THE NEW PARTY
“During his first campaign for the Illinois state Senate in 1995-96, Barack Obama was a member of, and was endorsed by, the far-left New Party,” Stanley Kurtz writes at National Review Online (www.nationalreview.com).
“Obama’s New Party ties give the lie to his claim to be a post-partisan, post-ideological pragmatist. Particularly in Chicago, the New Party functioned as the electoral arm of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN). So despite repeated attempts to distance himself from ACORN, Obama’s New Party ties raise disturbing questions about his links to those proudly militant leftists. The media’s near-total silence on this critical element of Obama’s past is deeply irresponsible,” Mr. Kurtz said.
“While a small group of bloggers have productively explored Obama’s New Party ties, discussion has often turned on the New Party’s alleged socialism. Was the New Party actually established by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)? Was the New Party’s platform effectively socialist in content?
“Although these debates are both interesting and important, we needn’t resolve them to conclude that the New Party was far to the left of the American mainstream. Whether formally socialist or not, the New Party and its ACORN backers favored policies of economic redistribution. As Obama would say, they wanted to spread the wealth around. Bracketing the socialism question and simply taking the New Party on its own terms is sufficient to raise serious questions about Obama’s political commitments - questions that cry out for attention from a responsible press.”
Baldwin and Palin
Actor Alec Baldwin, who is famously liberal, felt the need Monday to defend Sarah Palin’s appearance on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” which boosted the show’s ratings to its highest point in 14 years. Mr. Baldwin appeared with Mrs. Palin on the program.
” ’Saturday Night Live’ is a comedy show. It’s not ’Meet the Press.’ It doesn’t ’ask the tough questions’ or ’set the agenda.’ It attempts, with varying degrees of success, to make people laugh. That’s it,” Mr. Baldwin said in a blog at www.huffingtonpost.com.
“Whether they skewer and savage people in order to do so, they don’t care. When you come on a show like that, you are prepared in advance to get worked over. Palin knew that. Palin came on to be a good sport. And she was. She was polite, gracious. (More so than some of the famous actors who come through there, believe me.)
“However, I assume that, like ’Meet the Press,’ SNL feels an obligation to offer their special forum to any and all public figures and officials who are current. Headline making. And in SNL’s case, would make for a hit show. Several people decried SNL for giving her a spot on the show. You’re kidding, right? The woman is the vice-presidential nominee of one of the two major parties in this country. Don’t put her on SNL? With all of her exposure and the Tina Fey performance? What reality are you in?”
Powell vs. Powell
Colin L. Powell’s endorsement of Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee, has put him at odds with his own son, former Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell, the Hill newspaper reports at thehill.com.
Michael Powell, who served as a policy adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, is a surrogate for Sen. John McCain and represents the Republican nominee on the campaign trail, the newspaper said.
He endorsed Mr. McCain early in the Republican primary in January and said the Arizona senator was the best candidate to “calm the turbulent economic waters and to steer the new economy in a direction that will bring growth, opportunity and prosperity to all Americans.”
Mr. Powell contributed $1,000 to Mr. McCain the day of the Iowa caucuses and another $1,000 before the Florida primary. In August, he defended Mr. McCain, who had said he rarely uses the Internet, as someone who “understands technology very well” from his time as chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.
Mr. Powell was not available Monday for comment, reporter Alexander Bolton said.
A sure thing?
“Is there something about chilly weather that makes the media jump to conclusions? Does the changing of seasons make pundits eager to pronounce Barack Obama a sure thing? Because fall has finally arrived in Washington, and suddenly it seems like we’re back in January,” Matthew Continetti writes at weeklystandard.com.
“You remember January. That’s when Obama trounced Hillary Clinton in the Iowa caucuses, and more or less every commentator on the planet pronounced the Democratic primary a done deal. …
“Obama won the nomination in the end, of course. And now he is leading John McCain in the polls. And now, once again, the media have decided that the race is over. …
“It’s true that Obama is, at least for the moment, winning the presidential campaign. But I can’t shake the feeling that the growing sense of inevitability among our political class is oversold. According to Saturday’s New York Times, Obama is ’outadvertising’ McCain by a ratio of ’at least 4 to 1.’ Yet the national tracking polls show a tightening race. Typically the polls in swing states end up in about the same place as the national polls. This should give pause to Obama and his supporters.”
On their heels
“As is the case in House races across the country, Republicans are watching their hopes of preventing a cascade of Senate seats tumbling toward Democrats collapse,” Reid Wilson writes at www.realclearpolitics.com.
“The torrent of bad economic news put Republicans everywhere on their heels as voters look to the Democratic Party to solve the ongoing crises. The GOP’s only hope may be that enough voters give President Bush and his party credit for this [past] week’s stock market climb. Even then, the GOP’s best chance at picking up a seat, in Louisiana, looks remote,” Mr. Wilson said.
“While he doesn’t merit inclusion on the top ten list just yet, Democrats also have a chance to make Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss’ life uncomfortable in the next few weeks, as polls show his race tightening. And Democrats see positive movement against Sen. Susan Collins in Maine, though her lead over Rep. Tom Allen remains relatively strong.”
• Greg Pierce can be reached at 202/636-3285 or gpierce@washingtontimes.com.
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