MY WIFE'S REACTION [Jonah Goldberg]

She hadn't heard about the Osama video until just now. I told her about it fairly neutrally because I wanted her honest reaction (the Fair Jessica's political resume is long and superb). So after I told her about it, her first informational follow-up question was: "Are you sure it wasn't Ed Gillespie in a beard?"

Needless to say, she doesn't buy the pro-Kerry Osama's reverse psychology spin.

Thoughts on a Friday

• Bear -- not to worry; I knew you were kidding. And I couldn't agree more: Looking at a guy on TV and thinking he "looks like a punk" is a completely legitimate reason to dislike a team and thus stand by while a great sports story happens. Seriously. I do that all the time. One guy on the team looks like a "punk" and that's it for me. Over. I hate them.
• Anyway, the Bin Laden tape is interesting. The guys been camera shy for a couple of years and decides to reappear on a Friday afternoon before the US election. I have no idea what the general reaction will be. I hope that people realize that we are still in danger from the threat of these dirtbags and realize that Bush will fight them and that Kerry will crawl on his yellow belly to France for permission to have a summit that might possibly put out a press release denouncing OBL.
• Jonah's column is a keeper. And I agree, Kerry's "You bet we might have!" kind of sums it all up, eh?
• I am really worried about voter fraud. I am going to blow a gasket if next Tuesday I have to sit there and watch all kinds of people vote illegally because the "law" (I use that term loosely - Minnesota has a porous voter registration law) won't allow me to stop it. I just hope that it doesn't happen at my precinct, but I suspect it will. I am trying to get in touch with the local Republicans to see what is being done. From what I understand, there is a plan being set in motion to do something about it, and I want to be involved. Makes my blood boil just thinking about it -- the sancitity of the ballot box is of no concern whatever to the Left. The ends justify the means, I guess.
• Isn't the "Now they are here/now they aren't" explosives story kind of funny? It's kind of been overtaken by the OBL tape, but here you have a story that pretty much dominates the news cycle for days but that in the grand scheme of things is really, really inconsequential. I have a hard time imagining voters out there thinking "Gee, I was really on the fence, but the fact that the 3ID may or may not have left 0.01% of the explosives in Iraq get away has pushed me over the edge: I voting for Kerry!" Bush's line on it was perfect though -- "...glad to hear that Senator Kerry is finally understanding that Iraq is a dangerous place..."

Have a good weekend, and be sure to volunteer down at Bush Headquarters.

Within days of Sept. 11, the clueless airhead president that inhabits Michael Moore's films and Tina Brown's dinner parties had done this: forced Pakistan into alliance with us, isolated the Taliban, secured military cooperation from Afghanistan's northern neighbors, and authorized a radical war plan involving just a handful of Americans on the ground, using high technology and local militias to utterly rout the Taliban.

President Bush put in place a military campaign that did in two months what everyone had said was impossible: defeat an entrenched, fanatical, ruthless regime in a territory that had forced the great British and Soviet empires into ignominious retreat. Bush followed that by creating in less than three years a fledgling pro-American democracy in a land that had no history of democratic culture and was just emerging from 25 years of civil war.

This election comes down to a choice between one man's evolution and the other man's resolution. With his endlessly repeated Tora Bora charges, Kerry has made Afghanistan a major campaign issue. So be it. Whom do you want as president? The man who conceived the Afghan campaign, carried it through without flinching when it was being called a "quagmire" during its second week and has seen it through to Afghanistan's transition to democracy? Or the retroactive genius, who always knows what needs to be done after it has already happened -- who would have done "everything" differently in Iraq, yet in Afghanistan would have replicated Bush's every correct, courageous, radical and risky decision -- except one. Which, of course, he would have done differently. He says. Now.

"After repeatedly calling Iraq the wrong war, and a diversion, Senator Kerry this week seemed shocked to learn that Iraq is a dangerous place, full of dangerous weapons..."

"If Senator Kerry had his way…Saddam Hussein would still be in power. He would control those all of those weapons and explosives and could share them with his terrorist friends. Now the senator is making wild charges about missing explosives, when his top foreign policy adviser admits, quote, 'We do not know the facts.' Think about that: The senator is denigrating the actions of our troops and commanders in the field without knowing the facts..."

"Our military is now investigating a number of possible scenarios, including that the explosives may have been moved before our troops even arrived at the site. This investigation is important and it's ongoing. And a political candidate who jumps to conclusions without knowing the facts is not a person you want as your commander in chief."

Election determines fate of nation

In that this will be my last column before the presidential election, there will be no sarcasm, no attempts at witty repartee. The topic is too serious, and the stakes are too high.

This November we will vote in the only election during our lifetime that will truly matter. Because America is at a once-in-a-generation crossroads, more than an election hangs in the balance. Down one path lies retreat, abdication and a reign of ambivalence.

Down the other lies a nation that is aware of it's past and accepts the daunting obligation its future demands. If we choose poorly, the consequences will echo through the next 50 years of history. If we, in a spasm of frustration, turn out the current occupant of the White House, the message to the world and ourselves will be two-fold. First, we will reject the notion that America can do big things. Once a nation that tamed a frontier, stood down the Nazis and stood upon the moon, we will announce to the world that bringing democracy to the Middle East is too big of a task for us. But more significantly, we will signal to future presidents that as voters, we are unwilling to tackle difficult challenges, preferring caution to boldness, embracing the mediocrity that has characterized other civilizations.

The defeat of President Bush will send a chilling message to future presidents who may need to make difficult, yet unpopular decisions. America has always been a nation that rises to the demands of history regardless of the costs or appeal. If we turn away from that legacy, we turn away from whom we are.

Second, we inform every terrorist organization on the globe that the lesson of Somalia was well-learned. In Somalia we showed terrorists that you don't need to defeat America on the battlefield when you can defeat them in the newsroom. They learned that a wounded America can become a defeated America. Twenty-four-hour news stations and daily tracing polls will do the heavy lifting, turning a cut into a fatal blow. Except that Iraq is Somalia times 10. The election of John Kerry will serve notice to every terrorist in every cave that the soft underbelly of American power is the timidity of American voters. Terrorists will know that a steady stream of grisly photos for CNN is all you need to break the will of the American people. Our own self-doubt will take it from there. Bin Laden will recognize that he can topple any American administration without setting foot on the homeland.

It is said that America's W.W.II generation is its 'greatest generation'. But my greatest fear is that it will become known as America's 'last generation.' Born in the bleakness of the Great depression and hardened in the fire of W.W. II, they may be the last American generation that understands the meaning of duty, honor and sacrifice. It is difficult to admit, but I know these terms are spoken with only hollow detachment by many (but not all) in my generation. Too many citizens today mistake 'living in America' as 'being an American.' But America has always been more of an idea than a place. When you sign on, you do more than buy real estate. You accept a set of values and responsibilities.

This November, my generation, which has been absent too long, must grasp the obligation that comes with being an American, or fade into the oblivion they may deserve. I believe that 100 years from now historians will look back at the election of 2004 and see it as the decisive election of our century. Depending on the outcome, they will describe it as the moment America joined the ranks of ordinary nations; or they will describe it as the moment the prodigal sons and daughters of the greatest generation accepted their burden as caretakers of the City on the Hill.

... most of the damage had already been inflicted by the dilatory tactics of America's allies which allowed Saddam the time and space -- nearly half a year and undisturbed access to Syria -- necessary to prepare his resistance, transfer money abroad and disperse explosives. The price of passing the "Global Test" was very high; and having been gypped once, there are some who are still eager to be taken to the cleaners again.

Throughout the run-up to the war, Frank Gaffney would again and again warn on my radio show that the most telegraphed punch in history was having consequences we could not calculate.

Landing in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the Democratic candidate bounded off the plane wearing his Red Sox cap to exclaim:

"Seven-one Red Sox!"

The Red Sox were winning 6-1 at the time. They went on to win 6-2.

In case you missed it - Schilling was asked if Alex Rodriguez trying to knock the ball out of Arroyo's glove was a "bush-league" move and Schilling responded "No - it's Kerry league."

And they'll be back again. This is a team that's used to hard luck and unfair calls, taking their lumps from crowds and umpires. They're a team of castoffs and has-beens, players no one wanted who were taken in by a loving and compassionate owner with a heart of gold. They've lived tough and hard-scrabble lives with blue collar backgrounds. There's not a roid user among them. Proud and defiant in defeat, the Yankees will put the pinstripes away for a few months, but oh yes, they'll be back to fight again, to fight for their honor, their city and their country.

• I can't remember enjoying a baseball game more. Watching the Yankess get spanked was a true pleasure. Knowing that the Yankees executed the most pathetic collapse in the history of sports? Priceless. I think I have mentioned before that my hatred of the Yankes burns with a passion as strong as the heat of a thousand suns. Given that, I think you know how I felt. And A-Rod is a cheater. If you are going to cheat, and get caught, keep your mouth shut. Don't run up to the umpire and say "Oh, I was just running with my normal stride" when every single person in America can see that you CHEATED!
  
• Theresa Heinz (I think we should insist on using her legal name) is an awful, arrogant, elitist, mean, selfish woman. Laura Bush is graceful, polite, and a true woman of character. The irony of a rich, snotty woman who inherited her wealth from her husband denigrating someone for "never having a job" isn't lost on me. And I thought Hilary was bad.
  
• The Bumper Sticker Poll stands at Bush -1.
  
• President Bush is back up above 60 over at TradeSports.com Tradesports set prices based upon people buying "stock" in certain events. Real people spending real money are, to me, one of the best predictors out there. I wish I had bought some stock in the Red Sox a few days ago. Would have made a killing.
  
• Apparently enforcing election law is just too much for the Lefties here in Minnesota, so they are opposing a motion by the Republicans to do just that. The utter disdain by the Left in this country for the integrity of the ballot box is repulsive. How in the world can you claim to be in favor of freedom and democracy when you want to treat election law like they do in some Banana Republic? I myself will be spending 15 hours on election day as an election judge, doing what I can to see to it that legal voters get to vote and illegal voters don't. It's not too late to sign up to be an election judge -- you even get paid.
  
• I laughed when I heard Kerry was chiding Cheney for getting a flu shot -- Cheney is clearly within the "needs to get one" group. Wonder if he'll say the same thing about Clinton, who apparently got one as well. The flu shot issue is a funny one as well. It's a classic case study for an economics class. The government sets themselves up as the sole buyer of vaccines, sets a ridiculously low prices, and then stands around wondering why there is a shortage. Read Thomas Sowell, you dolts!
  

• you stupid, yellow-toothed pansies ... If you want to have a meaningful election in your crappy little island full of **** food and yellow teeth, then maybe you should try not to sell your sovereignty out to Brussels and Berlin, *****. Oh, yeah - and brush your ****** teeth, you filthy animals.
• Real Americans aren't interested in your pansy-***, tea-sipping opinions. If you want to save the world, begin with your own worthless corner of it.
• Thank heavens! I was adrift in a sea of confusion and you are my beacon of hope! ... Please remember, too, that I am merely an American. That means I am not very bright. It means I have no culture or sense of history. It also means that I am barely literate, so please don't use big, fancy words.
• Mind your own business. We don't need weenie-spined Limeys meddling in our presidental election. If it wasn't for America, you'd all be speaking German. BUTT OUT!!!
• Mind your own flipping business.
• Go back to sipping your tea and leave our people alone.
• Please be advised that I have forwarded this to the CIA and FBI.

Ronald D.G. McKay, a stem cell researcher at NIH, has admitted publicly that stem cells as an Alzheimer's cure are a fiction, but that "people need a fairy tale."

The political left has long favored putting more and more decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong -- not only judges but zoning boards, environmental commissions and, internationally, the United Nations and the World Court. This is a vision of the wise and the virtuous imposing their wisdom and virtue on the lesser people who make up the rest of humanity.

Egalitarians are often in the vanguard of those seeking to promote this most dangerous of all inequalities -- the inequality of unaccountable power in the service of a vision.

But consider President Bush's situation -- the situation of any President in wartime, faced with an ad-lib partisan debate. There are far more things he can't say than those he can, because the President actually is in the game of world politics. What he says could fracture alliances, end relationships, start wars. And some of his best ripostes are barred to him because of that.

"What countries are you talking about there, Senator? France, maybe? Did you know that France was bribed by Saddam Hussein through the Oil for Food program, to the tune of X billion dollars? And that France sold weapons to Saddam right through our war in 2003?"

None of us can know for certain how we would behave in his circumstances, and very few of us will ever face them. But, if I had to choose in advance the very last words I'd utter in this life, "Tony Blair has not done enough for me" would not be high up on the list.

By contrast with the Fleet Street-Scouser-Whitehall fiasco of the last three weeks, consider Fabrizio Quattrocchi, murdered in Iraq on April 14th. In the moment before his death, he yanked off his hood and cried defiantly, "I will show you how an Italian dies!" He ruined the movie for his killers. As a snuff video and recruitment tool, it was all but useless, so much so that the Arabic TV stations declined to show it.

Under the Kerry-Edwards approach, then, inspectors would have reached the conclusion that Saddam had no WMD. At that point, the inspectors would have left and the sanctions against Saddam likely would have been lifted. The U.S. would have been humiliated, and any chance of leading a coalition against Saddam would have evaporated. Saddam, of course, would have remained in power and in a stronger position than before. Thus, Kerry's claim that we would have achieved his preference for removing Saddam is obviously false.

Worse, Saddam almost surely would have been emboldened by his success to produce WMD. That is the essence of what Charles A. Duelfer told the Senate Armed Services Committee in testimony yesterday, as reported by The Washington Times. It is also consistent with what we know about Saddam. And we know that Saddam had been in contact with al-Qaeda and that major terrorist figures were present in Iraq.

In short, the world's terrorists would be well-situated to obtain WMD from the state most likely to supply them, and we would be significantly less safe than we are today. And we will be significantly less safe if security weasels Kerry and Edwards are elected to lead this country.

• The case for war was that Saddam was violating numerous UN resolutions as well as the ceasefire agreement he had signed as a condition for being left in power.
• The onus was on Saddam to account for his WMD and the equipment used to make them, and to destroy them in a verifiable manner. Saddam refused to do so.
• There was never any doubt about Saddam's malevolent intentions. The question was about his capabilities. It would have been irresponsible, post-9/11, to simply cross our fingers and hope he didn't have the capabilities to match his intentions --- especially since every intelligence agency of any reputation - US, British, French, even those of Jordan and Egypt - believed Saddam retained not only the capability to make WMD but also existing WMD stockpiles.
• Duelfer has found that French, Chinese and Russian companies were involved in the corruption of the Oil-for-Food program. It appears clear that money that Saddam skimmed from that program - money that should have purchased baby formula for Iraqi children - went instead to purchasing prohibited materials and missile components instead.
• It probably would have been safe for Saddam to get back to WMD production soon. UN sanctions were eroding and increasingly ineffective.

Now, the good strategist always acts against adversaries based on intent and capabilities (and informed by their track record). A lawyer waits for a smoking gun. In this world, a smoking gun means dead Americans. Bush understands this.

Ironically, the 9/11 report criticized the Clinton and Bush administrations for not attending to the gathering threat of Al Quaeda by acting pro-actively and thinking creatively about the manifestations of the threat.

At the same time, the Democrats are trying to crucify the President for doing precisely that against Saddam Hussein.

"It's sad that a Senator with twenty years of experience does not appreciate Polish sacrifice...I don't think it's a question of ignorance. One thing has to be said very clearly: this Coalition is not just the United States, Great Britain and Australia, but there's also contribution of Polish, Ukrainian, Bulgarian and Spanish soldiers who died in Iraq. It's immoral to not see this involvement we undertook because we believe that we have to fight terrorism together, that we need to show international solidarity, that Saddam Hussein is a danger to the world.

From such a perspective, you can say we are disappointed that our stance and the sacrifice of our soldiers is so marginalised. I blame it on electioneering -- and a message, indirectly expressed by Senator Kerry - that he thinks more of a coalition that would put the United States together with France and Germany, that is those who in the matter of Iraq said 'no.'

President Bush is behaving like a true Texan gentleman -- he's fighting for the recognition of other countries' contribution in the Coalition. "