From our UK edition
Who won? Well, Obama of course. That's not just my impression. Or yours. It's also the view of the lads* at Election Debates where grizzled debating veterans from Australia, the USA and Scotland each awarded the palm to the Senator from Illinois. This followed Joe Biden's 6-1 obliteration of lovely Sarah Palin. *Disclosure: yes, some of these chaps are friends and were my contempories back when we swam in these murky debating waters.
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Rod uses the anniversary of the Battle of Lepanto to give Chesterton an airing. Grand stuff. But Mr Dreher also has this to say: Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Lepanto, the 1571 grand naval battle that saved Europe from Ottoman Turkish conquest. The victory -- one of the greatest ever in naval warfare -- was credited by Pope Pius V to the intercession of the Virgin Mary, who'd received countless rosaries in petition for the victory of Christian forces and the protection of Christian Europe from Islamic conquest. Today, then, is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary among Catholic Christians. Europe wouldn't be free of the Turkish threat for good until the Battle of Vienna in 1683.
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Well, campers, if it's Wednesday you know it's Disappointment Time. Yes, John McCain and Barack Obama are "debating" again tonight. This time in an all-holds barred "town hall" format. Can you contain your excitement? Well, for those of you who remain, despite all previous warnings to the contrary, demons for punishment, fret not we'll be here too. That is to say that, against my better judgement, I'll be live-blogging the nonsense again. What joy. Swing on by and stick around and treat yourself to a gimlet or something. What's left to lose? We'll be live in, like half an hour's time...
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Shockingly Tom Brokaw has rejected Bill Kristol's internet-submitted question. Typical MSM bias. Fair play to the plucky folks at Fox however, they're doing their best to best to suggest that Obama is less-American than a flesh-eating Muslim eskimo. Or something like that. Fred Barnes, a shit who aspires to being something more anatomical than that, suggests McCain needs to "do a Sarah Palin"... God help us all. Anyway kids, here we go again... Final Verdict: I've been a little harsh on Obama. He won this debate. When even Karl Rove can't make a great case for McCain then you know the game is over. And, again, Obama looked and came across as a President whereas McCain seemed like, as I say. a cranky wee man who'd been dropped from the bowling club's first team and considered this a vast.
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There's plenty one could say about National Review's blog The Corner. If nothing else it affords a grim panorama of the decline of the American conservative movement. Decline, at least, in as much as NR is considered the house magazine for mainstream Republicanism. Here, for instance, is Andrew McCarthy on last night's debate: Now, as the night went along, did you get the impression that Obama comes from the radical Left? Did you sense that he funded Leftist causes to the tune of tens of millions of dollars? Would you have guessed that he's pals with a guy who brags about bombing the Pentagon? Would you have guessed that he helped underwrite raging anti-Semites?
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Which is why blogging has been non-existent these past few days. However my new MacBook arrived half an hour ago and, all being well, we'll be back up to speed pretty soon. *OK, I snorted liquor all over the keyboard in response to something preposterous she, or one of her cheerleaders, said. I forget which. Result? Computer No Worky.
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At Culture11 there's some advice for the candidates before tonight's "debate." It's unlikely much of it will be taken. At her own blog Kerry Howley adds this: I’ll just add that there is a massive gap between Obama’s actual rhetoric and the conservative portrayal of him as some sort of naive, starry-eyed internationalist. There is no globalist in this election, naive or otherwise. There is the candidate who insists that foreigners are bloodthirsty killers, and the one who keeps reminding you that foreigners will shutter your factories, poison your children, and destroy your domestic motorcycle industry. Yes, yes, I realize that we aren’t supposed to listen when the Obama campaign depicts economic engagement as un-American.
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Divided loyalties? JFK reassures voters in 1960 that they need not fear a Roman Catholic in the Oval Office.
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Will it never end? In fairness, the question "What do you think is the best and worst thing Dick Cheney has done as Vice-President?" isn't altogether fair. That is to say, one can't expect Palin, alas, to start talking about torture. But still, did she have to say this? PALIN: Worst thing I guess that would have been the duck hunting accident--where you know, that was an accident. And I think that was made into a caricature of him. And that was kind of unfortunate. So the best thing though, he's shown support, along with George W. Bush, of our troops. And I've been there when George Bush has spoken to families of those who have suffered greatly, those who are serving in the military.
From our UK edition
Coffee? Check. Cigarettes? Check. Whisky? Check. Optimism? Not so much. But we're live and uninterrupted here as we await the Brouhaha in Missourah, aka the biggest let down in Presidential sports. As always, have a pop in the comments or email me. Anyway, let's get ready to rumble... 3.45: Oh, the CNN focus group is coming from The Ohio State University campus. Of course, now that it transpires that they think Biden won the debate I can assume they're not actually students at tOSU... 3.42: Oh, you should read Will Wilkinson's live-blog too. Back later. 3.33: Ifill won't let us away without reminding us that "there are two more debates left". Heaven help us all. Whisky time. Verdict to follow in a subsequent post. Thanks for hangin' kids. It's been a blast. I think. Right? 3.
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An instant classic from 2004 as the Bush campaign returns to a favourite theme, first used, I think, by Nixon in 1972. Note too, whe wussy, hyper-european classical music...
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It's just like old times, ain't it? The Sun wading in behind the Tory leader. The paper's leader today has a headline Tory HQ would have written themselves: He's Ready. The Sun says: DAVID Cameron finally stood up yesterday and showed what he is made of. Gone was the show pony politician. In his place emerged a tough leader, a young but credible statesman with potent ideas for rebuilding our nation. Mr Cameron said the words his party wanted to hear. He echoed their hero, Margaret Thatcher, calling for “strong defence, sound money and the rule of law”. The Tory leader insisted there would be “no new dawns, no overnight transformations”. “I am a man with a plan, not a miracle cure,” he said.
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The slow drip torture is, as you would expect it to be, agonising. But here's the latest from Katie Couric's destruction of poor Sarah Palin. You can see why CBS kept these juicy bits back, but, christ, it's painful to read*, let alone watch. COURIC: What other Supreme Court decisions [than Roe v. Wade] do you disagree with? PALIN: Well, let's see. There's --of course --in the great history of America rulings there have been rulings, that's never going to be absolute consensus by every American. And there are--those issues, again, like Roe v Wade where I believe are best held on a state level and addressed there. So you know--going through the history of America, there would be others but-- COURIC: Can you think of any?
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"In your heart, you know he's right..." was a slogan that more or less conceded defeat.
From our UK edition
As expected, David Cameron's speech has been well received. In the Telegraph, Iain Martin says this was the moment Cameron "came out as a Conservative". Indeed so. But amidst the sobriety and the resolution, there were moments of populist blue meat too. The BBC's mini-focus group particularly loved this passage: For Labour there is only the state and the individual, nothing in between. No family to rely on, no friend to depend on, no community to call on. No neighbourhood to grow in, no faith to share in, no charities to work in. No-one but the Minister, nowhere but Whitehall, no such thing as society - just them, and their laws, and their rules, and their arrogance. You cannot run our country like this.
From our UK edition
Well, this is common-sense. So, obviously, don't expect it to have an impact. A report on cannabis prepared for next year's UN drug policy review will suggest that a "regulated market" would cause less harm than the current international prohibition. The report, which is likely to reopen the debate about cannabis laws, suggests that controls such as taxation, minimum age requirements and labelling could be explored. The Global Cannabis Commission report, which will be launched today at a conference in the House of Lords, has reached conclusions which its authors suggest "challenge the received wisdom concerning cannabis". It was carried out for the Beckley foundation, a UN-accredited NGO, for the 2009 UN strategic drug policy review.
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You know what anticipation breeds, campers? That's right, disappointment. Steel yourselves for a let-down. It's almost inconceivable that tonight's Brouhaha in Missourah can meet expectations. We're not expecting a "debate" are we? We want a WWF show. Or, as the Politico boys put it: With all their potential for pitfalls and insta-classic moments, the pair has made the build up to the showdown, to take place here Thursday night at Washington University, feel more like a NASCAR race than a serious political forum: the audience may be tuning in as much in anticipation of cringe-inducing pile-ups as they are to watch the typical parry-and-thrust of debate. Expect Dullsville then. Which would be a shame since, lord knows, these events could do with a little craziness.
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Politico's Jonathan Martin has a telling scoop: John McCain is pulling out of Michigan, according to two Republicans, a stunning move a month away from Election Day that indicates the difficulty Republicans are having in finding blue states to put in play. McCain will go off TV in Michigan, stop dropping mail there and send most of his staff to more competitive states, including Wisconsin, Ohio and Florida. Wisconsin went for Kerry in 2004, Ohio and Florida for Bush. If this is indeed true, then it adds weight to the growing sense that Obama isn't just going to win this election, he's going to win it comfortably - at least in electoral College terms. For a long tie, Michigan seemed one of McCain's best chances of pinching a state that went for Kerry in 2004.
From our UK edition
Away from the markets and in advance of tomorrow's Vice-Presidential debate, you might enjoy this: Cruel, but fair.
From our UK edition
A rather interesting development in Kabul. The French satirical newspaper Le Canard Enchaînė (France's Private Eye) claims that the British Ambassador to Afghanistan, Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, has told the French that the war is lost. According to Le Canard: The British ambassador and his deputy have in turn contacted me to pass on their analysis of the situation before the Franco-British meeting on Afghanistan. These were their main points:-- The current situation is bad. The security situation is getting worse. So is corruption and the government has lost all trust.