Oh, The Ties that Bind. Why I.R.S., The AP Records, and Benghazi Matters to All Americans

The Obama administration is in the middle of three “scandals”.  The fact the media is finally on board with them all is great start.  Of course this is years too late, but I will say welcome aboard.

The I.R.S. is the most important, to me anyway.  Others will have another view of it.  But to find out that one of the most powerful government agencies was specifically targeting people based on political affiliation is nothing short of Nixonian and completely unacceptable.  This shouldn’t matter what side of the political aisle you are on.  If this is allowed to happen, it won’t take long for them to come gunning for an organization that you are fond of.  It doesn’t matter that these groups happened to be conservative.  All that matters is that a government agency that has the power to put you in jail was targeting individual Americans as well as non-profit groups.  There is no way to say at this moment if President Obama is involved.  I, of course, wouldn’t be a bit surprised if he were, but so far at this point the evidence of that isn’t out there.  Yet.

But we do see is a pattern of behavior with this administration.  Of course people like me have been saying this for years, but at least the media is seeing it for themselves.  President Obama doesn’t like anything that doesn’t fit his narrative.  If he doesn’t like, he thinks he can just ignore it and somehow the rest of us won’t figure it out.

Baghdad Bob Jim Carney is reaching epic proportions of comedy with his denials that the White House had a hand in the changing the talking points of the terrorist attacks on Benghazi.  I mean seriously, it was the anniversary of 9/11, did anyone in this country not automatically think terrorism the moment they heard about the attacks?  al Qaeda is well-known for liking anniversaries and dates that have meaning for their attacks.  That is isn’t a talking point, it is just a statement of fact.  Anyone that is paying attention, even a little, has seen the original C.I.A. talking points and what the statement became after all the fingers got into that pie.  Some of those fingers came from The White House.  Denying it only makes them look silly.  But denying they are.

The AP dustup is very interesting considering that President Obama and AG Holder both have been talking about changing the laws regarding the rules that the government has when it comes to national security leaks and the press.  Yet, four years later nothing has been done.  The real scary part of this incident is that people who have information that the American people should be aware of they will be afraid to come forward.  That doesn’t bode well for future generations.

The ties to all of these stories comes down to how stupid this administration is.  This is by their own admission.  Apparently, according to Obama, the daily presidential briefing never said the word terrorism, even though we now know that the C.I.A. said about the final version that they didn’t see point of the talking points since all words of terrorism were removed.  President Obama didn’t know about the I.R.S. scandal until the news reports.  Both he and his spokesperson has said this.  The report was given to them two weeks ago.  The same story about the AP scandal.  What type of management is being used in this White House?  Who exactly is making these decisions not to bring this to the attention of the president?  Shouldn’t that person be held responsible for making the president look so inept?  Now, I personally feel that president is inept, but for those that are his “fans” it must be very disappointing indeed.

But the biggest problem with all of these scandals what is really going to happen is the loss of trust in the government.  It isn’t like the trust was all that great to start with.  Matter of fact, it is very, very, low.  Those numbers are just going to go lower.  While this may in the end, help the politico class, because fewer people are going to pay attention.  They may end up staying in office because only the truly partisan will show up to vote in 14.  Which of course means that the problems will only get worse.

I do wonder if President Obama would like to change his words during OSU’s graduation speech:

Unfortunately, you’ve grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that’s at the root of all our problems; some of these same voices also doing their best to gum up the works. They’ll warn that tyranny is always lurking just around the corner. You should reject these voices. Because what they suggest is that our brave and creative and unique experiment in self-rule is somehow just a sham with which we can’t be trusted.

We have never been a people who place all of our faith in government to solve our problems; we shouldn’t want to. But we don’t think the government is the source of all our problems, either. Because we understand that this democracy is ours. And as citizens, we understand that it’s not about what America can do for us; it’s about what can be done by us, together, through the hard and frustrating but absolutely necessary work of self-government. (Applause.) And, Class of 2013, you have to be involved in that process

Yes some of those voices talking of tyranny are The Tea Party.  Turns out they were right.

Another Presidential First

According to the Daily Caller, President Obama became the first siting commander in chief to directly address Planned Parenthood. He proudly bragged that the number one abortion provider is not going anywhere. He concluded his remarks with the remarkable, “God Bless You Planned Parenthood.” Tiny Tim was not available for comment.

Shrewdly, he gave the speech on a Friday, allowing the Saturday lull in the news cycle to bury his highly offensive remarks.  If however next week, people are still disturbed by his asking the Almighty to bestow grace upon those who advocate the death of the most innocent for power and money in all circumstances, I’m sure Jay Carney will come to the podium to assure us that someone just sneezed and the president ad-libbed what any normal person would do when someone involuntarily expels unwanted blobs of cells.

We have come to the point that atrocities of the greatest magnitude no longer hold our interest as a nation.  Or at least, the media has decided, they shouldn’t.  Any attempt by Mark Steyn or others to rouse the imagination of the American public with the gruesome reality of abortion as brought to its logical conclusion via performance abortion artist Dr. Kermit Gosnell is met with a collective yawn. The moral compass of the country continues to mutter in its sleep, the unintentionally ironic slogan of the age, “COEXIST.” At best, we get people to declare the atrocities of the clinic in the city of brotherly love are an outlier, a deviation from the mean, the mode and median of the business of abortion.

However, the response of those who advocate pro-choice positions does not indicate that this doctor’s practices are the standard deviation from the sample, their silence speaks volumes to the reality of abortion, the clinics, the persons who perform these procedures and the aftermath of those “choices.”  If this were unexpected or unusual, they’d be screaming disassociation, demanding that abortionist providers speak out to declare that you cannot judge us by the behavior of a single person who performed badly.   They are not lining up to do this, they are running for the hills, hoping we will be distracted as we easily are, by anything and everything, so that things may go on as normal, meaning clinics like this go on doing what they do and everyone shuts their eyes to the trains that flow by on time every day. Dr. Gosnell is not the Westboro Baptist Church of abortion, he is the poster child of its practices.

We can tell ourselves this isn’t happening. It doesn’t make it so. We can say that the deaths of 55 million nation wide over 40 years has no effect on the people of our nation, but it doesn’t make it true.  We can lie all day to ourselves even when there are feet in jars in front of us, it doesn’t mean we aren’t becoming blind to all that is good, true and beautiful, it doesn’t mean we aren’t becoming like Gollum, forgetting the taste of bread, the softness of the wind, the smell of grass, even our own names, and we will weep, precious, we will weep to be so alone.

Final note: For some reason, struggling with Google to find the full text of his speech, here are the low lights…but you get the point.  There is no law but our law and abortion is its name.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/04/26/obama-planned-parenthood-is-not-going-anywhere/?hpt=po_c2

Finally, Some Truth from President Obama

“Tens of thousands of parents will have to scramble to find childcare”

President Obama talking about Head Start.  Lets take a look at the mission statement:

“Head Start promotes school preparation by enhancing the social and cognitive development of children through the provision of educational, health, nutritional, social and other services.”

It refreshing to hear someone admit the truth, Head Start is nothing more than a tax payer funded day care center.  There is no study that shows these children are any better prepared once they reach the first grade.  If we are going to give tax payer funded daycare, then the very least we can do is define it correctly.  It isn’t a program to help the students, it is a program for parents to have free day care.

Twitter Fun – You Might Be a Dictator Edition

#YouMightBeADictator If you updated the bios of our former Presidents on the White House website to insert yourself and promote your agenda

#YouMightBeADictator if your supporters can’t come up with a competing Twitter meme to defend your honor – or you don’t have any to defend

#YouMightBeADictator if you say ‘with or without Congress’

#YouMightBeADictator if you jet about the country speechifying in lieu of, you know, Doing. Your. Godforsaken. Job.

#YouMightBeADictator if your domestic terrorist list contains veterans and people who fly the Gadsden flag.”

#YouMightBeADictator If you can have your entire life’s records sealed so no one can find out a thing about you.

If you every feel the slightest twinge of need to utter the statement#IAmNotADictator, then, #YouMightBeADictator.

If you believe you can spend your way out of debt using the people’s money #YouMightBeADictator

#YouMightBeADictator if you let the black panthers assault voters on election day

#YouMightBeADictator if you arm drug cartels in another country

#YouMightBeADictator if you think “compromise” means “my way or the highway”.”

Yep, The Obama Administration Is Going There

David Plouffe @davidplouffe

Watching Woodward last 2 days is like imagining my idol Mike Schmidt facing live pitching again. Perfection gained once is rarely repeated.

Photo of the Day – Narcissist President Edition

President Obama wishes the country a Happy Super Bowl Sunday.  With a picture of himself of course.   It never ends with this man.

Photo of the Day – Because Everyone Skeet Shoots at Ground Level Edition

Photo of the Day – Obama is Lord Edition

Yup, they are this crazy.

Quote of the Day – President Obama Edition Part 15

“And we’re after an election now. I think it is important for us to find out exactly what happened in Benghazi, and I’m happy to cooperate in any ways that Congress wants.”

See I actually thought it was important to find out exactly what happened before the election.  Voters had the right to be told the truth before they made their selection.  This is especially true when you look at the exit polling data – Obama won on foreign policy.

Gee, do you think that is why the talking points about it being al Qaeda linked groups was altered?

Post Election Rant

Obviously I am very disappointed in the results from election night.  So much so, that I really have not had the heart to even write this.  But, Kathleen Parker got me out of that and quickly too.

The truth is, Romney was better than the GOP deserved. Party nitwits undermined him, and the self-righteous tried to bring him down. The nitwits are well-enough known at this point — those farthest-right social conservatives who couldn’t find it in their hearts to keep their traps shut. No abortion for rape or incest? Sit down.Legitimate rape? Put on your clown suit and go play in the street.

Equally damaging were the primary leeches who embarrassed the party and wouldn’t leave the stage. Nine-nine-nine, we’re talking about you, Herman Cain. And Gov. Oops? You, too. And then there were Rick Santorum and Michele Bachmann, who never had a real shot at the nomination and certainly could never win a national election, yet they refused to surrender to the certain nominee.

Did they have a right to persist in their own fantasies? Sure. But not if they were serious about getting a Republican in the White House. Thus, for months and months, Romney had to spend his energy and, as important, his money to prevail in the primaries against opponents who had no chance and who ultimately hurt him. During that same precious time, Obama’s campaign was busy pinpointing specific voters, practically learning the names of their dogs, and buying ads in niche markets.

Wow, so it is my fault.  Not that I am even “furthest right” when it comes to social issues. I have made no bones about it, I didn’t like Mitt Romney as the nominee.  I have been saying for over a year that had he got the nomination he would lose.  I didn’t even think that because of his wishy washiness on social issues.  To me social issues are not really the purview of the federal government, and I don’t care which side is trying to make the case that they are.  You cannot legislate your sense of morality onto someone else, it comes from within.   That said, people still want to see that you have core convictions.

I also have seen many of the more moderate republicans all across social media blaming the tea party and SoCons.  Really?  I will say it again, I didn’t like Romney as the nominee.  I didn’t want to vote for him.  When push came to shove, I went out and I did it.  Not only did I vote for him, I went out and worked my ass off trying to get him elected.  I spent the final six weeks of the cycle on trains, planes, and automobiles crisscrossing the country from swing state to swing state.  I spent 7 to 8 hours per day knocking on doors, then spend another few hours making phone calls.  I did this in close to freezing temperatures and pouring rain one more than one occasion.  I slept in hotel that I had to keep changing rooms because of bugs.  Don’t tell me that I didn’t take one for the team.

Every Tea Party minded person I know personally did similar things as well.  Americans for Prosperity, one of the tea party umbrella groups, helped get people like me out to swing states.  Do you think that Romney was their initial choice?  Not likely, but we will never know as they don’t endorse candidates.  But, you still saw them working night and day on the GOTV effort.  Like me, they understood the stakes.

Now, what did the squishy middle do?  Were they there?  Did the same people who are throwing this blame around at people like me get out from in front of their computers and make the same personal sacrifices that I made?  Many of the ones that I know didn’t.  They sat around posting things through social media to people who already agreed with them.  Boy, that was helpful.

One thing that was proven without a doubt is that the moderate wing of the party cannot the presidency without the crazies from the far right.  To the people who believe that all life is sacred and is worth fighting for.  I will admit that some go too far for my tastes.  I refuse to engage with people who show horrific pictures of dead babies and ask me if I think it is ok to rip babies out of their mothers wombs.  That is emotional blackmail.  But, if you think that same tactic isn’t used on the left you are sadly mistaken.  They take one person out 45,000 that has some obscure sob story and then tries to pass a law that forces everyone in the country to change their life in order to accommodate their plea of the day.  While of course the opposite is true as well.  But I am sick to death of hearing that I caused the loss of the senate and I am somehow personally responsible for Romney’s loss.

I was there, I was in a tightly contested county in a swing state on election day.  No kidding, they had me knocking on doors that already had literature on it.  I called and told them that this was happening.  I was told to just keep going.  I walked seven miles on election day, going door to door.  At one point I had to find a woody area so I could go to the bathroom because I knew that one of the drivers wouldn’t be able to get me in time, I was so far out from the victory office.  Luckily I had napkins with me.

After returning from day of door knocking I was making calls all day.  I was calling Minnesota.  You know what, 3 out 5 calls were wrong numbers due to bad area codes.  How the heck is that my fault?  Didn’t the campaign bother to update the phone lists?  Apparently not.  The campaign is denying the story of software they created for the GOTV effort, but I can tell it was true, at least in Ohio.  It wasn’t working properly.

Where was the Romney campaign in Wisconsin?  Why didn’t they use the popularity of Paul Ryan as the hometown boy with the all the advantages they had with Governor Walker’s grassroots efforts?  They didn’t put enough resources in that state.  That is my fault how?

I am sick to death of hearing that my voice shouldn’t matter in the party.  That my views are somehow less important than theirs.  That I should be giving up on my principles to tack left.  Because heaven knows that is what the democrats do when they lose elections.  They moderate.

I happen to believe that we need immigration reform in this country.  But I am not willing to sell out my principles in order to get it.  The facts are President Reagan signed immigration reform decades ago, did that help bring Hispanics into the party?  No it did not.  Did the democratically controlled congress keep their end of the bargain?  If they had we wouldn’t have millions more in the country.  Read the law that Reagan signed Ms. Parker.  The borders were supposed to be secured.  The law was supposed to go after employers that violated the law by giving any additional positions to illegals, oh excuse me, undocumented workers.  None of that has happened.  So I am supposed to put my trust into the democrats doing the same again?  I guess if I am stupid I should.

What people like you Ms. Parker are really saying is that my views matter so little that I should be just cast aside.  Lets also take a stroll down memory lane of the past few GOP presidential candidates.  McCain, a moderate.  Dole, a moderate, Bush I who governed as a moderate and destroyed the yacht industry while president.  An industry that all these decades that has never come back, and never will.  Thanks to his “luxury” tax thousands upon thousands lost their jobs, companies went out of business, and America, once the #1 exporter of said yachts is now the #1 importer.  The industry died and it cost the tax payers millions and millions of dollars.  Yes, that is the leadership that the right should be looking for.

President Bush 2 is the only one of them that was ran as conservative unabashedly.  He was successful not just once, but twice.  Now, he still ended up with big government polices and spent money like a drunken sailor (sorry to all you drunken sailors) that has gotten us to the point where we are now.  Above and beyond all the money and the big government policies that President Bush promoted and acted upon during his presidency, his biggest sin was acting like you are suggesting.   He rolled over and allowed the left to control the narrative.  He didn’t fight back on all the lies.  He felt that the presidency shouldn’t be used in that way.  While in theory I agree with him on that.  I, to have a great deal of respect for the office of the presidency, but times have changed.  We have 24 hour news cycles and cable channels that do nothing but spit out a point of view and will use lies if necessary to promote their agenda.  That must be countered and countered hard.  His refusal to do it, is a big part of the reason we even have a President Obama.  So no, Ms. Parker I reject your advice.  The protection of religious liberties matter.  I will fight for them from shore to shore in this country.  The word marriage has meaning.  If gay marriage was simply about benefits, the problems would have been solved years ago.  If DADT tell was simply about serving in the military we would not have seen people in uniforms marching in Gay Pride parades this year, even though that is clear violation of military code of conduct.  You wouldn’t see gay couples suing conservative churches to perform marriage ceremonies.  They are trying to say that my beliefs are bad, that there is something inherently wrong with them.  I don’t care what a gay couple does in the privacy of their bedrooms, but I do care what they are trying to do to my church.  They want tax write-offs and hospital visitation fine.  But stay out of my place of worship.

Did it ever occur to you Ms. Parker that Romney was never able to make the connection to voters?  Did it ever occur to you that he never gave a coherent reason of why he should be president other than he wasn’t Obama?  Now that was more than enough for me, but for the low information voter it wasn’t.  Most people don’t like change just for the sake of change.  They will dance with the devil they know.  That is part of human nature.  Did it every occur to you that people in this country don’t want to elect someone who is wealthy as he is?  The left, that you seem all too willing to model after, has done a great job in creating a society that wealth is a bad thing, that people with money are ogres, evil, and someone who isn’t compassionate.

People in this country want conviction Ms. Parker.  Romney didn’t show that he really had that.  People want real conviction because it is a sign of leadership.  Stop blaming me and put the blame where it belongs, on the left who have convinced people that anyone that dares calls themselves a republican, or gasp even worse a conservative, lacks compassion and is racist.   Look in the mirror Ms. Parker, because you yourself have bought into that argument.

 

Some Things to Remember When Placing your Ballot Today

The military families have had to sue to get this administration to tell the truth that the Fort Hood shooting was a terrorist attack on U.S. soil and not “workplace violence”.

President Obama has repeatedly lied misled the American people on the terrorist attack that caused four deaths at our consulate in Benghazi, Libya.  60 minutes finally decided to release part of their interview two days before the election proving conclusively that the President did not call it a terrorist attack even though the White House watched the attack in real-time.

We have $16 Trillion in debt, under President Obama that will only increase.  He is on course to bring that number to over $20 Trillion.  On Jay Leno he not only said this isn’t a problem he didn’t know what the number was.  Remember, he said this was unpatriotic when President Bush was in office.  He increased the debt in less than four years than President Bush did in eight.  President Bush added $5T in 8 eight years, President Obama added $6 in less than four.

The stimulus money went largely to buddies of the left.  Unions, green energy companies, and the like.  The vast majority of the green energy companies have since gone bankrupt.  Solyndra was given a loan that allowed the company’s shareholders were given first rights to any assets that were sold before the tax payer.  The American tax payers lost a half a billion dollars in this deal.  This loan was turned down under the Bush administration due to the fact that all evidence showed that company was unstable and was at high risk of not being able to repay the loan.

There is no way to tax the “rich” to cover our debts.  The math just isn’t there.  The tax code needs to be reformed.  The base needs to be flattened to bring and the tax loop holes must be dealt with.  Without this, we will never get out of this mess.  President Obama will not do this.  It goes against everything he believes in.  He will continue the divisive rhetoric of class warfare.  Which will not solve our problems.

The amount of regulation that is killing industries such as the energy sector, will only increase under President Obama.  Green energy is years away from being financial viable.  We still need fossil fuels to run this country.  That is just fact.

I could go on and on.  But time is short for me today.

When placing your ballot today, vote for the country that you want your children to inherit.  A country that will finally start putting the paying off our massive debt to allow more money to flow into the economy, or a country that will only increase in debt and make growth stagnant.  A country that will make its way back to individual freedoms or a country that has a government that is large enough to reach into the lunch bag of a four-year old, tell you what size soda you can buy, how much salt a restaurant can put into the food they sell, and basically run your life.  They believe they can raise your families better than you can.  The choice is yours.

President Obama has admitted that he can’t fix Washington.  Washington must be fixed or this country as we know it, won’t survive.

Get Out The Vote

The Perfect Storm & A Tale of Two Campaigns

I am on my continued road trip for my Get Out the Vote efforts.  I finally made it back to my hotel room and I am sitting here watching the news.  I am tired, cranky, and thinking of my home in Virginia.  A home that is the talk of the nation in many ways right now due to the “perfect storm” that is due to hit sometime tomorrow.

As I am watching the news I am seeing clips of President Obama being questioned about “FrankenStorm”.  His response was to remind people to get out early and vote.  Which by the way in Virginia you must have cause to vote early.

They then turned to a clip of Mitt Romney talk about the same storm.  He was on the stump today talking about how he was due to have a rally in Northern Virginia tomorrow morning I believe it is.  He has cancelled that appearance.  He mentioned that he spoke to Governor McDonnell who is in the midst of storm preparedness.  Romney said he didn’t want to take away the resources that a presidential candidate would require so they can concentrate on getting ready for the storm and asked his audience to pray for the people of Virginia.

This says something about character.  You can decide for yourselves whose character should be running the country.

No Hard Feelings – Miles Romney and President Obama

I thought this was adorable.  What a cute kid.

The Debates – Romney/Ryan 2.35 Obama/Biden 1.65

Wow, what a snooze fest last night.  I doubt that anyone except the media (who is paid to watch) and political junkies stayed until the end of that one.  Which was unfortunate for Romney, as he improved as the night went on.  His opening statement was rambling and almost incoherent.

Now most of the polls are showing a Obama win by a slight margin.  I have to say I agree with that.  But, one must remember that a sitting president is always going to have an advantage on foreign policy compared to a challenger.  That said, Obama needed a knock out last night, and he didn’t do that.

Gov. Romney was able to hold his own.  Now, many conservatives are upset that he didn’t hit Libya more.  I personally feel he did the right thing.  Romney is in a very good position right now with 14 days left until the election.  Caution was the word of the night, as I think it should have been.  Romney got a little burned with pushing Libya last week.  Unfairly of course, but that doesn’t change the fact that it hurt him a bit last week.

Romney needed to pass the CIC test.  I believe he did that.  He was steady under the constant attempts of Obama to paint him as some sort of war monger who would be pulling the trigger on Iran on day one.  No one wants to go to war.  That is just a caricature that is painted of the right.  Romney was able to stay steady and say that he wants to try to use diplomacy first.  Of course military action can’t be taken off the table, but it isn’t the first, or even second or third option.

President Obama again tried to mischaracterize Romney’s past statements, mostly by not providing the proper context.  Romney (and even some of the fact checkers) have done a good job at setting the record straight on those.

What I found the most amusing was the fact that Obama kept saying that Romney agreed with much of what he was doing in the arena of foreign policy.  What Obama (and the media for that matter) hasn’t mentioned is that much of what Obama has done was continuing policies put in place by President Bush.  An irony that has largely been lost on the left.

Now, Romney’s closing statement was a thing of beauty:

ROMNEY: Thank you.

Bob, Mr. President, folks at Lynn University, good to be with you. I’m optimistic about the future. I’m excited about our prospects as a nation. I want to see peace. I want to see growing peace in this country. It’s our objective.

We have an opportunity to have real leadership. America’s going to have that kind of leadership and continue to promote principles of peace to make a world a safer place and make people in this country more confident that their future is secure. I also want to make sure that we get this economy going. And there are two very different paths the country can take. One is a path represented by the president, which at the end of four years would mean we’d have $20 trillion in debt heading towards Greece. I’ll get us on track to a balanced budget.

The president’s path will mean continuing declining in take-home pay. I want to make sure our take-home pay turns around and starts to grow.

The president’s path will mean continuing declining in take-home pay. I want to make sure take-home pay turns around and starts to grow. The president’s path means 20 million people out of work struggling for a good job. I’ll get people back to work with 12 million new jobs.

I’m going to make sure that we get people off of food stamps, not by cutting the program, but by getting them good jobs.

America’s going to come back, and for that to happen, we’re going to have to have a president who can work across the aisle. I was in a state where my legislature was 87 percent Democrat. I learned how to get along on the other side of the aisle. We’ve got to do that in Washington. Washington is broken. I know what it takes to get this country back, and will work with good Democrats and good Republicans to do that.

This nation is the hope of the earth. We’ve been blessed by having a nation that’s free and prosperous thanks to the contributions of the greatest generation. They’ve held a torch for the world to see – the torch of freedom and hope and opportunity. Now, it’s our turn to take that torch. I’m convinced we’ll do it.

We need strong leadership. I’d like to be that leader with your support. I’ll work with you. I’ll lead you in an open and honest way, and I ask for your vote. I’d like to be the next president of the United States to support and help this great nation and to make sure that we all together remain America as the hope of the earth.

Thank you so much.

I especially loved how Romney kept bringing it back to economic issues.  On this Romney and I agree 100% – a economically weak America is a danger to the entire world.  I was very happy to see him bringing that up and bringing it up often.  The two are very closely connected.

Romney needed to be bloodied last night to change the momentum in the race – Obama couldn’t accomplish that.  Obama may have a slight win last night – but it seems it is too little too late.

Because This Point Can’t Made Enough – High Gas Prices are a Sign of Good Economy According to President Obama

“the economy was on the verge of collapse.”

Is the reason that the average price of gas on the day he became president was $1.89.

The “verge” of collapse actually happened before the election.  Things were stabilizing a bit by the time January came rolling around.

So I guess if gas prices reach $10/gallon the American people will be doing “just fine”.

The Debates – Romney/Ryan 1.90 Obama/Biden 1.10

I give President Obama a slight win on last night’s debate.  Most of the polling on that agrees with my assessment.  President Obama seems to excel in this type of format, it is in his wheelhouse, and he got stronger as the night went along.

Romney did make some mistakes.  A very big one was bringing up the 47% comment during his last time being able to speak.  It is amazing that it took that long to come up, and I am sure that Romney wanted to bring it out himself and give it context and an explanation.  The problem is that President Obama was allowed to end on that note without a rebuttal, very bad for Governor Romney.

Mitt also used the word terror instead of terrorism.  While it may not seem like it, there is a big difference between the two words and Candy Crowley was only too happy to exploit that mistake and make it seem that President Obama said the Benghazi attack was a terrorist attack the following day, which of course he did not.  That has been widely cleared up, but there will be some low information voters who will only hear that soundbite.

Now, if you look more closely at the numbers and the end reaction of the debate, the win for the President didn’t help him.  The numbers when broken down by economy, jobs, and debt reduction all broke to Romney by a very healthy margin:

Economy: 54-40
Deficit: 59-36
Taxes: 51-44
Health care: 49-46
Leadership: 49-46

So, while President Obama won the debate in style points he didn’t do enough to stop the bleeding that is becoming more and more apparent, people are no longer buying that he has a plan that will fix what is wrong and has a vision of what to do help:

Obama: 38% yes, 61% no
Romney: 49% yes, 50% no

While it isn’t a great number for Romney either, it will still drive independents to ultimately pull the lever for him over a failed presidency that we have all seen for the past four years.

President Obama needed to win decisively last night, he did not accomplish that.  These MSNBC undecideds are leaning Romney even after thinking that he was edged out in a debate.

watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JDanNdzAUn0#!

Style and Hope & Change carried the day four years ago.  But we have heard that story all before.  He now has a record to run on.  That record is not pretty and more than likely will not be enough to carry the day.  As much as I didn’t believe it, I think Governor Romney may just pull this off on November 6.  We have almost three weeks left, anything can happen.  President Obama may have won the debate last night, but he didn’t help himself convince people that he is capable of the leading this country during this very difficult time in our history.

Here are some former Obama voters:

“Forceful, compassionate, presidential,” one participant said.
“Confident and realistic,” said another.
“Presidential,” another told Luntz.
“Enthusiastic,” another reacted.
“Our next president,” one man said.
“Dynamo, winner,” said one more.

Watch the video here.

Mr. President, Lets look at the Transcript of your Rose Garden Statements on Libya

Hey I even found video with subtitles.  Please show me the line where you called it terrorism?  Pretty please, Mr. President.  I can’t find it.  But I did find the one that you blamed it on a video that no one in Libya had even seen.

Since our founding, the United States has been a nation that respects all faiths.  We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others.  But there is absolutely no justification to this type of senseless violence.  None.  The world must stand together to unequivocally reject these brutal acts.

Quote of the Day – Neera Tanden Edition

Clinton, being Clinton, had plenty of advice in mind and was desperate to impart it. But for the first two years of Obama’s term, the phone calls Clinton kept expecting rarely came. “People say the reason Obama wouldn’t call Clinton is because he doesn’t like him. The truth is, Obama doesn’t call anyone, and he’s not close to almost anyone. It’s stunning that he’s in politics, because he really doesn’t like people. My analogy is that it’s like becoming Bill Gates without liking computers.”

Neera Tanden, President, Center for American Progress.

Yet one more person to acknowledge the fact that President Obama doesn’t have the proper temperament to be president.

Spinning and Winning Strategies

At first, I wasn’t going to address this issue, be gracious in victory and all that, but now that the apologists, toadies, flunkies and sycophants have begun declaring there were multiple mysterious forces at work to deprive the President of his victory, I’m mad.

One day after the debate thumping, the president was out in Virginia declaring that a “different Mitt Romney” was at the debates.

Today, there are conspiracy theories about altitude sickness and secret tissue cheat sheets, the need for the President to appear non threatening and code words for racism when Romney called out the President for repeating claims that were untrue.

So as I understand it, the reason the President lost isn’t the facts (his record), isn’t he looked tired, isn’t he didn’t respond to questions and grew combative even with the moderator, but that Romney has an evil twin who sports a magic handkerchief.

Seriously?  Theoretically, satire of the existing administration was supposed to be hard.   So what really caused the reality of the debate night?  Potluck has uncovered possible theories.

10) Vegas.

9) It was a “drag” preparing.

8) Distracted by derailed elaborate plans for wedding anniversary, Michelle disapproved of the menu.

7) Maybe Michael Moore is right about John Kerry.

6) Was up all night following the FBI examinations of Libyan embassy ruins.

5) Jim Lehrer Jedi Mind tricks didn’t work.

4) I was told he was a robot.   My people said he was a stupid robot.  I would have cleaned the clock of a stupid robot.

3) Still jazzed from that party with JayZ.

2) You don’t understand, it isn’t supposed to be fair. It’s supposed to be fair in my favor.

1) I didn’t lose. Everyone I’ve talked to has said I dominated the air and it’s all over.

 

The Smirk – New RNC Ad on President Obama’s Body Language During Debate

I am so glad they did this.  I kept commenting on his body language last night while I was watching.  It was not just awful, it was outright rude.  He kept looking down, looking away, and pursing his lips.  He wanted to be just about anywhere other than where he was.