Lynch Report

Some of Sarah Palin's remarks during her acceptance speech were pure stand-up comedy, and might even go down in political commentator's lore, like Lloyd Benson's comment to Dan Quayle during their debate...“I knew John Kennedy, John Kennedy was a friend of mine, and you Senator, are no John Kennedy”.


Her's may well be "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities."




The 'Community Organizer's' New Clothes

By JAMES TARANTO
September 4, 2008 Wall Street Journal

ST. PAUL, Minn.--"Community organizer" is to Barack Obama what "war hero" was to John Kerry.

To be sure, the analogy is imprecise. After all, Americans know what a war hero is, and the question in 2004 was whether Kerry really was one. It also was awkward for Republicans to address Kerry's war-hero claims directly, because on paper his military record was more impressive than that of President Bush, who only served stateside.

By contrast, it is a mystery exactly what a "community organizer" does, as wewrote Friday, after John McCain chose Alaska's Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate:

Obama spokesman Bill Burton quickly denounced McCain for proposing to put "the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency." This took a degree of chutzpah, since the Democrats have just spent four days touting Obama's experience as a "community organizer" as a central qualification to put him no heartbeats away. Even after listening to those speeches, we're still not sure what a "community organizer" is.

Are we supposed to cast our eyes on the slums of Chicago, behold how well organized they are, and exclaim in wonder, "Wow, Barack Obama didthat!"?

Unlike with Kerry, Republicans (who coincidentally have a real war hero atop the ticket this year) have no reason to hold back the mockery. And mock they did. Sarah Palin slammed Obama in the course of describing her days as mayor:

Before I became governor of the great state of Alaska, I was mayor of my hometown.

And since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves.

I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a "community organizer," except that you have actual responsibilities.

It's a good line, but it still doesn't explain what a "community organizer" does. Take away the "actual responsibilities" of a small-town mayor, and you have . . . nothing. Oh wait, that's her point, isn't it?  MORE

What Mrs. P Could Learn From Mrs. T

By BARBARA AMIEL
September 5, 2008  Wall Street Journal

The glummest face Wednesday night might have been, if only we could have seen it, that of Hillary Clinton.

Corbis

Margaret Thatcher was a 49-year-old mother of two when she became Conservative Party leader in 1974.

Imagine watching Sarah Palin, the gun-toting, lifelong member of the NRA, the PTA mom with teased hair and hips half the size of Hillary's, who went ... omigod ... to the University of Idaho and studied journalism. Mrs. Palin with her five kids and one of them still virtually suckling age, going wham through that cement ceiling put there exclusively for good-looking right-wing/populist conservative females by not-so-good-looking left-wing ones (Gloria Steinem excepting). There, pending some terrible goof or revelation, stood the woman most likely to get into the Oval Office as its official occupant rather than as an intern.............

Sarah Palin has put the flim-flam nature of America feminism sharply into focus, revealing the not-so-secret hypocrisy of its code and, whatever her future, this alone is an accomplishment. As she emerged into the nation's consciousness, a shudder went through the feminist left—a political movement not restricted to females. She is a mother refusing to stay at home (good) who had made a success out in the workplace (excellent) whose marriage nevertheless is a rip-roaring success and whose views are unspeakable—those of a red-blooded, right-wing principled pragmatist.

The metaphorical hair stood up on the back of every licensed member of the feminist movement who could immediately see she was a monster out of a nightmare landscape by Hieronymus Bosch. Pro-life. Pro-oil exploration in Alaska, home of the nation's polar bears for heaven's sake. Smaller government. Lower taxes. 

And that family of hers: Next to the Clintons with their dysfunctional marriage, her fertility and sexually robust life could only emphasize the shriveled nature of the one-child family of the former Queen Bee of political female accomplishments........MORE

It's too late at night to effectively comment about the following article pointing out the lack of Black's and Hispanic's in the Republican Party.  I do have some thoughts on this that'd I'd like to expound on, but the most significant element may be that the Republican ethos attracts people oriented to individual action and achievement, while the Democrat's attract those who are more comfortable with group, or block politics; unions, minorities (in previous times, Irish, Polish, Italian; now Blacks, and Hispanics).  There probably are many actions that can be taken to attract Black's and Hispanics, but if it means abandoning your principles, it would seem not worthwhile.

Republicans Falter in Outreach to Blacks, Hispanics

Few Minorities Serve as Delegates At GOP Convention

By JONATHAN KAUFMAN
September 5, 2008

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Blacks are scarce here at the Republican National Convention.

Of the more than 2,300 Republican delegates who gathered this week, just 36 -- or 1.5% -- were black, the lowest portion in 40 years, according to a study by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington think tank that focuses on black issues.

That is substantially below the figure in 2004, when a record-setting 6.8% of Republican delegates were black.

The number of black Republican candidates running for federal office also has fallen sharply, to about seven from a high of 24 in 1996, according to the study. On an organizational level, just one of the more than 160 members of the Republican National Committee is black, the joint center says.

Officials and delegates here said the figures seem accurate. The Republican National Committee said 13% of registered delegates have identified themselves as belonging to an ethnic minority group, which would include Asians, Hispanics and others, along with blacks. About 24% of the delegates to the Democratic convention last week were black, a record, according to the study. The Democrats have policies to ensure that their delegates reflect the "diversity" of the party, a Democratic representative said.

"It's embarrassing," said Michael Steele, a Republican who is the former lieutenant governor of Maryland and is African-American. "It's been a failure in strategy and a failure in communication. The party wasn't doing what it was supposed to do." ............

Getty Images

Delegation members at the Republican National Convention.

This year, no nationally prominent black Republican will speak at the Republican convention, though Mr. Williams and Mr. Steele spoke Wednesday night.

Republicans say their outreach was hurt by the Bush administration's bungled response to Hurricane Katrina three years ago, which angered many African-Americans.

Sen. McCain comes from a state with a small percentage of blacks and has no major advisers who are black. Some Republicans say the party is failing to reach out to blacks.

"I haven't heard from the party of Abraham Lincoln about urban economic issues, unemployment and housing, the state of African-American marriage," said Jack Kemp, a former Republican vice-presidential candidate and a longtime advocate of Republicans' reaching out to black voters. "We seem to be silent about these issues."  MORE....