With a new poll showing Republican Bob McDonnell extending his lead over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said yesterday that energizing the Virginia voters who supported Barack Obama is a key to Deeds’ chances in the governor’s race. “A way to win is to energize the huge upsurge in Obama’08 voters,“ Kaine said. “We registered an awful lot of people and got a lot of them to turn out.“

Spain’s king and prime minister went to Copenhagen to press Madrid’s bid to host the 2016 summer Olympics. Japan’s prime minister spoke on behalf of Tokyo. Brazil’s president made the case for Rio de Janeiro. Barack Obama probably could not have won. If he had not made a personal appeal on behalf of Chicago, the peanut gallery would have blamed Chicago’s failure on his absence. Because he and Michelle Obama made a pitch for the Windy City, the loss is said by some to symbolize his geopolitical impotence.

The First Amendment recognizes freedom of the press as an inalienable right. Rights require protection, for even in countries as dedicated to liberty as the United States, individual and corporate rights can fall under siege. A flourishing press—a press that fulfills its watchdog role, for example—relies on confidential sources. Although we remain wary of stories that cite so-called anonymous sources, we recognize that journalists can receive tips that lead them to crucial information. Whistleblowers concerned about retaliation need assurances that their identities will not be revealed. The relationship between reporter and source can be abused, but there will be instances in which confidentiality remains key to the development of a major story.

The Dalai Lama transcends his religion and his nationality. He symbolizes a universal desire for liberty and decency and shares stature with the likes of Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Nelson Mandela, and Mahatma Gandhi. The Dalai Lama is visiting Washington this week, and for the first time in his 10 trips since 1991 to the nation’s capital he will not be meeting with the president of the United States. A news story reports:

Jokers don’t get any wilder than the one draped on the wall of a Shockoe Bottom strip club. A banner of President Barack Obama as The Joker hangs across Main Street from the Slave Trade Reconciliation Triangle, where human figures lock in a melting embrace. Reconciliation is not what MICHAEL
PAUL
WILLIAMS
comes to mind when you see Obama’s powder-white face grotesquely smeared with lipstick.

The Olympics are the greatest of the world’s sports events, and the site for the 2016 Summer Games will be Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro or Tokyo. The International Olympic Committee votes Friday. The vote here is for Chicago. Imagine athletes from every part of the globe riding the ‘L’ in Chicago. Imagine mixing and mingling on Michigan Avenue with high jumpers from Australia and hammer throwers from the Ukraine.

In recent days:

• News broke that Iran has a second uranium-enrichment site.

• Iran launched medium-range missiles capable of delivering warheads to targets not only throughout its region but in portions of Europe.

• In an address to the United Nations, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ridiculed the Holocaust.
  
  

  September 29, 2009

  NAACP protests anti-Obama poster outside strip club  09/29/09 12:01 AM

  

  The Virginia NAACP called it an abomination and a sign of disrespect. The owner of a downtown Richmond strip club called it exercising his right to free speech.

  
  

  September 28, 2009

  On ‘Meet the Press,‘ Webb discusses U.S. policy in Afghanistan  09/28/09 12:01 AM

  Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., warned yesterday that an increased military presence in Afghanistan would risk a “tipping point” in which U.S. troops are viewed as an occupying force. He also questioned whether Afghanistan, without a viable national government, is capable of building its own security force of 400,000 troops as the top U.S. commander envisions.

  
  

  September 27, 2009

  Ideology and Intellect: For the Community Organizer, Peanut Farmer Simpatico?  09/27/09 12:01 AM

  Barack Obama has rescued the nation—verily, the world—from economic collapse. He stands on the cusp of achieving higher quality health care at lower cost—for every American. Now he ROSS
  MACKENZIE
  is moving to extend his magic to matters foreign. Let’s see . . .

  • At his direction, his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, is doing her best to compel the new leaders of Honduras to violate their own constitution, under which the Honduran Congress and Supreme Court have removed the Castro and Chavez acolyte who was about to impose Fidelism on the Honduran people. Secretary Clinton et al. want the deposed president restored to power—after the fashion of American practice in, for instance, Haiti.
  
  

  September 26, 2009

  Obama proving to be mixed blessing for Deeds  09/26/09 12:01 AM

  President Barack Obama’s personal appeal to L. Douglas Wilder made Wilder’s refusal to back fellow Democrat R. Creigh Deeds for governor a bigger story. And Obama’s health-care and energy proposals have made it easier for Republican Bob McDonnell to bring federal issues into the Virginia contest. But the president retains a solid base of support in Virginia—with demonstrated fundraising and organizational prowess.

  
  

  September 25, 2009

  Wilder declines to endorse Deeds  09/25/09 12:01 AM

  Former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, despite pleas from President Barack Obama and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, yesterday declined to endorse fellow Democrat R. Creigh Deeds for governor. Wilder, who also is a former Richmond mayor, said he disagrees with Deeds’ willingness to raise taxes and with his opposition to a gun-control law that Wilder had championed as governor.

  
  

  September 15, 2009

  Keenan chosen for federal bench  09/15/09 12:01 AM

  President Barack Obama yesterday nominated Justice Barbara Keenan of the Virginia Supreme Court to the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Virginia’s two U.S. senators, Democrats Jim Webb and Mark R. Warner, had recommended Keenan. “Her commitment to fairness and judicial integrity has been unwavering throughout her career . . . ,“ Obama said in a statement released by the White House.

  
  

  September 13, 2009

  Plan in advance for tickets to tour the White House  09/13/09 12:01 AM

  If you want to see the White House decorated for Christmas in the first year of the Barack Obama administration, you might already be too late. Christmas is one of the more popular times to tour the home of the president. With requests accepted up to six months in advance, tour slots fill fast. The White House puts the tour list together on a first-come, first-served basis, and you won’t know whether you have tickets until about three weeks before the tour.

  Hope and Change Have Become Predictable Liberalism  09/13/09 12:01 AM

  If a revolution takes root throughout the country and no one in Washington hears it, does the revolution exist? In our representative system, the answer is yes—and members of both parties ought to start paying attention if they hope to survive the 2010 midterm elections intact. We’ve heard a lot about political sea changes in the past decade. Only five years ago, the re-election of George W. Bush and the increase of Republican ranks in Congress led GOP strategists to predict a generational realignment in favor of the party of Lincoln. But as the war in Iraq grew increasingly divisive and conservatives blanched at the GOP’s flagging commitment to small government, the Republican Party began to look like it was imploding.

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