A perfect example is the image here from Der Spiegel. It is an obvious photoshopped attempt to make Barack Obama seem larger than life. They have made a mockery of themselves and their profession. As cheerleaders for Barack Obama the MSM has reduced themselves to becoming a running joke. Unprofessional, biased and simply over the top like they have some lovesick teenage crush.

The latest print caricature of the MSM groupies covering the Obama Mystery Tour comes from across the pond in a Times online article written by Gerard Baker.

Here’s a taste from the middle of Baker’s “He ventured forth to bring light to the world” article that includes the apt byline, The anointed one’s pilgrimage to the Holy Land is a miracle in action - and a blessing to all his faithful followers

In the great Battles of Caucus and Primary he smote the conniving Hillary, wife of the deposed King Bill the Priapic and their barbarian hordes of Working Class Whites.

And so it was, in the fullness of time, before the harvest month of the appointed year, the Child ventured forth - for the first time - to bring the light unto all the world.

He travelled fleet of foot and light of camel, with a small retinue that consisted only of his loyal disciples from the tribe of the Media. He ventured first to the land of the Hindu Kush, where the Taleban had harboured the viper of al-Qaeda in their bosom, raining terror on all the world.

And the Child spake and the tribes of Nato immediately loosed the Caveats that had previously bound them. And in the great battle that ensued the forces of the light were triumphant. For as long as the Child stood with his arms raised aloft, the enemy suffered great blows and the threat of terror was no more.

From there he went forth to Mesopotamia where he was received by the great ruler al-Maliki, and al-Maliki spake unto him and blessed his Sixteen Month Troop Withdrawal Plan even as the imperial warrior Petraeus tried to destroy it.

And lo, in Mesopotamia, a miracle occurred. Even though the Great Surge of Armour that the evil Bush had ordered had been a terrible mistake, a waste of vital military resources and doomed to end in disaster, the Child’s very presence suddenly brought forth a great victory for the forces of the light.

And the Persians, who saw all this and were greatly fearful, longed to speak with the Child and saw that the Child was the bringer of peace. At the mention of his name they quickly laid aside their intrigues and beat their uranium swords into civil nuclear energy ploughshares.

From there the Child went up to the city of Jerusalem, and entered through the gate seated on an ass. The crowds of network anchors who had followed him from afar cheered “Hosanna” and waved great palm fronds and strewed them at his feet.

In Jerusalem and in surrounding Palestine, the Child spake to the Hebrews and the Arabs, as the Scripture had foretold. And in an instant, the lion lay down with the lamb, and the Israelites and Ishmaelites ended their long enmity and lived for ever after in peace.

As word spread throughout the land about the Child’s wondrous works, peoples from all over flocked to hear him; Hittites and Abbasids; Obamacons and McCainiacs; Cameroonians and Blairites.

And they told of strange and wondrous things that greeted the news of the Child’s journey. Around the world, global temperatures began to decline, and the ocean levels fell and the great warming was over.

No shit. But there’s more, much more. It is a fun read.

Of course the humorless left will see this as another unfair attack on Mr. 143. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the New Yorker launch another satirical cover, this time of Obama spreading the Red Sea with rod in hand; all the while explaining how the cover is a tongue in cheek satirical look at the unfair attacks the anointed one is suffering at the hands of us crotchety old media watchers.

Such a cover would require another response by the MSM’s Obama protectorate that has a habit of over reacting even when they are responding to their own that dared make fun at Barack Obama’s expense. I can imagine something similar to the latest Vanity Fair cartoon or the one that appeared in the Seattle Post Intelligencer. This time they could depict John McCain in another typical leftist stereotype, perhaps as an over the hill Vietnam Veteran killing babies with his cane.

Thus is the state of the silly looking media and their laughable coverage of Barack Obama, healer, uniter and man who judges no one, not terrorist neighbor, racist preacher or pro-Palestinian adviser that meets secretly with Hamas.

The truth hurts and Baker is inflicting some much deserved pain on the shameless campaign ad the mainstream media is producing gratis for Barack Obama.

In fact Barack Obama was so blatant in his attempts to appear Reaganesque that he attempted to deliver his speech at the same site. Thankfully German politicians turned up the heat and the request was turned down.

“Obama didn’t do anything for German unification,” Mr Huber said.

“That’s not a criticism, but as a result there is no reason to grant him such a privilege,” he told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper.

Der Spiegel is covering every aspect of Barack Obama’s movements. Here’s a glimpse of what Obama is saying while on this latest stop of the Barack Obama fantasy tour.

++ Obama Calls on Europeans and Americans to Fight Terror Together ++

7:38 p.m.: “True partnership and true progress requires constant work and sustained sacrifice. Requires allies who will learn from each other, listen to each other and most of all trust each other.” Obama says: “America has no better partner than Europe.” He called on Europeans and Americans to work together “to defeat terror and dry up the well of extremism that supports it.”

++’We Cannot Afford to be Divided’ ++

7:33 p.m.: Obama says “We cannot afford to be divided. On both sides of the Atlantic we have drifted apart and forgotten our shared destiny.” Obama calls on people to “tear down new walls” between races, countries and religions.

What an embarrassment. Is this change or just another in a long line of unoriginal themes lifted from great leaders of the past?

As for the sacrifice line and the obvious swipe against America and the Bush administration what can I say. This is Barack Obama’s world view; one that is shared by the American left. When Democrats, and especially one of their most liberal Senators say “allies who will learn from each other, listen to each other and most of all trust each other” they are specifically taking America to task for its success and her people’s reluctance to accept socialist ideology as the new world religion. Forget American innovation, forget any past or present help America is providing our European allies, forget American charity that the left measures as a portion of the GDP rather than the overwhelming amount that is donated in whole numbers. Forget all of that.

We should apologize for being American, apologize for SUV’s, apologize for abu ghraib and apologize for anything we are guilty of doing according to the American left. Most especially we should apologize for the war in Iraq, forget that Democrats voted for such change before George Bush took office, forget that the murderous dictator Saddam Hussein was actively paying terrorist families rewards for blowing themselves up in Israel and actively training future terrorists that have aims on the United States, forget the failed diplomacy and anythign else the American left can blame on America. Just be shameful.

Not to be undone Barack Obama even evoked the great Bob the Builder “yes we can speech” that is given to Thomas the Train and friends every morning on your local cable station.

++ Obama Speaks of Berlin’s Cold War History ++

7:26 p.m.: Obama says: “This city knows the dream of freedom.” He says: “People of the world look at Berlin.”

++ Obama Arrives at Victory Column ++

7:21 p.m.: Obama takes to the podium to cheers of “Yes, we can.”

Unfortunately nothing could stop Barack Obama from unfolding the second half of the plan and uttering a completely ridiculous speech that was so obviously lifted from the themes put forth by Reagan and Kennedy that Obama should be mocked for his efforts.

Here’s the real deal:

Next this they will want to TAKE the babies and raise them in a government run commune somewhere.

Big Brother to teach you how to be parent

Proposals would give Washington unprecedented control over children

The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to debate two bills that could give the federal government unprecedented control over the way parents raise their children – even providing funds for state workers to come into homes and screen babies for emotional and developmental problems.

The Pre-K Act (HR 3289) and the Education Begins at Home Act (HR 2343) are two bills geared toward military and families who fall below state poverty lines. The measures are said to be a way to prevent child abuse, close the achievement gap in education between poor and minority infants versus middle-class children and evaluate babies younger than 5 for medical conditions.

‘Education Begins at Home Act’ – HR 2343

HR 2343 is sponsored by Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., and cosponsored by 55 Democrats and 11 Republicans. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that implementing the Education Begins at Home Act would cost taxpayers $190 million for state home visiting, plus “such sums as may be necessary” for in-hospital parent education. (WND)

[Discuss This Topic with Debbie Hamilton]

Earlier this year John McCain called for a gas tax holiday during the Summer in order to ease the burden of the cost of gasoline. Hillary Clinton agreed with the idea but Barack Obama and many other Democrats did not like it and decided it was not a good idea. It was a particularly sore item with regard to union workers in the construction industry who reminded Democrats that a cut in the tax would reduce the money available to work on road projects leading to many unemployed construction workers just prior to the election. This prompted the idea that they needed to raise the gasoline tax 10 cents.

Democrats oppose a tax holiday because it will decrease revenue and it will not bring much relief to people who are buying gas. For what it is worth, I don’t like the idea of the holiday because I think they should abolish the gas tax completely. That is the real source of gouging. It seems that Democrats don’t like the idea of people not paying taxes on their gasoline unless those people are working for the Democrats in order to organize the convention.

It is reported today that the city of Denver has been allowing the people working for the DNC in Denver to fuel the vehicles they are using at the city’s pumps thus avoiding state and federal taxes. This has been going on for four months with the full consent of the Mayor but the Attorney General of Colorado says it looks like an illegal practice. Ya think?

The Mayor, John Hickenlooper, has stated the practice would change but that it should be OK because Republicans are getting the same deal in Minneapolis. Those from the RNC who were contacted about this stated they were buying gas on the market and were therefore paying the appropriate taxes. No such deal is in order for them.

Isn’t it amazing that Democrats always love to raise taxes and they love to tell us how we need to pay our fair share but when push comes to shove they avoid paying taxes every chance they get?

Do as I say and not as I do is the mantra of the left.

[Discuss This Topic with Big Dog]

Yesterday and then again today the Enquirer updated the story with more proof that Edwards is running around with Hunter and secretly meeting in a Los Angeles hotel with both her and the child he allegedly fathered.

Vice Presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards was caught visiting his mistress and secret love child at 2:40 this morning in a Los Angeles hotel by the NATIONAL ENQUIRER.

The married ex-senator from North Carolina - whose wife Elizabeth continues to battle cancer — met with his mistress, blonde divorcée Rielle Hunter, at the Beverly Hilton on Monday night, July 21 - and the NATIONAL ENQUIRER was there! He didn’t leave until early the next morning.

The details get even yummier as John Edwards was caught by Enquirer reporters trying to sneak out of the hotel. He fled and hid in the hotel’s basement bathroom where he called security to come and rescue him. What a man.

At 9:45 p.m. (PST) Monday, Edwards appeared at the hotel, and was dropped off at a side entrance. NATIONAL ENQUIRER reporter Alan Butterfield witnessed the ex-senator get out of a BMW driven by a male companion and stroll into the hotel.

Said Butterfield: “Edwards was not carrying anything. He walked in alone. He was wearing a blue dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He was looking around nervously before he entered the hotel.

“Once inside, he interestingly bypassed the lobby and ducked down a side stairs to go to the bottom floor to catch the elevator up - rather than taking the elevator in the main lobby. He went out of his way not to be seen.”

Meanwhile, Rielle had reserved rooms 246 and 252 under the name of the friend who had accompanied her from Santa Barbara, Bob McGovern. Rielle was in one room and McGovern was in another with her baby. This allowed her and Edwards to spend time alone, a source revealed.

Edwards went out of the hotel briefly with Rielle, they were observed by the NATIONAL ENQUIRER and then went back to her room, where he stayed until attempting to sneak out of the hotel unseen at 2:40 a.m. (PST). But when he emerged alone from an elevator into the hotel basement he was greeted by several reporters from the NATIONAL ENQUIRER.

Senior NATIONAL ENQUIRER Reporter Alexander Hitchen asked Edwards why he was visiting Rielle and whether he was ready to confirm that he was the father of her baby.

Shocked to see a reporter, and without saying anything, Edwards ran up the stairs leading from the hotel basement to the lobby. But, spotting a photographer, he doubled back into the basement. As he emerged from the stairwell, reporter Butterfield questioned him about his hookup with Rielle.

Edwards did not answer and then ran into a nearby restroom. He stayed inside for about 15 minutes, refusing to answer questions from the NATIONAL ENQUIRER about what he was doing in the hotel. A group of hotel security men eventually escorted him from the men’s room, while preventing the NATIONAL ENQUIRER reporters from following him out of the hotel.

Will the mainstream media care? Read all the delicious details here.

The December article claimed the following:

Presidential candidate John Edwards is caught up in a love child scandal, a blockbuster ENQUIRER investigation has discovered.

The ENQUIRER has learned exclusively that Rielle Hunter, a woman linked to Edwards in a cheating scandal earlier this year, is more than six months pregnant — and she’s told a close confidante that Edwards is the father of her baby!

The ENQUIRER’s political bombshell comes just weeks after Edwards emphatically denied having an affair with Rielle, who formerly worked on his campaign and told another close pal that she was romantically involved with the married ex-senator.

The ENQUIRER has now confirmed not only that Rielle is expecting, but that she’s gone into hiding with the help of a former aide to Edwards.

John Edwards also just happens to be on the short list as a potential VP running mate for Barack Obama. No matter though, it’s not as if character has mattered too much for the Obama camp up to this point.

Earlier we had reported on the fallout back in October of 2007. Recall that back then the media came to Mr. Edwards’ defense by taking a pass on the story as is expected of the mainstream media that has lost all credibility as second rate cheerleaders for Democrats running for office. So we are not surprised to learn that the denials were just another in a long line of hypocritical Democrats that talk out of both sides of their mouths.

Original Webloggin article below:

Still, no proof of an affair but stories that have a lot unexplained cross cutting side stories tend to stay active longer than ones that don’t. Americans love a good conspiracy. Is this a Clinton hit job? Did Edwards really have an affair? Why are web sites disappearing all over the place? Why did Edwards hire a woman with an idea she came up with in a bar and no apparent practical experience to following him around with a camera? All good questions.

Update: (and bump to top) This story gets a little more interesting this evening. Here is the denial from the woman in question:

“The innuendos and lies that have appeared on the internet and in the National Enquirer concerning John Edwards are not true, completely unfounded and ridiculous. My video production company was hired by the Edwards camp on a 6 month contract, which we completed December 31, 2006. When working for the Edwards camp, my conduct as well as the conduct of my entire team was completely professional.

This concocted story is just dirty politics and I want no part of it.” - Rielle Hunter according to MyDD

Now the interesting part of this denial and the story is that the Huffington Post has been reporting that Rielle Hunter was hired to do a video documentary about Edwards and did in fact follow him around on the campaign trail. But for some reason the video and Rielle’s website inexplicably disappeared.

A set of short documentary film “webisodes” made for former Sen. John Edwards prior to his presidential candidacy continues to weave a curious web, this time involving the filmmaker.

The videos, which cost Edwards’ One America Committee $114,461, were produced in 2006 by an aspiring actress/producer named Rielle Hunter, who proposed the idea to the senator in a bar in New York City. The objective was to give viewers - and presumably voters - an authentic look at the North Carolinian. But shortly after Edwards declared his White House aspirations, the footage all but disappeared from public view. After the Huffington Post wrote about the webisodes, the videos resurfaced, both on YouTube and Webcastr.com, although the anonymous individual who reposted them (user name: “MissingVideos”) has not responded to emails.

Little was known about Hunter as well. Despite working in the movie business, she had virtually no Internet presence save for an article in Newsweek about her filming of Edwards and an uninformative IMDB entry for her work on the short film Billy Bob and Them (2000).

This anonymity, it turns out, wasn’t always the case. The Huffington Post has uncovered a deleted website that formerly belonged to Hunter. Titled “Being Is Free,” the site was last updated on April 22, 2007, roughly twenty days after Edwards’ One America Committee made its final payment to Hunter’s company, Midline Groove Productions.

There is virtually no mention of filmmaking or politics on the site. And there is little indication as to what Hunter did professionally - beyond an involvement in various spiritual quests - before she and her partner, Mimi Hockman, started Midline Groove Production in the spring of 2006. As Colin Weil, a consultant to the Edwards webisodes told the Huffington Post: “Neither of them had done tons and tons of stuff before hand… The whole [Edwards' taping] was pretty organic.”

On the deleted pages, the 44-year-old Hunter (formerly known as Lisa Druck) discusses her former hard partying days, her search for enlightenment, and her issues with drugs and debt. There is a 2005 interview she did with one-time boyfriend Jay McInerney, in which the celebrated novelist reveals that Hunter was the basis for Alison Poole, the main character of his book, Story of My Life.

A lot of things are not adding up about this story. Sure, this could all be a bad coincidence and I don’t even know for sure if the MyDD denial is legit (what on MyDD is?) In any respect this looks a bit worse for Edwards than I originally thought. Before it was just a story based on a flimsy e-mail. But now the situation seems to be getting downright ugly, missing videos, disappearing websites, drugs, debt…. Hmmm.

Original Story Below
======================================

It doesn’t take long for the press to come out with all cylinders running when a Republican is accused of any sort of sex story, be it the stall to stall romancing of Larry Craig or the nighttime madame phone calls of David Vitter. Yep, the newsrooms of the mainstream media have plenty of boilerplate material for such stories. Put the shoe on the other foot such as the allegation that Democratic Presidential candidate John Edwards had an 18 month affair with a former campaign worker however and you can pretty much expect that more important items take precedent.

Take for example the Washington Post front page article and video coverage of Muslim athletes that endure the demands of fasting during Ramadan. The New York Times is too busy giving face time to the anti-semitic Jimmy Carter so he can bash the U.S. even more in his current anti-Cheney tour. (side note, Carter appeared on CNN yesterday with Wolf Blitzer on the Situation Room to counsel us on the dangers of bombing Iran). The La Times covers the self made “controversy” over the new Star Trek movie.

The stars are pretty much aligned for a press club that exceedingly displays its one sided agenda; a mission to distort the news rather than do something novel such as report the news.

Yes, the source of the story on the John Edwards affair is The National Enquirer and many will play that down. But the story is not about the platform of the exposes’ but rather that a back to back Democratic Presidential candidate with a penchant for expensive haircuts is alleged to have had an 18 month affair on the campaign trail. Imagine that.

Presidential candidate John Edwards is caught in a shocking mistress scandal that could wreck his campaign, The NATIONAL ENQUIRER has learned exclusively.

Sources have come forward to charge that the “other woman” previously worked on Edwards’ campaign and followed the 54-year-old candidate on trips across the U.S.

A source close to the woman, whose name is being withheld by The NATIONAL ENQUIRER, says that she confessed to having an affair in phone calls and emails, saying that her work with Edwards soon exploded into romance. The shocking allegation — if proven true — could devastate the Democratic hopeful’s campaign, especially because John’s devoted wife Elizabeth is locked in a desperate battle with breast cancer.

“The affair started about 18 months ago,” a friend says the woman confessed to her. “When they met at a bar, sparks flew immediately.

I see nothing in the Enquirer piece that points to any concrete evidence. But I do find it interesting that the woman making these claims is a former campaign worker for John Edwards. Usually former co-workers and subordinates are allowed a bit more latitude in the credibility of their claims, at least if they are the type to claim that a future Supreme Court Justice with a tendency to lean conservative is harassing her.

Only time will tell if this story bears fruit. Don’t expect the major media to do any footwork on it though; after all, we’re not talking about an end run on Rush Limbaugh. I think we need something a little more concrete than the flimsy evidence of a woman’s e-mail to her friends otherwise it is nothing more than a smear job. Let’s wait and see what the MSM comes up with, enquiring minds want to know.

See Also: South Dakota Moderate

Trackposted to Perri Nelson’s Website, , The World According to Carl, The Populist, Shadowscope, Leaning Straight Up, High Desert Wanderer, and Conservative Cat, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Hot on the heels of a Seattle Post-Intelligencer response to the New Yorker cartoon depicting John McCain using an ageist stereotype is Vanity Fair. Like the Seattle P-I cartoon the Vanity Fair version features John McCain in typical liberal mockery of the elderly by depicting him in a walker alongside his pill popping wife. (Full size image here.)

The difference between the Vanity Fair and Seattle P-I depictions of John and Cindy McCain and that of the New Yorker featuring the media’s preferred family is that neither of the former cartoon depictions are satirical. They may claim to be but I doubt it as they weren’t conjured up in response to some unfair liberal misrepresentation of the McCains. Instead they were created to even the playing field for over sensitive liberals that were up in arms over the New Yorker cover.

As for the Vanity Fair readers we can glean what we must about their character by reading the typical comments that accompany the Vanity Fair article.

• Wonderful piece of art, nails the NY cover perfectly, but isn’t McKrusty’s big bump on the wrong side of his face?
• McCain looks just like himself.
• Unfortunately, you didn’t take it far enough. As someone else points out the satire here is not far from the actual (Cindy had a drug problem & John is old). Now if you had portrayed them a jack-booted Nazis perhaps you could have approached the offensiveness of the New Yorker.

These people never cease to live down to their standards.

Given all the mainstream media outrage over the New Yorker cover wouldn’t anyone think that there would be similar outrages over the repetitive attacks against John McCain using the stereotypical ageist depictions that have become commonplace for the left? AARP? Anyone?

Nope, the AARP is too busy feeding into liberal narratives about John McCain’s lack of internet usage and the mainstream media apparently could care less, choosing instead to reserve their outrage in defense of Barack Obama.

The editorial winds up for several paragraphs before delivering this closer:

Yet Mr. Obama’s account of his strategic vision remains eccentric. He insists that Afghanistan is “the central front” for the United States, along with the border areas of Pakistan. But there are no known al-Qaeda bases in Afghanistan, and any additional U.S. forces sent there would not be able to operate in the Pakistani territories where Osama bin Laden is headquartered. While the United States has an interest in preventing the resurgence of the Afghan Taliban, the country’s strategic importance pales beside that of Iraq, which lies at the geopolitical center of the Middle East and contains some of the world’s largest oil reserves. If Mr. Obama’s antiwar stance has blinded him to those realities, that could prove far more debilitating to him as president than any particular timetable.

Other than choosing the word “eccentric” when so many other words would have worked better (thick-headed, flabbergasting, laughable, cro-zo), that pretty much nails it. You have in Obama a candidate who is clueless regarding the threats we face and the best means to face them, who wants so much to not be Bush that he refuses to acknowledge reality.

I for one would rather have a president who makes the mistake of calling out a fool all by himself instead of assigning the task to a surrogate, than one who tramples over Pakistan - a nuclear-armed nation that’s just barely holding of an Islamist uprising - to hunt for Osama bin Laden, who has done nothing more threatening than issuing tapes lately.

You can read the rest of Laer’s post here.

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Anyway, the gist: Europeans really really want Obama to be the next U.S. president, just as they wanted John Kerry to be the current president. The Daily Telegraph’s poll last May showing Europe’s overwhelming preference for Obama — findings repeated today by Gallup — are everywhere in the coverage of Tour Obama 2008. Seven of every ten Italians, two-thirds of all French and Germans, and half of Britons sober enough to be able to respond to a poll question would vote for Obama to be president of the U.S.A. if they could.

However, if you asked the French, the Germans, the British and the Italians if they’d vote for a black candidate to govern their own countries, the results would be different, even if the candidate were the black JFK du jour. Those million Germans in Berlin will all be long gone before a man or woman of African descent becomes chancellor, prime minister or president of any European country. The French had a hard enough time voting for a chap of Hungarian descent; the odds of them voting for a “rat” — as they quaintly call their North African immigrants — are impossibly long.

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Second Bulldozer Terror Attack in Jerusalem, Yards from Hotel Where Obama is to Stay:

Obama to Visit Israel:

(Image via Sky News)

More than 16 Israelis were wounded, including children and an infant, after a terrorist deliberately plowed a bulldozer into vehicles, including a passenger bus, today (July 22) hours before presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama was scheduled to arrive in Israel.[1]

The attack took place just yards from the hotel where Sen. Obama is due to stay in Jerusalem.
It was an apparent copycat attack of the July 2 incident when when an East Jerusalem Palestinian man went on a rampage in downtown Jerusalem in a bulldozer, using the vehicle to crush cars and two buses. The man, Hossam Dawiath, 31, was killed after an off-duty Israel Defense Forces soldier climbed into the tractor and killed him in the midst of the attack.

Recent Terrorist Attacks in Jerusalem

June 2: Three Israelis were killed and 46 others were injured by an East Jerusalem Palestinian man who deliberately plowed his tractor into a crowd of pedestrians and overturned two busses in downtown Jerusalem.[2]

March 6: Eight students were killed and several wounded when an East Jerusalem Palestinian terrorist infiltrated a religious school in Jerusalem and opened fire throughout the complex.[3]

Footnotes

[1] Haaretz Service and News Agencies, “Bulldozer driver goes on rampage in Jerusalem, apparent copycat of recent deadly attack,” Haaretz, July 22, 2008, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1004437.html

[2] Hadi, Jonny, “Bulldozer driver shot dead after going on rampage in capital,” The Jerusalem Post, July 2, 2008, http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1214726186987&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

[3] Lis, Jonathan; Ettinger, Yair; and Harel, Amos, “Eight killed in terrorist attack at Jerusalem yeshiva,”Haaretz, March 6, 2008, http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/961696.html

Maybe not all Middle Easterners like Omama. Barack Obama continues on this hasty trek through the Middle East … as Der Speigel puts it “hunting for votes in the Holy Land.”

Barack Obama’s visit to Israel on Wednesday will be filled with Kodak moments at the Weaping Wall and hundreds of reporters will meticulously detail his every gesture. Most of all, though, it will be a show for US voters. [snip]

Jerusalem will be dark when Barack Obama arrives in the city that has already brought him so much trouble. He will touch down in a helicopter at around 11 p.m. on Tuesday night and reside in the King David Hotel. [snip]

Obama will spend just 36 hours in Israel, the last stop on his Middle East tour before he heads to Europe. … Maybe Obama would have been better advised to pencil in a little more time for the Holy Land. … … Even though only four percent of Americans eligible to vote are of the Jewish faith, their vote has disproportionately large weight because Jewish Americans spend above-average amounts on campaign donations and pro-Israeli lobbies wield strong influence in Washington. [snip]

A majority of Jewish voters in America traditionally vote for the Democratic Party. But Obama has suffered from a credibility problem with them ever since his “Jerusalem faux pas”.

Obama is under the microscope on this trip, but when the majority of the media is in your back pocket, he may not be too worried:

Tomorrow, Barack Obama will step off his plane into Israel and under a microscope. While he is there, American voters - Jews, Evangelical Christians and others - who factor a presidential candidate’s policies toward Israel into their electoral choice, will watch Obama’s every step and listen to his every word very, very closely.

In Jordan: Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama is vowing to work for a breakthrough in Israel-Palestinian peace negotiations starting from the minute he’s sworn into office. King Abdullah flew back early from a visit to the United States to meet with Obama.

Obama is trying to make people believe that there has been some kind of ‘convergence‘ of the White House, Military, and Iraqi leaders strategy … with Obama’s own strategy.

Obama elegantly avoided an open boast when asked if he thought things were coming his way.

“Well, you know, it is not just a matter of coming my way. There is a reality there that has to be addressed.

“And if you clear the underbrush of ideology and people having different positions, and arguing from different perspectives, at some point, you have to land on reality in order to make sure that the American people are safe.”

WHAT???

* * * *

This article is posted at Real Clear Politics, votes always appreciated.

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American presidential candidate John McCain told Israel’s Channel 2 News station that stiffer sanctions might stop Iran’s threats against Israel. In the interview broadcast Monday, the Republican candidate said that in any event, the US would not allow Iran to try to destroy Israel.

Asked about Israel feeling the need to attack Iran, McCain replied, “I would hope that would never happen. I would hope that Israel would not feel that threatened.” He added that the US and Europe could impose “significant, very painful sanctions on Iran which I think could modify their behavior.”

“But I have to look you in the eye and tell you that the United States of America can never allow a second Holocaust,” he affirmed. (Emphasis mine.)

Read the rest here.

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