The folks who write Saturday Night Live scripts could not have put a finer point on the political hilarity of Monday Sept. 9th any better than what bore out in real life.
First you have Secretary of State, John Kerry, speaking in London ( <- luckily) early in the day, answering a question, and say mockingly: “if Assad gave up his chemical weapons then we would not strike Syria“.

“Sure, he could turn over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community in the next week – turn it over, all of it without delay and allow the full and total accounting (of it). “But he isn’t about to do it and it can’t be done.”

This gaffe was jumped on by the Ruskies who said “OK, we’ll take the WMD, Syria will not be able to use it” therefore problem solved.
What happens next is the stuff of SNL legend (watch video)

All day long the pundits and talking heads on all the major networks have been talking about this unprecedented media push by President Obama. Almost all of them proclaiming amazement about President Obama talking to “Six” count them, S.I.X, TV broadcasters.
Well, it’s not quite what the White House would have you believe…..

I think the media got out foxed by the White House — each gets 7 minutes? That is really nuts. You can’t get information about an important issue like war in 7 minutes. If the President gives a long answer to the first question, you are cooked…time is up!
What the media should have done is asked to have the time combined – 42 minutes – and then pick out of a hat who did the interview from this group of 6 and let ALL NETWORKS use the interview like a pool interview. (Via Gretawire)

UPDATE(s) – As predicted earlier today: Harry Reid has cancelled Senate vote authorizing President Obama to take military action.   AND President Obama backs off Red Line and says he’s open to “diplomatic tack”.
The reasons WHY are evidenced as they were previously outlined below:

After 10 straight days of pressure from President Obama’s team, the request for congressional authorization is failing miserably.    All intellectually honest DC operatives, pundits et al, are all in agreement any vote in House of Representatives would fail horridly, and passage in the Senate is doubtful at best.
President Obama will not allow a vote call upon either chamber that he knows would fail.  [Unless, of course, the vote failure was to his benefit – that’s not the case on this Syrian authorization].  Harry Reid will not call a vote in the Senate which would embarrass or humiliate President Obama.
That said, now the issue becomes how to get President Obama out from his self inflicted plunge under his own bus.   This phrase, which will eventually come from the mouth of Obama, is what all political efforts are working toward:

“I was never for militarily attacking Syria, I always wanted a peaceful solution”.

Obama needs to position himself as being reluctantly dragged toward conflict now.  He needs to make the case that *HE* did not want to attack Syria, the global demands of humanity were forcing him to threaten Assad.
President Obama needs a soft landing to save face – to find a soft landing you need to receive a ‘soft message’ from your adversary.   Russia knows this.
Russia and Syria know there is no popular support for Obama.  Russia knows from decades of experience inside the U.S. exactly what the internal public opinion does to any administration;  and most importantly Russia knows what is described above as to what POTUS protectors are doing to safety net President Obama.   Hence….   (more…)

(Via GWP)  JihadWatch reports the following:

Confirmation from the White House itself that John Kerry was lying when he said that the number of countries supporting the U.S. had reached “double digits.” “White House Admits It’s a Coalition of One,” by Patrick Brennan at National Review, September 8:

When asked this morning if the U.S. has any pledges of military support for strikes in Syria, White House chief of staff Denis McDonough emphasized that the G20 and other nations have made supportive condemnations of the Syrian government’s actions, but repeatedly pressed by CNN’s Candy Crowley, provided no examples of countries that have endorsed or will provide personnel or equipment for a military intervention.

(more…)

Next week (on Monday) CNN is set to rework the old Crossfire Show with a new cast.     Unfortunately, because of pundit selection, it is set-up to fail before it even starts.   The problem is best defined as “intellectual dishonesty”.

The cast is being sold as two progressives, Van Jones / Stephanie Cutter, versus two conservatives Newt Gingrich / S.E. Cupp.
Both Jones and Gingrich are good choices as each can present strong intellectual arguments around modern/current political aspects of current events.  However,  both Stephanie Cutter and S.E. Cupp are dishonest to a fault in almost all of their professional pontifications.
(more…)

Think the mealy-mouthed, pansy Republicans can learn a lesson from Australia? Yeah, me neither… but the lessons are there for the taking if they’d just pull their PC embedded, wishy-washy, wind-testing heads out of their proverbial asses.
(Via Breitbart)  The conservatives won a stunning landslide victory in Australia’s national elections, capturing 53% of the vote Saturday. Conservative leaders emphasized a hard line against immigration, against a carbon tax, and against continual increases in government spending. This “no compromise” attitude became a key to victory.

Tony Abbott, Australia’s prime minister-elect, center, waves to supporters as he stands with wife Margie, second left, and their daughters Frances, left, Louise, second right, and Bridget after delivering his victory speech in Sydney.

Conservative leader Tony Abbot, a former Rhode Scholar and Catholic seminarian, has been the center of controversy throughout the campaign because of a “take-no-prisoners” attitude. And for a former boxer, this is hardly as surprise. Abbot has promised intense focus on an economy that is slowing down after a decades-long mining boom driven by demand for natural resources by China’s manufacturers.  (continue reading)

*Updated Congressional Vote Counts*   You can see how your congressional  House and Senate representatives are planning to vote:
Via ABC News Congressional Whip Polling:
OPPOSE MILITARY ACTION IN SYRIA: 75
LIKELY TO OPPOSE: 150                                        Total Oppose 225
SUPPORT MILITARY ACTION IN SYRIA: 19
LIKELY TO SUPPORT: 25                                       Total Support 44
UNDECIDED: 140
UNKNOWN: 23                                                          Total Undecided 163 (link)
The Huffington Post/Think Progress Polling: (more…)

Toward the end of this brief video Secretary Kerry says:

…. “I guarantee you if we turn our backs today, the picture we all saw in the paper today and the media of those people shot, that will take place more because more extremists will be attracted to this, because they will be funded as the only alternative in order to take on Assad”….

Accurately Rush Limbaugh opines.   Rush Limbaugh makes a great point regarding John Kerry’s insistence that these Syrian rebels are moderates — yet he referred to American military as murderers who terrorize women and children. (more…)

The vote from the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee to put Obama’s Syrian resolution before the full Senate is essentially meaningless.    The subsequent vote amid the full Senate to support such a resolution is more politically valuable, but not terribly much.
The vote that counts, to authorize President Obama to use our military and attack Syria, will only come from the House of Representatives – The ‘People’s House’.

With that in mind a couple of recent tracking polls, ABC and Think Progress, are in alignment: (more…)

Leading Are Hard…..

*Check out the look on Chuck Hagle’s face in the picture above* – (Politico) House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to fellow House Democrats appealing for their support for military action in Syria in response to alleged chemical weapons use.
“At this critical juncture, it is essential that we make all Americans — the men and women we represent — fully aware of what the intelligence clearly and unequivocally demonstrates: that the Assad regime was responsible for chemical weapons attacks against innocent Syrians, resulting in the deaths of more than 1,400 people, including hundreds of children,” Pelosi wrote to Democrats. […] (more…)