know, the stereotypical guy who buys a muscle car to substitute for lack of anatomical size.  I forget where I heard it, but there’s a saying that “if you have to tell someone you’re generous, you probably aren’t.”  Back to Jesus talking about the poor, He said that our left hand should not know what our right hand is doing.  (Matthew 6:2-3)

Go check out his post - he thoroughly dissects and analyzes this phenomenon.

Lost amid the race vs. gender war that is the Democrat primary season and the focus on the next administration is the pure genius in the current administration.  Sure, they say Bush is still the mindless dolt that somehow managed to outsmart them twice; and yes, he’s certainly given them enough anguished English ammunition to come up with quite a rotation for their “Bushism of the Day” quote machines.  However, Bush has flashes of political genius, and one of them cam during his speech to the Knesset, the Israeli governing body, celebrating 60 years of Israeli independence.  (The below quote is found about half-way down the page.)

Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: “Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.” We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.

There are no names in this.  Really, it could apply to a host of people who call for diplomacy even once diplomacy has failed, or those who call for diplomacy with terrorist organizations or terrorist-supporting nations.  However, as Jeff Foxworthy once said, “There’s no sense confessing to something she don’t know about yet.”  (This is in response to an upset wife - do you start saying “sorry” for everything she might be mad about, or do you simply ask “What’s wrong?”)

Being all sophisticated and everything, the Democrats must not be aware of this technique, and through their responses showed us that President Bush struck a nerve.  Barack Obama (D-IL) was livid, blaming the current administration for strengthening Iran.  Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said that such words were “beneath the dignity of the office of the president.”  Joe Biden (D-DE) threw the BS flag (literally), and Harry Reid (D-NV) said that Bush should explain the “inconsistency between his administration’s actions and his words today.”

So, basically, here’s how it went down:

Bush: “Appeasers are dangerous.”
Obama, Pelosi, Biden, and Reid (in unison): “No we’re not!”

Priceless…