The Blog from the Core - Monday, November 08, 2004

Core: noun, the most important part of a thing, the essence; from the Latin cor, meaning heart.

		The Weblog at The View from the Core - Monday, November 08, 2004

Anchor Rising

All of the known conservatives from the great state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations are here now.

(Thanks, Justin.)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 11/08/04 05:43:55 PM
Categorized as Blogosphere Stuff.

Mostly Right, a Little Wrong

I'm sure you know, Faithful Reader, that I expected George W. Bush to win re-election. Here's what I wrote in January:

George W. Bush will lose Pennsylvania in the general election, but will win both the electoral and popular votes nationwide by an indisputable margin because, among other things, California is more important than Pennsylvania.

Okay. He didn't win California.

Last Friday, over at Free Republic, I wrote this in response to a suggestion that Bush would win in a landslide:

I don't think a landslide. But a decisive victory, yes.

And I posted this comment over at JunkYardBlog in the wake of the early exit polls that showed John Kerry would win really big:

I suppose I don’t know what I’m talking about. But it seems to me that looking at exit polls at this stage of the game — that is, before any actual vote tallies have been reported — is like putting a lot of stock in being the “frontrunner” for the Democratic nomination until people actually start voting in Iowa and blow you out of the water.

True, I was way, way off in one respect:

In the presidential election, Nov. 2, 2004, Bush-Cheney will carry at least five states that right now are considered to be a lock for the Democratic ticket; and, at least two-thirds of the "battleground" states will be carried by the Republican ticket.

That's because, Faithful Reader, I was thinking that the move towards Bush would evidence itself in this or that state, not across the board around the country, which is what happened. But, I did get that right, too, in a way:

I think the whole idea of an evenly divided electorate, with the presidential election hanging in the balance of a relatively small number of undecided voters, is hogwash.

As Bryan Preston notes, Friday:

Now that Iowa's votes have been counted and its electoral votes credited to the President, his total margin of victory has widened. One red state, New Hampshire, barely went blue. But two blue states, New Mexico and Iowa, flipped red. In the ECV, it's 286-252. In the popular vote, it's 56,828,162 to 52,160,172, or roughly a 4.7 million vote margin. Or 52-47. Tell me that's not enough to give President Bush a mandate.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 11/08/04 05:27:15 PM
Categorized as Political.

Fallujah

I understand that the assault on the terrorist stronghold in Iraq is beginning. Let's pray for our soldiers, our allies, and all the innocents caught up in this mess.

See What's Next?

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 11/08/04 07:23:36 AM
Categorized as War.

A View from Scotland

Thanks to Margaret for calling our attention to this article by Gerald Warner at The Scotsman, yesterday:

.... How quaint, thought European and New York liberals, that voters should be concerned that one in four Americans is aborted in the womb, when they could be supporting measures that would put an extra $500 in their pockets. How ignorant to oppose stem-cell research that will save so many lives. Who got their priorities right? Are the Americans not more thoughtful, more moral and more intelligent to worry about mass extermination of babies?

As for the exploitation of human embryos, it is not hill-billy stupidity to query the destruction of human life, especially when the inflated claims being made for embryo stem-cell research are as far-fetched, in truly scientific terms, as those made for the Philosopher’s Stone and a cruel deception of the critically ill. And is it not strange that this nation of Luddites and scientific illiterates can send probes to the farthest reaches of the solar system, while enlightened Britain can barely run a train up the West Coast line from London to Glasgow?

Make no mistake, this election was a Christian-led counter-revolution. The national exit poll conducted for Associated Press and the major US television networks found that the highest electoral motivation, at 22%, was "moral values". Among weekly churchgoers, Bush scored 61%, Kerry 39%. This broke down into 70% of Protestants, 56% of Catholics. The latter have had their moral and doctrinal sensitivities blunted by Vatican II, yet there are signs that even Catholics indoctrinated by Justice ’n’ Peace guff are on the turn. When the chips were down, in the swing state of Ohio, 65% of Catholics came out for Bush.

As this column predicted last week, the state of Iowa, with its large Catholic electorate, defected to Bush; the other state forecast to do the same — Wisconsin — was just held by John Kerry. Nationally, he got the support of 60% of those who said they "never" attended church; but since they amount to 14% of voters, that was scant consolation....

Here is his article from the previous week:

.... Iowa and Wisconsin have large and growing Catholic electorates. That makes Kerry’s cack-handed stance on abortion during two of the televised debates ("I was an altar boy, ergo I believe babies should be semi-delivered, then stabbed with scissors in the back of the head and have their brains sucked out," to paraphrase liberally but accurately) seem as kamikaze as his last-minute crusade on stem cell research. In corrollary, if Dubya’s vote begins to slip, then Colorado, West Virginia and Arizona could be up for grabs by Kerry. A three-percentage points surge by either candidate could lead to a 300-plus coronation inside the electoral college.

If Kerry wins, it will be in spite of his campaign, not because of it. From the first, catastrophic decision to "bring it on" — Vietnam, that is, the universal feel-bad issue in America — to the last-minute Vote Clinton, Get Kerry charade, the Democrat camp has staggered from gaffe to blunder. William Y’upforsome Clinton is the sleazeball whose DNA was familiar to dry cleaners in every state of the Union: parading him alongside the candidate recalls a shameful past, while making his protégé look even more like President Pantywaist.

Yet, behind all the buffoonery, this is a moment of destiny for America and the world. Two political systems are in collision, like tectonic plates. If the US electorate falls for the Kerry imposture (he is truly the natural ally of Blair), then a process of deep ideological renewal will be halted. Two strands of conservatism are loosely mustered under the banner of the Republican Party: economic and cultural.

As regards fiscal policy — recently discussed in this column, beyond any need for reprise — Dubya has not honoured his principles. He has spent like a drunken lottery winner: the deficit says it all. Only his tax cuts give him any claim to the mantle of Reagan (in fact, the bold Ronnie was not above a spot of fiscal libertinage when it suited him). If re-elected, it must be on a clear commitment to start tackling this problem.

On the cultural plane, Dubya has a better claim. In America, cultural conservatism is alive and fighting fit, infused with a strong Christian faith - unlike in degenerate Europe where we saw Christianity formally put to the ban by the EU parliament last week. Yes, there are millions of American proponents of abortion, of obscene scientific experimentation, of homosexual ‘marriage’ and of a hundred other affronts to Christian civilisation. The difference is that they face massive and determined resistance....

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Mon. 11/08/04 07:01:11 AM
Categorized as International & Political.

The 9-11 Commission Report II

Here.

Also here with these.