comMITTed to Romney!

http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=296780190323947

Surge To Victory

By INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Tuesday, May 27, 2008 4:20 PM PT

War On Terror: They said the surge would fail. They claimed we had no allies. They called Iraq a quagmire. They sought to cut and run. Now, our victories over terror are accelerating across the world.

I love this quote from the end of the article: IT’S A BAD TIME TO BE A TERRORIST.

~~John Cronin~~

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This post is meant partly as tongue-in-cheek humor. Aside from the fact that it is talking about a very serious subject, their is, I think, some humor in the phrase I have put in bold. It seems Al Qaeda has some of the same problems that Republican political activists have. Never enough volunteers or money.

~~John Cronin~~

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080422100510.qnl6rneq&show_article=1

Al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri criticised Muslims for failing to support Islamist insurgencies in Iraq and elsewhere in a new audiotape posted Tuesday on the Internet.
Osama bin Laden’s top lieutenant also blasted Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas over their reported readiness to consider a peace deal with Israel.

“I call upon the Muslim nation to fear Allah’s question (at judgement day) about its failure to support its brothers of the Mujahedeen (holy Warriors), and (urge it) not to withhold men and money, which is the mainstay of a war,” he said.

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Following are results of a CNN exit poll conducted in New Hampshire Tuesday among 1,520 voters. Though these results reflect the fact that the majority of voters chose McCain and Romney, there are some very interesting differences, especially where Romney ended ahead of the winner, McCain:

Republican Voters (”Vote by party ID” — excludes independents) chose:

MR — 35%
JM — 34%
MH — 13%
RG — 10%
.
.
All voters chose their candidate as the “Strongest Leader” — This measures the strength of the voters’ choice (in other words, which candidate got the most votes in this category by comparison to the others?):

MR — 86%
MH — 84%
JM — 81%
RG — 55%
.
.
Voters of New Hampshire that strongly oppose civil unions:

MR — 37%
JM — 32%
MH — 11%
RG — 6%
.
.
Very worried about Terrorism:

MR — 39%
JM — 33%
MH — 12%
RG — 10%
.
.
Voters that think the new President should be more conservative than President Bush:

MR — 35%
JM — 31%
MH — 13%
RP — 10%
.
.
The following result was stunning to me. John McCain, the military man came in third! Even McCain supporters are less sold on McCain by comparison to the other voters. And Giuliani 4th at 58%? What about his “9/11″ credentials?
All voters chose their candidate as the “Best Commander in Chief” — This measures the strength of the voters’ choice (in other words, which candidate got the most votes in this category by comparison to the others?):

MR — 94%
MH — 89%
JM — 78%
RG — 58%
.
.
Conservative Voters chose:

MR — 38%
JM — 30%
MH — 12%
RG — 8%
.
.

Check the gap here between Governors Romney and Huckabee:

Very Conservative Voters chose:

MR — 43%
MH — 19%
JM — 18%
RP — 7%
.
.
Voters that think this candidate shares their values:

MR — 38%
MH — 22%
JM — 16%
RP — 12%

See link in the opening paragraph for many more results. These are but few of many very interesting numbers. Governor Romney was the strongest candidate in many of the voters’ minds.

~ Vic

SMALL DOLLARS COUNT BIG — Please Contribute Here to Governor Romney’s Campaign

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This article is outstanding:

Today’s Featured Article — REVIEW & OUTLOOK — Democrats in Denial — The Presidential candidates won’t admit any Iraq surge success — Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Barack Obama is of a sudden the front-runner, so his view of the surge merits the closest look. His first assertion echoed what has become a standard line by the war’s opponents, that “we have not made ourselves safer as a consequence.” What can this possibly mean? In more than six years there hasn’t been one successful terrorist attack on the U.S., even as places elsewhere were hit or actively targeted.

Then Senator Obama placidly said that the Sunnis in Anbar Province began to help the U.S. “after the Democrats were elected in 2006.” What’s more, the Democrats’ victory showed them they were “going to be left very vulnerable to the Shias.” This obviously means the Democrats would abandon them.

The rest of the article provides analysis of each Democrat’s position on the war and the surge.

It is evident, though, that the opposition to Iraq after the Democrats won control of Congress in 2006 has put these candidates in a corner. For the past year, Democrats in both the Senate and House have enforced rock-solid party opposition to every jot and tittle of the Bush policy. They now have four candidates running for the U.S. Presidency who seem to believe it is to their political advantage to deny manifest reality.

I don’t know about you, but the prospect that any of the Democrat candidates could possibly be our next President is very, very scary to me.

~ Vic

Governor Romney Needs YOUR Help to Win a National Campaign — PLEASE CONTRIBUTE NOW, HERE

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As we approach the primary voting season, there are more and more new folks finding their way to our humble blog. The information I found on this blog was extremely helpful to me as I assessed the various candidates in search of “the One.” As such, I thought it would be fitting for me to share why I am a staunch supporter of Governor Mitt Romney in his run for the White House.

In a nutshell, Mitt Romney is the only “full-spectrum” Conservative who can rally the support of all three wings of the Reagan coalition, namely, Social, Economic, and Foreign Policy Conservatives.

For a full treatment of Mitt Romney’s positions, I would refer you to his comprehensive policy book “Vision for a Strong America.” Let me summarize here, however, the highlights across the major issues:

• Foreign Policy
o War against Islamic Fascism: We are engaged in a multi-front war which will require using all of our military, economic, and diplomatic might to win; we must defeat the terrorists and those who aid and abet them as well as help the Muslim people enter the 21st century (click here and here)
o Iraq and Afghanistan: The surge is working and we must do what it takes to help Iraq and Afghanistan become stable democratic allies in the war on Islamic Fascism and support our troops (click here and here)
o Iran: Iran must not be allowed to become a nuclear state; diplomacy and economic sanctions are critical, but may not be enough; the military option must remain on the table (click here)
o Military: Need to increase defense spending to a minimum of 4% of GDP to make sure our armed forces have the equipment they need in the field and the support the need back home; the best ally of peace is a strong America (click here and here)

• Economic Policy
o Taxes: We need to keep the Bush tax cuts permanent, eliminate the Death Tax, and cut taxes on capital gains, dividends, and interest to zero for the Middle Class (click here, and here)
o Spending: We need to restrain Federal spending and close the deficit; will veto any budget where non-defense discretionary spending growth exceeds inflation minus 1%; Need to give the President a line-item veto; Strong track record of financial management from Massachusetts where he closed a $3B deficit and turned it into a $1B surplus without raising taxes; carry out a comprehensive review of government spending to increase efficiency and effectiveness (click here and here)
o Entitlements reform: Maintain benefits for current Seniors, but institute fundamental reforms combining slowing the rate of increase for benefits based on income, extending the retirement age, individual retirement accounts, and no tax increases (click here)
o Healthcare: Mitt Romney is the only candidate on either side of the aisle who implemented a universal health care plan; He covered all of the citizens of Massachusetts using market-based insurance without raising taxes; Governor Romney advocates a Federalist state-by-state approach to make health insurance more affordable for everyone (click here)
o Globalization: Continue to trade around the world but make sure we negotiate level playing fields in foreign markets and upgrade American competitiveness through investments in education and innovation (click here and here)

• Culture and Values
o Illegal immigration: Control the border first and turn of the “magnets” that attract illegal immigrants by implementing an employment verification system, no special path for illegal immigrants to become citizens (i.e. no amnesty), no sanctuary cities, increased enforcement by local police agencies (click here, here, and here)
o Traditional marriage: In favor of amending the constitution to keep marriage defined as between a man and a woman; fought the Massachusetts Supreme Court to prevent the state from becoming a destination for same-sex couples looking for marriage licenses (click here and here and here)
o Life: Much has been made of Governor Romney’s switch from being Pro-Abortion to Pro-Life; This is a critical issue for me; I have heard many times why he made this change, and I believe him; I believe that Mitt Romney will fight for the rights of the unborn and be a great leader in supporting Life (click here, here, and here)

The choice of a nominee and President, however, is not strictly a “right-brained” decision based on policy statements and positions. There needs to be something inspirational about a candidate whether it’s the way that they speak to a crowd, interact one on one, or something about their personal story that sets them apart.

Experiencing Mitt through articles and videos really helped seal the deal for me. Below, I have listed some of what I would consider the best of the best articles and videos that helped me come to the decision to support Mitt actively. I’m sure I’m missing some great material, but there is a lot down below. I would encourage you to click through as much of this as you can, and if you have a favorite that wasn’t listed, please leave a link in the comments!

Key videos, speeches, appearances, and articles:
• Articles
o Romney to the Rescue (Newsmax) – Great overview of Mitt Romney
o National Review’s endorsement of Mitt Romney
o The House that Mitt Built (Private Equity International) – Behind the scenes view of how Mitt ran Bain Capital and his leadership style
o The Making of Mitt Romney (Boston Globe) – Reasonably balanced biography of each of the major phases of Mitt’s life starting from his youth through today
o Consultant in Chief (Wall Street Journal) – Interview of Mitt where he talks about how he would fix the Federal Government
o For Romney & Company, Campaign is all Business (NY Times) – How Mitt runs his campaign and what it would mean for his Presidency
o Evangelicals for Mitt statement of support
o Mark DeMoss on why Evangelicals should support Mitt
o Ann Romney Opens Up (People Magazine) – Great interview with Ann; she would be a fantastic First Lady!

• Speeches
o “Faith in America” – Seminal address on the role of religious faith and liberty in our nation
o Address to the Value Voters Summit – Seminal address on culture and value issues
o Iowa Straw Poll victory speech
o Highlights from the Republican debates (click 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th)
o Speech at CPAC 2007 – One of Mitt’s first major addresses to the leading grassroots gathering of Conservatives; one of his best speeches in my opinion
o Presidential Campaign Announcement – Mitt announcing that he’s running and why he’s running

• Campaign videos
o Biographical overview video of Mitt Romney (click part I, II, III, IV, V, VI, and VII)
o “Path to Victory” webcast – Mitt and Meg Whitman (CEO of eBay) discussing the 2007 campaign and discussing the plan for 2008
o Retrospective of Governor Romney’s campaign in 2007
o Online “Ask Mitt Anything” – For those of us who don’t live in an early primary state, Mitt held an online town hall meeting which provides a really good overview of his key positions
o Christmas 2006 – Behind the scenes look at the Romney family and how they made the decision together that Mitt should run for President; cynics have criticized this video as contrived, but I love the fact that he has held his family together while achieving such exceptional success; you can’t fake this stuff

• Media appearances
o Mitt on Jim Cramer of CNBC’s Mad Money – Great interview by Jim Cramer where he calls Mitt the “Best businessman in America”
o Mitt on ABC News talking about Ann – Great interview of Mitt where he discusses what he loves so much about Ann
o Mitt on Meet the Press – Tim Russert throws everything he’s got plus the kitchen sink at Mitt who proceeds to address each point in a clear, classy, and compelling way

• My favorite TV spots
o “Searched” – Compelling true story of how Mitt Romney shut down Bain Capital and moved all the employees to NYC to search for and find the daughter of one of his partners
o “Choice: Judgment” – Striking contrast ad highlighting Mike Huckabee’s 1,033 pardons and clemencies (more than 2x his three predecessors) vs. zero from Mitt Romney
o “Choice: The Record” – Ad contrasting Mitt’s record on illegal immigration vs. Mike Huckabee’s record of supporting tax payer funded scholarships and in-state tuition for illegal immigrants
o “Not Politically Correct” – Mitt’s record supporting life, English immersion education, and traditional marriage
o “Experience Matters” – Ad highlighting the lack of real world, executive experience on the part of Hillary Clinton (and equally applicable to the other Democrats)
o “Ready for Action” – Summary of Governor Romney’s stump speech in 60 seconds; user-generated ad based on a contest that was run back in September
o “Our Home” – Some precious footage of Mitt playing with his children and grandchildren; focuses on the importance of strengthening our families
o “Leadership” and “Energy” – I just love the images of Mitt jogging through the backwoods and the focus on his track record in business; I think he’s the only politician I’ve seen jogging where it looked like he was actually in shape…not just a photo op
o “Ocean” – Ad lamenting the degradation of our culture and Mitt’s thoughts on how he would like to address it; as a parent this one really resonated with me
o “Tested, Proven” – One of his early ads highlighting his track record in Massachusetts
o “I Like Vetoes” – Ad highlights his track record of vetoing excessive spending; no doubt in my mind that he’ll control spending after seeing this ad and other times when he has addressed this topic

Finally, it is one thing to support Mitt with your vote, but I’d like to ask you to consider supporting Mitt in a more active way. Like many of you, I had always followed politics, but never became active in politics (other than voting) until this year in support of Governor Romney.

This year is different. First, this is arguably the most consequential election in over twenty years. The challenges and issues that will be faced by our next President will have far reaching ramifications for our children and grandchildren.

Additionally, we face a set of candidates on the Republican side who represent vastly different positions and perspectives, some of whom threaten to tear asunder the Reagan coalition that has served us so well. Whether it is the socially liberal and sanctuary city defending Rudy Giuliani, the divisive, theocratic, soft on crime and illegal immigration, and fiscally populist Mike Huckabee, or the McCain Feingold, “Gang of 14”, and pro-Amnesty John McCain, there are clear differences in the way that each of these individuals would take the Republican Party.

If you’ve found this persuasive, please do whatever you can to support Mitt Romney’s candidacy. If you’re from Iowa, please caucus for Mitt (get more information here). Winning Iowa is job one between now and January 3.

If you are not from Iowa, please stay informed by checking in here at Elect Romney in 2008 every day. Make a donation to help Mitt win the media air war. Put on a bumper sticker or put up a yard sign (get them here). And most importantly, talk with your friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors about why you’re supporting Mitt Romney! Personal testimonials from trusted individuals are by far the most effective ways to gain more supporters for Mitt!

If you still have questions or remain unconvinced, leave a comment and we’ll do our best to answer your question. Or better yet, if you are also a Mitt supporter, leave a comment telling us why! Thank you for reading!

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Artwork by Michael Ramirez — Courtesy of IBD Editorials

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Giuliani Partners, the Rudy Giuliani’s company has made a fortune working out of the Mideast. Of all the places in the world Giuliani could have gone to provide its services in the world, it chose a nation that has close ties with terrorist, terrorism, and questionable characters.

These excerpts are taken out of context throughout a rather long article. Giuliani’s association with these folks sure makes one wonder what more there is to know. Click here to read the entire article online ——> Rudy’s Ties to a Terror Sheikh

This article is also high-lighted here —–> The Corner on National Review Online — You can bet there are lots of journalists digging on these stories. It will be interesting to observe how this plays out in the next few weeks.

But there was another reason to think twice about accepting al-Thani’s generosity that Giuliani had to have been aware of, even as he heaped praise on the emir. Al Jazeera, the Arabic news network based in Qatar (pronounced “Cutter”), had been all but created by al-Thani, who was its largest shareholder. The Bush administration was so upset with the coverage of Osama bin Laden’s pronouncements and the U.S. threats to bomb Afghanistan that Secretary of State Colin Powell met the emir just hours before Giuliani’s on-air endorsement and asked him to tone down the state-subsidized channel’s Islamist footage and rhetoric. The six-foot-eight, 350-pound al-Thani, who was pumping about $30 million a year into Al Jazeera at the time, refused Powell’s request, citing the need for “a free and credible media.” The administration’s burgeoning distaste for what it would later brand “Terror TV” was already so palpable that King—hardly a newsman—asked the emir if he would help “spread the word” that the U.S. was “not targeting the average Afghan citizen.” Al-Thani ignored the question—right before Giuliani rushed in to praise him again.

In retrospect, Giuliani’s embrace of the emir appears peculiar. But it was only a sign of bigger things to come: the launching of a cozy business relationship with terrorist-tolerant Qatar

In other words, as incredible as it might seem, Rudy Giuliani—whose presidential candidacy is steeped in 9/11 iconography—has been doing business with a government agency run by the very man who made the attacks on 9/11 possible.

Peter Boyer, whose New Yorker profile of Giuliani appeared this August, quoted D’Amuro and Giuliani about the expertise and work of Ali Soufan, an Arabic-speaking Lebanese-American who also left the FBI to become the international director of Giuliani Security. Both D’Amuro and Giuliani said that Soufan, the lead investigator in the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole in 2000, had been spending “most of his time” in a Persian Gulf country that is a Giuliani client. Boyer didn’t identify the country, but another source familiar with Soufan’s assignment has confirmed that Soufan has, until recently, been based in Qatar. “The firm has helped the country with training, and with a revamping of its security infrastructure,” Boyer wrote. “The locale is an ideal listening post for someone whose expertise is unraveling the tangle of international terror.”

On December 1, the day before Giuliani arrived, the emir’s special guests at the lavish opening, attended by 55,000, were Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniyeh and Syrian president Bashar Assad, all of whom are Qatar allies and were pictured sitting together on television. Giuliani’s presence that weekend wasn’t noted in news coverage at the time, even though his firm had apparently provided security advice for an event that included Ahmadinejad, whose country Giuliani has since promised to “set back five years” should it pursue its nuclear program.

All of this evidence of Qatar’s role as a facilitator of terrorism—reaching even to the emir himself—was reported well before Giuliani Partners began its business there “around 2005.” Yet even the New York Times story, filled with quotes from Giuliani’s friend Freeh, didn’t deter him. Nor did the firm’s retention of D’Amuro and Soufan, two ex-FBI counterterrorism experts who certainly knew the terror landscape of Qatar.

Also in 2004, Michael Knights, an analyst at the Washington Institute who works with the Defense Department, wrote that a “Wahhabi clique” tied to extremists “is still in charge [in Qatar], and seeded the security establishment with personnel of their choosing.” But even this strong, specific warning didn’t deter Giuliani Partners’ interest in Qatar.

Presumably, Giuliani’s rationale for doing business there was that Qatar had become an American ally

Giuliani Partners, however, has a world of choices, quite literally. Some American companies who do business in Qatar, like Shell and ExxonMobil, have to chase the gas and oil wherever they are. But a consulting company with instant name recognition like Giuliani’s—and which claims to carefully vet its clients—can be both profitable and selective. Moreover, it’s the only American company known to be providing security advice to Qatar; the rest hail from Singapore, Australia, and France. A company headed by a man who has known that he would make this presidential run for years—and with 9/11 as its rationale—could have chosen to make his millions elsewhere. Especially a candidate who divides the world into good guys and bad guys, claims that this war is a “divine” mission, and shuns complexity. For that kind of a candidate, Qatar may become one Giuliani contradiction too many.

~ Vic

Please Help Mitt Get His Message Out —-> MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

“If you’re afraid of the future, then get out of the way, stand aside. The people of this country are ready to move again.”

– Ronald Reagan

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Artwork by Michael Ramirez —– Courtesy of IBD Editorials

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Great Commentary from Brain Shavings. He compares the ad to the following two, one from George W. Bush, the other from the great Ronald Reagan.

To give credit also, he’s supporting Fred Thompson.

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In the past few days we have all observed a resumption of the defeatist talk among some segments of the Evangelical Right that basically says, “Give us a fantasy candidate who is absolutely perfect in all his ways and who has been absolutely perfect in all his ways since birth, or else we’re bolting the ranks and going third party.”

The Clinton “war room” operatives must be rolling on the floor with laughter at the prospect that the religious right is contemplating shooting itself in the foot, again.

Polling research has shown that in the 2006 election some of the evangelical right “sat out the election” in protest of the corruption of some members of Congress and the general policy drift of the Bush administration. It’s one thing to be unhappy with the performance of our elected officials in Washington but it is something far worse to “sit out an election” and let the left populate Congress with people who have already said they will insure a defeat in Iraq, appoint pro-abortion judges to the SCOTUS, raise our taxes and in general do everything they can to remake the United States of America into a dreary European socialist state.

One of our readers asked this question in the comments section: “Will we allow a Clinton victory by default because of our religious bias against an LDS candidate?” (paraphrased)

I hope the answer to that question is a resounding NO!

As a member of that segment of the electorate that identifies itself as the religious right, I can tell you that Mitt Romney has the values and the policies that I want to see in the White House. I have followed MR’s candidacy very closely and I can not think of one of his major positions that I do not agree with.
How perfect does that man have to be to please some of these folks who are threatening to bolt the Republican Party and thereby roll out the red carpet for Hillary and her minions as they march into Washington and systematically destroy everything we have worked for over the course of this past decade. If we lose this election, Hillary gets to nominate the next couple of Supreme Court justices. If you are a conservative and that doesn’t scare the hell out of you, then you just haven’t been paying attention for the last 15 years or so.

If we lose this election, there will almost certainly be a humanitarian disaster in Iraq, a power vacuum in the Middle East that will be filled by Iran, they will control the oilfields and our economy will return to a level it hasn’t seen since the Depression.

I know some will say that I am being a alarmist, all these things didn’t happen when Bill Clinton was president. Bill Clinton was president before 911 and he treated terrorist attacks as crimes, not as acts of war. He wanted to issues arrest warrants for criminals who hid in caves in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Many people have made the case that it was Bill Clinton and his feckless response to the Trade Tower bombing in 1993 and his abject failure to take Osama Bin Laden out when we had him in the cross hairs and his lobbing of cruise missiles at empty aspirin factories that led the Jihadists to the conclusion that America is a paper tiger that can be attacked with glee and abandon.

I might also point out that Hillary’s bungled health care initiative that proposed to commandeer 17% of the GDP and turn it into another socialistic bureaucratic quagmire helped pave the way for Newt Gingrich and his supporters to wrest control of Congress from the Democrats for the first time in 50 years. So, the reason all these terrible things I have alluded to didn’t happen in the Clinton administration is that there was a vibrant, loyal opposition to this president and his zany proposals (and his wife’s zany proposals). If we lose anything like the numbers that are currently being predicted, then that “vibrant, loyal opposition” will not exist this time to put the brakes on an out of control Washington.

It’s time to leave the fantasy realm and return to the reality realm and to realize that Mitt Romney is our very best hope to keep the White House in conservative hands.

~~John Cronin~~

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This post does not mention Gov. Romney. I am including this article for these reasons.:

1. It is outstanding,
2. It encapsulates well the the overall picture in Iraq, from beginning of the war to present,
3. It is essential reading in understanding the dynamics involved in Iraq, and
4. It helps us to understand what Gov. Romney knows and faces as President.

Click —->  The Hearts and Minds of Those in Iraq

~ Vic

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Artwork by Michael Ramirez —– Courtesy of IBD Editorials

Article #1………..Article #2………..Article #3

~ Vic

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………..

This Washington Post article just hammers at Rudy Giuliani’s terrorist credentials. Basically, the article portrays Giuliani as a “johnny-come-lately” to the issue of terrorism. Well documented throughout, the entire article is a must read for anybody interested in the issue of terrorism.

.

But for most of Giuliani’s career as a Department of Justice official, prosecutor and New York’s chief executive, terrorism was a narrow aspect of his broader crime-fighting agenda, which was dominated by drug dealers, white-collar criminals and the Mafia. Giuliani expressed confidence that Islamic extremism could be contained through vigorous investigation by law enforcement agencies and prosecution in the court system — the same approach he now condemns.

His public warnings about the threat were infrequent. To the extent that he mentioned terrorism in his aborted run for the Senate in 2000, for example, it was to call for more spending on intelligence. Even in the weeks after Sept. 11, he framed the attacks in the language of crime, describing the hijackers as “insane murderers” and calling for restoration of the “rule of law.”

As mayor, Giuliani made decisions that seemed to discount the gravity of the terrorist threat, such as placing his emergency command center at the World Trade Center a few years after the 1993 bombing attack there, against the wishes of top advisers. By his own account, it was after Sept. 11 that he started reading up on al-Qaeda, devouring a book that his then-girlfriend Judith Nathan bought for him.

As terrorist incidents occurred sporadically in the 1990s, Giuliani sought to keep them in perspective. He urged against publicizing terror drills, to avoid needlessly scaring New Yorkers. He resisted branding as terrorism smaller-scale acts of Islamic violence in the city.

On the campaign trail, Giuliani particularly stresses the time he spent as U.S. attorney investigating Yasser Arafat for his role in the death of a wheelchair-bound New Yorker, Leon Klinghoffer, in the 1985 hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro. “I investigated Yasser Arafat before anybody knew who he really was,” Giuliani said in Las Vegas.

But prosecutors who led that case say Giuliani overstates his role. He assisted in the later, failed attempt to evict the Palestine Liberation Organization from its New York office, but the investigation of an Arafat link to the ship hijacking was handled by the Justice Department in Washington, say former Justice officials, including Stephen Trott, now a federal appeals judge.

Jay Fischer, a lawyer who represented the Klinghoffer family, said he never talked with Giuliani about the case. “When I heard [him] just in the last six months making a speech that he knew about terrorism because he had led the investigation, I recall turning around to my wife and saying, ‘That comes as news to me,’ ” Fischer said.

But the 1993 attack also receded on City Hall’s radar screen. During Giuliani’s search for a police commissioner, terrorism did not come up, according to four candidates and three members of the hiring panel interviewed by Wayne Barrett and Dan Collins, authors of the 2006 book “Grand Illusion.” Giuliani never asked his successor as U.S. attorney about the cases against the attackers or about other terrorism cases, said a source familiar with the office who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Giuliani’s desire to keep terrorism in perspective could be discerned even on Sept. 11, 2001, and in the days following, when he sought to marginalize the attackers and the threat they represented. Asked on the day of the attacks whether they constituted an “act of war,” he said, “I don’t know that I want to use those words. . . . I’m totally confident that American democracy and the American rule of law will prevail.”

In an interview later that month, he noted that one of the inexplicable things about the attacks was that, unlike the attack on Pearl Harbor, they lacked broader context: “This has no purpose,” he said. “They’re not going to gain freedom as a result of this. They’re not going to win a war as a result. They’re not going to stop us. America’s not going to stop as a result of this.”

But Giuliani’s rhetoric changed as time went on. Campaigning for President Bush in 2004, he described the attacks as part of an existential war for survival — “the worst crisis in our history” — that had been going on for years, but that Clinton and others had failed to recognize. It was, he said in his speech at the 2004 GOP convention in New York, “much like observing Europe appease Hitler or trying to accommodate the Soviet Union through the use of mutually assured destruction.”

On the trail this year, he has noted that the lack of awareness about terrorism was widely shared before Sept. 11. But this statement often precedes an attack on Democrats for lapsing into the “big mistake” of the 1990s. The Democratic candidates, he warned members of the National Rifle Association last week, would, if elected, cause a “slip back to the Clinton era of playing defense against Islamic terrorism. . . . That may be the single defining issue.”

Lhota, the former deputy mayor, said Giuliani’s shift from not dwelling on terrorism to his full-throated warnings today could be attributed to the difference between being a mayor and being a presidential candidate. “It’s really the role of the [mayor] to reassure the public that the situation is under control. It’s the role of national leader to tell Americans that we are vulnerable,” he said.

Hauer, the former emergency commissioner, said he does not know what to make of the rhetorical shift. In the 1990s, Giuliani “wanted to play the threat down,” he said. “Rudy felt like talking about [terrorism] was alarmist. He never talked about it except in reaction to something. Now he’s screaming that the sky is falling.”

Notwithstanding Giuliani’s image as being strong on terrorism, I think Governor Romney’s knowledge and expertise on the subject is far superior to that of Giuliani based on the depth of their respective policy statements on the issue.

~ Vic

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Artwork by Michael Ramirez —– Courtesy of IBD Editorials

~ Vic

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Those who only want to read about Governor Romney or his competitors, may skip this one. However, this is an outstanding piece to understand what Governor Romney knows and studies. If Governor Romney is not already an expert on Radical Islam, he is fast becoming one. This piece was posted today in Ramadi, Iraq by Michael J. Totten, an independent journalist. Hugh Hewitt dedicated at least one hour of his national radio program to this blog post. If someone had told me four months ago that Ramadi would be safe throughout in September, I would have laughed at them.

I know many people who have spent years in Japan. Without exception, they always report how the Japanese love Americans for what they did for them after WWII. Liberty and freedom are amazing gifts that many Americans scarcely understand or appreciate. These Anbaris reflect the joy that comes from knowing freedom.

This post is worth reading for the following reasons:
1) Totten’s writing is outstanding, amazing, and moving.
2) The photographs are incredible.
3) The dozens of comments left at the post are themselves worth reading (remember, this was posted today).
4) At least one reader stated he/she was left in tears after reading it.

To experience this great piece, click here ——-> Anbar Awakens

To me, it is stunning that so many in Congress are impatient and care only about declaring failure and retreat.

“In Germany they first came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was nobody left to speak up.”

— Reverend Martin Niemoller, Germany, 1930’s

~ Vic3

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