Commander in Chief. President of the United States of America. Leader of the Free World. These are titles to which Barck Obama aspires.

What a shame that this man and his campaign could not find the time at one of their rallies to honor America with a rendition of the National Anthem. HT:Wizbang

Not present, or at least not singing the National Anthem at the rally was Londonderry senior Zach Bencal.

Bencal, who sings the anthem for a number of school events and is actively involved in local community theatre, had been contacted by the Obama campaign to sing the anthem. He agreed to do so, then was told later in the evening the anthem had been scratched from the program. Bencal said he was told by the campaign the decision was a simple programming change to make room for another speaker.

“I guess it just wasn’t meant to be,” Bencal said.

Sandra Abrevaya, communications director for the Obama campaign’s Manchester office, confirmed the choice had simply been a last-minute scratch from the rally’s program, which included the Pledge of Allegiance.

“We regret the miscommunication with Zach about today’s event but we are pleased that several other New Hampshire residents were able to speak at today’s event, where thousands of voters in both parties gathered to hear Sen. Obama discuss his plan to bring the change we need to Washington.”

[emphasis-mine]

One more speech of praise and admiration. One more promise of change.

None of this change and hope is worth a whit if it does not include this:

There, now I feel better!

Is civility disappearing totally from government?

Has this financial crisis created an atmosphere so unhealthy that we now have the Speaker of the House referring to Republicans as “unpatriotic” for their not attending a scheduled meeting?

Perhaps she should have conferred with Senator Dodd prior to uttering those words:

More from the House GOP offices:

Well, we didn’t go to yesterday’s meeting because they didn’t invite us. Dodd even said on NBC nightly news last night that they just forgot.
It’s pretty infuriating.

[emphasis-mine]

Interesting that the Democrats were so anxious to pin the failure of the original deal on the financial bail out on the Republicans and John McCain when it appears it was their own Presidential candidate who inflicted the damage at the White House meeting:

…..This according to Bob Schieffer of CBS.[emphasis-mine]

Paulson called Lindsey Grahamnesty and said, “Look, I need the House Republicans. I need Republicans on this. We can’t get anywhere without them. You’ve gotta call McCain. He’s the only one that can do it.” So that’s why McCain goes to Washington, and they end up having a four o’clock meeting at the White House yesterday. They all think they’re going into a negotiating session. The president, in order to let everybody be heard, deferred to various Democrats, and every one of the Democrats — Pelosi, Reid, Dodd, and Frank — declined to speak and deferred to Obama. So Obama became the official Democrat spokesman in the meeting. This was to hype Obama’s leadership and presidential aura and so forth. What happened next, the first thing out of Obama’s mouth — Paulson is in the meeting — is he starts ripping the House Republican proposal and asks Paulson what he thinks of it.

This led Boehner and the other Republicans in there to think they have been sandbagged. We found out this morning that Obama had no clue — because he was in transit doing other things, he had no clue — what the House Republican position was. What happened was that on the way to the meeting sometime during the day, Obama’s staff received an e-mail from Treasury Department employees who work for Paulson detailing the House Republican plan. So when the Democrats deferred to Obama, he launched into that. He had no clue what it was. That’s why he asked Paulson for his comments. I don’t know what Paulson said, but this is what led to the fireworks. This is what led to everything breaking down in there. This is why Dingy Harry walked out, ’cause it didn’t work.

[All references to Senators by other than their proper title are those of Rush Limbaugh]

Remember it was the Democrats who insisted the insertion of presidential politics was not helpful in this debate yet they allowed their candidate to speak on their behalf.

If this is indeed what transpired, then not only did the Democrats stretch the truth at the completion of the meeting, but it was extremely disrespectful to the President of the United States.

What egos these Senators and Congresspersons must have to place themselves and their politics above the Executive and the country which it serves.

If memory serves, both McCain and Obama are Senators first candidates second and they should be in Washington in their official capacity as such in an attempt to move this process forward, not garner political points.

There is plenty of blame to go around in this financial mess but deliberately falsifying facts (on either side of the aisle) and calling members of the opposing party “unpatriotic” serves no purpose and the effects will no doubt be long lasting.

*For those who would like to read the thoughts of an international auditor in the insurance industry regarding this crisis check out the piece at the link. Quite an interesting and enlightening read.

If Senator Obama does not secure the Democratic nomination, perhaps he should become a campaign advisor whose forte is fundraising:

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama raised $32 million in the single month of January, [Emphasis, mine] a whopping figure that has permitted the campaign to boost staff and extend advertising to states beyond the sweeping Feb. 5 contests, aides said Thursday.

Obama is now advertising in 20 of the 22 states in play for next week’s Super Tuesday and plans to begin advertising in seven more states that hold primaries or caucuses later in February. Rival Hillary Rodham Clinton is advertising in 12 Super Tuesday states, including her own home state of New York.

With John Edwards out of the race, Clinton and Obama are in a fierce race for delegates to secure the nomination. Feb. 5 offers the biggest single opportunity for delegates, but is impossible for either one to seal the nomination on that day.

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said the campaign attracted 170,000 new donors for a total of 650,000 donors overall. The $32 million raised in one month matches the campaign’s best three-month fundraising period in 2007, when the campaign raised $30 million in primary money and $2 million for the general. The money raised in January was all for the primaries.

These are amazing numbers and ones which any Republican candidate would love to replicate.

The Senator and I are polar opposites on important issues but I must commend him on this achievement.

His ability to raise cash so quickly is something which potentially could play a huge role in the general election.

Chicago Sun-Times reporter Jennifer wrote a piece about Michelle Obama on the campaign trail and quoted her as saying:

At another stop, in Atlantic, Michelle said she travels with her husband in part “to model what it means to have family values,” adding “if you can’t run your own house, you can’t run the White House.” She didn’t elaborate, but it could be interpreted as a swipe at the Clintons.

That one statement in the entire article got a lot of press, with people surmising she was specifically talking about the Clintons.

Today she has a piece up that talks about the controversy surrounding her first piece.

But in the fifth paragraph of the story, I suggested that during an introduction to a speech by her husband, something she said could be interpreted as a swipe against the Clintons, and that set the tongues wagging, hit Drudge’s Web site, was discussed on CNN, ABC and MSNBC and prompted an e-mail from Michelle Obama’s communications director, Katie McCormick Lelyveld, who said I had completely misunderstood what Michelle Obama had said.

This is from Michelle Obama’s introduction to her husband’s speech: “. . . part of what we want to do as a family is to make sure that our children are sane, but also to model what it means to have family values in this country, and we haven’t seen that for a long time . . . [applause].

“One of the most important things that we need to know about the next president of the United States is, is he somebody that shares our values, is he somebody that respects family, is a good and decent person? So our view is that if you can’t run your own house, you certainly can’t run the White House.

“So we’ve adjusted our schedule to make sure that our girls are first, so when he’s traveling around, I do day trips. That means I get up in the morning. I get the girls ready. I get them off. I go and do trips. I’m home before bedtime.”

Lelyveld told me in a phone conversation that Michelle Obama “was only referring to her family and making sure her girls are guided and strong.” It was not a jab at the Clintons, Lelyveld said.

In a conference call with reporters Tuesday, Barack Obama told the Associated Press that his wife “has been making that speech constantly about the decision we made to make sure that our family was strong because if our family wasn’t that strong then we couldn’t be a strong leader in the White House.”

”The whole thing about Hillary has been completely fabricated,” Obama added. ”You guys have got to get it off your minds.”

…

”The whole thing about Hillary has been completely fabricated,” Obama added. ”You guys have got to get it off your minds.”

OK, but as I stood there in Atlantic, Iowa, listening to Michelle Obama talk and hearing the cadence of her speech, my immediate reaction was that she was obliquely referring to the Clintons.

Why did I think that?

Well, she said she and Barack were modeling “what it means to have family values in this country and we haven’t seen that for a long time” [emphasis added]. Wasn’t Bush the family values guy? What did Michelle mean by “we haven’t seen that [family values] for a long time”?

Then she talked about the future president being someone who “respects family . . .” Did Bill Clinton show respect for his family with his bimbo eruptions? Did he consider the impact on his child, let alone his wife?

Michelle Obama added: “So our view is that if you can’t run your own house, you certainly can’t run the White House.”

Bang!

The Clintons certainly did have a hard time running the White House and their own house during the Monica Lewinsky affair as independent counsel Kenneth Starr and his henchmen began snooping around and President Clinton was impeached by Congress.

So you can see where I was going with this. It didn’t take a huge leap of logic. My mistake was not grabbing Michelle Obama when she left to ask for further elaboration — I was waiting to hear her husband speak.

When public people speak they should be clear in what they are saying so there is no doubt about the meaning of their words.

Michelle Obama may have been tired and not expressed herself fully, or she may have meant it the way it sounded.

It’s up to the individual to decide, but we have had family values in the White House for the last almost seven years at least. There has been no scandal regarding this president or his family, except when his girls were partying while they were in college, and many college kids do that. Doesn’t make it right, but it’s not a scandal. At least not in my eyes.

Simply said and perhaps music to the ears Americans weary of this long Presidential campaign.

While I may not favor the candidate, I definitely agree with the brevity of this statement:

“Well, my campaign,” said Obama, “is not premised on running against the past. My campaign is based on what we can accomplish in the future.”

Well said Mr. Obama. All in under 25 words. Now, please explain your platform and how you hope to move this country forward in less than 50 words and I may have to rethink my position on your candidacy.