… merely applying the standard the left applies to Vice President Cheney. The AP reports on Joe Biden’s evasion of the draft during the Vietnam war:

Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden received five student draft deferments during the Vietnam War, the same number of deferments received by Vice President Dick Cheney, and later was disqualified from service because of asthma as a teenager.

….

“As a result of a physical exam on April 5, 1968, Joe Biden was classified 1-Y and disqualified from service because of asthma as a teenager,” said David Wade, a campaign spokesman.

In “Promises to Keep,” a memoir that was published last year and became an instant best-seller after he was tapped as Obama’s running mate, Biden never mentions his asthma, recounting an active childhood, work as a lifeguard and football exploits in high school.

We’re sure all the kook-left bloggers who went after Cheney because he avoided the draft will show equal outrage at Biden, who incidentally voted for the war in Iraq, since we learned in 2004 how vitally important Vietnam service is to Democratic “anti-war” activists.

The Editors of National Review Online have a good editorial summarizing researcher and writer Stanley Kurtz’s investigation of the ties between Barack Obama and radical terrorist William Ayers, and the reaction of Obama campaign and its supporters to their critics:

… WGN, has made a stream of the broadcast available online, here, and it has to be heard to be believed. Obama’s robotic legions dutifully jammed the station’s phone lines and inundated the program with emails, attacking Kurtz personally. Pressed by Rosenberg to specify what inaccuracies Kurtz was guilty of, caller after caller demurred, mulishly railing that “we just want it to stop,” and that criticism of Obama was “just not what we want to hear as Americans.” Remarkably, as Obama sympathizers raced through their script, they echoed the campaign’s insistence that it was Rosenberg who was “lowering the standards of political discourse” by having Kurtz on, rather than the campaign by shouting him down.

Kurtz has obviously hit a nerve. It is the same nerve hit by the American Issues Project, whose television ad calling for examination of the Obama/Ayers relationship has prompted the Obama campaign to demand that the Justice Department begin a criminal investigation. Obama fancies himself as “post-partisan.” He is that only in the sense that he apparently brooks no criticism. This episode could be an alarming preview of what life will be like for the media should the party of the Fairness Doctrine gain unified control of the federal government next year.

This aggressive thuggery by the Obama campaign really needs a lot more attention from the media. We won’t hold our breath. Now there are two stories for the DeMSM to ignore, Obama’s history of radical-left associations and activism, and the reaction of his campaign to investigations of that history. Stirring up mobs and threats of prosecution are not the way (small “D”) democrats conduct politics in America.

Where are the ACLU and other supposed “civil liberties” groups? Where are all those people worried about (phony) alleged government stifling of dissent by the Evil Bu$hCo Regime? Are they afraid to speak out against real efforts to stop voices of opposition? Or is it just OK when a fellow “liberal” does it?

Without recognizing why, because it would undercut their partisan “Katrina was all Bush’s fault” narrative, the Obama-Biden team nevertheless acknowledged the improved situation in Louisiana:

Barack Obama expressed hope Saturday that the lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina three years ago would help to protect the Gulf Coast from Hurricane Gustav this time. His running mate, Joe Biden, urged people to pray that the levees in New Orleans hold.

….

Biden said the Gulf Coast appears better prepared for a major hurricane this time than it was for Katrina, which left New Orleans and surrounding areas submerged. He said it appeared officials had learned from Katrina, and he praised moves to make major highways one-way routes out of the storm-targeted areas.

“It looks like they’re incredibly well prepared, much better than they had before,” Biden said. “Just pray to God that those levees hold.”

The biggest difference, the biggest reason they appear better prepared now, was left unrecognized by Biden and Obama – the Democrats aren’t running the show down there any more. Inept governor Blanco has been replaced by rising Republican star Bobby Jindal. Hopefully things will go very smoothly on the Gulf Coast in the coming days, and when they do, Republicans should not shy away from noting the real contrast.

Update: Talk of postponing the Republican convention, scheduled to begin Monday.

This gives McCain a big opportunity on two fronts –

First, and most important, it gives him a chance to change his mind on drilling in ANWR, moving to a more consistent and reasonable position on the merits.

Second, he can say he changed his mind after consultation with his running mate, Sarah Palin. This will provide cover for the “flip-flop” and help to establish her policy bona fides – he can say something to the effect of “my choice for vice-presidential nominee was not selected for merely political considerations; she is a smart, knowledgeable woman, who as president I will listen to and seek her good advice on the important issues facing America’s families. As a governor, she knows a strong energy policy will make our economy grow. As a mother, she knows about taking care of a family in these challenging economic times…”

Every word of Barack Obama’s speech (transcript) will be parsed and analyzed tonight, a task we are not interested in joining. So for now just a few observations:

• In short, a well delivered laundry list of liberal bromides and lots of expensive promises of handouts of taxpayer money.
• Again with the litany of horrors. America is not reliving the Great Depression. Democrats sure have a dim view of America.
• “…you’re on your own…” Perhaps the most egregious falsehood in the speech. Studies consistently show that conservatives volunteer more and give more to charity than liberals. What Obama is implying is that private action doesn’t really count; the only “help” that counts is handouts of federal funds and federal mandates. Obama’s public record is one of handing out other people’s money for little positive result.
• There were points of incoherence – he’s going to stick it to big business, but provide incentives to retool auto companies?
• The repeated lie from the Democrats about America’s “frayed alliances” is just tiresome. Maybe some day a competent journalist will ask them to back up the assertion.
• We do not want the federal government to be our keeper, or our brother’s keeper.
• McCain “has been in Washington 26 years.” Biden has been in Washington 35 years.
• A few lines about hard work and personal responsibility do not jibe with the policy views that undermine those values
• The line that the Bush administration has finally come around to the Obama position on a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq is totally bogus. Talking about eventual withdrawal after achieving victory – the Bush and McCain position – bears no resemblance to the Obama position of withdrawal regardless of the consequences. McCain’s position is conditions-based, Obama’s position is to ignore conditions. This is a fundamental difference. The withdrawal in defeat Obama has advocated would be devastating to the U.S standing in the world, to our national security, and the war on terror. “Withdrawal in defeat” and “withdrawal after victory” are not at all the same position.
• “John McCain likes to say that he’ll follow bin Laden to the Gates of Hell — but he won’t even go to the cave where he lives” — really arrogant and a cheap shot. Perhaps bin Ladin wouldn’t be as easy for a President Obama to find as Bill Ayers.

…is pure Democrat boilerplate. He could be talking about any liberal candidate – (fill in the blank) is for a better world, blah, blah, blah…

“… America cannot be strong abroad, unless we’re first stronger at home…” ZZZZzzzzzzz

….another Grapes of Wrath, America is a land of poor victims speech. The Democrats really do have a dim view of America. This seems to be the theme of the convention.

…finally a good point – Clinton was too inexperienced to be Commander in Chief.

Incidentally, wasn’t he impeached?

… and the new ad is from the Obama campaign! The ad begins:

“With all our problems, why is John McCain talking about the 60s, trying to link Barack Obama to radical Bill Ayers,” the Obama ad states. “McCain knows Obama denounced Ayers crimes, committed when Obama was just 8 years old.”

Good question (leaving aside the false claim that John McCain is talking about it), thanks for asking it Senator Obama! Why should Obama be linked with his long-time friend and fellow left-wing activist Ayers? Some professional, unbiased journalist ought to really dig deep into this matter. Obama has now asked questions that demand answers!

What is their relationship? Why did Obama assert that Ayers was merely “someone who lives in my neighborhood”, when the relationship clearly goes well beyond that? When did Obama denounce Ayers’ crimes? When did he learn of Ayers’ radical views? Between learning of those views and now, when did Obama cut off ties to the former terrorist and still radical Ayers, if he in fact did so? Get on the story, DeMSM.

Remember when Barack Obama said he was against negative campaigning and wanted to stick to the issues? Wasn’t that just a couple of weeks ago, when McCain’s ad featuring Paris Hilton came out?

But of course Obama has already hypocritically broken his own standard with that silly, disingenuous, somewhat Marxist-influenced ad attacking McCain’s family for their success in achieving the American dream and owning more than one piece of real estate. This rhetoric of class welfare only seeks to divide Americans, something Obama has in the past claimed to oppose.

Now from Yahoo News, Joe Biden joins in:

In a joint appearance with Obama 12 hours after Obama announced that Biden was his choice for vice president, Biden called Obama an inspiration to millions with “steel in his spine” and “a clear-eyed pragmatist who will get the job done.”

He went after McCain, a longtime personal friend, as having given “into the right wing of his party and yielded to the very Swift Boat politics he once so deplored.”

He also said McCain would continue President Bush ‘s policies. And he chided that McCain is so wealthy and insulated from average people’s concerns that his version of making difficult kitchen-table decisions is that “he’ll have to figure out which of his seven kitchen tables to sit at.”

Deploring in one paragraph, attacking in the next – Biden and Obama could both use a big dose of self-awareness. Or maybe they do know how cynical and hypocritical they’re being, and just don’t care. Either way, America can do better.

… but Obama himself supported. Try to unravel this bit of audacity:

Democratic candidate Barack Obama criticized Republican John McCain on Tuesday for taking a page out of “the Cheney playbook” on energy, overlooking his own support of oil-friendly policies that the unpopular vice president helped to craft.

….

In stumping Tuesday in this key battleground state, Obama sought to link the troubled economy with Republican policies and offer his own energy plan in contrast. He has tried to cast McCain as more concerned about oil company profits and drilling than an overall energy strategy.

However, Obama himself voted for a 2005 energy bill backed by Bush that included billions in subsidies for oil and natural gas production, a measure Cheney played a major role in developing. McCain opposed the bill on grounds it included billions in unnecessary tax breaks for the oil industry.

Obama is attacking McCain for supporting a policy that Obama supported and McCain opposed? Huh? Will Obama say anything to get elected? Will the DeMSM call him on any of it?

Senator Barack Obama pulled back the race card and threw down the cynicism card instead:

Democratic candidate Barack Obama said Saturday that Republican rival John McCain’s campaign is not racist but is cynical in trying to divert voter attention from the real issues of the presidential campaign.

Who’s being cynical here? Was Senator Obama “talking about the real issues” when he said,

“We know what kind of campaign they’re going to run. They’re going to try to make you afraid. They’re going to try to make you afraid of me. He’s young and inexperienced and he’s got a funny name. And did I mention he’s black?”

Senator McCain talks about tax policy, energy policy, the economy, national security, etc. every day, and Barack Obama knows it. But if the McCain campaign responds to garbage from the Obama campaign like that race-baiting comment above, they’re being cynical. Talk about audacity. Talk about phony.

Wasn’t it Barack Obama who said that John McCain’s proposal to suspend the federal tax on gasoline was only a “gimmick”? From the AP:

Obama proposes $1,000 energy rebates for consumers

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Friday called for a $1,000 “emergency” rebate to consumers to offset soaring energy costs amid fresh signs of a struggling economy with the nation’s unemployment rate climbing to a four-year high.

Obama told a town-hall meeting the rebate would be financed with a windfall profits tax on the oil industry.

“This rebate will be enough to offset the increased cost of gas for a working family over the next four months,” Obama said in the crucial swing state of Florida.

But would it be enough to offset the increased cost due to the stupid “windfall profits tax”?

So simply lowering the per-gallon price at the pump by suspending the tax is a gimmick, but raising the cost at the producer level with a higher tax, then offsetting the higher price that will cause at the pump by sending checks to people, is not a gimmick? Obama must really believe all those bitter Americans are suckers.

Ed Morrissey at Hot Air has another good point: “…the rebates will only give us a one-time relief for the high gas prices, while the new tax will raise the cost of production and delivery for years.”

From the AP, the Obama campaign tries to claim Obama wasn’t talking about what he looks like when he talked about what he looks like:

John McCain accused Barack Obama of playing politics with race on Thursday, raising the explosive issue after the first black candidate with a serious chance of winning the White House claimed Republicans will try to scare voters by saying he “doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.”

….

“I’m disappointed that Senator Obama would say the things he’s saying,” McCain told reporters in Racine, Wis. The Arizona senator said he agreed with campaign manager Rick Davis’ statement earlier that “Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck. It’s divisive, negative, shameful and wrong.”

….

In turn, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said, “We weren’t suggesting in any way he’s using race as an issue” but that McCain “is using the same, old low-road politics that voters are very unhappy about to distract voters from the real issues in this campaign.”

So the position of the Obama campaign is that when he said “look like” he was not referring in any way to his physical appearance contrasted with all the old white guys in his wallet? That’s the line they’re going to peddle? Wow, they must really think the average American is as gullible or stupid as they are bitter. No doubt it had nothing at all to do with race last month either, when Obama used similar, but more explicitly racial, language.

Another campaign spokesman doubled down with the spin:

When asked by The Associated Press what Obama meant by the comparison, Obama strategist Robert Gibbs said Thursday morning that the senator was not referring to race.

“What Barack Obama was talking about was that he didn’t get here after spending decades in Washington,” Gibbs said. “There is nothing more to this than the fact that he was describing that he was new to the political scene. He was referring to the fact that he didn’t come into the race with the history of others. It is not about race.”

Right. Obama was saying he “looks like” he’s new to the political scene. And we are Abe Lincoln.

UPDATE: The campaign flips to acknowledge the obvious: “…Obama’s chief strategist, David Axelrod, acknowledged on ‘Good Morning America’ Friday that the candidate was referring, at least in part, to his ethnic background.”