As we gear up for the 2008 general election campaign for President, a disquieting portrait of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama is emerging. In separate press articles in the Boston Globe and the Washington Post this week, Obama is criticized for narcissism, the highest level of self-love. Globe columnist Joan Vennochi laments, “Barack Obama was always a larger-than-life candidate with a healthy ego. Now he’s turning into the A-Rod of politics. It’s all about him.” While acknowledging that “A presidential candidate is supposed to get bigger on the national stage…”, she concludes “That doesn’t mean his head should, too.”

Charles Krauthammer of the Post asks “…has there ever been a presidential nominee with a wider gap between his estimation of himself and the sum total of his lifetime achievements?” Ms. Vennochi notes that Obama, in her opinion, sees himself as the second coming of John F. Kennedy, a comparison given credence by the endorsements he received from JFK’s brother Senator Ted Kennedy and JFK’s daughter Caroline Kennedy, the last living member of the young, attractive and energetic family that brought us Camelot. In fact, she officially draped the mantle of Camelot over Senator Obama’s shoulders, stating in her endorsement piece in the New York Times, “A President Like My Father,” that “I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.”

Pretty heady stuff, isn’t it? Consider the fact, however, that when JFK was elected President of the United States, he had already served six years in the U.S. House of Representatives and seven years in the U.S. Senate, was a decorated war hero with nearly four years of military service including combat duty in the Pacific theater of operations during World War II, and had received a Pulitzer Prize for his book “Profiles in Courage“, recounting how eight U.S. Senators risked their careers for their principles. Senator Obama’s three years in the U.S. Senate were preceded by just under eight years in the Illinois Senate and his most notable literary achievement to date, according to Mr. Krauthammer, “is a biography of his favorite subject: himself.”

Frankly, Senator Obama’s impact on the nation is more like that of another Kennedy, the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Ever see the movie, “Bobby“? It accurately captured the mood of the nation at the time of his candidacy for President. We were in the midst of an unpopular war with an unpopular President at the helm, and domestic turmoil was high as were the tensions between the races. We were as polarized as a nation could be; if you stop to think about it, the parallels between 1968 and 2008 are eerie. Into this maelstrom steps RFK, the brother and closest confidante of the slain President John F. Kennedy. Despite having served only three years as U.S. Attorney General and another three years as the U.S. Senator from New York, his campaign became a symbol of the lost dreams of Camelot and there was great hope that he could revive them. A Wikipedia entry on his campaign could be a description of Senator Obama’s campaign today: “Kennedy stood on a ticket of racial and economic justice, non-aggression in foreign policy, decentralization of power and social improvement. A crucial element to his campaign was an engagement with the young, whom he identified as being the future of a reinvigorated American society based on partnership and equality.” His passion and compassion for the poor and minorities was genuine and he spoke candidly and harshly to people of privilege who he believed owed more to their less fortunate brothers and sisters. In that regard he was, in my opinion, much more authentic than Senator Obama, who I perceive as being a much more calculating and skilled politician who doesn’t let his passions get in the way of his ambitions.

Like Obama, RFK was a compelling speaker and his speech to a black audience in Indianapolis on the day of Martin Luther King’s assassination is credited with keeping that city calm while riots erupted across the rest of the nation. He drew huge crowds wherever he went, with people reaching out to touch and pull at him, tearing his clothes and pulling off his shoes. Author Thurston Clarke referred to RFK’s campaign as “82 days that inspired America.” His assassination froze him in time forever as the slain savior, the one who could have changed the world had he only lived. That is the torch that has been passed to Senator Obama, at least in the minds and hearts of his energized followers and perhaps in his own mind as well.

These columns addressing Senator Obama’s elevated view of himself don’t even mention the “Obama as Messiah” phenomenon that has been building since his speech before the Democratic National Convention in 2004 that rocketed him from national obscurity to instant hero status. If you want to be truly frightened, go to the blog “Is Barack Obama the Messiah?” and read some of the statements made by people about Senator Obama. Here’s a representative example from U.S. Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr., a member of the Obama campaign team: “What Barack Obama has accomplished is the single most extraordinary event that has occurred in the 232 years of the nation’s political history. … The event itself is so extraordinary that another chapter could be added to the Bible to chronicle its significance.” Say what?

As you read through this blog, you’ll be stunned at the words supposedly intelligent and rational people use to describe Senator Obama - “a LightWorker, that rare kind of attuned being…who can actually help usher in a new way of being on the planet.” Or how about this one? “Everything’s going to be affected by this seismic change in the universe.” Or this one? “Not just an ordinary human being but indeed an Advanced Soul.” Slate Magazine, not generally regarded as a conservative publication, has a tongue-in-cheek series by Timothy Noah that began in January 2007 called “The Obama Messiah Watch” to chronicle the “gratuitously adoring biographical details that appear in newspaper, television, and magazine profiles of this otherworldly presence in our midst.” A Google search on “Obama Messiah” turns up 1,560,000 hits compared to 612,000 hits for “Obama Antichrist” (yes, some subscribe to the belief that Senator Obama is otherworldly but not in a positive way).

Senator Obama’s supporters will probably decry this characterization of their hero, saying that he never asked for the praise and adoration that has come his way. Consider, then, the words of his speech the night he effectively secured the Democratic nomination:

“If we are willing to work for it and fight for it and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs for the jobless. This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal. This was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on earth. This was the moment, this was the time when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves and our highest ideals.”

Wow - at the moment of his nomination, we suddenly began caring for sick people, hiring the unemployed, halting the melting of the polar ice caps and restoring the ecological balance of the planet? If he can do that, we don’t need an election! All kidding aside, does he believe he’s the only one who cares about and has taken action on these issues and many others? Were we so damaged as a nation before he arrived on the national scene? Despite the hatred liberals have for the America we have rather than the America they desire, as CNN commentator Glenn Beck points out, we are still the strongest, most prosperous and most caring nation on the planet. As scholar Arthur C. Brooks states, we are “a nation of givers.” Our charitable contributions set a record last year despite the difficult economic times. We have been free from terrorist attacks on our soil since 9/11, a direct consequence, I believe, of our foreign and domestic security policies. Liberals complain that we are not loved around the world but the President’s first duty is to defend us, not run for “BFF-in-chief” (for those who don’t have teenagers, “BFF” stands for “Best Friends Forever”). Travel to some of the “vacation spots” of the world like some of the young people in our church are doing, places like Guatemala and Uganda, and find out what real poverty looks like. Visit China, the same China that’s telling local bars in Beijing not to serve blacks and Mongolians during the Olympics, if you want to know what real suppression of civil liberties looks like. Move to Europe, where gas has been at $4 a gallon for decades and is now at $9 a gallon if you want to know what real high gas prices look like. Yes, we can always be better but we shouldn’t lose sight of the abundant blessings that are already ours. If anything, our liberal friends need a heavy dose of perspective - but I digress!

What’s even more bothersome to me is the number of disaffected Republicans who are buying into the “Obamessiah” movement. Senator Obama has even coined a name for them - “Obamacans.” This phenomenon has been captured in several press articles this year, including one in the New Yorker Magazine by Bruce Bartlett, a former economic advisor to Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. While he’s not ready to jump on the Obama bandwagon, he understands why some Republicans are doing so (I don’t). Some of the more prominent names on the list are Susan Eisenhower, the granddaughter of the late Republican President Eisenhower and a stalwart Republican herself until now, Jeffrey Hart of the conservative National Review Magazine, and Colin Powell, who hasn’t openly endorsed Obama but has spoken highly of him and may yet endorse him. As a principled Republican, I can’t see how any GOPer can embrace a candidate who was described by the non-partisan National Journal as the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate, is heartily endorsed by the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) and Planned Parenthood for his support of unrestricted abortions, and looks first to government to solve every problem and plans to raise taxes to further expand government into health care and other areas of public life. How can we be so starry-eyed as to fall under the spell of his celebrity and ignore his record and his stated views?

Perhaps Senator Obama is the perfect candidate for our times. In our celebrity-driven culture, substance matters less than style and Senator Obama has style in spades. Young, handsome, bright and oratorically gifted, he’s tailor-made for the age of “American Idol” and “Entertainment Tonight.” While it’s true that a President must be not just the nation’s chief executive but also a visionary leader and purveyor of hope, this is the first time in my recollection that the scales have tipped so dramatically toward inspiration over execution. We need to turn our gaze away from his illuminated being and think critically about what he actually proposes to do. As English philosopher, statesman and author Francis Bacon once said, “Hope is a good breakfast but it is a bad supper.”

-Copied from Ron’s Reflections with permission of the author.
Paid for and Authorized by the Team Ron Miller Committee - Robert Wood, Treasurer

Who Does He Think He Is?

In an article in TownHall.com on Friday, July 18, columnist Charles Krauthammer criticized Barack Obama for requesting permission to speak at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, Germany. Krauthammer said "What Obama does not seem to understand is that the Brandenburg Gate is something you earn. President Reagan earned the right to speak there because his relentless pressure had brought the Soviet empire to its knees and he was demanding its final "tear down this wall" liquidation. When President Kennedy visited the Brandenburg Gate on the day of his "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech, he was representing a country that was prepared to go to the brink of nuclear war to defend West Berlin.

"Who is Obama representing? And what exactly has he done in his lifetime to merit appropriating the Brandenburg Gate as a campaign prop? What was his role in the fight against communism, the liberation of Eastern Europe, the creation of what George Bush 41 -- who presided over the fall of the Berlin Wall but modestly declined to go there for a victory lap -- called "a Europe whole and free"?"

We encourage you to read the entire article. A "printer friendly" version is also available here. An example of other commentary on Obama's ego is The Audacity of Ego by Joan Vennochi in the Boston Globe.

Cindy Hensley McCain

This is an interesting article [circulaing by email, original author unknown-Editor] as not much was known about her. She was on Leno the other night and it was an interesting interview. It turns out that she is a character as she is or has been a race car driver and is also a pilot. She flies John around the country to his rallies. After hearing that about her and reading this I now have a lot of respect for her.

Election 2008: Cindy Hensley McCain has been disparaged as a trophy wife, a Barbie, an heiress with fancy purses, even the Paris Hilton of politics. But there's more to the picture than meets the eye.

Yes, Mrs. McCain is the perfectly coifed blonde standing dutifully behind the senator during his speeches. And yes, she wears stylish clothing and carries a Prada purse. And it's true she doesn't say much. But feminist critics who write her off as a "stand-by-your-man" shrinking violet are selling her short. In many ways, Cindy McCain stacks up sturdier than Hillary Clinton or Michelle Obama. And she'd make a more impressive first lady.

Mrs. McCain: More than meets the eye.

While Obama's wife has been hating America, complaining about the war and undermining our troops serving in Afghanistan, McCain's wife has been worrying about her sons who actually are fighting or planning to fight in the war on terror. One, in fact, was until a few months ago deployed in Iraq during some of the worst violence.

You don't hear the McCains talk about it, but their 19-year-old Marine, Jimmy, is preparing for his second tour of duty. Their 21-year-old son, Jack, is poised to graduate from Annapolis and also could join the Marines as a second lieutenant. The couple made the decision not to draw attention to their sons out of respect for other families with sons and daughters in harm's way.

Cindy also says she doesn't want to risk falling apart on the campaign trail talking about Jimmy who was so young when he enlisted she had to sign consent forms for his medical tests before he could report for duty and potentially upsetting parents of soldiers who are serving or have been killed.

The McCains want to make sure their boys get no special treatment. Same goes for their five other children, including a daughter they adopted from Bangladesh .

During a visit to Mother Teresa's orphanage there, Cindy noticed a dying baby. The orphanage could not provide the medical care needed to save her life. So she brought the child home to America for the surgery she desperately needed. The baby is now their healthy, 16-year-old daughter, Bridget.

Though all seven McCain children including two Sen. McCain adopted from his first marriage are supportive of their father, they prefer their privacy to the glare of the campaign trail. Another daughter, Meghan, 23, helps him behind the scenes.

Cindy McCain not only cherishes her children, but also her country, which in an election year filled with America-bashing, is a refreshing novelty. She seethed when she heard Michelle Obama's unpatriotic remarks that she only recently grew proud of America . "I am very proud of my country," Mrs. McCain asserted.

She also may be tougher than the other women in the race. While Hillary thinks she's come under sniper fire on mission trips abroad, Cindy has actually seen violence. She witnessed a boy get blown up by a mine in Kuwait during a trip with an international group that removes land mines from war-torn countries.

Mrs. McCain also is a hands-on philanthropist. She sits on the board of Operation Smile, which arranges for plastic surgeons to fix cleft palates and other birth defects. She also has helped organize relief missions to Micronesia.

During a scuba-diving vacation to the islands, Mrs. McCain took a friend to a local hospital to have a cut treated. She was shocked and saddened by what she saw.

"They opened the door to the OR, where the supplies were, and there were two cats and a whole bunch of rats climbing out of the sterile supplies, " she recalled. "They had no X-ray machine, no beds. To me, it was devastating because it was a U.S. trust territory."

As soon as she returned home, she arranged for medical equipment and teams of doctors to be sent to treat the island children.

Michelle Obama may contribute to CARE, which fights global poverty and works to empower poor women. Cindy sits on its board.

While the Democrat women talk about helping the poor and needy, Cindy McCain actually rolls up her sleeves and does it. Who's the out-of-touch elitist?

Op-Ed piece by House Minority Leader Anthony J. O’Donnell and House Minority Whip Christopher B. Shank

Recent coverage of the repeal of the computer services tax in Maryland is reminiscent of George Orwell’s book 1984. Some of the same legislators who argued strenuously in favor of the tax during the legislative special session, are now hailed as heroes of the repeal effort. As a few issues have been confused and distorted, we would like to take this opportunity to clarify some facts from our perspective.

The expansion of the Maryland sales tax to include computer services was first enacted during the November 2007 Special Session. It was added to the already historic tax increases in, literally, the dark of night in a Senate committee, with no discussion or input from the public or members of the industry. This game of tax hokey pokey had been going on for several days, as various industries were in, and then out. Ultimately, the tech services industry became the loser in this game. At that time, the Republican Caucus argued on the floor of the House of Delegates how damaging this tax would be to the burgeoning tech industry in Maryland, and to the state’s economy. We also pointed out the singular unfairness of the process that led to this tax’s inclusion in the package being strenuously pushed by Governor O’Malley and the Democrat leadership.

We offered an amendment to strip the tech tax from the package, which failed. The General Assembly went on to pass the largest tax increase in Maryland history. Once again, the Republican members argued and voted against these taxes, proposing as an alternative, specific reductions in the rate of growth in spending to address the looming deficit.

From the beginning of the 2008 legislative session, the Republican caucus made it one of our top priorities to repeal the tax on computer services. When the budget was being considered, we once again proposed very specific reductions in the rate of growth in spending that would have allowed a repeal of the tax without need for additional taxes, and once again the amendment was defeated.

Governor O’Malley and the Democratic leadership chose to ignore all of the alternatives presented by the Republican caucus, and, after finally succumbing to public pressure, replaced the tech tax with another tax, this time the so-called “millionaire’s tax”. This backfilling was entirely unnecessary. As the Republican membership has pointed out multiple times over the past months, Maryland does not have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem.

One final time, Maryland Republicans offered an amendment that would have repealed the computer services tax without backfilling with another tax, by making sensible reductions in the rate of growth in spending, and one final time, that alternative was rejected.

The repeal of the tax on computer services, while removing a burdensome tax on an industry Maryland ought to be encouraging, cannot be lauded as a victory without examining the effect of this new tax. The increased income tax is likely to have an equally damaging effect on Maryland’s economy. Many of the individuals who qualify for this increased tax are actually small businesses who file as a Subchapter S corporations, so once again a tax has been imposed which will damage small business.

The recent experience of California serves as a cautionary tale of the type of impact this new tax will have. When California imposed such a high-income tax several years ago, 5,000 of the state’s 25,000 highest income earners left the state. By depending on such a narrow sector of the tax base, for so much of their revenue, California quickly went into a $7 billion deficit, largely attributable to the new tax. Just like the tech tax, this new burden provides a disincentive for these high income families to reside in Maryland, and contribute to our state’s economy as well as to the state coffers. Clearly, the decision of a few of these highest income earners to leave Maryland in search of greener pastures would have a huge impact on our State’s finances, which are already unstable.

Anthony J. O’Donnell House Minority Leader District 29C

Christopher B. Shank House Minority Whip District 2B

The Arizona Republic, online print edition
Len Munsil, McCain supporter
Mar. 30, 2008 12:00 AM

For conservatives, John McCain is only choice that makes sense

Although Sen. John McCain has locked up the Republican nomination for president, some conservative leaders continue to snipe at him. Although I agree with elements of the most conservative critiques of McCain, I could not possibly disagree more with their conclusions - especially if they cause conservatives to sit this election out.

McCain is not the lesser of two evils. In fact, he is worthy of the enthusiastic support of every thinking conservative. I join many citizens in gratitude that a genuine American hero with core conservative beliefs, who has already given so much for our nation, is willing to spend his eighth decade on Earth serving a cause greater than himself.

Read the complete editorial here

The Wall Street Journal
By MARK SANFORD
March 15, 2008; Page A10

The Conservative Case for McCain

Last week, I asked David Walker, the U.S. comptroller general, why he is quitting his job to travel the country on a "fiscal wake-up tour." His answer: Because we have only five to 10 years to address the federal government's looming shortfalls before we're faced with a fiscal crisis.

In about a decade, the twin forces of demographics and compound interest will leave few options for solving the fiscal mess Washington has created. By then, our options will all be ugly. We could make draconian spending cuts, or impose large tax increases that will undermine our economy in the competitive global marketplace. Or we could debase the value of the dollar by printing a large amount of money. This would shrink the overall value of the federal government's debt. It would also wipe out the value of most Americans' savings.

Read the complete editorial here

The Wall Street Journal
March 15, 2008; Page A10

High Tech Tax

In the cinematic classic, "Revenge of the Nerds," a group of college outcasts fights back against the local campus bigshots to regain their place in the world. A real-life sequel is playing out in Maryland, where a new tax on computer services has business groups, techies and legislators rallying around the pocket-protector set.

Under a bill passed in November, such tech services as Web design, computer repair and programming would all get hit with a 6% tax statewide. If the tax isn't repealed before it takes effect in July, it would be one of the most burdensome regimes in the nation on the growing industry. On Thursday, Governor Martin O'Malley, a Democrat who originally balked at repealing the tax, joined the chorus against it. The state's technology sector is critical, he said, and "not an advantage we want to weigh down."

Read the complete editorial here

The Gazette Newspapers
Friday, Feb. 22, 2008
Rascovar on Politics | Barry Rascovar

Killing the golden goose

Here’s a quick quiz: What Maryland industry employs 60,000 people, has a payroll exceeding $5 billion and whose vast potential is about to be sabotaged by shortsighted state legislators?

If you guessed the information technology industry, you’ve been following developments in Annapolis quite closely.

An unforgivable breakdown in the checks and balances embedded in the Maryland General Assembly’s way of doing business led to a counter-productive expansion of the state’s new 6 percent sales tax to computer services.

It is supposed to raise $200 million — a fairy-tale number that won’t prove anywhere near accurate. This was the final piece in the tax-increase/budget-balancing puzzle Gov. Martin O’Malley and lawmakers needed to complete their work last November...Read the complete editorial here.

Southern Maryland Newspapers
Friday, Dec. 21, 2007

Special session put burden of keeping Maryland going on the middle-class

Well, the governor’s special session is over.

Once again the Democrat leaders representing only themselves won and all the citizens and businesses they represent lost... Read the complete letter to the editor.