Close window | View original article
A devout man was once trapped in a flood on the roof of his house. He prayed that God would save him from the raging waters.
Another man came by in a boat and offered to rescue the praying man. "No thanks!" he responded. "I'm praying for God to save me!"
The waters rose higher, and now a helicopter came by with a rope. The man gave the same answer: "I'm praying for God to save me!"
Finally, the flood destroyed the house, dragging the man under to his death. Upon arrival in Heaven, he protested to God, "I prayed for you to save me! I had faith! Where were you?"
"You idiot!" God replied. "I sent the boat. I sent the helicopter! What were you waiting for? An engraved invitation?"
We can't help but recall this old chestnut upon watching the McCain campaign. Recall for a moment that the current Republican president has the lowest approval ratings in history; that the Republicans in Congress took a complete bath last election, surrounded by a cloud of scandal, pork-barrel politics, and general filth; that, if polls are to be believed, the coming Republican defeats will make 2006 pale in comparison; and that double-digit percentages of core Republican voters find John McCain to be completely unsatisfactory.
One would think that he would be reaching out for any suitable weapon with which to beat his opponent. After all, coming from behind is what John McCain does best.
One would be wrong. As luck would have it, McCain has been presented, on a gilded platter, with not one, not two, but three sturdy, heavy, knouted cudgels made to order for defenestrating Barack Obama. These are issues with which the overwhelming majority of American voters are totally opposed to the Democratic stance; which would energize not only the Republican conservative base, but appeal to many centrists; and which might even create some hope for Republicans in Congress.
McCain has only to pick them up, run with them, and start swinging. Yet, for some reason, he doesn't.
As Adam Smith pointed out long ago, the price for any commodity is set by its supply and its demand. Thanks to the tremendous economic progress of India and China, millions have been raised from poverty. By definition, that means they want, and can buy, more stuff. Getting stuff takes energy; petroleum is the source of energy that fuels the modern world.
So with the better life now available where it wasn't previously, global demand for petroleum is going through the roof. Yet the supply is not increasing. The huge jumps in price are merely a reflection of that fact.
If we had no way to get more oil, hand-wringing might be the only choice. But that's not the case at all. America has tremendous oil reserves - in fact, the Rand Corporation calculates that American oil shale in the state of Colorado alone contains more than three times the amount of oil in all Saudi Arabia.
Then there's the frozen tundra of ANWR, under which lies more oil than is currently being produced from any state in the lower 48 - take that, Texas! Last, there's the oil reserves offshore of California and Florida which we are too squeamish to tap, but the Chinese and Cubans are only too happy to.
For forty years, environmentalists and anti-development crusaders have stopped us from tapping our own reserves. When gas was cheap, this policy was defensible - if we buy it elsewhere, then when they run out, we'll still have ours. But with gas prices having doubled in the last year, and tripled in the last couple years, it should be no surprise that overwhelming majorities of Americans want the restrictions removed and drilling to start forthwith. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has collected nearly a million signatures on a petition to Congress to do just that.
Yet McCain's response has been, at best, half-hearted. Obama is 100% opposed to any new drilling - he even said his only problem with the rise in prices was been how fast they went up.
All America should be screaming in fury at such an arrogant, elitist statement, and they would be if McCain would only bring it to their attention - but the best he can come up with is saying he's in favor of offshore drilling.
Great. That's a start. What about ANWR? What about oil shale? Most of all, what about pointing out just who is always getting in the way of us getting our own oil? Hint: it's the party you're supposed to be running against, John.
Why so shy about calling them out for it? Alas, McCain, like Obama, is held captive to the fraud of global warming; he supported the recent attempt to double energy costs via the multi-trillion-dollar "cap-and-trade" tax increase.
Five years ago, all America was united in hatred for Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda - at least, so it seemed. The kind of demented psychopaths who would sacrifice their own lives to send 3000 innocent victims to a fiery doom deserve nothing more than a bullet between the eyes.
But no: against the entire past history of this nation and every other, our Supreme Court has decided that terrorists captured on the field of battle are entitled to the same habeas corpus hearing which is the privilege of the American citizen - a privilege, it must be said, which is not extended to arrested American soldiers.
We are not discussing American citizens who are suspected of terrorism; we're not even talking about actions by foreigners in the United States. This decision relates to citizens of foreign nations, involved in acts of war against American forces in a field of battle on the other side of the world - yet suddenly, they are entitled to a hearing in an American court to determine whether their detention is authorized. Madness!
Once again, Barack Obama has gifted McCain with a tremendous weapon. The Washington Times reports:
Barack Obama's foreign policy advisers said Tuesday that Osama bin Laden, if captured, should be allowed to appeal his case to U.S. civilian courts.
Say what? Obama seriously thinks that, when we finally drag Osama out of his cave, there needs to be a cop there to read him his rights, and then we must fly him back to the US to put him before a judge?
Constitutional rights are the foundation of our freedoms; key word, our. If you are not an American, you are not automatically entitled to them even if you're here in the U.S., much less if you're waging war against us on foreign soil.
Most Americans know this is absurd. And John McCain has said he disagrees with the court - in fact, one of his most memorable lines during the primary was where he swore to pursue Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell. Well, that's excellent, and we're glad to hear it.
Now it's time to start smacking Obama, the five liberal judges, the Democrats who put (most of) them there, and the Democratic party who would appoint more judges just like them to the Court. The trouble is, McCain actually agrees with the liberal jurists on many issues, such as the (il)legality of Guantanamo and the constitutionality of campaign-finance-reform restrictions on free speech. The sort of judges who would recognize that Osama bin Laden has no right to a day in an ordinary American civilian court, would also be the sort who would find Guantanamo perfectly legal and the McCain-Feingold campaign-finance restrictions anything but.
If there's one thing John McCain stands for, it's love of country. He has proven his patriotism a thousand times over through his suffering under Vietnamese torture. There could not be a starker contrast with Barack Obama, beginning with the closest person to him: his wife Michelle famously said she had never been proud of her country prior to Obama's presidential campaign. This pattern extends all down through Obama's friends and colleagues.
In the unlikely event that John McCain ever found himself sitting in the audience of a speaker who called on God to damn America, there's no doubt the Senator would stand up, shout with rage, and stalk to the nearest exit; Barack Obama chose instead to be a member of that church for two decades.
If John McCain ever found himself in the room with a man who bombed the Pentagon, American police stations, and other targets in the United States, there'd be an urgent need for an ambulance and a plastic surgeon; instead, Obama happily accepted the political support of William Ayers, just such a terrorist, and served contentedly on charity boards with him. The difference could hardly be greater.
Yet, where are John McCain's attacks on Obama's anti-American friends? Has he forgotten that "You know a man by the company he keeps"? If Barack Obama loves his country, why does he have so many pals that hate it?
Yes, it's true that large portions of the American left feel just the same way, so much so that they see the need to redefine the very meaning of "patriotism." That doesn't make it right. And it doesn't make most Americans feel the same way.
Show America the true nature of an Obama presidency, and we won't have to have one. Isn't that what McCain wants? Then, why doesn't he? Not only won't he hammer on Obama's dark connections, he's chewed out other Republicans who do.
For some time now, Sen. McCain has been the luckiest man in American politics. This time last year, who would have ever dreamed that a) he would be the Republican nominee, and b) he would be all but tied with the Democrat?
But fighting against the combined weight of Republican incompetence, Obamessiah rhetoric, and the media's overwhelming desire to put a Marxist in office is not going to be the sort of battle that can be won by luck alone. It takes weapons, the more powerful the better. As a warrior, McCain should know that.
It's long looked like John McCain is all wet. If he doesn't take a good hard listen to the American people, he's going to end up under water. There's a lot of sympathy for the underdog in a fight, and McCain has made superb use of it; but when the fight is over, nobody cares about the loser.