You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool the American public as easily as you can the pro-Obama MSM media.

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll “finds that by a 55% to 35% margin, voters are more likely to say Sen. Obama would be the riskier choice. By 2-to-1, voters chose Sen. McCain when asked which candidate would be a better commander in chief and who has better knowledge and experience to handle being president.”

It sure warms the cockles of my cold, dead right-wing heart to finally see evidence that the public ain’t as stupid as Obama thinks they are.

Even the MSM media seems to be catching on just a wee bit. The Washington Post editorializes that Obama was wrong on Iraq and refuses to admit it. “Obama's account of his strategic vision remains eccentric.”

Well, duh! That qualifies as the understatement of the century. Ronald Reagan said his “strategic vision” for the Cold War was simple: “We win, they lose.” And that exactly what he did. Obama’s “eccentric” vision is “cut and run” and even as our troops win in Iraq, he refuses to cut and run from his cut and run strategy. Eccentric is way understating that position. He’s flip-flopped on everything else, but refuses to accept victory.

USA Today asks the obvious editorial question: “Why can't Obama admit the obvious? The surge worked,” and includes this gem: “Even knowing the outcome, he told CBS News Tuesday, he still wouldn't have supported the idea... Why then can't Obama bring himself to acknowledge the surge worked better than he and other skeptics, including this page, thought it would? What does that stubbornness say about the kind of president he'd be?”

USA Today won’t say the obvious, but I will. It says he will be an unmitigated disaster as a President, Jimmy Carter II, bringing back the bad ol’ days of a hollow military, staglation with double-digit interest rates and inflation, lines at the gas pumps and Islamic terrorism on the rampage.

Karl Rove lists Obama’s changes: “Sen. Obama has shifted recently on public financing, free trade, Nafta, welfare reform, the D.C. gun ban, whether the Iranian Quds Force is a terrorist group, immunity for telecom companies participating in the Terrorist Surveillance Program, the status of Jerusalem, flag lapel pins, and disavowing Rev. Jeremiah Wright. And not only does he refuse to explain these flip-flops, he acts as if they never occurred.”

In Obamaland, nothing is real unless the Messiah says it’s real. And if the emperor is wearing no clothes, nobody’s allowed to say he’s nekkid.

I have two things to say about Obama's speech in Berlin. To quote Sen. Lloyd Bentsen's most memorable cut in the vice-presidential debates, "I remember Jack Kennedy. And you, sir, are no Jack Kennedy." You're not a Ronald Reagan either. You sir, have accomplished exactly zero so far in your political career and to dare compare yourself to any president, much less Kennedy and Reagan, is preposterous.

And second, concerning his "world tour" of Iraq and Afghnistan, to call that "foreign policy experience" is like claiming the same from eating a waffle at the International House of Pancakes. And for the darling candidate of Moveon.org's "General Betray Us" to dare to meet with Gen. Petraeus? To steal the famous quote that brought down the late Sen. Joe McCarthy, "Sir, have you no shame? None whatsoever?"

Up until now, I've considered Obama highly ludicrous and a bit comical. Now all I can truly say now is "Sir. You disgust me. Highly."
Slublog's photoshop says it better than a thousand words.
Michelle Malkin also says it well with another image from Obama's 'world tour.'

I remember the nutty ‘60s, when the left-wingnut-hippies marched in the streets with demands that U.S. unilaterally disarm and somehow bring “peace” to the planet. Never mind that would mean the Soviets would use their nuclear arsenal to take over the world. We’d still have “peace.”

Well the “disarm America” left-wingnuts are back and guess who their leader is? Ace reports: Obama Vows To Rid the US of Nuclear Weapons

Ace sez: “Actually, he vows to rid "the world" of nuclear weapons, but we know of only one country he can successfully manage that trick with, and he's just crazy enough to do it.”

On the other hand from peace, there’s war. And our troops are winning the two big fronts in the war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan, contrary to what the mainstream media is reporting and the best-laid plans of Obama and the left-wingnuts, who continue to chant “Cut and run! Now!”

Michael Yon, the Ernie Pyle of Iraq, writes “by my estimation, the Iraq War is over. We won. Which means the Iraqi people won.”

Three other war analysts agree: “All of the most important objectives of the surge have been accomplished in Iraq. The sectarian civil war is ended; al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) has been dealt a devastating blow; and the Sadrist militia and other Iranian-backed militant groups have been disrupted.”

Meanwhile, over in Afghanistan, remember that big “defeat” our troops supposedly suffered earlier this week in an attack by the Taliban? Jeff Emmanuel calls it ‘An Alamo With a Better Ending’. “As recounted by the AP and other media outlets, nine U.S. paratroopers lost their lives -- a full fifth of the American contingent. Further, fifteen U.S. and four Afghan soldiers were also wounded in the attack, meaning that, against an assault and support force of nearly 500 militant fighters, only 21 U.S. and 21 Afghan soldiers were able to fight at full strength -- and they succeeded not only in killing dozens of attackers, but in repelling the onslaught completely.”

Let’s see: 500 vs. 42. And 42 U.S. and Afghan soldiers open a can of whup a$$ on the 500 and kill dozens and run the rest off. 'Splain it to me Lucy, how does that come out that to be a “defeat” for the good guys and a “victory” for the bad guys? Only if you report for the AP and the MSM.

The only defeat going on in Iraq and Afghanistan is for Obama and his left-wingnuts and Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. The troops are winning. So that means guess who is losing? I believe not only has the tide turned in Iraq, but here at home, too. Americans are already sick and tired of $4 a gallon gas. And guess who still refuses to Drill Here, Drill Now!?

If you haven't joined the 1,353,226 Americans who have already signed the Drill Here, Drill Now! petition, do it now!

Maureen Dowd, the best-lookin’ redheaded op-ed columnist at the New York Times, asks May We Mock, Barack?

The answer, if you lean leftward, is “How dare you!?” as The New Yorker magazine found out this week. But it wasn’t always this way.

Maureen writes: When I interviewed Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert for Rolling Stone a couple years ago, I wondered what Barack Obama would mean for them. “It seems like a President Obama would be harder to make fun of than these guys,” I said.

“Are you kidding me?” Stewart scoffed. Then he and Colbert both said at the same time: “His dad was a goat-herder!”

When I noted that Obama, in his memoir, had revealed that he had done some pot, booze and “maybe a little blow,” the two comedians began riffing about the dapper senator’s familiarity with drug slang.

Colbert: Wow, that’s a very street way of putting it. “A little blow.”

Stewart: A little bit of the white rabbit.

Colbert: “Yeah, I packed a cocktail straw of cocaine and had a prostitute blow it in my ear, but that is all I did. High-fivin’.”

That was then. But since then, this son of a goat-herder who admits to sniffing “a little blow” has been proclaimed by lefties as “Messiah,” “Lightworker,” “Enlightened Being” and Mr. “Thrill up my leg” just to list a few of their over-the-top names for He-who-shall-not-be-mocked.

But of course, members of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy (of which I have been a member since before Hillary named us) have no difficulty whatsoever finding something about Obama to mock. So herewith is the Reader’s Digest version of right-o-sphere names for The Anointed One.

Ace of Spades has coined my personal favorite, Captain Bullsh!t, which of course mocks Obama’s ever-changing versions of what “I have always been for…” and his extremely slippery and loose grip on “truthiness.” Or as Ace so colorfully often puts it, Obama’s “loose sh!t.”

Bob Owens at Confederate Yankee calls Obama “Flapjack” for the same reasons, his constant flip-flops on what “I have always been for…”

Michelle Malkin calls him “D'OH-bama” which if I’m not mistaken is a favorite way of saying “Stupid!” on “The Simpsons.”

James Lewis at American Thinker calls him “Alfred E. Obama” referring to the freckle-faced kid with the big ears in Mad magazine. Lewis apparently named him thusly because “Obama told Maureen Dowd early in the primaries that he is hypersensitive to any remarks about his ears.”

Jennifer Rubin at American Spectator notes that John McCain “came up with a slick moniker for Obama: Dr. No,” in contrast to McCain’s support for new domestic oil drilling to relieve pain at the pump, which Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and the entire left are vehemently opposing.

Jennifer asks: “Could the Agent of Change be transformed into Dr. No? … Public polling indicates McCain may have caught a wave. Significant majorities now favor increased domestic oil production including offshore drilling. When Obama doubled-down on Tuesday, declaring that he wouldn't be joining the ranks of nervous Democrats now considering offshore oil development, the McCain team no doubt smiled broadly.”

Perhaps McCain’s name for Obama will be the one that hurts him the most. It mocks Barack on an issue that seems to resonate with voters.

If you’d like to join the “Mock Obama” movement, here’s a site that lets you create your own ‘Mock Obama’ poster. Pick a name and go for it. Here's my "Mock Obama" campaign poster.

Finally, some good news on our “pain at the pump” crisis. On Monday, Bush Rescinds Offshore Oil Ban. Today, the price of oil drops $10 a barrel. Wow. Instant results as the market reacts to half-a-loaf of good news? Who knows? But the bad news is, Drilling Still Blocked by Congress.

Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi are digging in their heels and saying “Not only no, but he!! no, we won’t drill!” The left has been so deep in the pockets of the enviro-nazis and tree-huggers for the past 30 years that they can’t possibly allow any new oil to be drilled here in the U.S., or offshore, or new refineries or new nuke power plants, and the list goes on and on while the price at the pump keeps climbing higher and higher.

And speaking of enviro-nazis, have you heard the latest crisis from the “Save the polar bears and whales!” crowd? Now it’s Save the Ferrets!

What the heck is a ferret? Some kind of big rat? Lordy, we’re dying everytime we stop at the pump and they’re worried about Saving Ferrets?

In other important campaign news, have you noticed that the new, improved Obama is seldom seen these days without a flag pin in his lapel? Nobody has asked him lately about it, but I’m sure if someone did, he would explain that he’s “always been for flag lapel pins” even when he used to say that “flag pins have become substitutes for true patriotism.”

Anyway, the ever-helpful Campaign Stops blog at the New York Times has come up with a few suggestions for a new Obama lapel pin.

Daniel Young, a design entrepreneur, designed a mirror-flag pin.

Actually, this one is quite appropriate for Obama. Sort of an “insert any flag you like here” pin. Which is exactly what this “multi-cultural” candidate is trying to sell, whatever you’ll buy. Who needs “true patriotism” when you can offer them whatever they want, just vote for me.

Heard any good jokes about Obama on the late-night talk shows? No? Wonder why? You don’t suppose it’s because they’re all Obama backers? Nah, couldn’t be that. According to the New York Times, there’s been one joke so far, just one. And it’s a pro-Obama joke by Bill Maher.

“There’s been this question about whether he’s black enough,” Mr. Maher said. “I have this joke: What does he have to do? Dunk? He bowled a 37 — to me, that’s black enough.”

What a knee-slapper: Obama’s “black enough” because he can’t bowl. Mary Katharine Ham’s HamNation on Obama’s bowling was way funnier.

Jimmy Kimmel, the host of the ABC late-night talk show “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” said of Mr. Obama, “There’s a weird reverse racism going on. You can’t joke about him because he’s half-white. It’s silly. I think it’s more a problem because he’s so polished, he doesn’t seem to have any flaws.”

That one’s so funny it’s hysterical. Captain Bullsh!t “doesn’t seem to have any flaws”!? What in the world is Jimmy Kimmel smoking these days?

Finally, The Washington Post is still pontificating about The New Yorker magazine cover that pokes satire at Mr. and Mrs. “No Flaws.”

“The prissy tone of dudgeon from the Obama campaign was a relatively well-pitched political twofer: It distinguished them from the New Yorker and its untouchable demographic (educated, literate, well-informed people from New York or New York-ish enclaves) and it gave them a news cycle on the high ground of victimization, defensively crouched against credulous souls misreading the New Yorker in coal mines, truck stops and smoky saloons.”

Only one teensy little problem with that conclusion: Nobody reads The New Yorker magazine in “coal mines, truck stops and smoky saloons.”

Finally, Ace has the New Yorker magazine cover that just missed making the cut. Who says there's no good jokes about Obama?

Surely you've seen the Democratic Party's new power couple on the cover of The New Yorker magazine by now.

Michelle's got that Angela Davis Afro 'do goin' on and Obama's got his Osama outfit on, with his godfather, Osama Sr. hanging over the mantel and his buddy Bill Ayers' flag blazing merrily away in the fireplace. Hey Obama, yo' mama wears combat boots!

But of course it's really not fair. Michelle wouldn't have a clue how to use an AK. And how on earth could a lefty mag like The Noo Yawker do such a dreadful thing to their long-awaited Messiah? Oh, it's satire. Well, why didn't you say so? I take it all back.

In other political news, Kyle-Anne Shiver at American Thinker climbs way out on a shaky limb, all alone, and asks: Could 2008 Be a McCain Landslide?

“We've already witnessed Obama's highly fortuitous, completely unpredictable rise. I'm betting we may also witness his fall before November 4^th, and that his fall from grace will be every bit as phenomenal as was his rise,” Shiver predicts.

Wow. Sure hope your crystal ball vision is clear, Kyle-Anne. With friends like The New Yorker, maybe so, maybe so.

Obama has been criticized for padding his very thin political resume, which shouldn't be surprising as he has to be the current record holder for the most unqualified candidate for President in the history of this republic. He makes Chester A. Arthur and James B. Buchanan look over-qualified.

But my mama always told me if I couldn't say something nice about somebody, just keep my mouth shut. Obviously I haven't been following her advice about Obama thus far, but it occurred to me today that the man does deserve credit for four major political accomplishments thus far.

We can thank Barack Hussein Obama for ending the political careers of Bill Clinton and his lovely wife Bruno, plus Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.

Now if that's not a quartet that most of the nation will be glad to see shuffle off the political stage once and for all, well, sue me for lying.

Now, back to the "dark side." I found this campaign poster on American Thinker blog about a new "Obama comedy" site.

Thomas Lifson at American Thinker writes: "We welcome a new website (and artist) to the Obama comedy community: the site Obama for Messiah. The unnamed artist there has created 3 posters like this one. He or she graciously credits one of the founders of the Obama School of Socialist Realism, Shepard Fairey of Obey the Giant, and also notes the existence of another Obama/messiah site, Is Barack Obama the Messiah?, to which we have already linked previously. Laughter can heal, it is said. That aphorism applies to politics as well," Lifson concludes.

Amen to that Brother Lifson. I haven't had such a good laugh since the other night when I heard Jesse Jackson whispering on Fox News TV.

Some wag said there’s lies, d--- lies and then there’s statistics. But some statistics are true, like these you never hear gun-control idiots quote.

Larry Elder at Townhall.com quotes these stats in Why Do We "Keep and Bear Arms"? Part 2

Criminologist and researcher Gary Kleck, using his own commissioned phone surveys and number extrapolation, estimates that 2.5 million Americans use guns for defensive purposes each year. One in six of that number, or 400,000, believe someone would have been dead but for their ability to resort to their defensive use of firearms. Kleck points out that if only one-tenth of the people are right about saving a life, the number of people saved annually by guns would still be 40,000.

The Department of Justice's own National Institute of Justice study entitled "Guns in America: National Survey on Private Ownership and Use of Firearms" estimates that 1.5 million Americans use guns for defensive purposes every year. Although the government's figure estimates a million fewer people defensively using guns, the NIJ calls their figure "directly comparable" to Kleck's, noting, "It is statistically plausible that the difference is due to sampling error." Furthermore, the NIJ reports that half of their respondents who said they used guns defensively also admitted having done so multiple times a year -- making the number of estimated uses of self-defense with a gun 4.7 million times annually.

UCLA Professor Emeritus James Q. Wilson, a respected expert on crime, police practices and guns, says: "We know from Census Bureau surveys that something beyond 100,000 uses of guns for self-defense occur every year. We know from smaller surveys of a commercial nature that the number may be as high as 2 1/2 or 3 million. We don't know what the right number is, but whatever the right number is, it's not a trivial number."

Bloomberg News reports: In recent weeks, Obama said he supports gun-ownership rights, backs legislation giving immunity to telephone companies that participated in an anti-terrorism surveillance program and would consider cutting corporate taxes. On July 3, he said he would “continue to refine my policies” on the Iraq War...

(But)…Obama built his candidacy on the support of his party's liberal base, which favors restrictions on guns and wiretapping, raising taxes for companies, and pulling U.S. forces from Iraq. As an Illinois state legislator, he voted against a law carving out self-defense exceptions to local handgun bans; as a U.S. senator, he opposed business tax cuts and extending warrantless eavesdropping, and backed tougher gun laws. On Iraq, he has long focused on ending the war and withdrawing troops…

(Yet)…Obama told reporters in Ohio on July 1. There haven't "been substantial shifts," he said.

Yep. That’s change you can believe in … or not. Guess since Obama's idea of foreign policy experience is eating a waffle at the International House of Pancakes, then we shouldn't be surprised to see him flip a few "pancakes" so to speak.

Or if you don't care for Obama-Lenin "change," how about Obama-Marx "change"?

IMHO, Ace of Spades has the definitive analysis on Obama: “This guy isn't the Messiah. He's Captain Bullsh**.” Of course, Ace doesn’t do asterisks.

A Brief Rundown On Obambi's Most Recent Fibulations

I remember Richard Nixon back in '74
And the final scene at the White House door
And the staff lined up to say good-bye
Tiny tear in his shifty little eye
He said nobody knows me
Nobody understands
These little people were good to me
Oh I'm gonna shake some hands

James Taylor—“Line 'Em Up”

In these weird times that have seen the fall of Bill and Hillary and the rise of chameleon Obama, I think the time is nigh if not already well past to rehabilitate Richard M. Nixon.

Love him or hate him, you never had to ask just where Nixon stood. Like Senator Jesse Helms (whose timing was impeccable as ever by dying on July 4^th) Nixon was always a well-known quantity. In the end it was Nixon’s paranoid style of politics that did him in, but as one wag said, you’re not paranoid if everyone really is out to get you. And God knows, if not everyone, certainly everyone in the media was genuinely out to get Nixon.

Full-disclosure or shall I say personal-confession time: I was not a Nixon fan. My first opportunity to vote was in the 1968 presidential election and I received my first ballot as an absentee aboard a U.S. Navy destroyer on the way to Vietnam. Nixon and Humphrey!

I tore it in half and tossed it overboard in disgust. I was still in the Democrat party of my forebears as a callow youth at the time but Hubert Humphrey was such a ridiculous candidate I couldn’t vote for him and I certainly wasn’t about to vote for the evil Nixon.

I don’t recall voting in the ’72 presidential election either. Nixon and McGovern was just as ridiculous a choice. By then I was out of the Navy and letting my hair grow long and getting high on grass as often as possible, but I was a vet and definitely not anti-war.

And unless you’re a kid or afflicted by CRS Disease (Can’t Remember Squat) as I frequently am as I begin my sixth decade, you know what happened next: Watergate.

Even the Nixon-hating media called it a “third-rate burglary” when Nixon’s dirty tricksters were caught breaking into the safe in Democrat national headquarters in the Watergate Building in Washington just a few weeks before Nixon’s landslide victory.

Just what political secrets of the McGovern campaign were worth stealing? El Squatto.

But as my daddy used to say, a poor excuse is better than none at all and the media took the third-rate burglary and ran with it, all the way to a Pulitzer Prize for “Deep Throat.”

And of course, they ran Nixon out of the White House in 1974. Sure he was guilty, if not of direct involvement in the third-rate burglary, certainly of trying to cover it up.

But here comes the rehabilitation part. What did Nixon do when he knew the jig was up? Hang on through a bitter and bloody fight in the House and Senate in hopes to avoid being impeached by a razor-thin vote? No, he was no Bill Clinton. He simply resigned.

And then he walked out of the White House with his head held high and retired to San Clemente. He even somewhat rehabilitated himself as an elder statesman of the party before he finally went on to his reward, whatever that might be somewhere in eternity.

Fast forward to Bill Clinton and intern sex in, on or under the desk in the Oval Office.

And the same media that hounded Nixon from office was oh, so forgiving. “After all, he’s one of us” was the unwritten message between the lines of Monicagate coverage.

And sure ‘nuff, a few soft-hearted or cowardly Republicans caved in during the impeachment process to save Bill’s sorry hide from getting nailed up to the wall. Now compare Nixon's dignified-if-hurried department to Bill and Hillary's leaving after two full terms in 2000. Looting and trashing the White House on their way out was not one of their finest hours, but all too typical of the gruesome twosome.

Fast forward again to chameleon Obama, Mr. All-things-to-all-people. If you don’t like what he stands for today, as they say about the weather in Missouri, just wait a minute.

If for nothing else, we should be grateful to Obama for finally bringing to an end the media’s love affair with Bill and Hillary. Spurned by a fickle lover for a pretty, new face.

But despite my gratitude for Obama's one real accomplishment, I’m not grateful enough to vote for this political nothing, who’s done nothing, stood for nothing and glibly promises everybody everything.

Unfortunately, I seem to be in a distinct minority of voters. Where there is no vision, the people perish, Solomon said. And I fear far too many voters have gone stone blind.

House#1
A 20 room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house, all heated by gas. In one month this residence consumes more energy than the average American household does in a year. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2,400 per month. In natural gas alone, this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not situated in a Northern or Midwestern "snow belt" area. It's in the South.


House#2
Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university. This house incorporates every "green" feature current home construction can provide. The house is 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on a high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat-pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground.

The water (usually 67 degrees F) heats the house in the winter and cools it in the summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas and it consumes one-quarter electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled int o a 25 ,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Surrounding flowers and shrubs native to the area enable the property to blend into the surrounding rural landscape.

HOUSE #1 is outside of Nashville, Tennessee; it is the abode of the "environmentalist" Al Gore.

HOUSE #2 is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas; it is the residence the of the President of the United States, George W. Bush.

An "inconvenient truth."

You can verify it at :http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/house.asp

Satanic cult of Durham Democrats?

Yikes! This is getting too close to home. Guess this proves again that truth is way stranger than fiction. Way, way stranger.

Of course, this is Durham, home of Duke U., where you're guilty until proven innocent if the Democrat DA needs some votes.

Reckon these "satanic Democrats" are getting "Nifonged"? Anything's possible in Durham, NC.

Hallelujah! I’m rich! Whoopee! You know how Obama has been saying when he’s President, he’ll raise taxes only on the rich? Guess what? That’s me! And he’s not even waiting until he’s President. He’s already voted to raise my income taxes twice way back "when I was a United States senator," said Obama. (Gee. I need to stay up on news better. I thought he still was a Senator.)

“This year, Barack Obama returned to the United States Senate twice to vote in favor of a budget resolution which raises income tax rates by three percentage points for the 25, 28 and 33 percent tax brackets. This would mean a tax increase for those earning as little as $32,000.” (This apparently happened way back "when I was a United States senator," said Obama.)

Gee again. Now that I’m rich, for some reason I don’t feel like celebrating.

Obama reminds me of a line from a Merle Haggard tune, "Sure turned out to be a short forever."

Obama's rallying cry on the war in Iraq throughout the primary has been "Cut and run! Now! Not next week, now!"

Now that the primary is over, Obama saith now:  “I’ve always said that the pace of withdrawal would be dictated by the safety and security of our troops and the need to maintain stability. That assessment has not changed,” he said. “And when I go to Iraq and have a chance to talk to some of the commanders on the ground, I’m sure I’ll have more information and will continue to refine my policies.”

The man is such an unblushing liar he makes Bill and Hillary look like perfect paragons of truth.

I'll let Charles Krauthammer provide the details on Obama's Flips and Flops.

I’m on vacation in Chatauqua, N.Y., but unfortunately, not on vacation from politics. Barack Obama was here before I arrived at this quiet enclave on the shores of Lake Chautauqua in the southwestern corner of New York state, 30 miles from Lake Erie.

I’ve learned from previous summer visits here with my wife’s family that a Southern Baptist church is not to be found. I guess that’s why they’re called Southern. So after shopping around for a friendly clime for Sunday worship, I’ve given up and settled for the nondenominational service at Chautauqua Institute, a gated community noted for its high-brow classical music roots and strongly liberal-left political discussions.

I’ve heard a few good sermons here: last year the Scottish chaplain to the Queen; the year before a black minister from Maryland. But this year it was “Barack at Chautauq.”

So far as I know, his name was never mentioned out loud, though I did arrive five minutes late so I may have missed the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, pastor of the Chautauqua Institution, leading the congregants in a chant of “Yes, We Can!”

I did hear her remind those gathered on the bare wooden pews of the open-to-the-outdoors amphitheatre that this is “the political season,” perhaps a gentle forewarning for the main speaker.

The Rev. LaVerne Gill, retired black United Church of Christ pastor from Michigan and currently Chaplain Administrator for the Chautauqua United Church of Christ, Inc., read the Scripture from Luke 18:1-8, Jesus’ parable of the widow and the unjust judge.

The main speaker was the Rev. Timothy Carl Ahrens, pastor of First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ in Columbus, Ohio. Are you beginning to see a United Church of Christ theme here?

In case you somehow missed the youtube “G— D---- America!” ranting sermons of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s pastor for 20 years at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, don’t worry. No such wild rantings came forth from Ahrens, a calm, reasonable white minister, who also sounds totally unlike Father Michael Pfleger, the post-Wright visiting white minister of youtube and Trinity UCC pulpit fame.

But have no doubts that Ahrens is a fellow traveler with Obama, Wright and Pfleger. The Chautauqua program notes “Rev. Ahrens has been heralded as one among five pastors keeping alive the social justice tradition of the late William Sloan Coffin.”

Coffin, you may recall, was the Yale chaplain who took a leadership role in the anti-war movement of the ‘60s, among other causes du jour popular among the liberal-left. His anti-war antics continued to his death in 2006, including opposing the 1991 war in the Persian Gulf to liberate Kuwait after Saddam Hussein’s invasion from Iraq.

So there’s the common tie that binds Obama, Wright, Pfleger, Coffin and Ahrens, “the social just