Falwell and Pat Robertson are held up as spokesmen for evangelicals, which is ridiculous. Meanwhile people like John Stott, who are actually important, get ignored.

Yet, as Michael Cromartie of the Ethics and Public Policy Center notes, if evangelicals could elect a pope, Stott is the person they would likely choose. He was the framer of the Lausanne Covenant, a crucial organizing document for modern evangelicalism. He is the author of more than 40 books, which have been translated into over 72 languages and have sold in the millions. Now rector emeritus at All Souls, Langham Place, in London, he has traveled the world preaching and teaching.

• Billy Graham returns to Los Angeles, site of his first crusade, for a Rose Bowl event this weekend. Rev. Graham is 86 years old and his health is failing but he marches on. "I'm trying to, hopefully, reach people of all persuasions with the Gospel in my job as a presenter of the Gospel of Christ." May thousands be reached in the Rose Bowl this weekend.
• This opinion piece explains the roots of the President's immigration proposal. Some good points here - I'm not sure where I stand on this issue.
• Does any president have a record like Pres. Bush's regarding "affirmative action" hiring? Gonzales, Powell, Rice, Abraham, Hughes, Paige, and more. (See "W, by ignoring race, makes racial history") Unlike others who talk a good talk but act differently (I'm hearing echoes of candidate Kerry, "faith without works is dead.."), Pres. Bush says skin color or gender doesn't matter - excellence does. And then he goes out and acts on that principle.
• Speaking of Condi Rice, from this story we learn she was a competitive ice skater, loves sports (Cleveland Browns fan), is a sometime companion of former 49er reciever Gene Washington, is an accomplished pianist, and was influenced toward political science from a speech by Madeleine Albright's father. Phew! I love what she once said to a sales clerk at a jewelry counter when the clerk showed her the cheap stuff, "Let's get one thing straight. You're behind the counter because you have to work for $6 an hour. I'm on this side asking to see the good jewelry because I make considerably more."
• One more plaudit for John Ashcroft.

• Want some good, clean, sensible discussion about President Bush and the election? Read Peggy Noonan. Reading her is like talking to an old, dear friend. Peggy has "two of 'em". ;-)
  
• Yasser Arafat was a repulsive, utterly reprehensible, greedy, hate-filled, murdering butcher and I am glad he is dead. I'm quite sure he is not. One won't read of Arafat's disgusting life in the MSM. Apparently you have to go to the NY Post to get the real juicy headlines.
  
• I didn't post yesterday, but I wish I had. I missed the opportunity to thank all the veterans of this great nation for their service. It is great because of it. And thank you to all those who are serving as I type. And God Bless the United States Marine Corps, 229 years old on Wednesday. The Corps celebrated by doing what they do best -- killing the enemy, this time in Fallujah. Read this in the Corner -- sent shivers down my spine. I'd have had tears streaming down my face if I had heard those bagpipes.
  
• The Corner and especially KLo have been all over the potential Arlen Specter Judiciary Chairmanship. I agree with the fight against Specter -- he's a terrible Senator, and not really a Republican, and he shouldn't be given a position of such power. KLo makes a good point -- that the Democrats are going to play dirty no matter what we do or who the chairmanship is. The Democrats constantly send one guy to kneel down behind the Republicans while another pushes from the front and knocks the poor, hapless Republican down. And the Republicans keep getting up, thinking that the Dems would never do such thing again. But down they go, time after time. The notion that we should do anything in the hopes of mollifying the likes of Patrick Leahy and his ilk is a ridiculous one. (By the way, I just emailed all the Republican members of the committee about it.
  
• If the Red States are "Jesusland", does that make the blue states "Satanland"?
  
• It suddenly dawned on me that the NHL season is basically gone. I'm actually a bit sad to say that I've hardly noticed.
  

• The Powerline Boys pointed me to this post by the No Left Turns blog. Good grief is this sensible, excellent post. My three comments: 1. Yeah, why don't you leftie feminists get excited about what we did for women in Afghanistan? Huh? 2. We are one country united in a common purpose: freedom. We are not a mishmash of divided groups. And 3. The economy of this country is strong and growing. Hard work produces wealth. Sitting on your butt does not produce wealth. Mr. Schramm is right: the Democrats have a lot of soul searching to do.
  
• I hope that George Soros gathers some spiritual enlightenment in his trip to a monastery. Lord know he could use it.
  
• More from the Hapless Loser Department: Right now, if you go to Michael Moore's website and scroll to the bottom, you'll see one of those montage pictures of President Bush made up of a collection of the pictures of fallen heroes who gave their lives defending America in Iraq. As Michelle Malkin deftly points out (if the picture is gone from Moore's site, Mrs. Malkin has the picture at the given link), Moore (who used the graphic without attribution) meant for the picture to be a protest. But the fun part is that clear thinking people are seeing it as tribute to those heros and to the President. I love irony, especially when it gets after nutjobs like Moore.And if you can, do read Moore's "17 Reasons not to Slit Your Wrists". Good for a few laughs, not to mention some really bad statistics. By the way, if you want to send Mr. Moore an email, you can do so at MMFlint@aol.com
  
• As mentioned yesterday, lot of us conservatives aren't happy at the prospect of Arlen Specter becoming Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Well, now we have a website
  
• It sure doesn't get much sillier and vitriolic than this. Ms. Smiley can do the same to my lily white butt as well. (Sorry, but all this hatred and all these insults are getting me grumpy.)
  
• My company is among those adding jobs at an astonishing rate. Employment is always a lagging indicator of economic growth, so things have been and should continue to go swimmingly in the economy. Guess the Dems were all wrong about that "jobless recovery" thing. Oh well.
  
• I think we should make it a personal goal of ours here at Banterings to get ourselves added to Michelle Malkin's extensive blogroll.
  
• I never knew Scott Speicher, but I was part of the FA-18 community and had friends that did know him. It appears that his remains may have been found. RIP.
  
  

If I were a Dem, I'd support any candidate who pledged to de-celebrify the party and disown the paranoid Left.

The elections of 1948 and 2004 resemble each other in many ways. But there are deeper analogies in play too. The plain-spoken moralist for whom religion matters greatly, the common man who seems too small for the presidency but is confronted in office by a cataclysm that re-creates him; who rises to the challenge and transcends it; who faces a tough re-election battle and wins it; who redefines the nation's mission in the world and emerges a hero--that is a traditional American story. It is Lincoln's story. ... No president matches Lincoln's greatness, but in modern times this was Harry Truman's story; and today it is George W. Bush's also.

Yet the greatest achievement, now as in '48, is the American people's. America really doesn't give a damn what Europe or the New York Times or Hollywood or the worldwide professoriate has to say. It tries hard to do right, and more often than not it succeeds.

• This headline made me laugh out loud: "Unhappy Democrats Need to Wait to Get Into Canada"
  
• Yasser Arafat might die soon. I'm no I'm not supposed to be, but it is really hard for me not to be happy about this fact. This is a good opportunity for the Palestinians to make a radical change in direction and embrace a civilized way of life, but I'm not holding my breath.
  
• KLo in the Corner has the rumor of the departure of Powell (who cares), Ashcroft (ehh, either way: I admire the man, myself), Rumsfeld (I would hate to see him go. What a great man.) and Rice (I'd hate to see her go as well. She's an impressive and formidable woman). They are speculating on replacements. All I know is I'd love to see Rudy Giuliani in one of those jobs. Defense? Homeland Security? Probably the latter. Tom Ridge is really a non-entity as far as I can see. Rudy will add a little leadership in that role. Well, not a little, a lot. And good grief, let's hope that the hapless Norman Mineta takes this opportunity to spend more time with his family.
  
• Lots of chatter today about how Kerry did the right thing in not fighting, etc. Well, okay, I guess his concession speech was gracious, etc. (Edwards certainly wasn't. Has there been a more vacuous, empty, inconsequential VP candidate, well ever? What a waste. The guy is fading from my memory already. I like how Derb put it -- "He trod lightly on the electoral earth") Kerry did run a good campaign for the most part, and never came unglued like Gore or Dean did. But let us not remember, Kerry is still a US Senator, he still made heinous accusations about honorable men who served in Vietnam, and he still met with the enemy while in the US Naval Reserve. He hasn't apologized for any of this.
  
• First, I must ask forgiveness ahead of time for this comment. But to the unhinged, Lefty British press, I have but one thing to say: Kiss my lilly white butt.
  
• On a more serious note, I think we all need to carefully consider this question: Jenna or Barbara?
  
• Feel good story of the day: Bobby Jindal is elected to Congress.
  

• If gloating is a sin, I need to do some serious confession. Definitely a good day in America, and I am most assuredly gloating, despite my shame of being a Minnesotan today.
  
• Being an election judge was pretty interesting, though exceedingly tiring. I was on my feet almost all day working the ballot box, helping people get their ballots properly slid into the machine, apparently not easy for a surprisingly large number of people. We had 999 people show up and vote in the precinct where I worked. That included over 200 new registrations. Precinct was 2-1 Democratic.
  
• I think I can say with reasonable certainty that there were no major problems at all. It is entirely possible that there were a few people that registered to vote improperly. There wasn't really any skullduggery going on with the vouching system. In fact, I have a better appreciation for it. My polling booth was in an apartment building (Much like the one just off Payne Avenue), and a number of residents didn't alway have proper ID, and they never had electric or cable bills. But, they were able to vote because others could and would vouch for them as living right in the building. It worked well, actually. I can see, though, where the system is ripe for abuse, but I didn't see anything like that.
  
• There was a surprising number of people who simply couldn't comprehend the idea of only being able to vote for one person for President. The ballot had, what, eight? candidates, and many people voted for more than one. I'm glad to say that the voting system in Minnesota flatly rejects such ballots. Also a large number of people that have a hard time with the concept of filling out a small oval, and not using an 'X' or a check. These people were told more than once how to do it.
  
• Does anyone know who the heck all those judges were on the back of the ballot? Anyone at all? I recognized Alan Page, but that's it.
  
• The system of optically-read paper ballots is a really, really, really good system. Having spent the day using it, the thought that anyone at anytime thought that the "hanging chad" ballot was every a good idea boggles my mind. Doing a recount in Minnesota would be a piece of cake. It would be really hard to spoil a ballot, where as if the cards of a computer card system are handled much, they are easily spoiled.. You can look at the MN ballot and tell right away for who the vote was cast. Over-votes (see above) aren't really an issue at all. The computer card system should simply be outlawed. If Florida had had our system in 2000, there wouldn't have been any problem at all in doing recounts.
  
• Bush won fairly decisively, I think. Absolute majority and a 3.5 million vote lead. The Electoral College could have looked better number-wise. The map looks awful red, though. Kerry wins most of his votes and electoral votes in pretty much three or four states (CA, NY, MI, etc.)
  
• God Bless the Swifties. I admire them for standing up to the MSM and defending their honor. I think we all owe them a debt of honor for standing up against the weasel Kerry and reminding us of the dishonorable, un-American "man" that he is.
  
• My one regret: We'll not get to hear Kerry saying "Jhenjis Khan" much anymore.
  
• Hillary Clinton must be pleased today.
  
• Have seen some chatter that Kerry might end up Minority Leader on the Senate now that Daschle is gone. My guess is that Kerry couldn't get elected to sweep up after a Democratic Convention today. And a word on Daschle. I am really glad he's gone, but Kerry Spot has a kind word which I agree with, and I do remember Daschle's sincere support of the President in the days following 9/11. His politics were really, really wrong, but he appears to at least be a man of some character. (I guess, to, it is easier to say these things when he's been defeated, but there you are.)
  
• Jonah is on fire in The Corner. Check here, here, here, here, etc.
  
• As far as I can tell, the Democratic Party is a mess right now, and they have a stark choice: Howard Dean or Joe Lieberman. My advice to them is to get Zell Miller's Book, read it, and heed it.
  
  
  

• Became the first President to be re-elected while gaining seats in the House and Senate since 1936 and the first Republican President since 1924 to be re-elected while re-electing Republican House and Senate majorities.
• Became the first President to win a majority of the popular vote since 1988.
• Received 57.4 million votes - more than any other candidate in history. He broke President Reagan's 1984 mark of 54.5 million. (96% reporting)
• Increased the popular vote by seven million votes since 2000 - more than twice Clinton's increase from 1992 to 1996.
• Improved his percentage in every state except four (MD, OR, VT and WY). This includes a four percent increase in John Kerry's home state, Massachusetts.

• This is a moving reminder (scroll down to the pictures).
• Turn up the volume.
• Democrats.