Obama is history--he'll be on the ticker as veep.

Wade
Gar Wood

Pass the popcorn, keefer. This is gonna be fun.

Oh, and Obama's naivete' is only exceeded by the size of his ears, heh. Have you ever noticed how much the Senator from Illinois looks like a chimpanzee? Even more so than Bush.

"Uh, Senator, that is all you Democrats are about - who can dig up the most dirt on whom"

Uh, Mark, what's the name of your book again?

CO, I'm well past 50 and in every single political season, the first to throw crap is the Dems, and it's indisputable. So stand on the kook sideline and try to impress us with your ludicrus
rhetoric.

We conservatives have always felt that the high road was key, however, I for one am advocating as much smear as possible from here on out. This way it will be just like a body count war with the side that has the most standing at the end claiming victory.

Have you ever noticed how much the Senator from Illinois looks like a chimpanzee? Even more so than Bush.

Watch out, Spook--the PC police will accuse you of racism. Yes, we'll have to come up with another name for Obama-sama, because Chimpy McHalliburton's already taken.

CO, I'm well past 50 and in every single political season, the first to throw crap is the Dems, and it's indisputable. So stand on the kook sideline and try to impress us with your ludicrus
rhetoric.

This is so true, navydad, yet the kooks always are the first to whine about the so-called right-wing smear machine. It's as if they live in a parallel universe, and never have to answer for what they say or do. They've attacked and attacked President Bush for almost seven years now, and they consider it mainstream behaviour.

No sense in trying to reason with CO--he's probably already high again.

You're "well-past" 50? I thought you were 52. That hardly qualifies you for the nursing home, pops...;)

CO,

Neither Matt nor I are running for office; we are commentators on the political scene. But there is this Nevada Senator whom I think needs to be booted out of office, and we'll see what I'm up to in 2010.

Hey Keefer

Well past is any age where AARP sends one info....LOL!!

My grandkids make me feel even older sometimes.

"Smearing" should be judged like bragging. As the saying goes, "It ain't bragging if you can back it up." So I would submit that it ain't "smearing" if you can back it up.

For example, when Dubya's old DUI turned up just before the 2000 election, that wasn't a smear, because it was true. On the other hand, the "AWOL in the National Guard" accusation against Dubya was a smear, because it was based on forged evidence, and thus cannot be backed up.

As for Mark's book, we'll get to see in due time how well he and Matt back up their charges. It's out this month, according to the ad.

Mark

What am I missing here, isn't Obama saying he is against the idea of digging up dirt?

It does seem though, that both parties are guilty of rolling around in the mud, especially during the time campaign ads are run. Politics can be a vert dirty business, indeed. Makes you wonder why anyone in their right mind would subject themselves to such scrunity.

If you are hinting at possible political aspirations, Mark, is there anything in your past that you would prefer to remain private? You may want to reconsider.

Yeah, those crazy kooks who dug up the Swiftboat Veterans, McCain's illigit black baby, Whitewatergate, and Lewinski! Wait...I think I'm thinking of the wrong side.

Someone give me examples of Democratic smear campaigns?

Seriously.

Rather long and pointless leftwing screed deleted.

2006 proved that Democrats only have to run on a smear campaign instead of ideas that move the country forward.

Watch out, Spook--the PC police will accuse you of racism. Yes, we'll have to come up with another name for Obama-sama,

Actually, you're pretty close. Ted Kennedy inadvertently called him Obama Osama or Osama Obama, not sure which. God he has big ears!

My grandkids make me feel even older sometimes.

Geez, Navy, ain't that the truth. "I'll race you to the mail box, Grandpa." Yeah, right.

Mark, even before reading your book, I can tell you that the Senator from Nevada's closet is FULL of dirt, and it isn't even well hidden dirt, just MSM ignored dirt. The guy really ought to be in prison instead of the Senate Majority Leader. I assume you have at least a chapter on the dishonorable Senator Reid.

What am I missing here, isn't Obama saying he is against the idea of digging up dirt?

Time to wake up from your nap, CO. You aren't missing anything. Everyone is just pointing out what a rude awakening Obama is in for when the Clinton earth excavator gets into high gear.

Oh, and BTW, GO COLTS!

Though I am not an American, I, like many Canadians, take an interest in the politics of the USA. As for Obama, I am not excited about him to say the least, too much of a lightweight.

Now that I just found out he smokes, I figure that piece of 'dirt' will hurt him. I always believed in the saying that ‘smokes are a tax on morons’. If I offended any smokers, tough tittie.

I'll join you on this one, Canuck. At the risk of offending any of my smoking friends here, I'd love to see cigarettes taxed into extinction. One of my few regrets in this life is that, although I quit nearly 34 years ago, I smoked for 11 years.

But there is this Nevada Senator whom I think needs to be booted out of office, and we'll see what I'm up to in 2010.

Run Mark run!

I agree, it's a nasty, nasty habit and contrary to what keefer might say, and he does at every opportunity, I never had the inclination to smoke ANYTHING. His obsession with this topic makes me wonder sometimes. Will he come clean, so to speak?

I never had the inclination to smoke ANYTHING.

Same here, CO. Just being exposed to my dad's smoke was enough to keep me away from cigs. I tried chewing tobacco one time - and that was enough.

Having said that, the smoking habits of the candidates won't mean much to me, except if someone doesn't "come clean". I'm sure we all have more relevant criteria on which to judge them. I would simply advise them all against being too creative with cigars.

CO,

I've thought about that, and I've no real worries about the dirt on me...I figure that I'll put up a website "DirtOnNoonan.com" where I'll list each and every sin I've been guilty of, only sparing the names of the other participants. My view is that dirt is only relevant if it is recent (past ten years, maximum) and/or ongoing. The thing about recent, of course, is that if it a recent problem, we can't really be sure that it is a problem the candidate has put firmly behind them. I've smoked marijuana in the past, but as the last time was in 1989, I think you can rely on it that it is highly unlikely that I'll ever do it again. On the other hand, if I were arrested for drunk and disorderly behaviour last year, you'd have a legitimate worry that I'm still prone to such actions.

The reason all this old dirt doesn't faze me is that I'm a Christian, and I've been forgiven for it. I'm sincerely sorry for my sins, and I try hard not to repeat them. As an aside, the reason I'm skeptical of any claim to privacy is that I know full well that privacy is mostly a dodge for someone who wants to hide some past and/or ongoing sin from public scruitiny.

On the other hand, my family - made up of sinners, just like me - should be entirely off limits unless it can be demonstrated conclusively that something they do affects my life...I do worry that in a desire to get me, they'll end up getting members of my family dragged through the public muck...and I'd feel terrible to have put a family member in such a position.

His obsession with this topic makes me wonder sometimes. Will he come clean, so to speak?

My so-called obsession stems from the fact that there are "shooting galleries" in Canada, sponsored by the government. I have come to the conclusion that you frequent these places, based on you kook political positions. Nobody thinks like you do--nobody who's sober...

Bubba,

I'd really like to - of course, if by some miracle I did ever get elected, I'd never get re-elected...I'd spend all my time trying to stop everything...but it'd be fun, I'll bet.

I just think it will be interesting to sit back and watch the Clinton Machine go to work on Obama. I think Hillary is one reason Kerry declined to run---she is truly scary.

But what I'm really wondering is what the other Dems will come up with to try to keep HER out of the nomination. She has more baggage than all the rest put together, and has managed to skate on most if not all of it thanks to a fawning media. It should be interesting if any of her fellow Dems decide to take her on. From her wildly radically Liberal days in college to her Socialist term paper to Whitewater and the IRS rulings against her there to the shady fundraising (including the illegal manipulation of the cattle futures market by her supporters) to Travelgate to Mother Superior to investigations into Bill's honeys to the FBI file scandal to the NY terrorists freed by Bill to her comment on "that Jew bastard" to her pillaging of the White House, Hillary has a LOT to account for. I know she feels pretty bulletproof right now, being a NY Senator and under the benign protection of the liberal media, but once she sticks her head out of that cocoon, she is fair game. And if Obama is the one to start trying to pick her off, it should be verrry interesting....

G-d he [Obama] has big ears!

All the better to hear you with, Spook!

I hope you do decide to run/win against Dingy Harry, Mark. I don't even live in Nevada, but I'll certainly find a way to vote for you, several times!

Anillo, you need to lay off the KoolAid. If you define the revelation of actual fact as a "smear" you are going to be one very unhappy Lib.

The Swift Boat Veterans were a group of otherwise unconnected, often Democrat, often anti-Bush, veterans who simply could not sit back and watch Kerry's wild lies go unchallenged. Many suffered as as result of their going public, losing jobs or contracts. None got paid. Many wished that their corrections to the Kerry version of history would not benefit a candidate they truly disliked. But the truth about Kerry was too important to allow personal feelings to get in the way. None of their assertions has been disproved, contratry to Lib Lore. Some have been met with countering claims, but none have been disproved.

Whitewater was a genuine, true, documented scam, with every person associated with it indicted and convicted---aside from two of its founding partners, the Clintons. They had others going to jail rather than testify against them, and they skated with no more than a couple of IRS hits for falsifying records and making false claims. Whitewater resulted in several prison terms for several people, the failure of a savings and loan which cost the government millions, the loss of personal savings to hundreds of people who got sucked into buying from the company, several tax frauds, and an extremely strong though unproven case of campaign fund fraud, as the money borrowed from the S&L and never repaid, leading to its downfall, appeared to be given directly to the Clintons and/or the Clinton campgaign. Smear? Not hardly.

Are you claiming that Lewinski really didn't sexually service her boss? Because if it's true, it's not a smear. it's a fact. She DID do it, he WAS her boss, she WAS a subordinate, he WAS married, he DID lie about it, including under oath---what part of the Lewinski thing do you think was a smear? (Aside from the remnants on the blue dress, that is...)

I've heard comments about McCain's illegitimate baby, but only in passing---if the media made a big deal out of it, I didn't pay much attention. but the fact is, if he did father a child out of wedlock, of any color, after he entered public life, it is something he did and is responsbile for.

I don't really care about what people did in their youth, unless it was really an example of moral depravity or gross dishonesty. I never thought W's DUI was of interest, as he was arrested for driving too slowly, he admitted to being under the influence, he was the most sober of his group and was trying to get everyone home safely, he took responsibility for it, he didn't play the Do You Know Who My Father Is card, and he paid his penalty.

I don't care if someone experimented with drugs in his youth, as long as he figured out how stupid it was and that period didn't last long. I don't care if he partied a lot, as long as that was also a fleeting phase. We are all unformed idiots when we are young, and pretending that anyone electable now should have been any different thirty or forty years ago is simply silly.

I didn't even care that much about Kerry's faked war history, till he started to run on it and at his age in this period of time pretended it was true. I cared a lot more about his dishonesty in pretending he represented true veterans of Viet Nam, about his illicit visits to North Viet Nam to collaborate with the enemy, and about his lying under oath to besmirch the reputations of honorable men and women who were serving our country. There is a difference bewtwen youthful stupidity and callous lying to achieve a dishonorable goal.