The McLaughlin Group

Please join us this weekend for a special Easter edition of The McLaughlin Group. Check your local listings for time and channel, or visit www.mclaughlin.com for more information.

A Good Friday

Over the past week or so, we've had to hear that the Governor of New York had sex with hookers, the new Governor of New York may have used state money to pay for a hotel for HIS affairs, the former Governor of New Jersey had swinging threesomes with his wife and another man, some State Department dweebs breached security and peeked at Barack Obama's passport file, and not to be outdone in the "victimization" derby, Hillary Clinton now claims the same thing was done to her.

Today is supposed to be a quiet day for Christians to reflect. Let us all take a moment and pray for some national sanity too.

What would Jesus do? Probably ask for the following:

Can we---as a nation---please have one day without a major political sex scandal? Can we please have one day without somebody in a position of authority breaking the law? Can we just have 24 hours without one of the presidential candidates trying to remind us that the other one is black, while she also reminds us that she's a victim? Can we please have one day without the other Democratic presidential candidate throwing his selfless grandma to the lions to save his campaign? Can we please have a day without piling on the Republican candidate for a slip of the lip? Can we please have a day without the hate-filled ravings of a Chicago preacher or doctored photographs of the candidates or everybody shrieking that they've been done wrong?

If we could have that today---just for today---it would truly be a Good Friday.

The Devil You Know

Just when we thought the shark has swum away and it was safe to go back in the water, she's baaaaccckkk!

New national polls show Hillary Clinton now pulling ahead of Barack Obama among Democrats. She still trails him in pledged delegates and in the raw popular vote. But now she has something that he does not: a stability that comes with being a known quantity.

The Clintons are Baggage Central. Newly released White House records of her schedule as First Lady show she was in the White House on many days when Bill was getting it on with Lewinsky in the next room. They still will not release their tax returns, although they promise them "around" April 15. With the Clintons, there is always a new scandal right around the corner, but it will be a predictable scandal: sex, or influence peddling, or conflicts of interest, or financial shenanigans.

Most Americans have had enough of the Clintonian drama. But in light of the revelations about Barack Obama and his longstanding relationship to Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the known Clinton baggage may be more acceptable than the yet-to-be-known Obama baggage.

Sex scandals, unfortunately, are par for the course. Radical black nationalism is something else entirely. New national polls show that 73 percent of voters---including 58 percent of black voters---thought Wright's statements were racially divisive. His Chicago church is called "Unity," which also happens to be Obama's main campaign theme. (No coincidence.) But this controversy has done more to divide and upset than any other thing in this campaign.

So Democrats are now faced with a tough choice: do they go with the sleazeballs they know? Or do they go with the vague, untested Hope Guy they thought they knew?

Four Speeches, Two Presidents

All three finalists for president---and the guy who is still president, thank you very much---spoke about Iraq this week.

President Bush gave a sober but optimistic speech about the importance of the mission---the absolute need for success and the devastating consequences of failure.

Barack Obama, distracted by having to give his own big speech on his radical pastor, said that Senator McCain could not argue last year that we couldn't withdraw from Iraq because the violence was up and now argue that we can't withdraw because the violence is down. Actually, that argument is not inconsistent. When the violence was up, we needed to stay and adjust tactics and strategy in order to get the violence down. Now that it is down, we need to stay to consolidate those gains and stabilize the country for the eventual full hand-off to the Iraqis.

Hillary Clinton, distracted by a superdelegate fight and the battle to get her swindled victories in Florida and Michigan counted, spoke about withdrawal from Iraq at a more accelerated pace than what President Bush is proposing. The problem for her (and Obama) is that they have said they would consult with the Joint Chiefs on their first day in office. The Joint Chiefs HAVE recently consulted with them---and warned them against any rapid and precipitous withdrawal. Whoops!

John McCain, distracted by nothing, spoke about Iraq---WHILE IN IRAQ. He spoke to U.S. military commanders on the ground and top Iraqi leaders. He moved among and with U.S. troops, talking to regular soldiers on their routine missions. He walked the streets of Iraq. He prodded the Iraqi government to pick up the pace on political reform. His very presence was reassuring to our troops, in whom he had supreme confidence when he backed the surge.

The Commander-in-Chief still steers the ship, but the words and actions of those who wish to succeed him are telling. Obama doesn't have any idea how the real world works; Clinton knows how it works just doesn't care if it doesn't fit her ambitions. McCain is the only one who knows, who cares beyond himself, and who is living it every single day.

Please Show I.D.

Today Senator Barack Obama addressed the biggest controversy of his candidacy so far: his twenty year relationship with Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Wright was Obama's pastor, mentor, and friend. He married the Obamas and christened their children. For years, Wright has also preached anti-Americanism and stoked racial and class conflict. We've all seen the video by now.

So Obama set out today to reassure voters---mostly white voters---that he's not the radical guy Wright appears to be. That he's been as close to Wright as a nephew is to an uncle, but he doesn't endorse everything Wright says or does. That Wright represents an older generation of black leadership, and that Obama is different.

It was a big speech, delivered well. It was passionate and personal and emotional. But there was one glaring omission: He didn't make any apologies for Wright, but he also didn't take any responsibility for the decision to sit in his pews for two decades.

And that leaves a lingering question: who is Barack Obama?

In the frenzy created by his charisma, charm, and natural gifts, no one has bothered to ask that question. And he deliberately left himself undefined.

That's why the Wright stuff was so powerful and potentially devastating: absent Obama defining himself, the Wright rants fill the void. And it's not a flattering definition. It's also a prescription for defeat.

Obama knows this, but only sort of. He tried today to distance himself from Wright without throwing him completely under the bus. And he spoke about his bi-racial heritage and desire to bring us all together in a multicultural unity.

But he never identified himself. He never told us who he really is and what he truly believes, from his very depths. Perhaps he's unwilling to do so. But unless he does, he will not win the presidency. Americans will not vote for a vague blank slate, regardless of how much "hope" he proclaims.

It's not about race. It's about who he is.

Tell us, Senator. We're still waiting.

As I Was Saying...

According to the New York Daily News: "The thunderous applause was still ringing in his ears when the state's new governor, David Paterson, (admitted) that he and his wife had extramarital affairs.

"In a stunning revelation, both Paterson, 53, and his wife, Michelle, 46, acknowledged in a joint interview they each had intimate relationships with others during a rocky period in their marriage several years ago.

"In the course of several interviews in the past few days, Paterson said he maintained a relationship for two or three years with "a woman other than my wife," beginning in 1999.

"As part of that relationship, Paterson said, he and the other woman sometimes stayed at an upper West Side hotel - the Days Inn at Broadway and W. 94th St."

STOP IT!!!

Imus in the Morning

I will be a guest with Imus tomorrow (Tuesday, March 18) at 8:30am ET. Please visit www.wabcradio.com to hear it streamed live, or see it on RFD-TV (www.rfdtv.com).

TMI

Is it just me, or do we know WAY too much about our elected officials' sex lives?

Thanks to their sexual indiscretions (and often criminal behavior), we now know the size and shape of Bill Clinton's private anatomy; that former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey indulged in gay sex at highway rest stops; that Idaho Senator Larry Craig tried to get gay sex in an airport bathroom stall; that Louisiana Senator David Vitter likes the ladies of the night; and that former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer preferred his ladies of the night to do sex acts that were "unsafe."

Need a cold shower?

All of these men were married at the time, with wives who would have been legal (and moral) sex partners if that particular mood struck. But these men all sought out other---ahem---outlets. The ensuing scandals brought to light sexual preferences and fetishes that frankly, we can all live without knowing about. The new allegation that McGreevey had threesomes with his wife and another man put me over the edge.

I want to know that my elected leaders are lowering my taxes, not lowering their drawers. I want to know that they are working for me and for the country, not supporting an underground, illegal shadow economy. I want to know that they are keeping this country safe from threats, not engaging in unsafe physical contact with hookers. And I really, really do not want to know what is going on in those boxers or briefs.

Pre-Commander in Chief Tour

Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, is on a six-day trip to the Middle East. The first stop today: Baghdad. This is McCain's eighth trip to Iraq. He is scheduled to meet with top U.S. military commanders, including General David Petraeus, and Iraqi leaders, including Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

One of the reasons McCain is the GOP nominee is because he staked his candidacy on the success of the surge. Despite some continuing insurgent attacks, the surge has produced stunning success: the violence in the Sunni Triangle and beyond is way down, giving the political process a chance to take root. Last week, General Petraeus admonished the Iraqi leadership for not moving faster to meet political benchmarks. I'm sure McCain will tell them the same thing today. But McCain's message carries even more weight than Petraeus's does, because it looks possible that he will be the next Commander-in-Chief. Therefore, he can say things to the Iraqis in a way Petraeus cannot: "I gave you guys a chance. I staked my political career on the surge working well enough to give you some breathing room to bust a move on political reform. If you guys don't use that breathing room---and soon---I'll have no choice but to re-evaluate my position on keeping troops here, doing the heavy lifting that you guys need to be doing. So, hustle."

McCain is also going to Israel, Jordan, Britain, and France, and will meet with the heads of state in each country.

For all of Hillary Clinton's and Barack Obama's talk about "reaching out to our allies" and "restoring our relationships around the world," John McCain is the only one who has done---and is currently doing---it.

Obama is too busy on a "Apology Tour" for his pastor of 20 years, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, and for his longtime political fundraiser, now on trial for corruption and fraud, Tony Rezko. Hillary is too busy on an "Apology Tour" for Geraldine Ferraro's comments that Obama's success is due to his race, for Bill Clinton's buffoonery, and (of course) the government's response to Hurricane Katrina.

While the Democrats are apologizing themselves into a tizzy, John McCain is leading. Those who wish to be Commander-in-Chief need to demonstrate that they will be taken seriously by the world leaders they claim they can "win over." Haven't seen much of that with Hillary. And haven't seen ANY of that with Obama.

McCain wears the "world leader" role well. He commands respect from allies and enemies alike. And his current trip shows that he doesn't need to waste time apologizing for bad judgment, for political allies, or for America. No "Apology Tours" for him. Just a "Pre-Commander-in-Chief" Tour that doubles as a "Respect America" Tour.

As he talks with al-Maliki, and Brown, and Abdullah, and Sarkozy, McCain will be quietly pointing to the one thing that the Democratic candidates will never be able to overcome: the Stature Gap.