Monday, May 12, 2008

'Indistinguishable'?

Thanks for the traffic, Michelle Malkin, but I was stunned at your statement that Bob Barr is "virtually indistinguishable from all the other remaining presidential candidates" on illegal immigration. As I report at the American Spectator blog:

"If a person is illegally in this country, the taxpayers of this country and the government of this country owe them nothing," Barr said.
"This notion that government owes something to people, simply because they're here, does not resonate with me as somebody who believes in responsible government. If one were running a charity called the United States of America, that would be one thing. This is not a charity, this is the people's business. . . . I disagree with the [1982 Plyer v. Doe] court decision . . . that decided that children of illegal aliens, people who are in this country unlawfully, have a right to a public education paid for by the taxpayers of this country. That is an improper, irresponsible decision."

For some reason, none of the MSM reporters at the event thought that quote newsworthy. But it's certainly distinguishable from anything John McCain has ever said.

UPDATE 5/13: A source in the Barr campaign tells me they were bombarded Monday with hostile, vitriolic e-mails from John McCain's supporters. I myself was unaware that See-Dubya is a McCainiac, as indicated by his comment on my Monday morning post:

Ron Paul grew a moustache?

By which See-Dubya apparently means to dismiss Barr as an anti-war crackpot. Well, Barr's never trucked with Truthers, at least. And the Spectator's Philip Klein sees a difference:

On international affairs in general, his tone was a lot more measured than what we've seen from Ron Paul -- there were no stinging critiques of U.S. as an imperialist nation.

Barr voted for the Iraq War, but now believes it was a mistake and wants to "set in place a plan" to "dramatically decrease the military, the economic, and the political footprint we maintain in Iraq."

But his language remained cautious. He opposes precipitous withdrawal, and described it as "foolhardy" to announce a timetable for pulling out of Iraq.

"Only a fool would signal to whoever their adversaries are when we would be drawing down our troops," he said.In response to another question, he added that "the doctrine of preemptive war has no basis in traditional and historical notions of America's security."

Barr's a big boy who can defend himself, but I have a hard time reconciling the way some of my friends are now calling for conservatives to rally 'round the GOP banner with the way they were talking in January and February.

I turned on the radio Monday morning and actually heard Laura Ingraham making apologies for John McCain, the same day he moved to Bush's left on "climate change." Now he's not just a RINO, he's a green RINO -- and he approves this message:

Gag me with a renewable energy source. Drew M at AOSHQ:

Boy, I am glad I live in NY and don't have to feel bad about not voting for the guy . . .

Yeah, Maryland is also deep Blue, so I get a free vote, too.

No comments:

Post a Comment