Conservative Pulse

According to the Politico, Ralph Nader is telling people that he fully expects that Barack Obama will name Hillary Clinton as his running-mate in the next few days. Nader suggests that Obama can’t really pick anyone else, as all other available choices are uninspiring empty suits.

“I don’t think he’s that dumb,” said Nader, commenting on widespread speculation that Obama’s choices are down to Sens. Joe Biden, Evan Bayh, or Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine.

The smart pick, according to Nader, is Hillary Rodham Clinton. Nader phoned into Politico Tuesday afternoon to offer his prediction that a surprise nod to Clinton is actually what Obama has in store—never mind the talk of mistrust between the Clintons and Obama.

“He just has to swallow hard and do what JFK did” in picking rival Lyndon Johnson in 1960, said the liberal activist and maverick presidential candidate.

Meanwhile, left-wing filmmaker Michael Moore has published an open letter to Caroline Kennedy. Kennedy, the daughter of former President JFK, is heading up Obama’s Vice-Presidential search committee. In his letter, Moore urges Kennedy to throw her own hat into the ring…

What Obama needs is a vice presidential candidate who is NOT a professional politician, but someone who is well-known and beloved by people across the political spectrum; someone who, like Obama, spoke out against the war; someone who has a good and generous heart, who will be cheered by the rest of the world; someone whom we’ve known and loved and admired all our lives and who has dedicated her life to public service and to the greater good for all.

That person, Caroline, is you.

If this were to happen, Kennedy would be following in the footsteps of Vice-President Dick Cheney. In 2000, then Texas Governor George W. Bush tapped Cheney to head up his search committee. Bush ultimately made the decision to scrap the search and asked Cheney to serve as his running mate.

The Democratic and Republican conventions are stacked right on top of each other. Generally, there isn’t expected to be any significant news out of either event. They will just be carefully scripted shows designed to introduce their candidates to the American public. But it’s doubtful many people will change their minds based on what happens at these conventions.

Who the candidates select as their running mates will determine who comes out of their convention with the big bounce. Right now, the race between Obama and McCain is locked in a dead heat. But that could be tipped by the two people who are about to have their names added to the bottom of the tickets.

For Obama’s part, the challenge is even harder. The Russian invasion of Georgia highlights the fact that we need a person in the White House with some experience on the world stage. Obama has practically no background in that area, and will need to balance himself with someone like Joe Biden. But will the legions of college students who’ve rallied to Obama support an old white guy along with him? Any running mate that makes Obama more credible also has the danger of making him less cool to the base of people that got him where he is today.

Perhaps Hillary Clinton would be the perfect choice… credibility, experience, and it heals the wounds in their party. Only problem is, they hate each other and Obama doesn’t want to deal with Bill Clinton.

McCain’s choice is important, because he needs some fresh energy on his ticket. Something to help him cut into Obama’s core base, while not turning off conservatives. Rumors that he’s planning to pick Tom Ridge or Joe Lieberman are hopefully just that… rumors. McCain loves Lieberman and the two men would govern well together, but social conservatives would be hugely turned off by the move.

McCain’s best bet is to pick a surprise candidate that will ignite the conservative base while staying true to his maverick form. And, as an added bonus, appealing to female voters. That makes Alaska Governor Sarah Palin his smartest pick, politically.

It’s likely that we’ll know who Obama has picked by this time tomorrow. Stay tuned, it’s about to get really interesting.

The Republican primary for U.S. House in Alaska is next Tuesday, August 26. Normally, this would mean that 18-term Congressman Don Young was about to roll over some minor opposition and cruise back into his seat for another two years.

Not this time.

Lt. Governor Sean Parnell is waging a powerful challenge to Young’s re-election. He’s being helped by Alaska governor, and possible McCain running mate, Sarah Palin. The Club for Growth has also thrown their weight (and cash) behind Parnell’s campaign. They feel that Young is out of touch with the people he represents and has supported irresponsible spending bills, including the infamous “bridge to nowhere” proposal.

Right now, Young is being pounded on the air by a Club for Growth ad…

While the Parnell campaign highlights Palin’s endorsement…

It may be the one-two punch that ends Congressman Young’s decades in Washington. We’ll have to wait and see what the voters think next week. Personally, I hope Parnell takes the seat as it’s time for some fresh blood in the House Republican Caucus.

Likely Democratic nominee Barack Obama met with T. Boone Pickens to discuss energy policy today. The two men would be unlikely allies, as Pickens has been a staunch Republican who heavily funded the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth organization that’s largely credited for destroying John Kerry’s Presidential campaign back in 2004.

When asked about that, Obama kind of brushes it off…

Barack Obama on Sunday met with — and defended — one of the primary financers of the group that was perhaps most responsible for sinking Sen. John F. Kerry’s 2004 presidential bid.

Obama huddled privately with T. Boone Pickens in a small conference room in the bowels of a casino hotel to discuss the legendary Texas energy trader’s much-publicized energy policy proposal.

But while the two men posed for pictures before the meeting, Obama was asked how it felt to be meeting with the man “who tore down” Kerry’s campaign.

Pickens, who gave $3 million to the anti-Kerry 527 group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, smiled awkwardly as Obama fielded the question.

“Ah, you know, he’s got a lot longer track record than that,” Obama said. “He’s been doing, ah, he’s a legendary entrepreneur and you know, one of the things that I think we have to unify the country around is having an intelligent energy policy.”

Yet another, ah, you know, great quote from Barack Obama.

He’s just so, ah, you know, inspirational.

Despite the fact that Barack Obama locked up the Democratic nomination weeks ago, it appears that some are still holding out for a miracle at next week’s convention in Denver…

Now that we know Hillary’s name will be placed into nomination for a roll call vote, how long will it be until elements of her spin machine start throwing tomatoes at Obama? Of course, Hillary herself will remain far above the fray. But the ultimate goal, I suspect, is to crank up the pressure on Obama to name Clinton as his running mate.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is rumored to be plotting a resignation followed by exile in Saudi Arabia, according to Newsweek sources. It seems that Musharraf is afraid of what would happen if he were to stand and face an impeachment trial.

Though his resignation had been expected for days, a move to flee the country is a surprise since Musharraf and his chief allies have said he would fight impeachment and remain in Pakistan. At a gathering at the presidential palace in Islamabad on Wednesday, the eve of Pakistan’s Independence Day, the president may have foreshadowed his decision in a speech to his guests. He tried to put the best face on his worsening predicament, calling for reconciliation among the country’s political forces as the only way that Pakistan could face its many challenges. But according to NEWSWEEK sources, in private conversations that night Musharraf agreed with several close friends that his resignation was his only viable option, and that fighting impeachment proceedings in parliament would only deepen and prolong the country’s political agony.

The world must now watch Pakistan very closely this week. The nuclear-armed nation cannot be allowed to fall into the hands of Islamic extremists, many of whom have fled to Pakistan from Afghanistan in recent years. If any Al-Queda allied groups wanted to make a move, this seems like their ideal time to strike.

Any crisis in Pakistan would surely impact the U.S. Presidential election as well. Consider Hillary Clinton’s now famous “3 A.M.” ad — who do you trust in times of uncertainty? A proven leader and bonfide war hero or a freshman Senator who’s never accomplished anything substantative?

At today’s Saddleback Church forum, Barack Obama stumbled in a huge way when asked about his position on abortion. The media hasn’t made too much of this yet, but I think we may have seen the single quote of this campaign that energizes the Republican base for John McCain.

Here it is, in case you missed it…

It seems that Mitt Romney’s Vice-Presidential hopes are being torpedoed by former Presidential rival Mike Huckabee — remember him? Apparently, former Huckabee supporters have decided that it’s too dangerous to let McCain put Romney on the ticket.

The official line being used by the Huckabee folks is that Romney’s flip-flops will be a negative drag on the campaign and could cost McCain votes. But the more likely explanation is that both Romney and Huckabee plan to run for President again in four or eight years. Huckabee doesn’t want Romney to have that advantage of having been on the national ticket.

I wonder, if McCain does decide to pick Romney, will the Huckabee delegates stage any sort of protest or mini-revolt at the convention? Anything that highlights a lack of unity or hurts McCain with social conservatives would be a disaster.

If Huckabee wants to step into this process and be helpful, he ought to suggest Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as a good alternative. She is conservative, dynamic, attractive, and would be an overall dynamite pick. Then again, that might make her too good of a choice. She could become a leading Presidential candidate in her own right.

The recent Russian attacks on Georgia over South Ossetia have provoked a firestorm of controversy over who was responsible - the United States, for originally supporting Georgia’s assertion over SO in the first place, or Russia, which took a direct and aggressive way of dealing with the situation.  US support of independence for Kosovo, considered a breakaway province by Russia, has lately been cited as a source of provocation, urging Moscow to target a disputed area associated with a pro-Western country.

However, the difference is striking - NATO moved military assets into Kosovo during the conflict in Yugoslavia after a 1998 massacre perpetrated by Serbs.  Various Yugoslav war criminals were arrested, some by force, and taken to trial.  However, that was pretty much all there was to it.  NATO’s recognition of Kosovo as an independent nation in 2008 was not a violent military action, but a diplomatic and political one.

Moscow’s attempt at seizing South Ossetia with a fierce ground and air assault has been a vast overreaction.  It would be a stretch to think that a diplomatic gesture by NATO - backed up with little threat of actual military force - could have provoked such an assymetrical response.

Now, some US officials are saying that serious diplomatic repurcussions may be coming for Russia as a result of the incident.

Washington and its allies also are discussing whether to drop Moscow from the Group of Eight industrialized economic powers, the official said.

Russian President Dimitry Medvedev had pledged to strengthen Russia’s role in the international community and world economy. But the U.S. official said that Russia, in its current situation, has “much more to lose” than the Soviet Union did when it invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968.

Russia raising the stakes in this way seems to show that they have forgotten a lot of the diplomatic progress that Washington and Moscow have made over the years.  Putin may be attempting to rebuild Russia’s imploded sphere of influence enjoyed during the former Soviet years, capitalizing on newfound oil wealth and taking the opportunity to assert itself militarily while the United States is overextended in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Worse, however, is the fact that many US leaders have overemphasized the importance of non-state actors on the world stage and have repolarized our military strength around that.  This sounds a lot like the “New Economy” mantra that was being preached less than a decade ago, right before reality struck and it all came crashing down.  As Russia’s latest foray into Georgia demonstrates, the Cold War has not ended and we would be foolish to think that the truly important “wars of the future” will involve terrorists or third-world nations.  The United States needs to remember what worked for us in the past, rather than trying to reinvent the wheel when the road has not changed.

In addition to the computer generated fireworks inserted into the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, the little girl chosen to sing the Chinese national anthem actually lip-synched the song. Not only didn’t she sing it live, it wasn’t even her voice on the tape.

Chinese officials decided that the little girl seen on the broadcast was appropriately cute, but that another less cute girl would be a better singer. CNN has the full story…

Games organizers confirm that Lin Miaoke, who performed “Ode to the Motherland” as China’s flag was paraded Friday into Beijing’s National Stadium, was not singing at all.

Lin was lip-syncing to the sound of another girl, 7-year-old Yang Peiyi, who was heard but not seen, apparently because she was deemed not cute enough.

“The reason was for the national interest,” said Chen Qigang, the ceremony’s musical director, in a state radio interview. “The child on camera should be flawless in image, internal feeling and expression. … Lin Miaoke is excellent in those aspects.”

The decision was made at the highest levels, Chen said.

“We had to do it,” he said. “We’d been through several inspections. They’re all very strict. When we rehearsed at the spot, there were several spectators from various divisions, especially leaders from the Politburo, who gave the opinion it must change.”