Couldn’t Help But Comment (082108, Morning)

At Saturday’s Saddleback Summit, the Complainer In Chief, aka “The One” I refer to as “Mr. BOOHOO-OUCH” (Barack O-bomba Overseas Hussein “Obambi” Obama - Objectively Unfit Coddler of Haters) said that “Americans’ greatest moral failure in my lifetime,” he said, “has been that we still don’t abide by that basic precept in Matthew that whatever you do for the least of my brothers, you do for me.”

Hmmm (HT Hot Air) — mightily resisting further comment beyond a few bolds:

The Italian edition of Vanity Fair said that it had found George Hussein Onyango Obama living in a hut in a ramshackle town of Huruma on the outskirts of Nairobi.

Mr Obama, 26, the youngest of the presidential candidate’s half-brothers, spoke for the first time about his life, which could not be more different than that of the Democratic contender.

“No-one knows who I am,” he told the magazine, before claiming: “I live here on less than a dollar a month.”

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From the “Flip-Flops You Can Believe In” Dept. – “Obama flip-flop: Oil and Freddie Mac lobbyist as foreign-policy adviser.”

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Related to yesterday’s post on the “Ask AP” whitewash of the costs of illegal immigration — “Cost of illegal immigration in California estimated at nearly $9 billion.”

That was in 2004. Projected to the entire country based on California having 25% of the illegal immigrant population and adding a bit of inflation, we’re talking about a nationwide cost of almost $40 billion.

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The presidential candidate I refer to as “JS3M3″ (John Sidney the Mad Maverick McCain III) is up in the polls — nationally by more than the margin of error, and in Ohio by the same percentage as margin of error.

Money quote from Rasmussen:

The most discouraging number in the poll for Obama may be the fact that 51% of Ohio voters have an unfavorable opinion of the presumptive Democratic nominee. That figure includes 33% with a Very Unfavorable opinion, up six percent from a month ago.

It’s comforting to think that yours truly might have made a very, very, very, very small contribution to that reality-based result. How about we get to 70% in the next 75 days?

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Based on the previous item, it’s naturally time for a Dem party flak like Susan “Estrogen” Estrich to tell us it doesn’t mean anything. I don’t necessarily disagree with her, but it’s funny how the polls have seemed to mean everything to traditional media types — probably until, oh, about right now.

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Larry Kudlow on the economy (HT Jeff Poor at NewsBusters; bolds are mine) –

If the economy is in recession, why are business durable-goods orders and shipments booming?

….. And if we are in a housing depression, why have existing home sales in the hard-hit West (think California, Arizona, and Nevada) increased four straight months (plus 12 percent)? And why are they up 17 percent from the low in October? More important, nationwide median existing home prices have increased four straight months, from $196,000 to $215,000. That’s a 10 percent gain.

….. To wit, Phil Gramm was right: We are in a mental recession, not an actual recession. And the low-tax, free-trade, free-market, capitalist economy is a whole lot more resilient and durable than the pessimistas (sic?) and declinists would have us believe.

I think Kudlow is exaggerating the significance of the median home price increase. It would be more meaningful to see what’s happening to the medians in each major region. But otherwise, his points are well-taken.

I sort of like the word “pessimistas,” even if it turns out to be a typo.