Barack The One

Barack Obama seems to have a problem with women. This issue was first raised by Hillary Clinton supporters, and I put it down initially to campaign bitterness. Then it got worse.

Now the Republicans have nominated a woman, Sarah Palin, to be vice president. And we see the strange spectical of Barack attacking her more than he is attacking John McCain.  It’s as though she has gotten into his head and he can’t handle it.

Why is this?  It seems more than just normal campaign politics.

Could it be Barack’s early education?  We know that he was educated in Indonesia from about the age of seven until 10 or so.  He was enrolled as a Muslim, and several sources say that he received Muslim instruction.  I do not believe that he is a Muslim now, but the past Muslim influences can’t be denied by reasonable people.

We know the Muslim attitude that women are subserviant to men.  Could his early Muslim education have instilled that attitude in Barack, and does he still express it today?

Here, we remember the victims of Osama bin Landen’s murderous attack on September 11, 2001.

I want to also remember the people who brought us the news that horrible day.  We criticize the media ruthlessly here, but, having worked as a news producer, I know what a hard, thankless job it can be.

Robert Lee is a good friend of mine.  He was in the booth at CNN2 (or whatever they call it now) live, on the air when the planes struck the World Trade Center.

I was in the booth when it all happened yesterday. We took live the first pictures of the burning tower before we knew why it was burning – stayed with it live… finally got a CNN VP on the phone who had seen the first plane crash – then as we were interviewing him – he starts yelling “There’s another plane coming – there’s another plane!!! It just hit the building!! Oh my God!!!” As he said it, we saw an explosion live on the air. In all my years of training as a producer – I have never felt more terrified than I did in those few seconds. I started shaking so bad I could hardly speak to the anchors. But then I realized we had to keep going – and started feeding them information as fast as I could read it off the wires – get it off the CNN squawk box – or have it given to me by supervisors.

Then the report crossed the CNN squawk box about a fire at the Pentagon…. My heart nearly stopped. “Oh my God, It’s the end of the world as we know it” was all I could think.

A short time later, in one of our live hits with a reporter on the phone – a mob grabbed the phone out of her hand as she was speaking to us… “I’m doing a report… I’ll be off in just a moment.. wait.. they’re grabbing my phone!”

Click. Again – a wave of panic for the safety of our reporter.

Words cannot describe the horror I was feeling watching and hearing all this unfold live before me – knowing hundreds of thousands of people were counting on us to get them information as quickly as possible.

As producers, we all LIVE for the BIG story and hope we get our crack at it. I had my crack at it. I came through with high marks from my colleagues – who all stopped by later to personally thank me or praise me for how I handled the whole ordeal. Yet, deep inside – my heart broke. No amount of appreciation can replace the lives that were lost right before my very eyes – live – on national television. I want to cry – but I’m too emotionally drained.

Yes, I lived for the big story – and I got it – now I pray I never have another “big” story as long as I live. I’m not sure my heart could take the pain.

Lipstick

I posted on the Barack Obama “lipstick on a pig” line yesterday, and earlier today, I added the McCain/Palin response ad.

Some folks have questioned whether the ad will see air time.  I think it doesn’t matter – posting on Youtube is enough.  The audience for this ad is not the voters, but the Obama campaign itself.

Classical Values posted a month ago outlining how McCain, using fighter pilot tactics, has outflanked Obama.

McCain, the fighter pilot, has gotten inside Obama’s OODA loop. Something the Navy teaches fighter pilots to do.

The OODA Loop, often called Boyd’s Cycle, is a creation of Col. John Boyd, USAF (Ret.). Col. Boyd was a student of tactical operations and observed a similarity in many battles and campaigns. He noted that in many of the engagements, one side presented the other with a series of unexpected and threatening situations with which they had not been able to keep pace. The slower side was eventually defeated. What Col. Boyd observed was the fact that conflicts are time competitive.Evidently Boyd is beating Alinsky. Or to put it another way. The fighter pilot is beating the community organizer. As a Navy man myself, I’m not surprised.

Elections are nothing if they are not time competitive. Evidently the “freezing of the opponent” that Alinsky recommends has not worked on McCain. He was not frozen. Once that happened McCain was operating inside Obama’s decision loop.

Or, perhaps McCain is following Alinsky himself.  From his Rules for Radicals

RULE 8: “Keep the pressure on. Never let up.” Keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, hit them from the flank with something new. (Attack, attack, attack from all sides, never giving the reeling organization a chance to rest, regroup, recover and re-strategize.)

McCain is keeping the pressure on Obama as well as getting inside his loop.

Victor Davis Hanson, in a post made before Obama’s lipstick remark, predicted that the Obama campaign would turn to more insulting language.

In this cycle of the see-saw race, expect Obama to take a risk and go really negative as he falls into a gripey, cranky mode.

Hanson’s post makes me more convinced that Obama intentionally attacked Palin. The McCain/Palin campaign has gotten into Obama’s head.

Barack

Politico reports a statement Barack Obama made in Virginia today. The crowd watching him was sure it referred to Sarah Palin – and cheered.

“You can put lipstick on a pig,” he said as the crowd cheered. “It’s still a pig.”

Jake Tapper also reported that the reference was to Palin.

The crowd rose and applauded, some of them no doubt thinking he may have been alluding to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s ad lib during her vice presidential nomination acceptance speech last week, “What’s the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick.”

Tapper updates to  say Obama claims the reference was not to Saracuda.

How dumb do they think we are?

Update – that was fast – here’s the video.

Update – Here’s the McCain/Palin response ad.