THE MAN WHO WASN’T THERE
"Right on track, Jack." That's what one of the main campaign managers of The Man Who Wasn't There told me today. He and his colleagues are happy, happy guys n' gals. "This is going exactly as expected," they exude. "And it's a strategy that has never been tried before. If it works like we think it's going to, the world will think we're bloody geniuses." Pause, after a bemused glance is directed at them. "Yeah, well, right, it's the boss's strategy, so, okay, he's actually the genius." "The boss," the man who wasn't there in Iowa, Wyoming, and New Hampshire, the man who won't be there in Michigan, Nevada, or South Carolina, is, of course...
CELEBRATING BLUE, CO2, AND THE RENDEZVOUS
Hear that wonderfully melodious sound? It's the crack-up of Global Warming, the Left's crazed attempt to seize global power after the failure of Marxism crashing and burning. 2008 is starting off just right. A tip off that it's over for the eco-wackos was the announcement of the Pantone color mavens that green is passé for 2008, that the hip color is blue - as in blue skies, no clouds, no rain, just sunshine and deep blue sky. Then on New Years Day, the liberal bastion itself, the New York Times, scandalously ridiculed glowarmers, calling them "availability entrepreneurs," sneering at them as "the activists, journalists and publicity-savvy scientists who selectively monitor the globe looking for newsworthy evidence of a new form of sinfulness, burning fossil fuels." When the New York Times laughs at glowarmers - well, it's like Global Warming is so over. So it's time to start celebrating CO2. I have a really good suggestion on how to do so.
WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM MEN IN BLACK ABOUT 2008
Nope, this is not an alien joke like Alien Al, much less one regarding the PIAPS, who was born only 3½ months after Roswell. It is about the history lesson taught so arrestingly by Tommy Lee Jones as Agent K in Men In Black. 2008 is going to be a stressful year for a lot of folks. The fate of America, the fate of Western Civilization, the fate of mankind, will be decided this year - as far as folks who enjoy being Drama Queens are concerned. As we plunge forward into the fateful unknown of 2008, let us, then, take a deep, calming breath and listen to the soothing words of Agent K. His partner, Agent J played by Will Smith, is freaking out as a newbie man-in-black, unglued over the alien threat that will destroy the Earth in the next half-hour. Agent J: Man, we ain't got time for this... I don't know whether or not you've forgotten, but there's an Arquillian Battle Cruiser that's about to... Agent K: Kid, there's always an Arquillian Battle Cruiser, or a Corillian Death Ray, or an intergalactic plague that is about to wipe out all life on this little planet, and the only way these people can get on with their happy lives is that they... do... not... know about it! Welcome to the history of the world.
EXPLAINING THE PURPOSE OF VICTORY
In Iraq, as military and security conditions continue to improve, American war politics enters one of its stranger moments in our history. Certainly it is historically odd for war reporting to diminish almost to the point of public invisibility -- just as our troops are starting to gain the upper hand. Typical of recent polling is the Pew Research Center poll from Dec. 27, which shows that about half the country thinks the military effort is going very or fairly well (up from 30 percent). Despite such optimism, by 54 percent to 41 percent (virtually unchanged from February's 53 percent to 42 percent), the public wants our troops to come home rather than stay! This polling data suggests that if the Democrats don't see the war as a winning issue, neither can President Bush - for the public now tends to think we are succeeding, but it doesn't think it is worth the effort and would like us to leave pretty soon, anyway. There would seem to be no higher communications task for the president and his supporters during the coming months than to make a better case that the success that may well be within our grasp is not only worth persisting over now but also that, even knowing what we know now, the war was worth the effort from the beginning.
THE BIGGEST GLOBAL STORY SINCE 9/11: THE DEFEAT OF ISLAMIC TERRORISM
As 2007 drew to a close, embarrassed journalists sought to play down American military successes and avoided questioning Democrat presidential contenders about their predictions of inevitable failure in Iraq. Magically, Iraq disappeared from the headlines - except on those rare occasions when a problem could be reported. At the close of a year of stunning progress, media stories on New Year's Eve leapt to report that 2007 had been the deadliest year for US troops. You had to read deep into the columns to learn that those casualties occurred in the first half of 2007, as we battled and defeated the terrorists and militias - or that, in recent months, American and Iraqi casualties have plummeted as a relative peace broke out. The greatest media story of 2007 was the one you never read (unless you read To The Point): 2007 was a strategic catastrophe for Islamist terrorists - and possibly a historic turning point in the struggle against al Qaeda and its affiliates.
OVERCOMING VISTA BLUES
If you got a new Windows computer for Christmas, odds are very high it uses the new Vista operating program. Odds are also very high you'll find moving stuff from your old XP computer into Vista annoying, if not downright infuriating. It's called the Vista Blues, and I'll do my best to help you overcome them. One example: Moving mail from an XP "Outlook Express" to a Vista "Mail" program may become a small nightmare since "Outlook Express" is not one of the options that can be utilized (!). There are options for this lack of a conduit. A solution is Thunderbird, the free mail application from www.mozilla.com will allow you to import from Outlook Express with ease. The latest version is 2.0.0.9.
A BAD NEWS QUIZ
How much did the federal budget deficit rise in 2007? Answer: It did not rise, it got much smaller. The deficit has been declining rapidly for the last three years and is now only about 1 percent of gross domestic product, which is far lower than the average deficit for the last half-century. Left-wing ideologues, such as Paul Krugman of the New York Times, have been predicting for years that the Bush tax cuts would lead to ever-growing deficits. Wrong again. When did the recession of 2007 begin? Answer: It never started. CNN and other news media are quoting polls showing many Americans think the economy has been in a recession. But the economy has grown in every quarter of 2007, and employment is at a record high, despite the subprime mortgage problem and the rise in oil prices. Economic growth in 2007 will be more than 2 percent - not great, but not a disaster or a recession. The reason so many think the U.S. is in a recession is the unbalanced reporting about the economy from many in the left-leaning media who overly report the comments of Bush-hating politicians and the bad, but not the good, numbers.
THE BAD AND WORSE IN PAKISTAN
Pakistan reminds us that in foreign policy, often the only choices we have are between bad and worse. The place has become the central front in the war on terror. Perhaps it always was, since al Qaeda's leadership took up residence there after being chased out of Afghanistan, and the war in Afghanistan cannot be won so long as the Taliban has a safe haven in Pakistan's northwest territories. The assassination Dec. 27 of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto may turn what for us has been an unsatisfactory situation into a catastrophe. Pervez Musharraf has been so weakened that he is more than ever a slender reed on which to lean. But he's a stout oak compared to the alternatives to lead Pakistan - one of whom has taken a $1 million bribe from Osama bin Laden.
OBAMA IN KENYA
Barrack Hussein Obama Junior will not win or lose the Democrat Party's presidential nomination in Iowa or New Hampshire or elsewhere in the US. He'll win or lose it in Kenya. That he'll lose it there is the fear of his campaign advisors who wear green eye-shades. That he'll win there is the hope of his campaign advisors who have both brains and cojones. Last week in The 2008 Carpe Diem Filter, we noted that an ideal presidential candidate would be someone who knows how to carpe diem - who looks at problems as opportunities, who would best be able to recognize and maximize the opportunity in a crisis. Fate has just given Obama such a make-or-break opportunity. Will he confidently use it, or will he wimp out, showing the world he's not the hero of his believers' mythology, but the Obambi phony his detractors claim?
THE GOP RACE ONE WEEK BEFORE IOWA
[We welcome legendary political strategist Arnie Steinberg to TTP, whom we hope to have as a regular columnist advising us throughout the 2008 campaign. I have known Arnie since 1966 when he helped me lead Youth for Reagan during Ronald Reagan's triumphant campaign for governor. Arnie has created or advised hundreds of political campaigns at all levels, written two graduate texts on politics and media, and is an expert in every phase of campaigns, especially free/earned and paid/advertising media. He has produced, written and directed television and radio commercials for many candidates, ballot measures and issues. He has conducted more than 1700 surveys and focus groups. I asked him to set the Republican parameters as we go into Iowa and New Hampshire. We are privileged to have him be a part of To The Point. ---JW] Once the Republican nominee is chosen, we will be told what the turning point was in his campaign. And history then will be rewritten about how inspired it was. The reality is there are few brilliant campaigns; typically, the winning campaign is the least bumbling. So let's handicap the GOP aspirants a week before Iowa - Paul, Huckabee, Romney, Thompson, Giuliani, and McCain - from a campaign standpoint. I can tell you there'll be some surprises.