After a week of election-related blogging, with fifteen days left to Nov 4, I’m changing topics for a while.

P.S. @ 2008-10-20 1058H: Oh but before I go. The big news of yesterday was Colin Powell’s endorsement of BHO. His timing, really, is quite belated. Were JSM or any other Republican to say, in reaction to the Powell endrosement, as simple and solemn “of course,” the media would merely jump on the imagined intimation that it’s “because there’s gonna be a brotha in the White House.”

Never mind that the job of a Secretary Of State is to be the chief diplomat of the sitting president and the diplomatic voice of his foreign policy. Never mind that his record will show that he willfully undermined GWB’s positions. Never mind that there is a reason why he hasn’t been SecState for the past eight years. There is a reason why he is knocking Republicans, and that is because at the time when he was expected to do his job and, yes, tout the adminstration line, he decided to speak out, not privately within the Oval Office where it’s supposed to be, but out in public. It is not unfair to intimate that as SecState he was a man of divided loyalties: to his office, and to himself, and the office of the POTUS and this is why his endorsement has to be met with nothing more than a cold, but passive disdain.

More commentary by: Michelle Malkin, Victor Davis Hanson, and Wizbang.

I take a short leave of poliblogging with a few thoughts: I think the most annoying meme right now is that having BHO for president will be “good for Republicans” or “good for Conservatives and/or Conservatism.” I think that is the biggest load of bullshit I will ever read online. Bigger bullshit than any campaign lie told by either candidate. Why is it that the ones who tout this the most are the ones we have now called Conservative “apostates?” (I hate using the term: apostasy relates to religious rejection and Conservatism is in no way a religious matter to me.)

If moving to the Left is good for Conservatism, then the opposite must hold true: moving to the Right is good for Liberalism. I don’t see anyone on the Left doing that, thank you. BHO tacked to the center-right but it isn’t good for Movement Liberalism and the Radical Leftist political philosophy of BHO’s. Moving to the center is good for WINNING ELECTIONS, but to what point do you move away from your governing principles in the name of victory?

I am sick and tired of Conservatives who think that Conservatism has run out of ideas. The ideas we have have been around long before even I was born. We believe that the government, at any level, needs to be limited in its encroachment into the lives of people. We believe that yes, there are problems that people face and that the state, at some point, does provide assistance, but at what price? Good is the enemy of Great: sometimes measures fall short. However, Perfect is the enemy of Good: the contrarian Liberal mentality to a Conservative program is that because it fails to help all in need of the help, the program is invalid on all its merits. It is not unknown that the main failure of Conservatism is that it fails to do enough, and that Liberalism fails in its excess. But heed this: in my short time here in the USA I have seen that the main failure of bipartisan solutions is that when a measure requires a method from one side of the aisle, the other side has to dilute it in the name of principle and the measure, wherever it may have originated politically, falls flat.

I just keep in mind that reaching a perfect outcome in goverment would involve so much government expansion into the freedoms of individuals that the solution breeds more problems than what was originally addressed.

It may be silly for me to say this at this point, less than three weeks from the election, but Joe The Plumber, the Obamarmy’s reaction to him, the the magic words, “spread the wealth around” give us the one, last, great hope to keep BHO out of the White House.

The Left is terrified, terrified of the possibility that there remains the Silent Majority that they have left unconvinced. They are there, in their homes, not even waiting to have a candidate knock on their doors. BHO has revealed his soul and everyone has seen.

The Left has lost its supposed, but non-existent moral high ground when it comes to the privacy of individuals. In response to our grumbling over the treatment of Joe The Plumber, they scream “Schiavo!” or “Graeme Frost” as if doing so would defuse the keg that BHO himself lit. Well, guess what? The same tactics are good enough for us, then. What would BHO say to the fact that one of his employees, too, has tax liens?

Sorry Leftards, but I have to thank Joe The Plumber for once again reinvigorating us. Last week, I was among many who felt defeated, but not anymore. This is an Eeyore-free zone, and whether we win or lose on November 4th it’s time to keep swinging.

Spread the wealth around, right? That’s what BHO wants. Always remember that. And should we speak truth to that, we should expect his goons to come digging around our lives, right? Always remember that. No amount of repudiation from BHO will change the fact that he said those words. Those words are at the heart of his so-called tax cuts for 95% of Americans, a flat out falsehood that is surprisingly catchy for so many people.

Why does a BHO campaign spokesman complain about the McCain camp “not vetting” Joe The Plumber when it was BHO who knocked on his got-darn door, and asked him a question? Joe The Plumber does not need vetting. He is the one among many who will vet the two candidates. BHO knows this. The Left knows this. And I think they are so, so scared right now.

The 24-hour hero of this presidential campaign has got to be Joe “The Plumber” Wurzelbacher. A few days before the last presidential debate, he was able to finagle out of BHO a clear declaration of the candidate’s Socialist economic world view.

“Spread the wealth around.”

We on the Right need to build a guerrilla campaign built around the phrase. We need to talk about it and spread the word, because Joe The Plumber has handed everyone on the Right the perfect weapon. And you know why we have to do it? You know why we have to run with this football all the way into the got-darn endzone?

Because Joe The Plumber is now Joe The Unlicensed Apprentice Plumber Whose Livelihood Just Got Fucked Over By The Angry Left. The 24-hour hero has become the 24-hour martyr.

You know the fucked up thing? Senator Obama and his goons are for “the working class” only if they support Senator Obama. Now that they took his livelihood away from him, Joe The Unemployable Apprentice Plumber is now part of the non-working class. There isn’t work left for this working class guy after taking his livelihood away from him.

Is this what the Left wants, in the name of victory?

P.S. @ 2345h: If you’re a Leftard and your only answer to Joe The Jobless Plumber is “he’d still have a job if he only kept his mouth shut and didn’t whore up on the media,” well, fuck you.

P.P.S. @ 2359h: Yes, I know it was his responsibility to get licensed. But, at least that gives us on the Right the precedent to want to investigate each and every seemingly illegally present person in support of BHO or who opposes McCain. Let’s even take it one step further! The next time someone goes on the air on national TV as a guest, whether they be white, black, brown, (or yellow, or red, if you’d like me to be a tad racially insensitive), before they even state for whom they which to state their support, why don’t we just ask them: “Are you legally here? Can we see your papers, because we will try to investigate you if you say something we dislike and you might as well just make it easy for everyone. Any baby-mamas you’ve left hangin’? How about that shoplifting charge you had when you were eighteen and a day old? Hmmmmm? HMMMM?”

As is quite obvious at this point I am livid.

Before the Democrat convention and tensions were running high between HRC and BHO, I placed a silly bet amongst my friends that she would would broker the convention in her favor and pull the nomination right from under his feet. The total toll? Lunch for three people, on separate occasions.

This bring me to my latest bet, this time with Julian Sanchez. A few months ago, Larry C. Johnson at No Quarter floated the idea of a “Whitey” tape featuring none other than the lady who has never been proud of her country until her husband got into the limelight, give or take a few events. The rumor went nowhere. Now, a new rumor has surfaced about BHO’s status as a natural born citizen, which I will discuss in a little bit. The subject of Julian’s bet isn’t so much the citizenship question as BHO’s wife’s reaction, which the African Press blog claims is on audio tape. I don’t believe there is such an audio tape. So I bet instead on the “Whitey video” surfacing some time before the election.

If it does, it will sink not just Senator McCain’s campaign but that of just about every Republican running for office.

Because the theatre of war has been prepped so smoothly by the BHO campaign, any questions as to his character have now been characterized as racist, or irrelevant. The “Whitey tape,” or a Kenyan birth certificate showing up now—as opposed to the Democrat primaries—would be treated with as much revulsion from the Left as the Right did with the Dan Rather TANG bogus documents of the 2004 election.

All that energy lost at browbeating and investigating and proving provenances would merely alienate voters. Whom do you think would maintain a calm, clear voice, and with a sly smile say “this is politics as usual, listen to me?”

So, am I betting that such a thing would happen, thus sinking McCain’s candidacy, despite my support of McCain? Yes. The odds? Very slim.

So why risk driving down to DC from the Baltimore area, and paying eight bucks a beer at an overpriced bar? So I have the perfect excuse to meet Julian Sanchez and maybe Megan McArdle, Radley Balko and James Joyner.

I feel resurgent. But not overly triumphant, because Senator McCain and friends have a long way to go to the one and only important poll of all. McCain dancing around trying to figure out which way to go to shake Bob Schieffer’s hand was cute. Bob Schieffer moderated what is perhaps the best format for the presidential debates: question, answer, Fox News-y rebuttal.

That squeaky voiced Obamabot black commentator on CNN is so un-fucking-nerved at the post-mortem I thought he was going to cry. The disbelief in Hillary Rosen and John King’s faces as they tried to give McCain credit was worth a freeze-frame.

More commentary from bloggers: John Cohen, Ann Althouse, Michelle Malkin, and of course, it’s always fun at Protein Wisdom.

(Your typical press conference set up. A lectern, bristling with microphones. Conspicuous in its absence is the teleprompter, which doesn’t happen to be anywhere in sight. The outgoing president walks into view, and begins to address the nation.)

PRESIDENT GWB: My fellow Americans, this year has been a year of great challenge to us. As the election approaches, I, the outgoing president, have a few things left to give to every American.

Both candidates have been running on a platform of change. They’ve blamed my administration of eight years for the moments of misery that have launched the Democrat candidate into a lead. the Republican candidate is struggling to produce a message that can beat that, and is trying to offer change of his own. But, my fellow Americans, they are not the only ones who are offering change to this country.

My tax cuts earlier this year, which so many of you have derided as a tax cut for the rich, have worked in propping up the economy by just a little bit, so that the crisis would hit now, and hurt Senator McCain. It has done the awesome job of encouraging further spending among you consumerist sheep. Many of you have used your checks to help soften the blow on that purchase of a big screen teevee that you just had to have. Predictably, many big screen teevees don’t cost just $350, or whatever it was that you got. I’m sure y’all used your credit cards to cover the difference.

Hey, we believe in the Law here in the States, right? Well, ain’t that the Law Of Unintended Consequences in action?

But more importantly, Senators Obama and McCain are not the only ones who are offering change this year. As an outgoing present to everyone of my constituents, even y’all who wear shirts that say “not my president,” I am, yet again, giving away another wave of tax rebate checks, even to those who have not paid taxes in years.

My fellow Americans, you have spoken, and you want change.

(PRESIDENT GWB brings his hands into his pockets. The sound of jangling coins is heard. He pulls out his hands, full of coins. He flings that coins at the PRESS CORPS. He yells into the mic, with what could only be described as a shit-eating grin…)

AMERICA, HERE’S YER CHANGE! YEEEEHAAAAAAAAW!

(PRESS CORPS erupt in a flurry of questions. The PRESIDENT ignores them, and motions his hands as if to ask people to calm down. He’s trying to hold back chuckles as he tries to keep talking.)

PRESIDENT GWB: Now, y’all probably have a lot of questions, but hey, you’ve pooh-poohed me as an idiot rube for the past eight years. You expect clarity out of me now?

But I ain’t finished yet. I ran on a platform of Compassionate Conservatism. I was told, that meant that the government would be compassionate for you, since, y’all think that everyone’s too darn greedy to be compassionate on their own. We’ve done a great success at this, and this seven hundred billion dollar bailout is the pinnacle of our efforts.

Consider this. We Republicans have a saying: we like to help people help themselves. Karl over here is the one I call architect. (Motions to KARL ROVE, who holds the pull-cord to a curtain to the left of the stage, as if hiding something.) He designed a lot over my term, but he had nothing to do with this final gift I’m giving everyone. If you are worried about your mortgage payments, forget it, stop paying. Well, why don’t we show ‘em what we got, Karl?

(KARL ROVE pulls the cord. It unveils a golden trough, chock full of hundred dollar bills. Behind it, are four pigs, with name tags: Nancy, Harry, Barry, and Barney.)

We brought out the buffet and some awesome dinner party guests. My fellow Americans, the party’s over here. HELP YOURSELVES! YEEEHAAAAW!

(PRESIDENT GWB walks away from stage, chuckling. The PRESS CORPS, unable to issue any questions, stare, unable to make head or tail of the situation.)

Isn’t there anything more American than pie? Especially apple pie, yes. I saw a few things yesterday that brought my mind to pie. First was the BHO video of fifteen mentions of pie, which I first saw on The Anchoress. I was at work, though, and so I couldn’t watch the video at the time, but when I finally saw it, I was a tad underwhelmed. He was talking about pie in the literal sense: sweet potato pie, no less. So I felt like a fool for having left the following comment at her post, not because the content was wrong, but because it was wrongfully placed:

Miss Elizabeth, I couldn’t watch the video here at work, but I do want to weigh in on a certain concept. Setting aside the alliterative euphony around the phrase “piece of the pie,” the imagery seems to be a stock favorite for Democrats because it encapsulates, in a monosyllabic word, their world view of a zero-sum economy. There is but one pie, we are all hungry, and there is only so much of it to go around.

This isn’t quite the image of American economics that I have learned over the past few years. It’s a powerful image, excellent for manipulating voters, and oh so patently false. At least on my end.

Later on in the comments someone linked to a post discussing the myth of the zero-sum pie. Here’s a good excerpt:

Nevermind the fact that the Obamas don’t practice what they preach – giving 1% of their income to charity from 2000 to 2004 and nudging to 4.7 and 6.1 in 2005 and 2006 (source). What concerns me is that Mrs. Obama’s talk about forcing a redistribution of the pie betrays an ignorance of some simple economic principles about wealth and poverty – and the more her kinds of ideas are allowed to flourish, the harder it will be for the poor to rise out of poverty.

It reminded me of an essay I read a while back that basically cemented my Conservatism. It’s from Bill Whittle’s Trinity, a lengthy treatise on what makes America great, and here’s an excellent passage on the concept of wealth:

Where you stand on the political spectrum, what you think of rich and poor people, and what you think about rich and poor nations and how they should act in the world, comes down, in my mind, to one single issue, and one only: Can wealth be created, or can it only be redistributed?

If you believe, as I do, that wealth can be manufactured out of thin air, then there is no limit to the amount of wealth you can amass. And since you are creating it out of thin air, there is no moral onus on making money — you work hard to create it and have stolen from no one. There is an expression for this: you earned it.

Indeed, since charity depends on excess wealth, excess capacity, the more you make for yourself the better off everyone else is. You can even throw charity out the window if you are so hard-hearted; the fact remains that you will spend that money to get the things you want, and the more you have the more you can spend. That money goes to other people. This interchange is called —the economy,—and rich societies are rich because they understand in their bones the centerpiece of Capitalist thinking: Wealth can be created from thin air by human ingenuity and hard work.

Later on in Whittle’s essay he offers as example how a creative writing talent, producing a screenplay, creates wealth. This brings us, then to I, Pencil by Leonard Read:

Once government has had a monopoly of a creative activity such, for instance, as the delivery of the mails, most individuals will believe that the mails could not be efficiently delivered by men acting freely. And here is the reason: Each one acknowledges that he himself doesn’t know how to do all the things incident to mail delivery. He also recognizes that no other individual could do it. These assumptions are correct. No individual possesses enough know-how to perform a nation’s mail delivery any more than any individual possesses enough know-how to make a pencil. Now, in the absence of faith in free people—in the unawareness that millions of tiny know-hows would naturally and miraculously form and cooperate to satisfy this necessity—the individual cannot help but reach the erroneous conclusion that mail can be delivered only by governmental “master-minding.”

So, after I’ve taken all of you on a Wild And Wonderful Tour of Capitalism and Conservatism, I’d like to bring you all back to the “Conservative” persecution of Governor Sarah Palin. David Brooks, Christopher Buckley (rebutted by Roger Kimball), Kathleen Parker (rebutted by KLo), and James Joyner all might think that Gov. Palin is literally an ignoramus, but it begs the question: if you want to fetishize intellectualism, you can refer to its fruits and hopefully think twice: deconstructionism, critical theory, and, dareisay, socialism.

Conservatism isn’t that hard to understand, or support. Read some Hayek, read some Burke, refer to some Reagan, and then take solace in the fact that most of the economic ills that have befallen us are a result more with trying to perfect a system—one that is inherently flawed but works—by using something more intellectually complex. A liar ties himself into more complex knots trying to prop up a lie; an honest man stands firm on the truth of his words and actions. The same goes for the lie of the welfare state and Socialism in general. If you don’t believe me, since I Am Not An Economist, you can at least refer to the words of French President Sarkozy, (though I must admit, I don’t think he is one, either).

All this, because, to directly quote KLo: In case you were wondering who the redistributionist candidate is. If his gang of speech-suppressing goons, voter-registration-fraud committing lackeys in ACORN, his domestic terrorist sponsor, his racist pastor, his campaign manager is cut from Saul Alinsky’s cloth… if none of these people are reason for you to not vote for BHO because, well, this is just a matter of “guilt by association,” then at least his idea on redistributing wealth should be judged as a matter of the policy that he wants to sell to us as a bill of goods.

I’ve found him lacking based on his character and his political records. This is just icing on the bitter cake he wants to serve us all.

Senator McCain’s dismal performance last Tuesday has led many a Conservative to depression (see: myself), frustration (see: Hot Air) and even desertion (see: Christopher Buckley).

We all need to take a few long, deep breaths before going nuclear on each other. There are legitimate points raised by Abe Greenwald and Jennifer Rubin on Commentary Magazine’s blog about Buckley’s endorsement. But Buckley’s endorsement is his own. I have already written my requiem for the McCain campaign but I have no intention of going silently into this socialist night. What I don’t have time and energy for, however, is rhetorically lopping off Buckley’s head. I would rather just shut up for now about it, do the work of helping spread the word about BHO, and after McCain stumbles into the presidency, I can turn around, say “I forgive you,” and move on with our lives.

The other point that I want to make is that Gov. Sarah Palin is not the problem. Far too many Conservatives have started to demonize her and blame her for McCain’s taking numbers. They are buying into the MSM narrative. She is the last prominent firebrand available when the got-damn candidate himself refuses to “dishonor” himself with legitimate questions on their opponent’s integrity. Scolding David Brooks and Kathleen Parker for thinking that Gov. Palin is the problem can wait another day.

We should look at it this way: she is the only conservative running in the race. Primary voters chose McCain because they thought that a Centrist could win an election against a Radical Leftist. In a predictable flip, it is easier for a Radical Leftist to look Centrist than for a Centrist to look Conservative, and the Republicans are looking to get a Conservative in the White House! We are tired of Conservatism-lite, where you had Bush party around with Congress. All we asked McCain was to campaign from the Right and tack to the center only when necessary. Instead he is tacking to the Right only when he needs to. Like when he picked Gov. Palin.

McCain can still fight to win without dishonoring himself. Like I said before, he shouldn’t be afraid of accusations of racism. As long as he was running a truly non-racist campaign, the accusations will reach a point of absurdity and he be taken seriously. Right now McCain is goose-stepping around the issue instead of hitting it head-on, and it’s hurting him.

A few entries ago I wrote about being too publicly self-critical. The problem lies in that right about now, it isn’t that WE don’t have a unified voice. It’s that the voice we want to put in office doesn’t quite speak for us. I still think that most of this country is still Center-Right. The problem is that McCain as placed us through this intense rollercoaster of support to disappointment, to support, to apathy, and it’s just so hard to find a reason to vote FOR him as opposed to simply preemptively voting BHO out of office before he gets his grubby paws on the presidency.