A LOST OPPORTUNITY
“President Obama had a great opportunity to call for a new attempt to fix many of the ills of American health care and to do so in a bi-partisan or even a non-partisan fashion.
“Sadly, the President clearly had no interest in doing so because he used this unique setting of a joint session of Congress to condemn what he called ‘scare tactics’ and ‘partisan attacks.’ What happened throughout August was a great debate in this country about the proposals by the President and the congressional Democrats — a debate that took place everywhere. It was vigorous. It was emotional. It was sincere. The President lost that debate, and he lost it on the merits. He lost it because he and his allies failed to persuade. It is, thus, very disappointing that the President used the return of Congress, not to acknowledge deep differences and to pledge to work toward solutions, but to denounce his opponents. That’s not leadership; that’s the politics of desperation.”
–Hugh Hewitt for Townhall.com
THE HOLLYWOOD LEFT
“Hollywood’s fascination with leftist collectivist regimes is as old as the movie industry itself, and indirectly led to the political rise of movie actor Ronald Reagan when he stood up to oppose it.
“Now, Oliver Stone and Michael Moore have made yet another contribution in this dishonorable tradition. Oliver Stone’s recent movie South of the Border praises to the skies such leftist dictators as Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales, who are trying to drag their countries into socialist utopias. Michael Moore’s new movie says that capitalism is evil, suggesting that state control of almost everything is the wave of the future.
“Phooey. That was tried in the Soviet Union nearly a century ago and failed miserably. Even Communist China has grasped that. What’s wrong with these Hollywood intellectuals?”
–David Aikman for Townhall.com
MARGINALIZING THE MASSES
“On Saturday, a huge crowd of Tea Party Protesters descended on Washington, D.C., to demonstrate opposition to many of the core policies of the Obama Administration. Many came to oppose Obamacare; others to oppose the president’s massive spending or his far-left views on abortion and other social issues.
“The motivations of the large crowd were as varied as there were people in attendance and, as with any crowd, few very marginal, distasteful extremists mixed with the crowd; and their signs and slogans went from the simply weird to the deeply troubling. We reject, as does 99.9 percent of conservative activists, any comparisons of President Obama to Hitler; but we are certain that despite this overwhelming opposition to such rhetorical excesses, mainstream media will try and paint the opposition to Obama as extremist across the board.
“This attempt to marginalize a broad-based opposition to the radical lurch left of the Obama Administration will succeed only in marginalizing even more an elite media that long ago left off reporting and became cheerleaders for the president and his congressional majorities.”
–Hugh Hewitt for Townhall.com
WHY THE POLARIZING RUSH ON HEALTH CARE?
“The president wants Americans to come together and join hands over health care reform and insists he wants bipartisanship. Why, then, rush the business of reform, with all its pitfalls and complexities, especially when those changes wouldn’t take hold anyway for at least two years?
“Growing numbers–across the political spectrum–sense a repeat of the Stimulus Package, where Democrats rammed through a $780 billion dollar bill before most of them even reviewed its substance. In light of the bitter, polarizing debate over health care, Mr. Obama is right to ask the country to ‘calm down,’ but it doesn’t help that cause to tell your own partisans to get ‘fired up.’ The best way to calm down is to slow down–and craft a balanced, limited, patient approach rather than trying to force approval of your agenda through a false claim of urgency.”
–Michael Medved for Townhall.com
NOT A MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTION
“Meeting barely a month after the Episcopal Church voted to end its ban on the consecration of openly homosexual bishops and the blessing of same-sex unions, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has taken similar steps. Meeting in Minneapolis, the Lutherans voted first to adopt a comprehensive statement on human sexuality that at least allows for the recognition and blessing of same-sex relationships in the church. Beyond this, it establishes a platform for the eventual acceptance and affirmation of same-sex marriage ceremonies. Then the denomination voted to eliminate barriers that had prevented non-celibate homosexual ministers from serving ELCA churches.
“The worst aspect of all this is the fact that the ELCA voted to affirm that there can be two contradictory positions on the morality of homosexuality that are equally faithful and valid. This is nonsense.
“This is not a multiple-choice question. Woe unto those who cloak such decisions with the disguise of faithfulness.”
–Albert Mohler for Townhall.com