Dr L,

So Kewl, you're making fun of the way she looks and sounds.

What grade you in?

"Burn that mother down." -- Jimmy Ellis

I was like damn she's hot!!!! Then I put my glasses back on. :-)

I love getting on Real Clear Politics electorate map and fiddling with it.

Today I was looking at what would happen if McCain put Romney on the ticket.  And then what would happen if he put Ridge on the ticket:

With Romney as VP:

McCain could win Michigan, Colorado, and Nevada. Three states that Obama is leading in (albiet narrowly). He would probably rule out winning New Mexico, though.

McCain would win the election though: 275 to 263

With Tom Ridge as VP:

McCain could win Pennselvania and possibly New Jersey, but would probably lose Georgia and Arkansas, and probably Colorado.

Obama would win: 274 to 264.

That was assuming McCain holds on to Virginia and North Carolina

As for other potential VP's: I see no one who could add much to the ticket.  Pawlenty (sp?) can't help him in Minnesota (Obama has a double didget lead) and he can't do more for social's than Romney can.

Sarah Paulin (sp?) could appeal to women, but Republicans would be called panderers by the  drive-bys.  And I don't see what state she could help in...maybe Iowa.

Romney's the smartest choice.

debunk of the stupid lies and slams:

EDIT: Commenter Caneel found information regarding ArcelorMittal, Branham's listed place of employment. Feel free to contact him directly with your thoughts!

1.) Selma Got Me Born - NOT EXACTLY, your parents felt safe enough to have you in 1961 - Selma had no effect on your birth, as Selma was in 1965. (Google'Obama Selma' for his full March 4, 2007 speech and articles about its various untruths.)

No link provided, I did Google "Obama Selma", and read the aforementioned speech. Barack Obama NEVER said "Selma got me born". This criticism is based on an overly-literal interpretation of the speech commemorating the 42nd anniversary of the 1965 Selma civil rights march. In the speech, Obama linked his birth to the civil rights movement by describing his father’s arrival in the US. His father’s flight (in 1959) was sponsored by Kenyan nationalist leader Tom Mboya and the African-America Students Foundation, who approached the Kennedys for financial support that was given in 1960 (after Obama Sr. had already arrived). While Obama did incorrectly tie himself to the Kennedys during this speech, his aides were quick to offer up a correction. The overall meaning behind his speech was quite clear to me; that the civil rights movement helped foster greater understanding between people of different races, which made it possible for his mother and father to have a relationship. He didn't mean that the events in Selma literally led to his being conceived.

2.) Father Was A Goat Herder - NOT EXACTLY, he was a privileged, well educated youth, who went on to work with the Kenyan Government.

These attributes are not mutually exclusive- Barak Obama’s father was all of these things at different points in his life. Obama Sr. DID herd goats, even after his education at a missionary school in Kenya. It wasn’t until he was fortunate enough to earn a scholarship flight to the U.S. that his education and study of economics continued. And it wasn’t until he returned to Kenya that he took a position as a civil servant in the Jomo Kenyatta government.

3.) Father Was A Proud Freedom Fighter - NOT EXACTLY, he was part of one of the most corrupt and violent governments Kenya has ever had.

No link provided for the statement. Senator Obama NEVER said that his father was a "proud freedom fighter." He has spoken frankly about how his father went back to Kenya and served as a government bureaucrat, until political problems led him to become a disillusioned alcoholic in his later years. Obama Sr. eventually lost his civil service job after campaigning against corrupt African politicians.

4.) My Family Has Strong Ties To African Freedom - NOT EXACTLY, your cousin Raila Odinga has created mass violence in attempting to overturn a legitimate election in 2007, in Kenya. It is the first widespread violence in decades. The current government is pro-American but Odinga wants to overthrow it and establish Muslim Sharia law. Your half-brother, Abongo Obama, is Odinga's follower. You interrupted your New Hampshire campaigning to speak to Odinga on the phone. Check out the following link for verification of that....and for more. Obama's cousin Odinga in Kenya ran for president and tried to get Sharia muslim law in place there. When Odinga lost the elections, his followers have burned Christians' homes and then burned men, women and children alive in a Christian church where they took shelter.. Obama SUPPORTED his cousin before the election process here started. Google Obama and Odinga and see what you get. No one wants to know the truth.

While Raila Odinga has made claims to be Barack Obama’s cousin (maintaining that Obama’s biological father was his maternal uncle), there is NO substantive evidence documenting his claim (Obama’s uncle has publicly denied the claim), and there is no meaningful familial relationship. While Obama did interrupt his campaign to make a statement in January of 2008 that in part supported Odinga, he was requested to make that statement by GW Bush's Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. (I have not removed the link mentioned- there wasn't one listed.) Abongo Obama does support Odinga, but Barack Obama has spoken out in disagreement with his half-brother, and besides, if you’re going to condemn someone for the crimes of their relatives, let’s not forget that Barack Obama and Dick Cheney are related.

5.) My Grandmother Has Always Been A Christian - NOT EXACTLY, she does her daily Salat prayers at 5am according to her own interviews. Not to mention, Christianity wouldn't allow her to have been one of 14 wives to 1 man.

Oddly enough, the author of this list doesn’t seem to realize that Barack Obama (just like every other human being on the planet) was born with ::gasp!:: two grandmothers. His maternal grandmother Madelyn Dunham HAS always been a Christian.

6.) My Name is African Swahili - NOT EXACTLY, your name is Arabic and 'Baraka' (from which Barack came) means 'blessed' in that language. Hussein is also Arabic and so is Obama. Barack Hussein Obama is not half black. If elected, he would be the first Arab-American President, not the first black President. Barack Hussein Obama is 50% Caucasian from his mother's side and 43.75% Arabic and 6.25% African Negro from his father's side. While Barack Hussein Obama's father was from Kenya, his father's family was mainly Arabs.. Barack Hussein Obama's father was only 12.5% African Negro and 87.5% Arab (his father's birth certificate even states he's Arab, not African Negro). From....and for more....go to.....

Much in the same way that Haitian and French, and Portuguese and Spanish share a great deal of root words, so do Swahili and Arabic. Here is a link to the University of Pennsylvania explaining the language connection. In Swahili, "barak(a)" is a noun meaning "blessing, prosperity, abundance". The Arabic for "blessed" is "mubaarak". His name also has origins in Hebrew, with the word "baruch", which also means "blessed". As far as the claim that Barack Obama’s father’s family was mainly Arabs, there is no record of that having been properly researched. The poster (who is being quoted on a website for Arcade games, you should notice) is quoting a blogger named Kenneth E. Lamb, whose only factual basis for his claims is that the majority of Obama Sr.’s family have "Arabic surnames". For his utterly unresearched analysis to be correct, all of Obama’s Kenyan paternal ancestors with supposed Arab surnames (remember the Arab/Swahili language connection) must not have mated with any native Kenyan women- a highly unlikely scenario. Surnames obviously do not necessarily correctly convey ancestry- or else everyone whose last name was Douglas would be Scottish.

EDIT: Per commenter WIds, my refutement is partially incorrect. See his explanation here.

7.) I Never Practiced Islam - NOT EXACTLY, you practiced it daily at school, where you were registered as a Muslim and kept that faith for 31 years, until your wife made you change, so you could run for office. 4-3-08 Article "Obama was 'quite religious in islam'"

This is one of the most prevalent and easily debunked claims made against Barack Obama. He is not, and has never been a Muslim, he was not raised a Muslim, and he is a committed Christian. There exists NO factual evidence to the contrary.
On a related note, the referenced website WorldNetDaily has been forced to issue numerous retractions for "hit piece" articles, and has been officially discredited by the Center for Public Integrity for publishing without fact verification, and falsely naming sources and attributing quotes to them that were never said.

8.) My School In Indonesia Was Christian - NOT EXACTLY, you were registered as Muslim there and got in trouble in Koranic Studies for making faces (check your own book). February 28, 2008. Kristoff from the New York Times a year ago: Mr. Obama recalled the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer, reciting them with a first-rate accent. In a remark that seemed delightfully uncalculated (it'll give Alabama voters heart attacks), Mr. Obama described the call to prayer as "one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset." This is just one example of what Pamela is talking about when she says "Obama's narrative is being altered, enhanced and manipulated to whitewash troubling facts."

Barack Obama attended more than one school in Indonesia- one of which (SDN Menteng 1) was a public school that included Islamic religious instruction among its curriculum, and one of which (Fransiskus Assisi) was a private Catholic school. (Ahem- for the slow, Catholicism is a body of Christianity) He did express the stated opinion of the call to prayer- so what? You can disagree with his opinion or not. I actually quite enjoy the use of it in Sting’s song "Desert Rose", which features the call to prayer in its melody. The referenced "Pamela" is Pamela Geller, wacko author of the extremist webblog Atlas Shrugs who believes that wearing a scarf makes you a tool of the jihadists.

9.) I Was Fluent In Indonesian - NOT EXACTLY, not one teacher says you could speak the language.

Err, how many teachers did you ask? Barack Obama NEVER claimed to be "fluent" in any Indonesian language. However, while living in Indonesia, he did acquire a passable command of Bahasa, the language spoken in Indonesia and Malaysia, which has been admired and commented upon by no less than Parnohadiningrat Sudjadnan, the Indonesian ambassador to the US.

10.) Because I Lived In Indonesia, I Have More Foreign Experience - NOT EXACTLY, you were there from the ages of 6 to 10, and couldn't even speak the language. What did you learn, how to study the Koran and watch cartoons.

Ah, I see. Four years is long enough to turn him into a Muslim fanatic, but not enough to give him an idea of what it’s like to live in a foreign country? Yeah, right. While Barack Obama does hold the position that his time in Indonesia gave him foreign experience, he’s hardly the only one to do so. Ruth Hill Useem, a prominent sociologist who spent her career studying what she called Third Culture Kids said, "the millions of U.S. children who have been carted abroad...don't spend enough time in their adopted countries to become fully bicultural, but they take pieces and add it to their home values and traditions... Studies have shown that kids who have spent time abroad are more likely to go to college, [and] to relate to one another despite the influences of vastly differing cultures..."

EDIT: Commenter mierts cleverly pointed out that if visiting foreign countries counts as qualification for office, then our current President was completely unqualified back in 2000.

11.) I Am Stronger On Foreign Affairs - NOT EXACTLY, except for Africa (surprise) and the Middle East (bigger surprise), you have never been anywhere else on the planet and thus have NO experience with our closest allies.

Barack Obama has been described even by his critics as the most traveled freshman Senator. He has lived in, traveled to, or otherwise spent time in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. His travels have taken him to Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, the Palestinian Territories, Chad, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, and South Africa. He has also announced a seven nation world tour in the summer of 2008, confirming plans to visit Israel, Jordan, France, Germany, Britain, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Where else does he have to go- Antarctica? Besides, where you’ve been isn’t the only way to measure your strength in foreign affairs. He was a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and served on several subcommittees. Brzezinski, former National Security Advisor for the US pointed to Obama’s greater willingness to meet with leaders of hostile nations and his early resistance to the war in Iraq as examples of his superior intuition on foreign policy.

12.) I Blame My Early Drug Use On Ethnic Confusion - NOT EXACTLY, you were quite content in high school to be Barry Obama, no mention of Kenya and no mention of struggle to identify - your classmates said you were just fine.

A bi-racial teenager going through high school in the 60’s & 70’s with NO identity crisis? Yeah, that’s plausible. The writer of this list must surely know what life was like for him with more accuracy than Barack Obama himself. Also, he didn't say "Ethnic Confusion"... he said drugs pushed questions of "who he was" out of his mind. Besides, if he was a private person when it came to displaying his emotions, Obama's classmates might not have had any idea what Barry was going through on a personal level.

13.)An Ebony Article Moved Me To Run For Office - NOT EXACTLY, Ebony has yet to find the article you mention in your book. It doesn't, and never did, exist.

14.) A Life Magazine Article Changed My Outlook On Life - NOT EXACTLY, Life has yet to find the article you mention in your book. It doesn't, and never did, exist.

That no matching articles may yet have been found does not mean that Obama saw no such articles; it may simply mean that, writing decades after the fact, he misremembered the titles of the magazines he was viewing. His has, in fact, admitted to his lapse in memory. Both Time and Look magazines had similar articles to what he described, and Ebony magazine often ran advertisements for Nadinola skin bleach: "Lightens and brightens skin."

15.) I Won't Run On A National Ticket In '08 - NOT EXACTLY, here you are, despite saying, live on TV, that you would not have enough experience by then, and you are all about having experience first.

Barack Obama he has said he had "no plans" to run, which is a standard phrase virtually all politicians say when they are not ready to reveal their plans to the press. Clinton and McCain had both made similar statements before coming out and running for President. In fact, in 2000 McCain admitted that he would be too old to run for President in 2008.

16.) Voting "Present" is Common In Illinois Senate - NOT EXACTLY, they are common for YOU, but not many others have 130 NO VOTES.

Present votes ARE common in Illinois, as has been explained by Illinois legislators, newspapers and researchers. In Illinois, a "Present" vote is not the same as "No" vote at all. It is used most often as a way to express agreement with a bill that may have some problems that still need to be worked out, or to protest bills that are believed to have been drafted unconstitutionally. Illinois lawmakers often vote "present" as part of a larger party or issue bloc strategy.

Anybody remember the Sleestacks?

Didn't  you get the memo?

Obama says that Susan Estrich is off limits.  It is a distraction.

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No making fun of Susan Estrich. Obama says so. It is a distraction.

You don't hear any late night comics making fun of Susan Estrich, do you?

We have Freddie May and Fannie Mack, high gas prices, global warming, people trying to register handguns in DC, smokers smoking in public and rising college freshman kids who have to work at Subway. These are no times for laughter.

<no more witty signatures here>

I think she might have been one of Captain Kirk's alien trysts.