Poor John Feehery had the impossible task of arguing both against host Chris Matthews and MSNBC regular, sir frog voice himself Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post who both took turns shilling for, defending, and promoting Mr. Obama’s new budget for 2013. Now, I have yet to read the budget and all the details but from what I’m hearing it’s a two fold pile of donkey crap mixed with ice cream and tax hikes. Never mind the rehashed vomit, like this obsession the left has with building roads and bridges, there’s also plans to train  2 million Americans at community colleges….because we don’t have job training programs and technical schools in this country as it is. Boy what would we do if the left didn’t exaggerate all things that exist in the world? They seem to play on the premise that more of the same is best, even when more of the same has undeniably weakened this nation’s fiscal and economic standing long term.

When Mr. Feehery tried to argue the dangers of long term deficits caused by short term politically influenced spending, he was shot down by Eugene Robinson because according to Mr. Robinson better we leave our children with a belt busting deficit and debt than a bad economy. Well what if we’re setting our children and grandchildren up to inherit both? Hmm, you know I bet liberals didn’t stop to think about the 1,0000th way you could die before exhausting the possibilities of the first 999.

Spending our way into a more sustainable economy doesn’t work and the facts bare that out. Our deficit remains a key component as to why no matter how short term a so called “recovery” lasts, the fact that the United States is set to hit at or near the 26 trillion dollar mark in terms of our net debt and deficit is something that seems to fall on the ears of the profoundly dumb, aloof, and blind. But hey, perception is key and the unemployment rate is falling, never mind the reason why the unemployment rate continues to go down, Media Matters and the mainstream media have the details covered so many Americans won’t have to inform themselves about the truth.

Ignorance and intellectual laziness will ultimately in my view spell the end of what was, and what no longer is a credible nation. I’m just being honest when I say America is a at best now a top tier second rate nation on borrowed time. We’re like a former pound for pound fighter who at such a relative young age is now shot and without real presence because he’s been in too many wars in the ring. We’re like said fighter who continues to chase the fast buck fighting the young studs whom he knows he can no longer compete with on an equal level. He keeps fighting and fighting because he needs to make out with the grip because he knows it’s not too far along when that one young stunner clears the deck with that one perfect knockout punch and boom, end of story.

We can’t compete with China, Brazil, and India right now so we teeter around them sight unseen as to not get noticed and vaporized in this global contest for world supremacy. The Chinese laugh at us because they know the more we spend the closer they’ll get to owning us. But unfortunately our president doesn’t care because his long game is reelection and his strategy is class warfare. So he’s going to spend trillions and he wants the rich to pay for it. Now, math was my worst subject but let me try to calculate the cost: 1% of 99% are to pay for a 3.8 trillion dollar budget. So it’s like you mom and dad who make 100,000 dollars a year each, paying the college tuition costs for you, your sister, your brother, your friends, and their brothers and sisters combined for the next four years, give a year or two depending. By the time your folks calculate the expenses they’ll have not even begun to even dent the surface because they have expenses of their own.

And my friends that’s the misfortune of having personal responsibilities. If you 250,000 dollars a year chances are you aren’t just partying and buying private jets and yachts all day long. You have bills, you have to maintain your property, you see being well off means more than just the power of purchase. This may surprise liberals, even rich liberals but rich people work harder than poor people you know why? Rich people work harder than poor people because rich people are rich. Think about how Bill Gates and Steve Jobs became millionaires and eventually billionaires. I’m sure the man or woman behind the most iconic companies and or products our there had many set backs and doubts before ultimately making good or their risk taking.

I’m not bashing poor people just stating a fact. It’s much harder making a lot of money than it is making enough money to get by. Any Joe out there can find a job flipping hamburgers for tips, but how many Joe’s are willing to work hard enough to move up and one day own the company or start their own burger joint?

I almost want Democrats to raise taxes though because I want to them to run out of rich people to tax. I want to see their faces when they realize the number of wealthy Americans has declined under their policies. Why, who will donate to their campaigns if that happens?

Sometimes it’s difficult to report the news of the day, because it’s logical to want to expose the wrong doings of others.  Today isn’t one of those days when it’s easy to differentiate between Republican and Democratic candidates.

In fact, George Soros a man that few of us respect was dead right during an interview when he said there’s actually not much difference between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama.

It’s easy to play the game of politics pretending that old George is off his rocker and just ranting and raving to advance his agenda, but what happened yesterday pretty much confirms that George has done his homework.

Barack Obama is having a hay day right now, because Mitt Romney just jumped on his political band wagon and the “tail is wagging the dog.”  Obama is gambling one billion dollars on the middle class of America; he is pretty confident that they will automatically hand him his second term in 2012. Obama has honed the “Rules for Radicals” and he is adeptly using class warfare which may in fact give him a second term.

First of all Obama has the African American community eating out of his hand so they’ll be a shoo in and the Gay Community are happy campers so are many of the Hispanics for they’re once again buying his “hope and change” of 2008.

Class warfare appears to be the strategy that both Romney and Obama have chosen in an attempt to buy votes from the middle class.

Obama is bating the middle class via class warfare, pretty much saying they have been oppressed due to the wealthy.  He’s stumping on the fairness crap and level playing field meaning the wealthy need to pay their “fair share” whatever that means.  The wealthy are the ones carrying our Nation at this time – logic suggests we shouldn’t bite the hand that feeds us.

Romney is using the same strategy and concentrating on the middle class saying, he’s not concerned with the very poor. When referring to the poor Mitt said, “We have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I’ll fix it. I’m not concerned about the very rich. They’re doing just fine. I’m concerned about the very heart of America, the 90-95 percent of Americans who are struggling.”  So there you go folks both candidates are using class warfare to advance their agendas.

There’s not a good defense for Mitt Romney as he heads down the class warfare path.  Romney has sided with the Obama ideology indicating that the poor have their safety net and yet why doesn’t he see that many of the poor want a hand up, not a hand out.

The logic here by both candidates is exactly what is wrong with the State of the Union at this time. Instead of solving the real problems about the poor – the Government keeps the poor in a cage making sure they’re fed and watered with no hope of a better day.

Walking thru the poor neighborhoods I look at the little ones and wonder how many of them could become the next scientist who discovers a medical cure for a debilitating illness or how many of them could be an entrepreneur like Steve Jobs, Steve Wynn, and Bill Gates giving our Nation technology that we’ve never dreamed of…

So for now, I’ll wrap my support around the one man who believes that we’re all created equal and as he said yesterday, “I am fed up with politicians in either party dividing Americans against each other,” Gingrich said. “I am running to be the president of all the American people and I am concerned about all the American people.”

Me too Newt, we need to return our Nation to “One Nation Under God With Liberty and Justice for All.”

May God Bless America

As Always,

Little Tboca

By Matt Rooney | Cross-posted at SaveJersey.com

You may still think Mitt Romney is a “RINO” establishment villain, Save Jerseyans.

It’s your right to be wrong. I’ll fight to defend it!

But as of right now, he’s undeniably the most honest Republican with a national platform. He said something this week worthy of that lofty distinction; something we’ve all been thinking for a long, long time because is true: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQnxHBK6zMY

Take a moment to listen. Did he say anything incorrect, Save Jerseyans?

Nope. He hit the nail directly on the head…

In modern America, the super rich and the very poor are the real “1%.” Anyone who has ever applied for college student aid knows this acutely. Ask any Rutgers-Camden Rowan University freshman. You’re better off being able to pay outright (rich) or not a damn thing (poor) when it’s time to register for pricey classes and even pricier text books; those who are just “rich” enough to go but not “poor” enough to qualify for aid (the middle class) are the ones who get screwed.

Like you. And me.

Of course, food stamp subsidies flow and corporate General Electric-style welfare persists in bad economic times. The middle class doesn’t have a choice to opt out of the franchise; it’s sink or swim… and pay taxes while desperately paddling to safety. Unlike GE.

The Washington-based Tax Foundation crunched the numbers back in ’04:

Overall, we find that America’s lowest-earning one-fifth of households received roughly $8.21 in government spending for each dollar of taxes paid in 2004. Households with middle-incomes received $1.30 per tax dollar, and America’s highest-earning households received $0.41. Government spending targeted at the lowest-earning 60 percent of U.S. households is larger than what they paid in federal, state and local taxes. In 2004, between $1.03 trillion and $1.53 trillion was redistributed downward from the two highest income quintiles to the three lowest income quintiles through government taxes and spending policy.

And that was 2004. Imagine what the numbers look like post-Obamacare.

Yet despite this massive spending discrepancy, the bottom 50% of U.S. income earners shoulder only 3% of the federal income tax burden. Many pay no federal income taxes at all. Conversely, while the super rich pay a huge amount of raw taxes, they can keep their taxable percentage down through accounting tricks and legitimate investing strategies that aren’t available to Jane and John Middleclass. Economic downturns effect them considerably more than the lifetime welfare recipients and John Kerrys of the world.

We can quibble over whether Mitt didn’t elaborate well enough. His chosen language could’ve been more precise. The truth remains: big government can’t create a single job but, in the hands of crony capitalists, it succeeds only in shielding the extreme ends of the socioeconomic pyramid from market forces.

So is it any surprise that the poorest AND richest districts in America are represented by liberal Democrats?

Again… nope.

Hence, Mitt Romney’s politically incorrect statement reflected political reality. All while other leading Republicans jet around the country trashing free market economics in favor of base populist pandering and hypocritical establishment-bashing.

Who’s the RINO now?

__________________

Matt Rooney is a New Jersey attorney, conservative commentator, and the founder & Blogger-in-Chief of New Jersey’s #1 conservative blog, Save Jersey. You can learn more about Matt and the Christie Revolution by visiting today!

The focus on Romney’s tax returns seems to have caught him off guard, and he hasn’t done well at recent debates. Mitt appears to be on the defensive, and his attempts to side-step the issue made him sound awkward and uncomfortable. His problem now is that the longer he waits to release his tax returns, the more it looks like he has something to hide.

We all know Mitt Romney is rich. We also know he paid a much lower tax rate than most of us—whether it was due to capital gains or carried interest, a loophole in the tax code that lets VCs and hedge funds claim profits as long term capital gains at 15% instead of ordinary income at 35%. Now the mainstream media is spreading rumors that Mitt has money stashed in off shore bank accounts.

At this point, the accusations and innuendos won’t stop until Romney actually releases his tax returns. Holding out to avoid attacks because he’s wealthy won’t even postpone the inevitable—it will just stoke the fires and increase apprehension among voters. It’s not going to get any better if he wins the nomination, because Obama has a $1 billion war chest to attack him over the very same issue.

Instead of apologizing for his wealth, Romney should release his tax returns immediately and come back swinging, much like Newt did with the ABC expose. Instead of apologizing for making money, Mitt should defend the American dream, stressing that America is the land of opportunity where anyone can be successful with hard work. That’s what free enterprise is all about, and nobody should have to apologize for being successful.

You don’t see the media attacking Larry Page and Sergey Brin because Google made them billionaires, or Mark Zuckerberg because Facebook made him ridiculously wealthy. Romney shouldn’t be apologizing for his wealth—he should be stressing the opportunity every person in America has to pursue their dreams.

There’s still time for Mitt to get out in front of the wealth and class warfare issue, but he can’t do that by hiding from it. Bad news does not get better with age. He needs to stand up, take credit for his success and turn the issue to his advantage. Otherwise, he’s losing ground on an issue that should only be an Obama talking point.

Perspective and Principle

*The perspective of an individual is more often shaped by their skewed perceptions, not their objective observation.
*A principle is something that was, is, and always will be true.

Conservatives shouldn’t be giving in to Romney just yet

Given the state of the primary so far… I’m not so convinced that Mitt Romney is the worst of the pack by ideology, rhetoric, or record.

However, based on Principle, I’m supporting Rick Perry, because I trust him to boldly govern by conservative principles. Out of all of the candidates, his record and rhetoric squares the circle better than any other candidate in the field. I still believe this is true, even with his most recent egregious strategy to go after Romney with a populist’s class warfare argument.  Elections are elections. I disagree with the strategy, but I still believe Rick Perry is the best conservative in the pack.The media have done their part to dismiss him in the eyes of voters. The campaign handlers have done their part to fail in their messaging. The candidate has done his part to make mistakes along the way.

I am part of the “Anti-Romney” crowd by default, because I am Pro-Perry.  As such I have to recognize that time is short, and Romney has momentum that can’t be ignored. If I were a weak-minded fearful cuss, I’d likely accept the narrative of Mitt Romney’s inevitability. But I won’t. However, any other conservative out there should be aware, that if consolidation doesn’t happen sooner rather than later, Romney wins. It’s that simple.

The fact is this primary season is different, and nobody has been looking at the process. Primarily because we’re all caught up in the very dangerous game of attempting to bend reality to the narrative. This primary season has gone from weak arguments of electability to even weaker arguments of inevitability. With the first 4 major primaries completed by January 31st 8PM EST, we’re left with the presumed ‘inevitable’ nominee. THIS IS NONSENSE.

• 1,142 Delegates is what is needed to win the G.O.P. nomination before convention.

• The first 4 events leads to a total of 115 delegates (that’s with the penalties of moving primaries up)

• Super Tuesday isn’t so super this year.

• Total delegates available at the end of “Super Tuesday” is 874… Romney will not be getting 100% of all delgates up to this date.
• Super Tuesday also includes states that are less likely to pull a New Hampshire, and back a squish based on “electability” arguments.
• There are some caucus events between Florida and Super Tuesday that will likely not get a lot of media attention regardless of the results, rather I’m predicting that televised debates, and narrative will be the biggest factor in this period.

• There’s only 1 thing that causes a conservative candidate to drop out. Lack of Money.

• Consolidation will happen, because eventually someone is going to foolishly lose their mind and then become untenable to the conservative electorate.
• I’m going to go ahead and predict that South Carolina will not be the hill to die on for Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, or Rick Santorum, or even Jon Hunstman Jr. They’ll each have enough in the war chest to go on to Florida, and likely ride things out to Super Tuesday at least before they are winnowed down to 1-2 conservative alternatives.

A word concerning the Weeping, Wailing, and Gnashing of Teeth

Some conservatives are giving up. Some out of desperation are flailing about with all the negative they can, hoping that Romney will be hurt by populism, or hoping that the other “conservative alternatives” will drop out making this a 2-man and a Loon race. Look folks… consolidation will happen… the question is, when it does… will it have been too late?

I have had enough of the ridiculous bemoaning that has been going on lately. We can NOT allow the media to shape the narrative. Are you so FEARFUL that you’re willing to give in? They want to use YOUR fear, YOUR doubts, YOUR ignorance to drive you to do silly things, such as MAKE LEFTIST ARGUMENTS AGAINST CAPITALISM… Are we that desperate? I think not!

Let’s attempt to view things objectively for a moment.

Should Mitt Romney become the G.O.P. nominee, it will be the DUTY of EVERY FREEDOM LOVING, LIBERTY EMBRACING, CONSERVATIVE OF ANY STRIPE, to not only vote for Mitt Romney, but to DONATE, AND WORK WITH THE FURY OF FIRE FROM THE SKY to get him elected. Why? Because the alternative choice is President Obama for 4 more years.

This country has LOST THE SENSES IT WAS BORN WITH! All it took was 3 years of a hell bent socialist-reformer™ in the office of President of The United States to change the narrative of political battles of “how do we make the country better” to “how do we keep from driving off the cliff”. The arguments went from “socialism vs. capitalism” to “fairness vs. wealth”. Your everyday American can’t make the distinction, because your everyday American most likely isn’t wealthy… so naturally they’re going to assume that they side with “fairness”.

If the choice is between a “vulture capitalist” and a “socialist-reformer™”… I’m gonna take the vulture capitalist and be darn glad I had a choice. I’m not defending Romney or Bain here, I’m defending capitalism. There simply is no excuse for any conservative that tries to make Bain the Bane of Romney’s existence. Romney had a successful career at Bain, he did turnarounds, and slash and burns… but as an unapologetic believer in freedom and liberty… let me say this…

There is a whole lot of piss poor analysis going on. Some of it may even be dishonest attacks by ignorance or arrogance. When Romney spent his private sector career building wealth with his ability to make an enterprise prosperous or break it down and sell it off for profit… it really has little to do with job creation or destruction.

Economics is what drives job creation and job destruction. Government and Private sectors are but vehicles in the process. Capital destruction processes are just as necessary to economic systems as termites in a forest of dead wood.

The TRUTH is going after Romney and Bain is a POPULIST ARGUMENT no matter how you dice it. This is the problem with comparing a private sector record with a governance record. Romney’s comparison of Bain to GM is appropriate… the difference is, had the GM bailout been structured by Bain and not the Government. A capital investment firm would have not negotiated for the Unions, they’d have restructured the company without throwing the shareholders with preferred shares under the bus, they would have been subjected to bankruptcy laws, and all precedents in the exchange. Unlike how Obama made the tax payers the creditors, and handed the company over to the Unions, and knew going into the deal, that they were just kicking the can down the road.

The REAL Alternative

That’s just it… Obama’s plan is ‘kick the can down the road’ on any issue that can’t be fixed without inflicting some real pain on people, his plan is to kick the can down the road, and get Republicans to agree to more spending out of necessity to keep things moving. Look I’m not heartless. I’m not rich. I’m not envious. And I’m certainly not persuaded by arguments of false charity, false hope, and false faith. But I have to say it, LIBERTY CAN’T EXIST WITHOUT OPPOSITION. You CAN’T enjoy the merits of opportunity, without the realities of risk, failure, and pain.

THERE IS NO CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO A JOB. So reserve your moral judgements for moral issues. Any Job that exists… exists because someone had the liberty to innovate, create, and pursue their happiness. Government can’t exist without generating revenue from its citizens. I have empathy to those that lose their jobs. However, I don’t blame any capitalist for turning profits in any way they can, while the government does nothing to seriously put a stop to the unethical practices through damn fine policy and legislation. If you want to prevent ALL situations where someone might lose a job… You may as well have joined the socialist team. Giving credence to these narratives of the media is giving credence to their creeds of a socialist nature.

Folks sometimes you have to rely on the fact that the sparrow doesn’t fall without the Father(Matthew 10:29), and when considering the lilies of the field (Luke 12:27) in all their non-spinning and non-toiling, even Solomon was not arrayed like one of these. Populism is not conservatism. Conservatism is based on principles. It’s based on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I’m not defending Bain or any other capital firm for practices that may be unethical when you live in a Joe Biden Recession/Depression. I’m am talking about the fact that WE SHOULDN’T be involved in this narrative AT ALL. IN NO WAY is it appropriate. Joining the stream of the narrative, effectively causes us to lose sight of what is important. It causes us to view things from a very skewed perception. The more skewed our perceptions are, the more our ignorance will blind us to what is really important.

Maybe the ignorance of my youthful idealism is blinding me to the fact that we should somehow be supporting populism, anti-capitalist, and class warfare views… This narrative is exactly the medicine the media wants us to take. It deflates the T.E.A. Party, It presents Obama as a caring, nurturing, bleeding heart for the ‘little guy’ that got laid off, and had to either find another job with his current skillset, or re-tool the skillset, and go after a diffferent job. Well LA-DEE-FRICKIN’ DAH… I’m 31 and have already had to face economic realities of job loss, poor employment opportunities, and having to move from state to state, losing the value of my home to a vacuum created by the housing bubble…I don’t blame capitalists… I blame the government regulation and legislation that led to INTERVENTION of the Free Market. Call me quixotic, but I don’t have time to misdirect my energies on “Government Solutions”… I want a President that will make the best decisions from a conservative view, not from a socialist’s view.

This election is about DOOM DOOM DOOM DOOM DOOM for them… Not us…

*WE NEED TO REMEMBER THAT* Conversely THEIR ONLY WINNING STRATEGY… is to cause the base to become discouraged, demoralized, disaffected, and disengaged. If Obama wins re-election, it will be due to failure to turn out the vote… if the enthusiasm to vote against him is removed… then the incumbency wields the victory.

*IF* Mitt Romney is the Nominee… I’m prepared to fight the good fight for his election. What I’m not prepared to do is give up on nominating the most conservative candidate that we can. We do that by convincing every person we know that is age 55 and above that votes Republican to vote conservative, and not for the tall guy with the nice hair.

DeVine Law Gamecock’s Stone Mountain of Georgia roost-view of what matters most about the news, politics and law of 2011:

Unemployment and the Economy

If enough Americans give up on finding a job, the regularly reported unemployment rate (U-3) could fall to Zero percent. As it happens, the current U-3 rate of 8.6% would stand at over 11% if the labor force were as large as it was in 2007. The more comprehensive U-6 rate measuring all those that are unemployed and those only able to find part-time work is now at Depression Era levels over 17%, which rate doesn’t count self-employed individuals nor those that have dropped out. Over one in five American men are no longer in the labor force.

Jobs Plans, Occupiers and Class Warfare

Three years after President Barack Obama and super-majorities of his fellow Democrats in Congress enacted their Stimulus-Dodd-Frank-ObamaCare-GM takeover/UAW Bailout-Solyndra, anti-Keystone Pipeline and anti-Boeing jobs in right-to-work states, Gulf Oil and ANWR oil-drilling moratorium agenda; Gross Domestic Product (GDP) stands at an anemic 1.8%.

The response? Democrats and their Community Organizer-in-Chief embrace the American “Occupy Wall Street” iteration (We address the foreign Arab Spring element further below)  of Time Magazine’s 2011 “Protester” Person of the Year, and class warfare, that echo President Obama’s threat to release the “pitchforks” against CEOs two year in ago. Meanwhile too many Republicans bemoan their occupation of a mere one-half of one-third of the government and refuse to refute the alleged “moral” case for taxing millionaires, as more and more Americans earn less “unequal” and lower incomes.

Admittedly, it would take much courage to risk subjection to leftist media spin during a government shutdown for the GOP to insist upon a halt to compromises dominated by job-killing factions a/k/a the Democratic Party in lieu of a return to the greatest job creating plan on earth, i.e. The free enterprise empowered by the Constitution of the United States.

Arab Springs never go out like a lamb

Leading from behind produced a draw in Libya and neither the U.S., Israel nor the civilized world are better off with the Muslim Brotherhood of terrorist progenitors ruling Egypt instead of Hosni Mubarak. Iraq, the only democracy in the Middle East thanks to massive U.S. and freedom-loving Iraqi sacrifices after 911, after three years of elections with no radical sectarian factions gaining traction, is sacrificed to Obama’s appeasement of Iran project.

But don’t forget, Usama bin Laden is dead. Feel safer? After all, the Commander-in-Chief didn’t offend Members-Only-Jacket-ijad by destroying our fallen drone on Persian soil.

Crime, Punishment and Selective Rules of Law

On the heels of 2010′s Justice Department (DOJ) refusal to prosecute billy club-wielding New Black Panthers, comes Attorney General Eric Holder’s embrace ofBill Clinton‘s moral equivalence evaluation of Voter ID laws with a return to Jim Crow, the whistle-blowing of Alabama’s former Democratic Rep. Arturs Davis notwithstanding. DOJ Obama appointees make clear their interpretation that the Civil and Voting Rights Acts only protect non-white victims.

As 2012 nears, no Obama/Biden-hosted Beer Summit resolutions are scheduled. But, the FBI reports that crime is down and the Fast and Furious assault on the right to bear arms in self defense has come to a halt. President Obama and Atlanta’s King & Spaulding law firm refuse to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act due to “diversity” concerns. Meanwhile, K&S continue their pro bono defense of illegal enemy terrorist combatants in U.S. courts. Feel safer?

Weak Tea?

Tea partying conservatives made the mid-term elections of 2010 the biggest GOP landslide since 1948, yet none of their 2011 nominees for 2012 are named Newt or Romney. The hope of Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 Plan and Perry’s Texas jobs miracle have given way to higher Ron Paul floors in Iowa. Yes, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney have been nudged to the right by the conservative base, but could either be relied upon to resist their instincts to “reach across the aisle” for Beltway media approval after they prevent Obama’s re-election? Stay tuned for for our 2012 Year in Review exactly 366 days from today.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to Examiner readers and writers all!

Mike DeVine

Atlanta Law & Politics columnist –  Examiner.com

Editor - Hillbilly Politics

Co-Founder and Editor - Political Daily

“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson

More DeVine Gamecock rooster crowings at Modern Conservative, Unified Patriots,  and Conservative Outlooks. All Charlotte Observer and Atlanta Journal-Constitution op-eds archived at Townhall.com.

He is still the favorite to win. He is the incumbent President of the United States. He flies on a big blue airplane that gives him free media exposure whenever he lands. He gets to bring along politicians with whom he can curry favor. It is hard to pick off an incumbent President.

But there are warning signs on the horizon for Mr. Obama. It is not just a sagging economy that may actually be on the way down, not up. Battleground state voters are leaving the Democratic Party. According to National Journal, “Over 825,000 registered Democrats in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina and Pennsylvania have departed the party rolls since President Obama’s election in 2008.”

USA Today reports that Republicans have become resurgent in key swing states too. “Since the heady days of 2008, a new USA TODAY/Gallup Swing States Poll finds the number of voters who identify themselves as Democratic or Democratic-leaning in these key states has eroded, down by 4 percentage points, while the ranks of Republicans have climbed by 5 points.” Republican voters are also paying more attention and are more engaged. In key swing states, Obama trails both Romney and Gingrich.

“But wait,” the television pitch man might say, “there’s more!”

Read More →

He is still the favorite to win. He is the incumbent President of the United States. He flies on a big blue airplane that gives him free media exposure whenever he lands. He gets to bring along politicians with whom he can curry favor. It is hard to pick off an incumbent President.

But there are warning signs on the horizon for Mr. Obama. It is not just a sagging economy that may actually be on the way down, not up. Battleground state voters are leaving the Democratic Party. According to National Journal, “Over 825,000 registered Democrats in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina and Pennsylvania have departed the party rolls since President Obama’s election in 2008.”

USA Today reports that Republicans have become resurgent in key swing states too. “Since the heady days of 2008, a new USA TODAY/Gallup Swing States Poll finds the number of voters who identify themselves as Democratic or Democratic-leaning in these key states has eroded, down by 4 percentage points, while the ranks of Republicans have climbed by 5 points.” Republican voters are also paying more attention and are more engaged. In key swing states, Obama trails both Romney and Gingrich.

“But wait,” the television pitch man might say, “there’s more!”

Read More →

Said speech was in Osawatomie Texas no, wait, he meant Kansas, where President Barack Obama hopes to recreate a little electoral magic represented by Teddy Roosevelt’s speech in 1910… to wit, splitting the Republican vote and thus getting a Democrat elected. The speech itself is pretty mediocre, even by this President’s standards: but then, if you’re looking for deathless prose then you’re following the wrong Presidential administration. As Ace of Spades notes, President Obama seems to have a definite problem with this entire capitalism thing; to which I would add that this is really a perfectly normal position to take… if you are a person who has spent his entire adult life being paid from an account funded by other people’s tax money.

Also, it is probably mean-spirited of me to note that the three most obvious major differences between Obama’s speech and Teddy Roosevelt’s are these:

1. Teddy Roosevelt knew who John Brown was (I understand that Osawatomie Brown is a sore topic for Democrats, of course).
2. Teddy Roosevelt started his speech by endorsing the notion that throwing out politicians who broke campaign promises was a darn good idea (I understand that Obama’s habits of routinely breaking his word is a sore topic for Democrats, of course).
3. Teddy Roosevelt could draw a crowd (30,000 vs. Obama’s 1,200). Smart of the White House to pick a high school gym, though: that way they don’t have to worry about too much in the way of open space.

Read More →

Said speech was in Osawatomie Texas no, wait, he meant Kansas, where President Barack Obama hopes to recreate a little electoral magic represented by Teddy Roosevelt’s speech in 1910… to wit, splitting the Republican vote and thus getting a Democrat elected. The speech itself is pretty mediocre, even by this President’s standards: but then, if you’re looking for deathless prose then you’re following the wrong Presidential administration. As Ace of Spades notes, President Obama seems to have a definite problem with this entire capitalism thing; to which I would add that this is really a perfectly normal position to take… if you are a person who has spent his entire adult life being paid from an account funded by other people’s tax money.

Also, it is probably mean-spirited of me to note that the three most obvious major differences between Obama’s speech and Teddy Roosevelt’s are these:

1. Teddy Roosevelt knew who John Brown was (I understand that Osawatomie Brown is a sore topic for Democrats, of course).
2. Teddy Roosevelt started his speech by endorsing the notion that throwing out politicians who broke campaign promises was a darn good idea (I understand that Obama’s habits of routinely breaking his word is a sore topic for Democrats, of course).
3. Teddy Roosevelt could draw a crowd (30,000 vs. Obama’s 1,200). Smart of the White House to pick a high school gym, though: that way they don’t have to worry about too much in the way of open space.

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