Today’s News & Views
October 27, 2008

A Quick and Easy Way to Get the Message to Millions — Part One of Three
Please hang with me a second. In just a jiffy I want to discuss pro-life Gov. Sarah Palin’s hugely successful visit to Fredericksburg, Virginia, earlier today. Winning the Old Dominion State is pivotal for the pro-life team of Sen. John McCain and Gov. Palin.

At the rally, I again marveled at how much people learn from NRL’s presidential comparison piece and how grateful they are for what it enables them to do. Here’s the deal and it’s very important that you take a moment to read the next two paragraphs.

If you write me at daveandrusko@hotmail.com, I will send you back an email with the comparison piece as an attachment. The piece is an accurate, beautiful, concise summary of the positions on life of McCain, Palin, and the Democratic team, pro-abortion Senators Barack Obama and Joe Biden.

You can then forward that attachment to your entire pro-life email list with a request that they do the same to their entire pro-life email list. In two shakes of a lamb’s tail, we can this marvelous piece in the inboxes of hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people.

I arrived in the historic town of Fredericksburg at 8:30 this morning. Gov. Palin was to arrive at around noon as part of a three-stop tour in Virginia which began in Leesburg and would end with a third rally in the Roanoke area.

As was the case with Sen. McCain two weeks earlier in Woodbridge, Virginia (only more so), there was already a sizeable crowd. By noon, the line had snaked its way all around downtown Fredericksburg. The turnout was massive. During that time, I learned–and re-learned–several lessons.

Nobody but nobody believes that the polls in general, Virginia’s in particular, are accurate. I’ve lived in this state since 1981 and I think I know a little about what makes it tick. It takes nothing away either from Sen. Obama’s appeal or his superb local organization to know that the contest will go down to the wire here.

Also, it is almost impossible to exaggerate how popular Sarah Palin is with Republicans. This is the first time I have been at an event at which she spoke. Even I, who have been deeply impressed since the very beginning, was amazed by the energy and enthusiasm that raced through the crowd.

To return to the NRL comparison piece, a staggering number had already seen it, either online, in National Right to Life News, or because a friend or member of their church had given a copy to them. Many people asked for multiple copies to distribute.

But I was doubly amazed at how eagerly teenagers asked for their own copy and how carefully they read the point-by-point comparison. Talk about scales falling from eyes. I was not surprised that the young girls had this response but I was not quite prepared for the similar response it generated from so many young guys.

To drive home the point, let me just say that this comparison piece is an objective account of what Sens. McCain and Obama have said about abortion and how they have voted. What makes the piece so powerful is that’s “it just the facts.”

Just send me a request at daveandrusko@hotmail.com and I will send you an email with the comparison piece as an attachment. You can send it to every contact on your email list.

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Just a guy in my neighborhood?

If the Obama house/Rezko lot purchase occurred in the summer of 2005…

The Chicago Annenberg Challenge link occurred before 2005.

The now-known shared business address occurred before 2005.

The endorsement of Ayers’ book occurred before 2005.

The coming out party in Ayers’ house occurred before 2005.

Just a guy in my neighborhood? It wasn’t even Obama’s neighborhood before 2005. Or was it?

Just got back from an unbelievable McCain/Palin rally in Bethlehem, PA. I can’t begin to say how inspiring it was to see Senator McCain and Governor Palin in person,to hear them speak from 10′ away, to get an autograph and to shake a hand. What a shame more Americans can’t experience what I just experienced.

When I was leaving, a man came up to me and said that he was a newspaper reporter from Great Britain. He asked me what I, as an American, saw as the real reason why so many of us adore Sarah Palin. I responded, “Because she’s one of us.”

However, after he left, I realized that I had given him the wrong answer. The real reason that we Americans love Sarah Palin is because she is the embodiment of goodness. She is wholesome in the way that Ronald Reagan was wholesome. She is strong in the way that John Wayne was strong. And in her own way, she is heroic. The light shines through her.

She is what most of us want to be…good and wholesome Americans.

From Deroy Murdoch, just another example of “just words”:

“Now is the time to keep the promise of equal pay for an equal day’s work,” Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama said August 28 in his convention acceptance speech. He told the crowd in Denver: “I want my daughters to have exactly the same opportunities as your sons.”

Based on these calculations, Obama’s 28 male staffers divided among themselves total payroll expenditures of $1,523,120. Thus, Obama’s average male employee earned $54,397.

Obama’s 30 female employees split $1,354,580 among themselves, or $45,152, on average.

Why this disparity? One reason may be the underrepresentation of women in Obama’s highest-compensated ranks. Among Obama’s five best-paid advisors, only one was a woman. Among his top 20, seven were women.

Again, on average, Obama’s female staffers earn just 83 cents for every dollar his male staffers make. This figure certainly exceeds the 77-cent threshold that Obama’s campaign website condemns. However, 83 cents do not equal $1.00. In spite of this 17-cent gap between Obama’s rhetoric and reality, he chose to chide GOP presidential contender John McCain on this issue.

Obama’s criticism notwithstanding, McCain’s payment patterns are the stuff of feminist dreams.

McCain’s 17 male staffers split $916,914, thus averaging $53,936. His 25 female employees divided $1,396,958 and averaged $55,878.

On average, according to these data, women in John McCain’s office make $1.04 for every dollar a man makes. In fact, all other things being equal, a typical female staffer could earn 21 cents more per dollar paid to her male counterpart — while adding $10,726 to her annual income — by leaving Barack Obama’s office and going to work for John McCain.

Obama: Pay Equity For Thee, But Not for Me