Podcast Show Notes

Thoughts on the Republican Convention and John McCain’s acceptance speech.

Obama’s wussy response to Palin. (Hat Tip: Patterico.)

The Media v. Sarah Palin:

The Washington Post misrepresents Palin’s record on funding for teen pregnancies. (Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin.) while CNN uses Daily Kos to misrepresent her record on Special Education.

Several PUMAs knew about a potential Palin pick in June.

The media sends Joe Biden friendly hints to be hard on Palin.

CNN’s Campbell Brown may be in the tank for Obama, but Fox’s Chairman tells Obama to his face how it’s going to be. (Hat Tip: Don Surber.)

Obama/Biden: bringing America together by prosecuting the heck out of the last Bush Administration.

Democratic Mayor Kwame Kirkpatrick’s (Detroit) graceless exit.

Plus which is better? Vouchers or tax credits? (Hat Tip: Right Mind.)

Click here to download, click here to add this podcast to your Itunes.

A round of Palin stories that I can’t figure where else to put.

The numbers are in from last night’s speech. Palin’s speech drew: 37.2 million, or 1.1 million less than Obama’s even though her speech was carried on 6 networks while Obama’s was carried on 10. (Hat Tip: Colussus of Rhodey.) 

Ted Nugent comes out for McCain/Palin.  (Hat Tip: Don Surber.)

Let me correct the record now. Sarah Palin does not have an 80% approval rating. It’s 81.6%. (Hat Tip: Club for Growth.)

Scrapple Face parody: Obama proposes funding foreign policy training for girls.

DFO on the term “Trailer Trash” which has been used by classy HBO commenters.

Local reaction to the Palin Speech:

Clayton Cramer:  “This is one of the world-changing political speeches of our generation. She is a powerful, but very natural speaker. Obama has just lost. Palin will be extraordinarily qualified to run for President in 2012.”

Kevin Richert: “Palin is still going to have to make the case that she has the command of the issues that come with the vice presidency. I didn’t hear that Wednesday night, and wouldn’t have been realistic to expect it. This speech was Palin’s chance to present herself to America and fire up the faithful, and she aced it on both counts.”

Wow, in less than 3 days, Richert has poked fun at Obama’s over the top rhetoric and now preparing a glowing review of Sarah Palin’s speech. Is there an invasion of the body snatchers that’s beginning their work at the Idaho Statesman?

I don’t know, I guess it may be spreading. This afternoon, I gave my first donation to the McCain-Palin compliance fund. Six days a go, I would have rated that with pigs flying, along with the McCain-Palin bumper sticker.

No surprise here. This ’tis the bumper sticker for conservatives. It’s available on McCain Store for $1 plus $3 shipping.

<!– –>

Ok, so I keep hearing that conservatism is a “three-legged stool”. Those legs are social, fiscal and national security or defense conservatism. Everyone knows that a three-legged stool is supposed to be more stable because if one leg is shorter than the others, it still doesn’t wobble. Unfortunately, you can only take that so far. True, if one leg is slightly shorter, the stool will tilt a bit but it won’t topple over. However, if you let one leg get considerably shorter than the other two, you’ve got a real problem. Unless you enjoy landing on the floor with a thud. The way I see it, that’s exactly the problem the Republican party has got. We are supposed to be the party of conservatism, but lately, we’ve only been really concerned with two of our legs!

For the last several years, the party has been consumed with national security. That’s perfectly natural. We were attacked on our own soil after years of ignoring the threat. It’s about time we focused on security. No one (well, no conservative, anyway) can argue about that.

We’ve also seen a focus on fiscal issues. After eight years of Clinton in the White House, there was obviously some work to be done there as well. The Bush tax cuts were necessary and welcome. Unfortunately, the party’s fiscal leg took a bit of a beating in Congress with an inordinate amount of spending. One of my biggest disappointments with Bush was his seeming inability to find his veto pen! Still, ever since Reagan the ficons have gained power steadily in the party power machine.  That wouldn’t be a bad thing, in and of itself, except that it seems many of them are moderates, at best, on social issues. They are perfectly happy to push aside issues of life, marriage and family in exchange for some economic boon, whether real or perceived.

Social conservatives have been accused of being “single issue” voters, not only by the liberals but by members of our own party. I don’t doubt that some people are just that, but the vast majority of social conservatives would love to sit firmly on all three legs of our stool. Isn’t it about time we were given that chance? Why does one “leg” have to be sacrificed for the other two? If there’s a problem with the balance, the answer isn’t to keep cutting some off on one of the legs. The answer is to find something to prop up the shorter one.  I don’t know about you all, but I’m getting real tired of sitting on the floor.