Where Do I Start? I guess with the current state of the Presidential election. What recently appeared to be the tide of inevitability (The coming Democratic party landslide) does not seem inevitable anymore. Barack Obama has had to be away from his teleprompter and his poll numbers are showing it. After Senator McCain’s Paris Hilton Britney Spears tv ad ran, Democrats were howling about how negative a campaign John McCain was running. In English: that translates as “We’ve been stung because the joke cut too close to home and we don’t like it.” To borrow a line from Bill Murray: “Someone needs a WAAAAHHHMbulance.” Even conservatives were uncomfortable with this ad until they saw the more recent polling data. Barack Obama’s “Citizen Of The World” tour was yielding diminishing returns. The response to Russia’s attack on Georgia to “Urge both sides to use restraint” further solidified his image as a rookie. Add to that the fact that Hillary Clinton seems to be taking over the Democratic convention, and things are no longer looking good for the junior Senator from Illinois. Rush Limbaugh seemed to think McCain could win in a landslide. I think I’ll wait for a couple more shoes to drop to go out on that limb, but I must admit, when he told everyone to just inflate their tires to fight high gas prices, and responded to people criticising of his ideas as “reveling in being ignorant,” that was just as close to a “Dukakis in the tank” moment as I’ve seen in this campaign.

              On the Republican side, DIck Morris’s argument for Joe Lieberman on the ticket, and against Mitt Romney is just plain wrong. Joe Lieberman is a liberal Democrat that a lot of conservatives love…on a personal level…supporting his friend: John McCain…maybe even speaking at the convention. NOT on the ticket with him. Mr. Morris would do well to read one of the last articles written by Robert Novak before he took ill. The crux of one of those articles was that private polling showed a McCain/Romney ticket with a small but comfortable lead in the state of Michigan, where Romney’s father was Governor on the 60’s, where McCain won the 2000 primary, and lost in ‘08 to Romney. He may not get the VP nod but Dick Morris and Mike Huckabee’s arguments against him are simply ignorant. Huckabee does not speak for all evangelicals, and evangelicals were already getting into a comfort zone with Romney. His Mormonism never morphed into the issue against him that any of his critics hoped it would be. His knowledge of the economy and clarity of explanation would be a breath of fresh air should he appear on the ticket.

Foreign Policy. Can the recent headlines about the Russian incursion into Georgia remind the American people even more that now is not the time for a rookie Senator to be in the White House? We know George W. Bush made a bad miscalculation when He met Vladimir Putin, but the Democrats are going to have a hard time suggesting Barack Obama as the better man to handle Russia and these types of problems. John McCain just looks and sounds more Presidential discussing this type of issue.

Will some Republican Congressman from South Carolina PLEASE mount a primary challenge to Lindsay Graham?! This man is dangerously close to torpedoing the issue that could cause the Republican base, and independents, and democrats to support a Republican legislature to do something a Democratic controlled one will not. Get our own energy from our own domestic sources. Memo to Lindsay. People didn’t vote for you to get along with Democrats. They voted for you to fight them and advance the conservative cause. Please do your job or the voters of South Carolina will find someone who will…….Okay, I feel better now.

I have to admit being at first disheartened when I (not hearing it) read the transcript of Barack Obama’s speech in Berlin. I read the text. Tried to imagine hearing it in his voice and cadence. Other than the sour note on the Global Warming Sermon, I concluded this guy’s going to win. John McCain is practically playing dead and this 1st term Senator is wowing a huge crowd in front of the cameras. We’re done.

Then I came home and turned on the news. Fox News with Brit Hume, and new polling showing Obama’s lead over McCain slipping from 7 points to 1. I thought to myself, am I missing something? I checked out Rush Limbaugh and from his transcripts he was downright offended that this guy would make a speech trying to channel Ronald Reagan. I never kept track of all the walls Barack Obama intends to tear down until Rush drew my attention to it. Another sour note the rock star hit on his European tour was when instead of giving the soildiers credit for increased stability he chose to credit the Sunni leaders for joining our side. Does any rational person think this would’ve happened without the U.S. military? Back to the Berlin speech, another sour note I missed when reading the transcript was something to do with our side rejecting torture. The Fox All Stars (particularly Charles Krauthammer) nailed him on that point as it plays into a false anti-American stereotype of the way we treat prisoners of war.

If this isn’t enough, the Democrats as slaves to the radical environmental lobby refuse to even allow an up or down vote on removing the legislative ban on offshore drilling. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reed know that such a vote would pass with Democrats supporting new oil exploration. I’ve never seen John Baynor look so animated since he became the House Minority Leader. But he was when making the argument to go and get more energy. This might be the year that Republicans defy conventional wisdom and win. Still very early to predict, but guys keep making the case, and Senator Obama, keep talking sir. The more you do, the more you show just how not ready for prime time you really are.