Obama’s speech was good on delivery, and poor on substance, like most Obama speeches. It conatined a number of phrases meant to energize his Leftist base, and thus it comes across as somewhat cruel, like many Obama speeches when you pay attention to the words.

His interview with Brian Williams mostly continued the theme. Obama generally avoided actually promising or saying anything, but implied that he supported all the beliefs (good and bad) that are fashionable among his current friends. (So there were no references that would please his old friends. They are no longer useful to him.)

Ultimately, Obama’s answer to one qustion made me happy. Brian Williams asked Obama what he would ask the American people to do differently. Bush has been largely criticized for not asking the American people to sacrifice after 9/11. Would Obama show political courage?

Happily, the answer is no. Even better, Obama said that we needed to change how we talk about foreign policy, which implies his vacuousness continues up to foreign policy.

This is great news. If Obama wants to create a new policy, he would need to begin telegraphing it. Otherwise, the populous will be unprepared for the hardships and annoyances ahead, and that would limit his effectiveness. Obama shows no interest in doing this.

Obama is the candidate of the Establishment, the sequel of Bush II, just more of the same on many issues.

If you want a third Bush term (except when it comes to cultural issues), Obama is a fine choice.

Imagethief : I am the guy that everybody in line hates, plus the decline of America’s airlines
Unfortunately, it took half an hour to process the transaction. The check-in agent tried twice to call her supervisor to check the upgrade price for Zachary (a lap baby), and neither time was her call answered. Yes, it’s not just you. United Airlines won’t even pick up the phone for their own employees. The agent had to go wandering across the concourse to find the answer (which, to my delight, was “free”).

This makes me feel better, both about how I’ve been treated, and how I always react to airline bankruptcy rules with Yes! Dissolve the sucker!

The difference between optimism and pessimism, is, I think, whether one takes the following line from the Communist Manifesto:

The bourgeoisie has disclosed how it came to pass that the brutal display of vigor in the Middle Ages, which reactionaries so much admire, found its fitting complement in the most slothful indolence. It has been the first to show what man’s activity can bring about. It has accomplished wonders far surpassing Egyptian pyramids, Roman aqueducts, and Gothic cathedrals; it has conducted expeditions that put in the shade all former exoduses of nations and crusades.

The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society. Conservation of the old modes of production in unaltered form, was, on the contrary, the first condition of existence for all earlier industrial classes. Constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones. All fixed, fast frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. All that is solid melts into air, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to face with sober senses his real condition of life and his relations with his kind

as glorious or not.

I don’t like places with too many people, so that Florida will pay for faster-than-sustainable growth with lower-than-otherwise growth does not concern me too much.

Every problem we now have, with the exception of the high cost of labor, will fade into nothingness.

The one remaining problem will only get worse.

Prices go up, prices go down.

The only real concern regarding energy prices is that they support crummy states like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Venezuela, and Russia. The less market-oriented countries need to import oil, the less oil-rich countries can avoid market discipline by selling what they fond under their feet.

As the auto production market adjusts to high prices, the long-term shift away from oil begins. Concepts like Ethanol Hybrid Electrics and other mindbending combinations approach the market, making peak oil a mute, meaningless and irrelevent concept.

The Weekly Standard
“Um, let me be absolutely clear. Israel is a strong friend of Israel’s.”

is another far more serious one, where Obama may or may not support an Undivided Jerusalem. Whatever his ultimate position, he certainly didn’t know what those words meant when he said them.

Obama’s inability to speak English (as opposed to read or memorize speeches) may help him in domestic politics. Bush’s certainly has: where a misstatement by Gore would immediately be assumed to be a lie, a misstatement by Bush was just another example of the “legacy kid” screwing up. So I’m not surprised when the “affirmative action kid” screws up. Both are below-average in terms of abilities or experiences of our recent Presidents, and both were given their party’s nomination because of a politically correct heritage.

Still, many of my liberal friends have pointed out that George Bush’s mishandling of the English language hurt our ability to transmit our messages to others in the world. Obama’s mishandling of English will do similar damage.

Indian government wins confidence vote
The Indo-American Nuclear Pact will not only allow nuclear technology to be shared among the two greatest democracies in the world: it also essentially recognizes India as a genuine nuclear power. The left in both countries oppose this… in India because their Left is anti-American, in America because our Left is anti-Bush. Fortunately, India’s government passed a confidence motion, which clears the way for New Dehli ratifying the agreement. Now as long as America’s Congress agrees, it is smooth sailing.

China and Russia’s Geographic Divide
Historically, Russia has been a west-Asian state with only marginal influence on European affairs. When Peter I and other Russian autocrats changed this, Europe began suffering from an infusion of Russian ideals, customs, and habits. Fortunately, the Russian state only exists as long as it has wealth to leach off of, and naturally runs itself down. Traditioanlyl Russia would reinvigorate itself through aggressive wars, though nuclear weapons appear to prevent this from happening against. Thus, Russia slowly falls back into its old role as a west-Asian state, a supplier for Chinese needs with as much freedom of movement as, say, Kazakhstan.

The Rise of India and China, along with the decline of Russia, may be the greatest story of the late 20th and early 21st century. And it’s a very happy story.

How long did it take Obama to ask his first question?

See for yourself:

Today Obama is quite proud of his ability not to listen to the commanders on the ground.

So how many minutes went by on September 2007 before Obama bothered to ask General Petraeus about the Surge?

Obama is doing the same thing.

Obama is terrified of the press. He won’t take questions from foreign reporters. And when he’s in a serious situation, he doesn’t take questions from anyone.

This is not surprising. He is not elequent except when he reads from a script. Like Bush II, Obama has problems with the English language. He long ago failed the Quayle Test, and he regularly makes absurd and false statements that are only explained by the unreliability in which he manufacturs England-language sentences.

Many people have been aggravated by Bush II’s (George W.)’s inability to communicate a coherent message. Bush III (Barack H.) shares this same problem. Whether it is because of a real linguistic deficiency or is affected, this is dangerous for the country.

EDITORS’ NOTE: The New York Times wouldn’t print this oped from the GOP candidate.

As many readers of this blog know, the New York Times published an opinion-editorial piece by Barack Obama. When John McCain attempted to publish a reply piece, the Times refused. This is to be expected. As far as domestic policies proceed, the Times is as ideological and partisan as, say the Daily Kos of the Huffington Post. There’s no reason to think the Times is interested in anything other than pushing their own agenda.

Fortunately, the New York Post stepped in. Now that the editorial is published, and a second reason for the Times rejecting it is obvious: it includes a devastating attack against Barack Obama that is difficult to refute. McCain has finally called Obama on running for Bush’s third term:

GETTING IRAQ RIGHT - New York Post
During the course of eight visits to Iraq, I’ve heard many times from our troops what Major Gen. Jeffrey Hammond (commander of Coalition forces in Baghdad) recently said: Leaving based on a timetable would be “very dangerous.”

The danger is that extremists supported by al Qaeda and Iran could stage a comeback, as they have in the past when we’ve had too few troops in Iraq.

Sen. Obama seems to have learned nothing from recent history. Indeed, he’s emulating the worst mistake of the Bush administration by waving the “Mission Accomplished” banner prematurely.

I’m dismayed that he never talks about winning the war - only of ending it. But if we don’t win the war, our enemies will - and a triumph for the terrorists would be a disaster for us.

Obama is repeating the “Mission Accomplished” debacle, assuring us that because kinetics are now down, we can leave. Bush III has not learned this lesson from Bush II.

There is a saying, those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it.

But the intellectually incurious are condemned to repeat what happened five years ago.

That spells trouble and blood for an Obama administration.

The Weekly Standard
Obama is also shunning the foreign press, according to Christoph von Marschall, Washington bureau chief for Berlin’s Der Tagesspiegel. LGF’s Charles Johnson says that Obama’s “staff is desperately worried that the candidate will make a gaffe, as soon as he ventures into uncharted territory. Foreign reporters tend to ask questions about…you know…foreign stuff.” And Protein Wisdom’s Karl adds, “Mr. von Marschall should not be surprised, inasmuch as hubris and control-freakishness are increasingly hallmarks of the Obama campaign.”

And on Sunday we learned that it might be to Obama’s advantage to avoid the press. Face the Nation aired Lara Logan’s interview with the candidate, in which he said that “the objective of this trip was to have substantive discussions with people like President Karzai or Prime Minister Maliki or President Sarkozy or others who I expect to be dealing with over the next eight to 10 years.” (Video at Hot Air.)

Of course, Obama’s inability to speak English doesn’t mean he’s relatively unintelligent for a national-level professional. There’s plenty of other evidence for that, already.