Quick Hits

Since I have a big weekend ahead of me, I wanted to put together something to think about over the weekend. Enjoy!

- Barack Obama's trip overseas has made a splash with his followers and the media (who are pretty much in the former category), and made waves with others. But I keep flashing back to the point that Obama didn't go on this overseas jaunt until after John McCain did it and after McCain called him out on it. If Obama were the leader he and his followers said he was or will be as President, why the delay?

- Speaking of the Obama overseas tour, his speech in Germany has brought up two troubling ideas to me. First, Obama referred to himself as a "citizen of the world" while at the same time giving what appeared to be a campaign speech modified for the situation. This is troubling because it sounds like Obama is counting on world support to make him more popular at home, and undoubtedly it will in some circles. But remember Europe is known for being a haven for rabid anti-American Leftists. If you thought the Left was bad here, in Europe they're ten times worse. So, for them to have "Obamamania" tells me everything I need to know about them and about Obama.

- The other troubling idea is how easily conservatives in America have made the Obama-Hitler comparison. I'm of German heritage, so whenever anyone brings up Hitler it causes my ears to perk up. I don't like it when the Left compares Bush to Hitler, and I don't like it when the Right compares Obama to Hitler because the facts just aren't there to support the comparison. I can see where both sides are going with the comparisons, and it disgusts me that we're so willing to compare someone we don't like to a brutal dictator for purely political purposes. Hitler was Hitler and he will always be Hitler. Everyone else falls short of the sheer evil he was. Stop comparing politicians to him just because you don't like said politicians. It cheapens the process and what we sacrificed to bring Hitler down.

- Democrats and their Leftist allies love to portray John McCain as too old to be President. Some have even gone so far as to mock McCain's age. This may get high fives from the Leftists, but it's a major mistake because the old vote. Some older people have said they feel McCain is too old to be President, but so far we haven't heard too much from the bulk of the older voters. If the Left continues to mock McCain's age, it may not sit well with those voters and get them to go for McCain. And when you consider older people tend to vote in greater numbers and with greater consistency than younger people, this has the potential to blow up in the Left's face.

- Speaking of Leftists mocking McCain, have you noticed the lame names they've called him? McLame. McSame. McGeezer. McBush. McDull. For people who are supposed to be so much smarter than the rest of us, these names absolutely suck. Seems to me the real McLame ones are the ones who use "McLame."

- Phil Gramm has resigned from the McCain campaign after the flap over his recent comments about the "mental recession." McCain threw him under the bus because it made him look bad. But looking bad doesn't mean Gramm was wrong. Gramm's point was that so many people believe things are worse economically than they actually are, and he was exactly right. McCain admitted he didn't know too much about economics, and this move confirms it. If he did, he'd have supported Gramm and told the people who attacked Gramm to shove off.

- You know how the Left says "we can't drill our way out of the oil problem"? Minutes after George W. Bush announced he would lift the Executive Order banning offshore drilling, the price of oil dropped, and has been in freefall since. Hmm...maybe we can drill our way out of this problem after all...

- San Francisco has an initiative on the ballot to name a sewage treatment plant after George W. Bush. Again, the Left may be high-fiving themselves at their "wit," but such a move reflects how badly they've taken George W. Bush surviving their best attempts to undercut him. Since they can't impeach him (due to the pesky lack of any impeachable offenses), they'll demean him. And Bush will simply ignore them like he usually does, thus accomplishing nothing. In other words, San Francisco has accomplished exactly what it normally does when it tries to mock Bush and the Right.

And finally...

- Usually during the last year or two of a President's second term, he's called a "lame duck," meaning he really can't shape too much policy or do very much due to the dwindling amount of time he has left in the office. Democrats thought Bush would be a lame duck President after the 2006 midterm elections since his party no longer controlled Congress. As it turns out, Bush has been more engaged in setting policy this year than his Congressional counterparts. I've said it before, but it bears repeating. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid have given us the very first Lame Duck Congress.

Enjoy the weekend, kids!