Agree with Inhofe

Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe says that Barack Obama can't win the presidency. I agree with his reasoning, and have for a long time.

Regardless of what polls show, Inhofe said, voters will have to ask themselves a question once they get behind the curtain in the voting booth on Election Day.

"Do you really want to have a guy as commander in chief of this country when you can question whether or not he really loves his country?" he asked.

"That's the big question.''

I'm not part of the crowd that thinks it can, or should, judge the patriotism of others based on their politics. I've never questioned anyone's patriotism that I can recall. But Barack's affiliation with Reverends Wright and Pfleger, along with his close alliance with the domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, present compelling evidence of an underlying radicalism. Throw in his wife's statements about the country for seasoning.

Inhofe went on to deny that he was doing what he was doing.

After he was asked for an explanation on why voters should question Obama's love for his country, Inhofe issued a written statement on Friday to clarify his earlier comments."Let me be clear,'' he said.

"I am not questioning Sen. Obama's patriotism, but you have to question why at times he seems so obviously opposed to public displays of patriotism and national pride, like wearing an American flag lapel pin.''

Inhofe said Americans can show pride in their country in different ways but suggested all should be straightforward.

Of course he's questioning Barack's patriotism, as well he should. But in our world of dumb media, this technique protects the stater of fact from facing the music for stating the facts. McCain used this trick quite successfully.

When Barack's alliances are explored by the 527's over the next several weeks, his dropping poll numbers will get down for good.

What Barack Doesn't Like

Barack explains that he believes America, as it is today, is not good enough for his children.

Character Attack

Is McCain being fair?

"It seems to me that Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign," McCain said Tuesday in New Hampshire, in a line he’s been using regularly since.

That statement represents shorthand for an angle that is entirely accurate - attacking Barack's character for having contrived positions on the war to please liberal Democrats in order to outflank Hillary.

A former naval aviator and prisoner of war in Vietnam, McCain is pressing his case against a candidate with no military experience, and who—thanks in part to a subterranean smear campaign that’s tapped a nerve with some voters who because of it or even prior to it—don’t see him as entirely or all American.

Doubts about Barack - his background, his judgment, his patriotism - underpin his problems with mainstream voters. It is wise, and fair, for McCain to go for the jugular.

It’s a tempting line of attack, though, against Obama, who a recent poll found that 55 percent of voters thought was the “riskier” choice for president as against 35 percent who said McCain. It’s also an attack that tap into a major source of that unease, race, and is especially likely to pay dividends with a relative newcomer to the national stage such as Obama, whose public image is not yet as clearly defined.

Giving vague speeches like the one offered on the streets of Berlin only serves to fuel questions about who Barack is and what he truly believes.

"I'm not questioning his patriotism," McCain said on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopolous. "I am saying that he made the decision [to oppose the surge], which was political, in order to help him get the nomination of his party.

Which is, of course, an attack on his patriotism. And one that is deserved.