Barack Obama is the guy you remember from high school.  He’s a good-looking, charismatic smooth talker with a bad reputation. His self-worth is measured by his successful conquests … and he hangs with a rough crowd.

Like the guy that will say and do anything to get in your pants, Barack Obama will say and do anything to get in your White House.

The cad from high school had his signature tag lines such as, “If you loved me, you’d let me” and “Don’t believe the silly rumors you hear about me.” In Barack Obama’s case, he flatters you with, “I’m going to wake up every morning thinking about you” and then he plays on your sympathies by claiming that people are saying,  “He’s got no money, he doesn’t come from a wealthy family, he’s got no organization, he wasn’t born into a political family, and he’s a black man with this name that folks can’t even pronounce. And it sounds Muslim! So he’s not gonna be able to get through the difficulties of the campaign process.”

He’s the guy whose persistence and determination finally wears down your sensibilities and good judgment.  He could’ve asked any girl to be his date at the school dance but he asked YOU!  Knowing in your heart that it’s wrong and dangerous, you climb down the rose trellis in your prettiest dress  and try to dispel your doubts about him by chanting a mantra in your head of “Have HOPE, he’s CHANGED.”

When he honks his horn in front of your house, you dash across the lawn before your father can chastise him for his bad manners, before your father grabs him by his scrawny neck and informs him that he’s not worthy of you and drags you back in the house.  You hop on the back of his barely roadworthy chopper and hold on for dear life as he squeals the tires peeling away from the curb…

In short, Barack Obama is the guy that leaves you crying in your ripped dress and shredded self-respect.  You never even made it to the dance…

John McCain is also the guy you remember from high school.  The boy that you’d known since the third grade and the one that has harbored an enormous crush on you.  You’ve had disagreements and even some fist fights with one another over the years, but when the chips were down, he was the boy you could count on.  He’s the one that took you for ice cream and dabbed your tears with his handkerchief when you didn’t make the cheerleader try outs.  You took him for granted and sometimes treated him badly but he never gave up on you.  He gladly took a black eye or a bloody nose defending your honor.

He’s kinda geeky and a little awkward so he can hardly believe it when you agree to be his prom date.  When he shakes your father’s hand, looks your father in the eye and promises to have you home by 11:30, you know he means it because you know John McCain.

Because you KNOW John McCain.

This morning, while addressing a crowd of his supporters in Norfolk, Virginia, Barack Obama placed his politics above his plans for education reform. His first topic was the lipstick controversy HE created while speaking in Lebanon, Virginia: 

First things first:  It’s not pronounced “LEB-a-non” as in Beirut, Lebanon.  It’s pronounced “LEB-nun.”  My hometown, Richlands, is less than 30 miles from there so take my word for it.  I know the pronunciation as well as I know the people.  I can tell from the reaction of the crowd how they interpreted his “you can put lipstick on a pig but it’s still a pig” comment.  If the crowd misunderstood the meaning of his words, he needs to tell them so.  CALL A SPADE, A SPADE.  (Why didn’t Obama use that simple metaphor, instead?)  It’s perfectly understandable how one could misconstrue the words of this Harvard Law graduate who came to town with stories of pigs and lipstick.  It happens all the time…  What he meant to say was, “John McCain’s economic policy: THAT DOG WON’T HUNT.”  That wouldn’t have created the media buzz, though, so Obama couldn’t play the victim role.

No, instead of clarifying his remarks, the Chosen One has chosen to blame John McCain and Co. for his poor decision to use a poor metaphor.  Today in Norfolk, he admonished the McCain camp and the media, saying the controversy was made-up (think he meant make-up?) and used as “catnip.”  THIS IS THE FISH THAT FELL OUT OF THE FRYING PAN INTO THE FIRE CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK! When Hillary’s campaign complained (correctly) about tactics such as these, Camp Obama indignantly dismissed them as “whining.”  Remember Camp Obama’s “phony outrage” accompanying their charge that Bill Clinton was a racist?  Looks like the three-inch STILETTO IS ON THE OTHER FOOT and Obama doesn’t like it.  In the words of Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s longtime Spiritual Advisor (whatever the hell that is) THE CHICKENS HAVE COME HOME TO ROOST!

In an attempt to exemplify his vision of a clean, issue-oriented campaign, Obama says:

“I love this country too much to let them take over another election with lies and phony outrage and swiftboat politics.”

Who is them?  The same them that Obama claims will try to scare people because he has, in HIS WORDS, a funny-sounding name?  Them is not scaring anyone. Obama is with his constant claims of being victimized.  It’s scary that someone with his education would still feel the need to play the victim card.  More proof that we need education reform?

According to Wikipedia, swiftboat, most accurately refers to the repudiation of a politician’s personal history by people who were present as that history was made. I can see why Obama would have a problem with it.  His own swift boat may come ashore in the next fifty-five days.  I have faith that honorable people won’t be distracted by his claims of victimhood.  After all, there’s still a lot we don’t know about him and we wouldn’t want to BUY A PIG IN A POKE, now would we?

Jimmy Carter, on the other hand…. not so much.

I love to read CatHouse Chat. Kat chooses words as carefully as she chooses the right colors for her quilts and the result, in both cases, is a delight to those fortunate enough to view either. She recently quoted The Virginian-Pilot reporting on Barack Obama’s visit to Martinsville:

“I’m not going to say all the jobs in Martinsville are going to come back if I’m elected president,” Obama told about 300 invited guests - most of them blue-collar workers - who gathered at Patrick Henry Community College.

“I’m not saying the schools will be fixed,” he added. “What I’m saying is that I’m going to wake up every morning thinking about you.”

I agree with Kat:

Yeah. Right. You want to know what he’s gonna be thinking? He’s gonna sit up in bed at the White House every morning, have a good stretch, and think, “I can’t believe those schmucks actually bought it!”

Vote NObama - because if hope ain’t teamed with sweat and guts, it’s just an empty suit of hot air.

And we will be schmucks if we buy it. I’m not buying. Like a used car salesman who knows his car is a lemon, he relies on his skillful oration to close the deal. Obama has a lifetime record of mastering his oratory ability and it shows… He may very well be remembered as one of the great public speakers of our time. Millions of people have apparently bought what he’s selling. Millions of people were apparently willing to sign sub-prime loan documents they didn’t understand, too. They risk losing their homes, we risk losing our country.

I disagree with Kat’s assessment that Obama is an empty suit. I see him as being more like the emperor with no clothes. When he talks and talks without really saying anything, it’s easier to pretend we understand. Who are we to question this world traveler who demonstrates his comfort internationally while we have trouble navigating a mall? Who are we to question the president of the Harvard Law Review? Who are we to question this Chosen One with the ability to form record-breaking run-on sentences?

Here’s the Barack Obama quote you haven’t seen reported by the media:

And thinking about how to make your life a little bit better and if you can trust me to do that and I’m organizing a bunch of smart people like Mark Warner to come up with innovative ideas that’ll give you a little bit of a …. fighting chance, that will make your life a little bit better, you’re still gonna have to work hard, you’re still gonna have to sacrifice, we’re still gonna have some struggles but if I can make things a little bit easier for you and you can trust me to do that, that that’s (that’s) the reason I’m in politics, that’s my orientation, I think we can convince enough people to win this election and then we can convince even more people to start doing the work.

I didn’t go to Harvard but I’m smart enough to recognize BS when I see it and so are YOU! We don’t need the arrogant elitist to “organize a bunch of smart people like Mark Warner” to give us a “fighting chance” - the fight was in us at our birth and given to us by our Creator, not by our government.

Don’t take my word for it. Watch for yourself and decide for yourself. And don’t be ashamed to shout out the obvious: The Chosen One has no Clothes.