Mark Hemingway and Ramesh at NRO today linked “from 52 to 48 with love,” a cam-shot project reminiscent of that one site that came up after GWB’s 2004 victory. It’s treacly, and the gesture I am sure is well-meant, considering the propensity of youthful participants. Mark, bless his heart, has been receiving grief.

Judging by the torrent of email, my post below seems to have struck a nerve. By linking to such a shiny happy display, I wasn’t suggesting anyone immediately make peace with an Obama administration. Especially since most liberal attempts at reconciliation during the Bush years amounted to “Oh, hey — would you mind picking up the soap?” As one reader put it, “I’m more inclined to dress my wounds, restring my bow, and plan my counterattack than I am to hold hands and sing Kumbaya.”

Fair enough. But I do think that after eight years of “He’s not my President” bumper stickers and trying to put Karl Rove under citizens’ arrest for his role in unconstitutional mattress tag removal, it’s probably necessary that we be the adults here. And that includes acknowledging when overtures are made to make things less rancorous.

Many of us are graceful to the other side in defeat, because we have seen what it has cost them to be so acrimonious for years. I can not live my life like that. I am a patient, incremental political thinker and advocate, but I am not immortal. So in defeat, be gracious. In conflict, be ruthless. In victory, retain one’s soul.

I want to give these kids the benefit of the doubt. They have been led to believe that this has been a disgusting, hateful campaign and that they have spent the past eight years of their lives in a climate of hate. But the seventh photo down has a classy challenge to the 52, and features a photo of the greatest American president ever:

When free speech rights of conservative voices on the radio are stomped on by Obama & Pelosi, will the “52″ object?

When secret ballots of prospective union members are done away with by Obama & Pelose, will the “52″ say anything?

If a conservative president is elected in 2012, will today’s “52″ be as gracious as the “48″ today?

Cute photographs and catchy sloganse are nice but what really counts is whether you’ll walk your talk. There’s a word for those who won’t: Hypocrisy!

Yes, we are all rooting for the same team, and that is the success of America. I want the 52 to know that our opposition isn’t mean to lead the country to its failure. It’s because we believe that when the President is about to lead us down to a dangerous path we will not sit idly by and be quiet.

But beyond the small reprimand, I, too have a message for the 52.

When you were less than 52, and you called upon the assassination of the President, did we demand a government reprisal for your political speech? When McCain/Palin supporters marched the streets of NYC to express themselves, were you there to shout them down? Were you there offering the middle finger? When you, as one of the 52 who supported Obama, wore a shirt calling Governor Palin a “c**t,” were you aware of the irony in your behavior?

Do you offer your hands in reconciliation merely because you are victorious? Had we been the 48, but still won the electoral college, and your Dear Leader offered words of conciliation, would you have followed his lead? When we offer No Cover in the House for Pelosi’s overreaches, so much so that we can present her largesse for you to judge, will you give us the benefit of the doubt?

We share certain common goals:

• You may want a more educated public. I do, too, but not if it means that our students and their parents will not have the choice through school vouchers, among other things. Not if it means that our children will be indoctrinated by Leftist teachers. Not if it means that when one of our children go to school carrying our family values and beliefs, they will be publicly humiliated by their teachers. Not if it means that we will need a teacher’s license to home-school our children, as if working from home weren’t sacrifice enough.
• You may want “universal” health care. I do, too, but not if it means that the government will have a massive say in how we treat our bodies. Not if it means that we may lose our jobs for eating unhealthy food, or smoking, or drinking. Not if it means that our choice of doctors will be limited. Not if it means that our doctors themselves will have to have the means they recommend pre-approved by some pencil-pusher who thinks they know what is better for a patient.
• You may want a “greener environment.” I do, too, but not if it means regulating to death aspects of our personal lives. Not if it means that our choices of energy solutions are hobbled by an “if it isn’t perfect, it isn’t good enough” approach.
• Finally, you may want peace on earth and mercy mild. I do, too, but not if it means that we will bring our soldiers home in shame and defeat. Not if it means that we will not finish the job in Afghanistan. Not if it means that we will leave the relatively free nations of Eastern Europe defenseless against a resugent Russia. Not if it means that we will leave G-d’s children in Israel to fend for themselves against Iran.

To the 52: we are not that different. We share common goals. But if you ever care to listen about how you and the 48 differ, it’s in the means. It’s in the methods. Our respective sides will always believe our methods are better. This is life.

(Cross-posted on Red State.)

Bill Quick ponders what for me would be the biggest problem about the coming BHO administration:

Every single tyrant of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries (that I know of) has created “national security forces”. Almost every wanna-be tyrant tries it. SS. NKVD. IRGC. Republican Guard. Stasi. These are just a few of the more notorious names “national security forces” have gone under. I don’t know the names of all of them, but similar organizations were created in China, Cuba, Vietnam, the Eastern Bloc countries during the Iron Curtain years, Venezuela under Chavez, Cambodia, Nicaragua, and more. Allende claimed that he could not control the left-wing paramilitaries in Chile, even though their leaders were part of his ill-fated coalition.

There is only one purpose for creating large new security forces.. That purpose is to create forces loyal to the executive that can offset the typically conservative forces of existing military and law enforcement organizations. These new forces have no institutional history, so they have no inbuilt resistance to the leader who creates them. They are typically staffed with the most fervent and loyal followers of the leader, people who can be counted on to go out and intimidate, extort, and bust heads without asking questions. They are intentionally designed as instruments of intimidation and political control.

I was thinking about this on my drive home. I was thinking hard. BHO’s background of Alinskyite community organizing square well with the goals of this new domestic paramilitary. Come to think of it, it is the apotheosis of Alinsky’s methods. The creation of a separate domestic paramilitary immediately makes a runaround of the concept of posse comitatus in the sense that the BHO CNSF is neither military, nor police, at least technically.

So what, pray tell, would this mythic beast be? Bill Quick continues in his essay to question the need for the CNSF’s very existence. I do, too. We have institutions in place for domestic security. They are called police, and in cases of national emergency, the National Guard, and what have you.

But, for a second, let us give BHO the benefit of the doubt that his intentions are sincere and pure. Thus he sets in place yet another institution that may never ever go away (cf: Dept. Of Education). If for no other tyrannical reason, the CNSF will be key to his wealth redistribution methods. Who will be his troops on the ground? Who will be its adminstrators, its organizers? I could imagine the bureaucracy of this CNSF to be similar to what ACORN might use. It will follow the community organization model because it is what he knows best. This institution will be staffed by the ranks of the currently unemployed, as a means of “raising them from poverty.” They will be grateful, and they will be loyal.

Finally, let us set aside the very idea that this is a tyrannical concept in the first place, if but for a second. Consider the final problem with this idea. It is a goverment institution and with it comes the lack of accountability and the propensity of underperformance that is inherent in any “safe” “government job.” I mean not to denigrate the careers of those in public service, but from the outside, it is what we see. Corporations great and small tend to be far more ruthless with underperformers. And we won’t have that kind of accountability in a service like that. There goes my tax money, producing 10 cents’ worth of work for every dollar paid.

Paranoid much, you might ask? I have remained calm in my dread. I have maintained my arguments with no foam around my mouth. If Barry Oh! dare, and I mean dare try to get this program in the works, I will speak. But for now may we all be warned. (And this, dear friends, is what I mean loyal opposition, preemptive it may be. None of that “let’s hug and make up,” not before he’s done anything yet.)

I know I’m late to the game but I’m placing my bet this close to the election:

My bet on a McCain victory scenario: 273-265

I’m calling PA, OH, and FL for McCain and VA, NM, CO for BHO. There’s a few other scenarios for a McCain victory, all of which I would consider wildly optimistic:

277-261: Scenario above, but McCain gets CO and BHO gets NV.

286-252 HillBuzz Map:

HillBuzz map: 286-252

I have to hand it to the guys at HillBuzz. Natives of Chicago, they have always been against BHO since the primaries. I will acknowledge that they can not defeat BHO without the Republicans, but in a way they are right. This is their fight, and we are here to help them. The PUMA factor is strong, and to be honest, I trust their agenda, because, if you move theirs a little, just a little to the Right, they’re mine, too.

And my final McCain victory scenario, which I will call here “Obama and the Embarassment of History,” 303-226: HillBuzz map, and throw in CO, MN, and IA in McCain’s favor.

The bases of these scenarios are more anecdotal than statistical. They are conjecture based on my understanding of how states have trended (statistical), but also the cultural aspect of the state (anecdotal). I also factored in current and recent events that have tipped the scales a certain way.

In no scenario did I concede OH to BHO, even though McCain can still win by flipping PA and keeping VA, from the 2004 election results, for one because this case might happen, but I doubt that CO and NM will go to McCain. This is such a way-out prediction that it doesn’t warrant much time.

So that’s that. Less than 24 hours before we know who the president-elect is.

Let’s get out of the way, the case against BHO. At first, I approchaed BHO with the scorn you would a petulant child who thinks he’s the shit. The ads of ridicule from the McCain campaign reflected the disdain for his celebrity status. But, as time wore on and smaller investigative outlets actually did their jobs, BHO has demonstrated disturbing traits of being the most far-left politician to ever get a chance at the presidency. His pals and the obfuscation around them has signaled his dishonor and dishonesty. I have written enough against BHO that a recap would be a waste of all y’all’s time. Just peruse my archives. So let me end the case against BHO with those two links and a quote I found on The Corner:

Here [...] is a useful quote from Robert Heinlein:

If you are part of a society that votes, then do so. There may be no candidates and no measures you want to vote for … but there are certain to be ones you want to vote against. In case of doubt, vote against. By this rule you will rarely go wrong.

Here’s a God’s honest truth for ya: I am not a citizen of the United States; I am here legally. I pay taxes on everything I earn. And even if I didn’t, while I do not have a vote, I still have a voice. And this voice is proudly speaking in support of John McCain. This isn’t a bitter-pill endorsement, nor a lesser-of-two-evils endorsement. My endorsement of John McCain is grounded on what I have learned from him since the primaries.

I knew little of the legendary John McCain when I first arrived in this country. In the year that I changed from Leftist to Moderate Republican, I learned a lot more about him. In the years following that, in my own personal great shift to the Right, I regarded him with a dislike that I reserved for unprincipled political calculators whose goals are mainly to whore for publicity and to get their agenda through. Boy, was I disappointed in McCain-Feingold, which regulated political expression through financial contributions. (Little did I know that, first, BHO trounced those rules anyway and that second, the sheer amount of money that McCain’s opponent had was used to suppress speech in ways that the law could have done.)

For all the bad that may come with it, John McCain has conducted his political career with honor. We know why: he figured in with the Keating Five scandal and as a result he has spent the rest of his life atoning for his misjudgment. There has been plenty of criticism about his personal notion of honor, and how he approaches his decision-making process as a moral matter. This is not the notion of honor that leads parents to shun their children for being gay, or pregnant out of wedlock, or that leads them to scorch the faces of women who have scorned them with acid. This is not the notion of honor that executes adulteresess, nor the honor that promises a reward in heaven in exchange for holy murder. His is the notion of honor that leads him, to the great consternation of his partymates, to “reach across the aisle” to “get things done.” His is the notion of honor that leads him to decide against using Jeremiah Wright, no matter how strategically important it may be, because he may be accused of inciting racial animus. His is the notion of honor that shows that he will not compromise his integrity in order to win an election (Despite that, he has been accused of having the sleaziest, most false campaign ever.) His is the notion of honor that states that victory should never come at the expense of one’s soul.

For all the weaknesses that may come with John McCain’s model of honor, not only am I fine with this, this is one of the traits that lead me to whole-heartedly endorse him.

John McCain’s biography, and his time as POW in Viet Nam, was such an integral part of his personal development that it can not be extricated from his narrative. The same people who denigrated GWB for his lack of military experience, the same people who fetishized John Kerry’s own narrative (wherein he learned, shall I daresay, the wrong lessons from being a participant in war), have now dismissed John McCain’s experience with the ever-pervasive line: “surving a POW camp doesn’t qualify you to be president.” How bold, these luminaries are, in the coffee shops and libraries, and in the union halls and factories, and of course the universities! How bold they are to speak these words. How many of them have experienced violence, first hand? How much fewer of that group has known it for five years, to have lived the life of a recipient of violence, day in and day out? Surviving a POW camp may not qualify him for president, but man, did his experience there bring out of him the basis for his decisions. If the Keating Five scandal was the provenance of his honor, his time at the Hanoi Hilton was the provenance for his courage. We now know that not only did his time as a POW test the limits of his courage and endurance, we also know that he broke during that time. We now know that his courage was defeated, if but for a moment. This is the experience of a man who not only tested his limits but experienced what it is like to be brought past them.

His experience in the war will affect his judgment in matters of the military. This is a man who knows the horrors of war, and wouldn’t wish it upon anyone, and yet knows all too well that it is a necessary instrument of foreign policy and that a decision to lead the country into war will come with a heavy heart. I just know it, you know? In my bones. When I see him. I know that he is the man who will avoid war at all costs but will defend our country, preemptively so if necessary, once he has done the due dilligence in avoiding it. This is the wisdom of John McCain that I think will prevail in his time of office. John McCain is a known factor in American politics. He is a man whom I know will ensure the interests of this country from a position of strength, not weakness.

My endorsement for John McCain is based only partially on his politics and party. My endorsement is based on the man. BHO is a man who remains relatively unknown. Almost all of the things we now know about him makes me dislike him. BHO is a child of Machine Politics and the behavior he has exhibited indicates he will rule with Machine Politics. John McCain is a brave and wise man whose campaign may have been fraught with error, but has exhibited amazing resilience and grace.

Perhaps my last positive point for John McCain is the fact that through all the insurmountable odds, the polls that seem more bent to brainwash people and dispirit those who support him, against the violence against his supporters, against the shame of being called a racist simply for not supporting BHO, through all of these and more, John McCain and so many of his supporters, Republican and Democrat, have approached this campaign with a kind of joy that only comes with a great sense of purpose but tempered by humility. So many of BHO’s supporters have been robbed of their humor. BHO has taken this election too seriously, and his supporters have taken him too seriously. Mothers have been disowned by their children. So many have sacrificed their dignity in support for a cause that, for all the flowery language, is tautological in nature. I pity these people. I feel sorry for them, because they may never be the same. Win or lose, after the election they will be filled with hate and vindictiveness, because these are the values that BHO has instilled in them. These are the values that they have adopted in the idolatry of a man. As for us? So many of us are Happy Warriors. We know, that win or lose, we gave it our best shots, we did anything and everything without compromising our integrity. We did it with a smile on our face, despite going through times of doubt and fear. We have fires in our bellies and we want to be heard at the only poll that matters (to which I ask, that if anyone finds my case convincing, if I have helped someone choose for John McCain this year, please, don’t even let me know, but always remember that you are my voice in this election), and John McCain knows it. He knows that we have fought for him and alongside him. We have stood up, and now with everyone’s help, we will enthusiastically carry him through the finish line.

Smile on, and get out and vote. Every battlegound, every sure state. Doesn’t matter. Get out and vote! This thing is not over.

In The Sound Of Drums, the penultimate episode of Dr. Who Season 3 (RTD series), we find The Doctor and Martha Jones back in England after a disastrous encounter with The Master. They find that he has assumed the name Harold Saxon, and has become the Prime Minister of the UK. Using a network of telecommunications satellites, he obfuscated his nature to the citizens, allowing him to peddle whatever untruths he needed to form a charismatic figure and win the position.

BHO, however, is no Time Lord, but in a way he is a figment of the imaginations of all his believers, and even his doubters. His campaign was built on this protean ability of his. Now, with very little time left to unmask the fraud, there is a mild uptick in voices.

There is the voice that fearfully, but not unreasonably, sees BHO’s charisma as akin to that of Adolf Hitler or Ayatollah Khomeini. There are at least two accounts of BHO-campaign insiders speaking of their tactics: one on Hillbuzz, the other on Red State. Even Rush Limbaugh, the voice you can never silence, is on to something when he mentioned NLP on his show.

And the timing couldn’t be any more perfect, because the realization that something is about to hit you head on usually comes right before you realize you barely have any time to evade or protect yourself, much less change the direction of said projectile.

What we are beginning to see clearly is the massive PsyOps used by the BHO campaign against the Right. We are particularly vulnerable to these kinds of operations because, at least from what I have observed, what constitutes the Right in this country is a loose coalition of people and groups who share small overlaps of their self-interest. Many of us follow the same market philosophy in the realms of the mind as we do the realms of the hand. This is why almost half of the content in a right-wing group blog is self-critical. Spend a half hour on The Next Right, or Red State, and you will see what I mean.

Let the infighting start on November 5th. We still have an election to win, and whether you live in Maryland, which historically gives it to the Democrats, or in Texas, getting out the vote counts. We are not alone here, dear Republicans. The media doesn’t report on the PUMAs anymore because they know the threat is real. It isn’t hip to speak against BHO but there is, I believe, a silent majority everywhere who will tip the scales against him. Let none of the polls fool you. Let the worries of BHO’s supporters embolden you, as it will embolden them on election day.

Go out and vote. This fight isn’t over.