Interesting relevation in this post:

I should reiterate two critical things: I have never claimed that Trig Palin is not Sarah Palin’s biological son. In fact, I have gone to enormous lengths never to say that, going silent for two days to figure it out and decided to leave it alone.

Wow. So recently, when he didn’t post anything for two days, he was spending that entire time obsessing about the parentage of Trig Palin?

More than usual, I mean.

The story is here.

DRJ already gave us her candidate for Quote of the Day, and it was good. But I also like this one:

You know, they think that because of who I am and where my politic[al] base has traditionally been, they may want me to go sort of hustle up what Lawton Chiles used to call the ‘cracker vote’ there.

Am I the only one bothered by this?

On entering a room filled with several Pakistani officials this afternoon, Palin was immediately greeted by Sherry Rehman, the country’s Information Minister.

“And how does one keep looking that good when one is that busy?,” Rehman asked, drawing friendly laughter from the room when she complimented Palin.

“Oh, thank you,” Palin said.

Pakistan’s recently-elected president, Asif Ali Zardari, entered the room seconds later. Palin rose to shake his hand, saying she was “honored” to meet him.

Zardari then called her “gorgeous” and said: “Now I know why the whole of America is crazy about you.”

“You are so nice,” Palin said, smiling. “Thank you.”

A handler from Zardari’s entourage then told the two politicians to keep shaking hands for the cameras.

“If he’s insisting, I might hug,” Zardari said. Palin smiled politely.

A little gravitas, please. I think Palin is bright, but she should model herself after Margaret Thatcher. In the unlikely event that some sexist jerk from Pakistan had praised her looks, Maggie wouldn’t have said “Tee hee.” Even if she had been pretty, she still would have found a way to cut the guy off at the knees.

Posted by WLS:

“Dear Senator Obama:

Our first Presidential Campaign Debate is scheduled for Friday, September 26, 2008, at the University of Mississippi.  I asked you first, in light of the current events happening in Washington, to postpone this debate until after congressional action could be taken on the bipartisan financial rescue plan now being considered.  You have declined my request.

Here is my reply to your position. 

I agree to hold the debate on Friday.  I will be standing at the lectern on Republican side of the Senate floor in the Capitol at 9:00 p.m.  I look forward to seeing you there.  No moderators, no audience.  Simply you and I debating the issues of the campaign man-to-man.  The press can watch from the press gallery, and the networks can cover it via the C-Span cameras.

Regards,

John.

Let me dissent from my colleagues’ view, and briefly register my opinion that McCain’s suspension of his campaign is a mistake. When the average American sees the phrase “John McCain has suspended his campaign,” it looks like he’s conceding the race. That’s a hard impression to overcome.

And Obama’s criticism that Presidents need to be able to multitask will resonate with Americans who multitask all day long.

If they had asked my opinion, I’d have told them not to do this. (I also would have told them not to get a bunch of facts wrong while complaining about the media’s distortion of facts. In fact, I’m a treasure trove of ideas!)

As it is, we’ll just have to watch this play out. I hope I’m wrong about this.

[Guest post by DRJ]

Start here with Pix for Animal Lovers and then check the Main website for links to his Hugh Hewitt posts.

I love the photo of Lincoln, Obama and the poodle. If he were a vet, Obama would have my vote for Veterinarian-in-Chief.

— DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

From GatewayPundit, here’s a quote from Democratic Rep. Alcee Hastings on that bitter, clingy, racist Sarah Palin:

“Hastings, who is African-American, was explaining what he intended to tell his Jewish constituents about the presidential race. “Anybody toting guns and stripping moose don’t care too much about what they do with Jews and blacks. So, you just think this through,” Hastings added as the room erupted in laughter and applause.”

Hastings was Nancy Pelosi’s preference to chair the Intelligence Committee despite his impeachment and removal as a federal judge. Under pressure, Pelosi decided not to pick Hastings because of his controversial background.

By comparison, this comment isn’t controversial at all.

— DRJ

[Guest post by DRJ]

Following up on WLS’s post regarding John McCain’s offer to suspend the campaign and debate to consider the bailout package, the Politico reports that Obama’s response included this shot at McCain:

“Presidents are going to have to deal with more than one thing at a time,” Obama said. “It’s not necessary for us to think that we can do only one thing, and suspend everything else.”

WLS is exactly right that Obama’s response was tone deaf. Maybe spending $700B is all in a day’s work for President Obama but this seems like an unusual situation to me. But even if Obama has no problem sitting out the bailout debate and his chance to vote “Present,” voters might not agree that his job is running for President. Some might wonder why he isn’t doing his job as a Senator — the job he was elected to do and is getting paid for.

Not surprisingly, Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid agrees with Obama that the bailout isn’t important enough to return to the Senate or change the scheduled debate:

“Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nv.) said Wednesday there is no need for Barack Obama and John McCain to rush back to Congress to work on the stalled bailout package and certainly no need to delay the first presidential debate, as McCain is urging. Obama is expected to call for the debate to go on as planned.

Reid said both men returning to their Senate jobs will “risk injecting presidential politics into this process. ….We need leadership, not a campaign photo op,” Reid said. McCain is suspending his campaign–as of Thursday afternoon–until Congress works out a plan. Congress is resisting approving the $700 billion package sent by the White House.”

So if Obama shows up in the Senate it will only be for a photo op? I’ll take Majority Leader Reid’s word for it. After all, he knows Obama’s Senate record better than anyone.

UPDATE: Allahpundit at Hot Air notes it was only yesterday that Harry Reid told McCain to drop everything and come back to the Senate to deal with the bailout.

Read the whole thing.

H/T voiceofreason2.

— DRJ

Posted by WLS:

The Obama campaign is once again listening to political operatives who want him to “fight” McCain on every front, and who have seemingly now advised him to not agree to suspend the campaign through the weekend in order to return to DC to work with their colleagues in Congress on a bipartisan financial rescue package.  Leaders in both parties have said that if any package is going to pass, the members of Congress are only going to find the political courage to vote for it if both Obama and McCain are onboard since one of the two is going to be responsible for making it work not just in theory, but in practice.

Here’s Obama’s justification in saying “no” to McCain’s offer:

“With respect to the debates, it’s my belief that this is exactly the time when the American people need to hear form the person who in 40 days will be responsible for dealing with this mess. . . . In my mind, actually it’s more important than ever that we present ourselves to the American people.”

I have a hard time imagining a more obvious example of being politically “tone deaf”.  This coming from a guy who has spent more time campaigning for his next office than serving in the one to which he was elected to four years ago. 

Rather than going to D.C. to put the nation’s financial markets at ease, Obama thinks voters really want to hear more canned responses from his stump speech, which both he and McCain are likely to spin into answers to any questions asked on Friday during the debate. 

I suspect that the VAST majority of Americans – even those planning on watching the debate on Friday – will not be heartbroken if it is postponed into next week, if by doing so it means that CONGRESS WILL DO SOMETHING TO FIX THE MESS THEY CREATED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Obama wants American to “hear from” him. 

The perfect example of a hack politician not knowing when to shut up.

McCain can now start running another ad next week — empahsizing that he would rather lose an election then standby while Americans endure the risk of losing their pensions or retirement savings accounts as financial institutions fold-up due to a lack of liquidity created by the credit crisis.   

McCain is currently holding the office of Senator from the State of Arizona, and the Senate has vital legislation now pending before it, and time is of the essence.  So McCain is going to do his job.

Obama is going to skip it and go onto his next job interview.