Conservative Pulse

There is this almost universal feeling of despair among Republicans that I’ve talked to lately. That they’ve basically accepted the polls and given up on the idea of a McCain victory in two weeks. Obama is too far ahead, he has too much money, and the media is all stacked firmly in his corner.

But it’s important to NEVER count out McCain. He is one of the worst frontrunners in recent political memory, but he’s also the best underdog since Harry Truman.

McCain’s real instincts and his “fight” don’t kick in until he’s in a bottom of the ninth inning situation. McCain thrives on this kind of stuff. He lives for the comeback.

That’s where we’re at now. Less than two weeks to go and many polls predicting an Obama landslide. The Democrats are outspending Republicans by gigantic margins. And while Congress is pretty much a lost cause, the Presidency is not. It’s the political equal of needing a game winning touchdown from 80 yards out and having only 27 seconds and one time-out remaining.

John McCain has the ball.

He doesn’t always win - but this is usually the time when he does his best work. He came from nowhere to trounce George W. Bush in New Hampshire back in 2000. After suffering a defeat in South Carolina, he came back to victory in Michigan and made it a race. But 2000 wasn’t to be his year.

So he waited and started out 2007 as the overwhelming frontrunner, only to see his campaign implode and his poll numbers sink below Ron Paul’s in some states. But when everyone in the media gave up and counted him for dead, McCain got to work.

And here we are one year later.

I’m not predicting a McCain victory by any means. But I am saying that it is foolishness to give up on him just because he’s a few points behind in some poll.

This race is far from over.

In this video clip, former Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell addresses the closing session of the ‘Defending the American Dream’ Summit in Washington, DC.

Blackwell and former Senator Rick Santorum both spoke at this final event of the summit…

The most recent RCP average shows Barack Obama ahead of McCain by around 7% in the last month heading up to the election.  These last few weeks are very critical; historically, voters have already made up their minds.

Obama has leads in swing states such as Florida, Ohio and Nevada by about 2-4%.  Both candidates are tied in Missouri, which has traditionally been a reliable red state in the last two elections.

McCain needs to make up this gap - and quickly.  All that Obama has to do until November 4 is play it safe and avoid making any significant mistakes, and he’s the next President of the United States.  McCain must switch gears and do something different in the next week or so, and he must do well in the next debate on October 15.  Another “draw” just isn’t going to cut it.  Unfortunately, the next debate focuses on domestic policy - and Obama is aptly situated to use the recent economic panic to his advantage. (more…)

The ACORN voter registration scandal has been getting at least some mainstream media attention, but I think there’s actually much more to this story. The Obama campaign’s ties to this group and its leaders needs to be fully explored and understood.

Of course Democrats and Obama staffers are rushing to pour water all over this. There’s no connection, no ties, nothing at all. Heck, if you listened to them you’d swear Obama had never even heard of the group. See Brad Woodhouse of the DNC on Fox News as a prime example…

SULLIVAN: Yes, but you’re hitting on the mortgage angle. What about Senator Obama’s relationship with the Woods Foundation and ACORN?

WOODHOUSE: Well, let me just say this — I mean, Senator Obama has never been an employee of ACORN, never done any training for ACORN. At one point in his career, he and a bunch of lawyers represented a bunch of groups including ACORN who had a lawsuit against Governor Edgar in Illinois and they wanted to enforce the Motor-Voter Law.

So, I mean — look, this is — there’s no relationship here.

Oh really? Is that so?

This is, of course, all very amusing. It’s getting hard to keep track of all the lowly characters whom Barack Obama claims to have “no relationship” with.

If an when this story really unfolds itself, I suspect we could see a major backlash against Obama. This kind of dirty, underhanded Chicago politics doesn’t sit well with most Americans. Now if only the McCain campaign would turn up the heat on this issue.

Video game designer Richard Garriott has paid $35 million (the majority of his money, he says) to be the next space tourist, launching on a Russian Soyuz capsule in only a couple of hours along with American Mike Fincke and Russian Yuri Lonchakov, each of whom will spend six months in space.  Garriott, the son of former astronaut Owen Garriott, will be the first American child of any US astronaut to travel into space.  He will go on Soyuz capsule TMA-13, dock with the Zarya module, and return on TMA-12.  Here’s a detailed breakdown of the mission (click for more information)…

Expedition 18 commander Mike Fincke, flight engineer Yury Lonchakov and Richard Garriott, a computer game designer and son of former shuttle astronaut Owen Garriott, are scheduled for liftoff at 3:01:29 a.m. EDT Sunday from the same pad used by Yuri Gagarin. If all goes well, Lonchakov will guide the Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft to a docking at the downward port of the central Russian Zarya module around 4:30 a.m. Tuesday.

The mission will last 10 days, and Garriott will return on October 24.  While on board the ISS, he will work on a project called Windows on Earth, which involves a camera that observers on the ground can determine optimum locations on the globe for photography.

Here is a little video clip of the Bloggers Room they put us up in at the summit this weekend. This is where I’ve been writing the majority of my posts from and it’s the only place I’m getting decent wi-fi access. AFP has done a great job of making bloggers feel at home with this event and I hope we’re doing our part to get the word out about this very useful conservative organization.

Former Republican Senator Rick Santorum addressed the closing session of the ‘Defending the American Dream’ summit put on by Americans for Prosperity. The focus of his short address to the assembled group was that conservatives should engaged in a fight for America’s culture.

Liberal documentaries rake in big bucks at the movies while conservatives opt to just stay home or tune out Hollywood entirely. Santorum encouraged everyone in the room to go out and see the new film, An American Carol. He stressed that liberals are successfully dominating American culture only because conservatives are choosing not to contest the battle.

Unfortunately, as there were a couple of open bars in the room and everyone was tired and unwinding, the crowd was quite loud. But I did manage to catch most of his speech on video and I will attempt to post that when I return home.

As the media has been all too happy to report lately, a few people at McCain rallies have been exhibiting nasty characteristics - calling Obama all manner of names, which aren’t necessarily supported by reality.

All week, supporters of the GOP ticket have yelled ugly accusations about Obama as McCain and running mate Gov. Sarah Palin proceeded down a path where Obama was painted as someone sinister.

“Treason!” “Terrorist!” “Kill him!” audience members yelled when McCain or Palin invoked Obama’s name.

Interestingly, concerns about how “old” and “likely to die” McCain is, or Palin’s pronouns and rural Alaskan upbringing have been taken seriously - even though they are also equally ridiculous.  Obama is not guilty of treason, McCain is not about to die, and Palin is not going to force us all to go moose hunting - although a moose hunt with Sarah Palin sounds like an awesome lot of fun.

The below video is not from a McCain sympathizer, but it does illustrate my point. Also, thanks to one our resident liberals Mark for posting this in an earlier comments section…

This crazy anti-Obama yelling does not help McCain at all, and could well be a serious problem in the last few weeks.  It may well turn off the few people who may still be undecided, and at this stage, Republicans need every available vote.  Even though it’s caused by an incredibly small minority  - 1 in 1,000 or less - that’s all it takes to crash a campaign.

Worse yet, it threatens to negatively charge a situation that has thankfully been very peaceful so far.  Both McCain and Obama have done an excellent job of keeping the focus away from the concept of race, an idea that seems to bizarrely inspire people to impassioned action.  Regardless of who wins, Election/Post-Election/Inauguration Day violence is something that we want to avoid. People need to not say stupid things in front of TV cameras, and the media needs to abandon their ridiculous paranoia that McCain is going to turn into a brontosaurus and blow away in the wind.

Austin has sent back some pictures from the summit in Washington, D.C., despite the extremely spotty internet service.  This is like getting pictures back from a Mars lander…I had no idea what it looked like until now.  Actually it’s just hotel meeting rooms, of course.

By the way, Americans for Prosperity has been extraordinary at getting bloggers to this conference.  They gave $1000 scholarships to people who wanted to attend - which included airfare and hotel expenses.  That type of generosity is a great way to drum up visibility, and other groups should follow suit.

A big sign…

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The ballroom used for last night’s dinner has been converted into what looks like a political party convention floor. Tables with signs that indicate each state’s delegation. It makes one wonder if this organization exists to lay the framework for some future ‘Prosperity Party’ or other more directly electoral evolution.

They’ve got a live feed going into Blogger’s Row, so I am able to actually write while watching each speaker. I’ve asked several folks in here if this is being filmed for C-SPAN or any other broadcast… but no one seems sure.

Once again, the music is top notch and gets the crowd fired up. An AFP board member is introduced with the theme to Jurassic Park. Creed’s “My Sacrifice” blares as Mayor Steve Lonegan from New Jersey makes his way to the stage. He exits to Bon Jovi’s “It’s My Life” and then Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” is used to transition into yet another very slick video.

Fred Barnes, the Executive Editor of the Weekly Standard, opens up his speech with the pronouncement that “the election is not over.” He continued to speak very highly of Sarah Palin. But, he cautioned, Americans must prepare for the worst. Liberal majorities in the House and Senate and a liberal Democratic President are a very real possibility.

Virginia’s Attorney General Bob McDonnell enters to the theme from the Rocky films. He delivered an energetic speech and then made his way into Bloggers Row to shake hands and work the room. Very nice of him to make the effort and it was clearly appreciated by the folks in here.

I’m still amazed by the soundtrack to this event. Black Eyed Peas “Let’s Get it Started” is typical, along with songs from Ac/DC, the Star Wars soundtrack, and several late 90’s pop-rock acts.

The wi-fi network in here seems to have been pushed to its breaking point once again. An entire post that I’d written was lost when I attempted to publish it just as the network crashed.

Stephen Moore of the Wall Street Journal was next to speak. He’s co-authored a book called “The End of Prosperity?” which he’s currently promoting. Apparently, part of that book tour took him to California to film a taping of HBO’s “Real Time” — where he was surrounded by a panel and audience of flaming liberals.

David Koch and Tim Phillips then listened at the podium as each state’s delegation chair stood to deliver a short status report of their chapter’s current activities. This reminds me a great deal of a roll call Presidential ballot from a political party convention. Once again, it makes me wonder what the eventual evolution of this group will look like. For right now, though, it seems pretty clear that most of the speakers and attendees are supporting John McCain. I’ve met a few folks who say they are voting for Barr, but usually with the added claim that they’re in a safe state or might change their mind if the election looks really close.

This is a conservative group. The mere mention of Barney Frank and Harry Reid have caused loud booing and hissing from the audience, while Nancy Pelosi’s name generated a wave of groans. The words “Barack Obama” cause laughter and eyerolling to sweep the room.

I’m pretty sure that there are no Democrats here.

A man with a pig hat on his head (the pig’s eyes blinked) just screamed that “pork is for eating, not for spending!” I guess every event like this needs a few colorful characters.

At the dinner last night we had a man who was shouting individual freedom slogans during the dinner’s speakers. I remarked to my friend seated next to me that only a Libertarian would heckle a quasi-Libertarian event.