THE FOUNDATION: HUMAN NATURE

“In reality there is perhaps no one of our natural Passions so hard to subdue as Pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will now and then peek out and show itself.” —Benjamin Franklin

UPRIGHT

“Bill and Hillary [are now] faced with this problem: If they continue to utilize all of the tools available—including urging a large percentage of the 796 super delegates to ignore the will of the majority of the elected delegates—they will likely dismantle the 70-year-long Democratic coalition. Now, there’s a legacy for you.” —Rich Galen

“Hillary Clinton has made a career out of being a victim and her staffers have honed playing the victim card. That’s why you see articles about whether the media are tolerant of sexism, but not racism… Does America want four years of a shameless victim in chief?” —Debra Saunders

“Voters need to understand that the supposed ‘new politics’ of Obama smells very similar to that of the same old lies and empty rhetoric we have heard from the Beltway for decades. And without that ‘new politics’, Obama is nothing more than an empty suit with a pleasant voice.” —Ed Morrissey

“Great leaders have to be great communicators, not just orators. Throughout history, they have used more than mere appeals to emotion.” —Jed Babbin

“I have some news. Al-Qa’ida is in Iraq. Al-Qa’ida is called ‘al-Qa’ida in Iraq.’ My friends, if we left, they wouldn’t be establishing a base…[T]hey would be taking a country. I will not allow that to happen, my friends. I will not surrender.” —John McCain

“The September 11 attacks took six years to engineer, and while we’ve managed to disrupt a few of the subsequent plans, there is plenty of evidence that those who intend to harm us are trying as hard as ever to do so. We must remain vigilant.” —Horace Cooper

“Gun advocates favor freedom, choice and self-responsibility. If someone wishes to be prepared to defend himself, he should be free to do so.” —John Stossel

EDITORIAL EXEGESIS

“Now Hillary Clinton knows how Republicans feel. Usually, GOP candidates have to overcome media disdain and establishment calls to declare defeat and get out of the race. This time she’s the target of the collective liberal swoon for Barack Obama. But after her victory yesterday in Ohio and a nailbiter in Texas, we see little reason that the New York Senator shouldn’t fight on. That wouldn’t please the Democratic panjandrums who desperately want a nominee now that John McCain has wrapped up the Republican race. The party superdelegates who were all for Mrs. Clinton when she was ‘inevitable’ are now hoping she’ll drop out and spare them a painful decision. A herd of them—they prefer the camouflage of numbers—have reportedly even been plotting to break together for the Illinois orator. But yesterday’s message from actual Democratic voters was hardly a decisive verdict for Mr. Obama… Perhaps most important, according to the exit polls, [Mrs. Clinton] was able to expose a significant vulnerability that Mr. Obama would have against Mr. McCain—his lack of experience on national security. She made that a major theme of the campaign’s final days, running a much-noted TV spot about a President needing to answer the phone at 3 a.m. Mr. Obama turned that into a retort about Mrs. Clinton’s bad ‘judgment’ in voting for the Iraq war, which resonated with antiwar voters. But Mrs. Clinton seems to have won the larger argument, as voters in Ohio said she would make a better Commander in Chief by 57% to 40%. If even Democrats have their doubts about Mr. Obama’s national security credentials, he’ll have an even harder task persuading independents in November against the Arizona war veteran.” —The Wall Street Journal

THE DEMO-GOGUES

She’s still kicking: “For everyone here in Ohio and across America who’s ever been counted out but refused to be knocked out, and for everyone who has stumbled but stood right back up, and for everyone who works hard and never gives up, this one is for you.” —a victorious Hillary Clinton in Ohio last night

But he’s still leading: “No matter what happens tonight, we have nearly the same delegate lead as we had this morning, and we are on our way to winning this nomination.” —Barack Obama reminding Mrs. Clinton that she isn’t out of the woods yet

This week’s “Village Victimitis” Award: “Well, it’s supposed to be hard. I’m running for the hardest job in the world. No one has ever done this. No woman has ever won a presidential primary before I won New Hampshire. This is hard. And I don’t expect any sympathy, I don’t expect any kind of, you know, allowances or special privileges… Every so often I just wish that it were a little more of an even playing field, but, you know, I play on whatever field is out there.” —Hillary Clinton ++ “Well, can I just point out that, in the last several debates, I seem to get the first question all the time. And I don’t mind. You know, I’ll be happy to field them, but I do find it curious, and if anybody saw ‘Saturday Night Live,’ you know, maybe we should ask Barack if he’s comfortable and needs another pillow.” —Hillary Clinton

That’s the spirit!: “We’re going to inherit so many challenges from President Bush. When you think about it, we have two wars, not one. We don’t talk about Afghanistan enough. We’ve got two wars. We’ve got to end one, we’ve got to win the other.” —Hillary Clinton ++ “She didn’t give diplomacy a chance. And to this day, she won’t even admit that her vote was a mistake—or even that it was a vote for war. When it came time to make the most important foreign policy decision of our generation the decision to invade Iraq Senator Clinton got it wrong.” —Barack Obama

From the Theo-lib Files: “Well of course not, there is no basis for that. I take him on the basis of what he says… There’s nothing to base that on—as far as I know.” —Hillary Clinton responding to the question, “You don’t believe that Sen. Obama is a Muslim?” ++ “If people find [same-sex unions] controversial then I would just refer them to the Sermon on the Mount, which I think is, in my mind, for my faith, more central than an obscure passage in Romans.” —Barack Obama on not “judging” others and cherry picking theology

INSIGHT

“The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of ‘liberalism’ they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.” —Norman Thomas

“I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size.” —Barry Goldwater

“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and those are the people you need to concentrate on.” —Robert Strauss

“Corruption is no stranger to Washington; it is a famous resident.” —Walter Goodman

“Liberals, it has been said, are generous with other peoples’ money, except when it comes to questions of national survival when they prefer to be generous with other people’s freedom and security.” —William F. Buckley, Jr.

DEZINFORMATSIA

Media introspection: “Is this gonna be a vicious, almost ethnic fight, going after the guy because of his heritage, his name and saying, He’s gonna sell us out.’ Is that what’s coming?” —MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on using Barack Hussein Obama’s middle name ++ “And we turn the tables on ourselves. Have all of us in the media used boxing gloves on Clinton and kid gloves on Obama? Have we been unfair?” —ABC’s Diane Sawyer

This week’s “Clintonista Media Sycophant” Award: “[Hillary] Clinton relishes the chance to talk concretely about the real problems in real people’s lives… Clinton is greeted like a rock star.” —ABC “Nightline” correspondent Cynthia McFadden

Life’s rough: “Women have waited decades to see the first woman president and it’s actually something of a tragedy that a talented African-American guy comes along at the same [time]—this isn’t liberal guilt.” —Newsweek’s Eleanor Clift

Liberal to the core: “Nobody would mistake Mr. Obama for a Republican—although contrary to claims by both supporters and opponents, his voting record places him, with Senator Clinton, more or less in the center of the Democratic Party, rather than in its progressive wing.” —New York Times columnist Paul Krugman Obama’s ACU rating is “8” —hardly the “center” of anything. ++ “And Obama was also considered a reliable liberal Democratic vote in Illinois, voting for most gun-control measures, opposing efforts to ban so-called ‘partial birth abortions,’ and supporting hundreds of tax increases.” —ABC’s Terry Moran, who was conveniently fully born

Hearing voices: “After saying she found her ‘voice’ in New Hampshire, she has turned into Sybil. We’ve had Experienced Hillary, Soft Hillary, Hard Hillary, Misty Hillary, Sarcastic Hillary, Joined-at-the-Hip-to-Bill Hillary, Her-Own-Person-Who-Just-Happens-to-Be-Married-to-a-Former-President Hillary, It’s-My-Turn Hillary, Cuddly Hillary, Let’s-Get-Down-in-the-Dirt-and-Fight-Like-Dogs Hillary.” —New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd

Newspulper Headlines: We Blame Global Warming: “Dead Heats in Ohio and Texas” —MSNBC.com

UFO Pilots in Training: “9/11 Redux: ‘Thousands of Aliens’ in U.S. Flight Schools Illegally” —ABCNews.com

Breaking News From 1933: “Writers Officially Okay New Deal” —E! Online

It’s Always in the Last Place You Look: “Scientists Find Map in People’s Hair” —Salt Lake Tribune

The Guys Who Caught It, That’s WHO!: “WHO Says Drug-Resistant TB Spreads Fast” —Associated Press

News You Can Use: “Don’t Sit on That Toilet!” —Associated Press ++ “FDA: Don’t Swallow Inhaler Capsules” —Associated Press

Bottom Stories of the Day: “Nader Announces Matt Gonzalez as His Running Mate” —San Jose Mercury News

“Clinton Announces Plan to Reduce Child Poverty” —Chicago Sun-Times (Thanks to The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto)

VILLAGE IDIOTS

This week’s “Non Compos Mentis” Award: “After shaving its head and driving drunk around the globe with no panties, calling itself the Antichrist, and finally abandoning its children, totaling its SUV and getting it’s a kicked in the parking lot of the Persian Gulf, America is realizing that it is internationally loathed, broke, soulless, tasteless, fat, drunk, malicious, greedy and stupid, and has been generally behaving like a lousy excuse for a world superpower for long enough to lose all its friends and position.” —Salon columnist Cintra Wilson… on the Oscars!

From the “Global Village”: “The Iraqi people do not like the Americans. Six years ago, there were no terrorists in our region. As soon as the others landed in this country and the region, we witnessed their arrival and presence.” —Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadi-Nejad

This week’s “Gender Deficit Disorder” Award: “Suppose John McCain had been Joan McCain and Joan McCain had got captured, shot down and been a POW for eight years…[The media would ask], ‘What did you do wrong to get captured? What terrible things did you do while you were there as a captive for eight years?’… This is supposed to be a qualification to be president? I don’t think so… I am so grateful that she [Clinton] hasn’t been trained to kill anybody. And she probably didn’t even play war games as a kid…[F]rom George Washington to Jack Kennedy and PT-109 we have behaved as if killing people is a qualification for ruling people.” —Feminista Gloria Steinem

Poor illegals: “[T]here is this tendency to blame—to highlight every illegal act done by any person here without documentation. An illegal alien ran over a girl. An illegal alien killed someone. An illegal alien ate my sandwich. You know, the problem with doing that is you stereotype them, you paint them in a corner.” —Geraldo Rivera **When you do something illegal, you paint yourself into a corner.

SHORT CUTS

“The first rule of politics is, ‘Never count out the Clintons.’ Their political conglomerate, Clinton Inc., is like Glenn Close in that bathtub scene in the movie ‘Fatal Attraction’: It always comes back to life a second or third time.” —Salena Zito

“These Clintons are like cockroaches. They’ll be the last thing left after a nuclear blast.” —Rush Limbaugh

“’Change’ is the season’s mantra for the star-struck masses. Obama’s latest slogan is ‘Change to believe in.’ Hillary promises ‘real change.’ But how do you ‘believe’ in ‘change’? Change, after all, is process. ‘Change to what?’ Barack Obama does not say, the genius of the promise. Everyone gets to fill in the blank now, and be disappointed later.” —Wesley Pruden

“Hillary Clinton asks in a new ad whom you want as president if the White House phone rings at three in the morning. Only she knows how to handle that call. Nine times out of ten it’s just Bill saying don’t believe what it says in the morning paper.” —Argus Hamilton

“What I find fascinating is the image of Hillary Rodham Clinton, answering the phone at 3 A.M., dressed in a fresh suit, fully made up with lipstick at the ready, and even wearing a necklace.” —Rich Galen

“It looks like John McCain has clinched the Republican nomination. He was very excited when they woke him up to tell him.” —Craig Ferguson

Veritas vos Liberabit—Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus, et Fidelis! Mark Alexander, Publisher, for The Patriot’s editors and staff. (Please pray for our Patriot Armed Forces standing in harm’s way around the world, and for their families—especially families of those fallen Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen, who granted their lives in defense of American liberty.)