RNC’s new video “Familiar Rhetoric, Failed Record”. If you have not seen the video then you should check it out. The video already has over 800,000 views in less than a week. In the video we see clips from the 2011 State of the Union (and a few from the 2010) that are eerily similar to what President Obama said in his 2012 State of the Union last week. Some of the clips are the exact same from year to year.

The rhetoric has not changed, mostly due to the inability to act. Rhetoric without action is frustrating and annoying for the American people. The rhetoric in the speeches range from demands like when he ordered the colleges to cut their tuitions to ideas like fixing infrastructure in the country. What stumps me most is that of all the politicians in the country, no one sounds like their are in a perpetual campaign state more than him. Every speech sounds like he is still trying to become president rather than be president (although the issue of whether he wants to be in the office or just be running for the office is a whole different issue).

Of course, we are talking about a president here that talks about creating jobs but when a chance to create thousands of jobs with just one project, hides behind bureaucracy. It only make sense that there would be three years of talking about the same issues over and over again without stepping up and getting things done.

One of the biggest factors that this video shines the light on is the lack of originality by his writers and staff. The administration needs to take a look in the mirror and reevaluate how they are communicating to the constituency. More and more of this same old rhetoric during the election could be the main reason for their exit.

The video is well done and perfect example of that we have a president that is fine with spewing out rhetoric but comes up short on action and leadership. Hopefully we won’t have to sit through another one let alone four.

Here is the link to the video: http://youtu.be/UDDRiGIUYQo

Rep. Ron Paul is running stronger than any other libertarian GOP candidate ever, including his own several bids. Still, everyone, even he, knows that Paul will not become President. Paul’s various stump and post-election speeches never allude to his governance, only the message he and his liberty minded supporters are sending to the Washington establishment. Campaigning is hard work for a 76-year-old, so why does Paul do it? Paul wants a seat at the RNC table, maybe a prime time slot for his son, and if they know what is good for them, they should oblige.

If Paul continues to fight and win about 11-15% of the popular vote, Shout Bits estimates that he will win a maximum of 100 delegates from a system rigged to favor the front-runner. Even if Gingrich and Romney split their delegates, Paul would be an unlikely king maker due to the 165 unbound RNC delegates. The RNC fat-cats would use their muscle to overcome any Paul action it finds impolitic (which essentially means Gingrich or Santorum must beat Romney by several hundred delegates to actually win the nomination). So, Paul can’t use his clout to buy a cabinet seat veto, let alone an appointment for himself or his son.

Paul knows he will never wield any heavy power in Washington. He knows that the RNC barely tolerates his daily attacks on their big-government-equals-big-donations money machine. The GOP establishment is openly hostile to his no-interventionist foreign policy and personal-liberty-trumps-all drug policy. Still, polls show that for every Paul vote, another voter supports him but tactically chooses to support a more electable candidate. Indeed, one poll shows that in a two man general matchup, Paul is within a few points of Pres. Obama, despite the huge recognition gap.

One in five Republicans identify with a liberty first message. Just as important, Paul has a passionate youth base that the GOP must maintain to avoid slipping into irrelevancy. Paul’s message also resonates with independents who see Washington and its twin parties as corrupt. If the RNC ignores Paul’s delegates, they will shout his name at the convention to stop the show on live TV.

If the RNC wants to satisfy a substantial part of its base, attract independents, and get some of the youth vote, it must deal with Paul by giving him a prime-time slot at the RNC. Still, Paul is a lightning rod, and the Old Time Media will have a field day with his newsletters from 35 years ago. Paul would be wise to give his son Sen. Rand Paul the microphone. Sen. Paul carries almost no baggage, yet he has the respect of his father’s followers. If the liberty movement is to gain mainstream power within the GOP, Sen. Paul is the best bet.

Look for Ron Paul to fight for delegates through Super Tuesday. He was in office during Gingrich’s collapse, so he knows the Speaker’s personal failings well. Look for Paul to barter a Romney endorsement for an off-hour speech for himself and a prime-time slot for his son. Anything less by the RNC is dismissing a large and highly motivated segment of the GOP base. If the GOP is to avoid the fate of the Whigs, it needs the liberty movement and the Pauls.

Shout Bits can be found on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Shout-Bits/191627784211089

These pundits are absolutely ridiculous. We hear all of this “news” regarding some of the stances Newt has had over the years. “in 2006 Newt wrote a paper that had good things to say about the individual mandate” goodness guys, Romney instituted the thing. Look at Romneys record, the man repeatedly took stances far left of Ted Kennedy but we we never hear a thing about it. Gingrich united the country created a republican congress for the first time in 40 years, reached across the aisle and GOT the opposition to help out to balance the budget. I mean goodness the man has done more for the Republican party than anyone the last 20 years, this all occurred at the same time that Romney was debating Kennedy and voicing opinions that cut right at the very heart of our parties core belief structure including: anti Reagan, pro choice, pro gay rights, anti second amendment, pro affirmative action stances. Let’s get real here!!! Check out the link below it shows Romney’s true feeling on the issues that are at the heart of our parties core belief structure. Romney supporters say well…. he was trying to win election in the State of Massachusetts, this man said these things, and spoke passionately about them. He is not a conservative and never has been one, yet we are considering giving him the coveted nomination to lead our party in 2012. Lets GET REAL conservative Republicans. Lets not sell ourselves short again.

You keep supporting this guy and you are going to get more of the same. He is an EMPTY VESSEL of a politician. Fill him with the latest flavor and boom you have yourself a candidate.

As far as I’m concerned, too many people believe the best indicator of electability is how well the candidates appeal to moderates rather than electrifying the base of their party. I want someone starkly different than Obama, not someone that is more appealing to independents or moderates. The tone at the top is to take the solid conservative base of the party for granted and then, when it comes to the nomination, throw the values and beliefs we each feel so passionately about to the wolves. We saw the fallout of this phenomenon in 2008 when John McCain got the nod. We are all too familiar with McCain’s ultimate failure to excite the conservative base of the party. The Republican conservative faithful likewise failed to turn out in support of him. We constantly overlook the exciting outspoken articulate conservatives and instead search for the John McCain and Mitt Romney pushovers in hopes that we just might get a couple of the ever important moderates.
Rather than forming a campaign that focuses on moderates, if we build a campaign that centers on the conservative base rather than sacrificing our ideals at the onset, we will inevitably gain some moderates as conservative ideas MAKE SENSE. We have consistently nominated “empty vessels” of candidates. The American public can see that these candidates aren’t individually excited about anything except maybe getting elected and they don’t stand for anything, except getting elected. The “establishment” believes that since these candidates don’t have any strong opinions or are willing to take whatever stance they think might get them the nomination, they will be the best candidate to “grab moderates.” This is why our party’s leadership forces them down our throats, but it is also the same exact reason that no one gets excited by them or particularly cares to vote for them. If the individual isn’t excited about anything themselves than how can you expect them to excite others. The RNC wants us to support Mitt because they believe that he is the candidate that can capture the independent vote, but this time around America is not buying it. As Mitt has hovered around 25% since the beginning of polling, he has watched each of his opponents surge much higher than him because of the same group of people: conservatives looking for an alternative to Mitt Romney. Let’s face it, Obama has passionate stances, the American public can feel that passion and it is infectious. Even though his ideas might just be the end of this country, people were refreshed by his passionate enthusiasm and therefore came out in droves to vote for him.
Obama’s nonsensical policies are obviously a real threat to our country. Our only hope and my expectation this year is to select a nominee that can clearly articulate the conservative ideas and policies that we feel so strongly about and then ultimately draw a stark distinction between those policies and the socialist concepts preached by the Obama administration. I believe that there is a clear and simple recipe for success in 2012:
Ingredients:
Strong Ardent and Articulate Conservative Nominee (Starkly Different Than Obama), Conservative Ideas, Ridiculous Obama Socialist Ideas, Common Sense.
Directions:
Step 1: Clearly communicate conservative ideas
Step 2: Identify and call out the Obama socialist ideas
Step 3: Identify the stark distinctions between the two aforementioned ingredients
Step 4: Articulate how and why conservative ideas made our country the great place it is today
Step 5: The party Nominee then explains how he will advance these ideas
Step 5: Mix in deeply buried yet inherent American common sense
Results:
The result will be an excitement of the conservative base and a reason for them to come out in droves for the election and moderates who will inevitably join as the conservative economic ideas make sense, stand on their own, and create excitement and opportunity.
How can we draw a stark distinction between our passionate conservative ideas and Obama’s if our candidate has literally been on every side on a majority of the issues that our base feels so passionately about? Romney has repeatedly stated that he is the strong conservative in the race and that he has the best chances against Obama. Romney cannot and will not be able to articulate these stark differences as he has literally held both sides of most of these important arguments. It would be political suicide for him to illuminate these arguments as he would just be highlighting areas he has been inconsistent:. Conservatives are being duped into thinking that Gingrich’s laundry is too “dirty” to be competitive with Obama when he is the clear he is the strong, ardent, and articulate conservative we need to satisfy the aforementioned recipe. Establishment republicans banter that Gingrich can’t be competitive with Obama as he supported the individual mandate and has openly met with Nancy Pelosi to discuss the environment when it is evident that their “chosen one” has clearly had many more controversial conflicting stances than Gingrich.

While the Republican campaign marches on and the candidates and their surrogates slice each other up, it is important to remember the final goal of this campaign is to remove the current occupant. With that objective, I present to you two new ads. The first from the RNC:

This second one is from the Romney Campaign:

Apparently, it is okay to bash fellow Republicans but not the worst President this country has ever seen.  Read this and weep.

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2011/12/06/strategists_warn_republicans_on_attacking_obama.html#disqus_thread

Who are these people that apparently are getting paid by the Republican party?  It only goes to show that the tea party work is not finished.  I thought that the Republican Party got the message last election to stand for conservative principals, understanding that we cannot work with these out of control socialist-democrats, and that the only solution is there ouster.  Well, after reading this we must not forget that we need to clean the Republican house too and reading stuff like this just boils my blood to make it happen.  Dump our non leaders…  Put Michelle Bachman in charge of the house.  Take over the Senate with REAL conservatives, there are plenty of people to fire, starting with clearing McConnell out with the Snowe in Maine.  I can’t take it; I think my head will explode!

We allow the media and the Obama thugs to define our candidates and the truth is that anyone of them, INCLUDING RON PAUL, would save this country from the disaster that IS Obama.   The best you can say about our President is he is a likeable disaster.  I disagree with that, I think he is a lying socialist traitor who would sell every American out to make sure his political buddies profit.  I am tired of being nice about this loser.

Interesting articles:

1. City Journal: Steven Malanga, “The Next Wave of Urban Reform.”
2. The American Spectator: James Antle on Indiana’s Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels, “Mitch the Knife.”
3. George Will: Barack Obama has resuscitated the political right.
4. Chris Cillizza: Former Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saul Anuzis is running against RNC Chairman Michael Steele. HT Erick Erickson.
5. Larry Sabato at Rasmussen Reports: One-Term Barack.

Read More →

632 Days until Election Day

February 8, 2009

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

“Republicans stand ready to work with reasonable Democrats to do what is right for America.  But it will take more than bipartisan words from the President. It will require fair-minded action from Democrats in Congress.”

Michael Steele, Chairman of the Republican National Committee
MORNING UPDATE:

SUNDAY MORNING SHOW…as provided by POLITICO and AP below.

RNC TECH SUMMIT…Chairman Michael Steele asked me to head up the transition Team’s effort on bringing new technologies and tactics to the RNC.  We are in the process or reviewing and analyzing the current operation.  We also called for a Tech Summit where we are bringing interested parties together to share ideas, make suggestions and present their perspectives of what and how we could do more.  If you’re interested, join us.  For more details click here.

STIMULUS SCAM….$827,000,000,000.00…in your tax dollars and debt…debt our children and grandchildren will be paying back.  Government is completely out of control and spending billions more than we take in.

RNC CHAIRMAN MICHAEL STEELE WEEKLY ADDRESS…so here we are, Republicans aggressively taking our message to the American people.  Check it out and share it with your friends.

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FOR THE LATEST NEWS, COMMENTARY & INFORMATION:

Check…out…our…online Articles of Interest………News…you…can…use………

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THE REST OF THE STORY:

THE SHOWS, mostly from AP

ABC’s ‘This Week’ – Lawrence Summers, director of National Economic Council; Republican Party Chairman Michael Steele.

CBS’ ‘Face the Nation’ – Christina Romer, head of the Council of Economic Advisers; Sens. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and John McCain (R-Ariz..).

NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ – Sens. John Ensign, R-Nev., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.; and Reps. Mike Pence, R-Ind., and Barney Frank, D-Mass.

CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ – Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood; Sens. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford.

‘Fox News Sunday’ – Summers; Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

TODAY’S TOP STORIES

The following stories and more are available at my Articles of Interest online.

Senate closes in on $780B stimulus

Dems reach compromise with key Republicans as report shows firms cut 600,000 jobs last month.

Gordon Trowbridge / Detroit News Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats reached agreement Friday with a handful of Republicans to pass $780 billion in spending and tax cuts to boost the flagging economy on a day of miserable employment news.

Democrats said they had agreed to a compromise negotiated by a bipartisan group of Senate moderates and were confident they could get the Republican support they need to get the required 60 votes. Democratic leaders said Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, along with Pennsylvania’s Arlen Spector, would vote for the bill. .

“The people of my state don’t care how many Democrats or Republicans vote for this,” said Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing. “They care about how many jobs this creates.”

The Stimulus Tragedy

Obama bets that we can spend our way to prosperity.

President Obama has started to play the “catastrophe” card to sell his economic stimulus plan, using yesterday’s terrible January jobs report to predict doom unless Congress acts. No doubt he’ll get his way, but the tragedy of this first great effort of the Obama Presidency is what a lost opportunity it is.

Everyone agrees that some kind of fiscal stimulus might help the economy, and that running budget deficits is appropriate in a recession. The stage was thus set for the popular President to forge a bipartisan consensus that combined ideas from both parties. A major cut in the corporate tax favored by Republicans could have been added to Democratic public works spending for a quick political triumph that might have done at least some economic good.

Instead, Mr. Obama chose to let House Democrats write the bill, and they did what comes naturally: They cleaned out their intellectual cupboards and wrote a bill that is 90% social policy, and 10% economic policy. (See here for a case study.) It is designed to support incomes with transfer payments, rather than grow incomes through job creation.

Americans have doubts about plan for economy

Yet poll shows support for government action

By John Marelius

Union-Tribune Staff Writer

2:00 a.m. February 8, 2009

Thirteen years after President Bill Clinton declared that “the era of big government is over,” one of the biggest government spending programs ever conceived is moving through Congress.

And the American people are on board – sort of.

“They’re all over the map,” said Andrew Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center.

“The way I would characterize what the public view is they know something has to be done, they’re not quite sure what should be done,” Smith said. “They’ve been told that the economy is in dreadful shape and getting worse. They don’t want it to get worse. So just do something – anything.”

Michigan couple among pairs laid off together

By MELISSA NELSON
Associated Press
February 8, 2009

It is a well-known risk to lack diversity in an investment portfolio. Now, couples employed by the same company are learning a similar lesson, the hard way.

As layoffs mount across the country and in all sectors, couples who are co-workers are increasingly vulnerable to losing their families’ twin sources of income at once.

The lack of variety in job skills can also make it difficult to bounce back, especially in a struggling industry.

Services for Livingston County veterans may fall victim to economy

BY SHARON GITTLEMAN
FREE PRESS SPECIAL WRITER
February 8, 2009

Is the short-term future of veterans services in Livingston County in jeopardy?

That’s the fear of Bob Heinel, retiring Department of Veterans Affairs director.

Financial troubles have spurred the Livingston County Board of Commissioners to consider what would be the elimination of the three-person office by not filling openings and merging its functions with other departments, although the department would likely continue in some lesser form.

Honeymoon over, Obama aides admit mistakes, retrench

Michael D. Shear and Anne E. Kornblut / Washington Post

WASHINGTON — President Obama retreated to the serenity of Camp David for the first time Saturday, stepping back briefly from a presidency that has quickly found itself tested by a loyal opposition and the loss of the pitch-perfect tone that helped sweep him to office.

Beset by criticism of an alleged ethical double standard over some of his Cabinet choices and an intensifying partisan debate over his economic recovery plan, Obama is attempting a return to the campaign-style approach and aggressiveness that echoes the toughest days of his battle with Hillary Clinton.

In a fiery speech before a gathering of House Democrats in Williamsburg on Thursday night that took place even as he was searching out GOP support for his stimulus package, Obama blasted Republican policies that “for the last eight years doubled the national debt and threw our economy into a tailspin.” He then led Democratic members of Congress in a familiar chant: “Fired up!” he declared. “Ready to go!” they returned — voicing a call and response that became a trademark of his campaign.

Obama is stimulating gun sales

If gun owners are like wooly worms — they instinctively fatten up ahead of a harsh winter — then the Second Amendment is in for a rough spell.

Since Barack Obama’s election in November, gun and ammunition sales have soared, as have requests for concealed carry permits, on fears that the new president will clamp down on gun rights.

Business has been so brisk that one California store hung a poster of Obama with the words, “Salesman of the Year.”

“Our sales are up 15 to 20 percent since October,” says Roger Little, owner of Shooter’s Service in Livonia. “It’s not the 40 percent other stores are reporting, but it’s good business.”

How can Republicans repair their brand?

Ernest Istook

Sunday, February 8, 2009

A few years ago we said goodbye to the Oldsmobile. It went the way of the Pierce Arrow, Plymouth and Studebaker.

Some believe conservatives and Republicans will be the next brands doomed to follow into extinction. They forecast death by suicide for the GOP and extinction via political climate change for conservatives.

But let’s not bury either group beside the Whigs and the Mugwumps.

Republicans and conservatives overlap but are not identical. Yet they need each other to flourish because Democrats own the liberal brand. Unless they have a conservative brand, Republicans will have no brand at all.

Obama, Reagan ‘face off’ at Kennedy Center

By PATRICK GAVIN | 2/7/09 10:07 AM EST

You can get members of different parties under the same roof, but that doesn’t mean they’ll get along.

The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts experienced two very different sets of Washington’s political elite Friday night: While the first family attended a dance performance in the Center’s main theater, an impressive showing of Republicans gathered on the top floor to take in the premiere of “Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous with Destiny,” a new film narrated by Newt and Callista Gingrich which paints a glowing portrait of our 40th president.

While Barack, Michelle, Sasha and Malia were treated like rock stars down below, it was Ronald Reagan being toasted up above by such GOP notables as Mr. and Mrs. Gingrich, George Allen, Ollie North, Bob Livingston, Al Regnery, Craig Shirley, David Bossie, Saul Anuzis, Jim Pinkerton and Fred Thompson.

Biden offers olive branch to Iran, Russia

Craig Whitlock / Washington Post

MUNICH — Vice President Joe Biden held out an olive branch Saturday to Iran and Russia, and reassured European allies that the Obama administration would treat them as equals but emphasized that “America will ask its partners to do more as well.”

In a major-foreign policy address Saturday to an international security conference here, Biden told an audience of world leaders that the White House was willing to engage the government in Tehran if it heeded calls to end its nuclear-weapons program and changed its policies in the Middle East.

“This much is clear: We will be willing to talk,” Biden said. But he added a warning to Iran: “continue down your current course and there will be pressure and isolation.”