Political Digest for March 20, 2012

The Old Jarhead Blog: Bringing you news and information the MSM is too busy covering American Idol, celebrity affairs and sensational missing person cases to cover. Please forward to friends who need to be informed.

I post articles because I think they are of interest. Doing so doesn’t mean that I necessarily agree (or disagree) with every—or any—opinion in the posted article. Help your friends and relatives stay informed by passing the digest on. In some cases I post things sent to me by readers I might not have posted on my own, to get ideas circulating.

Happy Days are Here Again

http://tartanmarine.blogspot.com/2012/03/happy-days-are-here-again.html

Cartoon.

The Power of Our Tattoos by Belladonna Rodgers

http://pjmedia.com/blog/the-power-of-our-tattoos/

Excerpt: As Robert A. Hall, United States Marine veteran of Vietnam, former five-term Massachusetts Republican state senator, and author, most recently, of Advice For My Granddaughter: For When I’m Gone, noted, “One Marine emblem on your arm is different from having the entire war of 1812 tattooed all over your body.”

10 People Killed, 39 Hurt in Weekend Shootings

http://www.myfoxchicago.com/dpp/news/crime/violent-chicago-weekend-9-killed-40-hurt-at-least-shootings-20120319

Excerpt: Chicago - Ten people were killed and at least 39 others were wounded in shootings across the city this weekend. Most of the victims, male and female, ranged in age from their mid-teens to 30s, with the notable exception of a 6-year-old girl who was shot dead as she played on the front porch of her home in the Little Village neighborhood. (Since most of the victims were minorities, this would be big news, except that most of the shooters were also likely minorities. So business as usual in Blagobamaville, the Feds and race baiters won’t descend on the city. We had an altercation in the parking lot of the apartments on the other side of the fence behind our condo Sunday night. Large crowd, but I don’t know what it was about, as I didn’t do well in Spanish in college. We turned out the lights, stayed away from the windows and called the police. I thought a few warning shots from my M1 might calm the situation, but the wife disagreed. ~Bob.)

Body found in car trunk on West Side

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-police-find-body-in-trunk-on-west-side-20120318,0,2291095.story

Excerpt: A man found dead in the trunk of a car on the West Side over the weekend had been missing since Friday and his home recently been burglarized, according to police and relatives. (This passes for “natural causes” here in Chicago. ~Bob.)

How We Can Keep from Going Broke, Part I By John Goodman

http://healthblog.ncpa.org/how-we-can-keep-from-going-broke-part-i/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=HA#more-24610

Excerpt: Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other social insurance programs are bankrupting America. They will produce ever-escalating deficits for as far as the eye can see. So what can we do about it? All we hear out of Washington are “eat-your-spinach” solutions — both from Democrats and Republicans. These involve cutting benefits, forcing doctors to ration health care, etc. Naturally, the beneficiaries resist such change. My colleagues and I at the National Center for Policy Analysis have been thinking about a different approach. Reform of entitlement programs should be a win-win proposition. That is, it should be good for the individual who agrees to accept fewer government benefits as well as for the taxpayers.

Fast and Furious' caught top suspect, let him go By Richard A. Serrano

http://jewishworldreview.com/0312/fast_and_furious_snafu.php3

Excerpt: Detained for questioning that day in May 2010, Manuel Fabian Celis-Acosta described to agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives his close association with a top Mexican drug cartel member, according to documents obtained this weekend by the Times/Tribune Washington Bureau. The top Fast and Furious investigator, Special Agent Hope MacAllister, scribbled her phone number on a $10 bill after he pledged to cooperate and keep in touch with investigators. Then Celis-Acosta disappeared into Mexico.

Worth Watching: Gas Prices

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=qKdScVerrBU&vg=medium

Video of what Democrats said about gas prices in the past. ~Bob.

‘Containment’ folly---Bad excuses on Iran nukes by Amir Taheri

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/containment_folly_t0TEG2pav8dxsKoXNmCoUM#ixzz1pZ9egWlF

Excerpt: With President Obama struggling to explain his failure to slow, let alone stop, the Iranian nuclear program, apologists are rushing to the rescue. They harp on three themes, all apparently aimed at confusing the debate. The first is that we don’t know for sure that Iran is building a bomb.

France shooting: Toulouse Jewish school attack kills four

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17426313

Let's not jump to conclusions. Might be a crazed Presbyterian. Right. ~Bob. Excerpt: A gunman on a scooter has opened fire on a Jewish school in the French city of Toulouse, killing three children and a teacher, police say.

In Yemen, U.S. Teacher Is Shot Dead by Two Men

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/world/middleeast/american-teacher-shot-dead-in-yemen.html?_r=1&ref=world

Excerpt: An American teacher affiliated with a missionary organization was shot and killed by two men on a motorcycle in the central Yemeni city of Taiz on Sunday, according to Yemeni officials.

Somali refugees killed by Mogadishu mortars

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17429146

Excerpt: About six people have been killed in Somalia after mortars landed on a refugee camp near the presidential palace in Mogadishu, officials say. A family of four were reportedly among those killed when a mortar landed on their shack - a girl of seven is said to be the only survivor.

The Fiscal Effects of School Choice Programs on Public School Districts

http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=21716&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DPD

Excerpt: After costs were divided into each of the two categories, Scafidl found that the opponents' argument held little ground. For the United States as a whole, education costs amount to $12,450 per student. Sixty-four percent of this ($7,967 per student) can be comfortably considered as variable costs, even in the short run. The importance of fixed costs varies substantially among the states, from 26.1 percent in Rhode Island to 42.9 percent in Wyoming, fixed costs do not amount to more than half of expenditures in any state (the lone exception being Washington, D.C.). The low level of fixed costs undermines the argument made by those in opposition to school choice on fiscal grounds. Because fixed costs are relatively low, it means that schools can adapt to a smaller number of students even in the short run (by reducing instructional staff, providing fewer meals, creating fewer bus routes, etc.). Thus, the fiscal shock of losing students is relatively small.

Gone With the Wind

http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/gone-with-the-wind

Excerpt: This will be surprisingly costly. The UK Carbon Trust estimates that the cost of expanding wind turbines to 40 gigawatts, in order to provide 31% of electricity by 2020, could run as high as £75 billion ($120 billion). And the benefits, in terms of tackling global warming, would be measly: a reduction of just 86 megatons of CO2 per year for two decades. In terms of averted rise in temperature, this would be completely insignificant. Using a standard climate model, by 2100, the UK’s huge outlay will have postponed global warming by just over ten days. (The people who pushed this disaster are, per usual, not the folks who will be stuck paying for it down the road. ~Bob.)

Holder in 1995: ‘Really Brainwash People’ to be Anti-Gun

http://dailycaller.com/2012/03/18/holder-in-1995-really-brainwash-people-to-be-anti-gun/

Worked with him, so they want to try it on a full-size brain. ~Bob. Excerpt: Attorney General Eric Holder supported using Hollywood, the media and government officials in order to “really brainwash people” into opposing firearm ownership, according to a 1995 C-SPAN video that emerged Sunday online.

                                   

Obama’s high-dollar donations lagging

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obamas-high-dollar-donations-lagging/2012/03/09/gIQApeitKS_story.html?wpisrc=nl_politics

Excerpt: President Obama is struggling to draw in big-dollar donations, with half as many people writing large checks to his campaign than at this point four years ago. Obama is outpacing his Republican rivals in fundraising overall, and his advisers have concentrated on amassing small-dollar backers, part of a strategy to get more people invested in the reelection effort. (I blame George Bush. ~Bob.)

The Hill Poll: Voter gloom on Obama’s jobs, gas, debt policies

http://thehill.com/polls/216591-the-hill-poll-voter-gloom-on-obamas-jobs-gas-debt-policies

Excerpt: Half of likely voters expect the Supreme Court to strike down President Obama’s signature healthcare law, and strong majorities see other major policies coming from the White House making life more difficult for themselves and the country, according to this week’s The Hill Poll.

Obama’s whopper about Rutherford B. Hayes and the telephone

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/post/obamas-whopper-about-rutherford-b-hayes-and-the-telephone/2012/03/15/gIQAel6SFS_blog.html?wpisrc=nl_pmpolitics

Obama can make whatever fact-free statement fits his theme, secure in that the media will put it down a black hole. If Bush or Palin did this, they would imprint it on the public’s eyeballs. ~Bob. Excerpt: The quote cited by Obama does exist on the Internet, but we would expect the White House staff to do better research than that. (This line was in the president’s prepared text, so it was not ad-libbed.) But the trouble is, historians say that there is no evidence Hayes ever said this. Not only that, contrary to Obama’s jab, Hayes was interested in new technology.

CBO finds Obama budget adds $3.5T to deficits
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/216397-obama-budget-adds-35-trillion-in-deficits-cbo-finds

Excerpt: President Obama’s 2013 budget would add $3.5 trillion to annual deficits through 2022, according to a new estimate from the Congressional Budget Office. It also would raise the deficit next year by $365 billion, according to the non-partisan office. (Did anyone believe his promise to cut the deficit in half, or think valid his criticism of Bush over much smaller deficits as a “failure of leadership”? Anyone? ~Bob.)

Prosecutors concealed evidence in Ted Stevens case, judicial investigators find

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/prosecutors-concealed-evidence-in-ted-stevens-case-report-finds/2012/03/15/gIQAJ5GNFS_story.html?wpisrc=nl_politics

When they are out to destroy a Republican, things like honor, integrity and the rule of law give way to their vision of progress. ~Bob.

How To Lower Gasoline Prices

http://www.manhattan-institute.org/pdf/ir_4.pdf

Excerpt: As Americans are discovering, when crude oil prices jump, gasoline prices can leap even more, pulling their payroll tax cuts out of their wallets and into their gas tanks. Oil prices are over $100 per barrel, and prices for a gallon of gasoline in Hawaii, California and Arkansas are well past $4.00. Other states are not far behind. But though Iran, in a tussle with Europe over economic sanctions aimed at its suspected drive for atomic weapons, is a convenient scapegoat, the heart of the problem lies closer to home, with our own energy policy. (Step One: Defeat Obama and Democrats in Congress. ~Bob.)

States Facing ‘Sleeping Cancer’ in 96% Unfunded Retiree Benefits

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/print/2012-03-07/states-facing-sleeping-cancer-in-96-unfunded-retiree-benefits.html

Excerpt: The near-failure by U.S. states to fund rising retiree health-care costs for millions of government workers threatens to produce budget crises similar to the one that pushed Stockton, California, to take a step toward bankruptcy last week. States haven’t financed almost 96 percent of the $627.4 billion they were projected to owe for future retiree benefits in 2010, according to Bloomberg Rankings data. The estimated deficit grew from about 95 percent in 2009 as governors coped with lower general-fund revenue and rising demand for services following the longest recession since the Great Depression. (Have I mentioned that we are facing fiscal collapse, followed by political and social collapse? I have? Oh, Sorry. ~Bob.)

53% Favor Immediate Withdrawal of All U.S. Forces From Afghanistan

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/afghanistan/53_favor_immediate_withdrawal_of_all_u_s_forces_from_afghanistan

Excerpt: A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 53% of Likely U.S. Voters support the complete pullout of U.S. forces from what has become America’s longest-running war. Just 31% are opposed, while 16% are not sure.

56% Favor Repeal of Health Care Law

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/health_care_law

Excerpt: The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on the constitutionality of the national health care law next week, and the number of voters who Strongly Support the law’s repeal is now at an eight-month high.

Rendezvous in Aarhus, Denmark, 31 March 2012

http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2012/03/rendezvous-in-aarhus.html

Excerpt: I’ve recently become aware of rumors that neo-Nazis will be attending the demonstration. This would be troubling indeed were it to occur. The potential for violent conflict between Nazi infiltrators and the Antifas could be deeply damaging to our cause. This would be especially true for the Defence Leagues, which stand four-square against Nazi-type ideologies and their adherents. However, as far as I can tell, no neo-Nazis have been knowingly invited to the Aarhus event.

GM Unplugs from Business Realities with Chevy Volt Re-Launch by William O'Keefe

http://www.marshall.org/article.php?id=1076

Excerpt: General Motors just announced that it is going to relaunch its Chevrolet Volt. To paraphrase a down south saying, you can put a dress and lipstick on a dog, but it’s still a dog. The Volt, like the EV-1 before it, is a car that is not ready for prime time and is a monument to willing technology before its time. The Volt is a $40,000 version of the Chevy Cruze which costs roughly $20,000. (Your tax dollars at work? The regime propaganda continues. GM using emotional testimonials to sell Volt on relaunch. As if the 99% has the $$ to buy costly experiments…. Article suggests GM competing with itself; buy a Cruze and take two nice vacations; plus, in 5 years, battery dies and costs $18,000 to replace…. –Barb. New version will have a really tall lightening rod on the roof. ~Bob.)

Burn, Baby, Burn! - Gates of Vienna Blog/The Cultural Enrichment News/"Diversity at Work in Your Community"

http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2012/03/burn-baby-burn.html

Excerpt: Do you remember last year when the culturally enriched refugees on the island of Lampedusa kept burning down the facilities provided for them by the Italian government? The same sort of thing happens fairly frequently in Norwegian asylum centers. Our Norwegian correspondent The Observer sends his translation of a brief article about the latest incident of culturally enriched arson. He includes this note:

The Road to Repeal: Demonstration in Washington, D.C. on March 24 - Gates of Vienna Blog

http://gatesofvienna.blogspot.com/2012/03/road-to-repeal-demonstration-next-week.html

Excerpt: Government-run health care is a looming disaster. Its full implementation scares the bejezus out of insurance companies, doctors, hospitals, and, not least, patients. I ought to know, being one of its victims. http://roadtorepeal.com/?ref=TH2 The Road to Repeal Rally will take place at Upper Senate Park (Map), Washington, D.C.. The rally will begin at 12pm noon and will conclude at 2pm. Speakers and Coalition Partners to be announced soon. Save the date and do whatever you can to make it to Washington on March 24th.

Rep. Allen West on Accused Killer Bales: Let Military Courts Work, No Appeasement to Karzai

http://www.postonpolitics.com/2012/03/rep-allen-west-on-accused-killer-bales-let-military-courts-work-no-appeasement-to-karzai/

Excerpt: West called the killings “horrible and disturbing,” but said that as accused Sgt. Robert Bales awaits trial, he shouldn’t be treated differently than Maj. Nidal Hassan, accused of shouting “Allahu Akbar!” while killing 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009, or Hasan Akbar, a sergeant convicted of murdering two Army officers in Kuwait in 2003 and later sentenced to death.

The Liberal Assault on Liberalism by Victor Davis Hanson

http://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/liberal-illiberalism/

Excerpt: Conservatives are put into awkward positions of critiquing liberal ideas on grounds that they are impractical, unworkable, or counterproductive. Yet rarely, at least outside the religious sphere, do they identify the progressive as often immoral. And the unfortunate result is that they have often ceded moral claims to supposedly dreamy, utopian, and well-meaning progressives, when in fact the latter increasingly have little moral ground to stand upon.

The Left’s Long-Time War on Women: Misogyny and male chauvinism run deep in the roots of the modern Left. By Rand Simberg

http://pjmedia.com/blog/the-lefts-long-time-war-on-women/

Excerpt: An evergreen guide to what the Left is doing or plans to do is to listen to what they accuse their political opponents of. Along those lines, incandescent in its projection, cynicism, and hypocrisy is the latest mantra emanating from the Democrats of the “Republican War On Women,” based on nothing more than some crude comments (since apologized for) by a talk-show host aimed at a Democrat feminist activist who thinks that the world owes her free (and expensive) contraception and, moreover, that it should be done in violation of the religious conscience of Catholics. Of course, they don’t want their demagoguery to be distracted by the annoying reality that their own misogyny and assault on women is much more virulent, and has been going on for much longer.

Rick Santorum: The Real Clear Religion Interview - by Nicholas G. Hahn III

http://www.realclearreligion.org/articles/2012/03/19/rick_santorum_the_realclearreligion_interview.html

Excerpt: [Rick Santorum's] Catholicism has proved so controversial that he's been forced to deny accusations he's running for "Pastor-in-Chief." "I have no intention and no desire to be the pastor of this country," he told a group of Texas pastors. Last Friday, Santorum talked with me after a fundraiser in Park Ridge, Illinois, about religion, the real possibility of war with Iran, and what he would say if he ever met face-to-face with his most famous tormentor.

Mr. President, When Should I Expect Your Call? - by Bristol Palin, Bristol's Blog: Life, Family, Alaska

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/bristolpalin/2012/03/mr-president-when-should-i-expect-your-call/

Excerpt: But here’s why I’m a little surprised my phone hasn’t rung. Your $1,000,000 donor Bill Maher has said reprehensible things about my family. He’s made fun of my brother because of his Down’s Syndrome. He’s said I was “f—-d so hard a baby fell out.” (In a classy move, he did this while his producers put up the cover of my book, which tells about the forgiveness and redemption I’ve found in God after my past – very public — mistakes.)

United Kingdom Independent Party are not 'far Right': There is nothing extremist about rejecting the 'benefits of diversity' - Ed West, Telegraph UK

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/edwest/100143056/ukip-are-not-far-right-theres-nothing-extremist-about-rejecting-the-benefits-of-diversity/

Excerpt: UKIP is something of a strange beast politically, a mixture of libertarians and social conservatives; aside from the Greens, it is the only party considering supporting the legalisation of cannabis. Economically it is the polar opposite of the British National Party, but it’s true to say that like that party it draws much of its support from people alienated and repulsed by the new moral order. Social conservatives who overall feel happier with the values of pre-1968 Britain, whether it's patriotism, their views on marriage, crime and punishment, or sexual mores; and libertarians who hate the way that the cultural revolution has brought a massively expanded state with an insatiable appetite for making new laws, New Labour’s era being a nadir.

Op-Ed: Proof of life: The concerns of liberals over voter-I.D. laws are political posturing By Jonah Goldberg

http://www.thedaily.com/page/2012/03/18/031812-opinions-oped-id-goldberg-1-2/

Excerpt: Right now, millions of adult Americans cannot legally fly on an airplane or rent a car. They’re not allowed to drive one, either. And if they really need to get somewhere fast, they can’t use Amtrak. When they (somehow) get there, they can’t stay at a hotel. If they don’t have a social security card, they cannot get one without considerable time and effort. In most cases they cannot rent an apartment, take the SAT or enroll in college. They can’t buy cigarettes or alcohol, even though they are of legal age. They might be able to get credit cards, but in many instances they will not be able to use them. And they almost certainly won’t be able to get a bank account or a business license or even cash a check.

NYPD investigating apparent

Occupy Wall St.

protester's online threat

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nypd-investigating-apparent-occupy-wall-st-protester-online-threat-article-1.1041830#ixzz1paFnFiW3

Excerpt: A man with the Twitter handle “smackema1” tweeted this message at 11:39 p.m. Saturday, following a clash at Zuccotti Park — “we wont make a difference if we dont kill a cop or 2.” (If anyone at a tea Party rally had said something like this, the media would remind you of it every day. ~Bob.)

British Author Sir Salman Rushdie to Return to India after Death Threats

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/9140677/Salman-Rushdie-to-return-to-India-after-death-threats.html

Excerpt: Rushdie, whose 1988 novel "The Satanic Verses" is still banned in India for allegedly blaspheming Muslims, is due to address the India Today Conclave in New Delhi on Friday afternoon, event officials said on Tuesday. The author withdrew from the Jaipur Literature Festival in January after Islamic hardliners threatened to disrupt the gathering and police told him assassins from the Mumbai underworld were plotting to kill him. (Still hiding from adherents of the Religion of Peace. ~Bob.)

Battle Hymn of the Republic

http://www.greatdanepro.com/Battle%20Hymn/index.htm

By school kids. But left out the third stanza—my favorite—and the fourth. ~Bob

Santorum In 2008: Republicans "To Our Credit" No Longer Just About Small Government

http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/santorum-in-2008-republicans-to-our-credit-no-l

Excerpt: Santorum said: “Republicans, to our credit, have morphed away form the Goldwater idea that government just needs to be small.”

Feel the Steel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYv29ryyn8E&feature=youtu.be

Excerpt: U.S. Senate Candidate Dan Bongino speaking at the Tea Party Caucus rally in Annapolis Maryland on October 18, 2011

Russian Anti-Terror Troops Arrive in Syria

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/russian-anti-terror-troops-arrive-syria/story?id=15954363

Excerpt: A Russian military unit has arrived in Syria, according to Russian news reports, a development that a United Nations Security Council source told ABC News was "a bomb" certain to have serious repercussions. Russia, one of President Bashar al-Assad's strongest allies despite international condemnation of the government's violent crackdown on the country's uprising, has repeatedly blocked the United Nations Security Council's attempts to halt the violence, accusing the U.S. and its allies of trying to start another war.

India, Iran and Oil: What Gives? By Walter Russell Mead

http://blogs.the-american-interest.com/wrm/2012/03/19/does-obamas-iran-policy-hinge-on-india/

Excerpt: But what happens if those “other buyers” decide to take advantage of cheaper Iranian oil to buy more, not less? Needless to say, even if Europe remains firm in its commitment to halt the import of Iranian oil, sanctions will not have their intended effect if other countries increase their orders from Tehran to make up the difference. Which is why Obama’s Iran policy may hinge on India.

Killing jobs in Wisconsin

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTN6NIx0C68&feature=youtu.be

Socialists Know President Barack Obama is a Socialist

http://godfatherpolitics.com/4255/socialist-barack-obama-socialism/

Excerpt: Of course, President Obama is a Socialist as are a number of congressmen and millions of Americans. There is a difference between a self-conscious socialist and someone who operates as a socialist. What is a Socialist? Here’s a typical definition: Socialism is “any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods.

Destroying the Marine Corps--Women in Combat

http://acoloneloftruth.blogspot.com/2012/03/destroying-marine-corps-women-in-combat.html

Excerpt: There's been rumor floating around the retired Marine community for a month or so now women will soon go through formal infantry training--officers to Infantry Officers Course and enlisted to Infantry Training Battalion. Fact or fiction? Credible nods from some senior active duty Marines suggest that's the plan. Stunning. Is this of our commandant's ordering or being so ordered? If true, it doesn't matter. It's a gargantuan mistake. (Note: Author to post follow-on Commentary Friday, 23 March) (I have not heard anything about this and believe it is an urban legend. Infantry still off-limits as far as I know. This is first rumbling I’ve heard about it. –Greg)

How Apollo 17, NASA and Boeing Refute Greenhouse Gas Believers by John OSullivan

http://slayingtheskydragon.com/en/blog/208-how-apollo-17-nasa-and-boeing-refute-greenhouse-gas-believers

Excerpt: Prominent climatologists still insisting the greenhouse gas theory is real are under a sustained assault from critics in an ongoing private debate being waged by email and blogs. An increasing number of experts from specialist sciences have come forward to present compelling evidence that climate science either misrepresents, or misunderstands certain physical effects.

Biden booed in St. Patrick’s parade, indicates deep trouble for Obama
http://www.irishcentral.com/story/news/from-the-right/biden-booed-in-st-patricks-parade-indicates-deep-trouble-for-obama-143363276.html#ixzz1pazGYOgx

Excerpt: But something went horribly wrong for Biden as he wended his way through the streets of Pittsburgh. The generally jubilant, cheering crowd celebrating the St. Patrick's Day parade, suddenly turned to boos, when the Vice President turned down

Stanwix Street

. Cheers soon faded and were drowned out by savage boos as the crowd laid eyes on the 7 term Senator turned Vice President.