Monday, October 18, 2004

Monday 10/18 links

This is very big stuff: CNN's Jill Daugherty reports that Russian premier Vladimir Putin endorsed Pres. Bush in very strong language today. According to Daugherty, Putin asserted that the "attacks in Iraq are aimed at preventing the re-election of U.S. President George W. Bush and that a Bush defeat 'could lead to the spread of terrorism to other parts of the world.' . . . 'Any unbiased observer understands that attacks of international terrorist organizations in Iraq, especially nowadays, are targeted not only and not so much against the international coalition as against President Bush,' Putin said." (Hat tip to Glenn Reynolds/Instapundit)

US Newswire reports that cops don't want Sen. Kerry claiming their support when he doesn't have it. (Hat tip to Charles Johnson/Little Green Footballs)

Matt Drudge has something new about a Florida DNC/Kerry campaign manual: it apparently advises local fanatics to collect large quantities of executed ballots and bring them to the polls. But that violates Florida law. Geniuses.

Kerry continues to sink after torpedoing himself below the waterline. New York Times columnist William Safire: "The memoir about the Kerry-Edwards campaign that will be the best seller will reveal the debate rehearsal aimed at focusing national attention on the fact that Vice President Cheney has a daughter who is a lesbian."

According to Chicago Sun-Times political columnist Robert Novak's "campaign sources"--with which he always is richly endowed--Kerry's remark was "spontaneous," ie, it was not suggested by his staff. But it seems more likely that some campaign pros don't want to be saddled being blamed for this blunder, which could be a career-ender.

You know how you identify the political junkie in a crowd? He's the one who looks at the third debate and sees questions and answers, not the lesbian slip. Such as Michael Barone.

Why did Ron Brownstein of the Los Angeles Times bury the newest polls showing a sudden Bush surge in the fourth paragraph of his story, and lead with some ambiguous data re job approval? According to radio host/blogger Hugh Hewitt, it is "a pretty transparent attempt to keep hope alive for Democrats as poll after poll shows momentum for George W. Bush in the aftermath of the third debate and Kerry's outrageous assault on Mary Cheney's privacy."

Syndicated columnist Diana West "shudders" at the thought of a Kerry presidency: "The sooner a President Kerry returns from his Mea Culpa Tour, the sooner a President Kerry starts the Iraqi Peace Talks with all factions, including, as France has so tactfully suggested, 'a certain number of groups or people who now have chosen the path of resistance by arms.' Sounds like Baathist remnants and Al Qaeda affiliates to me."

Classicist/columnist Victor Davis Hanson thinks that so long as we keep fighting, we almost certainly will win the War on Terror: "The hysteria of the Saudis, the Arab Street’s yells, and al Qaeda’s barbarism all reveal a level of panic not seen before in those parts."

The Israeli ex-spook website DEBKA reports that Al-Qaeda is adopting Al-Zarqawi's decapitation tactic as official policy. Lovely guys.

Ancient London Daily Telegraph columnist W.F. (Bill) Deedes is appalled that Europeans refused to help unearth Saddam Hussein's mass graves on the pretext that they would not help to build a capital case against the guy. They're humanists, you see, and oppose the death penalty. Another thing: they opposed the war and don't want to see evidence that it was just.

Blogger Ann Althouse thinks Jon Stewart's ratings are plummeting "because he has become a one-sided partisan. Not only does he miss opportunities for humor that might be had at the expense of the side he favors, but his live audience is now packed with lefty overlaughers--people who laugh uproariously at anti-Bush snipes that are hardly jokes at all. If you don't hate Bush, it really cuts into the fun."