Sign in Stranger

Established
Chris Christie’s decision on Tuesday to pass up a White House bid means that only one establishment candidate remains: Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, who offers brainy competence and private-sector experience as the answer to four years of Mr. Obama. (NYT, 10/5/2011)


This unexpectedly complimentary description of Mitt Romney by The Times gave us pause until we remembered Ann Coulter's warning.  She tells us that the liberal media tries to pick the Republican candidate for us, hence we get beatable Republicans like Bob Dole and John Cain.  Good to remember.


Failed
...the day's events underscored that as submitted by the White House, Obama's bill would not only fail in the Republican-controlled House, but faced enough opposition from Democrats to endanger its prospects in the Senate, as well.  (Foxnews.com, 10/5/2011)


It cannot be said enough.


Distanced
Democrat Earl Ray Tomblin overcame weeks of Republican attack ads to win the West Virginia governor's race Tuesday, successfully distancing himself from the Obama administration and the president's health care plan.  (Foxnews.com, 10/5/2011)


The real question is how Obama is going to distance himself from Obamacare.


Stumbled
With an offhand attack on Bank of America’s plans to impose a $5 debit card fee, President Barack Obama may have stumbled into a ready-made populist issue for the 2012 campaign.


Obama’s aides insist that his sharp criticism of the bank during an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos this week wasn’t intended to kick off a campaign against banking industry bad guys. But it has already had a galvanizing effect on Democrats who see it as the perfect way to hop on the right side of the Wall Street vs. Main Street divide.  (Politico.com, 10/5/2011)


It is telling that time after time, Obama's reflexive action is always to demonize business.  As we have said, we only hope the bankers are smart enough not to write checks to him this time.


Harped
One thing you won’t hear the MSM harp on the way they harped about the Tea Party: The overwhelmingly pale face of the “99 percent” movement. Just like their ideological elders in the liberal media, they are a lot more skilled at carping over lack of proportional representation among conservative institutions and the GOP than they are at demonstrating it in their own ranks. (Michelle Malkin, 10/5/2011)


Despite questions about the protesters’ hostility to the authorities, many union leaders have decided to embrace Occupy Wall Street. On Wednesday, for example, members of the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s executive council had a conference call in which they expressed unanimous support for the protest. One A.F.L.-C.I.O. official said leaders had heard from local union members wondering why organized labor was absent. (NYT, 10/6/2011)


The Occupy Wall Street movement is a hoot.  The inability of any of the "protesters" to articulate what they stand for is - in itself - a stunning indictment of the teachers' unions.  Apparently they are upset about their students loans and their lack of job prospects.  Well, they should talk to the guy in Washington.  Of course, Obama's solution will likely entail something like "student loan forgiveness" to go with "mortgage forgiveness," thereby creating yet another group that is dependent upon central government.


Meanwhile, we have others like Van Jones and the labor unions looking to get involved.  The more nut jobs the better, we say.  The Tea Party stood for something which is why it survives.  We suspect Occupy Whatever dries up - as has been pointed out - when the weather turns cold.