"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."

William Shakespeare may have been prescient with this line from Dick the butcher in "Henry the Sixth"!

From todays "Best of the Web Today", WSJ:

"Party of Lawyers

Barack Obama and Joe Biden are both lawyers. Neither John McCain nor Sarah Palin is a lawyer. Kedwards were both lawyers too, whereas neither George W. Bush nor Dick Cheney is one.

Eugene Volokh, a lawyer, extends the pattern further: Of 12 Democratic presidential and vice presidential nominees since 1980, all but two (Jimmy Carter and Al Gore) were lawyers. Of the nine Republican nominees in the same period, all but two (Dan Quayle and Bob Dole) were nonlawyers.

The Republicans, that is, have not had a lawyer on the ticket since 1996. The Democrats have had two lawyers on each ticket since 2000. The last Republican ticket with two lawyers was Ford-Dole in 1976; the last Democratic ticket without a lawyer was Johnson-Humphrey in 1968.
Do lawyers make good presidents? They can: Abe Lincoln was one. But recent experience is not so encouraging. The last lawyer to be president, Bill Clinton, was impeached. And the last all-lawyer ticket to be elected? That would be Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew. Both resigned in disgrace."

I am only kidding, of course, as I am sure Shakespeare was. But perhaps a few less of them in our Government?

"The Great Unmasking" of the Left

Peter Wehner writes an interesting column in Commentary discussing the MSM and the Left over the past two weeks. His unltimate paragraph is a superb summary:

"One other observation: The ferocious response Sarah Palin's nomination has provoked among the political class is turning this election into one based on a cultural narrative rather than an economic debate. The dripping condescension that some of Palin's critics are demonstrating toward her is boomeranging. She is becoming a heroine to many Republicans, who are as energized as I can remember in defense of Palin. And in attacking Palin, many Democrats and liberal commentators are mocking her faith, worldview, and life experiences. In that sense, a great unmasking is taking place. A wide swath of liberals are revealing their arrogance, their cultural elitism, and even their ugliness. It may be therapeutic. And it may also cost them the election." (my emphasis)

I worry about Frank Rich!

I do not read him often, but todays column here in the NYT is an illustration of an unbalanced lefty conspiritorial theorist!

One factoid for Mr. Rich: he is concerned because only 1.5% of the Republican Convention attendees were black. Let's look at that, for he is either ignorant or spinning:

• Last I heard 90%+ of blacks were backing Obama. Our country is 12% black. This means Republicans have 1.2% of the population to draw from. The drew 1.5% which is better than expected.

Is this too difficult for him? I suspect he is in a spinning mode hoping to salvage something from the obvious mistake the Democrats made.

"There is a yawning gulf between what the Democratic candidate says and how he has acted. That's why the race is so close."

Gerard Baker, The London Times Washington correspondent and keen neutral observer of our politics, has a most interesting column in the Times explaining the misconceptions of the British regarding our Presidential/Vice-Presidential candidates and his analysis of why the race is so close.

His critique of Obama is quite accurate and I believe all his supporters should take heed of Mr. Baker's comments on the disconnect between his talk and historic actions.

The following paragraph is the finest summary of the Democrats true goals I have read:

"One is a simple political-cultural one. This election is a struggle between the followers of American exceptionalism and the supporters of global universalism. Democrats are more eager than ever to align the US with the rest of the Western world, especially Europe. This is true not just in terms of a commitment to multilateral diplomacy that would restore the United Nations to its rightful place as arbiter of international justice. It is also reflected in the type of place they'd like America to be - a country with higher taxes, more business regulation, a much larger welfare safety net and universal health insurance. The Republicans, who still believe America should follow the beat of its own drum, are pretty much against all of that."

American exceptionalism. How can we throw that aside?

An important analysis to read and ponder.

RIGHTWINGSPARKLE gives us an interesting analysis of the Obama reaction to Palin

I think she has hit the nail on the head! We as a society must resolve the abortion issue or these problems will not end.

http://rightwingsparkle.blogspot.com/2008/09/pink-elephant-in-room.html

Reaction?

What is he thinking???

Is Obama's campaign really stupid enough to assume this and Gordon Brown - the British Prime Minister who supported Obama in a British magazine article - will help him? If I had any interest in him at all, this certainly would have ended it; and I would bet this information is stampeding thinking Americans away from him at a pace the polls will have difficulty tracking!

"Obama Passes the Global Test

The Republican Convention and the debut of Sarah Palin might have given John McCain a "bounce" in the polls, but the BBC notes a severe weakness in the GOP nominee's support:

People outside the US would prefer Barack Obama to become US president ahead of John McCain, a BBC World Service poll suggests.

Democrat Mr Obama was favoured by a four-to-one margin across the 22,500 people polled in 22 countries.

Here's a complete list of the countries included in the poll, along with the number of electoral votes in each:
• Australia (0)
• Brazil (0)
• Canada (0)
• China (0)
• Egypt (0)
• France (0)
• Germany (0)
• India (0)
• Indonesia (0)
• Italy (0)
• Kenya (0)
• Lebanon (0)
• Mexico (0)
• Nigeria (0)
• Panama (0)
• Philippines (0)
• Poland (0)
• Russia (0)
• Singapore (0)
• Turkey (0)
• United Arab Emirates (0)
• United Kingdom (0)

In case you don't get the picture, blogger Michael Asher has a map."

H/T: WSJ Best of the Web, 9/10/2008