The Out-of-Focus Guy’s Neighborhood

There's so much on the horizon.

I come to Berlin as so many of my countrymen have come before. Tonight, I speak to you not as a candidate for President, but as a citizen -- a proud citizen of the United States, and a fellow citizen of the world.

I know that I don't look like the Americans who've previously spoken in this great city. The journey that led me here is improbable. My mother was born in the heartland of America, but my father grew up herding goats in Kenya. His father -- my grandfather -- was a cook, a domestic servant to the British.

I think his opening is quite telling.  This has defined him as a leader.  On the international stage of nations more concerned with appeasement and United Nations mandates, Sen Obama is at home as a citizen of the world. 

Obama in Berlin

Overall, though, the mood was warm, even joyful, a sign perhaps of just how deep the yearning outside the US is to end the current era — and to have an America non-Americans can believe in again.

Obama visited Berlin and a few people showed up

Every day, there seems to be a new example of Barack Obama's Peoples’ Temple-like grip on otherwise (semi) rational people.

What began as a political phenomenon borne of a particularly charismatic figure has turned into a creepy and possibly malignant force. It is the Obama Hypnosis.

Obama is a man of undeniable intelligence and skill, but his hyper-ascent has never been truly explained.

This is a real mystery to me.  How could a man with little experience amass huge sums of money and gather all the news outlets to his side for a run for the White House.  Something is wrong with this picture.  Story developing. 

Sen Obama supports continued Affirmative Action programs and said:

And race is still a factor in our society. And I think that for universities and other institutions to say, you know, we’re going to take into account the hardships that somebody has experienced because they’re black or Latino or because they’re women --So I still believe in affirmative action as a means of overcoming both historic and potentially current discrimination . . .

The following is an outstanding Affirmative Action article.  

In the 40 years that affirmative action programs have operated, millions of deserving white and Asian students have been passed over at competitive schools across the country in order to admit black and Hispanic students with significantly lower standardized admission test scores (usually 200-350 points lower on a 1600-point scale) and lower high school grades (typically a half point lower on a 4-point scale).

These affirmative action students often struggle to compete in the classroom, and huge numbers of them simply drop out. Instead of helping black and Hispanic students succeed, affirmative action programs mismatch students and institutions.

It is amazing that European Americans have not protested loudly about this type of discrimination. In my long corporate career, I saw plenty of Affirmative Action management employees.  I was a front line supervisor working on a PhD in Industrial Psychology and I was managed by Affirmative Action managers with only a high school education and an entitlement attitude.  Wonders never cease. 

According to the Tyndall Report, a service that monitors the three network news broadcasts, ABC, NBC, and CBS have spent a total of 114 of their national airtime minutes covering Obama since June. They've spent 48 minutes on his Republican rival, Sen. John McCain.

And then you have the almost embarrassing way the media have gushed over Obama's trip to the Middle East. There were 200 requests for the 40 press seats available on Obama's plane, and all three top network anchors (Katie Couric, Charles Gibson and Brian Williams) made the trip and are broadcasting live from each country Obama visits.

You can't buy that kind of publicity. And neither could McCain.

McCain made a trip to the Middle East in March and didn't have to worry about finding seats for any network anchors, because none of them wanted to go.

Sen Obama has been given the gift of a lifetime.  He is a "Rock Star" and the "Darling" of the Media.  The MSM is not embarrassed with their biased reporting.  In fact, they will probably take their Obama bias all the way to the general election. 

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Rep. Roy Blunt, the House Republican whip, on July 8 introduced a resolution demanding that the Defense Department better enable U.S. military personnel overseas to vote in the November elections.

That act was followed by silence. Democrats normally leap on an opportunity to find fault with the Bush Pentagon. But not a single Democrat joined Blunt as a co-sponsor, and an all-Republican proposal cannot pass in the Democratic-controlled House.

It appears that Democrats do not want military personnel to vote.  This is odd, because Democrats are the first to yell "Disenfranchised Voters".  Gosh, this should be a campaign issue,  But, Sen McCain will not take advantage of this campaign issue, because his strategy for a run at the White House has been poorly defined.