Politics – Page 340 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Why Wright Did It

I think Wretchard of The Belmont Club hits it out of the park on this one:

Now after Obama built up a big delegate lead on Hillary, the Democratic Party was essentially committed to carrying Obama whether or not Hillary found some way to overtake the lead. Remember, Obama once in the lead, is always in the lead. Otherwise it’s a lynching. I think Wright is essentially running up the Jolly Roger knowing full well that the Democratic Party will have sail under those colors or lose the black vote. He’s going to force the Democrats to take Obama on his terms. This is the revolutionary act. Wright believes he has an historic opportunity and he’s going to take it.

I think part of the messianic air about Obama was that somewhere in the national consciousness people saw him as absolution for America’s original sin.Â In a sense, he literally was a messiah, come to forgive America for the sin of slavery and racism.Â Someone who could lead us into the promised land of post-racial politics.Â Reverend Wright, a man who built a ministry on racial politics, will apparently have none of that.Â Obama is now a false messiah.

Hillary Set Up Us The Bomb

This is a very interesting twist to the whole Wright fiasco.Â It would seem that it was a backer of Hillary Clinton that arranged the media conference with Wright.Â I have to hand it to them, nobody is as good at playing dirty as the Clintons.Â Pretty clearly they knew if they could get the good Reverend in front of the cameras, he would have plenty of rope with which to hang himself, and by association Barack Obama.

GOP Ads in North Carolina

Looks like the GOP in North Carolina ran an ad attacking Barack Obama, and by association the Democratic gubernatorial candidate for North Carolina, based on his association with Reverend Wright.Â I’m not going to agree with some in the media that the ad was in poor taste.Â I think the Wright issue is legitimate, as well as other folks Obama has close associations with.Â I don’t agree that this has anything to do with race, and I don’t get why other people want to wave that flag.

But nor am I going to join Rush Limbaugh in condemning McCain for distancing himself from the ad.Â From the McCain campaign’s point of view, it makes no sense to attack Barack Obama right now.Â If McCain or the GOP attacks him, you’re lending credibility to the notion of him being the nominee, and we don’t want that to start becoming a settled issue.Â With Hillary wailing away on Obama, and Obama outspending her six times over to not only lose, but to lose big, let the infighting continue.Â McCain and the GOP stand to gain nothing by attacking Barack Obama now, especially not on Rev. Wright.Â Let Hillary get dirty with him.

Let’s also not forget that the Republican have a lot of problems with the race issue, in terms of having certain people in the party who enjoy opening their mouths and inserting their feet.Â Not that the Democrats deserve a pass on this, by any means, but it matters little whether the the Wright ad was racist or not.Â There’s a public perception of the GOP as not being as good on racial issues as Democrats, and the media is only happy to foster that.Â The media meme was that the ad was racist, so McCain had everything to gain and nothing to lose by distancing himself from it.Â It allowed McCain too take the high road, while leaving Hillary to continue weakening Obama, and herself in the process.Â Either way this turns out, McCain gains.Â I would have imagined that people who follow politics as closely as Rush Limbaugh would realize that, but I have to wonder if they are too clouded by a seething hatred of McCain by this point to realize it.

The Gift That Keeps Giving

Reverend Wright is the gift that just keeps on giving:

The Chicago pastor refused to apologize for suggesting black Americans should sing “God Damn America” instead of “God Bless America” and for suggesting America brought 9/11 on itself because, as he put it, “we have never apologized as a country” for slavery.

“Britain has apologized to Africans but this country’s leaders have refused to apologize,” he said. Wright also said, “You can’t do terrorism on other people and not expect it to come back on you.”

Speaking as someone who has never enslaved another human being, nor knows anyone who has, I think I can fairly tell Reverend Wright to go to hell.Â One of the key concepts in American liberty is that we are not held to account for the sins of our fathers.Â And speaking of our forefathers, is this not enough of an apology for you Rev. Wright?

The Pennsylvania Strategy

The Weekly Standard thinks Hillary may have provided John McCain the key to defeating Obama:

In a new Brookings study of Pennsylvania’s political demographics, William Frey and Ruy Teixeira identify this region, centered on Allentown, as key to the state’s political future. If Pennsylvania’s Northeast keeps trending Democratic, the state will become solidly blue. But if a Republican candidate can hold the line or make some modest gains with the region’s white working class voters, the picture looks very different. And as it turns out, the GOP may have a candidate who can do just that in John McCain. As Hillary Clinton’s campaign slow-marches to its unhappy end, she is offering lessons not only for how McCain can defeat Obama–she is pointing towards a possible bright future for the Republican brand.

The Republicans have lost a lot in Pennsylvania, largely due to the Bush version of Republicanism alienating the traditionally Republican Philadelphia suburbs, and making those voters look elsewhere.Â That’s probably one reason I’m more sanguine about John McCain than most, is because I think the Republicans desperately need to make some gains in Pennsylvania, and McCain is probably the right kind of guy to appeal to voters in these key areas in the southeast.Â It’s not so much that I love the Republican Party, and want it to dominate, but I sit just across the river from a shining example of what one party rule does to a state.Â If Pennsylvania shifts solidly Democrat, if Ed Rendell is any indication of what is in long term store for us, we’re in a lot of trouble.Â Taxes will keep going up and up, people will keep leaving, andÂ you can probably kiss Pennsylvania goodbye as a pro-gun state in a generation.Â If it takes McCain coattails to reverse that trend, so be it.

HatTip to Instapundit

UPDATE: Check out this graphic in the Inquirer that shows how Obama failed.Â It also shows that Ed Rendell had to carry near universal support in the Philadelphia area in order to win.Â Obama failed to not only carry overwhelming support in the southeast, he failed to beat Hillary.

Hearing Postponed

The hearing on the Philadelphia gun control ordinances, originally scheduled for April 28th (today), has been rescheduled for May 19th, when we’ll all be in Louisville.Â Apparently the city is trying to make a standing argument.

At an April 17 hearing at which Greenspan granted an order temporarily blocking enforcement of the gun-control laws, the judge said she had misgivings about the organizations’ standing to sue. Generally, organizations cannot file a constitutional challenge without showing how their members are directly harmed by the law in question.

I’m an NRA member.Â I have firearms that are illegal under this law that I often transport through the City of Philadelphia.Â I am affected.Â I know other people who live in the city who will be affected, and are NRA members.Â NRA has standing.Â Why isn’t that obvious?Â Or is it, and they just want NRA off the suit, and are looking for an excuse?

Quote of the Day

From Barack Obama, on what he thinks about DC’s gun ban:

I don’t like taking a stand on pending cases.

Translation: “I agree with the law, but I have to win Indiana or I might be screwed when it comes to wooing superdelegates.”Â I don’t know why he’s so worried when he has AHSA’s endorsement.

Petition to Impeach Mayor Nutter

Someone started a petition to Impeach the Mayor of Philadelphia for passing the gun control ordinances.Â I fully agree with the sentiment here, but since City Council is the body to carry out the proceedings, and they are complicit in passing the bill, I doubt this is going to go anywhere.Â Also, I would advise anyone starting a petition to make sure they are using the proper spelling of the words “advice” and “break.”Â Â I normally hate to be the spell check guy, but it kind of stood out.

Reasonable Gun Laws in Pennsylvania

The fundamental problem is our definition of reasonableness.Â Mine differs greatly from Walter M. Phillips Jr.:

My suggestion would be to introduce a bill requiring both a license and a detailed background investigation before allowing someone to possess or own a handgun.

Currently, there is no requirement in Pennsylvania to obtain a license in order to own a handgun.

That’s correct, because we don’t license fundamental rights.Â A background check is already required, and a few minute check on a computer is all it takes; criminal records are computerized.

The current meaningless background check in Pennsylvania, along with the state’s no-license requirement, allows unsavory characters to buy handguns and later sell them on the streets – not just in Philadelphia, but in Reading, York, Scranton, and neighboring states that have more restrictive laws. Ultimately, individuals use them to commit crimes and kill innocent people.

By unsavory character, you mean people who have no criminal record in the State Police’s database, and in the National Crime Information Computer?Â Because that’s the background check that’s going to be done for the license too.Â The state uses the same system to run Licenses to Carry.Â It’s a thorough check.

Someone who has been arrested for multiple robberies, but convicted of none (witnesses might have not shown up, changed their testimony, or been murdered), is not someone who should be allowed to buy one handgun, let alone the 10 he may seek to buy (since there is no one-gun-a-month law in Pennsylvania); neither should the individual who is under investigation by the attorney general for major drug deals (but who never has been convicted of a felony).

We do not deny fundamental rights in this country without due process.Â Eliminating due process of a fundmental right is under no one’s definition “reasonable”.

To my knowledge, the NRA has not had its members march on state capitols protesting the passage of license- or detailed-background requirement laws, nor has the NRA brought a court action to declare such laws as violating the Second Amendment. In other words, the NRA seems to have slowly come to the realization that these laws are reasonable.

What crack pipe are you hitting pal?Â Try to pass this crap, and you can bet your rosey red buttcheeks that we’re going to march on Harrisburg.

It can hardly be argued that requiring a license to own a handgun is unreasonable or burdensome. After all, a license is required to drive an automobile. Is not a handgun a far more dangerous instrument than an automobile?

Driving an automobile on public roads is not a right.Â Keeping a firearm is a right.Â And you don’t need a license to buy a car, just to drive one on the public highways.

I think it’s high time we wrote our legislators, and found out exactly what the PCCD is doing with out tax dollars.Â I do not take kindly to government appointees advocating positions that are contrary to the constitution and laws of this commonwealth.

Exit Polling

John Lott points to some evidence that Obama’s “bitter” comments did him no favors among gun owning Democrats.Â Obama learned a hard lesson about Pennsylvania voters: It’s not like Illinois, where he could safely thumb his nose at downstate people from his posh 1.6 million dollar home on the South Side of Chicago, knowing full well they can’t outvote his urban constitutents.Â Pennsylvanians can and do outvote Philadelphia.Â Politics here is hazardous for the inexperienced, and Obama didn’t have what it takes to navigate the minefield.