ROGER KIMBALL: BIDEN IS ALUGHING….ARE YOU?

http://pjmedia.com/rogerkimball/2012/10/12/joe-biden-is-laughing-are-you/

Rude. Condescending. Contemptuous. Overbearing. Also just plain wrong: about the only time last night that Joe Biden pulled a straight face was when he said that the Obama administration didn’t know that Chris Stevens had asked for additional security shortly before the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was overrun in the coordinated attack on September 11 (September 11, Joe: remember that date?). Nobody told them that things were hotting up in Libya, you see. They thought everyone was just fine: after all, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton mumbled, we had helped liberate the Libyan people from Gaddafi: where was the gratitude for that? Where were the beneficent blossoms of the Arab Spring? And why are people talking about Chris Stevens and those three other murdered Americans anyway? These things happen. President Obama said it was too bad they were killed, but hey, these things happen. They were just “bumps in the road.” (“What was that, honey? I think I ran over something.” “Just bumps in the road. Drive on.”) According to Stephanie Cutter, Obama’s deputy campaign manager, the “entire reason” Libya is important is because Mitt Romney has made it a “political topic.” Our ambassador and three other Americans are murdered by al-Qaeda operatives and the Obama administration sends its ambassador to the UN to explain that it was because of an internet video, then, when that doesn’t work, it says that the whole subject is somehow Mitt Romney’s fault. Pathetic.

But was it more pathetic than Joe Biden’s performance last night? Some commentators think Biden won the debate. Most of the polls I’ve seen disagree. Yes, he had clearly taken an extra dose of Geritol before stepping on to the stage. But he apparently chased it with a snort of laughing gas. The resulting rictus of contempt was not just ungentlemanly, it was unhinged, disturbing. This is how the vice president of the United States reacts in a serious discussion about grave national security issues.

Joe Biden is laughing. Are you?

MARK STEYN: POLITICIZED BENGAZHI DISTRACTS FROM BIG BIRD

http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/obama-374398-four-security.html The first successful terrorist attack on U.S. sovereign territory since 9/11, and on the very anniversary and by al-Qaida-linked killers, was not helpful to the Obama team. The entire reason that this has become the political topic it is, is because of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.” Thus, Stephanie Cutter, President Obama’s deputy campaign […]

BIDEN’S CHESHIRE CAT PERFORMANCE: RUTHIE BLUM

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=2674 U.S. Vice President Joe Biden is famous among his supporters and opponents alike for two traits: his public tendency to put his foot in his mouth on an embarrassingly regular basis, and his great personality. Biden, it is said by those who know him on Capitol Hill, may have a problem articulating the positions […]

DANIEL GREENFIELD: SCARECROWS AND SYRIANS

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/ THE SCARECROW LIVES In August, I wrote in, “The Scarecrow of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue” that Biden’s chief function was to make Obama look good. That was the function he performed at the debate. He was the scarecrow who will make Obama’s enhanced aggressiveness seem more moderate by comparison. He’s a joke who can’t lose […]

CAROLINE GLICK: AMERICAN JEWRY’S CHERISHED VALUES…..SEE NOTE PLEASE

http://www.carolineglick.com/e/2012/10/american-jewrys-cherished-valu.php?utm_source=MadMimi&utm_medium=email&utm_content=American+Jewry%27s+cherished+values&utm_campaign=20121012_m113677809_American+Jewry%27s+cherished+values&utm_term=Continue+reading___

THERE IS SOME EARTHSHAKING CHANGE IN JEWISH VOTING….NEW STATS INDICATE THAT AT LEAST HALF OF JEWISH REGISTERED VOTERS WILL SUPPORT THE ROMNEY TICKET…IF THIS IS TRUE ALL I CAN SAY IS WHO WOULD HAVE THUNK…HUH?….RSK
Decades ago, the sociographer Milton Himmelfarb coined the aphorism that “American Jews earn like Episcopalians and vote like Puerto Ricans.” And his words ring as true today as ever. Surveys show that roughly 70 percent of American Jews intend to cast their ballots for President Barack Obama’s reelection next month.
Himmelfarb’s quip indicated that American Jews abjure their economic interests in favor of their liberal values. Certainly it is true that for American Jews to vote for Obama next month they must act against their economic interests.
Obama’s economic policies have taken a huge toll on the economic fortunes of American Jews who invest disproportionately in the stock market. His nationalization of the college loan business has given universities impetus to raise tuition rates still further, thus dooming more young American Jews to start their adult lives under a mountain of debt. And it isn’t at all clear how they will be able to pay off this debt since under Obama half of recent college graduates cannot find jobs.

SARAH HONIG: IF ONLY WE WERE TURKS

Another Tack: If only we were Turks When it’s properly motivated, the UN can react with lightning speed. It just has to want to, as in the case of the errant mortar shells from the Syrian civil war that inadvertently overfly the border and come down with an occasional thud on the Turkish side. No lucid […]

MARTIN SHERMAN: SANCTIONS AND CENTRIFUGES

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=287518 As a Holocaust survivor, commenting on the lessons of WWII, said:‘When somebody says they want to kill you, you should believe them.’ To remain at peace when you should be going to war may be often very dangerous. The tyrant city… is a standing menace to all…. Let us attack and subdue her, that […]

LUCETTE LAGNADO: JEWS WHO FLED ARAB COUNTRIES

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443294904578048451218760728.html?mod=lifestyle_newsreel Fortunée Abadie is still haunted by the day in 1947 when mobs stormed the Jewish Quarter of the ancient Syrian city of Aleppo, shortly after the United Nations vote that laid the groundwork for the creation of Israel. Aleppo, a city where Jews and Muslims had lived together for centuries, exploded with anti-Jewish violence. […]

THE UNRAVELING OF AFFRIMATIVE ACTION……MUST READ ****By RICHARD SANDER and STUART TAYLOR JR.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444799904578050901460576218.html?mod=WSJ_LifeStyle_Lifestyle_6 Racial preferences spring from worthy intentions, but they have had unintended consequences—including an academic mismatch in many cases between minority students and the schools to which they are admitted. There’s a better way to help the disadvantaged. By RICHARD SANDER and STUART TAYLOR JR. Jareau Hall breezed through high school in Syracuse, N.Y. Graduating […]

BIDEN’S INTELLIGENCE? WHAT POPPYCOCK

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443749204578052602951971998.html Joe Biden’s unbounded id is the talk of the nation after Thursday’s debate. But the Veep is also the elder Democratic statesman on international affairs, and in between his snickers, guffaws and “malarkey,” he shed newsworthy light on Obama Administration foreign policy. Let’s roll the tape. On Iran, Mr. Biden broke new ground, though […]