Two Smart Writers. One Republican. One Democrat.

My blog post on Campbell Brown's honest opinion about Barack Obama breaking his promise on public financing was featured on CNN.com. Cool. So there ya go.

Do the same people who think of Campbell as their new hero for blasting the McCain campaign for keeping Sarah Palin under wraps still have the same opinion of her now?

Victor Davis Hanson has an insightful post about the death of journalism in this country. He highlights four topics: Campaign Financing, the VP Candidates, The Past as Present, and Socialism.

Of Campaign Financing: "...Barack Obama, remember, promised that he would accept both public funding and the limitations that went along with it, and would "aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election." Then in June 2008, Obama abruptly reneged, bowing out entirely from government financing, the first presidential nominee in the general election to do that since the system was created in 1976."

How's that for change? You'll reflect back that it is the Democrat party that has always been the advocate for public financing of elections - and the Republicans who roasted John McCain for trying to reform campaign funding on a bi-partisan basis with Russ Feingold.

"The story that the media chose to ignore was not merely that Obama about-face on public financing, or even the enormous amounts of money that he has raised - some of it under dubious circumstances involving foreign donors, prepaid credit cards, and false names. Instead, they were absolutely quiet about a historic end to liberal support for public financing."

We'll not see any pretext of accepting public financing ever again. Period.

Comparing the coverage of VP candidates, "By accepted standards of behavior, Biden has sadly proven wanting. He has committed almost every classical sin of character - plagiarism, false biography, racial insensitivity, and serial fabrication." Amen.

Biden possesses some sort of just-under-the-surface resentment towards Obama, I've noticed. He is on record more than once saying that Hillary Clinton would have been the better candidate. He's off point on the messages of the campaign. And, just says incredibly unexplainable statements. 'Warning' supporters at a fundraiser that Obama will be tested, after both campaigns were briefed on national security issues? Not only is that not helpful to the top of his ticket, it doesn't bode well for the security of our country, either. Loose lips sink ships. Oh, wait. What am I thinking? These two smart guys are part of the broadcasting a timeline of withdrawal in Iraq crowd. Never mind.

"The media has succeeded in shielding Barack Obama from journalistic scrutiny. It thereby irrevocably destroyed its own reputation and forfeited the trust that generations of others had so carefully acquired. And it will never again be trusted to offer candid and nonpartisan coverage of presidential candidates." Right as usual, Dr. Hanson.

I learned today of a speechwriter named Wendy Button. A speechwriter for Obama, Edwards and Clinton (Hillary), she has come out in support of John McCain. Wonder why she didn't receive a 30 minute commercial opportunity on Meet the Press? You know, like Colin Powell did? Oh yeah.

A lifelong Democrat, Ms. Button is fed up with the treatment of working class folks and women from the Obama campaign. She helped with Obama's announcement speech along with others. She helped with Edwards' concession speech. She helped Michelle Obama with stump speeches when the primary ended. She's been a speechwriter for more than 10 years.

She says the Democrat Party was family to her. "Now, it doesn't even feel like a distant cousin."

She uses the term, "hooker lines" - "a sure thing to get applause and the press to scribble as if they're reporting meaningful news."

"Not only has this party belittled working people in this campaign from Joe the Plumber to the bitter comments, it has also been part of tearing down two female candidates." Sums it up for me.

"Governor Palin and I don't agree on a lot of things, mostly social issues. But I have grown to appreciate the Governor. I was one of those initial skeptics and would laugh at the pictures. Not anymore. When someone takes on a corrupt political machine and a sitting governor, that is not done by someone with a low I.Q. or a moral core made of tissue paper. When someone fights her way to get scholarships and work her way through college even in a jagged line, that shows determination and humility you can't learn from reading Reinhold Niebuhr. When a mother brings her son with special needs onto the national state with love, honesty, and pride, that gives hope to families like mine as my older brother lives with a mental disability. And when someone can sit on a stage during the Sarah Palin rap on Saturday night Live, put her hands in the air and watch someone in a moose costume get shot - that's a sign of both humor and humanity."

Button gets it. If Barack Obama was truly a man of change, truly a person who worked in a bi-partisan fashion, had a 'backbone of steel', then he would have taken on the corrupt political machine on the south side of Chicago. We would be talking about his political courage and his ethical honesty. But, he didn't. Instead he chose to join the system and use it to his own advantage. That is cowardly and opportunistic. And, it is certainly not leadership.

Do I make myself clear?

"I can no longer justify what this party has done and can't dismiss the treatment of women and working people as just part of the new kind of politics. It's wrong and someone has to say that. And also say that the Democratic Party's talking points - that Senator John McCain is just four more years of the same and that he's President Bush - are now just hooker lines that fit a very effective and perhaps wave-winning political argument...doesn't mean they are true. After all, he is the only one who's worked in a bipartisan way on big challenges."

Yea, Wendy Button. Look how smart you are after all.

Use your brain. Vote McCain.